#For one they treat her with dignity despite her evilness

[lavendertarot]

Just finished Howl's moving castle (the book) and that one post wasn't lying. Howwell is really welsh and it is one of the funniest parts of it

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[trashogram]

It’s so hard for me to articulate but one of the worst crimes that Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel commit is a lack of gravitas, in my opinion.

Characters aren’t very “solid” as individuals. It’s hard to differentiate them beyond labels. For instance, Stolas is a demon prince but he can go to a party for lower class hellborns and just join in. No one shows any fear or awe in his presence despite the fact that he supposedly has a lot of power over them.

Charlie as well, is disrespected and treated like any other Sinner — which you could try to justify by her being unusually optimistic and happy, but the mistreatment or lack of dignity beyond other citizens of Hell isn’t really connected to her royal status at all. No one badmouths her for being a princess who isn’t evil or something like that.

Lucifer! The Devil himself, may be a goofball/highly anxious and depressed mess, but Alastor has no issue riling him up and showing him disdain, as if there are no consequences if he doesn’t defer to the King of Hell. Which doesn’t make sense.

And these issues weaken the world around them. We are told that there’s a hierarchy in Hell, but if everyone is treated the same way, even if that treatment is terrible across the board, then the hierarchy doesn’t mean anything and shouldn’t exist. It also makes the characters blend together (and that’s not restricted only to royal labels. I’m also referring to sexualities, personalities, backstories full of trauma). Appearance-wise, they all move similarly, they all curse a good amount, they all make sex jokes and are prone to violence.

Sure there are some exceptions but the majority check all those boxes. There’s a lack of differentiation here as a whole. But I dont know if I’m one of the only people that care and find this disappointing.

[dyns33]

Flufftober 2024 - Michael Myers

Last long story of the flufftober 2024 ! I know, it would be logical to post about Michael on Halloween, but I had an idea for a too long stories, and they are posted on sunday... Not my fault Halloween is not on sunday =(

Everyone had warned her when she decided to become a nurse at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital.

It was very honorable of her to want to take care of people that the world preferred to forget because they were too dangerous to be placed elsewhere.

Maybe they were still human, despite all the horrors they had committed to get to this place, and as such, they should at least be treated with dignity. But there were many other unfortunate people waiting for this kind of attention, and who were not likely to try to kill her as soon as her back was turned.

"You're not weird." her best friend had sighed when Y/N had told her the news. "You don't want to see these sick people, only another sick person would want that."

Y/N hesitated to tell her that everyone had a little bit of madness, and that perhaps a part of her was a bit dark, even if she didn't want to admit it herself.

Instead, she put on her smiling mask without saying anything. It was easier.

The desire to see special cases was there, but it was really mostly by vocation.

From the first day, it was obvious that she was going to have a lot of work.

There were a lot of patients who required constant vigilance, but on top of that, there were also a lot of doctors and nursing assistants who clearly needed treatment, sometimes more than the patients. The worst of them was Doctor Samuel Loomis.

Y/N quickly wondered what the point of this doctor was who seemed to only take care of one patient for over ten years, without really giving the impression of trying to treat him, using him mainly to write best-selling books.

It hurt the nurse enough to see how he treated Michael.

Of course Michael Myers was no saint. He had killed a classmate, his stepfather, his sister and her boyfriend when he was ten, without showing the slightest sign of remorse.

At the same time, he didn't seem to remember his crimes.

Growing up in a dysfunctional family, bullied at school, lonely, there were several ways to explain his actions.

He hadn't touched his little sister Angel, whom he seemed to love more than anything, like his poor mother who had committed suicide in despair at seeing her child locked up forever in this hospital and after he had attacked a supervisor.

Since then, he had walled himself up in silence, without having the slightest incident.

According to Doctor Loomis, this was proof of his evil side.

"Michael is evil. He wants you to believe that he is not dangerous, that he is human, that he is capable of change. That what he did was just an isolated act. Don't be fooled. He will kill you if he gets the chance."

Y/N didn't claim that he was wrong, nor that he was right.

The few times she had seen Michael, when she had been able to observe his eyes through the holes in his masks, it had been obvious that he was smarter than he appeared.

Huge, strong, he could crush a man's neck with one hand if he wanted to. He didn't do it, and no one could say why he didn't do it exactly.

Without wanting to be naive, Y/N also wanted to believe that he only struck those who deserved it, according to his own moral scale, those who hurt him, or who got in his way.

Maybe he could take pleasure in this act of violence, or maybe he didn't even understand what he was doing, seeing these people only as nuisances and not as human beings.

It must not have helped that people didn't treat him like a human being himself.

Y/N had therefore made the decision to be polite and gentle with him, not out of fear or obligation, but because he needed it. With Ishmael, they were probably the only ones who acted like this with him.

"Good morning Michael. I hope you slept well, I'll bring you breakfast." she would say cheerfully every morning.

Like every morning and the rest of every day, Michael didn't answer, barely reacting by moving when necessary.

In order not to rush him, Y/N didn't ask him any questions. She didn't want him to think that she was like Loomis, that she wanted to force him to communicate. A kind of unspoken rule between them.

"You should be happy, it's your favorite cereal today, with milk and orange juice. I'll move your stuff to put the food on the desk. Oh, a new mask ! It's very beautiful, Michael."

No reaction, or at least not at first sight. Because his eyes didn't leave her for a second as she took the mask to gently place it on his bed. It wasn't the first time she had seen his masks. All the walls of the room were covered with them and Michael made a new one every day.

However, Y/N looked at this mask for a long time, longer than necessary. There was nothing special about it. The colors were dark, it seemed to be the work of a child, neither pretty nor exceptional. And, without thinking, she opened her mouth.

"Do you like my mask, Michael ?"

His face still impassive, he nevertheless tilted his head slightly as Y/N offered him her most beautiful smile, this smile that she had to display so that people would stop asking her if she was okay, why she seemed sad, angry, lost, weird.

A smile that ended up making her jaw hurt when she got home, sometimes tense and visibly fake when she was too tired to pretend.

Of course, Michael didn't answer. She didn't expect an answer. Still smiling, she left him with his breakfast and the rest of the day went normally.

But the next day, something happened.

To everyone's surprise, Michael had a direct interaction with someone, for the first time in years.

He still didn't say a word, but as Y/N set the tray on the desk, moving the new mask he had made, he growled like an animal.

At first the nurse thought he didn't want her to touch his things, but he growled even more when she moved to put the mask on the bed. Thinking he wanted to take it, Y/N calmly walked over to the giant to give it to him, but he raised a hand to push his creation back towards her.

He wanted her to keep it. It was a gift. Maybe he thought her "mask" wasn't good enough.

The dominant color was blue, with some touches of gray, red, and black. Impossible to tell what expression it represented.

With a genuine smile this time, Y/N thanked him. If it pleased him, he didn't show it.

She didn't thank him for the attention that Doctor Loomis was now giving her though. Impressed, curious, and probably a little jealous, he wanted her to participate in some sessions with Michael or to try everything to make him communicate.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, doctor." she said politely.

"You don't understand. What happened is sensational. Indescribable." "A patient thanked me because I treat him well and complimented his hobby. I don't see what makes you jump."

"This is Michael Myers we're talking about. He doesn't thank me. He has something on his mind, I don't understand what and we have to find out. Don't you see that it could put you in danger ?"

"I don't feel in danger."

"You're wrong."

Y/N wasn't going to deny that Michael could be dangerous. With his size, his strength, and after spending so much time locked up, it was normal to think that he could hurt someone.

But he wouldn't hurt her, she was certain of it. He had no reason to do that.

That was what she told herself when she found him in her kitchen a few weeks later.

The day before, Michael had escaped from the asylum by killing guards, then he had returned to his childhood neighborhood, where he had murdered several more people.

Wearing a white mask with a neutral expression and a mechanic's jumpsuit, he held a knife in his right hand, while touching the gift he had given her and that Y/N had carefully hung on the wall.

Frozen in the entrance, Y/N didn't know what to do. Even if his back was turned to her, he had to know that she was there. If she tried to run, he would have no trouble catching her.

She wasn't afraid, though. If Dr. Loomis's absurd theories were correct, Michael could sense that she wasn't afraid.

Slowly, he put the knife down anyway. If he wanted to, he could still snap her neck without any difficulty, but for the moment, his attention was fixed on the mask he had made for her.

"… Michael ?" she whispered, remaining still, watching his every move with curiosity.

For a moment, he placed the mask on her face. She couldn't see his expression, hidden behind that piece of plastic, but it was obvious that he was observing the result.

He finally put his work near the knife, placing his hands on her cheeks. The friction of his fingers almost felt like a caress.

Maybe her "mask" wasn't so bad after all. He hadn't really been able to see her completely when they were in the hospital.

His forehead pressed against hers and Y/N caught a glimpse of his eyes for a few seconds, and they seemed full of life, bright, seeing only her.

A sound outside broke this moment. A car door. Neither of them moved, until she sighed.

"Doctor Loomis is looking for you. Go to the room, Michael, please."

Y/N didn't care if the doctor got killed, she'd never liked him. But it might bring the police here, she'd get in trouble, they'd try to lock Michael up again. It hadn't helped that he'd been in a cage all these years.

"Please." she repeated, imitating him, one hand on his mask.

Like in the asylum, when he absolutely didn't have to, he obeyed. It wasn't as hard as she'd thought to convince Loomis that she was alone and safe. Even though he'd always been calm with her, even though he'd given her a gift, the doctor refused to believe that his dear patient could have given his attention to a little nurse when he'd been trying to talk to him all his life.

So no, there was no reason for the Shape to be in her house. Insignificant, normal little woman. Really, this guy wasn't very good at being a psychiatrist.

Like the good, wise boy he was, Michael had sat on the bed waiting for her. He let her lay him down, checking that he wasn't hurt, before taking a seat next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Everything will be fine now, Michael. I'll help you. I know how to do it."

If she could, Y/N would make sure he didn't kill anyone else, that he would control his urges, like she knew how to control hers.

But if that didn't work, she would at least offer him a warm home where he could be himself. And for the first time, she could be herself too.

[crusherthedoctor]

How about an update on what's been finalized and semi-finalized so far for Paper Mario: Forget It Jake, It's Eggmanland. No? Well too bad, I'm gonna do it anyway. :D

Some of these have been pondered out loud previously... but most of them haven't.

- Since Mario has full dialogue now, I've had to think about how best to portray him. Ultimately, while he's obviously in-line first and foremost with the Charles Martinet/Kevin Afghani portrayal in the games proper, I'm not averse to taking some minor touches from his recent movie portrayal, mainly regarding his relationship with Luigi, as well as the Captain Lou Albano portrayal from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. By which I mean, he'll tell the readers that they'll go to hell before they die if they do drugs. He's also occasionally prone to Mario & Luigi-esque gibberish during moments of confusion or frustration, a trait shared by the latter brother. And speaking of him...

- Luigi is one of Mario's partners this time around, because why not. :] And while prone to slapstick moments as always, he won't get treated like an outright punching bag.

- Despite a certain Vivian-shaped elephant in the room, Peach will be portrayed with the same dignity as always, being a supportive ally who helps out the heroes in a similar way to 64 and TTYD. Though this time, I don't see her doing so in captivity, as Eggman doesn't have much of a reason to kidnap her beyond for the lulz, and would probably just try to kill her outright like he would with the other heroes. Or ask her if she plans to jump.

- Bowser will also be treated with respect. It goes without saying that Eggman will inevitably cause problems for the Koopa King as well, but at the same time, I know better than to humiliate Mario's arch-nemesis and undermine him just to elevate my preferred villain, and I also want to avoid the easy route of having Bowser team up with Mario as has happened already in various other RPGs, in favor of a more unique approach (and also because it would probably be hypocritical coming from the guy who keeps bitching about the overuse of Sonic/Eggman team-ups). So with that in mind, Bowser's role will probably be done in a sub-plot format similar to TTYD, and at a suitably climactic point in the story, he'll finally get to clash with Eggman, Bowser's Inside Story-style.

- Like a lot of PM fans, I've always been somewhat doubtful about the validity of Beldam's supposed change of heart, but despite this, I felt it would be too cruel and cynical to turn Vivian giving her sisters another chance into a Shaggy Dog Story ("But you complain when IDW Sonic-" Context and characterization is important, get out the class). So instead, while it initially seems that Beldam and Marilyn have returned to their former evil ways, it soon becomes apparent that Eggman has forced them into it against their will, as an extra way of screwing with the heroes' heads. As such, one of Vivian's motivations is to free her sisters from his influence. (If it isn't obvious by now, the doctor is going out of his way to antagonise the heroes as much as humanly possible. Partly out of a scientific desire to see what makes these people tick... but mostly because he's just an arsehole who finds the misfortune of people other than himself amusing, as befitting his canonical narcissism and manchild tendencies.)

- Grodus, on the other hand, is a much different story, being on Eggman's side completely willingly. More specifically, Eggman's machinations include offering Grodus a new body and the chance for revenge against both Mario and Beldam that he was unable to act on until now, in exchange for some leftover X-Naut tech that Eggman can use as a starting off point to build his newest army of Badniks and other dastardly creations.

- This should go without saying considering who the author is, but there is no "true" final villain, ala Shadow Queen and Dimentio. Like Bowser in 64, Eggman is the leading baddie from start to finish. That isn't to say there won't be any twists and turns in the plot, just that they'll involve other matters instead... like the details surrounding his plan.

- Other characters from 64 and TTYD will show up, though I haven't fully decided on which ones yet. Just like with my Sonic works, I want every character I use to have an actual purpose for being there beyond mere fanservice. So far, Goombella and a slightly older Watt will definitely be in it, as well as a new variation of the infamous Huff N. Puff.

- References to the post-TTYD installments, while not completely non-existent, won't be all that common. Despite my controversial thoughts on those games (well, Super Paper Mario at least), this decision wasn't made to spite them. Rather, it's because it's somewhat tricky to acknowledge them in a way that blends well with the 64/TTYD presentation and tone that I wish to maintain. That said, there will still be some nods for their fans on occasion, like maybe a name drop here and there.

- For similar reasons, Kammy will be used as Bowser's lackey instead of Kamek, and Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings will probably be a no-show since they had no presence in the Paper series until much later. On the other hand, despite them having no Paper appearances period, I have contemplated finding a use for more distinct characters like Wario and Donkey Kong if I can think of something sufficiently meaty for them to do that ties back in some way to the overarching plot.

- There will also be some mild references to the non-Paper RPGs on occasion, such as Eggman's antics and overall demeanour reminding Mario a little too much of Fawful. Of course, as always, I'll try to not overuse them or make them too Flynn-tier hamfisted in their execution.

[cantsayidont]

Hateration holleration, fantasy edition:

WILLOW (1988): Uneven Lucasfilm fantasy adventure (directed by Ron Howard), allegedly conceived before STAR WARS, starring Warwick Davis as a Nelwyn (little person) farmer who must protect a magical baby called Elora Danon from the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) with the help of valiant but hapless adventurer Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) and eventually Bavmorda's combative daughter Sorsha (Joanne Whaley). Davis, Kilmer, and Whaley are all great, but the straightforward story is burdened with a lot of unfunny shtick (the treatment of the other Nelwyns, who are clearly intended as off-brand Hobbits, is particularly uncomfortable), clumsy worldbuilding, and a distasteful crassness that tends to undermine any sense of wonder. One of the properties absorbed by the Mouse in its acquisition of Lucasfilm, it was revived in 2022 as a short-lived streaming series (q.v.), set about 25 years after the original movie. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Nope. VERDICT: Fun main characters — it'd be hard not to like Sorsha, and Davis's stubborn dignity as Willow is appealing — but the terrible script nearly sinks it even as dumb popcorn fare.

WILLOW (2022): Belated, unnecessary episodic sequel to the 1988 Lucasfilm fantasy adventure film, released and subsequently buried by the Mouse in a fit of streaming service cost-cutting mania, returns Warwick Davis as would-be sorcerer Willow Ufgood and Joanne Whalley as Sorsha, now the queen, whose gay daughter Kit (Ruby Cruz) and her would-be knight-protector Jade (Erin Kellyman) set out on a quest to rescue Kit's handsome but hapless twin brother Airk (Dempsey Bryk) with the help of a pretty kitchen maid (Ellie Bamber) with an unlikely secret. Not as bad as some critics made out, particularly compared to more recent Disney+ offerings (which have been genuinely dire), the eight-episode series has an appealing cast and some fun moments, but the story is all over the place, with hazy dramatic stakes and too many awkward shifts in tone and direction. Perhaps the show's biggest misstep is its failure to make sense of the movie's slipshod worldbuilding, mistakenly treating the 1988 film as a Revered Fantasy Icon rather than a lazy collection of high fantasy clichés that was barely cohesive enough to sustain the movie's significantly simpler plot. CONTAINS LESBIANS: Aye, verily, or some other such fantasy utterance. VERDICT: Intermittently charming, and a modest improvement on the original, but way too sloppy.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER (2022): Predictably but dishearteningly awful Amazon Prime Video series is in some ways the opposite of the WILLOW show: a charmless pseudo-prequel to THE LORD OF THE RINGS, doomed from inception by a series of disastrous legal constraints. Forbidden to directly reference the Peter Jackson films and unwilling to pay the Tolkien estate for the rights to use material in THE SILMARILLION and UNFINISHED TALES, Amazon Studios instead contrived their own truncated, severely condensed version of Tolkien's Second Age, based solely on references in THE LORD OF THE RINGS to the forging of the Rings of Power and the fall of Númenor. The resulting eight episodes are ponderous, dour, and disconcertingly cheap-looking despite their enormous budget, offering neither the mythological sweep of the source material nor the indulgent pay-cable sex and violence of A GAME OF THRONES, and Morfydd Clark (as a young and sour-faced Galadriel) and Robert Aramayo (as a young and sour-faced Elrond) are poor substitutes for Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving. Worse, if you're not intimately familiar with Tolkien's legendarium (including the parts the show isn't allowed to mention), you'll likely have no idea what's going on, much less why you should care — and if you are familiar with that mythos, the show's clumsy, tone-deaf treatment of it will drive you mad. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: So bad it's borderline unwatchable — much worse than Peter Jackson's already dire HOBBIT trilogy. Don't say you weren't warned.

[anxietymadmax]

A bit ago I said I wanted to draw some player character ideas I had, so voila

This is Hinoka! A Tiefling Fighter (with the Samurai subclass, if that wasn’t painfully obvious).

This is the character I’ve decided I’d play if the opportunity arose and it was a fairly low-key style of campaign, nothing too crazy on the character story front (I do have another character idea, but the story and theming go kinda mental, so I wouldn’t just dump them on any ol campaign lol).

What is a D&D character but a glorified OC, so I shall properly delve into her design and character below -

She's so fun!

I mentioned (on my post about Tiefling horn inspirations in antelope species) that I had an idea for Blackbuck styled horns, and here they are! Hinoka has been a concept for at least that long, but I don't actually recall when I came up with her.

Mechanically, the Samurai subclass has always seemed interesting to me, I find it amusing how so many of its abilities feel very trope-y (like, literally that thing where a character moves their sword millimeters and it cuts someone in half, that is basically one of the samurai abilities), and it's an interesting stylistic choice in a game so heavily western medieval styled (I do really fw samurais in fantasy settings, i.e. Elden Ring and Delicious in Dungeon).

Whether I'd be able to lean into the Samurai theming would depend on how constrained the setting of a given campaign is, but considering it is an official subclass I feel like I could worm it in. To that end, her weapon of choice is not a katana, but rather a katana on a stick, aka a Naginata, which mechanically would probably be a glaive, but flavoured otherwise.

Onto personality, like with her class, I purposefully conceptualise Hinoka to be easy for me to play as, so she can probably be summarised as 'headstrong naive optimist'.

She lives for a good fight, and will always approach the battlefield with honesty and dignity. She treats opponents with whatever respect they are due, and will never turn to trickery or dirty tactics. This can, of course, be used against her, as she will often hope the same of her opponent, and they may easily trip her up.

Hinoka has a very strong personal sense of justice, believing the world to be very black and white, good vs evil, and that every wrongdoing is easily rectified (which, to her, usually equates to a punch in the face). This outlook on the world comes from a fairly sheltered and idealistic upbringing, and is one that over the course of a campaign would likely be shattered and remoulded.

Despite a harsh view on morality, Hinoka herself is incredibly kindhearted to most, especially those in need. Any problem faced by another, she will do her best to solve. Again, she may have to learn that not all problems are easily solved, but she will do her damndest anyway.

The last main personality trait to go over is that, sort of in line with her other traits, Hinoka is not exactly the thinking type (mechanically, dump stat int and wis lol). When faced with a problem, the first instinct is to see if that problem can be hit hard enough, and when that doesn't work, it'll take a bit for her to decide on the next best option.

Hinokas backstory is not super set in stone, something I'd likely elaborate on if I were to actually play her, but the basic gist is that I think she'd be raised by some kind of family of guards in the service of a particular noble house or authority (literally a family of Samurai who serve a lord). This upbringing would provide her combat training, her style of honourable battle, as well as context for her sheltered and naive outlooks.

I haven't decided what would prompt her to leave her family and go on an adventure, but probably nothing super devastating, since it'd be important to me that her outlook on life is intact for the start of a campaign. Maybe just rite of passage type deals.

And that about wraps up the current deal with Hinoka. I think I would get a great deal of fun out of playing her, even just drawing her was a blast. Hinoka is, however, one of two player character ideas that I have, and the other is... a lot more... lots. Warlock of The Undead is all I have to say I think. I shall draw and infodump on them another time xx

[lets-jam]

1, 7, 16

im gonna do this for 2077, tho if anyone else does one feel free to specify a fandom

1 - the character everyone gets wrong

hmmm a tie for me between alt and goro takemura. alt ranges from like a generic 'good woman' to the far more common evil manipulative bitch which like. id be more upset about but given we get NOTHINGGGGGGG in terms of content for her about her like i cant get TOOO mad... I GUESS. i just certainly think shas far more multifaceted or SHOULD be far more multifaceted than.... whatever the hell we got. like i think theres something interesting with her setup being like 'sharp netrunner who got hired to make something she probably very well knew was... designed to kill people and could and would be used to kill people, who had her 'curiosity take over' (some fact i heard somewhere) but then also chickened out n tried to stop it last minute, and ultimately was one of the first subjects it was used on killing her body and forever changing her entire being, being forced to survive in a cuthroat alien world of no human basis despite still 'thinking' like a human, being even more forever changed by that and like kinda playing with this idea that yeah it is unfortunate that like traumatic shit not of our choosing can like irreparably change us not for the better, and that we can have dignity/human-ness given back to us by being treated as such even if its alien to her now. course like then its... id prefer her story not being so weirdly tied to johnnys as like a girl he happened to be fucking because... she was there i guess. and thats our only like reference point for her. which is all to say she has the potential you know? and alot of people dont... get that imo. for a cyberpunk setting shes really interesting case of how/what gets treated as a human and what we do when we dont have that treatment/what we do when we're given it back smthn smthn at what point does a self end (with memories? with how we're perceived by others? etc etc) but of course we didnt get to deal with any of that cause the game refuses to even ask these questions about johnny in any real fun exploratory way. and shes only in the game cause johnny fucked her and accidentally killed her... so yeah. and then GORO god this is mostly just me beefing with all the fucking idiots horny for this guy and like he gets fics n posts made about him how he would 'abandon arasaka for youuuuuu 😚😚😚' no he wouldnt! you are literally peon trash to him! he was chosen by a god emperor and elevated in his mind! he straight up believes capitalistic order is fine cause who cares doesnt affect him anymore and its a necesarry thing! which i like! hes completely head over heels for his corporation like a true 'samurai' ie serving a lord above everything else, even 'warrior code' if that ever mattered to him. hes been deepthroating the boot for years n loves the taste! he has never once thought in his life that you were his equal, and he has never once thought of you as a friend he sees you as a true means to an end full stop! hes not some secretly good bushido samurai man! which like more people should run with! if he was given a choice between arasaka and your life he would choose arasaka 10 times over like, hes terrible and i like that, everyone else seems to not.

7 - what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

fandom antics have really made me dislike this one complete side character like this person has like 2 lines but caused such fights in the fandom that im like i guess this is real to you. some gay guy and some woman fought over this side characters sexuality and one like made some weird kin claim to posting edits of him and like!!!! sometimes i have to remember people are unwell. it was fun for a time to watch ppl bitch about that for a while n see all the vague posting that or goro for reasons stated above

16 - you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

lmao sex god johnny silverhand. and related to that johnnys hologram being able to physically interact with v outside their body... ppl took like some 'its there for the cinema' stuff where he shoves v and like grabs their hands and ran with it now we have hard light hologram sex everywhere... even tho ppl shouldve just gotten freaky with it and had them like possession mutually masturbating using vs body like them as a single...being, cause again vs body is the only real thing in this equation and id like abit more realism if im going into some silverv smut, but those are few and far between the hologram sex featuring hologram cum and hologram fingering it just bugs me casue like the draw for me at least is they cant interact like normal separate people, nor can they 'feel' as in feel things like normal separate people, nor ARE they normal separate people like their whole setup is weird, they are literally the same person!!!! and i hate it when people dont get weird n creative in those paramaters with what we're given. esp when johnny flat out says 'masturbation is the only way for us to have sex' too. plus i love the draw of not being able to love or live or interact like you want to... famously i love a 'love' that cant be for whatever reason, despite it being there real girl what were you doing at the devils sacrement self report but it did bug me

[jewishbarbies]

To call the IDF just “another military” is a grievous understatement. Regardless of who has been in power, this so-called “moral” army has consistently inflicted suffering upon Palestinians. These injustices has always remained unaddressed, no matter who governs the country.

No other military would unleash dogs on a boy with autism and Down syndrome, disregarding the desperate pleas of his family that he was disabled. Yet, these so-called soldiers did, and left him bleeding to death. His family, forced at gunpoint to abandon him, found his lifeless body a week later, lying cold on the floor despite the IDF reassuring them that they were to treat the boys wounds.

No other military would fire 355 BULLETS from a tank into a car, slaughtering a 6-year-old girl alongside six of her family members as they tried to escape their neighborhood. Her desperate pleas for rescue over the phone went unheard. Her body was discovered two weeks later.

No other military would decapitate children and make fun and feel proud of it.

No other military would throw a child and his father on a bake oven for fun. Yes this happened during the Nakba.

No other military would crush injured people with their tanks.

No other military would pose with f-cking Palestinian women lingerie in their homes and then post it proudly on social media violating these women intimacy and dignity. Not that those soldiers have any to begin with.

And this does not even touch the surface of the abominable torture and sexual violence inflicted upon Palestinians over the last 75 years.

So for you to condemn Hamas while ignoring the IDF's long history of relentless atrocities against Palestinians is not just hypocritical, it is vile.

The IDF's brutal legacy predates Hamas by decades.

So no they’re not just “another military,” they’re pathetic monsters.

dude you can keep using red text as much as you want, it’s not doing what you think it’s doing for you. all it does is make you look immature and tells me you’re the same person sending most of the recent propaganda fueled asks in my inbox. seriously, this is clown behavior.

have you googled literally any other world military? ever? I think you’re gonna lose your shit when you read about what other countries have done using their militaries. or is the action only bad when done to palestinians? is that the requirement for being considered evil? as it is, if i took a shot every time you regurgitated total propaganda, i’d be dead by now. that’s gotta be some kind of record.

hope you got whatever you needed out of sending me bullshit recently bc this is the last one i entertain on any level, anything you send will be deleted without pause.

[cosmos-daughter]

Resident Evil Village could've been the perfect game if the Lords were treated right.

Despite it being an enjoyable game and one of my favorites, it is undeniably rather unsatisfactory in some aspects. I can't help but grieve all that we could've had if it was better in one specific aspect. More specifically: story-wise. For the first time since the RE5/RE6 era, Capcom decided to make another story oriented Resident Evil game, and the result was as expected: lacking in many ways.

There are parts of the story that could make the game much more interesting if they focused more on it. The biggest issue and my main complaint is the character waste. Without an exception, all of the Lords were underutilized and presented in a very shallow manner, even the one that had more participation in the story. This detail weighs as a immense negative point on the game's overall quality, since they technically play a huge role in the story and make up most of the content of the game. With the exception of Moreau — who's too far gone and barely has any intelligence left ー all of them could've had more depth and maybe even a character development. They do possess the required qualities: captivating characters — cool designs, their own detailed and customized areas that are somewhat a reflection of their unique personalities — but even with all of that, none reached their peak due being robbed of the exploration of the themes that could add realness and authenticity to the characters such as their past/background, motivations, etc. So regardless of how promising they look, since we haven't seen beyond their surface and don't know understand and know enough about the characters, they end up slightly shallow and simple. The consequence of this lack of humanization is that in the end they didn't receive an ounce of dignity/empathy even in their deaths. A cruel fate that feels even harsher when you remember that all the Lords were once normal people that just happened to be victims of Miranda's evil scheme.

It feels terribly frustrating to see a good character go down without being fully explored, especially on Alcina's case, since she was a character that everyone had high expectations for, because she was used as a marketing strategy to attract the public by being the focus of the game's demo and trailer. Everyone was interested in Village because of the beautiful tall vampire lady, but turns out she appears only in the beginning and barely has significance in the rest of the story. I didn't expect a redemption for her, it would be unrealistic and out of nowhere ー the game made clear that she's more inclined towards evil than morally-grey by the way she and her daughters are unnecessarily cruel and see the villagers like nothing but food stock, so it would indeed be difficult to create a situation in which she cooperated with Ethan, even if he hadn't killed her daughters — and her blind loyalty to Mother Miranda also makes this nearly impossible; so I agree that redemption or a change of heart seems out of the question for her, but still... making her the first to die after hyping her up that much was quite anti-climatic. The least they could do to honor her was make her be one of the last characters to go, so she could hunt Ethan until the end for avenging her daughters. It would make more sense for her to die just before Heisenberg's section, or literally anything instead of killing her off during the first twenty minutes of gameplay and never bringing her up again as if she's insignificant. Amongst all the countless existing possibilities for her, they decided to follow the worst and less satisfying route.

Now, the next topic and the true reason why I'm obsessed with this game despite everything: Karl Heisenberg. Imagine giving us one of the best characters in the whole franchise: a hot dilf coded villain with a dark, tragic past and a problematic personality that still shows signs of redeeming qualities, and then preceding to completely waste all of his potential as both: a possible ally, and a character, by not exploring the depth of his person. If there's any character that should've had redemption in this story, it was Karl. What is the point of adding the detail of his secret disloyalty and quiet hatred for Miranda if that wouldn't make any difference in the end, because Ethan doesn't even consider his offer for a partnership and we're forced to kill him either way? Why give him a whole character arc (if you can even call it that) focused on his disdain for his fake Mother, who happens to be the main villain, and not give him a chance of joining the protagonist's side when they both share the same enemy? I think the reason is simply lazy writing.

Not that he has to be a good person to be on the good side, but it's also implied he wasn't evil like Dimitrescu, who drained people of their blood and cannibalized their flesh, or Moreau, who coldly experimented on the living. Karl experimented solely on the dead, and while definitely unethical, he didn't directly inflict pain on anyone ー and that makes me assume that he's a morally grey character who's done bad things, and while he's definitely not the most moral man on earth, still has a line and humanity. But since dear Capcom decided to not give us any lore, we'll never know more. Regardless, it's still understandable why Heisenberg acts the way he does. It's only the consequences of living the nightmarish hell of having to constantly humiliate yourself by serving the person you despise the most, your worst enemy in the shape of a Mother — the very same person who stole your freedom and turned you into nothing but a puppet, a monster, a weapon. All this time, he was just fighting to recover his stolen freedom, fueled by his raw hatred for this woman who stripped him of his dignity, hurt his pride, and took his autonomy away by force. But in the end, he witnessed all he worked so hard for in flames in front of him as he died alone under the freezing rain, in the same hell he wanted so badly to escape. His fate was merciless and cold, even for someone who had their hands dirty.

You can argue that some Lords deserved their fates if you want, but the unfairness of Donna's is undeniable. She truly did nothing wrong and was just a victim. Her gardener's diary entries prove that she's always been a gentle and lonely person, and the fact that even after being infected with the Cadou and gaining hallucinogenic abilities all she wanted to do was people meet with their late loved ones one more time only further proves her goodness. She has nothing but old dolls in her house, it's so painfully clear that she didn't bother anyone and lived a quiet, melancholic life by the waterfall, where she was isolated from everyone else. Donna deserved better than to die alongside her dusty dolls, left to be forgotten forever.

The point I meant to make clear by now is that these characters being villains didn't stop me from feeling affection for them, it never does. So even if surviving wasn't a possibility, I wish we had at least seen more of their human side, lives aside from Miranda, or their past before getting locked away in the village by her. There were so many things, small details that I wanted to know about them — what's their age? Birthday? Any family left? Friends? Past lovers? Was Dimitrescu always this heartless? When did Moreau's intelligence start deteriorating? When exactly did Heisenberg realize that Miranda was manipulative and didn't love them and never saw them as her family? How did he manage, unlike his siblings, to see through her manipulation? The way Heisenberg speaks of Miranda sounds more similar to someone who's been hurt instead of someone that's always hated their current enemy, especially because of the line "She doesn't care for us, no. Her humanity is long gone. I must destroy her." That leaves me with so many unanswered questions, there's so much I wanted to know. But for sure what I wanted the most on this whole story was for them to have at least received a little bit of empathy, instead of being referred as monsters all the time. As a player and someone who enjoys the characters, it feels unfair to hear that. They were people too.

Now that I've talked about all the characters, I think it's important to emphasize that despite it being annoying to watch good characters being underutilized, none of that would be a surprise if this was just another typical Resident Evil game. This franchise has always been terrible when it comes to writing and making characters become constant on the series, just look at the amount of cool characters that literally never showed up again after their first appearance like Carlos, Billy, etc ー and Resident Evil is even worse when it comes to villains, since they're never offered the chance of redemption. For that reason, I usually don't hold high expectations when it comes to character development or story, however, it was made clear enough by trailers and by how much more cinematographic this game is compared to any other that Village was meant to be less survival horror and more story/character focused, more movie-like. And since that was the direction they were heading to, the least they could do was create a story in which the plot and characters are equally developed and worked in unison.

Speaking of gameplay, the game is fun and plays well, but it's also not as tense as the previous title because the survival horror aspects are much less present: item managing is barely needed unless playing on hardcore or higher because the game is very forgiving of your mistakes — just like RE4, it has a mechanic of rewarding you for killing enemies rather than punishing you, and this mechanic that doesn't work too well in a survival horror game since it doesn't force you to be cautious with your resources and spend them wisely, you can just go on a killing spree and you'll be fine, and knowing that makes the game's atmosphere significantly less tense.

Since there was more criticism than praise in my words so far, allow me to mention my next point, which is in my opinion the best part of Resident Evil Village: the atmosphere and exploration. I was enchanted with the scenery of the gothic isolated Romanian village filled with blood, monsters and death, the breathtaking and detailed Baroque architecture of the Dimitrescu Castle, the calm, eerie silent snowy regions that fills you with a sense of desolation and dread. The visuals of this game are magnificent and immersive. Last but not least and another resemblance to Resident Evil 4: the merchant and his requests was the perfect addition to encourage map exploration and reproduce the impression of a open-world game. The whole experience of hunting treasures and searching for ingredients for the Duke's Kitchen were genuinely fun things to do.

I must finish by saying that if Village wasn't part of the Resident Evil franchise, it'd probably be a 10/10 for me. But carrying the name of a loved franchise comes with expectations, and I found that many of them weren't met. Still, even if not life-altering, Resident Evil Village is still a great, solid game with a high replay value and a decent story, so I recommend it and find it worth playing, because as long as you don't expect the game to be similar to the classic RE in terms of gameplay or horror level, or don't get too attached to the good-looking antagonists, the game's mediocre writing and less challenging than usual gameplay probably won't bother you, and you'll be able to have fun with it. I don't believe every game should be a masterpiece, and this one, even with all the mentioned downsides, still delivered an emotional and beautiful story about familiar love that was able to make me sympathize, connect with the characters and cry a river, so I consider it a good game, even if I think it could've been better with a few changes in the direction of the story.

[rosesnink]

Hii 🥰

What is something you love about your MC / OC? You can create and share anything you’d like 😍 HC‘s, moodboards, edits or drabbles. Have fun and gush about your MC / OC 🥰

Also what made you create your MC /OC what was your inspiration?

I'll go with my OG gal, Celestine

She's so sweet and soft, yet so witty and strong. For years, she endured the misogyny of the era and the curse of being poor and beautiful in a small village. She always thought she could trust from one person to nobody.

Then, she met her father, the earl. And her life changed. And she was so keen on making him love her, she lost herself for a moment, forgetting that his love for her had always been there. And that someone else's love has always been there, somehow. Mr. Sinclaire's. She didn't realise it. The woman's starved by love, and has always dreamt of meeting a gentleman like him. However could she not have feelings for him?

Like John Green said, falling in love with Ernest was like falling asleep. Slowly, then all at once. It wasn't because he was wealthy, or handsome to her eyes, or a family friend. His extreme kindness. His respectful manners. His open mind. How he treated her with dignity, and not a political pawn in a place where no one regarded their heart's desires. And he actually listened. He actually cared. And she loved him for it. However could she not?

And what I love, is that once she realised her power as countess, she promised herself that no one else would ever dare call her bastard. And she did keep that promise to that innocent girl who had been roped into it. Maybe her actions weren't the best, but she had a positions and a legacy to protect with very few time of preparation. Learning under pressure to embroider, play piano, recite poetry, paint, dance... Others had their whole lives to prepare. She? A few weeks. And she did an excellent job!

She had also been slandered, bullied, kept prisoner, seen the love of her life being shot, forced upon the altar by a man who could be her grandfather and nearly assaulted, and yet her kindness never wavered. And I love that, despite all the pain, she keeps no anger or pettiness in her heart. She wishes no evil. Just to live and let live. And I think some people could take a page from her book.

[cntrl-cntre]

Meine Augen sind trübe geworden weil ich so lange harren muß aud mein Gott.

“And I would like to spend— mmm…” Crowley's eyes lifted themselves and, at this moment, She knew there was only so much hope left in the world. She had given him what no other angel had, thought him to use it the way the humans would, so that he may survive the plight he may face. She gave him the same Free Will that Her children would use to become good or Not Good, the one that let ineffable plans be foiled; despite everything that had happened for it to be, well, ineffable.

            The plain and simple explanation is that, though he fell—and what a dastardly long time ago that was!—Crowley had always had Faith. He had Faith, and Hope, and Free Will; all in his hard-beating heart of pure spinel and ruby. He had that Free Will even before he knew the name he was destined to have and before the wings on his back had even unfurled. All these things that She had gifted to her son and he used them like swords dipped in the same sulfur he shook from crail hair.

            [-]

            Aziraphale was the inventor of so many sins, and for that, She couldn’t be more grateful. It would pain Her even more to see him Fall as the others did, so his unintended insolence was a breath of fresh air. She had watched him worry and weather over Eve and hand the sword over with much ado and thought not of the universes in which She shall create wherein She gets broken down into pieces of Herself to Lorde over the heads of the people by whom She’s worshipped. Aziraphale had created for Her lying, and he had given the world War with it.

            Perhaps it was the ease with which he had given the gladius to Adam, or maybe the only presence who didn’t chase him away, mayhaps a secret, third thing that even She was not privy to, but Crawly had been drawn to the Principality of the Eastern Gate like a moth to a flame; or even like a snake to a mango. They were many things (wily, not exactly Evil, definitively not Holy, etcetera etcetera), but stupid was not one of them. Their approach was heralded by the delicate movement of Angelic feet and a gaze as calming as seven nebulas.

She could pinpoint the moment She changed the plan—simply because She could and it involved the ideas of two bright young things.

[-]

Crowley was the inspiration for the Ten Commandments, and for that, She was ever thankful. His piety and respect for those around him were not something the people could have thought of. She spent Her time, valuable as it was, playing with the Beings She had made and watching as they shaped the world around them. The honour that Crowley treated Azriaphale with was almost as high as She was granted by the seraphim who sat by Her throne. He dithered and followed the Angel like a puppy on a short leash.

Maybe it was the dignity with which Aziraphale showed him, or generally the adoration that shaped his eyes whenever the two crossed corners, but Crowley trusted Aziraphale with all the Heart he’d been given. Call her many things, but parsimonious was not one of them. Angelic, kind, gayer than a tree full of monkeys high on nitrous oxide, yes; but not stupid. Care and love were in their nature as an Angel of God.

She waited patiently for Aziraphale to fall inexplicably heels over head for Crowley.

[-]

The glass of Mr. A. Bertelli’s Montetusa Barbera d’Asti sat half-empty next to Her as the seraphim sang and She tipped Her high-heeled foot to the side of the throne. Not very fitting of a lady, but She set the standard so now it was. God was not above enjoying a woody wine on a Divine evening.

She’d left Earth well enough alone for the past three years and could not fathom the insolence of her finest answering machine, he’d been doing so well, too. Aziraphale and Crowley were a pair and now they were apart and that was Bad! A group of two was the most unstable to date and She’d done everything to help them help themselves without mushing their heads together and yelling “I MADE YOU FOR EACH OTHER, JUST TALK TO ONE ANOTHER FOR ONCE, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!” Yes, that would have been very counterintuitive indeed. Of course, She could always fiddle with things on Her end and fix it there, but She has done enough to hurt them both by being an absent Mother. Fixing things was much harder than making them, at least then she didn’t have a rubric to be graded on.

Aziraphale was here in heaven, suits all pressed prim and proper with the lapels lined in splendiferous gold. He shone like the stars made before his very eyes. She knew his plans the second he thought of them and She was barely seated from the excitement of initiative within change. If none other of Her Angels could achieve the wonderous things circulating in his mind, Aziraphale absolutely could.

But those plans could have waited another year or two.

Change was always slow, and the Beings of the ether lived for aeons on top of the aeons passed. Change and innovation could take a back seat whilst a focus on themselves pioneered their brains toward a single focal point. Potential mocks potential when one hand is on the trigger but the other holds a knife. A love so strong should not have to wait for Her and Her Angels to stop being so hardheaded and buck up.

During the after-hours, Aziraphale calls Crowley’s name. He does not wail—though that is information only She and he would be privy to—but the sound rips through the Aether binding Her core. He calls out his name and Crowley cannot call back. He cannot come to save the dear angel that held him and helped him, watched her and fed them. Aziraphale cries for his dear boy and still cannot fathom a world where she’s not with her. A world where to love is to let got, to care is to fix and crawl back; wings folded like a magazine in a child’s hold. Aziraphale stops crying, but still calls.

“Oh, Crowley,” the exasperation. “Oh. Crowley!” The care.

“Oh, Crowley.” The longing for a serpent who shalt not pass by the immaculate staircase to the woes of those undamned. The façade of dexterity in the face of adversary.

There was no wily serpent to assist the likes of a devious Angel.

[hellisonitsway]

I've been trying very hard to erase the shitty so-called "grand finale" from my memory, but I really like these ideas!

Though honestly, I wouldn't have been so pissed even if they killed Nyxly, so long as she was allowed to go out with dignity. Like, I dunno… sacrifice her life to stop Lex or something. But nooooo… that evil bitch Lillian got a more dignified send-off then Nyxly!

And if they wanted a big CGI battle, I imagined something like… I dunno… Nyxly gathers the AllStone fragments and gets the ultimate power, but shows that she doesn't actually want to use it for harm, she just wants to HAVE it, after being powerless for so long. Then Lex shows up and steals the power from her, ranting that she is supposed to love him and how dare she act like her own person, and not the one he WANTS her to be. (Because no matter what he says, I will never believe that an evil piece of shit like Lex is capable of genuinely loving someone. At best, he loved having Nyxly at his beck and call. Personally, I think he was just manipulating her, playing on her loneliness. Which is what Nyxly told him, straight to his face, in the previous episode.)

The Superfriends try to stop him, but Lex is too powerful. He defeats them and then tries to kill Esme, because he blames her for Nyxly "betraying" him. Nyxly saves her, but is gravely injured in the process. Lex is not deterred and just tries to kill Esme again. Desperate to save their daughter and knowing that no one else has a chance against Lex, either Alex or Kelly take off the power-dampener bracelet, unleashing Nyxly's real power. (I mean, that thing was DEO tech, they should know how to remove it.) And so we have the final battle between AllStone-powered Lex and Nyxly with all her fifth-dimensional power.

But nope, instead we got that bullshit ending.

Also, I hate how insufferably smug Kara was at the end, gloating that Phantoms are attracted to fear. Yeah, because how dare Nyxly be afraid of monsters that tormented her for centuries! Hasn't Kara herself been traumatized by Phantoms? Freaking hypocrite.

Oh, and here's more hypocricy from Kara: in the grand scheme of things, Nyxly didn't actually do that much wrong, compared to other characters. First she saved Kara's life, then she tried to kill Kara's father (with emphasis on tried, the guy is fine) in a messed-up attempt to help her, and Kara immediately decided that she's an embodiment of evil? Despite knowing how traumatized Nyxly was by her own father??? And afterwards, Nyxly never gave any indication that she would use the AllStone for evil, and while she did kidnap Esme, she treated her kindly and returned her completely unharmed.

Like… did everyone suddenly forget all the shady shit Lena did, including trying to brainwash the entire planet?! But Kara forgave her no problem! And didn't Mxysptlk threaten to destroy Earth in his debut episode? But now Kara is all buddy-buddy with him! Hell, M'gann used to be a space nazi! Sure, she regrets it and she did her best to atone for it, but she still used to be a space nazi! That's worse! Way worse!

And you know what? I would've understood if this was just Kara being unreasonable. Becase Kara was deeply traumatized by the destruction of her planet and the loss of her family, so I get how finding her father is alive and then having her new friend try to kill him would be traumatic. But nope, the narrative takes her side and keeps trying to paint Nyxly as pure evil, constantly equating her with Lex, when she really, really isn't.

Also, a relatively minor gripe, but it annoyed me how Mitch turned on Nyxly in the end. Sure, she forced him to be her minion under pressure, but they were shown to be starting to get along. In the previous episode, Mitch left with Nyxly rather than stay with Lex. (Honestly, I always kinda interpreted that scene that Mitch was the one who warned her Lex was going to hurt Esme.) And now he betrayed her, just like that. I wonder, did he even get arrested afterwards? You know, because he had been a criminal before he even met Nyxly? Or did he get immediately forgiven too?!

An even more minor gripe, but that thing with Supergirl trying to absorb the sun or whatever? That's not how the damn sun works! Like, I know this show runs on technobabble and comic book science, but it usually at least TRIES to be slightly plausible. This was just painfully stupid, because THAT'S NOT HOW THE FUCKING SUN WORKS!!!

…Honestly, I don't know what was going on behind the scenes, but the final episode botches so many things, it honestly feels like it was written by a completely different team than the rest of the season. It was all so utterly stupid… And worst of all, there isn't even any fix-it fics to soothe the pain and I'm just too damn tired and frustrated to write one myself. I just want to forget that awful excuse for a grand finale ever existed.

So, I have reached the final episode of season 6 of my Supergirl rewatch and I just have to reiterate: they did Nyxly so dirty.

I still don't understand what they were thinking. Nyxly is the first person to pass the Courage Totem's test, she's inundated with empathy from the Humanity Totem, she's completely open with the Truth Totem and is granted access to the Love Totem by choosing the life of a child over her own quest for power.

So, why did they just bung her back in the Phantom Zone!?

It wasn't a satisfying ending, it wasn't even a character arc - it was a circle! She ended up exactly where she started. Sure, Lex's hubris being his own downfall made sense for him, but him being in the second leg of season 6 at all felt so unnecessary that that wasn't satisfying, either.

Here's how I like to imagine this story arc going, because I'm never going to have the time or energy to do anything with this idea besides writing it down like this:

So, we've got Humanity, Hope, Courage, Dreams, Love, Truth and Destiny. 7 Totems. 7 Super Friends. Say, each Totem was tied specifically to a member of the Super Friends and so we're given an episode per Totem exploring a member of the team and their unique relationship to what that core element represented for them. (They sort of did this in the show but only for a couple of the Totems and they never really committed to it as a theme).

Narratively speaking, the Super Friends are working together to beat the trials, which is exactly what a superhero team should be all about. Together, they represent the best the planet has to offer.

Except, that's not the point of the trials. To gather the AllStone, you have to do it alone. And who's doing it alone? Nyxly. Nyxly bares her soul to these Totems, she gains most of them independently without cheating and the further along she gets into the trials, the more she's able to overcome the very reason for her pain and anger that led her down this path to begin with.

The Super Friends aren't looking for power, that was never their goal, and so of course they aren't playing by the rules to gain it, they're doing it in a way that everyone equally shares a part of the burden and so the effect isn't as intense. For Nyxly, though, by gaining all 7 Totems and going through those associated trials, I like to think that by the end of her arc, she willingly gives up that power.

And maybe that's the whole point of the AllStone. Only someone worthy of power should gain it, and the only people worthy of power are the ones that don't want it. The AllStone isn't meant to be a weapon or even a tool used by an individual, it's supposed to be for the whole world to share. And so the very mechanics of the trial will either fail those corrupted by their thirst for power long before they get a taste, or teach someone the true values of their own humanity by fairly passing every test.

I know the show wanted to go out with a bang and a big-stakes CGI battle with all the trimmings, but Nyxly was never designed as a villain. She was hurt and angry, but that never made her evil. She was a fifth dimensional imp, all she ever did was cause mischief, and so having her face her own reality through the trials would have been a major grounding factor for her.

To have the final villain of the show willingly give up their power not because it was beaten out of them, but simply because they decided to feels right to me. They built up the stakes so high in this season to make Nyxly out as the most powerful villain they'd ever faced -- and so maybe the only way to beat her was for her to decide that the fight was no longer worth fighting.

I dunno, it just would've been nice if the AllStone had actually meant something at the heart of it, and that Nyxly actually had a satisfying end to her story that made sense for her character.

Oh well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[thequackcity]

Quackity and Schlatt’s Relationship - More Complicated Then You Think

(this is all /rp and about the characters from the dream smp! pls assume i have the dignity not to write analysis of youtubers)

recently there was a bit of discourse surrounding the relationship between Quackity and Schlatt floating around on tumblr. tho i never saw the original post that sparked the conversation, i did see a few posts that were inspired by it mentioning how they disliked that the original post implied that Quackity and Schlatt were mutually abusive and/or equally bad for each other 

since i never saw the original post, i can't be sure if that's what the op meant to imply. it's not really my place to speak about a post that i never got the chance to read. BUT the conversation that was caused by the post in question did get me thinking about how this fandom treats the relationship between Quackity and Schlatt and how little nuance there is in discussions about it

now before i say anything else, i want to make a few things clear:

i don't think Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship is mutually abusive. no need to worry about hearing that from this post

i don't look down on ppl who have different interpretations of their relationship

there will be potentially triggering content in this analysis. i will place a quick warning whenever i think one is needed!

their relationship is romantic in canon and therefore i’ll be treating it as romantic

alright now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way, we can finally get on with the analysis! i apologize for how long this is gonna be

part 1: let's talk relationship!

i think we can all agree that Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship was not exactly a healthy one. tho it didn't start out that way, it certainly turned into what could be read as abusive or toxic (i personally read their relationship as being abusive in its later half due to evidence provided by the text, but i understand if others prefer to view it as just toxic instead)

but what happened that led to their partnership ending so badly? what caused all of this mess?

well, it was a lot of things. but we will get to that later. let's talk relationship first!

from the very beginning, Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship was pretty one-sided. tho they both clearly liked each other as friends/partners in crime both before and after the election (yes they did interact before the election!) Quackity was also interested in Schlatt romantically- something that Schlatt wasn't fully committed to

as we all know from the infamous date stream and from a few other moments, Quackity and Schlatt enjoyed playfully flirting with each other- tho it was pretty obvious that Quackity was more serious about it then Schlatt was even tho Schlatt considered Quackity to be very attractive

in my opinion, Quackity is someone who wants a long term relationship, while Schlatt is more interested in flings. this can be seen in Schlatt refusing to marry Quackity and rejecting most of his advances while Quackity tried his best to convince him to feel otherwise. Tommy put it best: Quackity is just one of Schlatt’s many bitches U_U

to Quackity, the romantic aspect of their relationship was very important. because Schlatt never actually shot him down or told him that he didn't feel the same way, Quackity took that to mean that they were truly in love. Schlatt on the other hand wasn't very invested in the romantic side of things but clearly valued Quackity’s looks and his support as an ally against Pogtopia so he never fully rejected Quackity’s advances

this might not seem like too big of a deal considering the other things that happened between them, but i think it shows part of the nature of their relationship. there is a lot of miscommunication and, on Schlatt’s end, manipulation of emotions. love is a strong motivator for loyalty and Schlatt is a smart guy who would know how to use that to his advantage

but that isn't to say that Schlatt didn't ever care about Quackity!

Schlatt is a complicated guy and figuring out when he's actually being genuine can be pretty difficult. but i think there are some moments that point to Schlatt genuinely caring about Quackity

when he was alive, Schlatt was pretty paranoid. not as paranoid as Wilbur, but certainly up there. but there were never any times where he truly questioned Quackity’s loyalties after his first day as president. Schlatt also seemed truly upset that Quackity betrayed him, bringing up their status as partners in crime while ranting about how much it hurt him and singling Quackity out while talking about how he had been abandoned during his time of need

Schlatt also spent a lot of time sulking after Quackity betrayed him and whining to Ponk about needing a new bitch. this is in contrast to how angry he was after Tubbo betrayed him- both during and after the execution

there is also the situation with the Big Man Gym 

after being dead for a while, Schlatt contacted Quackity despite them leaving off on bad terms and asked for him to visit him in his cave gym. when Quackity showed up, Schlatt talked about how he valued their relationship and the good times they had together. tho this can easily be seen as emotional manipulation, Schlatt’s a lot smarter than he seems and- if he doesnt have memory issues due to being a ghost- would know that Quackity’s opinion of him was in the dump at the time of his death and most likely wouldn't have improved since then. Fundy has a higher opinion of Schlatt than Quackity does and is someone who obviously craves validation. but Schlatt went to Quackity first anyway and trusted him to help revive him

i think that this is all good evidence that points towards Schlatt truly caring about Quackity as much as someone like Schlatt can care about anyone- or at least valuing him as a companion

i also think that it is pretty common knowledge that Quackity cared about Schlatt- and possibly still does- but i will go over a bit of evidence that i haven’t already mentioned before we move on to the next part

Quackity tried multiple times to impress Schlatt (like when he lied about knowing how to play chess), would attempt to help Schlatt when he was drowning in water, sadly said that they could have had something together while Schlatt was dying in the caravan, and implied that he wouldn’t have left if Schlatt hadn’t taken down the white house. Quackity also willingly went to the Big Man Gym after being summoned there by Schlatt and wanted to revive him long before the revive book became part of the story

part 2: what made it fall apart?

everything i've said so far has been pretty interesting (hopefully) but it doesn't really answer the original question: what went wrong to turn Schlatt and Quackity’s mainly positive partnership sour?

well it comes down to two things in my opinion: their incompatible desires for political power and Schlatt’s deteriorating mental state

Quackity wanted political power from the beginning and wasn't afraid to be open about his desires. he pooled his votes with Schlatt because Schlatt offered him the position of vice president, something Wilbur and Tommy weren’t willing to give to him. tho Quackity obviously cared about L’Manburg and wanted to see good things for it, he also desired power and was willing to team up with someone he didn't fully agree with to get said power

at 32:40 in this video, Quackity talks about how in politics everyone uses everyone so it's alright if Schlatt is using him. he then talks about how he doesn't want to be a man with no power and how he understands that Schlatt’s main goal is also gaining/keeping power. Quackity also shows a bit of his naughty evil side by saying if he overthrows Schlatt then the fun ends too early! 

(side note: these two are pretty evenly matched in intelligence and manipulativeness, i love it!) 

it's a bit of a fandom misconception that Quackity was a love sick yes man during the Manburg era. tho Quackity did want to please Schlatt and was in love with him, he didn't shy away from standing up to or disagreeing with Schlatt when he believed it was needed

at around 26:12 of this video, Quackity and Schlatt meet together in private and Quackity tells Schlatt off for playing down his role in the power structure of Manburg. since this was very early in Schlatt’s reign, Quackity shows no fear towards him and confidently tells him not to treat him like that

Quackity also broke Niki out of jail after regretting letting her be put there in the first place, tried to convince Schlatt to not execute Tubbo, jumped in front of Fundy when Schlatt tried to attack him, tried to stop Schlatt from tearing down buildings, and attempted to protect the white house he built from being destroyed by Schlatt. these are not behaviors of a pure yes man but of someone who, despite fear, has the confidence to speak up for himself even when disrespected by someone in authority

Quackity has always been someone who wanted power and someone who was never a yes man to authority. this contradicts with how Schlatt believed Quackity should act as vice president. in Schlatt’s opinion, Quackity’s one job is to sit around looking pretty while Schlatt does all of the important things and holds all of the power. Schlatt was a big fan of promoting people to worthless positions of authority and its pretty obvious that he considered vice president to be similar to the fake positions he gave Fundy and Tubbo 

in the end, this was a big part of what destroyed their relationship. like it or not, Quackity’s a power hungry guy and always has been. he didn't like that Schlatt constantly shoved him aside and refused to listen to him

now onto the nasty bit...Schlatt’s mental state

cw for mentions of alcoholism, mental deterioration, and abusive behavior  

before i say anything more, i just want to say that i don't think having issues with alcoholism makes someone a bad person. i personally have some issues with such things so it would be pretty stupid of me to say being an alcoholic makes you a bad person. alcoholism does negatively affect your cognitive functions tho and, combined with other health issues, can cause some of the very serious mental problems that Schlatt clearly struggles with

throughout the Manburg era, Schlatt’s mental state rapidly deteriorated. he went from a pretty normal- if eccentric- guy who had a drinking problem, to someone who was delirious most of the time. it's a sharp and noticeable decline that caused a lot of pain for Quackity due to Schlatt often taking his excess aggression out on him by yelling at him and/or belittling him. tho Schlatt often belittled Quackity before he went fully off of the deep end, it was never as aggressive as it was when he was in this delirious state of mind

it was during one of Schlatt’s most aggressive and delirious moments that he tore down the white house despite Quackity’s protests. as we all know, this caused Quackity to snap and kill Schlatt (it's more complicated than that but we will get back to that). as mentioned previously, Quackity implied that he would have stayed with Schlatt if the white house hadn’t been destroyed

in my opinion, these two things combined are the biggest reasons why Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship fell apart. their differing desires for power were not compatible and Schlatt’s awful behavior while his mental state declined caused a rift between them that couldn't be fixed

part 3: how toxic was it really?

cw for emotional and physical abuse 

as i said all the way back in part one, Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship was not healthy. i have provided many examples in the other two parts that shine a light onto why it wasn't healthy, but i didn't show the entire picture

there are many moments that show exactly how Schlatt treated Quackity when he was acting at his worst and none of them are pretty. tho Schlatt was never truly aggressive with his insults until he started to go off of the deep end, that doesn't mean that what he said wasn't negatively affecting Quackity

Schlatt would belittle, insult, and mock Quackity for his appearance not being up to his standards, for his opinions, and for being emotional in ways that Schlatt disapproved of like crying. tho Schlatt would often brush off Quackity’s reactions towards this cruel behavior, it's very clear that Schlatt’s treatment of him has stuck with Quackity in many ways

Quackity is very sensitive about his appearance and it seems to be because of how badly Schlatt hurt his self esteem during their time together. Schlatt tied Quackity’s worth to his appearance and then would claim he wasn't meeting his standards of attractiveness. we can tell that this has stuck with Quackity because of his sensitivity towards people bringing up the scar on his face (something that greatly alters his physical appearance) and he still reacts very badly when Schlatt calls him the mocking nickname flatty patty

speaking of flatty patty- that stupid insult shockingly has a lot of weight in Quackity’s relationship with Schlatt. tho its something the audience is meant to laugh at, the nickname also shows just how little Schlatt respects Quackity because he's constantly throwing it around just to make Quackity upset. Schlatt’s last words are flatty patty all because he wanted to get in one last dig at his ex and ruin Quackity’s day even further 

Schlatt tends to do a lot of things that are intended to make Quackity upset. tearing down the room Quackity made for him in the white house is the biggest example of this- especially since Schlatt mentions how it will upset Quackity while he does it. you can see this moment at around 19:10 of this video

and now let's get into the elephant in the room when it comes to these two: Quackity was scared of Schlatt. tho we never really see Schlatt hit or attack Quackity physically outside of their confrontation at the white house or their confrontation in the caravan, these clips imply that Quackity was at the very least scared of Schlatt physically harming him in some way 

as for actually physically harming him, Schlatt hits Quackity multiple times with a pickaxe and with his fists during their white house fight. Quackity hits Schlatt a couple times too, tho these are all primarily defensive blows since he is trying to protect himself and his property. he also chases after Quackity with a bow after Quackity’s plan to trick him into signing Manburg over to the Pogtopians fails and hits him multiple times during the caravan confrontation

all of this evidence shows that Schlatt was an abusive (or at least toxic) partner towards Quackity and someone who greatly affected him in many ways

tho Quackity did a few questionable things throughout his relationship with Schlatt (such as trying to get Schlatt to have sex with him despite Schlatt not being interested as shown in the later half of this video) and did some downright morally wrong things during his time as vice president of Manburg, no one deserves the pain of an abusive relationship- even a person who has done bad things

as a brief side note before we move on because i know people will bring it up if i skip over it, Quackity did- and most likely still does- want to literally possess Glatt. he brought up reviving Schlatt and using him as a political pawn after Schlatt’s funeral and during their conversation at the Big Man Gym Quackity talked about owning Glatt and having him work at Las Nevadas with no pay

this is unsettling behavior to say the least but this essay isnt about the aftermath of their relationship so much as it is about their relationship when it was actually happening. maybe i will make another post talking more about how Quackity’s relationship with Schlatt affected him even after Schlatt’s death and/or about Quackity’s relationship with Glatt

part 4: final thoughts

i’m not exactly sure why the nuances in Schlatt and Quackity’s relationship get lost when it comes to the fandom, but it’s pretty disappointing to see. hopefully this essay can help people take a closer look at canon and maybe even help them find something interesting that they’d want to explore!

tho the point of this essay is to clear up any misconceptions and hopefully add some nuance to the conversations surrounding Schlatt and Quackity’s relationship, i also wrote it in hopes of showing people how fascinating these two partners in crime were back in the Manburg days. i didn’t cover everything but i think i did a pretty good job for my first analysis post in the dsmp fandom

also since you read to the end, i must say thank you! it really does means a lot to me that you did. i hope you enjoyed and maybe even learned something. this post can be used as a resource if anyone wants to use it as such

here’s a tiny devil Quackity for your troubles <3

[robininthelabyrinth]

Lao Nie and Nie Mingjue have a good day together and bond. What was their relationship like before the qi deviation?

Boys - ao3

“Two paths, hmm?” Lao Nie said, squinting at the road markers in front of him. “Well, I don’t see why we can’t go down this one to the right –”

“No.”

“No? Why not?”

“Because little uncle asked me not to let you meet any new dangerous women,” Nie Mingjue said, looking as serious as ever – only his little hands, swinging to the side, revealed that he was just a ten-year-old. Still a child, no matter how mature he tried to act. “And a place called the Springtime Ghost Valley sounds like it probably has dangerous women.”

“Hey,” Lao Nie protested mildly. “Who’s the father here, me or you?”

“If a-die wants a new wife, little uncle will find one that isn’t inclined to kill him.”

That sounded like a recitation.

“Then what’s even the point,” Lao Nie grumbled, and reached out to ruffle his son’s hair, enjoying how Nie Mingjue yelped when he did, glaring up at him with offended dignity.

In all honesty, Lao Nie had no idea how he’d ended up with a son as serious and sincere and earnest as Nie Mingjue – he himself hadn’t taken anything seriously in years. Probably it was his mother’s influence.

Now that was a woman.

Not that his foxy second wife hadn’t been woman enough to blow him away either…

Hmm.

Perhaps they had a point about his taste in women.

“How about men?” Lao Nie suggested. “If it really means so much to you, I could swear off of women entirely –”

“A-die.”

“Mm?”

“Leave Sect Leader Wen alone.”

Lao Nie cracked up.

-

Because Lao Nie was the father, however easy-going he might sometimes be, they ended up heading down the right-hand path regardless. They were supposed to be night-hunting, after all – it was the perfect bonding experience according to Jiwei, though Lao Nie suspected his saber of having selfish intentions there – and deliberately avoiding a place with ‘Ghost’ in the name was hardly appropriate for scions of a Great Sect like theirs.

Although the reference to springtime was admittedly a little worrisome.

If it turned out to be a brothel, with the ghost thing being just a clever if somewhat tonedeaf marketing ploy, Lao Nie was turning around and taking them both home at once. He wasn’t going to risk little Nie Mingjue turning out anything like that awful Jin Guangshan – or, nearly as bad, having to explain anything more about the joys of sex to those earnest little button eyes and dimpled cheeks with no time to prepare first. He still hadn’t recovered emotionally from the last few times Nie Mingjue had asked him a question like that.

When they finally reached the end of the path, turning a corner to behold a clearing that was probably completely ordinary during the daytime, Lao Nie found that he’d been both right and wrong.

“It’s a ghost brothel,” he marveled. He’d never seen anything like it in his life.

“Dangerous women,” Nie Mingjue reminded him.

“A-Jue! Let your father live a little!”

Nie Mingjue rolled his eyes.

Lao Nie virtuously ignored his slightly judgmental brat of a son. It wouldn’t do him that much harm to go visit for a while, with the risk of Jin Guangshan-ness being relatively minimal; they were ghosts, after all. It was the duty of every cultivator to fight against evil, wherever it lived, no matter its form –

“Fighting? Is that what it’s called?”

“Who taught you sarcasm?” Lao Nie asked, knowing perfectly well that the answer was himself. “I ought to smack them.”

Nie Mingjue crossed his arms over his chest and pouted at him. “Fine, it’s fighting, we’ll go fight them. Do you want me to start drawing ghost-repelling talismans?”

“Liberate first!” Lao Nie sang out. “Come on, let’s go see what they’re like – er, that is, I mean, see what grievances they have that are keeping them here, of course. There’s no harm in dangerous women. Just don’t let them eat your yang energy!”

“It’s not my yang energy that I’m worried about, a-die…”

-

The ghostly madame was an extraordinarily charming person and Lao Nie liked her at once.

Not liked her liked her – he’d fallen head over heels with both of his wives from the first word, and that hadn’t happened here – but still, conversing with her was an extraordinarily enjoyable way to spend time.

She was witty and clever, with a broad range of knowledge and a gift for keeping a conversation lively and exciting; she could meet every verbal riposte with ease, and looked utterly gorgeous and composed the entire time. Sure, she kept trying to lure Lao Nie into an orgy in which all of his yang energy would be slowly sucked out before his body was ripped to pieces and his bones cracked open so that the ghosts could consume the marrow within, but what a way to go, right?

Nie Mingjue spent his time making friends with the ghost prostitutes.

Lao Nie wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting.

Well, he supposed he’d been expected a range of things – anything from Nie Mingjue getting suckered in by one of the ghosts and needing to be rescued by his father to Nie Mingjue just pulling out his Baxia and trying to stab them because he felt offended by their existence. He wasn’texpecting his ghostly conversational partner to suddenly frown mid-sentence and say, “What is he talking to them about?”

Lao Nie turned his head slightly and started listening.

“– just because you’re a ghost doesn’t mean you have to work allthe time, surely,” Nie Mingjue was saying, completely serious and earnest in the way he so often was. Lao Nie’s son had in fact inherited his sense of humor, only it tended to be buried fairly deep down and make its way up to the surface in an understated way in the most unexpected times; the rest of the time, he was straightforward to a fault, treating everything sincerely. “The birds in the trees, the animals in the fields – even among prostitutes, even the street-walking ladies know they need to take time to rest! I can’t believe you really have to work every single night. How long has it been since you had a night off?”

The ghost prostitutes around him had contemplative looks on their faces.

“Isn’t the whole point of becoming a vengeful man-eating ghost that you have more power than regular humans? I don’t know, it kind of seems like a bad deal if you have even worse conditions after all that –”

“I’m sorry,” the ghostly madame said, looking irritated underneath all her carefully painted smiles. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment…”

Lao Nie had to bite his hand to keep from laughing out loud.

-

“I think we’ve all learned a valuable life lesson today,” Lao Nie announced.

Nie Mingjue was pouting again.

“I don’t think we did,” he said, sounding profoundly skeptical. A filial child like Nie Mingjue shouldn’t sound so skeptical of his beloved father’s words of wisdom, really; if Lao Nie wasn’t so heartless, he might be offended. Of course, the skepticism might have originated from the heartlessness, so it was all six of one, half a dozen of the other in the end. “Those poor ghost ladies! They were still fighting each other by the time we left!”

“I’ve never seen a ghost pull another ghost’s hair before,” Lao Nie conceded. It had been brilliant. “One day, someone’s going to figure out a more reliable way to use ghosts to fight ghosts, mark my words.”

“Isn’t that demonic cultivation?”

“Oh, sure,” Lao Nie said, still cheerful. “If whoever it is does too much of it, eventually it’ll build up into a backlash that’ll kill them in some grossly horrific manner. Probably ripped into pieces by the backlash. And that’s not even counting how they’d be ostracized and hunted by the cultivation world first! But still, imagine how exciting it’d be in the meantime!”

“A-die…”

Lao Nie patted Nie Mingjue on the head again, earning another glare. “Immortality is a lie, A-Jue. We’re all here for a short time, each and every one of us, and only the length determined by fate and man. All that matters is what we do with the time that we have, and whether we’ve used it well.”

“To fight against evil wherever it lives, no matter its form?”

“To leave the world a better place than when we entered it, and to let our memories linger in the hearts of those that love us,” Lao Nie said. “Fighting evil is the best way to accomplish the former, and living a good life the latter. And you might as well have a good time doing it, if you can! Everything else is just extra.”

Nie Mingjue thought about that for a moment. “And a-die likes to have second helpings of extras?”

That was true. Lao Nie was a man of prodigious appetites of all sorts.

Despite that, he protested, “That wasn’t the point I was trying to make. I was being serious for once.” Seeing Nie Mingjue’s skeptical look, he made a face. “I can be serious, sometimes!”

“Can you?”

“It’s been known to happen! A date written on a wall will be right once a year.”

“Not if the wall gets painted over.”

“Ouch,” Lao Nie said. “I don’t even understand the metaphor you’re making, and I’m still going ouch.”

“Uh-huh,” Nie Mingjue said, utterly unimpressed. “You know, if you wanted one of the ghost ladies to be Third Mother, you would’ve been better off with the one playing the qin, not the ghost madame. She was much more powerful.”

Lao Nie arched his eyebrows. “Was she?”

Nie Mingjue nodded. “She had claws like a lizard.”

Lao Nie tried to remember which one of them had been the ghost girl playing the qin. He couldn’t quite remember at first – the women there were all surpassingly lovely, almost to the point of over-saturation – and then suddenly an image came into view, a beauty with a veil and sharp sword-like eyebrows, leaning over the qin with the shining pearl hanging in the center of her forehead dipping down.

And, yes, claws like a lizard.

“Hmm,” Lao Nie said. “That might have been a dragon, actually. You should be careful of those, they’re tricky.”

They’ll rip you and three dozen other cultivators besides into more pieces than can be picked up without blinking an eye, he meant, and you won’t even know what hit you. Avoid at all costs.

“Oh,” Nie Mingjue said, blinking. “Oops.”

“…what do you mean, oops?”

“Nothing bad! If I’m not supposed to interact with her, does that mean I should go and give back the gift she gave me?”

“She gave you a – give me that,” Lao Nie said. “This instant.”

“But a-die, you said there’s no harm in dangerous women –”

“For me, you foolish child!”

-

“I suppose it’s fine,” Lao Nie finally concluded, having inspected the dragon pearl from all angles several times over. “I don’t know how you do this, A-Jue.”

“Do what?”

Lao Nie thought about how his foxy second wife had cooed over his eldest son with a (slightly disturbing) fervor that she otherwise reserved only for eating snacks, and how viciously she’d dealt with anyone who’d even thought of interfering with Nie Mingjue in any way. He was fairly sure he himself had only survived his second marriage on account of having such a charming son.

“Don’t worry about it,” he finally said, mostly because he wasn’t entirely sure how to explain – or if he even entirely understood. “Anyway, it’s nothing dangerous. Rather the contrary! Dragon pearls like this are given to baby dragons to protect them.”

Nie Mingjue frowned. “What feeds on baby dragons?”

“…I think it’s mostly to protect them from themselves,” Lao Nie said, feeling a little uncertain about it himself. “And if it’s not, I don’t think I want to know, to be perfectly honest. There’s fighting evil, which is only right, and then there’s suicide, which is a waste – a wise man should know how to judge the difference between them. Anyway, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make.”

“It wasn’t?”

“It wasn’t, and you aren’t allowed to start worrying about the fate of theoretical baby dragons – I forbid it.” Nie Mingjue scowled. He’d probably started worrying already. “My point was actually that a pearl like this is a remarkably powerful protective tool for cultivators – one of those things that can only be found by chance and not made. Keep this on you, and you’ll never have to fear your opponent in battle.”

Nie Mingjue looked thoughtful.

-

“What do you want to do with that pearl, anyway?” Lao Nie asked after they’d gotten home and split up just long enough to take a nice long relaxing bath and gobble down dinner. “Do you want to put it in the treasury?”

Nie Mingjue blinked twice, which for him was practically the same as looking terribly shifty-eyed.

“You already did something with it,” Lao Nie deduced. “Something that isn’t using it as intended.”

“Oh, no,” Nie Mingjue said, looking shocked at the mere suggestion. “I’m definitely using it as intended.”

Lao Nie looked him up and down. “You’re not wearing it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t use it. Protection from your opponents in proper battle – that seems like cheating!”

Lao Nie felt a slight headache coming on. People who said they wanted a good boy for a son had no idea what they were getting themselves into, he reflected. Why couldn’t he have birthed a complete rascal instead?

“All right,” he said, instead of saying any of that because at the end of the day, bewildering as he might be, Nie Mingjue was his son and he loved him more than anything. “So what did you do with it?”

“I gave it to Huaisang.”

Lao Nie blinked. He supposed that really was using it for its intended purpose – protecting babies from themselves – although he suspected the dragon lady had been thinking of Nie Mingjue as the baby.

“Although…”

Lao Nie raised his eyebrows.

“…I think he may have swallowed it.”

My boys, Lao Nie thought, and had to sit down and hold his ribs because he otherwise feared he might split his sides from laughing so hard. Only my boys.

[weakforarwen]

The Moment of Truth

I’ve so many things to say about this episode, I don’t know where to start. 

This is one of the best episodes in the series. I didn’t properly appreciate season 1 the first time, but I will now. The difference that not having evil Morgana makes. The series did need a plot to drive it, something that was lacking in the first two seasons, but, at its core, it was meant to be lighthearted and whimsical. In the later seasons, the tone changes and becomes too heavy. Morgana was so great like this... they ruined her for no reason.

Merlin and Arthur’s dynamic was so different in the beginning, so much sweeter. When I began watching the series I understood why people shipped them. Arthur was so much kinder and attentive toward Merlin in the beginning. He clearly cared about him. By the end of the first season, however, I felt frustrated by how their dynamic didn’t seem to change. In fact, it seemed to be changing for the worse. It’s like, over time, Arthur became more of an ass to Merlin, and began treating him more like a servant. In the beginning, they felt more like equals and friends. Arthur respected Merlin without “covering up” his feelings with “humor” - aka bullying. What happened to them? 

It’s so cute that Morgana, Gwen, and Arthur risked their lives to help Merlin and Ealdor. I miss Gwen and Morgana’s friendship, as well as Merlin and Morgana’s. I loved Gwen in the episode. She was so badass. She told Arthur to eat his food or else, and stood up to him for the right of all women to fight for themselves. Arthur listened, of course. I loved how she got flustered after telling him to be grateful for the food Merlin’s mom prepared, and how Arthur called after her to concede to her point: “Gwen, Gwen, Guinevere”. I love it when Arthur calls her Guinevere.

Arthur did nicely in the episode. He listened to Will when he questioned his judgment and even gave him reason. Arthur is always doubting himself, and that’s one of his biggest strengths as well as a weakness. Merlin talked him into it though, and Arthur led the villagers well. His war speech, however, as empowering as it was, fell short. The villagers shouldn’t have to fight for the right to survive and eat their own food, that’s ridiculous. Everyone deserves to simply exist with dignity - no strings attached. But the villagers were so willing to fight to the death... Only Will made sense to me. He was rightfully skeptic. Normal men against skilled warriors? That’s absurd. Am I the only person who would’ve run for the hills? Not fighting wouldn’t have helped, but less people would’ve died. If not for Merlin, half the villagers would’ve been massacred... 

I liked Will a lot. He was the voice of reason, and he told Merlin some truths he needed to hear. The men of Ealdor were supposed to give their lives when Merlin could simply take all the men out with magic? That doesn’t sound fair. And all because Arthur couldn’t learn the truth (and because Arthur was Merlin’s “destiny”)... Will was right, Merlin was still living a lie, and if Arthur really was his friend he wouldn’t hate him for having magic. Sadly, life isn’t that simple. Fear and prejudice are hard to overcome. As much as Arthur valued Merlin, a person can’t change overnight. Telling the truth isn’t always the answer. 

Merlin was brave for using his magic the way he did anyway, and Will was a good friend for covering for him. I felt sad watching him die. He died for Arthur too... Thankfully, Arthur treated Will with kindness despite his magic, proving, once more, that he was different from Uther and that he had the potential to accept magic. But even after seeing what “Will” did, Arthur feared magic. Changing his mind is not as easy as showing him how magic can be used for good - a small hurricane is a pretty frightening thing, after all. 

Arthur always disappoints Merlin. Just when Merlin thought Arthur could accept magic, he’s proven wrong. However, although Arthur reprimanded Merlin for not warning him of Will’s magic (because it was “dangerous”, which I can more or less understand), I don’t think he would’ve punished Will had he lived. Arthur’s attitude towards magic actually became more, rather than less, inflexible over time, as he was exposed to its dangers but not its powers for good. I think Merlin missed his timing. Arthur grew up fearing and mistrusting magic, but had little experience with it in the beginning, making him more likely to give Merlin the benefit of the doubt. There was never a good time to tell Arthur, but it would’ve been better in the beginning. It was sad seeing Arthur renounce magic after Will’s death, when Merlin himself was the warlock... 

Anyway, I loved Will. He was for sure the best one-off character to me. He was great to Merlin too! Merlin deserved a friend like that...