Post a random fact people probably don't know! (And even if they did, they wouldn't care.)

[Benice]

On 6/9/2021 at 6:00 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Is this counting battles won before Rome was divided into east and west?

I think that it's counting the Western Roman Empire, (Potentially just the part what it had an Emperor as well?) but I lack sufficient knowledge on the matter to tell you confidently.

Perhaps our resident historical bigbrain @Interdimensional Observer could enlighten us?

----

 

During his time studying to become a professional keyboardist, JS Bach had a temporary obsession with Organs. Both the instrument and the sort that can be used to reproduce. Unsurprisingly, the locals were not very fond of him.

[Benice]

The band known as Bachman-Turner Overdrive was actually the third band that had stemmed from the original members of it. The first was known as Brave Belt, which ended without any success. They later reformed to make Brave Belt 2, which fell to the same fate as the first. Once more, they were planning to reform into Brave Belt 3, but the producer of their record label convinced them to try a different name. At the time, they happened to have a copy of a truck magazine titled "Overdrive". The band decided that "Overdrive" was the perfect way to describe their music, and the name stuck!

Edited June 24, 2021 by Benice

[Benice]

As far as I can tell, the most disliked post on all of the Fextralife Dark Souls wiki is one stating the following of Solaire of Astora:

"Awful designed NPC. I wish they never, ever included this clown named Astora in the game. Get rid of him."

This post clocks in at a staggering 66 dislikes. For comparison, a flamebait post on this website will often accrue around 11 dislikes.

The most liked post on the site that I found were this one:

"First time I saw him, I thought my game bugged out and he was T-posing"

At an astonishing 89 likes.

Also, I'm pretty sure the chosen undead was sent to Jail not because they were undead, but because it was actually horny jail, if the comments on the Gwynevere article are any indication.

[indigoasis]

Perfect Selection: Dracula Battle Volumes 1 and 2, which are rock arrangements of Castlevania songs, could therefore be classified as Christian Rock.

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 6/24/2021 at 1:20 AM, Benice said:

Once more, they were planning to reform into Brave Belt 3, but the producer of their record label convinced them to try a different name.

He better darn well have.

On 7/2/2021 at 2:41 AM, Benice said:

Also, I'm pretty sure the chosen undead was sent to Jail not because they were undead, but because it was actually horny jail, if the comments on the Gwynevere article are any indication.

Spoiler

Fun Fact: Hebrew uses letters to represent numbers. An aleph represents a one, a bet represents a two, etc. As you can imagine, this practice has fallen out of favor (except for in some calendars) for Arabic numerals , which the entire population of the world has agreed are more convenient.

[Benice]

The concept of Spaghetti came from China.

[Benice]

The first Souls-like was King's Field.

Unless I'm forgetting one that's even older.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Benice

[Benice]

A pair of Rick Astley facts:

Rick's real passion with music was Soul, so after he hit success with Never Gonna Give You Up, he eventually transitioned into the genre of Soul.

 

Rick Astley was rickrolled on June 17th, 2020.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Benice

[Benice]

The reason some people taste cilantro as soap is because they have a gene that allows them to taste a chemical in cilantro that tastes like soap, while most cannot perceive it.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Fun Fact: Benice is single-handed keeping this thread alive.

Not that I mind, of course. I like getting an occasional fun fact to spice up my day. I especially liked the Rick Astley one, that was neat.

[ping]

The rather excentric Baldur's Gate character Minsc is famously carrying with him his animal companion Boo, who (according to Minsc) says that he is a "Miniature Giant Space Hamster" and not an ordinary rodent. While this is generally played as a joke...

1. Minsc is a Ranger, which means that he can communicate with animals, so Boo talking to him doesn't have to be Minsc's imagination running wild. This is backed by Minsc's voicelines in BG2, where Boo often chimes in. Hamsters and Rangers everywhere, rejoice! Squeak-sqeak!
2. Giant Space Hamsters are actually a thing. Seriously. Although I don't think that the "miniature" variant was ever mentioned before Minsc and Boo.

[ping]

Another random Baldur's Gate fact: The only playable character with three different portraits for BG1, BG2, and the 2016 midquel Siege of Dragonspear is Viconia deVir, a Drow (i.e. Dark Elf) Cleric. If you want to be technical, Imoen (the main character's adoptive sister) also counts, but she's only "playable" in Siege's epilogue.

This special treatment might be because Viconia has wildly different looks in BG1 and BG2 and looks quite un-drowlike in BG1:

BG1 portraits are very directly based on pictures of game developers and their friends and/or spouses, then "fantasyfied" with clothing, face paintings, trinkets, and/or equipment, which can sometimes look a little off. Interestingly enough, Jaheira, who also looks completely different between BG1 and BG2, kept her BG1 portrait for Siege.

For BG2, the artist seems to have looked elsewhere for inspiration - for example, Nalia (a new character) resembles Drew Barrymore. More interesting, especially for the Horny Teenager target group, is the inspiration for Viconia's portrait in BG2:

Apparently, this is cropped from an old pornographic photograph, back when Horny Teenagers had to find somebody who would provide them with magazines of that sort.
(well, BG2 is from 2000, so the internet was already a thing)

[Benice]

Dark Souls has a JoJo's reference: In the Painting Guardian room, there is a corpse containing the armor of a character known as Black Iron Tarkus, who shares several traits from the JoJo's character with the same name; both are massive knights with oversized weapons and armor. (JoJo spoilers, I think?(

Spoiler

 

Dark Souls Tarkus also died by falling off a roof, which is also similar to how JoJo Tarkus falls off a cliff and into a barracks in the manga.

 

 

[ping]

The Greek spelling of the Egyptian deity Thoth is Θώθ.

And while I didn't want to make three Baldur's Gate-related posts in a row, it's fitting to mention that the name of the evil spider goddess of the Drow in the Forgotten Realms, Lolth, sounds a little different in the internet age, too.

[indigoasis]

In episode 7 of the anime Tokyo Revengers, the main character completes what he claims to be a 2,500 piece puzzle. However, if you count the pieces (a quick way to do it isto  count the top row and then the first column and multiply the two), it's actually a 1,288 piece puzzle.

[ping]

^literally unwatchable

Contrary to popular belief, the Aztecs did develop the wheel, as small clay toys for children prove. However, since there were no large domesticated animals like horses or cows in the Americas to carry them, large carts wouldn't have been much of an improvement over just carrying stuff.

Edited July 30, 2021 by ping

[ping]

The then-kingdom of Bayern / Bavaria was usually spelled Baiern before 1825, when King Ludwig I. decided that Y is the superior, because more hellenic, letter.

[ping]

In 106 AD, Han Shang Di, the fifth Emperor of the Chinese Eastern Han dynasty, was crowned when he was only about 100 days old and died before his first birthday, very likely not by natural causes.

His English wikipedia article has an "Early life" section.

Edited August 3, 2021 by ping

[ping]

East Frisians drink 288 litres of tea per year. The rest of Germany averages at 28 litres.

[ping]

More Baldur's Gate: Imoen, the protagonists adoptive sister, is a very unlikely fan favourite and, in the sequel, deuteragonist. She was added to the game very late in development to add a non-psychotic thief that a player would pick up before the first dungeon; so late in fact that many of her voicelines have been cut together from a character from an early tech demo - Pique, a guardswoman.

This is somewhat noticable in hindsight. For example, Imoen's combat bark is "My blade will cut you down to size", but she is spec'ed to primarily use a Shortbow. Her selection and action quotes ("I care not", "I am gone", among others) have a somewhat unique tone compared to the rest of the cast, too. Weirdly enough, her very first line, "Heya! It's me, Imoen!", clearly wasn't said by Pique, so the VA either came back for a quick session after all, or the sound designer was very crafty in stitching together the syllables out of Pique's lines.

Despite that, Imoen turned out to be one of the more popular NPCs, probably helped because she is around from the very start and because her stats are among the best you can find. As a result, she returns in a much more prominent role in the sequel.

[Robert Stewart]

The (former) cell phone company Sprint originated as the communication department of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The name is actually an acronym for "Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony."

[ping]

The German verb umfahren means "run somebody/something over with a vehicle". The German verb umfahren means "drive around something". They are pronounced differently - first one with emphasis on um, second one with emphasis on fahr.

Although that second part shouldn't be too shocking to somebody familiar with a language that includes read/read and lead/lead.

[Lightchao42]

The longest song in the Super Smash Bros. series is Advent: One-Winged Angel, being six minutes and two seconds long.

The longest first-party song is Gormott, which is five minutes and thirteen seconds long.

[Interdimensional Observer]

The English word "dungeon" is derived from the Norman French word for the central tower in the middle of a castle- the donjon. In English, the term "keep" would better align with the definition of donjon than "dungeon". As for why donjon became associated with the dank dark underground parts of a castle where you imprison people, maybe it has to do something with the fact that the Anglo-Saxons who the Normans conquered, didn't like their new overlords, who built castles, donjons and all, everywhere to intimidate their new subjects into submission. 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[ping]

Larry Bird's Celtics and Bill Laimbeer's Pistons had a very heated, occasionally violent rivalry in the late 80s/early 90s NBA. In one particular instance, Laimbeer brought down Bird hard after falling for a pump fake, which escalated in a fight and ended with Bird hurling the ball at Laimbeer after the two had been separated by the other players. Laimbeer later went on record claiming that he was only trying to "grab hold of [Larry] and break his fall" and that he was "victimized by his reputation", which prompted the excellent response: "Sure, he wasn't trying to hurt me. And I was trying to throw the ball to the referee. Bill's face just got in the way."

Another good one, after Laimbeer wasn't selected for an All-Star match: "Good, now I won't have to worry about him saying 'Hi Larry' and me saying 'Fuck you, Bill'".

Edited August 20, 2021 by ping