Iaculus
@iaculus.bsky.social
This is exactly why Miyazaki and the Fromsoft crew listen to it every single time, and create poison swamps of increasingly terrible majesty.
January 13, 2026 at 10:39 PM
This is exactly why Miyazaki and the Fromsoft crew listen to it every single time, and create poison swamps of increasingly terrible majesty.
Lurk Snitchtongue is pretty endearing as well.
January 13, 2026 at 10:31 PM
Lurk Snitchtongue is pretty endearing as well.
Despite their (literally) cartoony origins, it's interesting that Clan Eshin are the only Skaven who routinely get a certain degree of dignity and mystique. Ikit Claw is funny, Throt the Unclean and Lord Skrolk are creepy, and Deathmaster Snikch is a stone-cold badass.
January 13, 2026 at 10:28 PM
Despite their (literally) cartoony origins, it's interesting that Clan Eshin are the only Skaven who routinely get a certain degree of dignity and mystique. Ikit Claw is funny, Throt the Unclean and Lord Skrolk are creepy, and Deathmaster Snikch is a stone-cold badass.
3. The UK is a much smaller country than the USA, and its media ecosystems are far more centralised and incestuous. They can coordinate a ratfuck much more efficiently, completely, and ruthlessly than their American colleagues can, because everyone shares an office with everyone else.
January 13, 2026 at 10:22 PM
3. The UK is a much smaller country than the USA, and its media ecosystems are far more centralised and incestuous. They can coordinate a ratfuck much more efficiently, completely, and ruthlessly than their American colleagues can, because everyone shares an office with everyone else.
2. The Gaza genocide was well underway by the time of the New York mayoral primaries. While Corbyn was in office during some major Israeli atrocities (like the March of Return massacre), that eclipsed all that came before it and made claims that anti-Zionism was antisemitism especially grotesque.
January 13, 2026 at 10:20 PM
2. The Gaza genocide was well underway by the time of the New York mayoral primaries. While Corbyn was in office during some major Israeli atrocities (like the March of Return massacre), that eclipsed all that came before it and made claims that anti-Zionism was antisemitism especially grotesque.
You can split hairs about the tone and presentation of their various statements on Israel and Palestine, but in practical terms, Mamdani had three advantages:
1. Corbyn got hit first, meaning that disingenuous Zionists and Islamophobes exposed much of their playbook to the international left.
1. Corbyn got hit first, meaning that disingenuous Zionists and Islamophobes exposed much of their playbook to the international left.
January 13, 2026 at 10:18 PM
You can split hairs about the tone and presentation of their various statements on Israel and Palestine, but in practical terms, Mamdani had three advantages:
1. Corbyn got hit first, meaning that disingenuous Zionists and Islamophobes exposed much of their playbook to the international left.
1. Corbyn got hit first, meaning that disingenuous Zionists and Islamophobes exposed much of their playbook to the international left.
What we're seeing at the moment is when the antidemocratic right-wing freaks at the core of that bureaucracy finally burn through enough of their soft-left patsies that they're forced to interact with the public directly rather than pretending that there is no such thing as the Labour right.
January 13, 2026 at 8:08 PM
What we're seeing at the moment is when the antidemocratic right-wing freaks at the core of that bureaucracy finally burn through enough of their soft-left patsies that they're forced to interact with the public directly rather than pretending that there is no such thing as the Labour right.
This is why they didn't leave the decision up to the general membership. The 1980s reforms to kick out overtly socialist groups like Militant made Labour the least internally democratic major party in the UK, with a powerful and institutionally anti-left internal bureaucracy.
January 13, 2026 at 8:06 PM
This is why they didn't leave the decision up to the general membership. The 1980s reforms to kick out overtly socialist groups like Militant made Labour the least internally democratic major party in the UK, with a powerful and institutionally anti-left internal bureaucracy.
Again, I feel like Norwegian Wood had the cheat code here because the topic and themes were perfectly suited to an ambiguous, bittersweet anticlimax where the protagonist has maybe learned to cope with the unresolvable. It's just that Murakami doesn't seem to know how to do much else.
January 13, 2026 at 5:18 PM
Again, I feel like Norwegian Wood had the cheat code here because the topic and themes were perfectly suited to an ambiguous, bittersweet anticlimax where the protagonist has maybe learned to cope with the unresolvable. It's just that Murakami doesn't seem to know how to do much else.
I think it worked for Norwegian Wood, but only because of the very specific subject matter (Japan's suicide epidemic). His main problem is that he can't shift gears.
January 13, 2026 at 4:16 PM
I think it worked for Norwegian Wood, but only because of the very specific subject matter (Japan's suicide epidemic). His main problem is that he can't shift gears.
You can make a plausible argument that Skaven are Tolkeinian orcs whereas regular Warhammer orcs are the D&D version.
January 13, 2026 at 3:49 PM
You can make a plausible argument that Skaven are Tolkeinian orcs whereas regular Warhammer orcs are the D&D version.
... I think it's supposed to be a Crusader thing as part of the whole 'deus vult' Islamophobic far right business. So still the same racist, fascist signalling, just not necessarily to 1930s Germany specifically.
January 13, 2026 at 9:31 AM
... I think it's supposed to be a Crusader thing as part of the whole 'deus vult' Islamophobic far right business. So still the same racist, fascist signalling, just not necessarily to 1930s Germany specifically.
I mean, it's built for a higher mystic purpose, but it's still fundamentally the same sort of extradimensional living statue made by the same people.
January 13, 2026 at 9:24 AM
I mean, it's built for a higher mystic purpose, but it's still fundamentally the same sort of extradimensional living statue made by the same people.
IIRC, the Xephon is just an unusual Dolem, so it probably sings in the exact same way that its sisters do.
January 13, 2026 at 9:22 AM
IIRC, the Xephon is just an unusual Dolem, so it probably sings in the exact same way that its sisters do.
Speaking of ultrasleek CG designs, the Martian Kataphraktoi from Aldnoah Zero are also neat.
January 13, 2026 at 9:20 AM
Speaking of ultrasleek CG designs, the Martian Kataphraktoi from Aldnoah Zero are also neat.
The Zearth from Bokurano. Creepy and iconic. m.youtube.com/watch?v=-okZ...
bokurano oppening (uninstall)
YouTube video by pedrodarkerland
m.youtube.com
January 13, 2026 at 9:07 AM
The Zearth from Bokurano. Creepy and iconic. m.youtube.com/watch?v=-okZ...
Technically, it might have. It just took twenty-three years.
January 13, 2026 at 2:04 AM
Technically, it might have. It just took twenty-three years.
Though speaking of Chaos Warriors being neat, this lore titbit is delightful:
January 13, 2026 at 1:07 AM
Though speaking of Chaos Warriors being neat, this lore titbit is delightful:
You'll see renegade Imperial and Bretonnian knights who've merged with their armour, Kurgan steppe warriors who've traded the souls of hundreds for a suit of Chaos Dwarf gromril, and shirtless Norscan berserkers with skin harder than steel.
January 13, 2026 at 1:05 AM
You'll see renegade Imperial and Bretonnian knights who've merged with their armour, Kurgan steppe warriors who've traded the souls of hundreds for a suit of Chaos Dwarf gromril, and shirtless Norscan berserkers with skin harder than steel.
Some of them do. The whole point of being a Warrior of Chaos is that there are a whole bunch of different routes to becoming a hulking bruiser with supernaturally effective weapons and armour. It's a deliberately broad category. Hell, some of them don't even wear armour in the conventional sense.
January 13, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Some of them do. The whole point of being a Warrior of Chaos is that there are a whole bunch of different routes to becoming a hulking bruiser with supernaturally effective weapons and armour. It's a deliberately broad category. Hell, some of them don't even wear armour in the conventional sense.
You could put in some spicy work there with the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, and the generational clash between the more respectable, assimilated 90s Japanese toons and the grungy criminal underclass of the 80s OVA scene.
January 12, 2026 at 10:23 PM
You could put in some spicy work there with the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, and the generational clash between the more respectable, assimilated 90s Japanese toons and the grungy criminal underclass of the 80s OVA scene.
Reminds me of how Evelyn from ZZZ got the Internet absolutely howling.
January 12, 2026 at 10:01 PM
Reminds me of how Evelyn from ZZZ got the Internet absolutely howling.
I suspect that much of the actual difference is in which novel/comic authors write more for which setting. Bill King and Kim Newman are significantly hornier writers than Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill.
January 12, 2026 at 7:24 PM
I suspect that much of the actual difference is in which novel/comic authors write more for which setting. Bill King and Kim Newman are significantly hornier writers than Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill.
Happens slightly more often in Imperial Guard books. Ibram Gaunt and his Ghosts get laid surprisingly often, and Ciaphas Cain very obviously has a highly active sex life which we only hear so little about because his memoirs are edited by his widow.
January 12, 2026 at 7:20 PM
Happens slightly more often in Imperial Guard books. Ibram Gaunt and his Ghosts get laid surprisingly often, and Ciaphas Cain very obviously has a highly active sex life which we only hear so little about because his memoirs are edited by his widow.