lawfulgoodedgelord

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

*gets up on soapbox, clears throat, holds megaphone up to mouth*

Being a good person is a behavior you do, not a quality you are. Nobody but nobody is immune from making bad decisions. You are not inherently anything at all; your actions, not your thoughts, decide your character. You can always become a better person by taking better actions.

/disassembles soapbox

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

12/27/2024

He's about to deck your halls.

The saints' RPG adventure continues every Monday and Friday through December!

___

JOKE-OGRAPHY: 1. Continuing from the last few cartoons, an angel is running a fantasy RPG for some saints in heaven, namely Sts. Thomas Aquinas, Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, and Nicholas of Myra. At long last, they've all introduced their characters. Surely they'll finally get to play the game now! 2. St. Nicholas was an ancient bishop whose legends of gift-giving became the inspiration for the modern Santa Claus. The name "Santa Claus" even comes from a foreign pronunciation of "Saint Nicholas." In stories, Santa lives at the North Pole and is known for having a magnificent white beard. In fantasy, dwarves are also known for their beards, but also for their compound-word surnames ("Beardhammer," "Oakenshield," "Hearthstone," etc.). Thus, St. Nick makes a dwarf character named Klaus (as in Santa Claus) Northbeard. 3. St. Nick is also known for slapping a priest named Arius at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. At that Council, Arius shared his heretical view that Jesus did not have the same, equally divine substance as God the Father, but was instead a creation with a similar but inferior substance. According to legend, St. Nick, who was a bishop at the council, was so enraged by Arius's heresy that he slapped the man in front of everyone. Thus, in this cartoon, Nick references his impulsiveness and temper and creates a barbarian character, because -- according to RPG-logic -- barbarians can channel their rage into superhuman strength. 4. At the council, the fathers used the Greek term "homoousios" (same substance) for the orthodox belief that Jesus was of the same substance as the Father, and the term "homoiousios" (similar substance) for the Arian belief that Jesus was of a similar but inferior substance. In this cartoon, Francis notes that Nick's character description could technically apply to both Nick's character and also Nick himself. To this, Nick says they have the same substance, but Thomas argues that they have similar but different substances, because Nick is not the exact same as his character. To describe this difference, Thomas is about to use the word "homoiousios." However, Nick dislikes that word due to its use by the Arians, so he throttles Thomas while shouting, "Why iota...!" He shouts this because it sounds like, "Why I oughta...!" which is something people shout when they're flying into a rage (as in, "Why, I ought to strike you!"), but instead of "I oughta" he says "iota", because the difference between the words "homoousios" (which he likes) and "homoiousios" (which he hates) is a single Greek letter: an iota. 5. As Nick assaults Thomas, the angel shouts, "Hey! No PvP!" In game terms, "PvP" stands for "Player vs. Player," describing games or game modes where the players face off against each other instead of working cooperatively or fighting against fake enemies and Non-Player Characters.

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

Joy Sullivan, from Instructions for Traveling West: Poems; “These Days People Are Really Selling Me on California”

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

My Fireforse 2011, 2012, 2016

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

Magpie call

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

Ominous howled rendition of "Silent Night" recorded in the woods at 1AM this morning.

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

file -> phrases that are going to shift something in me forever

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

“You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become” - Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

feel free to reblog with your favorite long fics

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

I think an important part of the "D&D is easy to learn" argument is that a lot of those people don't actually know how to play D&D. They know they need to roll a d20 and add some numbers and sometimes they need to roll another type of die for damage. A part of it is the culture of basically fucking around and letting the GM sort it out. Players don't actually feel the need to learn the rules.

Now I don't think the above actually counts as knowing the rules. D&D is a relatively crunchy game that actually rewards system mastery and actually learning how to play D&D well, as in to make mechanically informed tactical decisions and utilizing the mechanics to your advantage, is actually a skill that needs to be learned and cultivated. None of that is to say that you need to be a perfectly tuned CharOp machine to know how to play D&D. But to actually start to make the sorts of decisions D&D as a game rewards you kind of need to know the rules.

And like, a lot of people don't seem to know the rules. They know how to play D&D in the most abstract sense of knowing that they need to say things and sometimes the person scowling at them from behind the screen will ask them to roll a die. But that's hardly engaging with the mechanics of the game, like the actual game part.

And to paraphrase @prokopetz this also contributes to the impression that other games are hard to learn: because a lot of other games don't have the same culture of play of D&D so like instead of letting new players coast by with a shallow understanding of the rules and letting the GM do all the work, they ask players to start making mechanically informed decisions right away. Sure, it can suck for onboarding, but learning from your mistakes can often be a great way to learn.

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

Here’s to 2023, a year of as many little courageous kindnesses as possible. ♥️

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

There’s also a large grey area between an Offensive Stereotype and “thing that can be misconstrued as a stereotype if one uses a particularly reductive lens of interpretation that the text itself is not endorsing”, and while I believe that creators should hold some level of responsibility to look out for potential unfortunate optics on their work, intentional or not, I also do think that placing the entire onus of trying to anticipate every single bad angle someone somewhere might take when reading the text upon the shoulders of the writers – instead of giving in that there should be also a level of responsibility on the part of the audience not to project whatever biases they might carry onto the text – is the kind of thing that will only end up reducing the range of stories that can be told about marginalized people. 

A japanese-american Beth Harmon would be pidgeonholed as another nerdy asian stock character. Baby Driver with a black lead would be accused of perpetuating stereotypes about black youth and crime. Phantom Of The Opera with a female Phantom would be accused of playing into the predatory lesbian stereotype. Romeo & Juliet with a gay couple would be accused of pulling the bury your gays trope – and no, you can’t just rewrite it into having a happy ending, the final tragedy of the tale is the rock onto which the entire central thesis statement of the play stands on. Remove that one element and you change the whole point of the story from a “look at what senseless hatred does to our youth” cautionary tale to a “love conquers all” inspiration piece, and it may not be the story the author wants to tell.

Sometimes, in order for a given story to function (and keep in mind, by function I don’t mean just logistically, but also thematically) it is necessary that your protagonist has specific personality traits that will play out in significant ways in the story. Or that they come from a specific background that will be an important element to the narrative. Or that they go through a particular experience that will consist on crucial plot point. All those narrative tools and building blocks are considered to be completely harmless and neutral when telling stories about straight/white people but, when applied to marginalized characters, it can be difficult to navigate them as, depending on the type of story you might want to tell, you may be steering dangerously close to falling into Unfortunate Implications™. And trying to find alternatives as to avoid falling into potentially iffy subtext is not always easy, as, depending on how central the “problematic” element to your plot, it could alter the very foundation of the story you’re trying to tell beyond recognition. See the point above about Romeo & Juliet.    

Like, I once saw a woman a gringa obviously accuse the movie Knives Out of racism because the one latina character in the otherwise consistently white and wealthy cast is the nurse, when everyone who watched the movie with their eyes and not their ass can see that the entire tension of the plot hinges upon not only the power imbalance between Martha and the Thrombeys, but also on her isolation as the one latina immigrant navigating a world of white rich people. I’ve seen people paint Rosa Diaz as an example of the Hothead Latina stereotype, when Rosa was originally written as a white woman (named Megan) and only turned latina later when Stephanie Beatriz was cast  – and it’s not like they could write out Rosa’s anger issues to avoid bad optics when it is such a defining trait of her character. I’ve seen people say Mulholland Drive is a lesbophobic movie when its story couldn’t even exist in first place if the fatally toxic lesbian relationship that moves the plot was healthy, or if it was straight.                          

That’s not to say we can’t ever question the larger patterns in stories about certain demographics, or not draw lines between artistic liberty and social responsibility, and much less that I know where such lines should be drawn. I made this post precisely to raise a discussion, not to silence people. But one thing I think it’s important to keep in mind in such discussions is that stereotypes, after all, are all about oversimplification. It is more productive, I believe, to evaluate the quality of the representation in any given piece of fiction by looking first into how much its minority characters are a) deep, complex, well-rounded, b) treated with care by the narrative, with plenty of focus and insight into their inner life, and c) a character in their own right that can carry their own storyline and doesn’t just exist to prop up other character’s stories. And only then, yes, look into their particular characterization, but without ever overlooking aspects such as the context and how nuanced such characterization is handled. Much like we’ve moved on from the simplistic mindset that a good female character is necessarily one that punches good otherwise she’s useless, I really do believe that it is time for us to move on from the the idea that there’s a one-size-fits-all model of good representation and start looking into the core of representation issues (meaning: how painfully flat it is, not to mention scarce) rather than the window dressing.

I know I am starting to sound like a broken record here, but it feels that being a latina author writing about latine characters is a losing game, when there’s extra pressure on minority authors to avoid ~problematic~ optics in their work on the basis of the “you should know better” argument. And this “lower common denominator” approach to representation, that bars people from exploring otherwise interesting and meaningful concepts in stories because the most narrow minded people in the audience will get their biases confirmed, in many ways, sounds like a new form of respectability politics. Why, if it was gringos that created and imposed those stereotypes onto my ethnicity, why it should be my responsibility as a latina creator to dispel such stereotypes by curbing my artistic expression? Instead of asking of them to take responsibility for the lenses and biases they bring onto the text? Why is it too much to ask from people to wrap their minds about the ridiculously basic concept that no story they consume about a marginalized person should be taken as a blanket representation of their entire community?

It’s ridiculous. Gringos at some point came up with the idea that latinos are all naturally inclined to crime, so now I, a latina who loves heist movies, can’t write a latino character who’s a cool car thief. Gentiles created antisemitic propaganda claiming that the jews are all blood drinking monsters, so now jewish authors who love vampires can’t write jewish vampires. Straights made up the idea that lesbian relationships tend to be unhealthy, so now sapphics who are into Brontë-ish gothic romance don’t get to read this type of story with lesbian protagonists. I want to scream.      

And at the end of the day it all boils down to how people see marginalized characters as Representation™ first and narrative tools created to tell good stories later, if at all. White/straight characters get to be evaluated on how entertaining and tridimensional they are, whereas minority characters get to be evaluated on how well they’d fit into an after school special. Fuck this shit.                            

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

openin’ the door to the microwave one second early because you don’t need all the hootin’ and hollerin’

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

since folks seemed interested, here are some unused and uncommon mid-duty voice lines for the ancients + meteion from shadowbringers & endwalker (most are uncommon/hard to trigger but some are entirely unused)

transcription & notes below

Hades/Emet-Selch (The Dying Gasp): "By His grace will darkness reign over all." "Death comes for Her servants." "I shall rebuild our kingdom upon your bones!" "Abomination! You seek to shatter my soul?"

Warrior of Light/Elidibus (Seat of Sacrifice): "Hah, it matters not who comes to your aid."(1) "Clad in prayer, I am invincible!"(2)

Hydaelyn (The Mothercrystal): "By force unrelenting!" "A change of arms- mark well my movements." "Flee. You have been found wanting."(3)

Venat (Trust): "Quite..."(4) "Ugh, this is nothing..."(4) "A poor showing..."(4) "Confound it all..."(5) "I was unprepared..."(5) "No... I can't afford to..."(5) "I will do better."(6) "It isn't over yet."(6) "I'm in your debt."(6) "Open your eyes, now."(7) "I will tend your wounds."(7) "Your journey isn't over yet."(7) "Stand firm."(8) "Stay the course."(8) "Mayhap this will help."(8) "Let death's judgement be stayed!"(9) "Let life flow ever abundant!"(10)

Emet-Selch (Trust): "Another fine mess..."(4) "This is going swimmingly..."(4) "Would someone hurry up and heal me?"(4) "Pre...posterous..."(5) "Couldn't... get any worse...?"(5) "If only I could... transform...!"(5) "I do have an image to uphold."(6) "Time to repay the debt."(6) "Slow. A sound choice, but slow."(6) "Steady now."(7) "What a bother."(7) "Look alive."(7) "Oh, very well."(8) "Pay attention, now."(8) "Don't waste this."(8) "On my seat's honor, I shall protect all!"(9)

Hythlodaeus (Trust): "Not quite as planned..."(4) "I've had better days..."(4) "Some healing, if you would."(4) "End of my tether..."(5) "I knew this wasn't my forte..."(5) "Take care of the rest, will you?"(5) "Oh, you shouldn't have! ...No, really."(6) "What, already?"(6) "Well... back to it, I suppose."(6) "As you were."(7) "Are you alright?"(8) "Pain, pain, go away."(8) "Ooh, interesting." "I have a proposal." "Let's make a little something." "Hope this works."(11) "Who, me? You can't be serious."(11)

Meteion (The Dead Ends): "The more its people fought to live, the further the plague spread..." "...for altruism and selfishness both were its carriers." "...for naught could be done to stop the spread."(12)

Endsinger (The Final Day): "'Tis so lonely between the stars... battered by the husks of the dead and dying."(13)

Themis/Elidibus (Pandaemonium 11): "I learned this technique from a dear friend!" "Long have I dreamed of the day that we match wits... but every dream must come to an end!"(3) "My deepest desire..."

1. based on file order, this was likely meant to play as an initial reaction to the mid-fight summoning, to be followed by "You...! It cannot be...!" upon recognizing Emet

2. if you attempt to DPS LB while he's not casting/in the middle of something else, he'll say this and use Hallowed Ground to invuln through the LB

3. enrage quote for extreme/savage

4. low health

5. death

6. just raised

7. raising someone else

8. healing someone else or invulning (for tanks)

9. tank LB (unused)

10. healer LB (unused)

11. DPS LB (used but Hythlodaeus REALLY doesn't like to LB so including LB1 and LB2 here)

12. all are alternate/unused lines for the first area of The Dead Ends

13. "'Tis so lonely between the stars..." is used, but "battered by the husks of the dead and dying" is not

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

emet-selch + wolf pupy

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

sometimes I forget orchids grow on trees and I’m like. oh.