#**meta

[tumbler-polls]

Real talk, it's completely incomprehensible to me that millions of people are actually voting for Trump, and not only that, but he's currently winning. This guy is a convicted felon who was best friends with fucking Epstein. As a species, we are doomed.

[probablybadrpgideas]

A normal campaign but if you make ANY references to modern media and it's caught, you take 2d8 flat damage

­

[rqbossman]

Cryptid Zoo kickstarter when

I have won over some of RQ but not all of RQ. Will update when that changes. Admittedly a common counter argument is "what's to stop me just locking you in a cage and walking off because I will if you do this." Let me cook.

[myfandomrambles]

Twelve might not always know how to verbally communicate affection but this is like an amazing act of care. She might not know it's him but honestly this is an act of love! She's his friends! Because loves a promise and an action we know this is what twelve believes! And he just continues to show that promise he fails in the end but it's not for lack of loving bill.

I think it's such a great way of showing how much he grew to care for her! Especially with showing his friendship with Missy as well. The season has so much about his love for his friends coming in contact with his depression/PTSD and the way tragedy follows the doctor like a shadow.

And of course without witness and without reward

thinking about bill telling 12 that there aren't many photos of her birth mother so he goes back in time and gives her the best christmas gift possible — a whole box of photos. i love 12 and bill because theyre friends for months, maybe even a year? before they start traveling together, which i absolutely love. its a switch up from the constant 'meet the doctor and immediately run away' thing.

[creature-phases]

In the in universe batfamily fandom there’s a relatively famous (infamous?) subgenre of fic known as the “Billionaire Bats AU” that has the Wayne family as the Bat family.

It spawns from a fic of the same name that first came out shortly after Tim started publicly appearing as Robin and is running to this day (though uploads are far less frequent)

When it first got popular there was a small amount of time where Bruce thought Tim was writing it because it got a little too many things right. Though he is able to rule that out after he finds the actual author who’s just some 14 year old girl.

The fandom gets into a lot of arguments about it:

“Barbara Gordon is a random choice for being the former batgirl I mean seriously? Just cause they both have red hair doesn’t make it make sense”

“Guys RPF is icky knock it off”

“It actually makes more sense if Batman is a time traveling Dick Grayson from a bad future”

“I’m sorry I can’t get past having Tim Drake as Red Robin have you seen the guy?? The wind could knock him over”

“Bruce is really ooc here”

“I don’t like the retcon that Tim Drake was one of the Robins”

One controversial take was when the fic introduced Clark Kent as Superman because the author is a BruClark shipper and was pushing her agenda since “Superbat is basically canon” so them being the same people made it more realistic.

Bruce keeps an eye on it just in case and it has resulted in Tim and Steph having to explain so much slang to him.

“What is an OTP? Why do people keep asking for a ‘Bruce whump’ chapter??”

[thegoatsongs]

The three Weird Sisters tried to hypnotize Jonathan in June and then Van Helsing in November.

What saved Jonathan was a low, piteous howl (dogs), and Van Helsing a low, piteous wail (Mina).

Jonathan Harker, June 24, surrounded by the Weird Sisters:

Something made me start up, a low, piteous howling of dogs somewhere far below in the valley, which was hidden from my sight. Louder it seemed to ring in my ears, and the floating motes of dust to take new shapes to the sound as they danced in the moonlight. I felt myself struggling to awake to some call of my instincts; nay, my very soul was struggling, and my half-remembered sensibilities were striving to answer the call. I was becoming hypnotised!

Van Helsing, November 5, ready to kill the Weird Sisters:

Certain it was that I was lapsing into sleep, the open-eyed sleep of one who yields to a sweet fascination, when there came through the snow-stilled air a long, low wail, so full of woe and pity that it woke me like the sound of a clarion. For it was the voice of my dear Madam Mina that I heard.

The half-vampire Mina takes up the role of the wailing dogs, saving a victim from predators.

[probablybadrpgideas]

treating all enemies as if they were player characters, giving each fucking goblin a stat sheet and levelling them up as they fight the players

­

[rqbossman]

Hey! Sorry for the semi-long question but I feel like this may require some explanation.

If you were to be inside a hard plastic hamster ball with no entrances or exits, would Micheal/The Spiral be able to kill you?

This hamster ball also has a blowtorch inside of it for undetermined reasons, if that changes the answer

Yes.

[reason-with-the-underdog]

you were not mine to save -> to be loved is to be changed

i keep thinking about how

if you boil down alhaitham & kaveh's akademiya-era fallout fight, it was that alhaitham wanted to change kaveh & kaveh could never agree with his proposed course of action

but now, as full grown adults, alhaitham isnt trying to change kaveh anymore

that core conflict does reoccur, as it did during Parade of Providence when alhaitham lectured kaveh after Act II & kaveh got annoyed

(even though Alhaitham was obviously just worried about kaveh's health/wellbeing...)

this is a common pattern of behavior for them: alhaitham is worried about kaveh & kaveh reacts defensively to it

which speaks to how stubborn & hyper-independent kaveh is

despite being someone who's dedicated to giving back to the community and contributing towards the larger social good, he's quite determined on his own path in life

he'll bear the consequences (ie bankruptcy) all by himself if necessary...! and he's much too stubborn to be talked out of his own decisions

i dont think there was any possible way kaveh could have walked away from the wrecks of the first build of alcazarzaray and still be at peace with himself

and kaveh even admits he was naive (in his teapot dialogue), but he doesnt regret it still even now

so i think its cool alhaitham realised that there's no point in trying to convince kaveh to change who he is

such is kaveh. kaveh will not be someone different, not even for alhaitham. his work & altruism are parts of his core identity

why fight a mountain who will not be moved?

instead, alhaitham goes for more "harm reduction" strategies:

help cover kaveh's bar tabs, which means he's also the one lambad calls to pick up kaveh & see kaveh home safely

snark at kaveh when he's ranting about clients to keep him in a righteous mood instead of getting depressed

there's a quote about how to be loved is to be changed....

and alhaitham certainly has changed so much from that smart-mouthed student who had pinpointed what he thought was the root of kaveh's overbearing altruism and figured he could fix kaveh's problems with that knowledge!

to now as an adult with a lot more life experience: alhaitham knows that kaveh isn't his to save

and the more he tries to force kaveh to changing, the more likely kaveh is to dig his heels in

alhaitham doesnt need to be kaveh's minder or overbearing best friend--

he wants to be kaveh's partner, his equal, which means respecting kaveh's choices for what they are

anyways kaveh's drowner analogy works rly nicely for this core conflict between them (changing people vs supporting them and protecting them from harm)

& i cant believe its canon

i really appreciate this aspect of their relationship too-- it feels very mature & realistic...

how easy it would be if you could just TELL someone how to fix their problems!

its very frustrating to see someone you care about run straight towards problems again & again...

but you can't change someone's mind bc you want it to be that way. they have to decide on their own, on their own volition, and to truly believe in their decision, for the changes to really stick

as much as it sucks that you can't just solve people's problems for them

the human experience is so much richer for all of our different perspectives and ideas and principles that will not be compromised bc someone else wanted it to be

you can't control people's thoughts & that's for the best (also alhaitham's SQ is literally about this lmao)

[dalishious]

Veilguard Companion First Impressions

So, I’ve finally recruited all the companions for the Veilguard! And as such, I thought I’d share my initial thoughts on them each.

Please keep in mind that as the title says, these are just my first impressions. I am nowhere near finishing the game yet. My thoughts very well may change after getting to know the characters more as the story progresses. Also, please do not take any opinions you do not share as a personal attack against you.

Bellara

Bellara might be my #1 favourite.

I’ve seen some people just say Bellara is “a Merrill rip-off” but I don’t think that’s fair at all. If all it took was a few similarities to say a character is a rip-off of another character, than I can think of so many boring white cishet male characters who would be guilty of that. But heaven forbid we get more than one elven woman who is passionate about her people’s culture and history!

Frankly, I think Bellara is a breath of fresh air in terms of Dalish characters specifically. Finally, a Dalish elf who isn’t punished for being proudly Dalish by the narrative.

I also really appreciate that so much of her can be easily understood by her backstory, too. Like, her feelings of never being good enough is reflective of the very realistic grief she is experiencing.

Lucanis

If Bellara isn’t my #1 favourite, then Lucanis is. They really both dominate that spot neck in neck. I can’t decide if I want to put him in a jar and shake it to see what happens, or wrap him up tight in a quilt and give him some good coffee.

I’m just a sucker for Lucanis’s character archetype, is the thing. I love taking him out simply because he’s so much fun to have around. And in terms of companion arcs, his is the one I am most intrigued to see where it goes.

Taash

(While I haven’t personally gotten to Taash’s non-binary plot yet, I am aware Taash switches to they/them pronouns, so that’s what I’ll be using.)

The moment I met Taash felt my heart skip a beat. The only thing hotter than their appearance is their voice. I know BioWare probably left Taash out of a lot of the advertising because they wanted to keep Taash’s gender stuff a surprise, but oh my god, because of this I was taken by quite the surprise. And so far Taash seems to be the type to keep a hard outer shell to protect a much softer side, and that is yet another character archetype I really love.

Davrin

My initial gripe about Davrin’s writing being so exclusively about Assan rather than Davrin himself is slowly peeling away, I hope. While I still think its bullshit that you can welcome Assan into the Veilgaurd but not Davrin, at least I’ve finally gotten a few bits of dialogue to get to know more about him finally. I just want to keep this momentum! Because Davrin as a concept has so much potential, in my opinion, and what little bits I have gotten from him have captivated me. But I can’t tell yet if it’s intentionally part of his character that maybe he’s just a closed off person who takes a while to trust others, (a little like Taash?) Or if the writer just cared more about griffons than the actual guy. I’m really, really holding out hope for the former.

Emmrich

Emmrich is so much more charming than I expected, and I found him instantly endearing the moment we met him. I also really like that we’re finally hearing some different stances and insight on death and necromancy than we ever had before from a companion! It makes him feel so fresh and completely new!

Harding

I’ll be real with you: I was not anticipating caring about Harding so much. She was who I was originally least interested in, when the companion line-up was announced. But the direction they’re taking her in has me questioning so much about bigger lore questions.

Unfortunately, I still don’t see much in her except being a vessel for those bigger lore questions, though. Like, Harding as a person has me mildly curious at best.

Neve

I’m really sorry Neve fans, but I just find her really boring so far, in comparison to everyone else. She doesn’t have a lot going on, and what she does have going on, doesn’t really captivate me much. Maybe I was just hoping she’d have stronger stances on things than she does? I don’t know.

It could be that I just really fucked up with Neve, and it won’t be until another playthrough that I’ll get to experience more that will change my mind. Because I will admit I am very good at picking choices she disapproves of, with my first Rook.

[godteri-takk]

THIS IS SO COOL!!??

kensyouen_Y

[extraordinarilyextreme]

on 妖 yao (and 慕声 Mu Sheng) in 永夜星河 Love Game in Eastern Fantasy (2024)

crossposted from a twitter thread!

there are SO many things i love about YYXH, but something i really appreciate is their portrayal of 妖 yao.

in ep. 10, Mu Sheng says, “人心有七窍，妖心只有一窍。所以大多数妖物的品行都简单执拗。” / "Human hearts have seven apertures [are complex and calculating]; but yao hearts have only one [are simple]. That's why the conduct of most yao creatures is uncomplicated and obstinate."

窍 / apertures (openings; orifices) are where the human body is connected to the outside world. as such, 七窍 seven orifices usually refers to the eyes (2), nose (2 nostrils), ears (2), and mouth (1). BUT...

in the context of the heart, it more often alludes to the virtuous character of 比干 Prince Bigan from the Ming dynasty novel 《封神演义》 Investiture of the Gods.

there, it was said that 圣人之心有七窍 / the hearts of saints [good men] have seven apertures...

...so, of course, the righteous and smart Bigan was rumored to possess a 七窍玲珑心 / lit. delicate seven aperture heart.

Bigan's story didn't end well (his heart was cut out by order of the infamous King Zhou of Shang), but 七窍玲珑 still means "clever and quick-witted."

now... 窍 can mean "opening"—but another way to say so could be 眼 / eye (or, "hole"). that is, we can draw a near-equivalency between 七窍玲珑心 / lit. seven-chambered heart and 多心眼 / lit. many heart's eyes; an overabundance of concern...

in particular, 多心眼 (or to say that someone 心眼多) not only implies wit and sharpness (i.e., "having a lot of thoughts"), but also some level of cunning and shrewdness. that is, to be "mindful of many things" means one is "considering of many things" and "calculating."

hence, returning to Mu Sheng's explanation: humans are crafty, always thinking of a hundred other variables and planning another hundred steps ahead. (that's why humans betray and deceive and hurt one another...)

but yao are simple.

yao don't have so many of these excess considerations. if they are hungry, they will seek to feed. if they are hurt, they will fight back. if they are scared, they will hide. if they are cared for, they will respond with equal gentleness.

in other words: yao are not human.

and this distinction is what made so many classic xianxias and yao-centric stories so compelling (think 白素贞 Bai Suzhen from the romance folktale 白蛇传 White Snake Legend).

to discuss our beloved 慕声 Mu Sheng as an example: it can be easy to say he has a jiejie-complex or is almost yandere-like about 慕瑶 Mu Yao, but we have to remember that as half-yao, he doesn't operate on the same frame of reference as humans. Mu Yao is the one person who has been consistently kind to him since he was young, and so he will reciprocate that kindness to (human standards of) extremity. likewise, when our cutie-pie 凌妙妙 Ling Miaomiao regards him with kindness, Mu Sheng will feel inclined to answer that with affections a hundred or a thousand times stronger.

though he grew up among humans, Mu Sheng's yao half should not be forgotten. humans may be fickle in their feelings; but yao (in general) will not be. once they have found someone worth their affections, they will love fiercely and to a terrifying degree. you can also understand it as yao not necessarily posessing the same understanding of 分寸 / "propriety" that humans do.

so, again, yao are not human—and that is why their stories have always been so compelling to us. we place limits on our conduct and behavior for a variety of socially-imposed and learned reasons, but yao as an imperfect reflection of our human selves allow us to live out our "fantasies" of extremity.

i think the new era of xianxias have largely traded that yao-human distinction for other things, like eye-catching CGI, flowy costumes, and the three lives, three worlds formula—which are, of course, not inherently bad.

YYXH itself is part of this new chapter of storytelling/the genre of xianxias after all (esp. given its existence as a 古偶), but that is ultimately precisely why it stands out so much to me.

is it the first or only xianxia in recent years to show that yao are nuanced? that yao are neither all good nor all bad? — of course not!

but i think it is undoubtedly among the very, very few in recent years that has successfully portrayed just what it is that makes yao so uniquely compelling. and that is due in large part to both strong writers (who also did 《苍兰诀》 Love Between Fairy and Devil) and strong actors.

in short, YYXH feels like a labor of love. love for the original 《黑莲花攻略手册》 novel; love for the xianxia genre; love for storytelling, in an era driven by capitalistic cash-grabs and the ruthlessness of c-ent.

the reality of that is up for debate, but as one individual viewer, i want to say that this drama has made me very happy. it is both respectful of and pays homage to the yao of classic xianxias.

and to be able to share and enjoy that cultural artefact—something that is so uniquely and immutably Chinese—with others, is something that brings me a lot of joy. ✨

[wannabanauthor]

For us BuckTommy shippers who are devastated about the election, here’s something I want you to daydream about to take your mind off things because as a black woman and lesbian with ADHD and depression, I need something else to focus on:

Imagine Buck and Tommy’s first time being after the hospital make out session.

Maybe after the wedding is over, they go to Tommy or Buck’s place. Tommy showers and Buck gets food for them. After they eat, they go to bed and cuddle because they’re too tired for anything else.

But they wake up in each other’s arms in the late night or early morning, still freshly clean.

They start off with good morning kisses, but the more they kiss, the more passionate it becomes.

Buck climbs on top of Tommy to kiss him more thoroughly, and this time Tommy is one the one to hold Buck close by the back of the neck as they make out.

Buck slowly undresses Tommy, pausing at each stage to kiss him on the lips and let his hands roam.

Once Tommy is down to his boxers, he flips them over so that he’s on top. He gets Buck completely naked and lets his eyes roam all over Buck’s body.

Buck sits up and kisses him, and they fall back onto the bed with Tommy still on top. But his lips are fused to Buck’s while he uses one hand to start stroking Buck’s growing erection.

Let your mind takeover from here. I would write more but I’m tired and my vision is getting blurry, so it’s off to bed for me.

[buckevantommy]

there's a gay!tommy meta element to the fact the writers used kristen stewart as someone he wasn't interested in (while known gay!hen was)

[mysticaltora8276]

Bingo. Anakin is indeed the villain of the franchise at this point.

I’m still not over how well Reva Sevander fits into the storyline of not just Star Wars but specifically Anakin Skywalker’s story, that she’s not just a Jedi youngling that he brutally killed her family, but that the whole point of her character was that she was on the same trajectory as he was. “You have become the very thing you have sworn to destroy,” Obi-Wan says to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith. “Have I become him?” Reva sobs to Obi-Wan in Obi-Wan Kenobi. She swore to destroy him and very nearly became the thing she herself swore to destroy.  She rationalizes it, she says she wants “Justice.” when she goes after Luke Skywalker, a youngling like herself with a family willing to die to protect this child, just as the Jedi Knights died protecting their younglings, their family.  Just as Anakin rationalized what he was doing, that he was doing this for Padme because he couldn’t live without her, this was the only way he could become strong enough to save her. Both are just excuses for their own pain and suffering and their desire for what they want, not what the people they love want.  Both come from places of understandable and deeply empathizable pain, they’re both characters that my heart aches for. But Reva stops herself, she chooses mercy at the last moment.  She honors her family, they are at peace because she chose to spare the youngling. Anakin does not stop himself, he chooses to slaughter the children every step of the way.  He loses his family, Padme and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, all of them, because he refuses to stop, to embrace mercy, even here in this show, he murders a child yet again. Reva’s story isn’t just filler for this show, she is central to the themes of Anakin’s journey, she is a reflection of what he could choose at any point, while also being a voice given to one of the Jedi younglings that he struck down.  She is absolutely VITAL to show that Anakin Skywalker chose this and continues to choose it every day.