#I ASCENDED AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lotus-pear]

soukoku as one of my dearest renaissance paintings

[chocostrwberry]

One lucky girl 🐞

Something to celebrate the master post!!

And for everyone’s support bc WOW?? I get so many nice asks about my art and it really helps me get through my day,, and I wouldn’t even be making a master post if it wasn’t for everyone’s interest in my au. It really motivates me and I hope that I can continue to share my ideas with y’all!! THANK YOU EVERYONE!! 🌈🥹🎉🩷🫶🫶

[formulanni]

the new aurora album SLAPS

Tags: @st-leclerc @three-days-time @the-wall-is-my-goal @saviour-of-lord @rubywingsracing

[egophiliac]

they're baaaaaack

[alexa-nowak]

Fandom culture has changed so much, I honestly just don't get it anymore

It used to be absolutely normal to like morally questionable or straight up irredeemable characters, there was no "if you like a bad guy, you are agreeing with the bad guy" in my 2013

Now nearly in every fandom villain lovers are getting bullied, fandoms are busy protecting pixel's feelings, while severely hurting real people's mental health with this neverending flood of toxicity

And it genuinely upsets me, because villains and the whole concept of liking "against the good guys" characters in media/ literature/ art/ etc was always a safe space for outcasts and people who felt rejected by society, for being queer, for just being different and unable to fit in for any reason

And seeing that even inside online fandom culture villain lovers are getting nothing but this bs is heartbreaking

And all this discussion about "healthy relationship with imaginary bf" is the whole different bucket of crap that I would waffle about at some point

How these people are doing in literature classes, I mean, every other classical book has some kind of toxic love story, do they need a trigger warning for every book or something

[bratbarzal]

[sloppyjester]

I was actually wondering why his hair looked kinda messy this season and it just hit me : he doesn't have Guillermo to brush his hair anymore 🥹

Yeah i'm sure it was pretty much obvious for everybody at this point but anyway, i like this (not so much) detail, it really adds to the pathetic babygirl image and i vote for ✌️

And what if by the end of the season, his hair are back to being majestic and something something Guillermo brushes his hair tenderly again each night for the rest of their lives

[a2zillustration]

And there we go, first companion quest we officially finished! Neil's performance was just as good as everyone said it was.

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[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]

[[ All Croissant Adventures (app) ]]

[soupandflowers]

CHINAS IN CHAPTER 525.... THERE IS A TOTAL OF 35 DIFFERENT CHINAS IN THIS CHAPTER!!!! i think i just experienced the most ethereal feeling ever in my entire life

couldn't fit all the chinas because of tumblr's limit... so here is the other post with the last 5.. thank u to ramen on discord pointing out a china i have missed

[dmbakura]

OK so I want to stress that this is NOT a slight against OP of this post or how they feel about the way the game presents certain options, but I've seen sentiments like this before and I feel like people still aren't quite grasping WHY the game doesn't allow the option to do a "slow burn romance where you can show him you truly care about him beyond sex" if you ascend him. So I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about Astarion's route and objectification, and the very intentional limitations of player choice regarding the ascension path.

Objectification is the act of degrading someone to the status of a mere object. It often involves a sexual component, but not necessarily. It's reducing someone to being a tool or toy, as if they have no feelings/opinions/autonomy of their own. In Astarion's case, his objectification is very much tied to his sexuality, but also his own views on power and control, and how that reflects on both him and his romantic partner.

I think people get too fixated on Welch's quote "it's reducing your relationship with him back to being a kink/form of gratification... it's very much admitting you failed to think of him beyond a sex object" and take this as commentary or judgment on the players choices, when it isn't actually that. It's quite literally the story that is baked into the route and Astarion's character as a whole. There are obviously reasons to ascend him that have nothing to do with how you personally feel about him as a character, ie you want stats, you think it's just more fun, or interesting, or you like the tragedy, etc but in regards to the story itself? It's actually more commentary on how Astarion views himself more than anything else. He is an intentional subversion of the seductive vampire trope. You cannot engage with his story without interacting with this aspect of his character.

Even if you had a dialogue option to try and initiate a romance with him without that first night of sex, Astarion wouldn't take it. If you had a dialogue option to "show him you cared and want to protect him" he would either scoff at it or get angry, as he does if you try and express similar sentiments about protecting him from Cazador. He doesn't want to be coddled. He doesn't trust mindless heroism or altruism. He initiates sex because he uses it as a tool for manipulation and insurance of his own safety. You can either play into that manipulation or don't (and he seems to respect you more if you don't, which says a lot about his self worth). You can't initiate a slow burn romance because Astarion is so distrustful of EVERYONE and has no ability to conceptualize genuine care at this point in the game due to his mistreatment as a vampire spawn. This is an incredibly important aspect to his character and to change the foundation of this is to rewrite his character entirely.

(There is ONE exception to this: Karlach. Karlach is the only character that can initiate more of a slowburn with Astarion and won't sleep with him the first night because she quite literally, physically can't. And Astarion doesn't immediately accept this either. He belittles Karlach, to the point of calling her frigid and basically defective, wondering if he's wasting his time, before she chews him out for being an asshole. Again, he has no idea how to approach a relationship without using sex as a transaction and it shows. He only goes along with it because he quite literally cannot do his normal routine. This is the only reason he won't start a relationship with Karlach using sex.)

So anyways, that choice at the start? The way Astarion's romance initiates on the first night? It intentionally parallels the way ascended!Astarion will offer you an ultimatum: become his spawn or leave him. At the start of the game, Astarion intentionally plays into the sexy vampire trope to get what he wants, is highly paranoid, afraid and distrustful of everyone. At the end of the game in the ascended route... he's intentionally playing into the sexy vampire trope, is highly paranoid, afraid and distrustful of everyone, only this time he has power to back him up. Nothing about his views has been fundamentally challenged if you ascend him; he's completely validated in his beliefs about power and control and entirely in the mindset that he has no value without becoming the ascendant.

It's not about whether you personally find him sexy or not. It's not about having sex at this point. It's not about you or your character. Astarion objectifies himself, fully playing the only hand he knows (as he himself puts it) because that is all he knows how to do. In the ascended path, he has been shown no other option. Your character, good intentions or not, has not given him the tools to see himself as anything else. There is no way too make himself see himself as anything else, except by not ascending him! Either you let this man degrade you as he degrades himself, or don't. That is the option provided, and anything otherwise wouldn't make sense without rewriting his character completely.

Do you value what he actually wants (freedom) or do you value what he says he wants (power, because he views it as the only way to get that freedom)? To me the game makes it obvious (ESPECIALLY with the newly added epilogue) that walking in the sun again or gaining the power of the vampire ascendant aren't the keys to Astarion's happiness. Stuff like that, while nice, doesn't magically grant him peace and it's not a substitute for character growth and self reflection. It honestly just feels like people want the personality and development of spawn Astarion but in the ascended Astarion path, which doesn't make any sense with the way the story unfolds.

Anyways, I just wanted to say that objectification can be more than just seeing someone as a sex object, and doesn't necessarily have to do with sex itself. It can tie into views about power and degradation and a lack of self respect. Furthermore, it's not the game telling you you're a bad person or some sex addled freak if you ascend him, it's asking you to engage with what Astarion's personal story can say about sexuality, cycles of abuse, trauma and recovery - for better or worse.

[very-poorly-drawn-tgcf]

Episode 1: Back to Heaven now, by accident

Bonus under the cut! (Warning tgcf spoilers but then again Why Are You Here If You Haven't Finished TGCF Yet Off With Ye)

[lloydfrontera]

'lloyd is very weak now and needs to marry so he'll have someone to protect him'- lloyd has the only grandmaster on the world following him around like a puppy. he has the most terrifying motherfucker on the world wrapped around his little finger. he has the one person in the world who can hit an absolute in the head and get away with it swearing in his heart to protect him no matter the cost over and over again.

lloyd made javier watch him die twice right in front of him just to keep him alive. there is no power on existence that could make javier allow anyone or anything to even think about harming lloyd again.

lloyd is fine

[preciouslittle-bhaalbabe]

This is just a thought I had and in no way do I think this is canon or what actually happens in game. But given the fact that the rite of profane ascension is basically just true vampirism with extra steps and benefits, but doesn't have any personality or corruption baked in (besides the understanding that power corrupts and how vampires act in general in DnD). What if, after gaining this power, Astarion doesn't really know what to do with it, so he just plays the part of a powerful vampiric lord. He talks about all the shit vamps can do like running wrongside on rooftops, and in the moment he seems almost kinda nerdy about it imo. He doesn't directly copy Cazador, but he is the only example he has seen. The performative voice, the ambitions, all that jazz. But it's still Astarion just being very overhwelmed with what he has done and all he has gained/lost. And eventually, he settles down and the performative nature slips with time. Or it gets worse as his partner/companions encourage his bad behaviour. Idk about you guys but after analyzing an ungodly amount of A!A dialogue I'm still under the impression that it's just a very confused and overwhelmed Astarion. Who is using his new talents to cope with his life changing in a matter of moments. He's terrified. And his partner/friends can either continue to support him, or confirm what he is so afraid of, that he is just a monster that nobody can stand to be around. If you break up with him or not romance him at all, in the epilogue it's clear he's seems very...Lonely. All that power and nobody to share it with. Nobody by his side. And if you do stay with him and support him. He seems almost surprised. But is very happy and says the player completes him. That all this would mean nothing if they weren't there. He has no reason to lie, they're with him. I think he's being actually very vulnerable in that moment. It's still Astarion.

Just an interesting view on things :3

[noirrelite]

Goofy ahh Phosphophyllite warframe and unnamed proto warframe concept I made for funsies like, last year I guess

[rogerscupboard]

HOLY FUCKING FUCK.

IM FUCKING SEEING QUEEN TONIGHT

[coloriza]

sasori week 2023 // truth / trapped //