Jinora's Bad Boy

Archaeologists, studying the skeletal remains of a teenager in western Panama, have discovered the earliest evidence of cancer in Central America. The adolescent was between 14 and 16 years old when she died, in about 1300 CE. Although her skeleton was first found in the 1970s, it was not until recent re-analyses were done that signs of a tumor were identified on their upper right arm.

Greg Ellis, voice of Cullen in Dragon Age, is reportedly missing. Via friend Jeff Rosenthal, Ellis allegedly was a no-show for a scheduled visit with his sons, and reportedly is “in need of mental health assistance.” The two have talked on Twitter in the past as friends, so the information on Ellis’s disappearance appears legitimate.

For those who can’t view the additional images:

Jonny Rees (Greg Ellis) has been confirmed as a missing person. Case #161511285. Call 213-996-1800 if there is any contact.

wow this couldn’t have started with a better scene holy hell

DREAMS COME TRUE!

One minute, they had been sailing peacefully through the waters, gone to bed for the night. They were in one of the most peaceful territories, this far out in the Wujin Sea, so Kai hadn’t bothered to give any of them the duty of lookout. And then, all of a sudden, they had woken up in the middle of some kind of grassland, their poor ship stranded on the ground. Kai had been reluctant to leave, but it also didn’t seem like they were near water - and no where that would help them figure out how to get home, because this clearly wasn’t anywhere they knew… Even Lefty, who by far had the most experience out of all of them, had no idea where they were.

That was before they had seen the men on horses. Kai didn’t like the look of them; that, and the fact that the horses meant outrunning them if they were enemies would be practically impossible.

Otaku had been laying down a trail, and Kai had been picking out whatever landmarks he could find, so they could find their way back to the ship. Not that hiding in the Waterbender would do them any good.

Otaku shook his head.

Speaking of which, he looked up when he saw the grand doors opening to see his kid and Jinora walking into the room, and let out a sigh of relief. Skoochy perked up too, looking at his friend. 

“I’m fine Cap,” he mumbled. Kai didn’t believe it for a second.

“Don’t bullshit with me,” he said firmly, yet not unkindly. “Memories?” he guessed.

“After the khal, there are his bloodriders. His qoy qoyi. That means ‘blood of my blood’. They’re his sword brothers, sword to a life of servitude to him and their blood is considered his. In Varrako’s case, that’s very literal. His father and Kai’s father were actual brothers. After that, there are the ko. A ko is basically a lieutenant, and they command a division of the khalasar each. In this particular horde, they also act somewhat as nobles. Since they are considered a somewhat elite class of fighters, commanding men of their own, they have respect among your average warriors.”

“After them, there is also the khal’s family. Nima, here, is the khalakki. the khalakki is the daughter of a khal and, essentially, a princess. A prince or a son is a khalakka. The oldest khalakka is heir to the khalasar. However, generally, they will not follow a child khal so this really doesn’t become meaningful until he becomes of age, but, here, there are steps to prevent anarchy and rebellion in case such a situation occurs. Then it goes to your average warrior, member of the tribe, finally, slaves and foreigners rank at the bottom, but there’s also room for elevation. Through battle prowess that is. Among the Dothraki, the better warrior you are, the more respect you have. Even in other cultures, they respect great warriors even of ifak, or foreigners.”

Hello! Of course it’s not a bother, I like to help! :)

The veiled hat is called “wéimào/帷帽”. I wrote a little on it in this post, and I also have a weimao tag. Below: historical weimao.

The original form of the weimao was the “mìlí/幂蓠”, a hat with a body-long veil that originated from the foreign cultures of the northwest. The mili became popular during the Sui dynasty (581-618), especially among ladies of the nobility who rode horses on public roads. The fancier veils were adorned with jade and kingfisher feathers. Below: mili in a historical drama.  

The mili’s veil shortened toward the end of the Sui, and the new wide-brimmed hat with shoulder-length veil was known as a weimao. During the Tang dynasty (618-907), the weimao became so popular that edicts to wear the more modest mili were ignored. It was popular not just among palace women, but also among commoners who followed their lead. Below: weimao in historical dramas.

Let’s Talk About POV

Point of view is one of those techniques that I think a lot of writers aren’t sure exactly how to use, including myself sometimes. Because there are so many options, it’s hard to decide what’s best for your story. I don’t think there’s necessarily a wrong way to go, but there’s certainly things to consider. 

How many points of view do you really need?

When you’re writing a scene from a point of view different than your main character, is your main character present? If you only had one point of view, would the scenes still be able to happen? What I’m basically asking here is if your secondary point of view character is off on a different adventure/story/event than what the main character is doing? Are we getting to see something we wouldn’t be able to see if you were only using one point of view? 

If the answer is no, I would strongly reconsider using multiple points of view as a tool to see other perspectives on a scene. While it can be interesting to see how Character B views a scene versus Character A, it can get superfluous if that is the only reason we’re seeing this point of view. 

If the answer to these questions is yes, read on.

Are these other POV scenes important to your story?

You mention that you have one main character, but if your other characters have equal distribution of point of view, then it becomes harder to distinguish that main character as being so. You might have a key plot in mind that your main character is driving, but when Character A has the same number of POV scenes as Character B, a reader will look at Character B’s scenes and wonder what importance their scenes will play in the overall plot as well. And if their scenes are merely a window into that character’s past, personality, or development, or if they’re part of a subplot that doesn’t play a part in the main conflict, then those scenes could also become extra content that your story doesn’t really need. 

If your secondary characters’ point of view scenes are important to the main plot driving your story, and they have an equal number of scenes to your main character, I would actually argue then that these aren’t secondary characters at all! I would interpret this as an ensemble character cast. 

Does this mean all characters have equal importance?

Not necessarily. What it means is that each one has some importance. One key decision they make, or several small decisions, impacts the main plot/conflict of your story. If you took this character out of your story, it would be missing something, and you’d have to adjust for their absence for altering other plot events or character decisions. They would be difficult to replace, essentially. 

If the character could easily lift right out, it doesn’t mean you should eliminate the character. It just means that you may not need to be telling the story from their point of view. It would make them more of a minor character that might be great for moral support for the other characters, but they don’t truly impact the plot. 

If after all this, you think it’s still crucial to your story to include these separate points of view, then let’s talk about those considerations. 

Choosing point of view for a scene

You’re actually on the right track with how you’re choosing point of view. You should be choosing who best fits the scene. Some authors like to have a kind of “pattern” or “cycle” of point of view characters, as a way to keep it consistent, but I think both methods have their own challenges.

A POV Cycle

This is if you have 4 characters, and you just cycle through them in the same order for each scene/chapter. Sometimes, depending on your story, this works great, but you have to do a lot of plot manipulation to make sure that the character whose “turn” it is matches up with a scene their point of view is appropriate for. And that’s not easy. I think this really only works with 2, maybe 3, point of view characters. It worked great for Marie Lu in Legend, where she alternated between the two main characters’ points of view. 

What Works Best

If your story is the type of plot that unfolds with a very precise order of scenes that can’t really be rearranged, then you should write the scenes in the proper order, and choose the point of view character that works best, regardless of how many times you’ve already used the character. Don’t add a filler scene just so you can use a character’s point of view that isn’t present in your next logical scene simply because “it’s been a while for that character.” 

Deciding “what’s best” is really up to you! Sometimes it can be better to choose the character who will be most emotionally impacted by the events of the scene, but sometimes, if the event is truly devastating, it can be more effective to use another character’s point of view and have them describe/explain the devastation from a somewhat objective point of view. Sometimes a character might have a better ability to rationalize through a complex problem, so it would be more effective to use their point of view and describe their thought process in detail, as opposed to relying on the character’s dialogue to convey it to the other character. 

So it really does depend on your story, your writing preferences, and ultimately your characters. 

I personally recommend this second method, as opposed to the point of view cycle, especially if writing with multiple points of view is something you haven’t had a lot of practice with. It’ll help you get better at differentiating between scenes that drive your plot and support character development vs. scenes that serve only to develop character. Scenes should really do both. 

Format?

One last note on this, because it’s something simple that can trip a lot of people up. Do you need to put the character’s name at the beginning of the scene to denote their point of view? If it’s first person, it’s definitely a good idea, since first person pronouns could be anyone, and while a reader might be able to figure it out from context clues and voice, you don’t want them wondering if they’re wrong or right. So for first person, I would say yes. Third person, it’s not so necessary. The character’s point of view you’re using should be the subject of most of the sentences in your first paragraph, so it should be easy for a reader to distinguish. 

To the original asker, don’t worry so much about it looking sloppy! As long as your scenes aren’t filler, and as long as your characters’ actions are benefiting your plot, then write the point of view that works for you. 

The Calendar in the Spirit Library

Current date in the episode “The Library”: Yang Wu Era, Year of the Monkey

That calendar is really, really cool and so full of tiny details that I could kick myself for not paying closer attention to it earlier. It is the perfect example of why I am sad that there is no official book about all the hidden meanings and references the creators and animators put in, because I am certain I am missing things, no matter how close I look.

The calendar is divided into: Month, Day, Era and Zodiac/Year

We have had official names for the eras and I never noticed :(

The eras seem to not be regularly spaced (not the same length), but to correspond to the Avatar cycle i.e. a new cycle begins with each new Avatar. When the cycle of the 16 eras is complete, it can be assumed that it begins anew, just like months do.

Each radical* of the first character character of an era corresponds to the element of the Avatar (see picture).

* Radicals are the parts a single Chinese character is composed out of.

The years follow the Chinese Zodiac.

The months and days correspond to 12 months/31 days. It is not clear whether the calendar is lunar or solar.

Eras

1. 氜武 - Yang Wu: This is Aangs era

2. 淳泰 - Chun Tai - This is Korra’s era

3. 坧元 - Zhi Yuan

4. 烱裕 - Jiong Yu 

5. 氜隆 - Yang Long

6. 溢文 - Yi Wen 

7. 培治 - Pei Zhi - Era from Sokka’s scroll i.e. the darkest day of the Fire Nation

8. 焜德 - Kun De 

9. 氲貞 - Yun Zhen 

10. 渪明 - Ru Ming 

11. 堯平 - Yao Ping 

12. 煬崇 - Yang Chong 

13. 氛安 - Fen An  

14. 漳順 - Zhang Shun 

15. 垣正 - Yuan Zheng 

16. 焯光 - Zhuo Guang - Roku’s era

1 一

2 二

3 三

4 四

5 五

6 六

7 七

8 八

9 九

10 十

11十一

20二十 or 廿

21二十一 or 廿一

The Walls of Ba Sing Se - a series of stars that form the outline of Ba Sing Se’s walls, the city was built to mirror its shape.

Roku’s flare - a revolutionary firebender who opposed the imperialistic views of the Fire Nation under Firelord Sozin, shows the man’s fiery steadfastness

Yangchen’s Arrow - very distant descendant of the Gyatso family, Yangchen was known by her blue arrow tattoos, shown as a constellation of an arrow.

Ship of stars - the faint outline of a ship, most notably with a mast, set over the Wujin sea

Qilaq’s Scales - as the sea goddess who determines where souls go - her realm, heaven, or to hell - her scale that weighs the soul’s bones are set across the stars.

The singing siren - a small cluster of stars that form a boulder and sometimes three sirens, most notable in winter and early spring months.

The Serpent - believed by most to reference the legendary sea monster that guards the Serpent’s Pass, the Serpent is a spiral of stars visible all year long.