#[every time]

[atimefordragons]

For the first time in my life, I am proud to wear this suit. It means I'm an X-Man. I am THE X-Man. — Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

[apostaterevolutionary]

I am so sorry, apparently it’s 2024 and I’m arguing about dragon age again lmao. How did I get here! Why is this happening!! Time is a flat circle!!!

Anyway. People can feel how they want about the past games not mattering in this game. If you’re cool with it, I’m happy for you. But there’s one particular argument in defence of this choice that is really, really bothering me and I have to rant

The thing I keep seeing is “well all this other stuff has nothing to do with the main plot or Rook, so it should be cut” and that’s. Not a good way to tell stories in my opinion. Because here’s the thing: it’s not about the Big Overall Plot. It’s about the characters that live in this world, big and small

I’m going to use the example of Varric and Hawke cause I think it’s the easiest to explain quickly. Varric is a storyteller. That’s the defining trait of his character. He tells stories, and sometimes they’re true and sometimes they’re not and sometimes it’s something in between. In DA2 he tells you about his brother. In inquisition, he talks about hawke and there’s banter about several of the companions. Most of these are just little one liners that don’t “serve the overall plot” but they serve Varric’s character

And that matters

So if we take this character known for telling stories about people that have been in his life, well, he largely can’t do that now. How can he talk about Hawke, someone who can be a very close friend of his, without even their gender being a choice you can select? Or whether Varric should be saying ‘is’ or ‘was’ about them? How can he talk about the companions in DA2 or inquisition when a lot of them don’t have to be recruited or can die? Will he limit himself to only characters that are guaranteed to be a part of it and alive? Or is it that he and Rook will have such a shallow relationship that Varric, of all characters, never talks about his life and past exploits?

Or has Varric as a character changed so much that he doesn’t even want to tell stories anymore? That Hawke living or dying means nothing to him? That the friendships he built with people in 2 games mean nothing to him? That he’s become literally unrecognizable?

This is where the problem is. Sure, Rook maybe doesn’t care about these people they’ve never met. But do they care about Varric? What about if a companion mentions an old friend of theirs, talks about an experience they had that made them who they are - is that only okay if that experience isn’t from a previous game? Or are all the characters so flat that we never learn anything about their connections to others outside of Rook? Is this story SO focused on this player character and this plot that NOTHING else matters, even within the world, and there’s no depth to be found in any of the characters that feature in it?

Writing characters so that they only ever talk about things that “directly serve the plot” is how you get flat, unremarkable, boring, forgettable characters. And that’s not something I would have accused bioware of doing even if some instalments are stronger in this area than others. But it sounds like that’s what they’re doing here, at least with the past characters. Cause sure, maybe Morrigan is so closed off she’ll never mention her son and partner. That’s believable, even if iffy given that they’ve said she’s going to be more involved than we think. But Varric? VARRIC??? Never mentioning ANY of the people he used to spend time with and care about except Solas and maybe some of the inquisition characters that can’t die or not be recruited but also carefully skirting around what happened to them in the game? That’s literally not the same character

And I would expand this to like. A letter mentioning this or a codex mentioning that, or ambient dialogue about so and so - that makes the world feel deep and those random, unimportant NPCs feel richer by connecting them to the larger world. It’s not about “serving the plot”, it’s about making your world and characters deep enough that they feel real, lived in, and like something we can actually care about

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Every Kdrama is like, "The worst thing about being an orphan/fatherless is not learning how to ride a bike/learning on your own" and then usually "They can ride a bike now, so everything is good." And wow it's everywhere! I mean, these are literally just from 2024:

(No Gain No Love, Lovely Runner, The Atypical Family, and Perfect Family)

Bonus callout to Seo-cheul from Queen of Tears who just had crappy parents for learning to ride a bike as an for his kid:

[atalana]

the curse of adhd:

i will remember with absolute clarity, when the thought strikes me that i have a text to send someone, that this is the fourth time in three days i've attempted to send this specific text

i will forget, in the time it takes me to pick up my phone, that i picked it up intending to send a text

[thebuginthecornerofyourroom]

:)

[frownyalfred]

Every time I read a “Justice League meets their evil counterparts from another universe” fic and it’s Clark, Diana and everyone else fighting their evil doppelgängers while the Batmans just…talk? I eat that shit up every time. Even if they do end up fighting, those Bruces always gotta sit down and hash it out first, maybe nerd out a little bit. You know, normal things to do with your evil twin from another universe.

[classycookiexo]

[little-pondhead]

Me: man, I’m bored with AO3 down, what should I do? *automatically goes to open AO3*

Me: …oh yeah

[my-heart-of-heart]

Me: Whatever the reason or implication, Chester’s statements have a pattern of reflecting Jon’s story in tma. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that this pattern would continue.

Tmagp 11: Chester reads a statement about a guy who is driven to paranoia and stalking tendencies because he needs to See and Know what’s going on.

Me: HOLY SHIT

[fleur-a-whump]

man i love the notes on whump content. they're always like, 'this is the most horrifying thing i've ever read! give me more right now!' or 'noooo poor sweet baby blorbo!! make it worse >:)' its just so silly and fun

[spirk-trek]

After seeing this video I had to look up Nimoy's guest appearance on T.J. Hooker (1983) and was NOT disappointed!!

[pangur-and-grim]

why is it that whenever I look up something distinguishing I do, the first result is autism

[invisiblebard]

Every time

[warlenys]

we talk about wilson being awful and evil deep down and he is but importantly that doesn’t erase the sincerity of his kindness. he is truly kind. he needed to help that old woman in post mortem because he does care about people. what makes him interesting is that he doesn’t want to. he gets mad at himself for being kind and nice and selfless and enabling. he wants to be selfish and mean. he would be happier that way. meanwhile house hates himself for being selfish and mean. house wants to be kind. house would be happier if he was wilson and wilson would be happier if he was house. and both of them are only able to be those versions of themselves when they’re together. they not only want to be with each other, they want to be each other. but the fucking tragedy of it is that they actually need to be the versions of themselves that they don’t like to be together. because if wilson was mean he would’ve dumped house ages ago and if house was kind wilson wouldn’t find him interesting. house loves that wilson is secretly evil but needs him to be kind, and wilson loves that house is secretly kind but needs him to be evil. they can’t change. they have to suffer themselves to enjoy each other. they’re plagued with an inability to be who they want to be in anyone’s arms but each other’s, but they both have to be who they don’t want to be to be in each other’s arms. the immutable tragedy of the hilson paradox

[thoughts-ofawriter]

ok, I’m just gonna fix this hold on— *overcomplicates the narrative* *overcomplicates the narrative* *overcomplicates the

[somerandomdudelmao]

Are you questioning your existence right now? Seeing how people starts to help out of blue? Can you feel it~? *dancing to the music*

IM QUESTIONING IT SO INTENSE YOU HAVE NO IDEA