I read with my older two daughters, aged 10 and 7, just about every night, usually middle-grade fantasy. They're both pretty good readers and took to reasonably long and advanced books from a fairly young age. What follows is part 1 of a series of brief reviews/thoughts on many of the books/series we've read over the last 3 years or so, for anyone else in a similar situation - or who just enjoys middle grade books!
Part 1: The Classic Oldies - almost all of these are books I read myself as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s (with the exceptions of The Phantom Tollbooth (I think) and Howl's Moving Castle). Because these ones are so well-known, I'm not going to go into too much detail about the books/series themselves here, focusing instead on how we've reacted to them as readers.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz et al. by L. Frank Baum - My father's favorite series to read to us when we were kids; my kids have loved when he has read it to them, though when I picked up, we ended up running out of steam on the 4th book. Books 2 and 3 (Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz) are wonderful, though, and I suspect are considerably under-read compared to the famous first book (which itself has some quite notable differences from the movie).
The Hobbit (and The Lord of the Rings) by J.R.R. Tolkien - I did The Hobbit with my oldest a couple years ago, and she enjoyed it enough that she picked right up with The Lord of the Rings afterwards, listening to most of it on audiobook (the motivation of being able to watch the movies afterwards definitely helped). I think a certain amount of the language in LOTR went over her head, but she seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. I definitely recommend the version of The Hobbit illustrated by Michael Hague.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis - I think we've read the first 5 published at this point (not The Magician's Nephew or The Last Battle); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian were definitely the highlights, I would say; the others have their good points but were not as consistently gripping for younger kids as those two.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - I quite enjoyed this, but the sense I got from my oldest was that she didn't love it - I think the plot just was not quite interesting enough, and the wordplay element didn't quite click enough to make up for that.
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander - we started these after watching the (pretty medio
... keep reading on reddit ➡I understand that this DNF will likely be focusing around the playable classes from DFO. But there are a number of NPCs and Enemies that IMO are pretty cool and would make an interesting addition to the game. I know it is pretty much not likely, but I would still like to share them.
Since everything is pretty class-base in DNF, I will just add the class that these NPCs/Bosses are as indicated:
- Beast Master Luger (Beast Master) - potential puppet type: https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Beast_Master_Luger
- Michelle Monohan (Telekinetic Cypher) - zoner type: https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Michelle
- Faris, the Sewer Princess (Brawler w/ Claws or Whip): https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Faris,_the_Sewer_Princess
- Vangelis, GBL Assault Captain (Assault Captain) - he is like a warrior in a scholar guild, pretty bad ass https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Vangelis
- Soldoros (Weapon Master) - A legendary weapon master trained for 2000 years, prolly a stance user for his different swords - https://wiki.dfo.world/view/Soldoros
- Sighing Karakas - Adventurer's Guild Leader (Adventurer?) - https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Karakas
- Bai Ming (Guardian) - I like his design and weapon choice: https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Mt._Kulun_Guardian_Bai_Ming
- Mad Dog Loel (Strongman) - He uses a giant ball, what more can I say: https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Mad_Dog_Loel
- Gold King Widir (Dwarf Warrior?) - I kinda just think it would be cool to have a dwarf character that uses both sword and hammer:https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Gold_King_Widir
- Bowmaster Ludmilla (Archer) - Cuz she is the only bow user, prolly a zoner: https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Bowmaster_Ludmilla
- Iris Fortune Singer (Elementalist / Bard / Fortune Teller) - She is three different classes in one and uses an instrument kinda https://wiki.dfo-world.com/view/Iris_Fortune_Singer (Boss img: [https://wiki.dfo-world.com/images/d/d0/IrisPortraitT
So Salem was your generic princess who’s locked up in a tower by horrible parents. (either Rapunzel or Fiona from Shrek) She gets saved by a knight in shining armor that is Ozma, she gets quickly attached to him and has 4 children with him whom are the four maiden children, then she becomes a drama queen because her husband died from an unknown sickness, which caused her to LITERALLY go to the Gods themselves to help bring him back. After trial and error and Salem being a whiney ass bitch (like all useless side characters are cough cough Hinata and Sakura cough cough) and pretty much ASKED to become Immortal.
My huge problem with this is that she pretty much ASKED to become immortal all because she wanted Ozma back.
But does this immortality have any special way of defeating them? Yes, and that’s collecting all of the Relics and use them to summon the Gods again to make Salem become mortal again
Another villain who is VERY similar to Salem is Muzan Kibutsuji.
But they have HUGE differences in terms of weakness
Muzan can naturally only be killed through natural Sunlight
You want to know what Salem’s natural weaknesses are? None
The Gods have to be summoned by the Four Relics and only THEY have to make Salem become immortal again
So pretty much, unless Team RWBY manages to convince the Brother Gods to make Salem Mortal again and have her killed, Salem just wins by default
Then again I could be out of it. How do you think this might play out and what do you think about Rooster Teeth handling the Concept of Immortality?
CHAPTER 12 – INVASION
“If you were to give me a choice between politics and war, I would choose war nine times out of ten. As for the final time, I would be when I was lying in order to get what I wanted.”
“Reflections of a Warlord” - King Schenze Von Zaeon
Golden beams of sunlight streamed through the towering windows of the Suncaster Archives, the stained glass casting streaks of vibrant colour across the marble floors. The library was a circular structure of cream marble pillars and a high vaulted ceiling filled with the rich smell of old leather and yellowed paper. Once it had been the throne room for the Lotorian Alliance, but now served as the vault for the Order’s most treasured knowledge. Ancient shelves ringed the space, creaking under the weight of thousands of books. A rich red carpet stretched down the centre isle of the library, dotted with comfortable chairs and tables for reading.
At the end of the hall, where once sat the Lotorian throne, was a huge statue of Lord Sonne. Beneath the benevolent outstretched arms of the statue, Rolph paced back and forth in front of a group of students sitting cross legged on the carpet. The students all bore bands of green and orange on their sleeves, identifying them as senior initiates, soon to become apprentices and assigned a master.
“So, although Suncasters existed before the time of Lord Sonne, it was Lord Sonne himself who coined the term ‘Suncaster’,” Rolph read aloud, one hand folded behind his back and the other holding a small book in front of him. “Before Lord Sonne, those gifted by Mistral were known as ‘Luminants’, and were often persecuted as witches or heretics. Some Luminants would band together into groups for protection, but it wasn't until Sonne brought the various factions that we became the Suncaster Order.” Lowering the book slightly, Rolph looked over at the students. “Now, who can tell me why Lord Sonne was able to do this?”
Immediately, a young girl with shoulder-length red hair and bright blue eyes raised her hand.
“Yes, Maria.”
The girl clambered to her feet. “Because of the Shadow Wars. Lotoria needed our powers to fight Zaeon’s Shadow Wardens and so Lord Sonne made a deal with King Williamson Vas Taranis the First to create the Order.”
“That’s correct. But why was Lord Sonne able to unite the factions?”
Maria paused for a moment. “Because he was strong?”
Rolph nodded, gesturing for Maria to sit back down. “Yes, Lord Sonne was strong, certainly the stronge
... keep reading on reddit ➡I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
Simple stuff who was your favorite character of each RWBY Volume and why
Here's my list
Volumes 1-2: Blake ( I was a sucker for the edgy, former terrorist sexy dark cat girl who talked her shit and could back it up plus had the most character development from the Main girls in those volumes. Hate how they retconned her backstory into a Faunus Princess who's just a hypocrite )
https://static.zerochan.net/Blake.Belladonna.full.1902232.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIYlcrsWkAEdicM.jpg
Volumes 3-5: Qrow Branwen ( I was a sucker for the edgy, snarky, badass, cloud looking, roguish mother fucker that was the Man spelled Crow with a Q. His fight with Tyrian is still my favorite fight in RWBY to date and really shows why he's Ozpin's top soldier. I loved how in Volume 4 he was the one to introduce Team RJNR to the real war going in Remnant and showed how knowledgeable and why Ozpin trusts him so much, the point of giving him magic powers of his own! )
He was like the Jiraiya to to Ozpin's Hiruzen in a way if u get what I mean
"I CAN TURN INTO A BIRD RUBY!" https://coub-anubis-a.akamaized.net/coub_storage/coub/simple/cw_timeline_pic/a798f19d299/911bbfa656240dd49a78f/1560796557_image.jpg
His funny way of teasing his friends ( like how he calls Irondaddy wood "Jimmy" or how he taunted Winter and makes her Tsundere getting into what is still one of the best fights in the show. His alcoholism ( before they tried to make it serious in Volume 6 ) Swear at point I expected him to go Jack Sparrow at one point to say "Did you know I once killed an entire horde of Grimm after 3 days of no sleep....without a single drop of rum"
http://pa1.narvii.com/7100/c021dd976ea13f2989053433209e3e817f971c4dr1-500-281_00.gif
I loved his relationship with Ruby and how much she emulated and I am still of the headcanon ( despite what CRWBY says ) that he is her real dad
^Basically as u can tell I simped for this man ( huge guy crush ) and I hate what they did to him in Volume 7 and 8.....sigh....used to be my favorite character
Volume 6: Ozpin/Ozma ( I just felt sorry for the dude and seeing his backstory and how he ended up ju
... keep reading on reddit ➡Do your worst!
RWBY theories based on their fairy tale inspiration:
Ruby: will get turned into a hound, or at least partly turned into a hound, just Red Riding Hood was swallowed by the wolf. She’ll be saved by a ‘huntsman’ or maybe ’huntsmen’ ie, the rest of her team who save her via the power of friendship…or maybe use the relic of choice to free her? Idk. Point is, she’ll briefly get turned into a hound and then will be saved.
Jaune: well Joan of Arc was martyred and main villain is running around with fire powers. Honestly I’d be surprised if Cinder doesn’t end up killing him.
Nora: I think Nora’s probably safe for now but if any snake-themed villains appear we might be in trouble
Qrow: so far all of the ‘wizard of Oz characters’ have been the oppositely their counterparts. Instead of looking for something they had all along, they believe they have something only to slowly lose it. Leo loses his courage, James is heart, and now with his nieces ‘dead’ it’s not a stretch to say Qrow will lose his mind.
Robyn: doubt she’ll have a romance with Qrow, considering both Little John (Johanna) and Maid Marian (May) are right there.
Emerald: I mean, you’ve got the Emerald City, with ties to both illusions and the wizard of Oz. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that she and Oscar will grow close
Mercury: The ‘protector of thieves’ and patron god of travelers? Mercury is definitely joining the good guys, even if it’s only to protect Emerald
Oscar: Many are guessing that Oscar’s inspiration is Princess Ozma and the little prince. Now I don’t know much about Princess Ozma (but it does make him gender-switched character so I suppose he fits in jnpr) but I remember the little prince pretty well. It end with the prince ‘dying’ (kinda) to get back to his rose. He allows himself to get bitten by a snake so he can ‘leave his body behind’ and sure enough after the snake bites him there’s no body.
This might mean Oscar will die, but I also have another theory that he’ll meet a snake-themed character in Vacuo and try to get them to send him into the same realm as team RWBY and Jaune. But that’s a more outlandish theory. Maybe he’ll just die.
Salem vs Yang
Interaction One:
Salem: Approaches on a throne of Grimm I pity you, Little Dragon.
Yang: Ember Celica clicks How so, Grimm Witch?
Salem: Steps off throne with a pitying gaze: Usually daughters only have one mother to disappoint...
Interaction Two
Salem: You do have one thing in common with Raven Branwen.
Yang: The hell does that mean?
Salem: shakes head Your stubbornness leads to poor judgement.
Interaction Three
Yang: That's never going to happen.
Salem: Descends from the skies with a soft smile I only wish to embrace my foster Granddaughter.
Yang: Eyes flare red Stay away from Ruby, you bitch!
Interaction Four
Yang: You've caused my family enough problems.
Salem: Before today, I never even knew who you were.
Yang: Bashes fists I'll make sure you don't forget this smackdown.
Salem vs Blake
Interaction One
Salem: Rises up from Grimm Darkness Faunus Feline.
Blake: Appears from a clone You already know who I am?
Salem: Brushes off shoulder The Taurus boy told me tales of your betrayal.
Interaction Two
Salem: Your kind are no different from normal animals.
Blake: hisses with Gambol Shroud You dare say such things?!
Salem: Levitates on side Given time, you're all easily domesticated.
Interaction Three
Blake: You're behind it all, aren't you?!
Salem: Watching beasts tear each other apart has its amusing qualities.
Blake: On behalf of all Faunus, I will slay you!
Interaction Four
Blake: You've been around all this time?
Salem: I have seen civilizations rise and fall many times.
Blake: unsheathes Gambol Shroud And yet you feel no empathy?!
Salem vs Weiss
Interaction One
Salem: Pets a Hound, before turning towards the young girl You and I have something in common.
Weiss: Brandishes Myrtenaster You and I are NOTHING alike!
Salem: Sends Hound on its way Our fathers tried to imprison us, to hold us back.
Interaction Two
Salem: Weiss Schnee...
Weiss: Slides in on her glyph What do you know of my bloodline?
Salem: I sense an ancient blessing of the Winter Maiden...
Interaction Three
Weiss: The Queen of the Grimm...
Salem: Stretches hand Versus the disgraced Princess.
Weiss: Hmph, you would know that feeling better than me.
Interaction Four
Weiss: Keep my family out of this!
Salem: Rubs chin Young Whitley is at such an impressionable age...
Weiss: *air turns freezing cold around them, ground crackin
... keep reading on reddit ➡I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
It really does, I swear!
So I've been working on a new OC Team. My main OCs make up Team ROYL, so I wanted to create a rival team for them. I've finalized one of them and I'm about halfway finished with another. It's the last two I really need help with.
- Mainly, I need helping picking their last names. Both are boys.
- One is a wolf faunus who acts as the brains of the team. He uses various technology and he has an Intelligence Type semblance.
- The other is a human who's more aggressive and competitive. His semblance relates to gravity.
- This one isn't a priority, but I might also need help with the aforementioned human boy's weapon. So far, I'm considering giving him a battle axe and/or halberd (even came up with a name for it already), but I'm not sure what ability it should have and I like the idea of making it just a normal axe.
- Also, while we're on the topic of weapon ideas, there is one other character I've come up with who's not a part of this team that I need help thinking of a weapon for. His thing is that he's very serious and studious (kind of like Tenya Iida, only less comedic). He trained himself to be a great strategist and mastered several types of weapons to make up for his semblance lacking any combat or support applications. He's based on Princess Ozma, if that helps...
Right now, I'm kind of hitting a wall with these things, so I thought I'd consult the lovely bois and gurls of this creative community!
Because she wanted to see the task manager.
Heard they've been doing some shady business.
They’re on standbi
So about a month ago I posted my review of Final Fantasy VIII after completing it, and I'm really grateful for all the feedback I got on that one. Now, after completing Final Fantasy IX, I decided to write another review similar to the one about FFVIII, while also touching on some things that I forgot to mention about the previous ones I have played, (VI, VII, VIII).
First of all, I just want to say that I put far more into this game than an of the previous ones so far, I beat my first superboss (Ozma) and did almost every sidequest. I also used the Moguri mod for the upscaling and QOL improvements, but I didn't use any cheats. Unfortunately, I encountered the known bug where the game crashes in the first ending cutscene, but I accidentally deleted the wrong file to fix this and didn't realize until it was too late and the game would refuse to run. I ended up just watching the ending and credits on youtube. It was a little heartbreaking to be robbed of the ending after putting over 60 hours into the game, especially due to my own mistakes, but it was still a fantastic ending otherwise.
So here's how I feel about some major points of this game, and things that matter in every Final Fantasy game in general:
1. The World
This is something that I forgot to mention in my FFVIII review, as well as the previous games, so I'm going to do a quick overview here.
FFVI: The world of FFVI was a little disorganized with the balance between steampunk and medieval fantasy, but it had some great and memorable locations such as Zozo, Narshe, and the empire. however a lot of the other towns became forgettable due to their similarity, and I probably would not be able to point most of them out on a map. The entire world changin is a great idea and adds a lot to the game as a whole, but it really doesn't help now a bunch of the already forgettable towns are reorganized.
FFVII: Final Fantasy VII had a unique overworld that allowed you to see the curvature of the planet, which I think is a nice little detail that really sells the idea of the planet being a single entity. The overworld itself is a little empty in some parts, but it's full of unique and interesting locations. Midgar is by far the most unique and memorable, especially since the first few hours of the game are spent there, as well as the entirety of the remake so far.
FFVIII: Final Fantasy VIII has some interesting and unique locations, with fisherman's horizon being by far my favorite with such a unique des
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Pilot on me!!
Nothing, he was gladiator.
Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.
This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.
If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.
Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.
When I got home, they were still there.
I won't be doing that today!
Where ever you left it 🤷♀️🤭
What did 0 say to 8 ?
" Nice Belt "
So What did 3 say to 8 ?
" Hey, you two stop making out "
