#✦ ・ convo: [name of the person] ∬

[utilitycaster]

Do you get the impression CR has been subtly trying to tamp down speculation C3 is the last campaign lately?

No, I do not.

I'm guessing this was prompted by the WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED video but that just tells us that they have ongoing production plans going into 2025, which, we knew, because if nothing else the Mighty Nein animated series is still in production. They will still exist as a production company that puts out new stuff long after they stop running longform campaigns.

I want to stress that what I'm about to say is not directed specifically at you but at the fandom at large based on some patterns I've seen - this ask felt like a good opportunity to do so because it touches on some of those patterns but please understand I'm not holding you accountable for all of this; I just use anon asks as this sort of jumping off point sometimes.

I think the cast overall cares WAYYYYYYY less about what the fandom is doing and saying than much of the fandom thinks they do. I think most of them are barely aware of what the fandom is doing and saying. When they do know and care, they are not shy about saying when they think the fandom did something they think is obnoxious (Bowlgate freakouts, sharing Braius's original backstory, thinking Orym or Ashton should have stopped Laudna; or on a more serious level, Liam and Marisha both did a lot of damage control after Molly's death when people were being hostile towards Matt and Ashly Burch and told those people to cut it out and be nice to their guests.)

I've gotten a few questions about whether I think C3 is the last campaign, and my genuine answer is I feel less certain it is than I was before, but as I have zero insight into the CR cast's discussions or priorities or production plans, this means literally nothing, because I was guessing wildly then and I'm guessing wildly now. (I'm pretty solid on making narratively-based guesses but that goes out the window when it comes to production decisions). But also I saw a poll yesterday on whether this is the last campaign, and like. Look. Someone asked me towards the end of Campaign 2 if this was the end of Campaign 2 and I was like "Surely not! We still have Molaesmyr!" and then Campaign 2 ended like 3 episodes later. It's normal and understandable to try to say "but we'll get more, right? RIGHT?" and I've done so myself, but that poll could get a 100% response rate of "OF COURSE THERE'S A CAMPAIGN 4!" and then 5 months from now we could get an announcement that C3 was the last longform campaign, because no one answering that poll knows the answer. It's very normal to want an answer and to hope for more campaigns - I would be thrilled with a Campaign 4 - but literally we don't know. It's entirely possible the cast is still deciding; and if they have, this is probably information that only the company and like, their immediate circle of friends know, if that.

It's literally impossible to shut down speculation, and even subtle attempts to do so are likely to backfire. Without going on a rant about one of my most deeply felt subjects, while fandom is a great place in which I've met many wonderful people, it is also fertile breeding grounds for conspiracy theories, a thing I loathe with every fiber of my being. Again, I think that the cast could run a QA panel in which every single cast member said in unison "The canon ships in TLOVM are Vax and Keyleth; Vex and Percy; and Pike and Scanlan" and someone would be like "well, I saw Taliesin in the bathroom two hours later and he took precisely 47 seconds to wash his hands and from this I can conclude PERCY AND VAX REAL." And from what I understand regarding anime fandom it's about a million times worse, which is to say, I think the cast knows that and knows to just not bring up a Campaign 4 until they're good and ready and to let the fandom do what they will.

tl;dr the cast cares way less about what any of us think than many of us think; you will almost certainly not find out if there's a campaign 4 and what system it is in until the cast announces it; and the thing about wild speculation is that there exist people who will straight up ignore direct unambiguous statements in order to persist in their own personal alternate reality.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Based on a real group chat convo (I was Jingyi)

[kirkwallguy]

Demonizing a paganistic religion of people inspired by real life indigenous groups costed them nuanced, complex, high quality writing and storytelling. Dalish, elves and eluvian doesn't exist IRL, but we can read meanings beyond texts, which is why the term media literacy exist... Fantasy isn't real but people who write them is. And topics to write doesn't fall from the sky.

Everything I've seen post-da2 writing feels very pro-christian; i see someone once pointed out how believing in andraste was written a neutral trait while for non-human characters letting go of their beliefs (like, qun) is requirement for them to learn and grow :) Humans' racial and religious domination (colonialism parallels) is pretty much slept on, but qunari (eastern boogeymen) invasions are a threat.

You can excel a story by telling how people on powerful positions can hurt (which something da2 did) without pushing it onto the audience's throat by making them a boogeyman of sort. Meredith is a good example of corruption. DA2's storytelling is based on the corruptions of institutions and the way they hurt people; in Origins you can still feel that.

I still have similar problems with DA2's party banters if I'm being honest, those i said above (they're not necessarily a post-da2 thing...) but at least in a bigger picture it tells a story of domination and oppression and the way it effects people.

Yes, it is a fantasy. But the people who write them and decide the write things the way they did are not. Meanings are coming from beyond the monitor.

oh yeah i pretty much completely agree - dao and da2 have problems in the sense that they're mostly written by white usamericans (and canadians? i think.) but it at least seems to be using the chantry as a way to criticise christianity, even if their perspective on religion is kind of narrow. but dai it just feels like they almost couldn't bring themself to make it evil? even when they try to inflict some issues in there it's immediately smoother over or chalked up to independent bad actors. we literally play the leader of an INQUISITION. i know it's a fantasy inquisition unaffiliated with any real-life inquisitions but did they not think that there might potentially be some baggage there.

scififantasy always has a distinction between "this is an actual religion with a capital g God whose identity we will never confirm" and "this is a mystical fantasy thing where the gods are basically marvel villains who were evil btw and everyone who worship(s/ed) them is an idiot" and they never make the christian-coded religion the latter one!

[rizaposting]

been thinking a lot about my royai kid ideas lately but i don't think a lot of people will like them because i don't name the kid after maes lol

[pgranateseeds]

I know a lot of people want it, but I don't think we'll ever get a conversation between Sandra Lynn and any of the bad kids about what Bobby Dawn did to her.

A. It's just unnecessary. We already know the gist, we can already see the ramifications of that action, and a conversation would just be retreading already discovered ground

B. Sandra's relationship with Fig is nearly always in turmoil. Ever since seeing her offer a shoulder to Adaine when she drank heavily when it was her, Fig has been avoiding Sandra when she could. She said in the fight when Baxter arrived, "I'm not trying to see my mom right now," and they didn't talk At All when she took them to the temple ruins. If Sandra Lynn was going to talk to anyone about Bobby, it would be to Fig just bc of closeness, and that's just not happening, at least not for a while. Also i see people define Bobby's short and disastrous relationship with Sandra as sexual grooming, and i find it hard to believe that if she was groomed, she'd tell her daughter, especially not to then say "Fig You Were Groomed Too" or "Fig, Don't Trust Random Men." I think people put way too much emphasis on Fig's bits where she kissed adults in earlier seasons and said "would i know if i had sex? What if I've accidentally had sex?", like those were just jokes, the latter being a joke abt how Fig didnt understand what sex was as a 14 year old, and i don't believe it would be fun for the table if those jokes were treated with the solumn seriousness of fig then being a grooming victim. Also Fig already distrusts men, she was right about Porter and she was stalking Ruben and literally every man outside of her family that she's come in contact with, she's either bullied or investigated, she doesn't need to be told a tale about how men ain't shit

C. Bobby is just much less of an antagonistic player in this conflict than previously expected. Yeah he was involved with The Big Bad, but after the reveal, a majority of the focus shifted onto Porter, Jace, and the Rat Grinders. I don't see the next two episodes having a moment where they sit down and talk about Bobby in depth, beyond "he was/is an asshole"

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

Just realized that only 14 of the 101 fics I have published since 2018 pass the Bechdel Test, keep me in your prayers.

[that-was-anticlimactic]

i think it's about time that we acknowledge that, no, that character would Not change their name in a groupchat! especially not to that. and, no, that character would not change everyone else's names! especially not to that.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ed seems like one of those popular/outgoing extroverts who talks to a shy introvert once and then whenever said shy introvert enters the room he's like "HEY it's [name]!!! what is UP man!!" and like saying the introvert's name over and over and hyping them up so that everyone around him knows that this shy person is cool and he likes them

[frostbite-the-bat]

talked w/ a friend about this and wanted to post something similar yesterday after a convo i saw also

about people criticizing ttcc / ttcc fans for just... being cog fans? being cog centric? usually coming from people who only like the toons.

and everyone likes what they like! it's okay! but saying that people who like the cogs are horrible and support the bad things they do, is just blatantly wrong. i thought we knew that enjoying villainous and morally Bad / grey characters is... okay? it doesn't mean you support what they do. it's interesting to explore these topics.

i've seen many people just... paint anyone who likes the cogs as horrible because they're "apologists of x and y" and... i dunno. rubs me the wrong way! you do have a point and recognize the cogs do bad things, but liking them as characters means nothing about who you are as a person.

and this is not to say that people who are in toontown for the toons are bad. hell! they are right this IS toontown. i may be on the cog liker side but i like the toons! maybe ocs more than the npcs - mostly because i like my friends and the sheer creativity the toons can bring out!!

SO what i wanna say... i dunno. let's not point fingers...? let's have fun in a goofy cartoon game together??? also complaining about people liking VILLAIN ROBOTS on TUMBLR is kind of funny to me. do you realize where you are. but then again a lot of this i see on discord and in-game as well since i avoid things on tumblr... i am a sensitive little fella i avoid misty fight bc of One Really mean "Critic" guy i saw there and i have been shivering in my bootsies since. so you get me

but like yes ttcc is more cog centric but... that's okay? things could be written better and i still wanna speak on it, and i do thing the toons deserve attention and better writing... but the fact it focuses on the cogs isn't... bad? if you don't like how con centric it is you can go play ttr...? god forbid people have fun and explore the villain's side of things...? i'm not saying either toontown server is better or worse than the other... and everyone can like their own things!!

but like... people will just like the cogs and that's okay and it doesn't make you bad. let's all be friends okay? both sides may be going at each other's necks in-game and the cogs in fact do horrible things - but it's what makes them fun, and it gives the toons things to do in the game!! but we don't gotta !!!!!!!! i may be really sarcastic and sometimes mean in private but like that's me just privately sassing, deep down i think people should just... y'know..? enjoy things.

so yea that's the guzma / cathal thought of today. toon people cog people both people are all awesome as fuck and you keep doing what you're doing i love you toontown isn't toontown without you

[jennystahl]

joining a server full of insane ppl for a niche interest is . not. worth it

[hozaloza]

GUYS RED'S BOYFRIEND (Austin) LOOKED AT MY IG STORY.

AGAIN.

HELPP

ofc the one story he liked, it's the one he understood the backstory behind it because I live in the same state as him 🤠 (there was a flash flood warning, and I made this story below in humor of it)

he even saw the rosepunch </3

THE ROSEPUNCH YAPPING

HELPPP

[no-one-hears-me]

"please don't do that" = my inspiration to do that

[starry-bi-sky]

Please please please tell me you have an ao3

i do actually! i go by imshookandbi on ao3 and have a few fics up there posted from a few various fandoms.

[rizaposting]

did you know in the FMA ps2 game Broken Angel, Riza goes undercover as like, a secretary or something, but her cover name is fucking "Margot Orange Peko". I choose to believe she chose it for herself because it reaffirms that she's the funniest person alive.

She's the only one who could pull it off without wincing or laughing. She's completely straight faced, so obviously she's not lying right? So she gets to force people to look her in the face and call her Margot Orange Peko. Legendary. I'm kissing her on the mouth.

[confetti-critter]

bruh I finally get over my debilitating anxiety about donating to gaza related fundraisers because theres so many ppl that need help and idk where to begin and i never feel like my money is helping at all and the

fucking website won't load 8D

[artbyblastweave]

Just got back from the Jonathan Coulton Concert; if anyone wanted to take advantage of precise knowledge of my location to strike me down for my assorted wrongs, that would have been the appropriate time. Anyway he's really really good at that.