Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I lost a huge multi-post writeup to get this bit from Amspacher's "Troya Victa" but there was a tremendous stew of ideas swirling and coagulating about in the late 12th/early 13th century Frankish mind. 120
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 14/09/2026In light of recent UK news, the tiny British Overseas island of Tristan da Cunha has an opportunity to do the funniest possible thing. 000
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 14/10/2025Love how you drew the last (and least photogenic) emperor 000
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 11/07/2025This isn't putting his own virtues at odds with those of Liu Bei - he's not failing from lack of persuasiveness - but he's sacrificing himself out of duty for an incompetent emperor and an unattainable cause. The show has him realize this futility in a dream, even if he never outwardly admits it. 111
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 11/07/2025Kongming on the other hand has more of a cosmic problem, because he's shouldered the entire burden of restoring the Han and won't let anyone absolve him of that duty given to him by the now-dead Liu Bei, even though its increasingly apparent that he's fighting fate. 110
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 11/07/2025But what Roberts doesn't point out in his intro is that the anti-Wu campaign works in the novel. Wu offers to undo its offenses, and is rejected. Xuande's virtue of treating those on his side well (disproportionate to their actions) means pursuing vengeance to the point of annihilation on principle. 100
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 11/07/2025But the tragedy of Liu Bei as a character is that the same qualities that propel him to leadership also put him in a position where those qualities are irresponsible, which is why his emotionality is so important to establish. He can't separate the personal from the political in a dynastic system. 130
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 11/07/2025Liu Bei is virtuous on a personal level. It's not just that he tries to do the right thing or refuses to do a wrong thing, his moral code is intertwined with emotional investment - so in the show he constantly wears his heart on his sleeve because he cares about his people. 2010 version doesn't. 192
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 10/07/2025Since I started watching the 1994 Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I picked up a book called "Three Kingdoms and Chinese Culture," and in Moss Roberts's introduction he talks about how ROTK is about values systems in conflict. The show really gets at the central tragedy he identifies in the narrative 191
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 10/07/2025Just made it to the end of the 1994 Three Kingdoms fansub and man. 1184
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 26/06/2025I empathize with the Shu people who are exhausted after 5 years of campaigning from Mount Qi in the Hanzhong region. I understand the concern, but the difference is back then we had dumb generals. 131
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 11/06/2025It may be gone now, but this is my greatest accomplishment on this app so far. 010
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 05/01/2025The lack of sources in translation is a key part of it, like the one "complete and unabridged" translation of Romance (to say nothing of an actual history!) still was obviously just a mass Google translate, with predictable results: 110
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 17/11/2024She has a boomerang. Her hair is also a boomerang. It's Aika! Post a character and tag others to do the same! @doodlebot11.bsky.social @muitosmezaninos.bsky.social @stellarseastar.bsky.social 000
Panicles @panicles.bsky.social · 18/10/2024This new batch comes just as my friend and I were about to run out of weekly Three Kingdoms episodes. 021
