astralleywright

[astralleywright]

Announcing the Champion of the 2nd CR Non-Endgame Ships Poll...

Widobrave!

With 1,011 votes in the final round, Caleb and Veth beat Orym, Dorian, and Ashton with a 56/41 split! Congratulations to them and to every Widobrave fan who voted during the tournament. And, thank you to everyone for participating and to every artist who contributed art! This fun little thing would not have been possible without all of you.

Have a wonderful day/night/whatever time, you lovely folks 💜

Widobrave art by @victoriangold

[astralleywright]

[astralleywright]

[astralleywright]

Love you, Bells Hells <3

[astralleywright]

tramell tillman is the kind of actor that you expect to look up and find years of theatre experience with at least half a dozen shakespeare credits to his name but then on the severance podcast he’s like “yeah i didn’t realize i wanted to be an actor until a few years ago 🤗” as if his role as milchick isn’t the craziest/coolest/scariest performance you’ve seen

[astralleywright]

Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

[astralleywright]

[astralleywright]

sympathetic does not equal 100% good person with zero flaws, see ludinus himself lol

no absolutely, exactly even. i reblogged a post a couple days ago that covers a lot of it well, about how you don't have to agree with someone or like them, or can even think they're detestable and irredeemable, and still understand them. feel bad for them, even. not only is this allowed, but being able to understand the whys of a person who behaves terribly is the first step to getting them to stop, or at least from preventing another person from acting in the same way. even, again, for a person who's enacted such drastic harm that "shoot that guy," really is the correct response, it keeps us human to try to understand. it helps us see the systems that exploit and change us (and how the worst of us enact most of their hurt through these systems), and it reminds us of our own capacity to do harm.

[astralleywright]

response to last night's divergence episode reinforcing this strongly. people suddenly understand C3's message about the power of the collective to survive and love and dismantle the systems that would harm them and imagine a better world. because now the oppressing force is landlords, and the (justified, correct) hatred of landlords has become so memeified in online progressive spaces that you can hate them with only the barest of understanding of why they're bad. have you considered that landlords have families and have saved people by giving them places to live and are afraid to die and are really really sorry about all the people they hurt being a landlord but WILL start raising rents again if it helps them-

in general though, a lot of things in c3-ruidisborn, undead, aeormatons, Aeor, Hearthdell, Ruidis-are obviously not one-to-one comparisons for real life identities, or ideologies, or places, or concepts. the gods of real world faiths aren't even really a good comparison for Exandrian gods.

but power exists in Exandria, and the stratification of it, and oppression. Matt is exploring colonialism and cult indoctrination and war. it's fantasy, but the dynamics of the above reflect our own, are built from real world understandings of them.

so beyond the explixcit racism and misogyny that's everpresent in fandom, there's also a lot of stuff that isn't exactly analogous to real world -isms, but is spoken about in a way that calls those things to mind. victim blaming of the oppressed and outcast and othered. villainization of anyone who takes issue with the current system, and dehumanization of those who have done wrong in the name of changing it. impassioned defending of the most powerful. there's a lot of stuff that feels like it was written by someone who may have unlearned this or that real life prejudice but never unlearned the harmful beliefs that underpin and sustain them, and is reflecting that now.

[astralleywright]

[astralleywright]

Dadna <3

[astralleywright]

Rico Nasty photographed by Brian Ziff for Metal Magazine (2024)

[astralleywright]

You witness the final miracles. You will need to be strong.

[astralleywright]

[astralleywright]

would you believe she wants to keep / the rest of me, the death of me?

[astralleywright]

[astralleywright]

It's been a while since I've posted any critical role fanart!!!! This was a sketch of Imogen that I just kept working on between other projects cause I just think she's so beautiful. T-T

Eventually I wanna do some huge cr pieces but that's for another time >:3