ping

Banned from the Emperor's good graces. ...which honestly doesn't make much of a difference.

Eleanor/Eleonore/Aleonòr/Aliénor/Éléonore d'Aquitaine, who you might know as a Civilization 6 leader of both England and France, had her marriage to the French king annulled on the ground of consanguinity: She was Louis' VII third cousin, once removed, which is to say that they shared great-great-grandparents. The pope initially refused to annull their marriage and even forbade the couple to talk about their familiar ties. It had been rumoured that the couple became estranged over an affair between Éléonore and her uncle - although according to medieval customs, Éléonore was already being untrue to her husband by disagreeing with him, so one doesn't necessarily have to put too much stock into the more raunchy rumours. What reveals the entire "consanguinity" reasoning for annulling the marriage to be, well, technically true, but still just an excuse is both of the former husband and wife's choices in their second spouses. Louis married Constance of Castile, his second cousin, while Éléonore married her third cousin Henry, duke of Normandie and soon king of England. Apparently, two counts attempted but failed to kidnap Éléonore while she was traveling in order to enforce a marriage that way - as the Duchess of Aquitaine, such a marriage would come with a lot of land to rule over - but Éléonore avoided capture and sent envoys to Henry asking him for marriage. Because this happened very quickly after her first marriage was annulled (eight weeks), historians speculate that the two already had things arranged while Éléonore was still married to Louis.

The plan is late French reformation There's one France achievement that I haven't gotten yet, which requires spreading La Révolution to ten countries. But playing a whole campaign as France from 1444 until the Age of Revolution (1710) is a bit of a slog, since you're probably the strongest in the world by 1500 (maybe sans China, but the Ming tend to mingsplode at some point) and without a challenger by 1600. So instead, I started as ya boie Savoie, who has an easy (and unique to them) option to either swap to French culture or remain Piedmonese. For now, Old France is my dear friend, though. They got a di Savoie on their throne, so I hope I get an opportunity to claim their throne some time during the 16th century, but for now, they're being helpful. You might have noticed some big and scary Ottomans to my east, and I plan to have France help me out a bit with that. I have around 50k troops right now, France is at 70k-ish, Mr. Otto Man is somewhere between 130k and 140k. All that said, Italian unification is still on the menu, just without a "Form Italy" button to press. I can get a Claim Throne casus belli on Naples whenever I want and I'm just waiting for my current ruler to die first, since personal unions break free upon ruler death if they don't like you enough. Avignon fell to Provence at some point and I'm not quite sure why. Very helpful because the Pope was another earlygame friend because it's quite annoying if you're catholic and he isn't. I swapped to Protestantism though, partly because most of the bonuses from Catholicism basically go kaputt when you go revolutionary, and partly so that I can conquer Rome without penalties . Lithuania starts (almost) that big In fact, the Ottos conquered a handful of their southernmost provinces. I believe they're still under a Polish personal union (which is scripted to form most of the time very early in the game), but they haven't quite reached the necessary tech to click the "unite the PLC" button in order to fully integrate Lithuania. Shouldn't be too long, though - it's the same tech that I needed for the Toothpaste button.

Roy - Mage (Cecilia has been teaching him), but with a hilariously bad Magic stat (she says he sucked at it). Shanna - Axe Fighter. To fit in with the bros. Dorothy - Mercenary. Fits better with her bodyguard profession anyway. Lilina - Pegasus Knight. She is Mage!Shiida, after all. Cecilia - I'm going to assume that a hypothetical reclass BinBla would also have a proper Str/Mag split, which means that either Valkyries could be allowed to use swords or Cecilia could swap to a Mage Knight class that can. As alternative classes, I guess promoted Mercenary classes would be a decent fit, Hero and whatever an alternative promotion would be. Igrene - Brigand --> Berserker+??? Because Hawkeye. Maybe Hero as the second Brigand promotion option? Hugh - Monk. Assuming that there would be a unpromoted Light magic using class. To really piss off Niime.

I AM BECOME TOOTHPASTE!!

I think the trend away from the two domineering parties is pretty clear, given that the sharp uptick for "others" votes happened between 2002 and 2009. Conservatives had 40%+ results from 1953 to 1994, after which they only managed that feat in a single election. SocDems had 30%+ between 1957 and 2005, after which they had four successive elections with 20-26% results. They're still the two strongest parties, but I'll say again - before the election last year, it looked absolutely feasible for the green party to become the strongest faction in parliament, although their result ended up quite a bit lower (15% vs. the 25% for the two big 'uns). Merkel was chancellor for 16 years / four legislative periods, swapping between a conservative/liberal coalition (when that was feasible) and conservative/SocDem (when it wasn't). In any case - I don't think that the trend away from the traditional parties is a German unicorn. Heck, Macron's party was founded in 2016. The Spanish election in 2019 had one party with almost 30% and then three (including the conservatives who had had 30% of the votes in the previous election) at around 15%. I'm not going to say that it's universal either (House of Commons is still Tories, then Labour, then the rest, for example), but I do think that in an electoral system that allows smaller parties to realisticalyl participate (so, unlike the US), you will get smaller parties in the parliaments and occasionally with some power to decide who will govern (like the liberals did for decades in Germany).

Speaking for Germany, our parliament went from three parties (conservatives, liberals (in a European sense), social democrats) between the 60s and 80s to four (adding the Green party in 1983), to five (adding the Socialists, successor of the SED in the GDR) in 1990, to six right now (adding the totally-not-fascists in 2017). Notably, both the conservatives and the social democrats, the two domineering parties, lost a lot of weight in the past decade or two. For the longest time, the question of who would be chancellor would boil down to "who can persuate the liberals to form a coalition?", although there has been a "big coalition" between 1966 and 1969, with a rather silly majority in parliament. The next coalition without the liberals was formed in 1998 (social democrats + green party), followed by another big coalition in 2005 - due to neither SD+Green nor conservative+liberals having a majority, thanks to the socialists being relatively strong that election. Plus, the liberals were pretty decisively in the conservative's corner, same with the greens and the social democrats, so a triple coalition was more or less out of the question. 2009 went back to conservatives+liberals, but then the liberals were voted out of parliament for the first time in 2013 (so we're back to 4 parties), which lead to the third big coalition, because the socialists still remain pariah. Then, 2017 the liberals came back to parliament and the totally-not-fascists were voted in for the first time as well. Since nobody wanted to continue the big coalition (both members lost a lot of votes compared to 2013) and both socialists and totally-not-fascists were pretty much out of question, it looked like a Social Democrats + Green + Liberals coaltion would emerge. However, the liberals pulled out of negotiations, which forced social democrats and conservatives to continue the big coalition for another four years. The 2021 election was very interesting - with Merkel not candidating again, the conservatives did not find a strong candidate at all, plus a lot of bellyaching about how to position themselves to Merkel's relatively moderate policies, leading to their worst result since 1949. During the electoral campaign, it actually looked like a green chancellor (Annalena Baerbock, who ended up as foreign minister) would be in the cards, but she lost a lot of standing during the campaigns, benefitting the social democrats. This time, the liberals did agree to join a red-green-yellow coalition, so now Olaf Scholz is leading the government. I've ignored the entire time that the conservatives are technically two parties in one parliamentary faction - the Christian Social Union in Bavaria and the Christian Democratic Union everywhere else, including the occasional "WE'LL DO OUR OWN THING!!!" screeching coming out of Munich whenever the Bavarians feel that they aren't sufficiently overrepresented. So technically, parliament went from four parties to seven. Anway, point stands, Germany has not been trending towards a two-party system at all. Quite the opposite, really.

I know what I read And I know the only word that would make any amount of sense in that sentence. --- Summer mood, banhammer under my feet Cold beer, cheap wine Yeah, that's all we need. We got Wraith banned! We got Wraith banned! And everybody's like, "OH FUCK YEAH, LET'S BAN HIM AGAIN!" WE GOT WRAITH BANNED! WE GOT WRAITH BANNED! And everybody's like, "Yesterday we banned to much, let's do it again!" WE GOT WRAITH BANNED! WE GOT WRAITH BANNED! So everybody, put your quotes right up! Tonight is the night!

Banned for misspelling "acclaimed".

In general? Absolutely. I still believe that properly signaled ambush spawns are overall superior to end-of-enemy-phase reinforcement because they can't be trivially farmed. In this specific case, I think I prefer a bit more "localised" spawning areas, like a couple of forts, over declaring the entire edge of the map a danger zone. I do appreciate the straightforward info box, though. Allows for fairly precise information without silly in-script dialogues. "Harhar! Me mateys will arrive IN THREE TURNS from THE FORESTED AREA IN THE SOUTHEAST. I can't wait to see the TOTALLY SURPRISED looks on their faces!"

Banned for a lack of appreciation for music (and cookies).

It's kinda weird. In my LP, I was able to edit the first two posts, even though they weren't exactly short, but not the third. And I'm pretty sure that I've gotten that message trying to edit some shorter posts, too.

Cookie, I think you're BAAAAAAAAANNED BAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNED BBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNED BBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNED

Nonnnn, rien de riennnnnnn Nonnnnn, je ne regrette pas le ban Grammar getting in the way of the rhythm... *grumble*

Banni parce que moi non plus.

In an... interesting piece of marketing, the first-person shooter game Daikatana, directed by John Romero, was advertised with the slogan "John Romero's about to make you his bitch." Romero was involved in the development of famous games such as Doom, Quake, and Captain Commander Keen. Daikatana was the first game he worked on after leaving id Software, and unfortunately, it didn't end up particularly well. Until September 2000, it only sold about 40'000 copies, instead of the 2.5 million sales that the developer allegedly was calculating with, and it's sometimes brought up as a "worst game ever" contender, although given what you can find on Steam these days, this surely has to be said with a "compared to expectations" qualifier. Because the game bombed so hard, a Game Boy Color version published by Kemco wasn't even released in the US. However, it was released in Japan and the EU - and actually considered to be quite good. The GBC game was more alike to the Zelda games of that time (top-down action adventure), i.e. quite different from the main title, which was noted to be a very good thing.

Voulez vous ban Wraith avec moi ce soir? (You see, it's funny because it's a sexual proposion in the original song HHAHAHAHAAAAHAHA)

Guy's long-lost brother. Personally, I wouldn't go as far as 'loving' the translator unless he also named Mae 'Girl'.

*ahem* Well, the E in "mess" is short, so if it ever had been "meß", it would've been changed to "mess" in the spelling reform from... the 90s, I think? If it was "meß", the E would be an "ay". Well, not really, but it's how anglophones tend to process it. The French é would be a be closer fit. ẞun?

Ban ban ban the Wraith to a retirement home Merrily merrily merrily ban Rhymes and rhythm are difficult

Oh, that's the angle. Sorry, I didn't catch that right away. I think I agree insofar that all FE protagonists tend to be elevated to a certain position of power by birth or nepotism (in either case not by merit), but then rise above that position through their own actions. This is true for... Marth, who is prince by birth, but eventually ruler of Akaneia by merit Alm, who is made leader of the Deliverance because he's Mycen's grandson and (in Echoes) Clive thinks that he would make a good figurehead, but he gains real authority over the group by merit, although he eventually becomes the ruler of Valentia because inheritance and Ike, who is initially the subject of nepotism, but then becomes the general of the Crimean liberation force because he's considered to be the best man for the job. Roy and Micaiah fit the bill in their respective games, too. And I'm sure there's even more, but those two happened to spring to mind. In all three cases, their special swords aren't a factor, though, including Ike. Yes, he carries it with him, but he even keeps it secret until the chapter with the BK fight, so he's clearly not elevated because he has such a big long sword. But my angle was supposed to be a different one: Does the protagonist have any mythical powers that are tied to their noble heritage? Marth does (Falchion), and so does Elice and a changing cabal of princesses (Aum staff). Alm does. Half of Geneology's cast does. In Tellius, Micaiah does (and that Sanaki doesn't is a plot point). This isn't supposed to lessen any deeds those protagonists accomplish. But I think it still separates Ike from the Kaga-era lords in particular. Specifically Alm, who also grew up without any noble, let alone royal, upbringing, but who turns out to have some innate "specialness": Only he can use the royal sword (because kings ought to have special swords, I guess), and I remember some convo in which one of the Ram villagers says that he "always knew that Alm was special", which because of its vagueness also has a certain "innate noble-ness" vibe to me. In contrast, what makes Ike stand out from his peers is much more mundane: He's good at fighting, and people tend to like his very straightforward and non-bigoted nature.

If banning be the food of love Ban on, ban on, ban on, ban on till I am fill'd, am fill'd with joy. Pie Iesu Domine Dona Eis Banhammer *bonk* Pie Iesu Domine *bonk* Dona Eis Banhammer *bonk* Pie Iesu Domine *bonk* Dona Eis Banhammer *bonk* Pie Iesu Domine *bonk* Dona Eis Banhammer *bonk*