Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 12h

@hiss-graphics.bsky.social made a graph describing the relationship dynamics between each pair of characters in Goulinn and I mean... I don't think I can argue this. I think this is just facts.

A graph showing the relationship dynamics between each pair of cast members in Goulinn

2 4

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 16h

I feel like I now how cause to sue for damages. I definitely lost some brain cells to this one.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 20h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 17h

Make sure everyone you know sees this. November is right around the corner. Use paper ballots, people. Our lives literally depend on it.

ΛTLΛS @atlasbun.bsky.social · 21h

Hey so the majority of voting machines are now owned and operated by a former Trump campaign head. If you are to vote in the future only use paper ballots.

Dominion Voting Systems sold to company run by former Republican election official

Dominion Voting Systems, which sued Fox over its reporting on the 2020 election, has been sold to a seemingly new election company run by a former GOP election official.

abcnews.go.com

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

If new fren is behind lock, must remove lock. Makes perfect sense!

4

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

OK UNIVERSE I GET IT THIS WAS HUBRIS I'M SORRY

The next few missions I joined all ended within minutes. Some of them I didn't even reach Omega before they used up their carts! Yikes!

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

Jumping into random lobbies and helping teams of randos win against Omega/Savage Omega just feels GOOD. They're hard ass fights, but man it's great to see players are starting to adapt and work together!

Also, I am shoving dozens of health potions down their throats. So.
#monhun

1 1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

I knew you had it in you

2

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

You seem passionate about it and I've really enjoyed the personality that's bled over into your art of them - I'll give it a read, thanks!

1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

Oh, right. I heard "siblings" and my brain hardlined on biological siblings. Duh.

You've mentioned your writing a few times since I started following you, but I haven't seen any. Are you posting this anywhere? Or is it a personal project?

1 1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

That implies that Waclaw would have at least one set of twins or triplets as siblings, right?

1 1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

What I'm saying is: don't do the things that I do and also someone help

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

I apply this to my output at work as well as creatively, and always have. I actually wrote several stories and books that the world will NEVER see before I finished the first volume of Goulinn and had something I thought was worth sharing, but the whole process nearly killed me dozens of times!

1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 2d

I'd love to discuss this with someone someday, because I have no idea how to separate the two. My self-worth is so tangled up in what I do that I've almost [REDACTED] many times.

Separating your self-worth from your output is healthy, but what are we if not what we create? I'm seriously asking.

InkyInGreen 🍂 @blackwallmancer.bsky.social · 10d

Found this on the AO3 subreddit, and I'm about to let it change my whole life (or at least work really hard to internalize it wrt my writing).

Someone's screenshot of a two-post twitter thread, from user blue (@bluewmist):

the fastest way to kill motivation is to make your identity depend on the outcome. it's called ego involvement. when failing becomes failing as a person, your brain starts avoiding the whole thing. not because you don't care, but because you care too much.

you don't need lower standards. you need less self-worth tangled up in your goals. the work gets easier when it's not about proving who you are.

1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 3d

I'm not sure why, but this thing makes me think of Celesto, and that somehow makes it even more unnerving than... well, the rest of it!

2

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 3d

Everyone else doing this challenge: "Oh god, gotta knock something out quick every day!"

You guys: "Yeah we'll just make a whole DC comic cover today, why not?"

Always impressed by how fast you knock these out and the level of quality!

1 1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 3d

THIS. To anyone still defending AI: THIS. I can never forgive the toll this shit has taken on the people I love.

If you somehow ignore everything else, then still fuck you for what it's done to them.

There are NO positive-use cases for this. There is no possible good that outweighs the negative.

4

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 3d

Reliance on AI makes people stupid and lazy. AI data centers are killing the planet. All of generative AI has been trained illegally on the uncompensated and uncredited work of others.

We don't ignore evil bullshit, here. Fuck AI, and fuck you.

1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 3d

Why can't both be true? Why can't I love fries AND want money?

Kenza @kenzamaka.sheath.church · 29d

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 3d

This is one of those questions I want to answer in ridiculous detail but it would spoil so much. The short answer is: how driven they each are in their own ways and why.

I cannot wait until this book is in print so I can start telling you guys about them!

(Art by @waywardcrossart.bsky.social )

Traditional artwork of the cast of Goulinn, left to right: Ruby the witch, Ekaf the warrior, Tychus the bounty hunter, Brillante the paladin.

1 3

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 3d

Way to go!

Now on to Savage!

a drawing of a girl a cat and a wolf with the hashtag @kaitou_30 on the bottom

ALT: a drawing of a girl a cat and a wolf with the hashtag @kaitou_30 on the bottom

media.tenor.com

1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 4d

I was just to write my books and play MonHun until I go blind, man. Set me free of everything else.

1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 4d

It does sort of create a world that's open to interpretation. Not usually my thing when it comes to storytelling, but when done really well (MonHun, Breath of the Wild) it can be endlessly captivating!

As long as a sequel doesn't screw it all up *cough* Tears of the Kingdom *cough*

1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 4d

I've actually heard this theory before! I don't remember the video, but someone theorized that Frenzy is mutated dragon element and that the different coloration on some monsters using dragon element is indicative of that.

MonHun lore is just cool! Kind of wish the games focused on it a bit more!

1 1

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 4d

2025 has been the longest decade of my life.

Reposted by J W Sproul - Fantasy Author

J W Sproul - Fantasy Author @jwsproul.bsky.social · 6d

What kind of things do readers like to see from author socials? Insights into their characters and world? Trivia? Q&As? I'd like to format this account appropriately after the book launches.

#booksky #fantasy #authors

1 1