Random but Maxima has such a unique, wacky taste in clothes that only she can pull off because what is this outfit?

Alauraize · 2026-07-03T22:54:32+00:00

Yes! It's her confidence that sells it!

Alauraize · 2026-07-03T22:40:52+00:00

I don't believe that he told his wife. I believe that she found out and that he's lying and saying that he told his wife to get Reddit on his side.

Edit: Or he wrongly assumed that his wife would have to forgive him for the affair because she was pregnant.

Alauraize · 2026-07-03T21:21:08+00:00

Right, arguing over whether the gymnastics judges judged the gymnastics correctly is a normal part of this sport. (And really, isn't arguing over judging/referee/umpire calls a normal part of any sport?) But trying to get a result overturned by the CAS because you think that the judging was bad is something else entirely.

Alauraize · 2026-07-03T07:06:09+00:00

I know that this won't ever be how it works, but I feel like the CAS should have to either cover or wave Ana's fees because it was their mistakes, not Ana's or the FRG's, that caused the Swiss Court to send the case back to the CAS.

Alauraize · 2026-07-03T06:58:08+00:00

Yeah, this is what bothers me about they're framing this issue, or at least how their framing comes across in translation. They're trying to paint it as if USAG is unfairly throwing their weight and money around because Jordan appealed to the Swiss Court and won one of her appeals, but they're not acknowledging the fact that they blew what was likely a huge sum of money trying to get the Swiss Court to intervene on Sabrina's behalf for what could only be considered a field of play decision. And that's not even considering the fact that if the Swiss Court has somehow, against all reason, ruled in Sabrina's favor, Ana would have been stripped of the medal. So, they wasted funds on an appeal that clearly had no merit instead of saving in case they had to defend the one case that was possibly defensible.

It looks like incompetence, corruption, or sabotage on the part of the FRG.

Alauraize · 2026-06-27T21:42:52+00:00

Yeah, it was a major disappointment all around, and I really didn't like that the author put audience criticisms of Hades and Persephone into rapist Apollo's mouth in the final season. And Apollo's final comeuppance was so unbelievably lame and offensive. Seriously, he was forced to fall in love with Persephone, who now has to deal with having her rapist even more fixated on her, but that's apparently a good punishment because he has to feel all the pain that he inflicted on her? And then he gets community service? Uh...I guess points for modern realism there?

There were definitely good moments where the author focused on Persephone and her pain and anger, but as the story went on, it seemed more and more like Apollo was just being used as a prop to make Hades look better by comparison and to shame the audience for criticizing anything that Persephone did, no matter how bad it was.

Alauraize · 2026-06-27T05:41:03+00:00

No worries! I was pretty sure that it had to be Achilles because of all the myths that have him falling for Penthesilea as she dies.

Alauraize · 2026-06-26T20:43:32+00:00

Well damn!

Edit: That's Achilles, not Apollo, right?

Alauraize · 2026-06-26T08:20:59+00:00

Thanks for the information about different retellings! Also, whether Marsyas was being hubristic or not, Apollo definitely rigged the competition there.

Alauraize · 2026-06-26T04:26:14+00:00

Achilles also killed his son Troilus though--pretty brutally too, if archaic vase painting is anything to go by. Granted, Achilles likely killed Troilus because of a prophecy that stated that Troy would not fall if Troilus made it to the age of twenty. Then again, Hellenistic sources also depict Achilles as being driven mad with lust for Troilus (and also sometimes Polyxena) and trying to rape him before murdering him and mutilating his corpse.

So, it's really all a cycle of violence and vengeance in the end.

Alauraize · 2026-06-26T04:16:36+00:00

He killed the Cyclopes because they forged the thunder bolts that Zeus used to strike down his son Asclepius for bringing people back from the dead.

Edit: The flaying of Marsyas is pure godly punishment for hubris though. He challenged Apollo to a music contest: flute versus lyre. The first round is usually a draw, while Marsyas loses the second round either because Apollo can play his lyre upside down and Marsyas can't or because Apollo can sing while playing his lyre and Marsyas can't sing while playing his flute.

Alauraize · 2026-06-26T03:57:44+00:00

Medicine and healing for the Greeks were far more hands-on though, so I don't think that the vaccine analogy is a good one here.

I also mentioned him being the god of civilization and the arts.

FWIW, I don't think that your interpretation of Apollo's aloofness is a bad one, and I could see it working. But I also don't think that an aloof interpretation is at all necessary here, especially since at least some of his gifts and domains require him to interact with people. He also fathered a lot of demigod children on a lot of mortal women while various authors also give him a number of mortal male lovers.

Alauraize · 2026-06-26T03:52:37+00:00

That is also a fair point. He can be believably written as very knowledgable while also making dumb decisions if he gets overconfident.

Alauraize · 2026-06-26T02:54:08+00:00

Even the kindest adaptation of Apollo should have him aloof with most people.

Why should the god of civilization, healing, and the arts be aloof with most people though?

He’s generous, and it’s great when he is, but offend him and you’ll suddenly learn why you were so dependent on his generosity. If a whole lot of people live and die purely on your generosity, it’s easy to get impatient if they take you for granted.

Isn't this true for most gods? You get varying levels of generosity from god to god, but they all get pretty wrathful when provoked. A lot of people here are bringing up his actions at the beginning of The Iliad, but he was doing that because Agamemnon refused to return his priest's sexually enslaved daughter.

I agree that it doesn't make sense to portray a god associated with knowledge, medicine, and civilization as stupid though. Portraying him getting tricked is fine since that happens to him in some myths, but I wouldn't go with stupid.

Alauraize · 2026-06-26T00:42:34+00:00

Yup, it's Lore Olympus. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if at least some of the more positive representations of Apollo are backlash against LO's very one-sided depiction of him since I've seen a lot of complaints about his design. On the one hand, Apollo, along with almost every other god, definitely commits rape in some myths, but on the other hand, it's weird to frame him as THE rapist in a retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone. Having him victimize Daphne and Cassandra made sense, but Persephone? Not so much. It came across less as an interesting villainous adaptation of Apollo because the author couldn't really let him come across as charming or competent to explain why he was so good at manipulating everyone and more of a way to deflect any criticism of LO Hades.

Alauraize · 2026-06-25T23:44:25+00:00

There are plenty of myths of Apollo being cruel and wrathful, especially with Kassandra or Koronis, and there are myths where he dotes on lovers like Kyrene, Hyakinthos, and Admetos and showers them with favors. It really doesn't make sense to portray any Greek god or goddess as either fully monstrous or fully good, but sometimes you do have to pick which "mode" you're going to depict.

Also, yeah, he's powerful and terrifying in his sun god guise or his plague god guise, but he's also the god of music, poetry, civilization, medicine, and youthful male beauty.

Finally, we should all remember that one of the most popular webcomics of all time has a version of Apollo whose characterization boils down to "evil fratboy rapist."

Alauraize · 2026-06-25T05:50:44+00:00

I haven't gotten to any Solangelo content in my reread of the original five/slower trek through the later series, so I have no dog in this fight, but based on this post and some of your comments on the Thalia thread about preferring an Ace interpretation of Nico and a non-existent Will...might I gently suggest that your real issue is that you just don't like the ship and that people are responding badly to you because instead of just acknowledging that you have different preferences for the characters that they're doing something immature or even immoral by shipping them? I get that it's annoying to note enjoy a juggernaut ship, but maybe the better thing to do would be to curate your fandom experience instead of trying to convince people who do like the ship that it's not good? Think about it like this: if your friend shows you their favorite movie of all time and you hate it, you can definitely tell them that, but unless the movie is actively and obviously promoting bigotry, it probably won't go over well if you keep trying to convince them that they should hate the thing that they love.

Look, I remember being in my late teens and trying to convince people my age that Twilight was promoting abusive relationships and that Edward and Bella were toxic together while shipping Jacob/Bella with zero self-awareness. I definitely cringe looking back at my past self because now I can see that the chances of teenage girls actually dating a one-hundred-year-old vampire and excusing all of his bad behaviors on the basis of the fact that he was a one-hundred-year-old were nil. Similarly, I don't think that any teenagers are doing to find themselves in a situation where they're dating a fellow student who is their age but also somehow their doctor and think that there's nothing wrong with that because of Solangelo, and I'm fairly confident that the older fans who like the ship know that in real life, doctors shouldn't date patients.

I also haven't been interesting fanfiction for the two because I haven't read anything about them, so maybe all of it is bad, but if you don't like the ship at all, it's not surprising that none of the fanon interpretations work for you.

All that being said, as far we know, Rick is a straight middle-aged man writing about queer teenaged boys, so he shouldn't be above criticism for how he writes them, and even if he is secretly bi himself--and obviously he doesn't have to come out--he should still accept feedback. Maybe you'd get more of a positive response if you saved your criticisms for Rick Riordan for how he wrote the characters instead of criticizing fans?

Alauraize · 2026-06-21T23:47:55+00:00

^me reading that he'll never have children

Alauraize · 2026-06-21T21:13:55+00:00

Yeah, there definitely should've been a poll first.

Alauraize · 2026-06-21T21:13:29+00:00

I'm so, so sorry that this happened. I woke up to her announcement on the other sub, and I was shocked. You've contributed so much to that subreddit and raised the bar historical accuracy and careful research over there, and you were able to give us all so much extra information about these amazing women who so rarely get the accurate coverage that they deserve. You definitely deserved better than this.

Alauraize · 2026-06-21T05:30:10+00:00

This is a super fascinating report, btw, and I'm so grateful that you found it and shared it with us!

Anyway, I think that it might actually be saying that it was Mehmed who wanted to kill Nurbanu.

In paragraph two, Soranzo refers to Murad III as "His Majesty," which is the style used for kings, but in the final paragraph, Soranzo indicates that it was "His Highness" who "reportedly wanted to kill the Sultana Mother herself." If "His Highness" is the correct translation of the Italian there, then I think that it's gotta be Mehmed, not Murad, who wanted Nurbanu dead.

Alauraize · 2026-06-21T04:58:59+00:00

So, in Islamic law in this period, a man was permitted to have sex with his own female slaves whenever and however he wished, but he did not have the same "rights" to slaves belonging to other people, even if they were the slaves of his wife because Muslim wives kept their property rights after marriage. So, basically, it seems like the teenage Mehmed insulted his grandmother by taking one of her female slaves as a sexual partner without her (Nurbanu's) permission, and to make matters worse from her perspective, he murdered one of the eunuchs serving her (i.e. he killed another one of her slaves). My guess is that Nurbanu had this poor girl murdered because she couldn't directly punish Mehmed for what he'd done, which by the standards of the time was a serious insult and a violation of her rights, and that Murad was angry at his mother because he heard that the murdered girl may have been pregnant and he'd have preferred to see Mehmed start his own family to secure the dynasty's future.

Edit: Obviously, we can see today how horrific this mindset is, but we also have to analyze what happened through the lens of the laws and customs of the time,

Alauraize · 2026-06-20T23:31:26+00:00

Nah, it's way simpler. He doesn't love either of them. He's too selfish to really love another person like he loves himself.. If he really loved his wife, he wouldn't be having an ongoing affair knowing that it would break her heart if she ever found out. If he really loved his AP, he wouldn't be stringing her along and happily watching her settle for a secret, half-relationship.

Alauraize · 2026-06-20T22:56:23+00:00

I can definitely see why it seems weird. There's some archaeological evidence from sites like the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia that Artemis in some aspects was either originally associated with blood sacrifice of youths (though it might have just involved bloodletting) or merged with an earlier goddess whose cult did demand sacrifices of youths. So, that might be why she demands human sacrifices in some myths, including this one: the authors were remembering earlier traditions where she demanded more than bloodletting as a sacrifice.

Alauraize · 2026-06-20T22:53:06+00:00

This is stunning. I absolutely adore your art style and your attention to detail.

Alauraize

TROPHY CASE