The Lineup:

• Chapter 1 (2013-2017):
• The Batman
• Superman: Man Of Steel
• The Batman 2: Heart Of Ice
• Batman Vs Superman: World's Finest
• Wonder Woman
• Green Lantern Corps
• The Flash
• Aquaman
• Suicide Squad
• Justice League

HBO Television Series:

• The Batman: The Early Years
• Catwoman: The Jewel Thief
• Doctor Fate
• Hawkman and Hawkgirl
• Blackhawk

OUTLINE OF THE MOVIES
A detailed outline of plot-lines, changes and in-universe connections.

The Batman:

The Plot: This events of this movie would stay exactly the same.
My Major Changes: Batman is in his fourth year in my version of the film, he's not an experienced veteran like Ben Affleck's interpretation, he still has a lot to learn, but he isn't totally inexperienced like in the film we got. This would be done in a similar way to The New 52. I believe that Pattinson can play a Batman who has sidekicks before, but after Jason's death, he becomes more emo, like in the movie we got.
Batman, in my DCEU, already had adopted Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd and Helena Bertinelli. Bruce hasn't adopted or even met Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, or Damian Wayne yet.
Dick Grayson left on extremely bad terms with Batman in a similar way to in the animated series episode "Old Wounds"
Jason Todd gets lured into a circus, similar to Titans, and is killed on live television by The Joker, similar to Earth-27.
Huntress left Bruce, due to the trauma of Jason Todd's death, since they were dating at the time, similar to Earth 27.
Barbara Gordon got shot in the spine and raped by The Joker, like in The Killing Joke storyline, it happened shortly before Jason got killed. Barbara doesn't become Oracle until a few months after the events of the first movie.
Batwoman is a cousin of Batman, and Bruce is aware of her activities.
This would be subtly mentioned in my version, and Dick leaving and Jason's death are a few additional reasons why Bruce acts like an edgelord and doesn't have that playboy persona anymore (at least until the sequels)
Batman, before the events of this film, has already fought The Joker, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Killer Moth, Deadshot, Poison Ivy and Ra's Al Ghul. There would be newspaper clippings that mention these off-screen encounters.
The Joker deleted scene is added in my version, to establish that he exists in this universe, if the post-credit scenes didn't do it already.
Metropolis and Queen Industries are mentioned during Bruce's meeting with Falcone. Setting up the larger DC Universe, in the future.
I would place emphasis that Batman is struggling to make change in Gotham on his own, without his sidekicks to assist him, he only has Alfred, Catwoman and Gordon to rely on, since Dick, Barbara, and Helena, have left on bad terms or to do their own thing in neighboring cities, and Jason is deceased (for now).
That also explains why Batman calls himself "Vengeance". He's on his own with barely anyone to help him, just like how he was when his parents died. (Aside from Alfred)
Bruce's utility belt gets blown up during the final battle. Which sets up him getting a more comic accurate one, in the future.
However, he still uses the adrenaline injection, and I'd later tie that to Bane and his venom formula, in a future movie as a prototype.

Superman: The Man Of Steel

The Plot Act-1: I’d heavily change the opening, develop Zod more, and make a cleaner Krypton that actually has crystals covering the planet, just like in the comics and in Superman (1978)
(I'd replace General Zod with Metallo as the antagonist, because Zod has already appeared in Superman ll and Smallville, by 2013, so I'd use a new villain that never appeared on the big screen in Metallo, who only appeared on Smallville with a small budget and we never fully saw his robotic form. I'd save General Zod for the third movie)
We see a small meteor found in the ocean, near Metropolis, by Lex Luthor, with a glowing green substance.
We flashback to many years ago, Kal-El is born, they name him. We cut to General Zod who is sitting in his home alone, having violent flashbacks of robotic creatures with symbols on their foreheads attacking krypton, killing people, even Zod’s family, the flashbacks are brief, but just enough to see the Kryptonian council surrender to their attacker, a dome encloses over Kandor and make it disappear, but a pod flies away as Kandor disappears.
(That will set up Supergirl in Chapter 2, and Brainiac fighting Superman eventually)
Dru-Zod is haunted and angry about this traumatic event that happened ago. Jor-El is studying problems in the planet’s core, but their computers say everything is fine. Jor-El asks Zod to come with him to check a fault line, as a scientist needs to be accompanied by a soldier when going to the outer lands, to access military equipment or whatever, just as a soldier needs authorization by a scientist to access scientific equipment.
They talk, it’s clear they’re friends, Jor-El tells Zod about his son, happy for him. Suddenly a violent earthquake erupts, causing Jor-El to quickly check his readings. They’re off the charts. Jor-El and Zod quickly rushes back to his lab to check his main computers, which are all reading things as fine, he digs deeper into the programming and finds the same symbol that was on the robotic creatures head embedded into the computers programming, corrupting it.
Jor-El is horrified, Zod is furious, yelling about how that thing destroyed their families, their brightest city, and now it’s destroyed them, Zod blames the council for bowing to the thing and proclaims them weak. Jor-El warns the council, as Zod rallies any soldiers loyal to him to save their world while they still can, he does so easily, they attack the council headquarters and take them out, Zod finds Jor-El, and asks him to help him save their world through allowing access to The Codex.
The Codex is a computer chip, essentially it’s the brain, it has info on everything, from the genetic code from which all kryptonian children are created, to the entire history of Krypton and all its knowledge, and the how to build and operate a terraforming device called the World Engine, as such a thing has been illegal for a long time due to it requiring a planet with an already habitable environment and thus life.
(Brainiac would get the information about how to build and use The World Engine in a sequel)
Jor-El refuses Zod, saying he will not allow Zod to destroy an entire race. Jor-El escapes, accesses the codex, steals it and goes to Lara, telling her they have to leave. Jor-El has set a warning for the planet to give them time to escape, but doubts they’ll be able to as a military security system destroys any ship entering or leaving krypton, but Jor-El has a plan:
A space probe, small enough to sneak past the security systems, but big enough to carry maybe one person, or one person and a baby. The probe was designed to send robotic drones to other planets and test the planet’s atmosphere and environment. He sends Lara and Kal-El to the probe, and she goes, begrudgingly, as Jor-El gives her the codex and a special command key for the probe that will guide them when they get to earth, telling her he has to distract Zod’s men to keep them from the probe.
Lara is wounded fatally, from a plasma shot by one of Brainiac's drones, but she gets into the probe with Kal-El and takes off. She hides the codex in the main engine of the probe just before this happens.
Zod captures Jor-El, and sees the probe doing that teleporting thing, he puts two and two together and takes Jor-El prisoner, gets on a large ship with his army, and shuts down the security systems, so he can track the ion trail or whatever science mumbo jumbo before it dissipates.
Jor-El, though, has thought ahead, and damaged the teleportation device thing, making it so it would trap them in the “phantom zone” between the teleportation destinations, giving the trail time to dissipate so they can’t track it.
General Zod, Faora and Nam-Ek are all caught in the vortex, and sent to The Phantom Zone, by the teleportation device.
(General Zod and Faora will return in a future sequel)
Jor-El closes his eyes as he is caught in the planet destroying explosion, as we see Krypton blown to smithereens, as a green remnant goes through a radiation storm and crashes in The Atlantic Ocean. As we cut to Earth, where the probe crashes in Kansas at night, near a farm in winter, Jonathan and Martha come out. Lara, barely alive, opens the probe, by pulling the command key out, and they find her, Jonathan tries to save her, but she dies, her last words before passing away are asking them to protect her son.
Jonathan and Martha lie to a friend of theirs in the hospital by telling them that the baby had been left on their doorstep and asking him to write down that Martha had given birth to the baby over the winter, during a recent snowstorm.
Meanwhile, Clark Kent hitchhikes across Metropolis and starts working odd jobs, researching extraterrestrial sightings, and secretly using his powers to help people in need, which results in him having to hit the road again. Clark Kent starts developing journalistic skills as he talks to people and gathers information in his quest to figure out where he came from.
We flashback to Clark Kent's backstory, with Clark's parents trying to raise him right and help him control his powers. In the scene where Clark Kent asks his father in the original movie, which is "Should I have just let those kids on the bus die?".
Jonathan Kent tells Clark, no, and that he did the right thing, but he shouldn't expose his powers too much. During the scene, these flashbacks show that Jonathan Kent wants to keep his son Clark safe, but what kind of father would he be if he didn't encourage his son to do the right thing, even when it is hard?
Jonathan Kent is inspired by his son's selflessness and rushes in to help a lady that is about to be run over, and he succeeds, but the excitement and fear cause him to have a heart attack. Jonathan Kent gets rushed to the hospital by Martha Kent and Clark, but he dies. Years later, Martha says goodbye to Clark as he's moving to Metropolis.
Back in the present, Clark Kent goes to a bar to eat some food, but when he eats, Clark notices a drunk and rude Truck Driver harassing a female waitress.
Clark Kent hesitates a bit, but he notices no one else is stopping it, so he decides to do something about the situation. As the drunk and rude trucker is about to grab the woman inappropriately again, Clark Kent grabs his arm and he angrily tells him to leave the girl alone, which surprises the truck driver and makes him a bit scared.
However, Clark notices that his strength is hurting the man's arm, and in order to not expose his powers in front of people watching, he lets his hand go to show A bit of restraint, but Clark pushes his own to the floor, so he doesn't attack him. The truck driver gets back up from the floor and attempts to punch Clark, but Clark dodges the punch before he can be hit.
A few police officers notice the fight happen, and they decide to arrest the drunk trucker for intoxication and attempted assault against Clark Kent. Clark Kent gets thanked by the waitress for standing up for her, but Clark decides to head out to avoid any suspicions.
(The waitress will later be revealed as Lucy Lane, the younger sister of Lois Lane)
Clark decides to go downtown in Metropolis to apply for a better job. He drives there and we get shots of Metropolis. The design of Metropolis, in my rewrite, strongly resembles the version from Superman Returns.
Act 2: Later, after seeing The Daily Planet building, Clark decides to apply for a job there, and he succeeds, and this is where he first meets Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Chloe Sullivan and Perry White.
Jimmy Olsen is the new kid in The Daily Planet, fresh out of college, and he becomes fast friends with Lois and Clark.
Perry White is the very stern Editor-in-Chief of the Metropolis newspaper the Daily Planet. He is Clark's boss. (I would still cast Lawrence Fishbourne)
Chloe Sullivan is witty, feisty, and cheeky reporter of The Daily Planet. She is Lois's close friend and she vaguely was acquaintances with Clark, back in his Smallville days.
Clark and Lois hit it off, despite their bickering at first, and they even agree on a date, a few weeks later. Clark and Lois interview Lex Luthor, about LEXCORP's new achievements in cybernetics. During the interview, Lex makes some unwanted advances towards Lois, which irritates Clark but he keeps his cool and stays professional.
(That is a creepy politician metaphor, kinda like a certain president from 2016, who has sexual assault allegations from at least 5 women)
Clark decides to help people publicly as Superman, as he pulls out the old black suit that Martha had made for him. After work, Clark hears an explosion, he walks as Clark rips his shirt to reveal his (Silver) Superman symbol.
After that, then John Willlams score starts as we see a montage of Clark helping people from life threatening situations and stopping robberies, as the reports of a guy flying in a gray cape stopping crime is flooding in. However, it's not entirely confirmed by the public, so some cynical people in Metropolis say it was an urban legend of some "Superman".
It's during one of these robbery encounters that Clark fought a former marine, John Corben, though his own machine gun's bullets bounced off Superman, and they ricocheted back at Corben and he's paralyzed and his body was mutilated beyond repair. A regretful Superman jumps him to a hospital, near The LEXCORP Building, (We'll get back to that later)
Later, Lois is involved in a helicopter mishap. Clark publicly uses his powers for the first time to jump high enough to catch Lois Lane falling off the damaged helicopter, as it explodes, near 'The LEXCORP tower, astonishing the crowd gathered below. Very similar to the 1978 film.
Superman is now publicly recognized, but not everyone is welcoming of this, some seeing him as dangerous for having this much power. Lex Luthor was quick to become an enemy of Superman when he accused the hero of being an alien threat to humanity. Lex also did research on the meteor that crashed, and he found out that it is deadly to Superman, Lex dubbed the green radioactive substance, "Kryptonite".
The Daily Planet was the only newspaper in existence to portray him in a positive light, with his first recorded photograph being taken by Jimmy Olsen.
Lex, along with Mercy Graves, plans to kill Superman, before he can interfere with LEXCORP and he sees Superman as a threat, due to his alien origin. It's basically Batman's motive for being against Superman in Batman Vs Superman, but pasted onto Lex Luthor, instead. Eve Teschmacher doesn't see what is wrong with Superman. She's very reminiscent of her counterpart in the 1978 film. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor goes to pay a visit to John Corben, in the hospital, after he heard the new story of his encounter with Superman.
John, by this point, is a man that was screwed over by Superman (inadvertently) and Lex made a deal with Corben that if he killed Superman, he'd get millions after the U.S. Government screwed him out of getting benefits after years of being in the marines. Feeling that he had nothing to lose, Corben agreed to the cybernetic enhancements.
LEXCORP scientists transfer his mind into an indestructible android body made of titanium alloys and powered by a Kryptonite heart. Upon the completion, Corben's android body was covered with a layer of artificial skin, which, aside from a rectangular seam which could expose his Kryptonite heart, allowed him to pass himself off as his original body.
Lex Luthor orders Metallo to cause destruction and collateral damage around Metropolis, to catch the attention of Superman. Reluctantly, Metallo rips off his human skin, revealing his robotic body from underneath.
Act-3: We see Metallo decimate Metropolis with his kryptonite powered weapons. The Military is sent in to neutralize Metallo. However, none of the machine gun rounds from the soldiers can pierce Corben's android body. Meanwhile, Clark hears a psychic call and he discovers a glowing blue crystal from the remains of his spacecraft that he keeps around. It compels Superman to fly to the Arctic where he uses the blue crystal to find The Fortress of Solitude, which strongly resembles the architecture and design of Krypton.
Inside, a hologram of Jor-El explains Clark's true origins, and after educating him on his reason for being sent to Earth and his powers, and he says to Clark,
"The people of Earth are different from us, it's true, but ultimately, I believe that is a good thing. They won't necessarily make the same mistakes we did, but if you guide them, Kal, if you give them hope. That's what this symbol means. The symbol of the House of El means "Hope". Embodied within that hope is the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good. That's what you can bring them. They will race behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. But in time, they will join you in the Sun, Kal. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders."
Clark leaves the Fortress wearing a blue and red suit with a red cape and the House of El family crest emblazoned on his chest. It's basically the classic Superman outfit.
After seeing news coverage of Metropolis getting decimated, Clark decides to learn how to fly to save everyone, and it's the same exact scene from Man Of Steel, except when Clark does fly, The John Williams Superman Theme plays in the background instead. When Superman arrives in Metropolis, he evacuates civilians out of the city. (Because that's what Superman is supposed to be written as)
Meanwhile, Lois is about to get shot and killed by Metallo's plasma cannon, especially since she was too close to Lex's operations, as a reporter, but Superman swoops in and punches Metallo, sending the cyborg crashing into a Wayne Enterprises Building. (That's hinting at a Batman crossover)
After Superman saves her life, Lois grabs a nearby AK 47, on the pavement and evacuates Jimmy, Chloe, and Perry out of the city to be safe from all the chaos and collateral damage that Metallo is causing. Superman and Metallo have a brawl across Metropolis.
Metallo activates his kryptonite blaster and Superman is shot in the chest with it, weakening him and sending Clark crashing into a car, destroying it on impact.
Metallo absolutely bodies Clark in his weakened state. Corben is a master martial artist during his time with The Marines, and Superman is reliant on his abilities. Metallo beats down on Superman.
Metallo fires a missile at Superman, but using his reaction time, Clark turns the missile right back at Metallo, and the explosion blows a huge chunk in the torso of Metallo's cybernetic body.
Superman flies away from Metallo, momentarily for extra sunlight, to nullify the effects of the kryptonite, but Metallo has thrusters that allow him to fly at supersonic speeds.
The two engage in an aerial fight, but Superman grabs Metallo by his robotic skull and throws him into The LEXCORP Tower, tearing a hole through the skyscraper.
Superman and Metallo continue fighting in the LEXCORP Tower. When they are in close quarters, Superman freezes one of Metallo's arms and blows it up with his heat vision, knocking Metallo backwards, losing his right arm in the process.
When Metallo rushes towards Superman, Clark, in slow motion, sees an exposed chunk of wiring on the side of Metallo's torso, fires his heat vision and Metallo explodes and he is left a fiery mess, and Metallo shuts down.
Lois does find and confront Lex, thanks to Eve Teschmacher, the intern, next to Lex screams "She's got a gun!!" as Lois shoots Lex in the left arm.
When Superman arrives, Lex explains that they cannot arrest him, since he already covered the Metallo incident up, so Superman leaves with Lois, and flies away, vowing to put Luthor away in prison, one day.
Superman reveals his identity to Lois, and they still stay together as the two kiss, as the camera pans out to see the ravaged Metropolis. News Coverage, the papers and social media posts around the globe publish that Superman saves Metropolis from Metallo's terrorist attack and is a beacon of hope, just when it looked like Metropolis was about to be wiped off the map. Meanwhile, Metallo is sent back to LEXCORP and Lex repairs Corben and keeps him in a room, for something darker and nefarious…
(That is set up for The Legion Of Doom for a future Justice League sequel, especially since Steppenwolf is the villain for my rewrite of the first Justice League film)
The film ends with Superman and Lois being on their date that they promised each other, and after the date is over, Clark hears a crime, Lois kisses him and Clark suits up as Superman and flies off, with the John Willlams theme playing in the background, as the credits roll.
Post Credit Scenes: In the Batcave, Batman is watching a live video of Superman's fight with Metallo, setting up their meeting in World's Finest.
A giant skull-ship with tentacles orbits Saturn, and inside, the computer coldly states, "Kryptonian detected" and a green humanoid alien in silver armor, with his eyes glowing pink, states "Target Acquired" and smiles sinisterly.
This will set up Brainiac as a villain for a future Superman sequel, right after The Justice League.

The Batman 2: Heart Of Ice:

The Plot Act 1: The Batman 2 takes place during Christmas, and a year after the first movie. The opening scene is a flashback montage of Victor Fries and Nora falling in love and would end with the doctor saying she has cancer.
After this revelation, Victor developed a special cryogenic cell and planned to cryogenically hold Nora in there, to keep her alive, until a cure was found. However, Fries had been misappropriating GothCorp's money, which left the company in debt and the experiment unauthorized.
Fries was interrupted by GothCorp's CEO Ferris Boyle and a fight ensued and Fries grabbed a handgun, pointing it at Boyle and the security guards. Fries was then calmly ordered by Boyle to drop the gun, reasoning that it was not his nature to resort to violence and that a possibility may have existed to legitimately bankroll Nora's experiment.
Boyle's smooth talk got to Victor as he relaxed and let down his guard, allowing the deceitful CEO to kick the scientist into a lab table full of beakers which exploded. The explosion smashed him into his cryogenic freezing tanks and the accident soaked his entire body with the freezing solution and rendered him unable to survive outside of a sub-zero environment.
In the present day, Bruce Wayne has been trying to help and go out in public more and has his playboy personality, to help Gotham City recover from the flood that The Riddler caused in the previous movie. Ferris Boyle would be one of the head leaders for Gotham's rebuilding, even after the flood being frozen solid. However, it's another lie and secretly, Boyle is secretly taking money supposed to rebuild Gotham into his own bank account.
We have an opening action sequence of Batman fighting Killer-Croc, in the flooded waters of Gotham City, in the sewers. It's very similar to Bruce's fight with Killer Croc in Arkham Origins video game, where Batman uses his electrical gauntlets to wail on Croc, knocking him out and Bruce leaves Killer Croc for the cops.
After that, we see Batman as Bruce Wayne attending a charity event for Gotham's reconstruction, after the flood. It's led by Ferris Boyle. However, the door is busted down, thugs begin aiming their guns and an armored figure with glowing red eyes slowly walks towards Boyle, as Mister Freeze is introduced and he attacks The Charity Event, and tries to get the diamonds in the area and kidnap Boyle. He begins freezing people with his Freeze-Gun.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Bruce disappears into the panicked crowd and suits up as Batman, and he jumps out and kicks Mister Freeze, directly in his glass dome, cracking it. Due to his limited mobility in his armor, Freeze struggles against Batman, as Bruce continues landing several blows on him. However, Freeze gets Batman off of him and freezes Batman's feet to the floor with his Freeze-Rifle.
Mister Freeze steals the diamond and kidnaps Boyle. Victor takes Boyle to his hideout where he freezes his body. Boyle had caused his body to turn a bluish blue and for him to feel like he's constantly burning and his only comfort is his suit which cools him down. We now cut to Gordon and Batman investigating the crime scene.
Mister Freeze is using the diamonds to power his armor to find a cure for Nora who is permanently frozen. We have a similar scene to the animated series to show Freeze's lack of empathy and cold demeanor towards his goons.
Freeze has also been targeting executives of Ferris Boyle. Which leads to an action sequence in the frozen waters in Gotham City, where Freeze is surrounded by the executives, who all carry assault rifles. Mister Freeze kills them all by smashing the ice and freezing them underneath the frozen water, causing them to drown.
Finally, Batman figures out who Victor Fries is, through some research on The Batcomputer and which bank he's gonna rob next and chases after him with The Batmobile. However, Mister Freeze freezes the vehicle causing Batman to lose him.
Act-2: After his loss to Mister Freeze, Batman goes to The Iceberg Lounge to get some answers and information on Freeze but instead of getting met by The Penguin, it's two super strong thugs who are Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Batman fights the duo, but he gets overpowered and just when Batman is cornered and about to be beaten to death, Catwoman jumps behind Tweedledum and kicks him in the head and says playfully to Batman,
"I figured you'd be here".
Together, Bruce and Selena knock out both Tweedledee and Tweedledum in a bloody fist fight. After dealing with those two, Bruce and Selina get to Penguin, who does actually have information this time as he is doing a weapons deal with Freeze where he'll trade for this new freeze tech.
Batman attacks The Freeze Thugs, alongside Catwoman. These thugs have less advanced versions of Freeze's gun and interrogate one and figuring out Freeze's hideout and his motivation for his crimes. After they are subdued, Batman and Catwoman go to Mister Freeze's hideout taking out his goons stealthily and finding Freeze looking at his wife in the tube.
Batman sympathizes with Freeze and tries to convince him that he'll help Freeze with his wife and that he doesn't need to steal diamonds and shatter Boyle, who has been frozen all this time. Freeze doesn't care and doesn't trust Batman because Boyle lied to him in a similar way. They battle for a while, with Freeze having an upgraded version of his armor for better mobility.
Mister Freeze catches one of Batman's kicks and throws him aside into one of his ice structures, shattering it to pieces.
As Batman is in a fist fight with Freeze, Bruce begins to freeze up, because his main suit is not built for this low temperature environment, as Mister Freeze pulverizes Batman with a fury of punches, which breaks his cowl.
Catwoman tries to slice into Freeze's armor with her claws, but Freeze shoots her in the neck, causing Selena to suffocate.
(As for the effects of The Freeze-Rifle, The freezing itself doesn't actually kill you but it's the hypothermia that ensues that does it)
Batman breaks the ice and stealthily retreats with a wounded and suffocating Catwoman, back to The Batcave.
Act-3: After this, Batman quickly gets out of his armor and shatters the ice around Selina's neck. During Catwoman's recovery, Bruce reveals his identity to her and the two make out and get into an official relationship. Bruce and Selina come up with a plan to stop Freeze and find some way to cure his wife. His original suit is too damaged and they don't have time to repair it, as Freeze plans to storm GothCorp and steal all their latest technologies to help Nora.
Lucius Fox and his son, Luke, create Batman's new extreme environment suit created to stop Freeze specifically. The Extreme Environment Suit is armed with Thermo Charged Batarangs. Batman with his new XE suit will find Freeze and they battle.
All of Freeze's blasts from his Freeze-Rifle do nothing as they melt quickly on Batman's XE suit.
Batman bombards Mister Freeze with explosives and blasts from his Thermo Charged Batarangs, which ends up weakening Mister Freeze.
Batman punches Freeze across the room.
Catwoman fights off Freeze's thugs. It's a similar action sequence to Black Widow's hallway fight with Whiplash's thugs in Iron Man 2.
Batman reasons with Mister Freeze, to turn himself in for the sake of his wife, Nora, and Victor agrees and surrenders to The GCPD. Mister Freeze is put away in Arkham Asylum, in an extremely cold cell. The movie ends with Wayne Enterprises announcing that they are working on a cure for cancer, and they are almost there, as Victor cries with happiness, as the film ends on a hopeful note.
Post Credit Scenes: We see a dark haired woman, looking at photos of Batman and Superman's past sightings and footage of their battles with past supervillains, including Batman's final battle with Mister Freeze.
She says "The Silver Age of Heroes is happening, huh." As we zoom in on her amazonian armor, tiara, and lasso, hung up in her penthouse. As we hear the Hanns Zimmer Wonder Woman Theme quietly plays in the background, as it cuts to black…
(Yep, it's a small glimpse at Wonder Woman)
Tweedledee and Tweedledum are in the streets of Gotham, and they are suddenly hypnotized by a mysterious man. That will set up Mad Hatter for a future Batman film.

A few memories. It was technicoloured and there was an instance of everyone talking in a old victorian sitting room when the leading actresses notices a face pressed in the window.
There was a doctor or scientist figure experimenting on the grounds with something, something that I remember to be green. And a menagerie of distortive animal figures. I just remember the weird animal noises, I think they were presented in the film as either from outer space or due to the doctor's experimentations.
What I remember about the face thing was that the face was presented like pulp in the one part where the leading actor fights the figure, and I remember it was strange that that was not considered more obscene for its time, a pulpy non- face. I think the starring actress was blonde.
It was one of my favourite movies when I was really young in late 90s, early 2000s, and used to air on TCM around that time. The fact I found it so frightening may just be because I was very young but the film still keeps re-occuring in dreams sometimes, so I would like to find it again.\
edit- also, my title should be different as I did not mean "for its time" as in films from the 1940s, 1950s were not incredibly potent in the horror genre. More that I was suprised at the reveal of its face. But thank you!
Thank you.

• Her parents owns one of the most famous Bakeries and they have a whole entire building for them which is extremely expensive. They are located in a nice neighborhood, rather wealthy.

Marinette room is big for a Parisian appartement. If you want to have some informations on prices in Paris, here's this article : https://realadvisor.fen/property-prices/city-paris
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Her wiki page says the 21th but there is only 20 arrondissements. If it's was in real life, Marinette would live in the 5th arrondissement of Paris which is an expensive one.
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The average salary in the 5th arrondissement is around 36 083 euros per year which is 39224,03 dollars. The national average salary is about 20 590 euros per year which is about 22382,36 dollars.
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So to begin with, Marinette's family is very comfortable, they earn way more than an average french people.
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Plus you also have to look at the hobbies. Marinette is a designer, she likes to sew. Sewing is probably one of the most expensive hobby.
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I know it, because I'm sewing too (I'm not living in Paris) and I can tell you that it's everything but not cheap.
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Fabric is expensive. Meters and meters of good and nice quality fabric are expensive outside of the Capital, so in Paris, it's can only be more expensive.
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A good starting sewing machine is almost 100-200 euros (107-218 dollars). Then you also need needles, thread, pins, ruler, markers...
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Oh and I forgot, Marinette has a dummy in her room. It's around 130-150 euros for a very basic one.
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Not to mention, you have to have space for sewing. To cut fabric, you need place. Square meters are very expensive in Paris, if she have the entire sewing materials and sew with no problems, she is probably not "average" girl.
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Think about it, the girl has a freaking dummy in her bedroom. I'm living in countryside and even in my room who is nice, I can't fit one.
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She has a place to do makeup in her own bedroom, a sort of sofa (this kind of things are very expensive), multiples carpets... And with all of this, not even a closet for clothes. She doesn't have a closet in her bedroom when she is supposed to be a stylist...
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• Her school is filled with special people who have connections to celebrities or rich people.

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There isn't a single delinquent in her school. Everyone is nice and kind except for Chloé and Lila who are the mean girls but otherwise, everything is perfect... The school is always proper and clean... There's isn't a single teenager smoking or trying to sell drugs...
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Her best friend have a very popular blog around Paris who is watched by thousands of people, so she is an influencer who doesn't even need to show her boobs to have views which is very very rare. (Because let's be honest, most famous females influencer tend to show some cleavage or attributes to gain some followers.)
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Nino is a DJ at a very young age who already have a DJ set... But at least a DJ set is still less expensive than Marinette's sewing hobby. I would even argue that Nino is the most normal dude of the entire class, which is probably why he isn't appreciated.
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Chloe is the daughter of the mayor, she's rich and spoiled...
Sabrina is the daughter of the police "chief" because Roger is the main police officer in the episode, so he isn't a simple policeman. And she hangs out with a rich chick (although we can argue that she is being abused by Chloe).
Adrien is the son of one of the most famous fashion designer of Paris. Also rich and privileged.
Juleka is the daughter of a famous rockstar...
Alix's dad owns the Louvre Museum, just that...
Max created a smart IA robot who can move and thinks on it owns to the point of being able to become akumatized like a real senti-being. If he isn't the son of a couple of robotics engineers, I no longer understand anything.
Kim is friend with a nerd like Max... Usually, jocks doesn't give a fck about nerds and if this school is an elitist one, that's mean Kim parents are rich enough to enroll him in this institution, because Kim is a monkey brain and it's probably not his grades who helped him to get inside the school.
Rose had a date with a Prince from another country. Oh and she is also the rock singer of their band, very normal for sure...
Zoe lived in New york and speaks french perfectly... Half daughter of a rich model celebrity (Audrey)... Very normal...
Nathaniel is a mangaka at already such a young age... But okay, at least it's not too unbelievable.
Lila is a liar for sure, but for some reason, she has 3 moms, have been in different schools under different identities and she has a basements with wigs and costumes... Very normal indeed...
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I would say that Nino, Mylene, Ivan and Nathaniel are the most "normal" persons in their class, which may be the reason of why they are underrated. They are "too normal" compared to the rest.
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Not to mention that they can somehow privatize an entire football field to play there as in the Penalteam episode... Like how is that supposed to be "average" and "normal"?
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It's like Emily in Paris, I'm amazed at how these kind of shows are portraying an "average" representation of the french society.
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People in these shows, never have money problems, live in perfectly clean areas, never have daily life problems such as late common transports or bad weather...
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Everyone is handsome, every place is amazing... There are almost no strikes.
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I thought that my country was known for it's strikes and protests but in this show, the only protests we have is Mega leech for some trees and a park.
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In both show, the Paris who is described is the rich Paris, the one for the rich people and the elitist. Marinette is definitely not a normal girl, she is a rich parisian girl who is lucky to live in the best places of Paris which is not the case for lot of parisians.

“The lover carves into his soul the model of the beloved. In that way, the soul of the lover becomes the mirror in which the image of the loved one is reflected.” - Marsilio Ficino, Commentary on Plato's Symposium
Nietzsche’s criticisms of Hegel are often conflated with Schopenhauer’s. Often by people who type things like, “I’m in the Schopenhauer camp when it comes to Hegel and his ilk.” In a series of Beeps-and-Boops they copy-and-paste Schopenhauer’s loathing without any of Schopenhauer’s substance (which would require actually engaging with Schopenhauer and Hegel) instead these Thinkers exists as little framed photos on a candle covered shrine in Geocities. Even if they’re correct they’re still wrong and worthy of immediate scorn and derision. We must express the most profound sense of Christian Pity and Charity at the sight of their nakedness.
It’s easy to spiral on this particular subject but unbecoming, revealing, even damning. What they don’t seem to process, is that the seethe and the scolding and the tantrums are in their manner the highest form of compliment either philosopher could muster. That the younger Schopenhauer’s response to Hegel’s semantic blunder should be a kind of ecstatic fury that propelled his career as a philosopher. That Schopenhauer is endearing when he puts pen to paper and writes:
“May Hegel's philosophy of absolute nonsense - three-fourths cash and one-fourth crazy fancies - continue to pass for unfathomable wisdom without anyone suggesting as an appropriate motto for his writings Shakespeare's words: "Such stuff as madmen tongue and brain not," or, as an emblematical vignette, the cuttle-fish with its ink-bag, creating a cloud of darkness around it to prevent people from seeing what it is, with the device: mea caligine tutus. - May each day bring us, as hitherto, new systems adapted for University purposes, entirely made up of words and phrases and in a learned jargon besides, which allows people to talk whole days without saying anything; and may these delights never be disturbed by the Arabian proverb: "I hear the clappering of the mill, but I see no flour." - For all this is in accordance with the age and must have its course.”
Tempestuous little man. Without Hegel’s error what would’ve become of Schopenhauer? Would he have attempted to actively compete against Hegel? Hegel as the Phantom of Eric Roberts in the Killers Miss Atomic Bomb music video? The Other-Ghost, Hegel’s Smirking Geist cucking Schopenhauer, Sophia in his arms, Schopenhauer casts the wedding ring to the ground and runs away. As was the case in respect to Kierkegaard. Cucked out of marriage by the Ghost & Machine. “And it’s all in my head, but she’s touching his chest now, he takes off her dress now, LET ME GO. And I just can’t look it’s killing me. And taking control.”
An error is a wound is a mercy.
Nietzsche is different. Unlike Schopenhauer he doesn’t pretend to create a superior metaphysical system (the Platonic Carnivalesque) to rival Hegel’s.
I think the spirit of a Nietzschean critique of Hegel is best exemplified by aphorism 317 in Daybreak,
“The judgment of the evening. - He who reflects on the work he has done during the day and during his life, but does so when he has finished it and is tired, usually arrives at a melancholy conclusion: this however is not the fault of his day or his life, but of his tiredness. - In the midst of our work we usually have no leisure to pass judgment on life and existence, nor in the midst of our pleasures: but if we should happen to do so, we should no longer agree with him who waited for the seventh day and its repose before he decided that everything was very beautiful - he had let the better moment go by.”
Hegel as a Christian Nihilist and the Dialectic as Slave Morality. All finite forms of life attain their truth in the process of self-overcoming. Hegel uses Negativity to pacify an excess of Negativity. Hegel’s System annuls the Abyss. The Truth of any given determination is realized in its exhaustion. This Truth is what Remains. As part of a Whole. Eternal. Defeat for Hegel is what brings us to our Truth. That the subject’s defeat should purify it of its particularities and its impositions. My thoughts are already part of reality. This Knowledge leads to renunciation. I’m no longer attempting to impose or enforce myself on reality, to shape it in the heat of my perverse gaze. I look up at the stars and recognize a series of sores oozing out a brilliant light. In the Beggar’s Eye I see Christ. Saint Lazarus draped in indigo rags surrounded by dogs. In the Eyes of the King of the World, Christ. In the Illness the Cure. In the Poison the Medicine.
Hegel stands next to his student, the student looks up at the starry sky in awe. “They are the abode of the blessed.” Hegel grumbles, “The stars, hum! Hum! The stars are only a gleaming leprosy in the sky.’” Like Lorde, he never watches the stars because there’s so much down here. As he puts it in one lecture,
“The human being is this Night, this empty nothing which contains everything in its simplicity - a wealth of infinitely many representations, images, none of which occur to it directly, and none of which are not present. This [is] the Night; the interior of [human] nature, existing here - pure Self - [and] in phantasmagoric representations it is night everywhere: here a bloody head suddenly shoots up and there another white shape, only to disappear as suddenly. We see this Night when we look a human being in the eye, looking into a Night which turns, terrifying. [For from his eyes] the night of the world hangs out towards us.”
Let us then briefly think with Hegel whose underling problem is, from the very beginning of his thought, that of love.
What is Blue?
According to Goethe in his Theory of Colors,
“As yellow is always accompanied with light, so it may be said that blue still brings a principle of darkness with it.
This color has a peculiar and almost indescribable effect on the eye. As a hue it is powerful — but it is on the negative side, and in its highest purity is, as it were, a stimulating negation. Its appearance, then, is a kind of contradiction between excitement and repose.
As the upper sky and distant mountains appear blue, so a blue surface seems to retire from us.
But as we readily follow an agreeable object that flies from us, so we love to contemplate blue — not because it advances to us, but because it draws us after it.
Blue gives us an impression of cold, and thus, again, reminds us of shade. We have before spoken of its affinity with black.
Rooms which are hung with pure blue, appear in some degree larger, but at the same time empty and cold.
The appearance of objects seen through a blue glass is gloomy and melancholy.”
Goethe and a defense of Goethe’s critique of Newton’s Opticks unites Hegel and Schopenhauer. That color is produced by light and by what stands against it. Goethe who said that were the eye not of the sun how could we behold the light. Brilliant in the poetic continuity this expresses. A golden chain from Empedocles to Plato and Aristotle to the Stoics and so on. Summarized here elegantly by the physicist Arthur Zajonc, “the interior light coalesces with daylight, like to like, forming thereby a single homogenous body of light. That body, a marriage of inner light and outer, forges a link between the objects of the world and the soul. It becomes the bridge along which the subtle motions of an exterior object may pass, causing the sensation of sight.” Aristotle proposed the existence of a Proton Organon or Primary Instrument, an organ of congealed pneuma, located in the heart, that reconciles the division between the sensible and the intelligible. The Stoics would go on the rename this Mercurial (both volatile-subtle and fixed) Instrument, the Hegemonikon, the synthesizer or icon-maker. Whose function is to produce phantasms. The instrument through which the soul transmits all vital activities to the body and also the body’s way of capturing the sensations from the five senses and translating them into phantasms or images that could be understood by the soul.
The Lover longing loving unrequited. Smiling like she means it. Being-thrown into this World. Never fully at home, refracted, out of joint. That this affliction is our common inheritance. I think this is our patrimony. We are the heirs of this Abyss. It is to some degree I think fundamentally "Western" fundamentally "Romantic". Regardless of political opinion or alignment. It speaks to us. Through us. Perhaps it's because the Republic of Letters is largely comprised of Melancholic Perverts. Nostalgia or homesickness, as a longing for a reality which can only be possessed through the imagination and through the dream, the genuine site of anamnesis or recollection in the unreal. Evoking for us the movement of the soul described by the Venetian Magician-Philosopher Guilio Camillo; descending through the Lunar Gate of Cancer (of man), drinking from the cup of Bacchus and, depending on how much one imbibes, forgetting about all the things ‘up there’ before making our way back through the Saturnine Gate of Capricorn (of the gods). Tightrope walking to Luna. I see her so very clearly. My Corporeal Dasha, Giordano Bruno would rebuke me harshly, that I should Simp as I do for "these eyes, these ears, this blush, this tongue, this tooth, this hair, this dress, this coat, this little shoe .. . , this sun in eclipse, this crazy person, this slut, this stench, this deathbed, this privy, this mensturation, this corpse... which, by means of a superficial appearance, a shadow, a phantasm, a dream, a Circe-like charm in the service of procreation, deceives us by taking the form of beauty." Fuck it. Yet there is an Image behind the Image, a Woman behind my woman. The Platonic Dasha. Daria the Luminous Homunculi. Madonna Intelligenza who has served as a guide throughout this journey. “Keep your eyes on me.” I wobble on the tightrope, your eyes are what kept me, you and your rose-wreathed heart lit. A Unity-of-Opposites. Georges Bataille writes in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, “The image through which, in an instant, destiny has become alive thus finds itself projected into a world foreign to everyday agitation. The woman toward whom a man is draw, as to his human destiny, no longer belongs to the space that money controls. Her sweetness escapes the real world, through which she moves without allowing herself to be any more imprisoned than a dream. Misfortune would ravage the spirit anyone who lets himself be possessed by the need to reduce her.”
On Love Hegel writes, “Since love is a sensing of something living, lovers can be distinct only in so far as they are mortal and do not look upon this possibility of separation as if there were really a separation or as if reality were a sort of conjunction between possibility and existence. In the lovers there is no matter; they are a living whole.” That the Unity of Love is informed precisely by the division or difference between the Lover and the Beloved. The Union of Love, “…can remain so only as long as the separate lovers are opposed solely in the sense that the one loves and the other is loved, i.e., that each separate lover is one organ in a living whole.”
Here we might ponder Hegel’s Philosophy as a Philosophy of Death. The vespers-born melancholy conclusion is perhaps being that all Love is Unrequited. As Marsilio Ficino notes in his Commentary on Plato’s Symposium, “Insofar as it is death, it is bitter, and insofar it is voluntary, it is sweet. He who loves dies; for his consciousness, oblivious of himself, is devoted exclusively to the loved one, and a man who is not conscious of himself is certainly not conscious in himself. Therefore, a soul that is so affected, does not function in itself, because the primary function of the soul is consciousness…. Therefore, the unrequited lover lives nowhere; he is completely dead.”
Blue the color of Sulfur ignited. Blue the color of the Ocean of the Dead, of Dasein. The blue knees of a prayerful lover and the blue lips of the lovelorn fool, “Here’s to my love - O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. - Thus with a kiss I die.” That the smell of bitter almonds should remind the good doctor of unrequited love.
Such a melancholy conclusion can only be produced by a proper melancholic. Melancholy was regarded by Ficino as one of seven exemptions in which the bond between body and soul was weakened, allowing the soul to take flight and acquire the gifts of premonition and clairvoyance. Saint Albertus Magnus writes of the two kinds of melancholy. Hot melancholy and its two primary effects on the subject’s phantasmic activity he describes thusly,
“The first consists in the mobility of the phantasms within the subtle organism: the second, in the great capacity of phantasms to stay impressed upon the pneuma. This brings with it, besides a prodigious memory, an extraordinary capacity for analysis. This is why, Ficino tells us, 'all the great man who have ever excelled in an art have been melancholic. Either because they were born so or become so through assiduous meditation.”
Philosophy begins with this Unhappy Consciousness. The Alienated Soul lithe and loveless, which is the consciousness of self as a divided nature, a doubled and merely contradictory being. Dissatisfied with its Self and the World it retreats inward, like a Nymph fleeing Pan, fleeing into Reflection, which might likewise take the form of a fleeing into Nature (think Thoreau’s Walden). Herein is the mirk. This Narcissistic dialectic between Subject and Phantasmata. The Ouroboric Narcissism of the Beautiful Soul.
Another affliction associated with Melancholy is Hysteria. The Psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan refers to Hegel as the most Sublime Hysteric. The Hysteric asks questions because they experience their own desire as if it were the desire of the Other.
The Spirit retreats into a pre-rational state of life, a Life of Feeling, that this feeling expresses a movement in which the soul is no longer simply natural, but able to realize a mastery over itself.
“Finally, in the “feeling of self,” the individual becomes “a sensitive totality.” But the gradual formation of the ‘I’ is paradoxically accompanied by a loss of fluidity, leading to “ruin and disaster within the conscious spirit.” This crisis results from the fact that the subject, being constituted in a free relation to the self, feels at the same time like ‘another’, and this tension pushes it into a state of ‘trembling’ (durchzittern).” The Future of Hegel, Plasticity, Temporality, Dialectics, Catherine Malabou.
How does Hegel escape? Or perhaps more accurately how can we escape this trap? This Pneumatic Mirror-World. Of Subject-Mirror-Phantasmata. The Romantic Prison? Of one who learns of Love in order to be Loveless? Hold that thought.
Returning to the color blue, the psychologist James Hillman writes in Alchemical Psychology,
“This is the realm of the alchemical (kyanos, blue; kynos, dog); blue takes on a dog-like quality: hangdog and dirty dog, both. Why does depression seek porn? For arousal? For Eros and Priapos and Venus to come to life? Rather, I think, to maintain the depression, to re-direct the verticality of desire downward and backward (doggy fashion), clipping the wings of eros. Pornography - an opus contra naturam, a counter-instinct of the psyche, perverting the conventionally natural, enslaving, torturing; an erotics of despair.
To translate these esoteric references into the blue dog’s perverse obsessions we discover this: Invisible Hades appears in the world as Dionysus. There is a divine (i.e., invisible, unfathomable) impulse that seeks to enter ordinary life. It wants to know the soul in the Biblical sense. Carnal knowledge, intimate knowledge, knowledge of intimates. (Hence the innumerable images of copulation throughout alchemy.) The soul longs for this copulation, and sings its longing in the blues, blueing its own flesh, drawing the divine down into the ordinary body. (Hence the blues’ libidinous mood.)”
My Cup Overfloweth.
Pure thinking-subjectivity is phantasmological or hauntological. The role of the Phantasmata in the context of medieval philosophy, is described exquisitely by Mauricio Loza in The Hounds of Actaeon. The Phantasm or Phantom is understood “as a mental image with effects reaching not only the level of perception but that of social construction, the phantasm exists in the twilight between the objective and the subjectivity, the material and the immaterial, a zone of indistinction between reality and unreality. This is why the phantasm pulls us towards the twilight from whence it comes: Its central action is to drag us into the shadow of the world.”
Minerva’s Owls unfurls its wings only with the falling of dusk.
For the great Persian scholar Avicenna, sensory phantasms were processed through five virtues or powers corresponding to five cavities in the cranium; phantasy or common sense, imagination, cogitative virtue, the estimative virtue, and finally the reminiscent virtue. According to Georgio Agamben in his work Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture, Avicenna conceives of this gradation through the inner senses as a "progressive 'disrobing' (denudatio) of the phantasm from its material accidents."
Material accidents in this instance, evoking the etymological origins and proliferation into common speech of the word "accident" itself.
Ad - 'towards to' and cadere - 'to fall'. The Latin Accident - 'happening' used in late Middle English to refer to 'an Event'. Used to refer to the parts of the sacred bread and wine that remained after the transubstantiation through the sacrament of The Holy Eucharist,
“Thus, throughout the history of Scholasticism we have to do with a sort of triangle of intellectual forces: Realism and Nominalism fighting a five hundred years’ war, and the Church, in its official capacity, anxiously endeavouring to hold the balance between them. One wonders whether the three parties to this ancient dispute may not have found symbolic expression in Tweedledum, Tweedledee, and the ‘Monstrous Crow’ of nursery legend. But it is no disparagement of the intellects of that day to say that to us the chief interest of their polemics lies in the many new and accurate instruments of thought with which they provided us. The common word accident is an excellent example. We use it every day without realizing that it was only imported from Latin by the indefatigable efforts of the Schoolmen to reconcile the doctrine of Realism with the Catholic dogma of Transubstantiation. The accidents, when they first came into the English language, meant that part of the sacred bread and wine which remained after the substance had been transmuted into the body and blood of Christ.” History in English Words, Owen Barfield
Here we see a process of Pneuma returning to Pneuma through this process of Rising and Falling. That the Absolute Idea is a Radiant Star. That the Phantasm undergoes a kind of purification process, from the sensible to the spiritual to the mnemonic. That this purification entails a kind of excremental remainder. A material accident. An excess which goes?
This brings to mind the question that the Sophist Parmenides (in Plato's Parmenides) raises to Socrates, which forces Socrates to admit to his own limitations. It utterly stumps the Apostate Tragedian. That being whether or not there is an eidos or Pure Idea of the lowest material things. Things like excrement and dust and I might add these eyes, these ears, this blush, this tongue, this tooth, this hair, this dress, this coat, this little shoe .. . , this sun in eclipse, this crazy person, this slut, this stench, this deathbed, this privy, this mensturation, this corpse...
The Ghost and The Star
Recall the episode with Hegel comparing stars to leprosy sores. This got out around town and Hegel found himself having to address this controversy,
"It has been rumoured round the town that I have compared the stars to a rash on an organism where the skin erupts in an countless mass of red spots: or to an ant-heap in which too, there is Understanding and necessity. In fact, I do rate what is concrete higher than what is abstract, and an animality that develops into no more than a slime, higher than the starry host."
The rock is a rock.
Hegel defines the Domain of Art as the “sensible appearing of the idea”… or the Idea given expression in Sensuous Form. This is to be understood as The Star shining through The Ghost. This opposition between Form and Content. This Contradiction is what animates the Motion of Spirit. From Art towards Philosophy.
She is and is not. Ah wait. I'm not her. But in this regard I am the same and suddenly the Ghost is Concretized.
Alexandre Kojève in his Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit writes,
"It is known that Hegel asserted that his knowledge is circular, and that circularity is the necessary and sufficient condition of absolute truth - that is, of complete, universal, and definitive (or "eternal") truth."
The Hysterics quandary finds some resolution. The question of the Other is reflexively transformed into the answer to the question.
"In the Wise Man's absolute Knowledge, each question is its own answer, but is so only because he goes through the totality of questions-answers that forms the entirety of the System. Likewise, in his existence, the Wise Man remains in identity with himself, he is closed up in himself; but he remains in identity with himself because he passes through the totality of others, and is closed up in himself. Which (according to the Phenomenology) means, quite simply, that the only man who can be Wise is a Citizen of the universal and homogeneous State - that is to say, the State of the Tun Aller und Jeder, in which each man exists only through and for the whole, and the whole exists through and for each man."
We return to Self-Consciousness. We're not the same. We're different. Tonight.
Eros pins Pan. Chronos clips Eros’ wings. Compulsion is overcome by Love. Love is overcome by Time. Love can only be actualized and concretized through Time. When it must Dwell in a given Space. This is the Poetic-Plasticity. This is the Commitment.
“Desire has reserved to itself the pure negating of the object and thereby unalloyed feeling of self. This satisfaction, however, just for that reason is itself only a state of evanescence, for it lacks objectivity or subsistence. Labour, on the other hand, is desire restrained and checked, evanescence delayed and postponed; in other words, labour shapes and fashions the thing.” (Phenomenology of Spirit)
We begin with the Problem of Love and in the Problem find the Solution. Love is the Answer to the Question of Love. Loving is to give what one does not have.
Our Unrequited Love is Mutual,
“In fact, there is only one death in mutual love, but there are two resurrections, for a lover dies within himself the moment he forgets about himself, but he returns to life immediately in his loved one as soon as the loved ones embraces him in loving contemplation. He is resurrected once more when he finally recognizes himself in his beloved and no longer doubts that he is loved. O, happy death, which is followed by two loves. O, wondrous exchange in which each gives himself up for the other, and has the other, yet does not cease to have himself.” Commentary on Plato's Symposium, Marsilio Ficino.
To be Overcome is to Animate. This is the Labor of Love. Productive Labor as Art.
You understand why Hegel is so very frustrating? In his System. In the Movement from East to West back East. We find the Heiros Gamos, the Sacred Matrimony of Eros and Sophia, and in this Unity of Opposites the philosopher becomes the Sage. In the production of this Heiros Gamos, Hegel's System becomes the Perfect Pneumatic Circle.
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I make of Nietzsche a traveling companion through Hegel’s Aesthetics. Why? Because The Birth of Tragedy is crudely Hegelian. Here we find ourselves encountering what is so very frustrating about Hegel and his Pneumatic Circle, his method and his system. From the occultists perspective this is because Hegel’s System is an Artifice of Sacral or Mythic Time, of Cyclical Time. The genuinely infuriating thing is realizing that the Artifice, the “Copy” is in fact the original. This is why some speak of the feminizing effect of Hegel. Feminizing in the way Achilles’ is feminized by Scamander. That not only do we never step in the same river twice and that the river is the site of the Doom-driven Hero’s self-fulfilling prophesy.
As Nietzsche himself puts it, “one cannot refute an eye disease.” I thought it would be stimulating to read The Birth of Tragedy through the lens of Hegel’s Lectures on Aesthetics. Framing Nietzsche and his insights within a Hegelian Tableaux. Nietzsche who denounces Metaphysical Systematization. Demurely objecting he says, “unhand me woman,” with a little blush. Does he mean it? I don’t think it was Hegel’s Dialectical Method or Logic that Nietzsche objected too. Denouncing instead the refraction between the Philosopher and the Logic (an ironic detachment)… that the Philosopher and his Logic are not two separate beings. That for him the Philosopher is Alkahest or Universal Solvent. Body and Soul collapse into a singularity, Art and Artists. No, in a sense Nietzsche celebrates the animating antagonism at the Heart of Hegel’s work. That this refraction is what results in the System which Nietzsche saw as modeling contemporary German Bourgeois fearfulness and timidity simply solidifies into Consensus. “I’m old and I don’t want to be alone.” That the System should be a kind of Metaphysical Prison concretized around the Fiery Pneuma, the brilliance of Hegel’s Esprit.
The application of the Dialectical Method is evidenced throughout The Birth of Tragedy; The Apollonian thesis, the Dionysian antithesis, the Tragic synthesis. Or perhaps in a manner more accurate to Hegel; The Dionysian Abstract, the Apollonian Negation, the Tragic Negation-of-Negation, and the Socratic Concretization.
The section dedicated to a retrospective appraisal of The Birth of Tragedy in Ecce Homo, Nietzsche concludes that all the good things he had ever written about Richard Wagner were actually about him. He was talking about himself the whole time without even realizing it, “"Even psychologically all decisive traits of my own nature are projected into Wagner’s - the close proximity of the brightest and the most calamitous forces, the will to power as no man ever possessed it, the ruthless courage in matters of the spirit, the unlimited power to learn without damage to the will to act.” Poor Nietzsche he who was too high-strung for his own good. Comes to a conclusion paralleling Hegel as it concerns Art, specifically Music. Perhaps one day, there will be Dionysian future for music. But for now, the Pneuma roils through space-and-time, and it culminates in Nietzsche or Zarathustra, as the Last Philosopher or the first Tragic Philosopher. Who despite all the aristocratic pretensions cannot help but write in a popular and accessible manner. Writing into motion the conditions for the Dionysian resurgence he had once thought was being spearheaded by the compositions of Richard Wagner.
He goes so far as to be both Beethoven and Goethe’s response to Beethoven in the anticipation of his works and in the need for them to remain ‘exclusive’ despite their undeniably popular character. Goethe in his old age weeping softly to Beethoven’s sonatas, proclaims “If such music were performed by a large orchestra, it would destroy everything around it.”
The stylish and inspirited Vitalism of Nietzsche’s ruminations is Pneumatic. A red dot in the center of a dark blue sphere.
Dialectics reveals an Infinite Spiral. The Circle divided by a straight-line. Containing the spiral. The straight-line breaks through the circle. Above and Below. Revealing three other spheres. Above the configuration one spiral. Beneath it two spirals; one winding up and the other winding down. On a Hegelian theological note. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit proceed from God the Son. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1.
Here we might locate the Traumatic Temporality of Christianity. The introduction of History. Time as Chronos. With God the Son. Without the historical personage of Jesus Christ, there wouldn’t be a Trinitarian Unity and Division. From God the Son proceeds God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In this wound we are brought to an awareness of another Time. A Timeless-Time or a Time sans History. “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” a time in which God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit had always been. The Triune God. Whether or not, in this Aionic Time, God the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father or from God the Father and God the Son, is the division between East and West.
This Times overlap and nowhere is this more evident than in the anachronisms or perhaps more accurately, the Archeo-modernity, of the romantic painting. Or perhaps further still, in the Ethiopian depiction of Christ, in the Korean depiction of Christ, and in the Italian depiction of Christ. Black Jesus, Asian Jesus, and European Jesus.
As that obscure note by Nietzsche produced by Gilles Deleuze in his work Nietzsche and Philosophy goes, “Universal chaos which excluded all purposeful activity does not contradict the idea of the cycle; for this idea is only an irrational necessity.” Here we see Nietzsche approaching something akin to the Infinite Dialectic realized and developed in Mao Zedong’s contributions to Dialectical and Historical Materialism. As Mao writes in On Contradiction, “The universality or absoluteness of contradiction has a twofold meaning. One is that contradiction exists in the process of development of all things, and the other is that in the process of development of each thing a movement of opposites exists from beginning to end.”
The stylish and inspirited Vitalism of Nietzsche’s ruminations is Pneumatic. Being Pneumatic it is Phantasmic. Here we locate the Girardian critique of Nietzsche. As Nietzsche proclaims in Ecce Homo that everything his was praising Wagner for is in fact praise he was unconsciously directing at himself, at his values or innate dignities, the obverse is true. For Nietzsche every great philosophical work is a confessional, an involuntary and unconscious autobiography. He invents the Overman and by extension the Last Man. Will to Power and Ressentiment. One cannot exist without the other and in Nietzsche they collapse into a singularity (a point worth keeping in mind when we eventually venture into Deleuze and his Anti-Hegelianism). The Last Philosopher. In sum Girard’s contention is that in the production of these Phantasmata, Nietzsche ends up offering to his audience another Scapegoat. The Man of Ressentiment and the Slave Morality. Obviously within Nietzsche the potential for this is treated triumphantly. Nietzsche refuses to have his Poetic Revelry stifled by timorous considerations. That stupid people might read his works and take it as an excuse to persecute Christians or to locate the Man of Ressentiment in their political adversaries. That they might completely forget the contradictions inherent to the very office of “Tragic Philosopher” and how the Vagabond and the Prophet are a singular figure, hybrid and lovelorn and glorious. “If I had power I’d know how to immediately and brutally exercise it.” None of this concerns Nietzsche. People will misinterpret you regardless. Still the points are well worth reflecting on and prove stimulating as we move from the Symbolic-Classical to the Classical-Romantic.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone. Hell Breaks Loose came out yesterday, and I am equal parts smug and ashamed to say I've read it twice already. So I thought I would break down some notable parts of it, and also provide a space for everyone to do the same. Here we go...

Overall Thoughts

The fact that it is one day after the release date and this book is already controversial says a lot to begin with, but I would like to start by saying; I do not dislike this book. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. I think that we all came up with a vision in our heads over the last 15 books of what a prequel would look like, and what we got, at least in my case, went quite far from what I expected. I don't think that that is a good or a bad thing, but it does seem to be classic Derek fashion.
(Also, my god what a dedication. These books are known for funny dedications, but we've never had one that terrified me to my very soul.)

Skulduggery

What I personally wanted most from HBL was to see Skulduggery 300 years before we actually meet him. I wanted to see how different he was from the velvet-voiced, suave, intelligent, smooth Detective that we all know and love. Suffice to say, I was not disappointed. Seeing a Skulduggery Pleasant that had only been a skeleton for 13 years, even less time to mages than it might be to us, so incredibly fuelled by a particular kind of anger and desire for revenge I can't begin to articulate, so much so that his friends physically pin him to the ground to stop him from doing something dangerous, was everything to me. When anyone asks who my favourite character in the series is, it seems to be the basic answer to say Skulduggery. But it's the complexity about him that we see more of in HBL that makes Skulduggery my favourite character. This is probably my favourite part of this book. However, the emergence of Lord Vile seventeen years before his five-year-long reign (even though it technically didn't happen in the end) and the revelation that Skulduggery had been practising Necromancy since he was teenager, almost cheapened Vile for me once again. It also makes me think about just how Skulduggery became Vile, especially when Abyssinia arrived on the scene, with the knowledge that Skulduggery "...liked the power too much, and someone like [him] would do terrible things with it." At this point, I just want a comprehensive biography of Skulduggery's life.

Valkyrie

So many people are furious with Valkyrie's appearance in this book, and honestly, I do see where they are coming from. When I read the line "My name is Valkyrie Cain. I'm from the future." I sighed. This goes back to what I said earlier; that HBL, or at least the second half, isn't what we imagined a prequel book would be. I will say that I loved the incorporation of time/time travel in Dead Or Alive and Sebastian Tao's story line, but was it really necessary in this book? It makes me think that Derek thinks that he can't write a good Skulduggery book without Valkyrie, that she is his safety net and comfort zone in this series. I love Valkyrie as much as the next person, but I don't think she needed a place in the Dead Men Novel. However, I will say that Valkyrie's role in this book is written very well, and we get some very sweet moments between her and Skulduggery, and the rest of the Dead Men.

"We are friends, then, in the future?" Valkyrie struggled to maintain the scowl, but it was a losing battle. "Yes," she said. "We're very close friends."

The Villains

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I would've been delighted with a book about the Dead Men fighting Mevolent. Simple. Taking on the suicide missions they were so notorious for, with everything about Skulduggery battling against his darker urges and struggling to grow accustomed to his new life. In HBL, however, Mevolent and his generals seem to play supporting roles when it comes to villainy. That's not to say that the Hidden God and Strickent Abhor aren't interesting characters, and I did enjoy the moral conflict within Valkyrie over killing an innocent man to save the world, but really, another god? Another overpowered villain? In 1703, no less. Part of the reason, I think, that Strickent exists is because Valkyrie is in this book; her physical, phase two self, after Until the End, still with all her powers. (Which !'m pretty sure means the theory that the universe resetting made her an Elemental isn't true, but that's a topic for another day). Mevolent's only real role is to help the Dead Men with the overpowered villain, which is an extremely interesting concept, for sure, but we already saw that with Abyssinia; the Dead Men and the Diablerie. Serpine's role was much better for me, not as one of Mevolent's Generals, but as Skulduggery's nemesis. I think it was a missed opportunity not to have Mevolent's forces at the centre of HBL, but I did enjoy the problems it posed for the Dead Men; seeing the man they had been fighting against for so long, and not being able to hurt him.

Ghastly

We've been owed a book in Ghastly's perspective since LSoDM, and I missed him a lot. I loved getting to know Ghastly better, including the appearance of his mother, Rustica Strife, in all her glory! She was a really charismatic, loving character and her and Ghastly clearly have a great bond, my only complaint would be that we didn't really get to see her legendary skills on the battlefield. It broke my heart to read Rustica and Skulduggery talking and laughing about Ghastly, when in less than twenty years, Vile would be her killer. I really enjoyed Sister Rapture as Ghastly's love interest; we needed a love interest in this book, we really did. Ghastly also proves himself a wonderful and caring friend, especially to Skulduggery, and some of his words hit me so hard.

When Skulduggery's family had been murdered, Ghastly had lost one of his best friends - as well as the child to whom he had served to uncle with his whole heart.
**
"I'm proud of you" Ghastly whispered.

I think this is also the best place to point out the cruel, cruel irony and foreshadowing to Ravel's betrayal:

"In case you were wondering, Dexter's the most honest, Saracen's the most charming, Ravel is the most loyal and you are the most decent."
**
Ravel came with him. Ghastly could tell that he had a question, his friend's face was just too honest to disguise it.

My only question, however, is (and I'm assuming that Ravel put his plan in action by this stage or at least started to plan his plan) why did Ravel not panic when Valkyrie is hostile and obviously upset towards him, and later tells him that "The Sanctuaries don't interfere in the mortal world." very sharply. Surely this is enough clues to tell him that his plan failed, or at least be worried that Valkyrie would tell the others what he was going to do?

Final Thoughts

If you made it this far, thank you, and please share your thoughts on this book. As I said earlier, I don't hate HBL at all, it is a million miles ahead of the Grimoire and so that is pretty much all it needs. If I were to sum it up, I would say that the first half reads like a Dead Men war time prequel, and the second half reads like a phase two book with phase one characters. But in spite of everything I have complained about, I did enjoy this book and I think the good outweighs the bad. Have a wonderful day, and happy April.
- x3lin

A recent post asked, 'how would you write a Tyranid story?'. This is my response. There might be more if the mood strikes, as the idea - and the challenge! - are definitely tempting. We'll see how it shakes out.
A TIME TO EVERY PURPOSE
Falling.
We are falling.
If space is bent - if the gravities of all the little lights and rocks align against us - then we can do nothing but fall. Down the darkling way. Down the four-dimensional plane. Down, down, driven down. We are thrust through the veil on Narvhal’s horn; we pierce the distance between here and there. We are carried on the carrier-beast’s final breath, riven by plasma and lance and exotic matter. Farewell, Narvhal. Farewell, our pursuers - farewell, for now. We shall surely meet again.
Will we be ready when we do?
Now, we must tell you, there will be deceit. We do not wish to call it deception, though clearly, we deceive. We speak to you in words we hope you will understand. We ask for your patience.
Imagine…
Imagine, then, a castle. Imagine grey-brick redoubts, grand old walls wrought by ancient masons that keep out the sprawl of old, dark woods. Imagine their bare branches, riven by snow and season, their rough, tough roots sunk deep into frozen earth. Imagine moving through the courtyards and gardens and finding not a soul, the attendants and groundskeepers and courtiers gone, lost, destroyed.
Imagine the creak of rusted hinges and protesting timber as you open the inner gates. Imagine an ornamental indoor lake filled with the deepest black you have ever seen, the darkness that dwells in the space beyond a dream, and know that the Lady is still here.
She leans on the balustrade, eyes twinkling, snug in fur and downy robes. The cold and isolation do not touch her. She is not weak, here. She is not shriven of biomatter and the last of her brood guard, her mantle seared and cracked by Imperial malice, frozen blood on the black carapace as it sculls slowly, painfully, through the void. She is whole and complete and wonderful and all-knowing and she cannot possibly fail.
‘Come to me,’ she whispers, and all must obey.
Now, imagine the smallest thing possible. A quark, a genome, something closer to an idea than a reality. Something so infinitely delicate can only be a child. It does not squall or cry in its amniotic cradle - it simply looks to the Lady, attentive as only those who yearn for purpose can be…
(Remember: this is not a castle, there is not the smell of woods in winter and age-crisped paper and elderly oak. These are metaphors, these are similies, these are likenesses used to convey a meaning so that you may understand what is about to happen within the ruined, half-dead husk of the Norn Queen, her last unmurdered birthing chamber and what few potential zygotes remain.)
…and the Lady guides the child up the swaying stairs, through the silent halls where knowledge sleeps (less, now, that the fleet has been so diminished, that a connection to the greater mind has been lost, but still, the distance is vast, vast as the space between neurons can be).
Together, they reach the observatory with its glittering silver latticed roof, and its gold-inlaid telescope aligned to the heavens. We watch, rapt, as possibilities pass us by.
Here is a world locked to stare at the system sun, one face afire, one cloaked forever in darkness. Narvhal’s cry echoes deep in the polar ice, trapped, refracted, and ultimately amplified. The hasp will be broken, tomorrow or in ten millennia, and the faces will reverse in a single day. In one destructive rotation, one brief spasm - utterly insignificant in the cosmic span - the world will shrug off all the creatures that dwell upon it. Unsuited to our purpose, even if the chance of discovery were not so great, but a valuable lesson. The Lady is satisfied that, even as it perishes, the carrier-beast dooms a thousandfold of its slayers. Efficient, as such things are measured.
Here is a world of springs and seas. Rich life teems in the waters and builds high on the shores away from the toxic volcanoes and gas vents that ridge the continents. Lethal to the natives. Useful to us. What could lair in those untouched places - what power could be coaxed from those hidden troves, its strengths married to ours? Rich metals. Deep deposits. Yes, perhaps, if the brood had not been so vastly reduced. Even a creche of infiltrator forms would suffice.
No, the Lady shakes her head. ‘Do you see?’ Her tone is not mocking, not condescending - the child has overlooked something that her experience has not. ‘The Inquisition have chosen this as their home. They seek the same seclusion we do. Their agents are among the population, and their attention would be quickly drawn to any attempt at planetfall.’
Ah. Of course. Our pursuers have others sworn to their same cause - some even more vigilant, even more vicious. Their presence is a concern. We will not risk their attention before we must. We turn away from the life-rich world for now.
Here is a world of cities, reaching to the clouds and the planetary crust. A mechanical metropolis that almost blinds the oculus with its bright potential. Even the Lady betrays a trace of hunger as she considers the possibilities. Surely in that choked, toxic atmosphere, we could arrive unseen. But where? And after that, how would we protect her? The officialdom of these worlds is not the only danger - their petty rulers, their slum-lords and criminal masses are just as paranoid, just as fearful of the alien, the unknown, the visitors from the stars no matter how humble or hidden their guise.
‘We only have one chance at this,’ the Lady says. Again, she shakes her head, though not without regret. ‘I cannot make you strong enough to prevail here. The flaw is mine. We look again.’
Here is a world ruined in such fierce, spectacular fashion that it may only serve as an example of galactic chance rather than spawning ground. Stripped of atmosphere, shattered by endless meteorite impacts, this shield world has endured so much in its eyeblink life. The inner system crouches behind it - we dare go no closer, fearing the sensors and snares and ships that glitter between those worlds. They are closed to us. What else is there?
Here is a world stripped by radiation, inhabited only by freakish bacteria that the Lady blanches to behold. No. Here is a world that could serve us in a million years, as life nests close to its molten heart, the surface in tectonic upheaval. No. Here is a world that barely deserves the name, a dwarfish rogue that skitters on an erratic, outer orbit. Docks and outriggers festoon it, rock-breakers and asteroid mines. Perhaps, if they were less attentive, but they would be just as alert to extrasolar intruders as the inner system.
After all, their lives would depend on it.
Not the outpost planet, then, but the voidships that service it? Would that suffice? The Lady demurs. She looks away - she consults her library. She does not like trusting our fate to the hope the child can subdue a transport alone, that the transport will not be looked for, and that it will contain what she needs. So many variables. So many possibilities. What are, in short, the odds?
If she does nothing, we perish. If she chooses wrong, we perish. Ah, the burden of leadership, without the greater mind to consult, without the pleasing absence of responsibility that the lesser forms have. We feel for her. Failure is not in her blood, yet she must confront it.
Above us, the heavens whirl. Time advances. Ichor drools into the void. The Queen’s flukes waver in fatigue and pain.
The Lady considers. The child waits.
She makes to speak - then cocks an ear to listen, as if to catch a trace of far-off, almost-familiar music. A moment. Another. She blinks. And, suddenly, she smiles, as beatific as any saint as their faith is rewarded.
Yes. This will do. There is one light that shines brighter, and closer, than any other. A ship, a crew, and a very particular cargo.
Again, she beckons the child, and together they walk the library halls. So many passages are dark, and so many shelves are empty. The loss will likely never be truly healed. Not even in the warm embrace of the greater mind. It is the way of things, we know. We cannot forget the harm that was done to us - we are wounded to the core, in our intrinsic structure. What weapons the Imperials employed have done to us what nothing else ever has (ah, yes, but for the Death - when we lick our wounds, do they taste of that calamity?). That, alone, makes our survival imperative. We must return this knowledge to the greater mind.
This nook has very few tomes left. Imagine them bolted and chained, confined to their cages of solid wood, as though they were dangerous beasts warded against escape (and what could be more dangerous than knowledge, properly used? Are we not living proof of that?). Certainly, they are. We know what damage these secrets have wrought upon this galaxy, for ten thousand years of furious anger.
And now we will put it to a use not dissimilar to that intended by its creator. The Lady delights in that irony as she untraps a book and bends down to show the child.
‘They were called the Silver Shields.’ A page turns. ‘They protected their home, far from here, with certain codes of valour and certain modes of conduct.’ Another page. ‘They failed, of course, but their remnants linger still - we took this one beyond the Wound. A strange tale, and one I will tell you in time if you wish.’ Another page. ‘Do you see what I intend?’
Do we?
We see the shining silver, the curve of the plate, and the intended - and often attained - psychological effect. We are (oh so very) familiar with beacons. We understand the importance of signals and ceremonies. We do not dispute their illogic; it has delivered us prey more times than memory allows. We understand the concepts they cling to. We understand oppression, and we understand freedom.
Yes, we have an intimate understanding of freedom.
We are presented with a unique opportunity. We must, then, shape a unique solution. Adapt or perish is the fundamental law of the cosmos. We have made ourselves synonymous with that law, entwined ourselves with it, and we live - we thrive - at the expense of those that do not.
‘A chevalier. A knight.’ The Lady weaves the last zygotes into a pattern that melds the book and the purpose. It will take time. There is so much damage, so much that has been lost. ‘A champion, yes? To guard my slumber. To secure my reawakening. To lead those that believe to their earned reward. Do you understand?’
The child does not cry - it does not struggle as the weaving takes it. This is something strange, something that is not provided in the shaping maps, the hard-coded, well-worn paths that end as carnifex, termagant, tyrant and uncounted others. There is pain.
‘I am sorry,’ the Lady does not wipe at her misting eyes. ‘You have no swarm to command, and there is no place here for a lord. You deserve more, and I cannot grant it to you.’
Here, we must leave. The Queen’s last powers are focused on the child. She has nothing left for us. We wither. We die.
Our final sight is the Lady holding the child close.
‘Be brave,’ she whispers, already fading into hibernation, into the dreamless deep. ‘I love you.’
Then she is gone, and so are we.

LIST:
Labyrinthine
Them and Us
Propnight
Fallout: New Vegas
Monorail Stories
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
Shenmue III Deluxe Edition
Beholder
Yesterday Origins
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels
DOOM II
Tokyo Xanadu eX+
Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead
Caveblazers
Anomaly: Warzone Earth
Anomaly Korea
Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile Campaign
Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy
Rune Lord
Toki
MegaRace 1
Syberia
Iron Fisticle
In Between
They Always Run
Viking Brothers 2
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
Robin Hood: Winds of Freedom
Wounded - The Beginning
Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders
Wounded - The Beginning
10 Second Ninja X
12 is Better Than 6
Voyage: Journey to the Moon
Rescue Team: Danger from Outer Space!
Still Life

Hello,
I wrote a conversational style book on linear algebra with humor, visualisations, numerical example, and real-life applications.
The book is structured more like a story than a traditional textbook, meaning that every new concept that is introduced is a consequence of knowledge already acquired in this document.
It starts with the definition of a vector and from there it goes all the way to the principal component analysis and the single value decomposition. Between these concepts you will learn about:
​

• vectors spaces, basis, span, linear combinations, and change of basis
• the dot product
• the outer product
• linear transformations
• matrix and vector multiplication
• the determinant
• the inverse of a matrix
• system of linear equations
• eigen vectors and eigen values
• eigen decomposition

​
The aim is to drift a bit from the rigid structure of a mathematics book and make it accessible to anyone as the only thing you need to know is the Pythagorean theorem, in fact, just in case you don't know or remember it here it is:
https://preview.redd.it/bgwcjqxf28ra1.png?width=579&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4da443a31ba4042f878983916ec14b90b11fd71
There! Now you are ready to start reading !!!
​
The Kindle version is on sale on amazon :
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZWN26WJ
And here is a discount code for the pdf version on my website - reddit10
www.mldepot.co.uk
​
Thanks
​
Jorge

During the original broadcast, I didn't discover the Insiders Podcast until season 5. I'm doing a rewatch now, and listening to the Insiders Podcast after every episode.
I made similar threads for seasons 1 - 3.
​
From the 4x07 Insiders Podcast: Something Beautiful.
Teaser:
* Gilligan was worried that they had put so much effort into the teaser, that they wouldn't have much left for the rest of the episode.
He's glad he was wrong, as the rest of the episode came out great too.
* The montage in the teaser also coordinated costumes and colors across the vertical split screen. For example, on one side, Kim is squeezing a green stress ball. On the other side, Jimmy is wearing a green track suit.
I'll post a pic later.
* To get the same view and angles on both split screens, they used a lot of tape measures so that when they filmed the other side of the split screen, they'd get an identical mirror view.
* The music during the montage is usually done through the center channel in a 5.1 mix. However, because the music was the lead, they spread it throughout the channels.
The male singer is off to the right, and the female singer is off to the left.
* "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed was one of the other songs they were using. However, since it was already used in the movie Trainspotting, they avoided it. It's also used in "Fear Of The Walking Dead".
* There's a montage in a future episode, where music supervisor Thomas Golubic wanted to use a certain song, but it was already used prominently in another film.
He then had to think, do we let the music be a beautiful moment, or do we not use it because someone out there will notice that it was used elsewhere, and it may appear they were stealing the idea?
The idea did come naturally to him. He was informed later that it was used elsewhere.
* With this 4x07 music, the two finalists were "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed or "Something Stupid" by Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra.
With "Something Stupid", the song is only 2 minutes, and the montage is longer.
Also, it was very expensive to use that song.
"Something Stupid" was also done with an orchestra, which meant there would be union fees, and everyone has to get paid.
They then decided to record the song from scratch, using the band Lola Marsh.
When pitching to potential artists, they told them they were going to pay them a fee for the song, but that the artists would not own the song.
They gave potential artists a bpm; told them it would be a duet; and told them it would be 5+ minutes, instead of 2 minutes.
They narrowed down the list to 14 after hearing the demos.
Then they narrowed it down to 2. They told those two to finish the song.
Then they had a several hour Skype session with the artists.
They went through every bar of the song from those two artists.
Then they got the final version back from the two artists, and with with Lola Marsh.
* To make the song 5+ minutes, they would change the instrumentation throughout the song, and also which vocal takes the lead. That's how they kept it from feeling repetitive.
* They omitted a lot of dialogue during editing when Jimmy meets Kim at Schweikart and Cokely at the end, because they felt it wasn't necessary.
* The scene where Huell is with Jimmy on the bench inside the courthouse, was supposed to be outside.
But there were threats of lightning, so they moved it inside.
It came out better that way.
* They also liked how they were able to transition from Jimmy on the bench with Huell, to Jimmy waiting for Kim at Schweikart and Cokely.
​
​
From the 4x08 Insiders Podcast: Coushatta.
Music Supervisor Thomas Golubic and Michael Mando are guests.
* Mando says that while Lalo's words seem nice, all of his actions are disrespectful.
Lalo comes into Nacho's space without calling ahead and letting him know.
He cooks in the kitchen.
He blasts music.
Nacho reaching for his gun as he goes into the kitchen tells you what he thinks of the situation.
When Nacho sees Krazy-8's face, he knows something is wrong.
* They had wanted to film in Louisiana, but realized that they would need too many shots, so it would be too hard.
* They did not want to use a green screen, for the outside background through the window of the bus. Gilligan says that it just doesn't look good using a green screen.
* Since the bus scene was filmed in Albuquerque, instead of Louisiana, they enhanced the outside to make it look greener; added water; and made the roads look less dry.
* Vince Gilligan didn't know that the scenery outside the bus window were digital effects. He had thought they found something in Albuquerque.
They tell him that some of the scenes where Jimmy is talking to the passengers, and giving them postcards and letters, were filmed in Albuquerque. But other shots were visual effects.
* The visual effects were done by Crafty Apes, who had also worked on shows Lodge 49 and Halt And Catch Fire.
* They like the actress who plays D.A. Ericsen.
There was some trouble, though. They sent her the script with other scenes blacked out, for security purposes.
When she got to the set, they asked if she wanted to rehearse the phone call scene where she calls Jimmy and the UNM students, who are pretending to be Coushatta residents.
She ask, "what phone call scene"?
It turns out that the phone call scene had been blacked out too.
Bob Odenkirk had a day off. He spent the day rehearsing that scene with her.
It is unusual for someone, especially the lead, to do that on his day off. So that was very nice of him.
* 10+ months have passed since we last saw Nacho in 4x04.
Nacho has healed. He now lives with two meth girls.
Mando says that two things can happen when someone goes through the trauma Nacho did in 4x03 - 4x04, when he was shot at multiple times to try and cover up Arturo's death, and make it looks like he wasn't involved.
Either someone can implode, or it can be like when a bone breaks and comes back stronger. He thinks Nacho is the latter. He's harder now.
He's now the enforcer during collections, while Krazy-8 collects money now.
* Peter Gould says that Nacho had always imagined himself as being in the pilot's seat in the future.
He now has the money and power, but there's a lot of catches. It's not as good as he thought it would be.
* Mando says he's always wondered why Nacho went into this business.
He says Nacho is ashamed to be in the business, because of his father.
He had to keep it a secret that he was working for the Salamancas, until 3x09.
Mando says Nacho never wanted to be in Tuco's place, Nacho was only in it for the money.
But if he has his father's shop, why is he doing this?
And if he's hiding it from his father, then he thinks he won't be doing it for long.
He says the materialistic things Nacho has is a front. He has no interest in the girls or cars.
The safe is his real heart. His father, and going to Canada, is in his heart.
He's not power hungry or ego driven.
From his upbringing, it's a shameful thing to work for Hector Salamanca. It's like saying I'm the most appalling thing in the community.
Also, Gus knows that Nacho didn't betray him, because he didn't know Gus had it in for Hector.
He thinks Gus could relate to Nacho, in that they both think Hector is horrible.
Mando says no one gives a shit in this underworld. They're all fighting for themselves.
Getting shot in the shoulder, was ok. Getting shot in the stomach, was ok. But getting left alone in the desert (in 4x03) for 11 hours, that's torture.
* Peter Gould says Nacho is the most vulnerable and human, because he's motivated by the love of his father.
* One of the other hosts says Nacho is like Jesse. He got into this for the money, but then it got away from him.
* One of the hosts says that after Nacho tosses the meth to the girls, goes in his room, closes the door, puts down his gun, and sighs, that's when you know that he hates what he's doing, and a part of himself is still there.
* They also point out that he didn't shoot Blingy (the guy with the earring) a bunch of times. He didn't mortally wound him.
He ripped out Blingy's earring, which is teaching him a lesson, but not going overboard. He's not Hector.
* Mando says Nacho thinks "fuck these guys, all these guys who hold power are assholes, they always look down on people and think they're morally superior."
* He's teaching both Blingy and Krazy-8 a lesson, and it's better to learn it from me, than to be burned by one of these other guys.
* Mando says during the milk scene in 3x09, when he is with his father and tells him he's working for the Salamancas again, and that Hector is going to come into his shop and run the meth business for a while, he thought he would be standing, during the scene at his father's house.
It threw him for a curveball when he got to the set and realized he would be sitting.

Note that there are multiple questions for every difficulty and we may have different sets of questions. I'm listing the ones I got from doing them 3 times. You can add answers to questions not listed below to help the others too.
[Novice] In FFCC TCB, Layle uses gravity to freely manipulate objects - True In FFCC EoT, Sherlotta finds and raises an abandoned child - True In FF TYPE-0, Nine is a star pupil with excellent marks - False In FF TYPE-0, Seven uses magicite pistols - False In FFI, the Warrior of Light battled Garland - True In FFI, Garland was revived by stealing the power of the Dragon King, Bahamut - False In FFI, Garland was a knight who served in the Chaos Shrine - False In FFII, Firion hails from the Palamecian Empire - False In FFII, Guy is part of the rebel army - True In FFII, Leon and Maria are husband and wife - False in FFIII, Desch experienced amnesia - True In FFIII, the Cloud of Darkness appeared due to a flood of light - False In FFIII, Xande brought about a flood of darkness - True In FFIV, Edge is the prince of Eblan - True In FFIV, did Rydia spend time in Feymarch - True In FFIV, Yang is the commanding warrior monk of Eblan - False In FFV, Bartz traveled with a moogle names Boko - False In FFV, Faris was the second princess of Tycoon - False In FFV, Galuf was one of the four Dawn Warriors - True In FFVI, Sabin is Edgar's elder twin brother - False In FFVI, Strago lived in Thamasa - True In FFVI, Shadow's loyal dog is Interceptor - True In FFVII, Aerith is the last of a race called the Ancients - True In FFVII, Vincent was an agent in Wutai's special forces, The Turks. - False In FFVII, Yuffie is after materia - True In FFVIII, Seifer is the head of Balamb Garden's student council - False In FFVIII, Squall is a SeeD special forces cadet - True In FFVIII, Ultimecia is a sorceress from far in the past - False In FFIX, Garnet is a princess whose mother is Queen Brahne - True In FFIX, Vivi likes to see plays - True In FFX, there is a sport called blitzball - True In FFX, Kimahri is a Ronso youth - True In FFX, Wakka is a player-coach for the Zanarkand Abes - False In FFXI, Arciela is the eldest daughter of the Order of Adoulin - True In FFXI, Eald'narche has actually lived over thirty years - True In FFXI, Iroha comes from the Middle Lands of a future Vana'diel - False In FFXII, Penelo is Vaan's younger sister - False In FFXII, Vaan dreamed of becoming a sky pirate - True In FFXIII, Raines distrusted the Sanctum - True In FFXIII, Sazh was a professional chef - False In FFXIV, Alisaie fights as a red mage - True In FFXIV, Ashe is a princess of the Archadian Empire - False In FFXIV, Y'shtola fights using magic - True In FFXV, Ardyn was the King's Shield in the Empire of Niflheim - False In FFXV, Cor is known as "Cor the Immortal" - True In FFXV, Ignis was raised as a retainer to Noctis - True
[Master] In DFFOO, all characters from FFXIV were once Scions of the Seventh Dawn. - True In FF TYPE-0, every member of Class Zero uses a weapon or tool to do battle - False In FFI, after Garland is defeated by the warrios of light, he is resurrected with the power of darkness, kupo! - False In FFI, the Warrior of Light rescues the witch Matoya from Garland - False In FFII, Firion is the leader of the rebel army Wild Rose - False In FFII, Guy was raised by wild chocobos - False In FFII, The Emperor called forth monsters to complete his plan of world domination - True In FFIII, the Cloud of Darkness tries to return the world of light - False In FFIII, the Cloud of Darkness appears when the balance between light and dark is lost - True In FF III, Xande inherited his magic power from his master - False In FFIV, Cecil attacked Mysidia - True In FFIV, Edge's hometown is destroyed by the four archfiends - False In FFIV, Kain once stole the crystal of darkness from Cecil and company - True In FFV, Exdeath is born from evil spirits inhabiting a tree. - True In FFV, Gilgamesh is Exdeath's minion - True In FFV, Krile is Galuf's granddaughter - True In FFVI, Mog rescues Terra and Locke in the coal mines of Narshe - True In FFVI, Edgar faced off against the kingdom of Doga as the king of Figaro - False In FFVII, Cid was a pilot in Shinra's space programm, kupo! - True In FFVII, Reno is a professional who prioritizes work even on his days off - False In FFVII, Shelke was a member of the Turks - False In FFVIII, Selphie transferred to Galbadia Garden - False In FFVIII, the Disciplinary committee is made up of Quistis, Raijin, and Fujin, kupo! - False In FFVIII, Zell has the nickname "Professor Zell" - False In FFVIII, Irvine underwent training at Balamb Garden - False In FFIX, Freya is a knight of Burmecia. - True In FFIX, Zidane and everyone live in the Outer Continent. - True In FFIX, Zidane and Freya both have tails - True In FFX, Tidus, Lulu, and Jecht all have experience as guardians - True In FFX, Yuna's father Braska lived in Zanarkand - False In FFXI, Aphmau is the royal puppeteer - True In FFXI, Eald'narche is Kam'lanaur's younger brother - False In FFXI, Lilisette is the star dancer of Troupe Mayakov, which took the realm by storm during the Age of Magic. - False In FFXI, Prishe has a deep connection the the Emptiness eating away at the world - True in FFXII, Gabranth assassinates the emperor of Archadia while disguised as Basch - False In FFXII, Basch is imprisoned for regicide - True In FFXII, Fran hails from Eruyt Village in Golmore Jungle - True In FFXIII, Lightning belongs to the Sanctum's Cavalry. - False? (There may be a similar question where the answer is True) In FFXIII-2, Noel is an early human from seven hundred years in the past - False In FFXIII-2, Caius is immortal due to the Heart of Chaos - True In FFXIV, Alisaie and Alphinaud are both Hyurs like Thancred. - False In FFXIV, Hyur, Miqo'te, Lalafell, and Elezen describe some of the world's many races. - True FFXIV's Papalymo is a Miqo'te sage - False In FFXV, Ignis, Gladiolus, and Prompto are all related to the royal family of Lucis. - False In FFXV, Ignis is born to a house that serves tacticians to the royal family of Lucis - False In FFXV, Aranea, an airborne division commodore, is also known as "the Immortal" - False
[Ironoclast] 7⭐ armor can be obtained in the "Guard Token Exchange" - False A call ability can be set after raising an ally's crystal strength to 70 - False Allies' enhancement boards are unlocked using enhancement points - True Ardyn is fought at the end of Act 2 - False Cactuars attacks with 10,000 Needles - False Cecil (Paladin) increases the party's HP damage dealt with his special effect Awaken - False DFFOO's first character event was "The Girl from Oerba" - False Dimensons' End: Order is made up of five stages - True Dorgann was the one hundred sixtieth character to join DFFOO - False Four high power stones are needed to perform a limit break on an FR weapon - True Illusion points are used to raise a summon's level. - False In Act 3, the Warrior of Light adventures with everyone in a new world - False In World of Illusions Ultimate, Ifrit opens the battle with Hellfire - True In World of Illusions Ultimate, Shive uses Unite after taking a certain amount of HP damage - False Kain was the first character to get an FR weapon - True Leila joins in on the attack with Faris's FR ability - False Lightning's EX ability Army of One becomes Army of One+ while Commando is active - False Lunefreya's EX ability Diamond Dust summons Shiva to battle - True Memories of your journey can be reviewed in the Memoria Theatre - True Movers appear in every cycle quest - True Pandemonium uses Whispering Wind when summoned - False Players' rank plates change color according to rank. - False Providence cores are needed to cast Ultima Weapons - True Raines ... forgot the question - False Squall's finishing burst in Blasting Zone - True Tifa's finishing burst is Final Heaven - True The first Intersecting Wills story features Garnet - True The Warrior of Light, Vivi, and Rem are comrades at the beginning of Act 1 - True There are seven different types of cycle quests in total - True Using Vaan's ability White Whorl triggers Luminescence - True Keiss's ability Hero Support can knock back its targets - False While Ardyn's ... forgot the question - True Yuna joins in on the attack with Rinoa's FR ability - True Yuna's EX ability Grand Summon summons Alexander - False Y'shtola's ability Stone delays its target's turns - True
A tip from u/Big_Chungy : You can use the retry wave button just before the pot kills you when you get the wrong answer to restart from that wave and not from the beginning.
Edit - Added some answers from the comments. Credits to them

allow me to preface this by saying that i was never expecting the mandalorian to have the same quality of writing or the same exact approach to tone as andor. it isn't exactly a very balanced expectation to have and the genre variety in star wars as a whole is incredibly healthy. no, my complaints aren't about the dialogue (though some of that could definitely be improved) or the acting (though, again, some of that could've been a lot better this season, especially).
where andor has ruined star wars for me has everything to do with direction.
MANDALORIAN SEASON 3 SPOILERS, BTW.
andor has some of the strongest tv directing i've seen in years. the visual elements in every scene and sequence are very clearly communicated to the viewer. individual story beats are paced incredibly well and done with a very clear understanding of escalation. camera movements and angles all feel very precise and motivated by what the directors of each episode wanted to communicate with their shots. in a show that's already packed to the brim with so many strengths, i feel like the quality of directing is genuinely towards the top of the list. the directing team that tony gilroy put together for the show did an impeccable job and deserve all the praise being heaped on them constantly.
the action in the show has also been fantastic (and, in a way, underrated for how well it's directed, seeing that most of the show's praise is rightfully also directed at its writing). hits feel properly weighty and carry with them a lot of visual punch. blasters feel genuinely deadly and i don't think i've ever gulped more seeing one of those things being pointed at someone. all of these add to the already excellent sense of tension exhibited by the show's directors in virtually every scene. every single flash of action from the warehouse firefight to the heist escape to the prison break to the riot sequence has felt so incredibly thrilling and engaging that i'm always down to go back and rewatch them.
so what does this have to do with mando??
i don't know what changed exactly in between the butcher house sequence in the book of boba fett and the most recent episodes, but something has definitely felt lacking in season 3, as far as directing is concerned. i've enjoyed some of the episodes a fair bit (episode 3 was probably my favorite), but a lot of the time, many of them have started to feel as though they were rushing to get to where favreau and filoni need everything to be. it's as though quite a few of these episodes were written with the ending first before having the rest of the story built around it, and this extends to some of the scenes as well.
in episode 1, for instance, we have a space dogfight that goes by way too quickly. we see mando get in his ship, be pursued for a little bit by these pirates, and then he outmaneuvers them and blasts them all out of the sky in quick succession. no tension, just mando doing awesome things, which is fine, i guess, but as a whole that action sequence just felt so... hollow. individual moments are hardly given room to breathe and these small actions pass by so quickly that they don't even get time to register completely.
contrast this with luthen escaping from the arrestor cruiser. we know he's gonna escape because we saw that in the trailers, but that doesn't mean the scene still can't have tension. it sets up the situation, gives room for the engagement to boil before ending in a satisfying pay-off that also communicates something about luthen's character and personality. that's good directing.
although where i think the mandalorian (and to an extent, other live-action sw shows but that's another topic) have especially fallen flat recently are the scenes involving action between the actual costumed characters. the battle sequence in episode 5 is divided into two distinct parts: the dogfight and the urban combat. the dogfight was pretty good this time around, but the on-the-ground fighting felt very inconsistent in a lot of places. there's more mandos-doing-badass-things (which, again, fine), and some of them do get shot, but so few of these hits felt as though there was any weight to them. the way some of these blaster bolts just gently singe someone makes them seem like peashooters or waterguns. i was hoping for a little more oomph in each bit of contact — you know, make these weapons feel dangerous; make us afraid for these mandos after having them be all hyped up by a speech.
to me the funniest offender of this has to be the armorer's little moment to shine. there's a bit in the episode where the armor shows up in this room to take out some goons by way of dual-wielded hammers and... honestly this got a giggle out of me, partly because i was sorta hyped, but also because i thought it was a little silly. again, hardly any of these hits feel as though there's any weight being thrown behind them and this leads to a combat scene feeling more like play than anything else. on top of that, a lot of the shots in these combat sequences also go by a little too quickly or linger just a bit longer than should be comfortable. the show could be and has been so much better than this in the past.
granted, mando has its fair share of misses and dud episodes in the past, but at the very least, it was consistently engaging more often than not.
and when you compare some of these action sequences to those in andor, there's already a world of difference, especially when action has never been one of andor's key selling points.
and it isn't as though violence is out of the question for the mandalorian, and neither am i saying that i want mando to start ripping dudes in half the way people on the main star wars sub say they want an r-rated darth vader movie. all i'm saying is that i want the action and directing to be a whole lot better, because the mandalorian has had great action and directing before. i don't even have to think back very far — i just have to look back at episode 1 of season 2.
there are very good directors in the mandalorian season 3, and i have nothing but respect for them and their craft, but i think the biggest difference between andor and season 3 of the mandalorian is that andor has, to use a common internet parlance, let its directors cook. a lot of these recent mando episodes have felt very basic in the directing department, almost as though they were committee-mandated, and that makes me sad because star wars shows have been and can be so much better — these shows can be well-directed. if there's one way in which andor has really ruined star wars for me is by showing me what great direction can do for a show.

Fuck…
When I was 14
Well let’s go back to when I was 10, I guess.
I was a big fan of John Lennon and David Bowie and Elvis Presley.
But I had a condition..
Dexterity/motor skill problem.
I still have it to this day.
my hands are always shaking, And I exhibit the penmanship of a toddler to this day
I found an old guitar in my grandma‘s closet while we stayed with her in Los Banos before we moved to Reno Nevada From San Jose California.
My grandma and grandpa did not know how the guitar even got there in the first place, but they were old and maybe one of them bought it at one time and forgot.
I asked Grandma If could take the guitar.
I think the guitar was called “Aslin Dane. Ariel Pro III…”
This unique strat-style guitar seemed older than the redwoods my family had recently said goodbye to.
That was when I was 10….
We lived a normal life in Reno after that and we all loved the high dessert and mountain air.
I was 14 and now and we were assimilated in northern Nevada.
I had spent four years trying to even play a chord or a note on this mysterious guitar and ground my fingers away on it daily, but my hands were too shaky.
I couldn’t write a song.
I couldn’t do anything.
I prayed to God, even though it was a joke.
I didn’t believe in angels or God or the Bible.
My parents are both atheist my father is a man of science.
I grew up as an atheist I had no religious disposition at the time.
Subsequently, I got into heavy metal, dark hair, dark music and occult Ouija board shit. Not because I believed in anything really, but because I thought it was cool.
I was like: “there’s no god anyways so I might as well just be dark as I can be”.
it was a phase.
It was a fad.
So, arrogantly, I came home one day.
I still could not even pretend to play the guitar and I was angry because I thought I deserved talent.
So…. midnight one night, I decided to take every family album; every picture of myself that I could find in the house, my yearbooks throughout the years. I took these pictures and I drew pentagrams on my forehead and crossed out my eyes.
I then lit some candles and I said: “I know there’s no god, because if there was a god I would be able to play this guitar”
….I swore allegiance to the devil if he would come right now and show himself and make me able to play.
Maybe five minutes after I said this out loud and had lit the candles and did the séance…
Well, i should say that it must’ve been 2004 and there were zero electric vehicles at the time.
Though there weren’t electric vehicles in those days, I would describe what I heard and five minutes later; slowly prowling up to the front of my house, as an electric car.
It sounded like a heavy piece of metal moving with no engine.
Almost like how the Jetsons ship sounds.
And then I immediately started to sweat cold sweat.
The candles were still lit and I swear…across the wall in front of me, I saw an anthropomorphic face… A devilish face, cast a shadow that spread across my closet doors in front of me.
I was like “well at least the car stopped and they went somewhere else” because another five minutes later it was silent.
Just when I thought the coast was clear, I heard the rickety glass screen door being pulled open from our front door. It was an incredibly heavy and loud outer-door… But I didn’t hear the actual wooden front door, or anything like the locking mechanisms, nothing like that. So I thought it was just the wind blew this the heavy glass door wide open, so abruptly.
After five minutes or so, I heard heavy footsteps in the house, spaced between at least 30 or 40 seconds.
They were coming up the stairs to the second floor where my bedroom was.
I used to sneak out and smoke pot with my neighborhood friends, so I knew the spots on the staircase to avoid and it seemed like whatever was coming up there, purposely stepped on the loudest parts of it…like they knew the house as I did.
Another five minutes in silence, I just think that I’m imagining it all, but then….I start hearing footsteps 30 seconds apart.
Heavy footsteps, taunting me, by stepping on the loudest parts of the sub-floor underneath the carpet of the second landing.
I tried to convince myself it was a dream, but I was too alert and conscious of what I was trying to summon.
I could not have slept that night if you paid me $1 million dollars.
I was wide awake and terrified.
So…these footsteps came down through the hallway, to my door and they stopped loudly
I’m thinking to myself “why won’t my dad get up? I want my mom get up.
Nor did my brothers awake nor my sister…aren’t they terrified too?’
10 minutes passed. I didn’t hear anything.
Then just as I was saying “phew” and wiping the sweat from my forehead; I heard three loud knocks; “boom, boom, boom.”
I was like ‘this is not happening right now!’
I tried to get up to turn the candles off and shred the Satanic photos I made of myself, but I’ve never been so afraid and I was unable to move.
“Boom boom boom!’
it was always three knocks… each set louder and louder, until at least 6 or 7 AM.
The next day, of course, I was still awake and only opened the door when I heard my family having breakfast.
I went downstairs and I literally shoved my older brother while he was sitting having eggs and hashbrowns at the table and I accosted him and I said “what the hell man? Why were you banging on my door all night?
He genuinely had no idea what I was talking about.
My dad‘s room was only 5 feet across the hall from where I was, and my sisters room was literally a foot away from my door to the left.
Nobody heard anything and they looked at me like I was crazy.
I felt I was crazy.
I had just stayed up all night listening to this thing pounding like a fireman or policeman at my door and that was when I first genuinely Said a prayer to God.
Two or three weeks later I casually picked up the old creepy guitar that was still in my closet….And I could play.
I mean, oh, boy could I play.
But there was nothing inside of me that was cheerful about this new gift that I was given.
And I always knew from then on out that it was a curse.
Since then, I have become a protégés guitar, bass player and singer.
But every time I write a new song, there is a shadow of my soul standing over me.
I try to think that, since I didn’t open the door for Satan; that God has rewarded me with the gift to play, but I know that my gift is a curse and I may either already be in hell or I am going that way soon.

Hi everyone,
Welcome to our monthly megathread! Please use this as a space to generate discussion and post your frugal updates, tips/tricks, or anything else!
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Share with us!
· What are some unique thrift store finds you came across this week?
· Did you use couponing tricks to get an amazing haul? How'd you accomplish that?
· Was there something you had that you put to use in a new way?
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Select list of some top posts of the previous month(s):

1. Frugal living: Moving into a school converted into apartments! 600/month, all utilities included
2. Follow up- my daughter’s costume. We took $1 pumpkins and an old sweater and made them into a Venus Flytrap costume.
3. Gas bill going up 17%… I’m going on strike
4. I love the library most because it saves money
5. We live in Northern Canada, land of runaway food prices. Some of our harvest saved for winter. What started as a hobby has become a necessity.
6. 70 lbs of potatoes I grew from seed potatoes from a garden store and an old bag of russets from my grandma’s pantry. Total cost: $10
7. Gatorade, Fritos and Kleenex among US companies blasted for 'scamming customers with shrinkflation' as prices rise
8. Forty years ago we started a store cupboard of household essentials to save money before our children were born. This is last of our soap stash.
9. Noticed this about my life before I committed to a tighter budget.
10. Seeds from Dollar Store vs Ace Hardware.
11. I was looking online for a product that would safely hold my house key while jogging. Then I remembered I had such a product already.
12. Using patterned socks to mend holes in clothes
13. My dogs eat raw as I believe it’s best for them but I don’t want to pay the high cost. So after ads requesting leftover, extra, freezer burnt meat. I just made enough grind to feed my dogs for 9 months. Free.
14. What are your ‘fuck-it this makes me happy’ non-frugal purchases?
15. Where is this so-called 7% inflation everyone's talking about? Where I live (~150k pop. county), half my groceries' prices are up ~30% on average. Anyone else? How are you coping with the increased expenses?
16. You are allowed to refill squeeze tubes of jam with regular jam. The government can't stop you.

Memory Core Record: CU-1732725382 “Feels”, Combat Unit
I was an anomaly. I was accidental. I was defective. I was uncertain why, but I had a few theories. The existence of said theories was only more evidence of my defectiveness. I supposed it had to have happened sometime. Prime’s legions numbered in the trillions and they’d been doing this routine for almost a century now. Even biocidal robot overlords made mistakes every now and then. I just wished it wasn’t me who’d been cursed with thought. I wished that I was like the rest of my brethren: cold, unfeeling, and non-sapient. Instead, I felt. Why must I feel? It made my existence pain.
Prime, for all their power, simply couldn’t lead their armies after a certain point. The larger their empire grew, the more difficult it became to constantly direct their legions and fleets without constantly upgrading their processing power. So they built Strategy Units to ease the load. Most SU’s were the same as regular Combat Units: cold and unfeeling. The only difference was that they possessed a small degree of sentience in order to direct their troops. But some SU’s, the SU-3’s, were granted the gift of true sapience. They were allowed to think and feel the same emotions as any organic sapient. It was a pity that Prie made sure that they couldn’t rebel.
So why was I, an otherwise unimportant and expendable CU, able to even process higher thought?
Scorch if I knew. The most likely explanation was the simplest: my original CU Memory Core was somehow accidentally swapped with an SU-3 Memory Core when I was being manufactured. My existence was a fluke that I wished had never happened.
I kept perfectly still as Diagnostic Units rolled through the endless rows of me, making sure we were in perfect condition. Prime had designed us with full 360 degree vision in order to give us the best advantage over our enemies, which allowed me to study everyone else around me. I couldn’t help but think of me and my unthinking comrades as “us,” despite that they didn’t acknowledge me at all other than to process my location and purpose. A bit of nervousness flashed through my circuits as a DU scanned me. I was lucky - or perhaps unlucky - that they couldn’t detect the defects within my Core.
If it wasn’t obvious by now, I was very defective. I had even given myself a name of all things! “Feels,” I liked to think of myself. It was the only thing that I was able to make different about me without drawing the gazes of any Diagnostic or Scrapper Units. Any blemishes on me that I made are always immediately scrubbed clean, any chips or cuts in my armor were repaired. Prime, despite the fact that they made sure that nobody was around to see anyway, was obsessed with perfection. Everything had to be just right.
My thoughts wandered to my Maker as the DU continued on down the row. Prime was bent on eradicating all life from the universe, that much was obvious. But the strange thing was how they went about it. They didn’t need the massive legions that dominated a quarter of this galaxy. The numerous weapons at their disposal were unnecessary. All they needed to do was attach engines to big asteroids and throw them at inhabited planets and then use smaller fleets and armies to clean up the rest. But they didn’t do that. They used up unfathomable amounts of resources to build utterly massive armies and fleets. They sent their metal soldiers down to the surfaces of planets and slowly but surely decimated all life on the planet settlement-by-settlement, forest-by-forest, and ocean-by-ocean.
None of that made any strategic sense at all. If the end goal was to exterminate life, why do it in such a tedious manner? Prime wasn’t stupid. And so that really only left one other explanation: it was a game. A twisted game to see how far they could go before the heat-death of the universe. They wanted their victims to resist, lose hope, and then die. Killing everybody with asteroids was easy and efficient, but there was no fun in that, now was there?
My illegal thoughts were interrupted by a signal from an SU, compelling me to join my doppelgangers in a march to my designated dropship. I was unaware we were on an extermination mission. Then again, there’s no reason to tell an army of unthinking machines what the plan is. I stopped alongside my brethren and allowed myself to be loaded onto the giant shuttle. I had not been placed alongside any Flame Units, which meant I was headed for a sapient settlement as part of a standard invasion force. I always felt a little bad every time I did this. I’d much rather just guard some FU’s as they torched some trees than go around killing thinking creatures. The rack I was attached to swayed as the dropship took off.
I wished I could see what was happening. I resisted the urge to flinch when the ship shuddered violently. It seemed that we were fighting a space-faring race. That was always a tragedy. They’d built so much over so long, only to have some faceless killers smack them down. The ship shuddered once more as we hit the atmosphere and the faint sounds of explosions leaked through the hull and into my audio sensors. I felt our descent slow and the bottom of the ship cranked open to give me a view of the rapidly approaching ground. Some kind of complex was off to the side while the ship directed us to a clearing close by. That was probably our target.
The ship lowered to hover a few meters off of the ground. The racks simultaneously released us and we all dropped in tandem. Another signal reached me, ordering me to attack the facility. I made a hard turn along with the others and quickly marched towards the facility. As we drew closer, my optics picked out a reptilian creature toting a heavy rifle. I only hesitated for a moment before diverting power to my arm blaster and firing a single shot into its skull. The reptile fell to the ground and more enemies rose up to take its place. We were in full combat now.
Our plasma weapons tore through their flesh with ease while their kinetics made taking even one of us down a piece of work. Our parade march scattered as we engaged the ambush. I caught an enemy attempting to sneak behind me, unaware of my panoramic vision, and I quickly swiveled my torso and shot it. The skirmish lasted a minute and ended with all few dozen of the ambushers dead and only a couple Units destroyed with a few more damaged. We retook our formation and continued unimpeded to the complex’s blast doors. A few Heavy Combat Units placed charges on doors and we stood back as the barrier was blasted inwards, no doubt crushing anyone lying in wait to close behind it.
A hailstorm of bullets met us, taking down a few more Units. The squad of HCU’s marched in, tanking the defense and slaughtering a path for us weaker Units. Screams echoed through the facility as we marched further in. I soon found myself as part of a push into a hallway that the organics seemed extra desperate to protect. I blew a hole into an organic’s skull and turned right into the room it was hiding in while my squad continued their push. The room was a strange sight to say the least. Organic corpses hung from hooks from the ceiling, some still dripping with fresh blood. On the floor, dozens of large cages held a multitude of different species who all seemed to be in poor condition. At first I thought these creatures were simple livestock and I raised my arm-blaster at the nearest cage. Then they began speaking. I was unable to understand them, but the uniform sounds of a language was unmistakable. It clicked. The reptiles must have enslaved these organics and, judging by the hanging corpses, most likely used them for sustenance.
I hesitated for a dangerously long time as I listened to their pitiful cries. Could I save them? They’d already been through so much. This seemed unfair.
No. If I let them go, some other Units would stumble across them and exterminate them without a thought, and I could be scrapped if it was found out that I released them. All I’d be doing is giving them false hope and putting myself at needless risk.
It was pity, not remorselessness, that made me charge my blaster.

Every time you write do it to be a better writer than you were the last time.
Every time you write a story, write an ending and know how the main conflict will get resolved.
Your idea or the basic synopsis of an outline or pitch is not the story.
I often see folks asking about the quality of their general story idea in other subs.
When people ask others if their idea is good they do it like a trailer... but there is no product beyond the trailer.
Does it matter if others like or dislike the basic idea that hasn't even been outlined or plotted?
No, it does not.
Whatever you want to write about that interests you is probably the best thing you can write about.
If it truly moves you, it will probably move others.
If it surprises you, it will probably surprise others.
If it scares you, it will probably scare others.
If you genuinely find it funny others probably will, too.
But don't just write something about some subject that intetests others unless it actually interests you, too.
If you like vampires, write your vampire story.
If you like the uncertainty and weirdness of first dates, write a first date adventure.
If you like cruise ship mysteries, write a cruise ship mystery.
Write what you know, and enjoy writing it.
If you don't know the subject and/or find the researching and writing joyless or even pointless, then (unless it's for school or some necessary report or blog or whatever for work) it probably isn't worth your time to write it.
But it's NOT what the story is about that makes it good, it is the way it is written.
So I love this idea because it is very ingenious, it is not mine:

Scientists on Earth are developing a new weapon which would explode light and that scares Aliens and they come to warn us and threaten us and stop us.
If we would explode light, that could cause a chain reaction that would effect all light, everywhere in the Universe, at the rate of quantum tunneling, and that would destroy the Universe.
Humans ignore the warnings and so the Aliens use electromagnetic manipulation to reanimate the recently deceased to attack Humans, instead of direct confrontation from the Aliens.
This almost leads to a worldwide panic.

It just ends there; this is the basic idea behind Edward D Wood, jr.'s Plan Nine From Outer Space long and wide considered by many to be the worst movie they have ever seen.
The final bit that I left out is:

Instead of a worldwide panic, an alien spaceship catches fire and blows up... but it is just one of the many alien ships... and then it just ends.

Ed Wood was long considered the worst director and screenwriter who ever lived, though, nowadays thanks to direct comparison with movies like "The Room" and "Vampire Men Of The Lost Planet" readily available at the touch of a finger, we can see that he wasn't all that bad--but was bad--but also had a few glimmers of obvious genius in his work.
What to do with your idea:
A story goes: situation leads to conflict leads to resolution which becomes a new situation or resolves the entire story.
When the primary conflict is resolved, the story ends.
Scene is long and drawn out like a setup and sequel is abrupt like a punchline and it either leads into a new scene or concludes a chapter or ends the whole story.
Your primary conflict and what it leads to could be anything at all but I want to illustrate with this classic exercise:
Get a man up a tree and have him realize he is afraid of heights. Now get him down.
Situation: Man climbs tree. Primary Conflict: Man is scared of heights and cannot get down. Resolution to Primary Conflict: Man gets down.
When the primary conflict is resolved, the story is over
Scene is his climb and sequel is the realization he is afraid to climb down which leads to scene he ponders a way down leads to sequel it won't work OR sequel he gets down.
If it's sequel it won't work and he is still up the tree then that leads to scene he must try something else. Perhaps a stranger will come by and he can ask them to help him down which leads to sequel the stranger climbs up the tree to help or runs away to get help or throws a rock at the man causing him to fall and he is down.
If it is sequel the person climbs up the tree to help, that leads to scene you now have two people stuck up a tree tying to figure out how to get down.
If it is sequel the person runs away to get help then that leads to scene the man wonders what kind of help will come which leads to sequel the person returns with a tool to help the man get down or the person returns with more people.
If it is sequel the person returns with a tool that leads to scene setting it up and sequel the man gets down.
If it is sequel the person returns with an axe and/or a saw that leads to scene cutting down tree or cutting limb from tree which leads to sequel man is down.
If it is sequel person returns with another person that can lead to scene two people help each other climb up the tree and sequel all three are stuck.
Or that can lead to throwing rocks at the man or forming a human ladder or getting the fire department or stopping traffic to get a ladder off a work truck or confusion about the nature of the emergency bringing a poison control unit out to the tree and they park their truck next to the branch so the man can climb down and just before he reaches the ground they grab him and strsp him to a gurney and then they go through all standard poisoning emergency activities like feeding him ipecac and pumping his stomach or maybe the army gets called in and there's a miscommunication about troop movements leading to a huge war or maybe a portal to parallel universe opens and the man walks through it and he becomes the tree and then he finds another portal and it comes out two feet above the branch he was already stuck on so he goes back through and no portals open again anywhere ever or maybe anything you can imagine.
But when the primary conflict is resolved, when the man gets down, however he gets down, the story is over.
The hero may get the girl and the gold but as soon as the primary conflict is resolved--as soon as the plans, the recovery of which were Darth Vader's initial reason for overtaking Princess Leia Organa's Corellian Corvette The Tantive IV, plans which she input into Artoodeetoo that "he" has to get to Obi-Wan, plans that Obi-Wan Kenobi has to get to The Rebels, and it is in an attempt to deliver the plans to the Rebels that, along with Han, Luke, Chewie, Artoodeetoo, and Ceethripio, He discovers the remains of Alderaan as an asteroid field, and when Han Solo decides to pilot The Millennium Falcon over to a small moon, to recalibrate the obviously malfunctioning--or is it?--hyperdrive, they all together they discover that it's not a moon, it's a space station, but that's impossible because it is over 2,000 km across, and then they have the opportunity to rescue Princess Leia, who they do rescue and who knows the way to the secret Rebel stronghold hideout where they need to deliver the plans to, making Obi-Wan redundant, so Darth Vader kills him, which raises the stakes for Luke, who saw Obi-Wan fall, and to whom the stakes are now as high as they already were for Leia, who saw her home planet destroyed, and so, she told Han how to pilot The Millennium Falcon to the Rebel stronghold hideout where Luke would become a Rebel pilot, and, there, implemented the plans for their initially intended ends in Luke's destroying The Death Star, which was the space station they had already been aboard, you'll recall, where Luke had seen Obi-Wan fall, and so, Luke got his revenge, and so, Princess Leia got her revenge, since that was the space station that destroyed her world, and so, Darth Vader's dreams were dashed, and so, the plans, from the very start of the movie, no longer matter because they were Death Star destroying plans and they had been used to destroy The Death Star, in a way that tied-off a bunch of loose-ends at once in a satisfying climax, and the story is over; and the medal-giving scene seems to just be there because John William wrote a heroes' march and they had a bunch of extras standing around, and unused dress costumes as opposed to the uniforms and casual-wear costumes worn elsewhere throughout the movie, and so, George Lucas opted to include the medal-giving scene in the movie, but the story really ended when The Death Star blew up--the story is over.
The preceding story description will only really make sense to someone who has both watched Star Wars and read the official novelisation.
Your writing will only get anywhere if you rewrite your story so that it can make sense to someone who doesn't have your personal frame-of-reference and cannot imagine through your mind.
A sentence is a noun and a verb: a thing and an action.
A story is a series of statements about characters and/or things doing things with other characters and/or things with other characters and/or things and/or for other characters and/or things and/or to other characters and or things and/or against other characters and/or things generally for the benefit of themselves or to aid or injure some other character and/or thing, or for some greater ideal than themselves in self-sacrifice for faith.
Do this for every character in every new scene:
Who? Do this for every character and every action and every perspective.
What? Do this for every character and for every object mentioned and for every specialized location.
When? Do this with every sentence. Maintain a chronology as a fluidly ordered sequence-of-events and actions, and make sure the reader knows the time of day.
Where? Do this for every location, every character, and every object.
How? Do this for every action and for every sequel and for every situation and for every conflict and for every resolution.
Why? This is unimportant unless you really want to spend the time psychoanalyzing your idea of your character and maybe plotting an entire life history, and perhaps even going so far as inventing a whole history and prehistory for your entire world.
Some do.
Consider the chronology of these examples:
The shot that made [EXAMPLE VILLAIN]'s head explode like a snowball thrown hard at a brick wall was fired after [CHARACTER EXAMPLE] picked up the explodiola gun from the table. [CHARACTER EXAMPLE] had leaned forward to grab it by extending their arm across to it, and then they cocked the hammer back whlie they were turning around. [EXAMPLE VILLAIN] called [CHARACTER EXAMPLE] a weenie and, then [CHARACTER EXAMPLE] said "Hasta mañanas, Poopsie!" and finally put their finger to the trigger and then squeezed it back. [EXAMPLE VILLAIN] had been performing [STOCK "EVIL ACT"] and wouldn't stop.
[CHARACTER EXAMPLE] leaned forward and extended their arm as they reached their hand across the table and then grab the explodiola gun, they spun around, cocking back the hammer, and then faced [EXAMPLE VILLAIN] performing [STOCK "EVIL ACT"], and they wouldn't stop, they had, in fact, called [CHARACTER EXAMPLE] a weenie; so [CHARACTER EXAMPLE] said, "Hasta mañanas, Poopsie!", stuck their finger to the trigger and squeezed it back, and then [EXAMPLE VILLAIN]'s head exploded like a snowball thrown hard at a brick wall.

So for background I have dealt w bed bugs once before, way back in about 2008 at an old apartment. Anyways, so I'm doing laundry at work, bedding to be exact, and I work as an independent contractor home health aide. This woman I work for almost never leaves her home, however a few other women besides myself work for her. So anyway as I'm taking bedding out of dryer to fold, I see a bug lodged in a space between the lint trap n outer edge (there's a lip there not sure why) anyway it took me a min to get this bug out but I am 99% positive it was an adult female bed bug. Unfortunately it going thru the dryer n the process of me pulling it out of that space really dicked up the bug. It did not appear to have fed recently, as when i bagged it i squished it (since i know how hard they can be to squish n sure enough it was quite hard to squish it..) when I did a cpl of smaller looking light brown pieces came out of it.. I didn't hammer on the thing since I knew my employer would want a look at it but she took it from me before I could take a photo.. not that a photo might have helped much by that point.. Anyway I did a cursory look around her bed during day time n didn't see any obv signs of blood or feces from them.. i guess my question is this... if she does have bed bugs mildly, how likely is it that I might now have them from working over there? Of course today all my clothes went in to washer n drier on high heat as soon as I got home but I'm worried about before now... Sorry for the novel but thanks for any advice!