#*is a grumpy old lady*

[pangur-and-grim]

Belphie has gone from chasing after Grim and leaping over her back like a show pony, to being suddenly quite shy and giving her (too much) space. so now it is part of my daily routine to hold him up and let her lick him all over his bald scalp, so that Belphie realizes she loves him

[redkehlchen]

>:(

[ninjautizm]

Sum more garsako doodles!!

[tenderanarchist]

I just found this old picture of my cat when we first got her as kids

So scrunkly 🥺

[autumnslance]

The worst part too about the Paladin quests is it's Heavensward that's most egregious. It honestly feels like someone had no idea what was going on, or didn't care, or left, and their colleagues left holding the bag with this mess of a story had no idea what to do with it.

ARR Gladiator quests are fine! They're along the lines of the other Class quests, intro you to the job and a complicated character dynamic, and it's a decent time.

The ARR Paladin quests...are just boring. They aren't actually even that bad, they're just...utterly predictable, bog-standard tropes and plot line where you can see everything coming malms away. But they have an internal logic to them that builds on the politics and scheming in Ul'dah. Jenlyns realizes he's an unwitting pawn of the Syndicate, and he was literally chosen for the job cuz he could be easily duped and controlled. He doesn't even get to have imposter syndrome, he's actually unfit for the job (and then strives to do better, leveraging support from Papashan and Mylla to shore up his own weaknesses, which is admirable!).

...Nevermind that traditional Paladins in general are a bad fit for Ul'dah. The heavily armored Sultansworn makes no sense in that desert environment, and looking at a world map we can even see that Southern Thanalan seems to be on the equator. Like it's not even a case of "it's cooler than it seems cuz they're further north." Because they're not. And I know the devs wanted to have Ishgard perhaps be a starter city but that was scrapped due to time and resources, fine but um.

Dragoons are still trained in Coerthas, by Coerthans. Why didn't they just...do that with Paladins? Keep Gladiator in Ul'dah, where it makes sense as presented. But then have to work with Temple Knights to get the Job. Especially since after Ul'dah's intro, the game just forgets the Sultansworn exist and they have no bearing on the MSQ the way the other factions in Ul'dah do. Not even in the finale of ARR's arc where it would make sense. Gladiators are a constant in other side quests and MSQ both.

Stormblood Paladin is also fine--because it goes back to those Gladiators, and we interact with Paladins and Knights across the realm, and deal with those complicated relationships between the Gladiator guild core members. It's internally logical in its drama about finally restoring Aldis's reputation and place in Ul'dah, against the backdrop of the tournament.

Heavensward Paladin straight up makes no sense. Solkzaygl's actions are entirely contradictory to his character and arc from ARR. There's no way for some of the actions to occur without him working with the outlaws in some way. Instead of teaching Constaint, he sends him on a merry chase across Coerthas to learn on his own, and it's only the WoL's aid that sees the boy live, let alone make progress. A random man dies, guilt-ridden, due to Solk's scheming and lies he confided to this poor guy.

And then Highlander-esque "there can be only one" nonsense. Even as a Highlander fangirl in my youth, it was insulting and awful. Papashan, Jenlyns, and Constaint all call out how nonsense, illogical, unlikely, and stupid this whole story is...all to make a sword shine.

Because there's no internal logic to events, let alone the reason for the string of happenstance that leads to the finale.

And we know it's possible; HW Blacksmith gives us a fantastic paladin story! One that fits Ishgard's storyline and HW's themes. HW Dark Knight is also a good paladin story, actually, as they are meant to be another angle on the concept of dedicated knight defenders. Samurai for the Eastern equivalent, and the concepts and tropes present in those quest chains.

But the job actually bearing the name "Paladin" is left in the dirt. As a fan of the concept across various games (video and TTRPGs both), it's quite frustrating how the devs had no idea what to do with this job, despite other members of the writing and scenario team presenting stories that would have fit perfectly well within the framework. Only some of it is misplacing where Paladins originate in the setting; the rest is not taking advantage of the themes and setting of the expansions, and just not caring enough about the characters and story to even try, compared to the rest. Or worse, they did try, and meant for more, but whatever intrigue and complex plot they wanted to create was too much for 5 quests and no guarantee the arc would continue in the future, even if it had landed perfectly.

[jollmaster]

you, dirty bastard, hands off these women in our sanctuary

[moocha-muses]

Dodo wants attention!

[caemidraws]

so...there’s this senior citizen (complaining, as usual...from...the clouds? Am I the only one seeing him or..?)

[friendly-jester]

some pictures of my daisy to brighten up your dash 🌼💖

[dootznbootz]

Some of y'all are missing out on the joy of having your cat trot up to you after calling their name, already purring and with their little tail up high doing happy flicks. It can literally make a bad day become good.

[beth-bunkus]

good morning lovely people, time to rise hissing and spitting once again

[softspeirs]

Hey pals. I am so so enjoying all the new writers (or long-time writers who are writing for a new fandom) and all the MoTA content that's out there lately!

I just have one gripe: please please use a "read-more" when you post your fic!

That little squiggly guy at the end. On mobile it looks the same, in the toolbar at the end of your post.

So many of us do our browsing on mobile, and long stories without a read-more make it so much harder to see other people's posts. To me, it borders on "tag spamming" like we used to get back in the old days. It's also really helpful to put things under a read-more if they're explicit, so people can choose to interact with that content only if they choose to.

I'll stop "old man yells at cloud" now, but please keep the experience of other readers in mind when you post 😘

[autumnslance]

Reminded by another post, but awhile back I saw someone muse about how few maleWoL/femaleNPC ships they saw compared to other wolships, and saw someone's response that there "aren't enough available female NPCs who are alive and not sidelined it's basically just Y'shtola." Which, well...

Transcript of my 2 Twitter posts:

Claiming there's no fem npc shipping due to a dearth of fem npcs who're alive or not sidelined when the popular male npc ships include dead guys, prior expac chars, sidequest npcs, or guys who just exist but say nothing is the Usual "don't want to write women as people" nonsense. If you can pretend male npcs dead for 8 years are alive & shippable & practically make them OCs anyway what's stopping you from doing the same with the plenty of available female characters? Besides your own victim complex &/or misogyny?

Maybe a bit harsh at the end but. Seriously. I started in Heavensward and the number of people who took the few lines a handful of the Ward said and spun them into characters to write ships for. The other Ascians before the Unsundered dominated the conversation (and they're dead now but still shipped with!). Sidequest NPCs. Job NPCs. Characters inevitably left behind as we leave their expansions. Haurchefant is still one of the more popular wolships.

Yeah there's a lot SE has gotten wrong about women (especially before the lead writer switch). There's often fewer of them than male. But they are far from nonexistent, have stories and personalities, and if you can put in the work on the men whose characterizations are lacking or have been sidelined or are dead in canon, what is actually stopping you from doing the same with the women? Whether you ship with them or not?

[kirisclangen]

Quillmallow

She/her, 70 moons, cis molly

[chaoskirin]

THIS JUST IN: local ten-year-old baby found GUILTY of shitting in food bowl every single day instead of somewhere else in the twelve-square-foot vivarium that would be easier to clean up because it's bioactive and that's how it's supposed to work. More at 11.