#DO IT FOR THE LULZ

[cattimeswithjellie]

"The reconnaissance mission was not a complete failure. It was funny."

-Grian, Secret Life 7

[otterfool]

New hyperfixation just dropped

[freyalorelei]

It's wild that this show gave us a canon merfolk AU. It's such a classic fic trope. What's next, canon modern flower shop and tattoo parlor AU? Canon sex pollen? Canon Omegaverse?

David Jenkins, I triple-dog-dare you to make canon mpreg. We know you can make it happen. We believe in you.

[essektheylyss]

I understand the impulse to clown on Essek for walking around in Vasselheim with his recognizable voice with the Bright Queen's spearhead commander, and of course we could turn to the metatextual elements (the necessity of signposting the world for players on the part of the GM, the ease of using a familiar ally to introduce a relevant NPC and new point of contact) to dismiss this if we wanted, but I think it's more interesting—and funnier, as you'll see—to imagine this as simply an extension of the laws and logic that dictate the Mighty Nein as a narrative entity.

Fundamentally, the Mighty Nein within their campaign pursue personal and collective agency, often at the expense or in denial of political power. Where they do interact with more political forms of power, they evade its grasp upon them, most notably in their interactions with the war, but also while they engage with the Cerberus Assembly, the Cobalt Soul, and even the Revelry. The way they pursue agency, on the other hand, has far more to do with their own support of one another and their own individual power, especially where there is magic involved, and manifests in having the freedom to move and act as they wish in the world.

The culmination of this, as we know, is the mechanical ability in their final battle against Lucien and the Somnovem to manipulate the terrain of the battle map to their advantage with only imagination. At the same time, Jester and Caduceus can both call in free favors from their gods, one of whom is unlimited by the Divine Gate and in fact is far more governed by fey logic. Fjord has made three different divine pacts and is virtually unrestricted by any of them. Caleb's hallmark is an almost infinitely malleable home that almost literally seems to operate as a hammerspace, with a pinnacle dedicated to the potentiality of the universe, the application of which is one of his signature spells—against all odds successful in his initial goal, no longer fueled by guilt and grief, of bending reality to his will. It's narratively and thematically cogent that this be the calling card of the party as a whole.

The Mighty Nein are, in effect, dictated by Looney Tunes logic, and nothing else. They have been so successful in their pursuit of their own freedom that they no longer abide by the cosmic laws of Exandria, let alone the laws of physics or sense. So yes, from an external point of view, it does look exceedingly foolish for Essek to be traipsing around in Vasselheim under the Bright Queen's nose, but it's far more entertaining to argue that being a member of the Mighty Nein in fact simply confers the capability of ignoring the laws of reality without consequence when it's narratively convenient, characteristically interesting—or just really fucking funny.

[itsaliveblog]

Tumblr needs a micro transaction that enables you to turn on a Voter Fraud slider. It lets you change your vote in a poll. And maybe has a 15% chance of being able to cast an extra vote.

[hyakunana]

God and his staff

[albeolambda]

yeah

[clipzicle]

more :3

[uncanny-tranny]

Like obviously the whole "they're just doing [x] for attention!" is completely asinine because humans are social creatures who need attention to some capacity, but also... in your narrative, does everybody do things specifically for your attention? When somebody does something drastic or shocking, is it not because they're desperate for help but just because they crave your attention specifically? Does the sun rise and set at your command as well?

[nando161mando]

"Just do it!" - Shia LaBeouf

[randomthunk]

Opening Day is upon us once again! Batting sixth, the catcher for the Necropolis On Sea Oxventurers, of the Geth Professional Baseball League, Merilwen!

[adversarialaccountant]

Comic about realizing after you graduate that you maybe stunted your own creative growth by not realizing sooner that you probably should have just taken a creative writing minor 4 funsies

[crimeronan]

Laughing hysterically at the premise of Amity, who has spent almost every night in Luz's room along with Hunter, seeing Grimbaby!Luz with Hunter's eyes and being like "What. What. What. How the fuck did I miss Luz being with child and also how the fuck did that even happen without me knowing in the first place???? Do I want to know the answer to that??? Probably not!!!!!"

amity is like i thought for SURE i'd finally sorta sussed out the semi-platonic nonsexual heterocentric throuple thing we have going on and it turns out they've actually been DOING IT the WHOLE TIME???

[lawain-dimensional-heroes]

Rules: choose 4 of your favorite characters from 4 pieces of media as options and let your Tumblr pals decide which one most suits your vibe.

[t00thpasteface]

Could not stop thinking about how you drew Hawkeye’s legs in the suburbia post, for like a week then the fascination was over. I do like how you drew them but I don’t understand why I was in hysteria over it now

the brief fixation you experienced is what mulcahy must endure every day of his life. down bad for that skinny bitch

[zara2148]

Interesting Bits from Midnight Mass’s scripts

So I mentioned being a nerd who actually compared the final episodes with the available scripts for Midnight Mass episodes (episodes 3, 4, 5, and 7). One point that jumped out at me was how it more obvious that Riley wasn’t just tolerating Father Paul’s company in AA meetings in the original scripts.

That through line IS still there in the final product, I just think it’s not as obvious and many walk out of the series thinking Riley is only tolerating him or dislikes him the whole time. (deep sigh)

The two cut/altered scenes I have to point to for that are from episode 3.

This first scene survives in an altered form, as the scene we IMMEDIATELY cut to after Hassan brings up his concerns about bibles in school to Bev and everyone, and Bev manages to regain control of the whole situation and is even applauded for wanting to help the children understand miracles.

... like, really kind of strange of Riley, a staunch atheist and someone critical of the church and organized religion, to leap so fast to Paul’s defense against the childhood friend he’s reconnecting with/potentially falling back in love with. Unless we assume that yes, he’s come to like and trust Paul as a person.

(my guess is this scene was trimmed down because we are kind of being TOLD what to think about Paul, versus drawing our own conclusions about him).

Then there’s later in the episode, where the script has Riley speak more casually to Father Paul as he walks in for the meeting than in the episode, where he enters the rec center silently.

A certain level of comfort with Paul is being projected there. A vibe of “You have got to hear the latest shit that Bev is pulling now.” Gossipy housewives the both of them.

There’s also the brief, blink-and-you-miss it mention in this scene that Riley has been talking to Paul more than once a week during AA when Paul urges him to not give such a pat answer to Joe (this part is in the finished episode, I just find it easier to screencap the script).

Speaking of... this bit was cut from the AA trio scene after Riley tells Joe it’s enough he showed up:

From context, it reads very much that Paul is saying he and Riley are friends, rather than suggesting that Riley and Joe will be/are friends. Like you could read that into it and I think it is a part of it (Paul just wants Riley to be surrounded with friends, guys), but it reads more to me that Paul is saying he wanted to push for and challenge Riley to be his best self as a friend with his “that’s bullshit” speech.

But I think the most obvious moment of “Oh, Riley isn’t just talking with Father Paul to fulfill a parole requirement and is hesitant to speak with him otherwise” that survived to the final cut is in episode 4, after Riley’s spent a while comforting Erin about her abortion and Joe’s death has more or less been handled.

Like... he didn’t have to ask that question. He could have just talked about his feelings surrounding this event or not even brought up Erin’s miscarriage at all in the meeting. It’s a very personal thing to share, even with a priest acting as a therapist. 

He’s not doing this for Erin’s sake, it’s not a roundabout way to get the priest to go comfort his religious friend as he’s quick to dissuade Paul from that. Riley brought up this topic to get his own emotions about it out.

And he wanted to hear what Paul thought you should do in that situation. He trusted that perhaps, he might have a better idea than Riley himself did.

And of course, it’s a twist of the knife that not long after this emotional honesty, he catches Paul in a pretty significant lie.

(Also, the sheer number of points I can gesture to as evidence that Paul ALSO very much cared about Riley could really be its own series of posts... and it might need to be, since it does seem to get missed/overlooked as an element of his character. It’s a twisted bromance and I love it so.)