Use the Falchion

As an LP fan I second this statement. LP has a crashout song for nearly every scenario. Feeling some deep, angsty anger and want to go back to AMVs from the early 2000s? "Dedicated," is dedicated to you! Feeling self-loathing? "No Roads Left" or "Burning in the Skies." Want some comeuppance and schadenfreude? Listen to "No More Sorrow," "Two-Faced" or "LIES GREED MISERY." Feeling betrayed? You've got "Stained" and "LOST IN THE ECHO." Going through a break-up? You've got "Waiting for the End," "ROADS UNTRAVELLED," and "Over Each Other." Greiving? Mike Shinoda's Post-Traumatic album is all about grief. And NONE of the above songs are from their first two albums, the ones people know them for. Bring Me the Horizon is great as well. For Christian songs, I love "Storm the Gates of Hell" and "Not I" by Demon Hunter. Throwbacks from my highschool days. Paramore's After Laughter is like Barbie (2024) - a mental breakdown and existential crisis disguised as a fun time. Although Paramore doesn't even hide it sometimes. (Listen to "Hard Times," "26," and "Tell Me How.") For younger, more angsty Paramore, listen to "Franklin" and "My Heart." Rise Against is also a great choice, at least their 2003-2009 stuff. "Unsteady" by X Ambassadors "I Will Hide Myself Away" was a solid go-to in the early 2010s for me as well.

Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes and Samurai Warriors 4: Empires. FEW - I was just in the mood to play it last week, and I've enjoyed the time I've spent with it. It's still not as good as Three Hopes, but it's better than I remember. I still have MASSIVE issues with the cast size and repeated builds, but once you get past those there's a decent game inside. Three Hopes - I brought it out because I wanted to get a better experience from FEW, even as I was enjoying my time with it. Right now I'm torn between finishing my Azure Gleam playthrough and starting a new one for easier access to training time to unlock classes, or doing what I've been doing and going to the Record Keeper to replay maps to grind for classes. I've also considered playing Verdant Wildfire, as it's the last route to play, but I don't care enough about the three characters I haven't unlocked to play it. (Claude, Hilda, Holst. Between AG and SB, you get all of the other Golden Deer.) Samurai Warriors 4: Empires - This game allows me to conquer Japan and ship both historical and fictional characters while doing so! I've also been inspired by some characters (both historical from the game and some original characters) for some worldbuilding I've been doing for a book series I want to write. (Background, characterization, intercharacter dynamics, and more!)

I've honestly never heard that the Iriali were the part of the Shard of Virtuosity in any regard, but interesting theory!

Mythical Kitchen has answered that question. Multiple times, even!

My reactions from July 1 from Reddit, along with some added notes: Firstly, CONGRATS TO THE ARCANISTS FOR MAKING CANON APPEARANCES! I caught, Argent (of course), Chaos (Professor Lake) and Jenn, but I’m sure there were a few more I missed. Great job y’all! I really enjoyed how much lore we got about First of the Sun, and how it all tied together. Dusk really shined in this book, and Isles does a great job of expanding on the gem that was his character in the original novella. Starling was a treat, and I really hope she succeeds in her ultimate goal! Also, I’m still convinced Spensa was either based on Starling or was originally Starling before she moved to the Cytoverse. Captain Crow was a hilarious confirmation, and I love how it teased out her previous story without spoiling it. She really needs to find a new occupation though. (Maybe freshwater biologist? Drink the water as she’s diving? …it’s a joke…) The Cosmere lore drops were INSANE. Ambition Splinters? Scadrial civil war that’s bled into space? (If I was reading that correctly.) The Grand Apparatus??* VAX MENTIONS?!** Overall a solid read. I'd still rate Sunlit and Yumi above Isles in terms of Secret Projects, and it’s about where Frugal Wizard is for me (which I REALLY enjoyed), but that’s still all an “A” for my tastes. I’m sure once I find the right theme song or playlist to listen to on rereads, it’ll rise for me. [ADDED NOTE - One of my best friends finished the book a day or two later, and he loved it. He rates it as his favorite Secret Project book. His order is: Isles, Sunlit, Yumi, Tress, Wizard.] Tomorrow, onto The Pilot by Will Wight, and the back to Chains by Nicoli Gonnella! *It feels like Brandon’s “beastly epic 200-300k word Secret Project” is also The Grand Apparatus. I wouldn’t think this would be a Hoid book, but considering what Starling thought, it could be. It could also be Sanderson keeping his options open. I also REALLY want a few more books out of Sanderson now. I want a story continuing the adventures of the crew. (And meeting Zellion of course!) I also want Kingmaker, the YA novel set on First of the Sun, to also finally work. We need more books on this setting! Finally, I want that YA Kite-based magic system. I think one of the throwaway lines by Ed mentioned a planet with freezing winds, and my first thought was “Kite-Based Magic System!” So I wonder if that’s the place.

Finished Isles of the Emberdark, The Pilot (The Last Horizon 4 by Will Wight), and Chains (Unbound 11 by Nicoli Gonnella). All three were some of my most anticipated releases for this year, so I've had a VERY good week reading. Honestly, my life has had an incredibly fun balance of social time, reading time, and video game time this summer! I've even started working out again some. Now, if only I can get some writing time in! (I can, I just need to be dedicated.) I have a few options on where to go next, but overall, the next major books I'm looking forward to won't come out until August.

Y'ALL WE'RE GETTING AN ILIAD MUSICAL!! (Personally, I would have preferred a different mythology, like Ragnarok or something, or a collaboration with Brandon Sanderson before Jorge becomes too popular and expensive to work with, but I'll take this!)

Yes, this is the most accurate information we have. According to the State of the Sanderson (and my own faulty memory): 2025 - Isles of the Emberdark for backers, 2026 for a public release 2026 - Potentially Isaac Steward's Mistborn book, currently titled "Book of Nails," and affectionately called "Boatload of Mummies." 2027 - Horneater novella (Stormlight 4.5, about Rock) and potentially White Sand Prose if Brandon can fit it in 2028 - Mistborn 8 2029 - Elantris 2, Mistborn 9 2030 - Elantris 3, Mistborn 10 2031 - Stormlight 6 Other worked-upon Cosmere Projects: Dan Wells' Cosmere series. We don't know anything other than its in pre-production and he's mentioned how nice it is to have artists in-house for concept art. Consdering how long the Dark One novelization has taken, how the Story Deck stuff took about two years, and how many other irons in the fire Dan and Brandon have, I'm personally thinking this will be a trilogy and will release around the same time as Mistborn 8, so 2028-2030. Unlisted but desired and heavily-talked-about projects: The Night Brigade - A novel about a group set on Threnody Silence Divine - A novel(la) about the planet Ashyn/Alaswha in the Roshar System The Grand Apparatus - We know literally nothing but the name Various Aether projects YA Kite-based novel A Silverlight Novella Mistborn Secret History 2 Random Hopes and Predictions: At least a few more Secret Novels (I think the next time we'll see a massive group of them will be in 2029/2030) More Story Deck short stories and novellas (I think we'll have some for Dragonsteel Nexus 2028 for Mistborn 8, and for Dragonsteel 2031 for Stormlight 6)

Has his reputation changed in the past few years? I remember him being not very positive or well-liked in the SW fandom circles I was in way back when.

I've never seen The Amazing Digital Circus show thingy, but a YouTuber named Thai McGrath did some cover/expansion/original(?) song "Openings" for the show, and they're stuck in my head now. ESC is my favorite, but I like them all to some degree or another. His Sonic Frontiers stuff is really, REALLY good. Other than that, "Parasite" by STIM and Stellar, and my little Warformed: Stormweaver playlist: Iron Prince - "Up From the Bottom" by Linkin Park Fire and Song - "Stain" by STIM Book 3 - "Run It Up" by Hanumankind

On Saturday I finally started Pride & Prejudice. It'll take me a while to get through, as I'm finding I have to be incredibly intentional about reading so I can understand everything. I'm happy I saw the Bollywood film version of the movie beforehand, so I have a rough understanding of some of the major characters.

I haven't seen Season 3 yet, but I don't think it's that bad either. There are some changes I can do without (mostly the semi-love triangle in Season 1), but the rest are solid changes IMO. Knowing some of the behind-the-scenes stuff going on thanks to several of Brandon's interviews and talks, having read the series (minus A New Spring), and having gone through Season 1 with my mom and sister (who hadn't read the books) while simultaneously watching with friends who haven't read the books, I can see why a lot of changes were made. I'm also not a die-hard fan of WoT, despite breezing through the series within about two months (while also attending Post-Bach classes), so maybe I'm not the best judge. Anyways, I'm slowly working through Watson M.D. with my parents, and I'm really enjoying it! I also saw The Accountant (2016) with my parents, and I just finished up the television movie adaptation of King Lear (2018) tonight, and I LOVED IT.

Me! I was in middle school, and I all I wanted to do was save the Younglings. That part of Order 66 got the biggest emotional reaction from me. The rest, I really enjoyed, but I didn't grow to love as much as I do now, until much later on.

When you spend too much time thinking about how awesome it would be for your second-favorite author (Will Wight) and the author of your new obsession (Bryce O'Connor, author of Warformed: Stormweaver series) joined Dragonsteel. (Please note that this works for many authors, but these are the ones I think about as they're my favorites at this time.) Pros: Concept Art On-Demand - Brandon has a team of in-house illustrators, working around the clock to fulfill his and Dan's concept art needs, as well as the needs of any merchandise desired. Just this week, Bryce sent out a call for fan-artists so he could commission them to make something. How much easier would it be if he could have that all done in-house? Built-In Fanbase - The best part about working with Brandon is that we, his fans, are very, VERY dedicated. A lot of Brandon's coauthors, while prestigious and incredibly talented in their own right, don't have the level of fame or fans that Brandon does. So, when he DOES collaborate, they get a MASSIVE boost to their own sales, even if it's something small and non-Cosmere. Say, any particular author Brandon works with sells 200-300 books a month. It's solid sales, with 10-20 books sold per day. A new book may come out, and they may sell between 5,000-10,000 on opening day, for something highly anticipated. This is all great! Now, a collaboration with Brandon may push that up to 30,000-60,000 on opening day, depending on what the project is (Skyward novellas in all formats vs Legion only in audiobook format for example) and how well it's promoted; later on, it may sell around 350-500 books a month for the first year. That can be a MASSIVE jump in someone's salary, even if they don't get the full profit. (I can't put money on it or really get an estimate, but I'd wager that Skyward Flight Collection is one of Janci Patterson's best-selling novels, if not her best-selling one.) Logistics, logistics, LOGISTICS - This is honestly the biggest draw a larger company, Dragonsteel specifically. After years of merchandise shipping and a few years of MASSIVE growth, Dragonsteel has the connections to make big moves happen without too much of a fuss. This is a really good sign for things like leatherbacks and hardcover versions of books, something that Will Wight more or less just started being able to do, and something that Bryce really can't do as much of yet. Dragonsteel isn't so big that authors become lost in the shuffle and everything's about the bottom line, but they're not so small (anymore) that they struggle pumping out the merchandise promised. They're growing, and that's a good place to be.* They've also got the connections for other projects these authors might dream of. Want to make a TTRPG of your universe? They can talk to Brotherwise for you. (And if Brotherwise is too busy with the Cosmere RPG, then they'll at least know someone else who can help.) You've gotten some interest in Hollywood? Talk to Brandon about it, and maybe he can introduce you to some people. You want to make a graphic novel? They've got the means and know-how to do so in-house nowadays! Cons: It's Unnecessary - Will is a big name in his associated subgenres and has run several successful Kickstarters. (He's had at least one, maybe two, raise over a million dollars. That's HUGE.) His company is mostly family and friends, and at this point in his career it's a well-oiled machine. He's even done smaller events focused around his books and works, and has (small) panels at bigger events. Add in the fact that there's a massive crossover between fans of Will's works and Brandon's works - and it's growing quite often! - and you'll see that Will doesn't actually need Brandon to function. Bryce is even more impressive, as he has several other smaller indie authors under his publication. (Due to who some of these authors are, I'm not sure Brandon would feel comfortable buying out or taking over Bryce's company, nor would I push it, if I was in a place to give advice.) However, Dragonsteel absorbing Bryce's company could theoretically mean that Bryce can spend a lot more time writing at a lot less time on the admin side of things. More writing ideally means faster books, and under the Dragonsteel umbrella, that means more eyes on them, which in turn means more sales. But Bryce is a "pantser," or rather a "gardener" not a "planner" or "architect" like Brandon and other writers who work with him are. It'd be hard for Brandon to have a meeting with Bryce about where his story is going and when the next book is coming out, when Bryce himself wouldn't know. (THAT BEING SAID, Bryce is pretty consistent about getting chapters out semi-regularly.) It Slows Everyone Down - The larger Dragonsteel gets, the more meetings Brandon has to have. The more meetings Brandon has to have, the less time he's writing. Once writing decreases, the wait-time for books increases, and nobody likes that! Sure, having Will and Bryce on the team means that Dragonsteel would still be releasing books, but it's not the same. People already get upset about how many collaborations Brandon already has; adding more authors to the list wouldn't help. And honestly, Brandon would probably add to the wait time on Will and Bryce's books. I can't imagine that Sanderson would allow ANY book under Dragonsteel to be released without his final say. Just look at how long it's taken Brandon and Dan to get Dark One out. So now Will, Bryce, and Brandon are all delayed on releasing books because of the planning meetings as well as revisions going long. Potentially Less Money in the Long Run - As much as I talked about how sales can be boosted above, that's not a guarantee. When collaborating on the book, the profits are split, so each author gets less than if they wrote the novel all by themself. Ideally, in the case with Dragonsteel, an influx of new fans from Brandon's promotion would make up the difference. But what if that's not the case? What if book sales don't reach the threshold where it was beneficial to coauthor a book? The only one winning is Brandon, and even he would probably feel like his time could have been used better on different projects. Overall - Imagining Bryce and Will's companies joining under a Dragonsteel umbrella is a nice fantasy, but it's not realistic. It just shows how much I think Brandon and his company could benefit other authors, and how fun it'd be to see more authors under Brandon's umbrella. (Neither need it. Bryce's company is too established and would cause a lot of growing pains and issues if it combined with Dragonsteel. Meanwhile, Will's company is focused on only Will's work at this time, but it doesn't need to be bigger or the support of a larger author.) *As an aside, I don't envy Dragonsteel as a company. On one hand, Brandon's talked about how if he just signed leatherbounds, he wouldn't ever have to write another book again and his family and company would be okay. However, to keep the company growing, he needs not only to provide more books, but also merchandise. I can't imagine how much of a toll that could take over the years, providing new items to the store annually...

On Reddit, a lot of fandoms seem to be doing the whole "fill out the chart with characters/what would these characters' jobs be in XYZ setting," with EPIC being the most active that I've seen. HOWEVER, now someone on the Fire Emblem Three Houses Subreddit is filling out the chart of characters, using Three Houses characters. For example, Claude would be Odysseus, Dimitri would be Zeus (Dimitri has the voice to match Zeus, and he IS lightning-themed in Three Hopes after all!), and Lorenz is Eurylocus. Today's vote is for Polites. While this probably won't be the case, my guess/speculation/votes for upcoming roles:

I've done it with other steamed cakes/breads (Souffle Cheesecake and Japanese Mushi-Pan), but not this. I want the outside to have a crisp, but the inside to be soft. Hence, the comparison to a cookie.

I tried to make a butter cake in muffin pans, in order to replicate some of the style of what was served at the restaurant my parents and I went to for my mom's birthday, and it...wasn't the best. I think the primary issue was the recipe. While I feel like the butter cake served as more akin to a snickerdoodle than a solid cake, or at least in-between the two, a majority of butter cake recipes I saw were either incredibly simple, or for a St. Louis Gooey Butter cake. I choose the latter, if only to see what would happen, and it was...okay. The best part was the top layer, and that tasted too similar to chess pie for me to enjoy it as much as I probably should have - after all, if I wanted a chess pie, I would have made a chess pie! The cake part was decent, but probably overcooked given that the recipe was meant for a sheet pan, muffin tins. Oh well, live and learn. I'm getting the urge to work on my Frankenstein (cheesy spinach-stuffed chicken breast that's panko-fried in duck fat and served over toasted spinach tagliatelle and vodka sauce) and then try out my smoked rice pudding arancini again for dessert, but I have no one to share the meal with, (as I plan on making it when my parents are out of town and I get to watch the house), and that's just sad. Oh well, eating for one never stopped me before!

There's an Epic thread, but it's mixed with other fandoms.

NGL I'm afraid to listen to it for some reason. Hearing that it's better than most of Epic Narratives is definitely a plus, as I probably feel similarly about the album. But part of me also doesn't want to buy or listen to the song if a new EP or album is already on the way either...

I did! During the pandemic, I watched a LOT of Community. I was looking for the next comedy show for me and my family, since they sort of soured on Black-ish, and we had already watched Parks & Rec (or as much as we could before Peacock didn't allows us to use an HDMI to connect my laptop to the TV) and Brooklyn 99. I went through Community, Modern Family, and eventually Abbott Elementary came out, and here we are!

Unsouled, Shadow and Bone, and Gardens of the Moon is a CRAZY combination! Berserk and Gardens of the Moon can go together, as both series are grimdark to varying degrees. (Gardens of the Moon was a tough read, but the next two malazan books have some of the most epic scenes I've ever read.) I'm hesitant to say that Shadow and Bone and Assassin's Apprentice can go together, but they probably can. At least for their respective first books. Unsouled doesn't really fit with either, but Cradle books are short and sweet, so they can be used as nice palate cleansers. If you like Cradle, I've got a list of recommendations for you to check out!

"Up From the Bottom" by Linkin Park is my new theme song to Cradle Book 1: Unsouled. (However, it's also been my theme song for Warformed: Stormweaver.)

Agreed, but historically Fire Emblem has been the exception to the rule. FE games are rarely on a system within its first launch year.* In fact, it's more likely that we'll see a Fire Emblem game at the end of a console's life than towards the beginning. This goes double for remakes. Shadow Dragon, New Mystery, and Echoes all released right as a new system was coming out, if not after said new system came out. Genealogy keeping that trend would be par for the course. In fact, a new FE game coming out to launch a new system would be breaking the habit, not conforming to it. Then again, nothing Nintendo has done recently has made much sense from an outside perspective. *GBA and Gamecube released in 2001, with Binding Blade and Path of Radiance releasing in 2002 and 2005 respectively. 3DS in 2010, Awakening in 2012/2013. Nintendo Switch releases in 2017, and Three Houses releases in 2019 despite being planned for 2018. There are more examples, but you get my point.

I was hoping for SOMETHING Fire Emblem to be announced in today's Nintendo Switch 1 Direct, with reliable insiders such as Nate the Hate claiming it exists, but, as has been the case for the past Directs, we've had nothing. I'm losing hope in it, to be honest, and if it doesn't appear in next week's Direct, I'm moving to the "new mainline FE on the Switch 2" bandwagon. On the bright side, I have no reason to hold back on replaying Unicorn Overlord anymore, and I'm more motivated than ever to continue playing Romancing Saga 2 now.

Ayy, Heir to the Empire! My favorite theme song for Thrawn is "Your Father" by Joel P West, from the Shang-Chi soundtrack. It just fits his vibe so well.