Wumblrrrr

Because it was trained on pirated work—including freely accessible online writing (like fanfic, academic texts)—ChatGPT picked up patterns and quirks native to human writing.

Including (sigh) the em dash.

There are other victims here (RIP tapestry and delve 🫠), but the appropriation of the em dash—a punctuation mark beloved by writers everywhere—feels especially personal.

A kind of low-grade panic is ensuing. Writers who once memed their own em dash overuse—the greatest punctuation mark ever to grace the control-freak’s lexicon, frankly—are suddenly backing away to avoid accusations.

No. More. We have centuries of dash-abusing writers behind us. We will not sit quietly while AI repurposes our beloved stilted aside—or the just-one-more clarification the sentence demands—or the dramatic pause your comma could never—etc.

You don’t write like AI—AI writes like you.

Defend the em dash.

(Feel free to download/share/stick it where it matters!)

Like, obviously there's Wick and Occtis who are SO similar. Each a scion to a sundered house who sided with the shapers, both extremely isolated by their families, both 5'11", etc.

But while Occtis was isolated because he was "useless" without magic, Wick was isolated in order to serve as a perfect tool for his family to use. And while Occtis knew his family sucked, he still wanted to become something like them. Wick, after learning the truth of his family, is put off by even his own natural magic and its origin. There's so much going on with them as parallels it's insane.

Vaelus and Tyranny are both (technically) nuns, both serve a powerful being who is also a parental figure, both are ancient but also new to the world, and both are attached to Occtis/Wick because they represent something important to them (rebirth/redemption).

Where they differ is that Vaelus sees a renewed hope in Occtis while Tyrrany almost resents the fact Wick believes she could be good when she knows she can't.

Thimble and Julien are connected to house Royce and driven by vengeance. They have an inherent dislike toward Wick/Occtis due to their families being responsible for destruction falling upon their people. But Thimble's vengeance is just an excuse to run from her grief while Julien's is a step toward closure for what happened.

They also differ in how they treat Wick/Occtis. Julien (at this point) only sees Occtis as a means to get to his family for the sake of his revenge. Thimble doesn't see Wick as a means to take down the Halovars, but she still wants him to be better and take down his family. And in return he wants to prove himself to her that he's actually good.

Thaisha and Kattigan are the least similar, but both are the most worldly members of their party and the most down to earth. They are empowered by nature and understand the natural order of the world more than the others. Both also showcase very maternal/paternal instincts.

Then there's Teor.

Tumblr: shut up and look at the same gifs of Garrus again