I also think any reasonable country ought to have automatic extradition for anyone charged with such treason, in my ideal independent socialist republic of scotland that would definitely be just a given

I don't know if "writing propaganda for a fascist foreign power" officially qualifies as treason but I think it would be perfectly reasonable to legislate explicitly that "writing propaganda for a fascist foreign power" officially qualifies as treason

So Sagremor having fought himself into heat exhaustion and everybody but everybody pure losing it over him and tending to him like something out of a modern hurt/comfort fic is sooooooo much fuel to my suspicion that somebody somewhen was very invested in their self-insert OC.

Any particular *reason* why you'd pick Emperor *Hadrian* to be this character's gramps despite him being multiple centuries too early for the setting? Is it perchance a cognisance of one key aspect of what Hadrian was most famous for other than the Wall, my dude?

And the text falls over itself to insist on how handsome he is so much that it makes Gawain, who's kinda the PoV character the second (or third) time it happens read like he's problematically fetishising the exotic other, heh. And it's like... Emperor *Hadrian* you say? Hmmmm. Yes.

When he first shows up in the Vulgate Merlin, having travelled all the way from Constantinople to this "Camelot" he's heard of, it's suspiciously in a text that largely has Arthur at other earlier bases than Camelot, so he reads as an insertion at a point when Arthur's synonymous with Camelot.

As they were leaving, Sagremor had his helmet removed and he began to get cold. A great sorrow came to his heart, and everything began to darken. And when he saw that he was beginning to weaken, he said to Lord Yuain the Bastard who was with him, "Sire, I am completely distraught. Hold me, for my heart fails me." And Lord Yuain looked at him and saw him completely darken, so he hugged him and embraced him to his chest. And Lord Gawain came and wept very tenderly when he saw him, for he truly thought he would die. And when his companions saw him, they all beat their palms and made great sorrow and all said, "You were gentle, handsome, good, and beloved by ladies and knights, and not very boastful." They regretted it, both small and great, and remained all around him, and their grief was too wonderful.

I already had a suspicion that Sagremor in the Livre d'Artus, son of Emperor Hadrian's daughter, no less, and the handsomest handsome man to ever handsome, was the self-insert OC of some storyteller along the way, and I'm not saying this confirms it but it rather increases those suspicions lol

And don't forget Kevin Sorbo of course!

I've seen the footage of Altman being interviewed about the whistleblower who died and every atom of my being was Charlie Cale in Poker Face saying "BULLSHIT!" in response.

I'm 100% convinced Altman genuinely believes in Roko's Basilisk, hence the permanent look of terror on his face, so I'm not ruling out the OpenAI guys having put literal bodies in the ground, I think that's a very real possibility tbh, and I'm not even joking

From an amateur fencer: look how the dominant fighter barely does any flourishes--it's all to the point flow

Elder Nibling and I watched a YouTube "omg check out how bad this weird low budget Christian movie is lol" vid and I was like "wait, that's Jim Caviezel, lol" and I'd known he was a weird Christofascist nut since The Passion of the Christ, but it was like, *man* did you tank your career, Jimbo

I normally do a lemon juice and garlic coating before they get the salt & chipotle powder & black pepper rub for the grill, so the lemon juice at least sounds like a good call. Or lime, or even a mix of the two. I definitely find a bit of citrus does not go amiss.

I do have some soy sauce, no hoisin though, so I was musing on just browning the cubed pork belly in the massaman paste as I would for a curry, then adding in some stock and slow cooking for... some hours, I guess, maybe adding fish sauce and lime juice if need be.

Like, in theory, I figure if I dice and brown the pork belly, braising is just slow cooking in some liquid with whatever seasoning, so like *in theory* if I can't be arsed buying a fuckton of ingredients to make a particular recipe, stock with an already balanced spice mix might be a lazy cheat?

I'm thinking to try braising the pork belly strips I normally grill w/ a salt & chilli rub, just for the more tender meat, but I have never braised anything before and there are *many* recipes online, so I'm looking with interest at some massaman curry paste in the fridge & considering an experiment

or at least... that type of liberal centrist Labour member who's absolutely convinced they still classify as "left-wing" because I dunno "never fuck a tory" is their sum idea of what constitutes leftism or something

left-wing Labour members in 2020 trying to convince themselves to vote for him during the leadership election:

Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!

He’s definitely got the imprint from the headpiece of the Staff of Ra scorched into his hand.

I have never seen Peaky Blinders, but from the leftist factionalism meme that goes around, I can't help but think the best way to understand the core Arthur myth is basically Peaky Blinders but all those guys in the meme run their own gangs & all these total chavs have joined forces to malky Saxons

And when the Saxons saw the two dead kings, they stopped and seized Brannague and carried him off, and they began a most marvelous mourning over him. And the queen, who was on the walls, began to cry loudly to Sagremor to come, but he did not wish to. Instead, he stopped upon those who were leading the mourning over the body, wishing to carry it off, and struck them with great and perilous blows, killing many and maddening them. And when the Sain saw that he was beating them so severely and that such damage had done them, they rushed upon him and assailed him from all sides, slicing his shield and his hauberk, unmailing and breaking it into several pieces.

In which one of our young more-ned-than-noble heroes of the Livre d'Artus, having killed two Saxon kings, won't even let the lamenting soldiers have the bodies back because FUCK YEZ AW, YA BASTURTS lol

I guess I'm used to TV and movies where sides are more easily visually distinguished, even if it's not humans versus orcs or whatever, because Hollywood doesn't want the audience confused by utter chaos. So yeah, Gawain or whoever being too far into the carnage to see the banner was a Doh! moment.

Cool! And thanks for the confirmation! I *thought* it had the air of authenticity, just from thinking about athletes getting cramps, but with zero experience, I was hedging my bets. I'm glad to know my instincts were right.

Like, ooooooooooh, yes, I suppose it *would* be quite useful, when you and the lads are just charging in and malkying anyone you can, to be able to look around in the carnage and know where the fuck most of your own guys are, yes, I can see how that would be quite important, duh.

I can't speak to authenticity, but it's also very good at *selling* the melee combat at least, with the actual pragmatic purpose of banners at the fore. I never really thought about banners as more than emblematic, but the combat in the Livre d'Artus drives home their utility in melee warfare.

In context, with other aspects of the combat feeling quite convincing as melee warfare, it really does read like it's a physical muscle cramp thing, an inability to let go just because his hand's been locked in a grip so tight for so long, the muscles just won't relax.

I wasn't expecting a detail like that, and it struck me as, okay, *possibly* just an artifice of heroic inflation bigging up how much of an ordeal it was, maybe even a trope I'm just unfamiliar with, BUT... but it *did* feel like... yeah, I can actually imagine muscles locked in a grip for real?

Neat little touch in a chunk I translated last night, where after a day of combat, Gawain returns from the field and can't sheathe his sword because he can't let go of it, his grip seized up, fingers locked, until his hand is bathed in warm water and peeled off painfully--b/c muscle cramps, I guess.

In this translation of the Livre d'Artus, I think rather than scholarly footnotes on where my translation is uncertain for whatever reason, I think I should just have a running tally of Gawain's points awarded for killings, cleavings down to the teeth, decapitations--a bonus if the head goes flying.