my never ending search to acquire more and more obscure pieces of Pokemon media has lead me to understand some wild shit in gen 1 and 2. like anytime you think “oh that’s weird, why is [thing] like that” it’s probably either some obscure shit or something got changed in beta
for example, you know those weird-ass pokedex entries for Kadabra that are like “lol a kid turned into one of these once. no we’re not explaining anything”
well there’s this book in Japan called Pocket Monsters Encyclopedia released in 1996 that was never translated. It’s notable for basically being the Forbidden Adult Pokedex™ that we all want, as it has much longer ‘dex entries for each Pokemon along with more scientific data. While large portions have been retconned over the years, it offers some massive insight into what was going through the dev’s minds when writing this shit, and is 100% canon (for the time period it was written in).
anyway, while it was never translated, DidYouKnowGaming?, being the hero we all need, purchased a copy and had the same translator who translated the games themselves translate the book. Part 1 of the video is below, and I highly recommend you check it out if you like obscure vintage Pokemon shit.
Anyway, the point is that this is what it says about Kadabra:
FUCKING KAFKA. IN MY POKEMON. IT’S MORE LIKELY THAN YOU MIGHT THINK
So basically the ‘dex entries are referencing an in-universe book plot that’s a reference to The Metamorphosis, except due to a lack of space they fucking cut out the part about it being a book, which seems kind of important, but hey what do I know
(Side note: the ‘dex entries saying stuff like “it is rumored that” and “a theory exists” don’t quite line up with it being a book plot, so it’s possible this was retconned, or the book was based off an in-universe event. but this at least tells us why these weird-ass entries exist in the first place and that’s enough for me)
anyway the most important part of this is that the Abra line is confirmed to not be based on foxes, possums, or cats, but cockroaches. thank you for coming to my TED talk
Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint is a 550 chapter korean webnovel following the antics of protagonist Kim Dokja, a 28 year old office worker on an expiring contract, whose only real joy in life is reading his favorite massively long and massively boring webnovel. One day, the novel’s events - worldwide deathmatches aired for the entertainment of mysterious higher beings called ‘constellations’ - begin playing out in reality in a sort of reverse-isekai. Kim Dokja, the only longtermreader of this webnovel, finds himself uniquely poised to succeed based on sheer knowledge, but the webnovel’s actual protagonist, Yoo Jonghyuk, is a violent monster who will stop at absolutely nothing to complete his goals, no matter the cost to anyone else. As such, Kim Dokja finds himself in a delicate dance of guiding the events of the story to play out more favorably than the version he read while trying to avoid being massacred in the fallout, all while trying to see it through to the story’s end.
This is the story’s premise but it says very little about the story’s themes which are as complex, rich, and varied as they come.
It is, without a doubt, the most excellently crafted and worthwhile narrative i’ve ever read. If I could only read one thing for the rest of my life i would pick ORV hands down no questions. Should you open this link and begin reading it, you will think I am absolutely fucking crazy for having said what i just said for a very long time. but i stand by it, and urge you too, dear reader, to reach the end of the story as well. I can not recommend it with enough passion to truly express how i feel.
An addition: orv also has a webtoon! it’s VERY FAR behind the novel, and will take an extremely long time to catch up, but if you’re having trouble with the written version, give this a try for sure. It’s very accurate to the novel and has a lot of cool visuals. The korean version is a bit ahead of the official english translation, but you can find those chapters on other sites.
ADDITION NUMBER 2: Below the cut here’s a response i gave to this ask what it is about ORV i think is actually good. No spoilers here, but it’s decently long.
This is legitimately how I’ve broken into a thousand places like just act like you’re meant to be there and if someone actually ends up calling you out on it just be super confused
I want to add that I don’t make a habit of this now that I am a law abiding adult, but recently I accidentally did this again. Having been used to having my run of hospitals and walking basically anywhere as a child, I was visiting a friend in the hospital just before covid and I was legitimately exhausted and carrying a coffee cup cuz it was like 5:30am or something dumb, and I went to leave and get to the bottom floor and i’m like “this is not the lobby” and I walked around for a bit and people kept holding doors for me so I traveled through many corridors, and nothing looked familiar, and then I realized every single door was a key card swipe and everyone had mag-stripe badges with varying security levels and I realized I had gotton onto a staff elevator with the staff, who had swiped their card to go down into a high-security area of the building, and people had just been letting me through all these security doors.
So then I had to out myself and be like “Um I accidentally broke into you high-security wing, please show me the door, I’m literally just trying to leave this hospital” and I had to get like searched and stuff.
And what was funny was that while I was blissfully walking around assuming I belonged, No one questioned ANYTHING and in fact, were violating protocols left and right to let me through, but the VERY SECOND I realized I was not where I was supposed to be and let that show on my face, like three people in the hall confronted me.
So the take away is, be confident that you belong, look exhausted and like you don’t want to be there, and carry a cup of coffee. It will open pretty much all doors.
No joke, Burn Notice is a great show. If you like Leverage, give Burn Notice a try (its available on Hulu and Prime iirc) and frfr, confidence and an excuse are all you need to get around places
This works I accidentally broke into someone’s whole ass home a month or so ago and uhhh it went fine because I’m short white and VERY CONFUSED
One time while I was in Rome, I was busy admiring the ruins and not paying attention to signage, got lost, and ended up in some kind of archaeological dig or restoration. Not knowing it was off-limits (having missed all signage, as previously stated), I started peeking around all the stone stuff, wandering off the path, and most importantly (to this story), poking around in a hole that had been dug into the ground. I was careful not to touch anything, but still, clearly (to anyone who wasn’t as oblivious as me) this was not a place a tourist was meant to be.
I finally attracted the notice of someone who was meant to be part of this restoration project when I came back up from the hole. He quickly came over to ask me, in Italian, what I’m sure were the very normal questions of “Who are you?”, “What are you doing here??”, etc.
Problem: I do not speak Italian.
My brain’s solution:Quick, what language do we speak that’s close?!
And that is how I wandered up out of a hole in a Roman ruin without warning and began speaking ancient Latin to an archaeologist.
This man’s face went through 15 different absolutely floored expressions in ten seconds, like you could physically see him going through the thought process of “Have I encountered a ghost from ancient Rome? No, ghosts aren’t real. But if ghosts not real, how Latin??? Fellow researcher??? Supposed to be here???”
So this is the story of how I was allowed to walk away without issue at all after blatantly trespassing upon the ruins of ancient Rome, because if you speak Latin, where else would you belong?
Hey so my hobby in the last week or so has been of building a giant glass ball in Minecraft, 64 block in diameter, put a wall in its centre and fill one half with water, with lava in the other. Here’s the result :
You can absolutely reblog if you like it, it’s random creation for fun that happens to be pretty
A list of the hanzi, pinyin, and their meanings for each character and their personal weapons, if applicable. I crosschecked with a character list on baidu, so they should all be there; let me know if I missed anyone, or if there is an error (especially the pinyin…I relied on a dictionary for these). I’ve left out a few things that would be spoilers or characters that haven’t been mentioned yet (mainly from the Wen clan, there are a few that aren’t listed here).
I don’t know much Chinese, so the meanings are drawn directly from the character list provided by the fan translators (ExR) or from an online dictionary (marked with an asterisk *).
Also: I apologize for the long post! It doesn’t matter on mobile, but the third tone represented by the little caron, or wedge, above the vowel doesn’t look good on my theme. I’ve kept it without a read more so you can view it in the dash instead.
Edits: Thanks goes to extrapenguin who pointed out these things for me to add in!
魏 – wèi, a surname containing the character 鬼 meaning ‘ghost’
婴 – yīng, ‘infant’
无羡 – wúxiàn ‘to have no envy’ (無 ‘not, nothing, none’ is the traditional ver. of 无)
夷陵 – yílíng, a place; according to a dictionary, it means ‘barbarian mound’, a real place that was destroyed by the Qin; currently the city of Yichang in Hubei
Sword: Suíbiàn [随便]
随便 – suíbiàn ‘whatever’
Flute: Chénqíng [陈情]
陈情 – chénqíng, the * dictionaries say it means ‘to explain in full detail a situation or opinion’
Lán Zhàn [蓝湛], Lán WàngJī [蓝忘机], HánGuāng-Jūn [含光君]
蓝 – lán ‘blue’
湛 – zhàn from the word 湛蓝 zhànlán meaning ‘azure (blue)’
忘机 – wàngjī means ‘to be free of worldly concerns’, a Daoist phrase
含光 – hánguāng ‘to hold light’, 光 meaning ‘light’
君 – an affix of respect meaning ‘gentleman’ or ‘man of noble character’ (from the ExR translation Ch. 5)
圣手 – shèngshǒu, *according to the dictionaries, a ‘highly skilled practitioner’ or ‘divine physician’…I’m guessing the former
Sword: Sāndú [三毒]
三毒 – sāndú, lit. ‘three poisons’, refers to a Buddhist phrase of the ‘root of all turmoil—greed, anger, and ignorance’
Ring: Zǐdiàn [紫电]
紫电 – zǐdiàn, lit. ‘purple lightning’
Jiāng YànLí [江厌离]
厌离 – yànlí, ‘to dislike separation’
Jiāng FēngMián [江枫眠]
枫眠 – fēng is ‘maple’, mián means ‘to sleep’
Yú ZǐYuān [虞紫鸢]
虞 – yú is ‘to worry’
紫鸢 – zǐyuān is ‘purple kite-bird’
LánlíngJīn Sect [兰陵金氏]
兰陵 – * not sure what 兰 is referring to, but the dictionary says it’s either a surname or a part of the name of certain flowers like the orchid or lily magnolia; 陵 líng apparently means a ‘mound, hill or mountain’; (edit: Lanling is also a county in Shandong, Linyi)
孟 – mèng is a surname that can also mean ‘first month of a season’, according to the dictionary; *take this with a grain of salt, I don’t know if it was chosen for the meaning or just as a name
瑶 – yáo, see below
光瑶 – guāng means ‘light’, yáo according to the translators would be ‘a radiant piece of jade’
敛芳 – liǎnfāng, ‘to hide fragrance’ or ‘hidden fragrance’
尊 – zūn is an honorific of some sort
Sword: Hènshēng [恨生]
恨生 – 恨 hèn is * ‘hate/regret’ and 生 ‘life, to be born, etc’
Jīn Líng [金凌], Rúlán [如兰]
凌 – líng is ‘to rise above’
如兰 – (edit: rúlán, ‘orchid-like’)
Sword: Suìhuá [岁华]
岁华 – 岁 suì has something to do with years according to the dictionary*; 华 huá * can mean ‘magnificent, splendid’
Dog: Fairy [仙子]
仙子 – pronounced xiānzǐ
Jīn GuāngShàn [金光善]
光善 – guāng is ‘light’; shàn is ‘kindness’
Jīn ZiXuān [金子轩]
子轩 – 轩 xuān is ‘a tall pavilion’ and 子 just a component of people’s names; I think, in this case, 子 is pronounced zi without a tone, but correct me if I’m wrong
Jīn ZiXūn [金子勋]
子勋 – 勋 is *according to the dictionary ‘medal, merit’
Mò XuánYǔ [莫玄羽]
莫 – mò, a surname, *according to the dictionary it can mean ‘do not’ but I don’t think they were going for that lol
玄羽 – xuán is ‘mysterious’; yǔ is ‘feathers’
Qín Sù [秦愫]
秦 – qín, a surname
愫 – sù, ‘sincerity’
QíshānWēn Sect [岐山温氏]
岐山 – Qíshān, * a county in Baoji, Shaanxi
温 – wēn, ‘lukewarm’
Wēn Nìng [温宁], Wēn QióngLín [温琼林]
宁 – nìng is ‘peace’
琼林 – qióng is * ‘fine jade/beautiful’; lín is ‘woods, forest’
Wēn Qíng [温情]
情 – qíng means * ‘sentiment, emotion, feeling’
温情 – wēnqíng (edit: a phrase meaning ‘tenderness’)
Wēn RuòHán [温若寒]
若寒 – ruò is ‘as though’; hán is ‘coldness’
Wēn Cháo [温晁]
晁 – cháo, ?? dictionary just lists it as a surname
QīnghéNiè Sect [清河聂氏]
清河 – Qīnghé, a place irl; there might be two different places with this name? idk I didn’t look into it too much
聂 – niè, * a surname that also means ‘to whisper’
Niè HuáiSāng [聂怀桑]
怀桑 – huái means ‘to hold’; sāng are mulberry leaves
Niè MíngJué [聂明玦], ChìFēng-Zūn [赤锋尊]
明玦 – míngjué, a ‘bright, penannular jade’ (penannular is an incomplete circle apparently); 明 means ‘bright’
赤锋 – chìfēng, a ‘crimson blade’
Saber: Bàxià [霸下]
霸下 – bàxià is ‘to be under forceful power’; 下 is ‘under, below’ (the opposite, ‘above, up’ is 上)
From the ‘Grasses’ Chapters
Xuē Yáng [薛洋] – ChéngMěi [成美]
薛 – xuē, * a surname which can mean… ‘wormwood like grass‘ according to the dictionary
洋 – yáng * can be ‘ocean’ or ‘vast’
成美 – chéng * meaning ‘to accomplish, complete’; měi * meaning ‘beautiful, satisfactory’ according to the dictionary (I’m not sure where this name is mentioned, but he does seem to have been given it at some point when he was part of the Jin clan?)
Sword: Jiàngzāi [降灾]
降灾 – jiàngzāi is ‘to bring down disasters’
Xiǎo XīngChén [晓星尘]
晓 – xiǎo is ‘dawn’
星尘 – xīngchén is ‘star’ + ‘dust’
Sword: Shuānghuá [霜华]
霜华 – shuānghuá is ‘floral frost’; 霜 is ‘frost’; 华 is ‘floral/flowery’
Sòng Lán [宋岚], ZiChēn [子琛]
宋 – Sòng is a surname
岚 – lán is ‘mist’
子琛 – zichēn, again I think 子 doesn’t have a tone here but correct me if I’m wrong; 琛 is ‘precious stone’
Hi! Completly random Naruto thought but It Kept Me Up last night:
Why the F*** would the Third tell the village civillians that the Nine-Tails is sealed within Naruto? I get why he’d tell the ninjas, they’d hve to know since that mkes him such an asset and you’d expect from a shinobi to not get “biased” by their emotions since “they’re basically tools"
But you’re telling me he thought the village civilians who got caught in a fucking awful attack that destroyed their village and killed their loved would go “Oh sure, let’s collectively raise and admire that random kid (since he don’t tell them that he’s the Fourth kid for safety) who hold the demon that ruined our lives!”? Why is he even hokage if he so widly wrong on his village reaction???
