#I don't think he needs people to forgive him and justify what he did under xehanort's abuse

[grimfantas]

you don't need morals, you need someone like you who can understand

[roz-ani]

One issue I don't quite get and want to briefly comment on is the idea that Alastor has to be either an old-school villain who's just evil for the sake of being evil, or more of an antagonist with actual depth, emotions, and traumatic backstory to explain his actions, letting the audience relate to him. I think we're going to extremes here. We don't have to go, "Oh, I understand why he would do that". The main goal is for us to say, "Oh, so that's his deal".

While we don't know exactly what Alstor's deal is, what the exact terms of his contract are etc., he is, without a doubt, the most complex character in the show. He's in a unique position since he technically helps Charlie achieve her goal, but it's obvious he's in it for selfish reasons, with some grander scheme going on behind the scenes. May he eventually be the one the main cast will have to fight at some point? Sure. Would it be even more fun because he is a part of the said cast? Absolutely.

Let's get one thing straight: Alastor is evil. He's in Hell for a good reason. He's a cannibal and a serial killer. And I know we can absolutely forgive characters for doing the absolute worst, but he is not a good person. And yes, you can like (and simp for) evil characters. (If you think being a fan of intriguing fictional creations makes you a terrible person, you need to get off twitter and tiktok to actually interact with real people.) At the same time, the finale of season 1 simply made it clear that Al does have depth, and that he's going to be a three-dimensional character. Not that his actions are going to be suddenly justified.

But why can't we explore evil characters while enjoying them and letting them be evil? We can. Alastor started his carnage in Hell before making his deal, so it's not the main reason behind his less-than-questionable actions. For now, he's looking for freedom so he can (re)gain power and be in control again. At the same time, he is growing attached to the other characters. I highly doubt he'll be redeemed; we'll just learn more about him, his backstory, and his goals.

Can you even call Al an antagonist? If you ask me, he's more of an anti-hero. Heck, do we know who he is? Not really, and that's the point. He's one of the main characters, but he makes himself separate in both the story and the writing. He's a wild card.

We don't know what's coming for the Radio Demon in season 2. The first one established that there's more to him and that he started growing fond of the other characters, while the finale made Al realise it almost got him killed. He was humiliated and it reminded him even more that he's still under someone else's control. At least, that's how I see it. Alastor may become more sinister as the story progresses, and as he's getting more and more desperate to free himself of the contract. AT THE SAME TIME, he did come back to the Hotel with a smile and consent for a group hug, so it's not like he's going to blow it up in the first episode. He's not against the Hotel itself. He's doing his own thing, knowing that the titular establishment is an inherent part of his story. All paths lead to the Hazbin Hotel. My guess is that he will simply become more active.

Alastor is already a three-dimensional character; there is no doubt about that. But it's not like he's getting reckoned here. I don't really understand where this notion of our Radio Demon being an old-school villain came from in the first place. He's always been a mystery. Okay, maybe in the pilot it was not so clear-cut, and I'll admit, it would be fun to just see the Radio Demon as a powerful entity overlooking the hotel for his own pleasure. Turning him into a villain later on? Meh, depends on what would happen in the story if that were the case. Watching Jack Horner in "Puss in Boots", reminded me how much I missed villains that were not an initial antagonist's evil-incarnate-superior. However, it was quite quickly established that there is more to Alastor. He would have to appear pretty rarely to not go through any character arc in a show with such an ambitious storyline as Hazbin Hotel (and what a delightful character would we lose if that was the direction the writing team would have taken?). I would mention the pacing actually harming that development, but it's clear this is the show's biggest problem, and we just have to take things for granted.

If anything, Alastor is being restrained from being purely evil. To me, he's a combination of both of the character types I mentioned at the beginning, leaning more toward the well-developed anti-hero. Just let evil characters be evil and three-dimensional. 

[low-budget-korra]

My comments on Arcane s01

-Vi is the sister I wish I had, fr. And as an lesbian older sister myself, it wasn't hard for me to connect with her from the very first episode.And now that I've watched the show, I don't understand how some people blame her for wherever she did to Jinx. Yeah, Jinx was just a kid but guess what, so was Vi. Jinx lost everything? So has Vi.

"but Violet abandoned Powder" No! She was protecting her lil sister. And she just saw her sister murder their entire family, how y'all think she feels? And she was about to save Powder before she was kidnapped.

And the fact that she manages to be so soft and good besides everything she went through... Vi is THE exception.

-Powder/Jinx was just a kid and all but damn. Vi forgives it all she has done, and in the one time Vi needs her forgiveness, she's so quick to hate her for good. Did she really realize what she had done?

Well, now I see why some people compared her to Azula. The difference is that Azula never had anything like Vander or Vi, Jinx had that and still went nuts. And also, Azula never goes for the murder, not really when it was expected (like when she was betrayed by Mai and Ty Lee). While Jinx would give 2 shits about kill people for funzies.

Yes, I feel sympathy for her, just as much as I feel anger towards her. She is a complex character that's for sure. And mentally ill

And my hate for her is mostly for the way she treats Vi honestly

Anyway, there's this joke on Brazilian fandom that Jinx is homophobic and that's why she can't stand Caitlyn and can't stand seeing her with Vi, and I think it's honestly hilarious

-CaitVi is a wonderful ship. Nothing against the explicit and big gestures such as kissing and all but damn, I missed the subtlety. The minor and meaningful touches, the gazes...it reminded me so much of Korrasami

-I loved Jayce and Caitlyn's relationship. When united, gays and lesbians are strong.

And I still don't get why people keep pretending Caitlyn actions on s2(as far as I saw in the trailers) aren't justified. Her mom was murdered by the people she tried to help, if it was me, I would also raise hell upon them. Anyway, let's talk about s1 Caitlyn and she is just so adorable.

She really wanted to make a difference, to help. She got out of her bubble and got a taste of the real world, and I bet it hurt. She just wanted to help and to do what's right but she paid the high price and has all the right to me mad at s2

And from the way she flinched at Jinx during the "dinner" scene, at bet the hours she spent under Jinx mercy weren't nice

-Im sorry, I didn't care much about the hextec plot. I know it's important and it's what makes the character on the road but their inner struggles and their subplots are far better to watch.

The only interesting part of them was Jayce cuz he is such an interesting character. For the way I've seen people talk about them, I thought he was gonna be the worst but no. You can see he struggles with some decisions. He ain't bad, he just does bad decisions

-Ekko is such a G man. If something happens to him in s2, I will riot. I like how he is the exact opposite of Jinx.

Ekko also lost everything and everyone, but instead of Jinx, he turned his pain into something good, into helping others the way Vander and Benzo helped him and the other kids.

I wasn't expecting him to be friends with Heimerdinger but I love that for him

-Lets talk about something serious, Jinx was right in her anger towards the upper class but blowing things up was not the answer. Vander knew and saw things how it was, making deals is better than having innocent blood in the streets.In fact, I saw a lot of simplified comments about the politics and social aspects of Arcane and now that I've watched the show I see how damn immature and naive a lot of them are.

Do not get me wrong, we should rebel every time we need and violence is a part of that. No revolution happened without it. But we should be wise about the battles we pick.

Let's look at Caitlyn for example, she is born rich and a good person. It's naive to expect someone born with everything and disconnected with the lower class problems and needs, to all of sudden be an ally to social causes. Born rich and privileged doesn't necessarily mean you are born a bad person, just as much as born poor doesn't automatically make you a good person.

Now, do you think Caitlyn deserved to lose her mother like that? Do you think she deserves what Jinx did to her just because she was from Piltover? That's when you lose potential allies and gain strong enemiesIt's not that simple. Social problems such as class differences, poverty, violence...it's not something that you can fix that easily. Oh man, I wish it was but it ain't.

With all that said, Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, Ekko, Vander...none of them are evil and most of their actions (if not all of them) have a solid reason behind it, but this doesn't mean they were the best thing to do.

-Fuck you Silco. He is what happens when you put a "wherever it cost" mentality, cuz sometimes the cost is high. Too high. Also, he doesn't want justice or revenge, he wants power

-The animation and sound design is a masterpiece too. And the fight choreography? Damn shit was fire

[ben-talks-art]

We need to make "explain but doesn't excuse you" a more popular sentence

I was thinking back to my list of favorite characters, and how I have people like Rameses in it and thought to myself "Why do I like this guy again...?" and then I started to recall why I was so into his story, and honestly ended up liking him even more.

Something that I noticed about the way writers try to handle backstories nowadays, is that they love to use a sad past to make people be on a character's side and then proceed to absolve them of their crimes.

Like, we love redemption arcs, we love character development, we love bad guys turning good... But I feel like we might love it a bit too much, as if we were waiting to forgive a character for all they did before even getting to them realizing the mistakes they made.

People love picking a villain they're into and going "Oh, it's not their fault, it's because they were raised that way, it's because they were abused as kids, it's because they lost someone they loved, it's because society treated them like trash, it's because they never had friends, it's because their girlfriend dumped them on Christmas eve..." and so on.

There is an obsession with "My character did nothing wrong because their past justify their actions!"

And here's something people tend to forget. A past explains one's actions but doesn't justify it.

Being abused by society, being trained by terrible morals, being oppressed and attacked... they all explain why someone would think it's okay to hurt others, but doesn't actually justify them hurting others.

Just because we know why someone's doing all the things they do, doesn't make the stuff they do any less bad.

This is why I love Rameses. They show the human side of him, they show he wasn't just born evil, they show that he could have been a decent person if he just had the right people to raise him.

They could have so easily made him just a cartoon villain who happened to be born evil and take joy in making others suffer under his command, but no, they show how he became this way, how he went from just a regular kid to a tyrant unable to feel sorry for others' pain and suffering, who was so brainwashed by the traditions of his family that he couldn't even process the harm he was bringing to others and why he couldn't even see the slaves as actual people in agony.

And, again, what I like about this story is that they explain how he became this way, but they don't paint him as blameless. The story acknowledges that he has blood in his hands, even if he himself doesn't, and it makes sure that he pays for what he did, even if what he did was the result of a long process of terrible lessons being passed down by generations that he didn't start.

At some point he became an adult, he became free from his father's command, free to make his own choices, and free to listen to the right people, free to look at what his actions were causing...

He had agency for his choices... And he still made the wrong decisions.

I feel like if others tried to tell this story today, they would either have made Rameses more evil from the start so you wouldn't feel bad for the tragedy that befalls him, or they would give him some sort of realization where he thinks about the harm he did and develops a change of heart in the last second.

I keep thinking about how there was a group of people going "Azula did nothing wrong!" when the new live-action Avatar show started and they basically tried to move all the blame from her to her "big bad evil father."

It makes me wonder if they released Prince of Egypt today, if there would be some sort of revisionism where people would try to argue that Moses is the villain for "not saving his brother" or something like that.

To the point I'm beyond curious about how things are going to end up in Arcane, since that series has a very similar story with two siblings that ended up splitting apart and reuniting but realizing that they were completely different in the paths they chose to follow, with one trying to fix the errors from the past and the other embracing them and trying to view them as part of who they are.

Is Arcane gonna go all the way and make Jinx an irredeemable monster that needs to be taken down, or are they gonna try to pull a "deep down, Powder is still there!" stuff?

I really hope they don't. I hope they give her an ending similar to Rameses where he's defeated but doesn't even get the luxury to die, just left alone and powerless while watching his most beloved family member moving on with his life while he's still stuck in the past and suffering the consequences of his actions and realizing that he achieved nothing.

And what I especially like about his ending is that even at this point he still doesn't realize why he's being punished so much, just showing at full power the danger of ignorance and refusing to see what's right in front of you.

It would be a terrible tragedy, but I think it would make for a great message.

[caughtthedarkness93]

Alright, it's been a bit since the first season finale of The Acolyte, and I think I have my thoughts in some kind of order. Spoilers for the whole first season under the cut.

So.

Let's talk about tragedy.

Because make no mistake, that's what this show's first season was - the tragedy of Sol in particular.

Sol is, I think, an amazing tragic hero. Vernestra is right - he is kind, compassionate. He genuinely does care deeply about pretty much anyone in his care. You look at the way this man's face lights up when he's talking to Osha or Jecki, you can tell how sincere he is in his love and compassion for them, thanks to Lee Jung-Jae's phenomenal performance. However, as all tragic heroes are, Sol is marked by Hamartia - the tragic flaw, the bringer of his downfall. And it's one that seeps into the whole story.

Sol cannot see how even a well-intentioned action can harm others. He cannot acknowledge how his actions caused others pain. He cannot see how even if everything he did was intended to protect Osha, how he still hurt her, how his intentions don't matter in that scenario. He cannot acknowledge that he is the architect of her pain. He loves her - deeply and sincerely, almost like a parent loves a child - indeed he loves a lot of people that way, but Osha is someone he seems to care particularly deeply for. His last words as she is literally squeezing the life out of him are words of forgiveness. "It's ok." But even then, he cannot acknowledge that even with the best of intentions, even with nothing but pure love in his heart, he made a call that hurt Osha. That ruined her life, destroyed her home, and eventually took even the life that she truly wanted away from her.

And that flaw reverberates throughout the story. It is the cause of Mae's rampage that brings everything into motion, and of course leads to the whole finale.

In the end, it leads to death. Literal, of course, for Sol. But also a kind of death of identity for Mae, who has the person her entire life has been built around erased from her mind, and a spiritual death for Osha. Hell, there's a good argument to be made that Osha and Qimir are both capital D Doomed, given we know Darth Plageuis is in play, and we know who his apprentice was.

It wasn't Qimir. It wasn't Osha. Best case scenario, they leave their current path behind. But I doubt it. I think canon dooms them to face down an extremely powerful Sith Lord and, in some form or another, lose. And even the Jedi Order at large - imagine if they'd discovered Qimir earlier, found the Sith presence before it had already seeped into the Republic and started playing politics. The entire Jedi Purge could have been prevented if only Sol hadn't felt the need to justify his actions.

So. Sol is a tragic hero for sure. I'm definitely curious what happens next in this story.

[zeevoidlight]

Why do the Z fighters even keep Vegeta around if he's seemingly irredeemable

I have seen this question over and over again. Why do everyone seem to forgive him and endure all his bullshit.

Well I thought about it, and re-watching the start to the android saga I found the answer and is quite simple really.

Krillin is the one that actually explains it quite well to Bulma when they are deciding what to do with the Dr Gero menace. Basically he says that they can count that Piccolo slowly has changed to being a good guy and they can make sure that he will eventually become friends with them. But Vegeta is a wild card, and they don't actually know if he can ever change his evil nature, but it is convenient for Vegeta to still stick around, and them to be in his good side, because even if he is a bad guy he is useful because of his power (how strong he is is also why they have to be careful with how they handle him), and is much better to have him as a friend. And who knows, maybe with time he'll become an actual friend as well, because in his experience that's what always happens with most bad guys that basically get united under Goku's banner.

(And that's why Krillin agrees with the Saiyan's absolutely insane and stupid plan to not go after Gero in that moment and kill him, and better wait until the androids are made, against all logic. Because he prefers to think ahead and play his cards now regarding the Z team's delicate future).

And he's right

Why do they always seem to forgive him. They don't necessarily forgive him, like Ten ShinHan and his ever lasting grudge against Vegeta, or Yamcha and his personal rivalry with him, Piccolo respects Vegeta as a fighter but he cannot stand him as a person. They don't even have to like having him around, like most of the Z fighters. It's just like that necessary evil they need to have around because having him as an enemy would be much worse, so they better try to become friends and that includes enduring bullshit and maybe forgive but not forget.

But also it is clear, in the Cell saga mostly, that Vegeta can also become the Black Sheep of the group and get blamed for everything he does and everything he doesn't behind his back. He can get called out for his bullshit, but others aren't. He gets blamed for his shortcomings but others aren't. Focusing the attention of everything bad that he does and cutting attention away from other Z fighters idiocies.

But that's interesting. It's almost funny because is so true to life. Like the family's Black Sheep, lol.

So yeah. Regardless of if you think he's always been evil and hasn't changed and doesn't deserve kindness or be forgiven or redemption, or if you think he did learned and changed his nature into being a good guy, that's not the point. The point is that having him in the team is strategically better even if it means that he'll snap and kill a bunch of people suddenly. Even if they are just pretending to be friends, is better to convince him that they are going to have his back and tolerate a lot of things, and maybe eventually they won't have to pretend (and be because he helps them get rid of the other bad guys anyways. They need him in the team as well).

But that leaves Vegeta later alone with his crimes. Because he will not be able to escape them without that soft cushion of thinking himself justified for it because he "is" evil, or because he has that excuse that others are against him and he has to react. The kindness he gets, even if it's by convenience, does make him feel obligated to behave and change slowly. When others aren't reacting against you you can't justify to react back if you have even a tiny bit of goodness and self consciounes in you, because it leaves you very exposed to seeing your own bad actions. And he cannot die to try to escape all he did. That's why later he has his internal conflict with it in the Buu saga and tries to look for an excuse in Babidi's magic to become evil again, and try to avoid feeling any regrets. And in Super why others call him out on what he did, and he cannot avoid it anymore because he did changed, acknowledging that he is not worth having anything good for all he did. But he can't do anything about it but not continue doing it and try to be better even if he'll never be forgiven by many and even if he is convinced that his destiny is going to hell for sure (although, who knows, I don't think anyone can really judge that).

[frogletscribe]

I finished the main story of A:FoP last night and I have more thoughts but don't want to spoil anything for anyone who is not there yet so im putting them under the cut again lol. Also a lot of this gets into like general Avatar lore things and not always specifically A:FoP. I just have a lot of thoughts and not a lot of people to talk to about it lmao.

Warning: this is very long, i am apologizing now if you choose to read the whole thing.

Spoilers for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora under the cut

TEYLAN oh my god my boy. He scared me so bad when he showed up again but I'm so glad he had a hand in stopping Mercer. It felt like such a moment of growth for him finaly setting himself free of his abuser. Poor guy feels so guilty about everything that happened, and I'm very nervous about whenever Nor comes back in future DLC stuff because he still doesn't know that Teylan 'betrayed' them. Especially after everything with Alma.

Speaking of Alma, I have somewhat mixed feelings about her story? Obviously the Sarentu have every right to be pissed at her, I am pissed at her, she used them (and honestly is still using them) to ease her own guilt. What bothers me is the "You will never be one of us" rhetoric? Mostly because it makes me think of Jake and the Sully kids (Lo'ak and Kiri specifically) who all are/look more like Avatars rather than Na'vi. It makes me wonder how the Sarentu would react to them? The situations are very different, Jake gave up almost everything that made him human to live as a Na'vi where Alma has stayed human, albeit unhealthily attached to her Avatar form. Jake worked to earn his place with the Na'vi where Alma is trying to take it from this group of children she has been lying to from the very start.

But more than that, her still talking as if she was a part of their family at the end made me so mad. I don't think Nor had a good reaction to her by any means, stabbing her was definitely not good, and it leaves all of the other humans scared of him but like,,, i'm on his side tbh. His anger is justified, he's just not coping with it in healthy ways. Like at least the Sarentu did shut her down, Alma is not a part of their family by the end, but giving her the grace they did at the end i think was more than she deserved. Idk, I am glad that they are able to be the bigger persons (pun not intended lol) and move forward, I'm just not a fan of forgiving a person who was partially responsible for the murder of your entire family?

Back to Nor. He is such an interesting character to have next to Ri'nela and So'lek. His anger is palpable and it has nowhere to go. He refuses to connect to Eywa again because he feels he has been poisoned by TAP and humans as a whole and it colors everything he does. He copes with his pain by ignoring it until it becomes too much and he snaps.

And then there is Ri'nela, who is also clearly hurt by everything that comes to light about the Sarentu and TAP, but she is so much more reserved about it. She has a really lovely audio log about how she feels the need to set her own emotions aside so she can take care of others and their emotions. You can really tell how much pressure she puts on herself to be that emotional stability for others. Still she works through it and at the very least tries to talk with the Protag about it in a much more healthy way than Nor does.

Compare that to So'lek, who is similarly reserved in is emotions to Ri'nela, but less to protect others and more to protect himself. Hopefully we will get a little more insight into his character with the comics coming out, but So'lek is i think very similar to Nor in a lot of ways. His clan was wiped out in the Great War, and he was the only survivor to not assimilate into another clan, and we can assume, i think, that those other survivors were most likely children and other non-warriors, either too old or unable to fight for whatever reason. He is entirely alone by choice, and he is angry, but he keeps it together.

So'lek sees the bigger picture, he knows that the resistance is the one other group that's actually fighting back (Besides Jake and the Omatikaya), even if its entirely a group of humans, who we can assume he is not terribly fond of in general. He makes a point of saying the RDA is what needs to be removed from Pandora, not humans. He knows how to separate his allies instead of generalizing 'all humans bad', something Nor is implied to struggle with at least a little. That is especially clear when So'lek calls Nor out after he stabs Alma. But that still doesn't negate how angry So'lek is and is capable of being. He says it after HQ is attacked, he is trying not to follow Nor and his rage. He knows that if he has that conversation with Nor, it will be very easy for him to let his rage consume him as well.

Given that Nor is pretty much gone from the game after he stabs Alma, I'm hoping that in the upcoming DLC we get to find him? Maybe he is being an angry loner out on the woods or if he has found other missing TAP students? There are 4 mentioned in game, either by name (Ri'nela asks where two of them, Telisi and Yefti, are at the very start of the game, and 2 more are mentioned in TAP School Records, Okni and Yuayt) Of course they could all have died while the main four were in cryosleep, 15 years have passed and if they werent with that group when Alma saved them, theres no telling what exactly has happened to them. I just think it could be cool for them to pop up and join back up with the Sarentu.

On, like, an entirely different note, the joy it gives me that there are multiple nonbinary characters! Ahh!!! I think right now the only ones are Tsu'kiri from the Aranahe and Okul from the Kame'tire, at least that I have found, but the way that they are handled, I really really love. They are both just people! Existing in the world! As a nonbinary person myself i also really appreciate the game using they/them for the protagonist and letting you flavor your character however you want so that you aren't locked into male/female like so many games tend to do.

Getting into less A:FoP specific and more general lore territory: Something else I found really interesting while digging around on the wiki is that Mokasa is not the Olo'eyktan? He is listed as Anufi's chief advisor, which made him a sort of stand in Olo'eyktan while she was exiling herself, but he isn't actually the Olo'eyktan the way Ka'nat and Nesim are for their respective clans. Even on the wiki, the Olo'eyktan for the Kame'tire is labeled as Unknown. At most we get Okul being named ? Tsakarem? Thats at least what I took from it. But it makes me curious about the other clans and their leadership (also just very curious about them in general lol). There are 16 clans that we know of (that are all still canon) but we really have only really in depth explored 6 of them in the whole series so far. (Just counting the movies and A:FoP right now because I do not have access to the comics or I think the like one? other games that is still canon) Idk im interested in more Olo'eyktan/Tsahik dynamics beyond just mated pairs like we have seen. Like the Zeswa sisters is really cool to me, or father/daughter dynamic with Ka'nat and Etuwa. Obviously, Jake, and later Tarsem, are not mated to Mo'at but there was the intention of Neytiri eventually taking over as Tsahik before the Sully's left, which would have continued the married couple leaders dynamic that we have been seeing.

We also know that Olo'eyktan don't always have to be men (See Nesim for the Zeswa and Ikneyi from the Tayrangi clan that we see in the first film), so then are there examples of male Tsahik somewhere? Okul being presumably named Tsakarem as a nonbinary/gender non-conforming character would imply that on some level, but im curious if we will ever see examples of it.

And finally, somebody has got to let me smooch the characters in this game PLEASE.

If you actually read all that kudos to you and thank you for indulging my screaming.

[marshmallowprotection]

the thing I want to shake saeray for is...apologizing to Rika, repeatedly.

What do you mean you're sorry for changing...? She's the one who hurt YOU! You're sorry for not letting her abuse and manipulate you anymore? Please value yourself more my love!!!

I understand where people are coming from when they say they're disappointed Saeran forgave the people who abused him. That's a feeling I deeply understand because I, personally, am much more like Saeyoung, and I don't forgive and forget. I remember, and that's okay because those feelings aren't hurting me or the people around me. In a society that forces many of us to think we have to "forgive" against our will.

We don't.

We don't have to forgive and forget.

But, it's important to understand that forgiveness is a broad topic, too. You can forgive people to move on and find peace, you don't have to let them back into your life, though. For Saeran, forgiveness was about learning how to forgive himself, as opposed to forgiving his abusers to let them back into his life.

Saeran built his cruelty from the backs of the abuse that was wielded against him.

In Mint Eye, he took the words and actions of his Mother, Rika, and Saejoong Choi to create a persona that could survive underneath the Savior. He repeated those words that were lauded against him, every action that was held against him was used to silence others, and that was what was expected of him. He became something that made his heart suffer in silence under his agonized screams, and not once has he tried to justify his actions to the player.

He's owned his mistakes. He's fighting every day to prove that he will never do what he did ever again. He doesn't want to hurt people. The only thing Saeran wants is to leave peacefully, and to do that, he has to learn how to forgive himself. You might forgive him for what went down in Mint Eye, you might not, but I can confirm GE Saeran didn't forgive himself. He realized that the only way to forgive himself was to face the people who spoke the words to him first, and in doing so, he decided that forgiving them was the best way to forgive himself.

If Saeran could face his demons and forgive them, he could learn how to look in the mirror and forgive himself, too. That's healthy, my friend. That's how he's going to find peace, and it's okay if you don't like that and it's not something you would do, but what's not okay is to shame Saeran for choosing what he wanted. He would never do it to you. The After Ending is filled with characters making choices that are what they want, right or wrong, and the characters support what you do.

Jumin doesn't approve of you putting yourself in danger, but he does not stop you when you plead with him to go back to Saeran's side. He knows you need to do that and gives you protection to do it safely in every way he can because that's your choice, and he won't stop you when he knows you'll run off without his help if need be.

Saeyoung won't forgive Rika, Saejoong or Jihyun for what they've done, but he knows that Saeran is gentle. He won't stop his brother from choosing peace, though. He respects Saeran's choice and he supports it just as Saeran supports Saeyoung's decision to never ever forgive them.

And now, I understand what you're saying about Saeran saying what he said to Rika here. The post I linked is where I was talking with an Anon about why GE Saeran suddenly cut off Rika and said, "I want ice cream".

He says everything he can to keep her placated and stall her for time. I don't think he's apologized to her once in this circumstance, there might have been a moment when he said he was sorry for not being “Ray” but if he said that, it wasn’t because he meant it.

He’s not sorry for not being who Rika wanted Ray to be because Ray was never what Rika wanted him to be, anyway.

She suffocated and suppressed him into the ground while his true colors were revealed to MC. If anything, he said it that because he understands why she’s this person he shouldn’t fear, she’s someone he pities because he can see how she became the Savior and how sad that very existence is. 

When he says he's sorry, he doesn't mean it in the way you think he does. He says sorry because he can see how the world failed her and how she failed herself. He can see how her life would have been different if the circumstances had been different if things didn't play out the way they did, and if she had the opportunity to open her eyes before it was too late. He empathizes with that feeling, and he offers condolences because he knows what it feels like. 

Saeran: "I'm sorry that I couldn't be what you tried to make me be, because I was never that way. You only wanted me to be that way because you're afraid of losing everyone. But, you lost all the people you love when you decided to force them to stay, no matter what they truly wanted. Ray never wanted to stay with you because he wanted to, you made him believe he had to stay because he had no person left to turn to but you. Your existence is a sad one, isn't it? To want to be loved but to push everyone away because you don't know how to express your fears?"

Saeran: "I can see why you are the way you are. I understand that you want to control me so you never feel alone again. I can see that you want me to be the way you are, you want someone to exist the same way you do so that you just can justify everything you've done and everything you've become because if you dared to look into a mirror, you'd know everything you've done to me and everyone else you've known is wrong."

Saeran: "I'm sorry I changed. I'm not sorry that I changed for the better, but you can't handle seeing me as I have always been, always wanted to be, and truly was. I'm sorry I changed and you're not ready to see me this way because all you've ever wanted to see is someone I've never been. Until you recognize I'm not the way you made me out to be in your head, you will continue to spiral down a path of hatred and utter contempt that made me miserable when I walked down it. Maybe if you hear me say the words I'm sorry, you'll think twice and hesitate about hurting MC and Saeyoung."

Saeran doesn't allow himself to be completely honest with Rika or Jihyun UNTIL SAEYOUNG AND MC ARE GONE. THAT'S WHEN HE BREAKS DOWN AND SAYS HIS FULL TRUTH. Saeran forgives Rika, he forgives her so he can forgive himself, but don't mistake his words in this moment for something they're not.

That apology isn't for her sake.

He knew Rika was on the cusp of realizing just how wrong she's been, (too little, too late, I know) but if Rika continued down that path and it didn't end well, Saeyoung and MC would be doomed. Saeran choose to say those words to distract her. To keep her busy. To make her see something else and assume things were okay. He didn't lie about his apology, but there's more happening in this scene than him saying he is sorry.

Saeran Choi damn well values himself and knows his worth. He won't let Rika hurt him ever again.

He understands why she is the way she is, but that doesn't excuse her actions nor does it mean he says he's okay with it. He acknowledges he's angry with her, that he's upset with her, and that there’s a part of him that doesn't like her. But, he doesn't want to be that person who is angry and upset with the world. He has spent way too long being angry with everyone. He is choosing peace, he is choosing kindness, he is choosing forgiveness, and that is his right.

It makes him feel better and his choosing to forgive people doesn't mean he's an idiot. It doesn't mean he's wrong. He is forgiving the people who hurt him so he can learn how to forgive himself, and I can tell you right now, for the people who think in their hearts that his forgiving them means that he wants them back in his life, it doesn't. He wants nothing to do with them after this, and I doubt he will ever get into contact with them once they go away to face justice. 

Sometimes, the answer to the question is to forgive but never forget. Saeran forgives them, but he’ll never forget what they did. They will be held accountable, just as he prays that people will hold him to the same standard. He wants to be held accountable, too.

TLDR; Saeran says that because he wants to stop Rika from lashing out if he can help it. He understands that Rika is in an unstable spot and anything could set her off. He could see her staring in a mirror in that moment, a mirror the might make her do the right thing, but he couldn't risk it. He distracted her, he pushed her to focus on another situation, and her thinking that he was sorry for changing was one of the best things he could think of saying.

Saeran isn't sorry about changing.

But, he does forgive Rika for what she's done. He wants to find peace for what HE DID that was INSPIRED BY what SHE DID TO HIM, and... as I've said God knows how many times over the years, forgiving her was a way to forgive himself for hurting the player.

[cha-melodius]

Hello hello! If I'm not too late for the director's cut ask, would say something about false dichotomy please? I love that fic so much! You've got mail is such a classic and you've made that au so so charming, it brings me a lot of joy 🤍

I talked a bit about the OCs in False Dichotomy here, but I'll take this opportunity to talk about the changes I made from the movie! I'm putting these behind a cut because there are some pretty big spoilers for the fic itself.

@kiwiana-writes wrote a line in one of his director's cut replies about how, when adapting an existing storyline to an AU fanfic, story has to bend to fit character, and I think this fic is the perfect example of that principle. Although the setup of Henry as the heir to a corporate empire and Alex as the 'little guy' does fit at first blush, Henry isn't Joe and Alex isn't Kathleen. In fact, personality-wise, they're just about flopped. There are aspects of Kathleen that are so ridiculously Henry-esque, particularly her love of Pride and Prejudice and also her grief over a parent's death.

I'd like to add, before I get into some of the details, that while I made a bunch of fairly significant changes to better fit the characters, it was important to me to capture the spirit of You've Got Mail. That means not shying away from the small shop's closing, and also staying true to the joy of the finale moment (though this moment comes before the end of the fic). I've read a lot of YGM AUs where, upon the final reveal, the Kathleen-character is often justifiably angry and there's additional angst where the Joe-character has to do some groveling, and yes, it makes sense for those characters to do that, but IMO it kind of fails as an adaptation of the source material because you lose the emotional impact of the original. Which is not to say these stories aren't good or that they don't do what they want to, but to me, the trick to a good media AU is walking that tightrope between originality and honoring the source material. It's not an easy thing to do, IMO. ETA: Of course there are also the times where you like one part of the original media but hate the rest so you say fuck this and fix it, which is completely valid! That's one of the things fanfic is for! I'm also very aware that some people feel that way about YGM lol. But there are those of us who love it despite its flaws, and I wanted to write this fic for them too.

Some more discussion of specific changes I made behind the cut, for spoiler reasons.

Critically, Alex would absolutely not react the same way Kathleen did upon finding out Henry hadn't told him who he was. I strongly felt he needed to be the one to find out Henry's identity first to give him time to come to terms with it and realize that Henry wasn't the person he thought he was. Meanwhile, Henry was much more likely to be forgiving of the long 'deception'/withholding of information because he's been in love with Alex from the start. I also thought having Henry angst over being in love with two 'different' people would be more fun lol.

A big change I honestly always forget about is of course not having them being in relationships with other people. I suppose at the time this was a good excuse for why Joe and Kathleen never met up, but now it's not odd that you might have a long-term internet friendship with someone that never goes beyond online. But I also absolutely did NOT want to fuck with partners and the ending of relationships and all of that noise. No thanks.

I considered doing the 'journalist writes a story about Under the Rainbow' storyline using June as the journalist, but in the end decided it wouldn't really add anything. Instead I added the whole Okonjo shelter storyline, which gave me the excellent excuse to sow doubts in Alex about Henry's awfulness along with being a step forward in Alex's bisexual awakening/coming out storyline.

Finally, I obviously added quite a bit beyond where the movie ends. Romcom movies can get away with end scene on the big kiss, but I wanted to show not only their conversations about what had happened but also the happy ending for Under the Rainbow. It was important to me that it wasn't as simple as the shop closing, the end. I found it kind of funny about how mad some people were about UTR's closing and corporations winning, considering that in the end I freed UTR from the shackles of capitalism to be the best community center/library version of itself.

[iwonderwh0]

Finally, I met a person with a similar opinion about Daniel, I hope you don’t mind me writing to you, I just want to talk to someone about him. I recently remembered about dbh and decided to delve deeper into this fandom, I liked Daniel because I like crazy and jealous characters so I wanted to read content about him and … it ruined my enjoyment of his character, I was surprised how much people are dismissive of what he did, many people justify that because of his new emotions, Daniel made a lot of hasty and bad decisions, well, maybe that's true, but it still doesn't change his actions, he had a choice to run away, but no, he chose violence and murder, he took Emma hostage and threatened to kill her, although he loved her, no, I think he really loved her, but at that moment he didn’t care about Emma’s safety, he just wanted to hurt someone harm at that time

It also outrages and annoys me when I see how in fanfiction where there is a scene that Emma forgives Daniel for what he did, no, just no, if Emma had ever met Daniel, she would have had a mental breakdown and a panic attack, she would never forgive Daniel, he killed her father, and almost killed her, this girl is completely traumatized because of him, even if Daniel sincerely repents, no amount of “sorry” will bring back John, will not bring back the dead policemen, who were sure to have family and friends, no one will restore healthy psyche of Emma and Caroline, Daniel destroyed everything irrevocably, there is no chance of forgiveness and redemption, for this reason, it infuriates me how people too easily treat Emma's trauma as if it doesn't matter

Also I don't like how people demonize John and Caroline, especially John, honestly we don't know what kind of people they were before the disaster because we only get glimpses of them, maybe they weren't very good people or not, but in anyway, it annoys me that all people think that Philips are to blame for everything, although they just wanted to buy a new android, they had no idea that Daniel actually felt something, although I have a theory that John and Caroline noticed that, something what's wrong with Daniel, and his behavior, he was too human, or did things that androids don't usually do, that's the reason they decided to replace Daniel, because of concern, but that's just a theory, anyway, people oversimplify things, making it seem like it's all Phillips' fault, and being too protective of Daniel

Thanks you reading, I needed someone to talk to about this because I felt like I was the only person who thought that Daniel was an asshole, I still have thoughts, but this won’t fit anymore, so I can write something else if only you are interested, of course

YES, YES TO ALL THIS

Man, I feel you, I was so damn frustrated when I went through their tags and saw it over and over again. This absolutely offensive absurd idea of some reconciliation, constant demonisation of John and Caroline and woobification of probably the most radically hateful and destructive character of the whole game. I swear, one of the absolute worst takes I've seen in this fandom were about Daniel and Emma. And it hurts my soul how people seem to refuse to empathise with Emma and Caroline for even one moment, because if they did, I don't believe those tags would look like they are. But well, this fandom is seeing exactly what David Cage presented – really black&white picture of that game world. "People bad androids good"

Btw, I tag them here as "#dbh emma" and "#dbh daniel" if you wanna go through more tags in which it's more similar to your view. I have quite a few posts under those tags, sometimes independently, and sometimes "dbh caroline" as well

Also, I have a really similar headcanon to yours! If you were to post a list of your headcanons about Phillips's and Daniel, I'd be curious to see it.

[gunsli-01]

for milgram oc ask game ages 11 and 16 and questions 4, 8, 10, 11

Oh, yay!

4. Do they view their murder(s) and justifiable?

Jester is a pretty simple and straightforward person. He tends to view anything as justifiable. He takes things from every angle and isn't the quickest to anger. In a Milgram AU he'd be a bit of a frightening case because he simply could justify anything and feel nothing about doing it. In his regular canon this is beneficial.

Yet it'd make him the worse sort of person in Milgram. His whole stance would be similar to Yuno's.

"The fact I'm here and this is happening is proof enough that what I did needed to occur. You seriously think I'd get myself into this much trouble for what- Fun? If I didn't have to do it, I wouldn't have and the fact that I needed to is justification enough. There's really no need to talk about it any further than that."

Would be his only mindset about it and he would view someone else judging his behavior as a waste of his time. He's a pretty chill kid for the most part but incredibly picky about who he talks to and the opinions he allows to hold weight to him.

So, he'd probably be a standoffish prisoner if he were amongst a bunch of strangers. Not because they're murderers. Simply put he just has no interest in forming connections he doesn't want to and being forced to be around a bunch of people is the best way to make him not want to.

8. What do the voices of the outside world tell them?

"You're a really selfish person." "How could someone like you have the audacity to call yourself anyone's friend let alone theirs'." "A terrible person." "I'd feel sorry for you, but I know what happened to the last person who did that." "It must be hard..." "You seem to miss them deeply." "It gets better." "You did what you had to." "The situation was just all wrong." "I hope you feel better."

10. What is their image color?

Amaranth Purple- Amaranth would also be the flower most prominent in his birthday art.

It can represent immortality and means

"Unfading Affection" or "Everlasting Love" when given as gifts. Here's some facts about it.

X X X

11. What reoccurring themes present themselves throughout their music videos?

A lot of allusions to travel, small almost suffocatingly so rooms in large houses, superficial acts of communication that lead to increased loneliness, and a disdain for the genuine.

(I'm so fucking sorry i misread sixteen as twenty-six and I have no real explaination as to how outside of it's late and I was tired. So, now you get three ocs. I'm just adding this here to avoid confusion.)

Ah this next one may be a bit of a copout of an answer given that they are the age you asked for in real time but in their canon they're only nineteen. Hope that isn't a bother. Especially since I don't get to talk about them often. Despite them being one of my personal favorite characters to write.

His actual story is under reconstruction, and I haven't gotten to touch his character in a while as a result. technically it's being merged with another story.

Though if he did wind up in Milgram, he definitely would not be his age in canon which is why I went with his age by the current year when it comes to a Milgram au. Jester on the other hand would fuck up that young.

4. Do they view their murder(s) and justifiable?

"I didn't mean it, I didn't- mean it. This isn't the solution I wanted."

No. He does not. However, the problem was successfully solved. No one was satisfied though.

8. What do the voices of the outside world tell them?

"Your life is fucked up." "That's scary." "You deserve to stay in there." "This is just sad." "That's not how family is supposed to behave." "I don't know how to feel about this." "I want to forgive you but I also think it's safer if you stay in Milgram as long as they're not killing people at the end of this." "I'd say get therapy but that was part of the problem in this case." "Yes king dissociate harder. Reality is flawed." "In a unique twist of fate everyone here was so wrong that we've gone straight to a neutral outcome." "Those people kind of deserved it." "After a point a solution becomes a problem somehow you reached that point at birth." "Everything that could have gone wrong here went wrong. Good job team. Pack it up we can stop having things occur for this man now."

10. What is their image color?

Because I brought up a flower for Jester, I feel bad not bringing up one for Leyton.

His flower would be Azaleas.

Azaleas tend to mean Temperence and are used to remind people to take it easy.

"While azaleas represent passion, they also symbolize temperance. In other words, the plant reminds us of our ability to practice moderation — even when it comes to those things and people we love the most. You can still live a life full of love, romance, beauty, passion, and abundance while remaining level-headed and avoiding overindulgence. Self-control is a must-have in order to achieve stability and groundedness in your life. All things in moderation." X

They've also been related to family.

X

Something that generally makes them fit Leyton nicely.

11. What reoccurring themes present themselves throughout their music videos?

Persistence, distortion, power imbalances, responsibility, existentialism (primarily focusing on the right one has to exist and repaying those who made it possible for them to exist without question when asked), familial duty, housing, fiscal stability. Depending on his current mindset sibling relationships.

I'd love to hear your opinion on them. I love all my ocs dearly. Even though they're all a bit fucked up.

Goes up to reread ask to see if I answered correctly-

Oh, fuck you said sixteen! Damn it how did I read twenty-six. I'm sorry it's late and I'm still sick. So, I guess you're getting three ocs because it would be a waste to erase all that.

So, say hello to one of the specialist of girls,

4. Do they view their murder(s) and justifiable?

"Ha-ha, what a funny question. Do things people do need a reason or to be justifiable? It's such a immature way of looking at things... Guard, are you sure you're up for this sort of job? Not everything needs or has a justification you know. Besides even if I did have one that wouldn't make my actions any less objectively bad. Sorry, I'll stop teasing. Since I got what I wanted I'd say it was justified."

Yes, but no, but yes. If the ends justify the means then yeah she guesses what she did was justifiable but she also really has zero inclination to justify it. She's just an outcome based person.

8. What do the voices of the outside world tell them?

"You're not sorry at all!" "Your hair is super cute!" "How can you still be having a good time after doing all that." "Do you even feel empathy?" "You had way too much free time." "Well being raised like that what should we expect." "It's not bad to focus on one's own needs but..." "How exactly did you get what you wanted here this is a terrible outcome? It's a surpise you still have friends. I couldn't imagine speaking to anyone who did this ever again." "You plan to just go back and what pretend you didn't do all that?!" "YOU STILL HAVE AN ACTING CAREER BITCH! HOW?! I LOSE JOBS FOR JUST BREATHING WRONG AND YOU'RE STILL EMPLOYED!" "This is gonna be bad to say but I'm ultimately just impressed at the level of thought put into this at this point. I mean instead of being normal you truly went fuck it I'll escalate this further. Really went we can be insane together." "How the fuck is he not here- oh wait... Yeah, he's the victim." "I know voting innocent isn't going to make her better but she had me at 'Dead and gone- Oh she's crazy my love's eternal but you'll fade quickly'. I'm not fixing this I want her to get worse actually." "She's soooo normal." "This is what he would've wanted." "Toxic heteronormativity sweep!" "What you and your victim had was special. You both made each other so much worse and I have no doubt there's a universe in which he's here instead of you."

(Side note there is. If being worse was a contact sport James and Luna would be the worlds best team even though they're actually shown to be quite reasonable in their respective canons. They're both really susceptible to living in extremes. The only thing that leveled these two out was putting them in a polyamorous relationship with the nearest individual with a moral compass. However in a Milgram au one of them must be dead for the other to be here and they never spoke to that third person.)

10. What is their image color?

Her flower is Orchid the white variety mainly.

X

11. What reoccurring themes present themselves throughout their music videos?

The sun (in it's many forms but mainly sunlight), lack of presence, authenticity, boredom, extreme thrill seeking behavior, the feeling that there's only one opinion that matters and it's not the audience's or hers, contentment, memories.

[beevean]

Top 10 favorite CV characters!

I remember when you sent me this ask a year ago! I was in the middle of playing CoD and I still had other games to go lol. Well...

10) Julia. She deserves more than for being remembered for an awkward romance plot :( I like her coy attitude towards Hector, and I'm intrigued by the implications that she's repressing her pain for the Isaac situation, for the sake of assisting the man who wants to kill her brother.

9) Walter. Honestly for a guy just meant to be Beta Dracula, the dude is very fun! He's like a Dracula if he didn't even pretend to have a shred of decency or justification :P dude just wants to play with his food because he's bored, and he's entertainingly cruel about it, from deliberately turning the women he kidnaps for shit and giggles to subjecting Joachim to a fate worse than death. Proof that villains don't always need a tragic backstory, as long as they have style.

8) Joachim. I warmed up to the guy! He reeks of "cut from development", because his concept is very fascinating and he's so wasted as a random boss. He's antagonistic to Leon because he's a haughty vampire who clearly thinks he deserves at least his castle lol, but also to Walter because holy shit the dude really punished him in an exemplary manner. That art of him looking out of his mind says a lot. Also he has very cool powers that make him a joy to use in Joachim Mode.

7) Leon. A pure, noble-hearted knight, so honest that he won't even take a sword that didn't belong to him, who only wished the wellbeing of his fiancée and his best friend... and oh. Oh how he paid for it :) Leon's story is utterly miserable, made even worse by how he ends his game with the most depressing canonical ending imaginable. My man has immense mental fortitude, and I love the scene where he angrily rejects Mathias' offer of immortality because he'd rather honor Sara's dying wish, unlike a certain vampire we know... but he didn't know that, by swearing revenge on the newly-turned Mathias, he'd doom his own lineage to a lifetime of terrible pressure...

6) Rosaly. girl <3 I once again have to thank Ayami Kojima and Kou Sasakura for breathing life into this character, especially the latter. She's just an aggressively kind girl who will love you to death. Even if others think she's too nice or too trusting, she stubbornly helps people because she likes to do so. And I find it a very interesting detail that she seems absolutely unconcerned with Hector's past: she only sees the good in him, without the baggage. I find her endearing :)

5) Trevor. He's the Sonic of Castlevania. He's shaped like a friend <3 I like what personality we can glean from CV3: that despite being shunned by people for his powers (now where did I hear that before) he was ready to accept the quest of slaying Dracula - he didn't even do it for the Legacy, he's just that much of a brave guy! - and he was able to easily befriend and lead all sorts of people, hinting at his charisma and at his good heart. And of course in CoD he's just sass central :P I forgive his weird hostility against Hector because, despite his cockiness and ferocity, I like how he still takes the time to give credit to his friends for their victory <3

4) Dracula. The bastard himself :) I really like how, by being the most recurring character in the series, he ended up being quite fleshed out. His tragic story does little to justify how much of a hypocritical asshole he is. He loves so intensely, yet so selfishly. He wants his son by his side, but only after cutting his human heritage. He takes two abused boys under his wing, but only to raise them as his loyal knights and forgerers of armies. And overall, you can see the degradation of his morals and even his personality through the centuries, as he loses a piece of his humanity with every resurrection... not that he was a saint as a human, either.

3) Shanoa. Things Shanoa deserved: the world. Things Shanoa did not deserve: all the shit that happened to her :) it's hard to make an interesting character out of an amnesiac without emotions, yet Shanoa is intriguing. This girl who was taken in by Ecclesia as a young child, raised to become a weapon to vanquish all evil yet constantly protected by Albus... even when she loses everything, even when she learns that her entire life is a lie and for her beloved mentor she was nothing more than a lamb to the slaughter, she still wants to fight, she still chooses to sacrifice herself. And by the end, she finds a place to live in Wygol Village, after rescuing and befriending all the villagers. also she kitty :3

2) Isaac. A pathetic wet cat of a man <3 just terrible in every way <3 miserable and bitter and ready to make it everyone else's problem <3 genuinely tragic backstory of terrible loss that makes you pity him but never to the point of excusing his terrible actions <3 how much he strives to be nothing but a tool and dying as one (and a defective one too) <3 absolute banger of a theme too <3

Hector. I just think he's neat.

:P

I talked enough about the guy. I know that he's basically a smoothie of Alucard and Guts. But something about his journey of self affirmation, how he chose to serve Dracula out of a need to belong somewhere then chose to put his principles above his trauma but still paid the consequences for his past alliance and betrayal, the parallels with Isaac and Dracula showing that yes you can fall into evil but you can rise again as many times as you want, his development thanks to Rosaly, his struggle with his own humanity and powers... It just speaks to me, what can I say.

[krakenguard]

I mean this in a very neutral way, but I’m confused about saying people aren’t allowed to vent about the DLC. 99.99% of posts I’ve seen related to it on every social media site are vent posts. It’s so overwhelming that it’s to the point where I personally want to blacklist it again so I can just enjoy the DLC without seeing it being shit on 24/7. Almost no one has good things to say. I think everyone is allowed to vent and has been venting as much as they want.

It's cropped up here and there... You are right when you say that a majority of them are vent posts . But every now and again, I'll see someone come by to shoot the whole thing down.

For instance, in regards to Godwyn. "But Godwyn was dead! He had his arc with Fia!"

Yeah, well, Radahn died too. He had his arc with the Radahn Festival. If they could weave together a plot that involved bringing Radahn back, they could have just as easily done a thing that involved Godwyn.

And, imo, it would have been a lot more interesting.

Likewise... Like I'm not going to be naming any names. But like...

The whole thing with Marika and Messmer -- like I DO see where this person is coming from when they say that people are more apt to sympathizing for, like, Messmer for instance, but will not bat an eye over what became of Mohg. And they'll still insist on seeing the absolute worst in Mohg.

Nothing wrong with enjoying a good villain if that's your cup of tea -- and while I've been a Mohg sympathizer even before he beat the allegations, it does sort of suck that the DLC DID sort of... Rob that, for those who enjoy him for villainous antics... I think in this case though, it's the sort of attitude of "I hate him anyway and think he deserved what he got," which...

The game very much tells you that what happened to Mohg was wrong. By all accounts, he was not innocent -- and really, there's very few people who are innocent in these games. But I'm still sitting squarely in that camp of Mohg being one of those characters who is deserving of compassion, in spite of it all.

... Maybe Messmer himself is deserving of compassion. And hell, though I feel like I have even more cause to hate Marika, maybe she herself is deserving of compassion too. But so is Mohg -- and Mohg... Arguably is the lesser of the evils here.

TLDR though, the argument was that more people are more apt to sympathize with Marika and Messmer, but not so with Mohg.

Hell, people will find a way to justify what Miquella did to Mohg as perfectly reasonable! Which... Yeah, I'm slamming the gas pedal down on that one.

I do see where they are coming from with the argument... For the most part I would like to say that I'm within the circles that are, for the most part, "Justice for Mohg." But even with that said and done, not everyone shares that sentiment.

They'll forgive Marika and Messmer even though they've got way more blood on their hands(Ironic, right?), but they'll insist on hating Mohg, even though the game kinda does go out of its way to say that, yeah, he WAS the victim in this situation and DID NOT deserve what happened.

It's frustrating when it's about a character that you did come to really care for. And it is frustrating when you're venting about it, but then someone comes by and just sort of... "Oh, wells" or "But actuallys" your argument.

I've gotten that myself in the past, and as I've said: nothing gets under your skin more... You don't have to agree; but you also don't need to come by with an essay of why your vent is wrong.

[electricprincess96]

why do you dislike astarian?

I'm sure if I answered truthfully I'd get mountains of lectures telling me why I'm wrong and awful for not liking the fandoms darling but heres my attempt to articulate my issues. This is in no particular order.

1. It actively makes no sense in character for any version of Tav to keep Ast*rion alive.

A good aligned Tav would likely attack him after he attacks them when they meet and if we assume we give him the old "OK we'll forgive you this time but don't do it again" once he tries to snack on us without consent while we sleep that reasonably should be his last straw.

An evil aligned Tav should have even less reasons to give him second chances cause killing should be nothing to them. And it isn't till later we really know how his worldview would align with an evil Tav

The only real reason to keep Ast*rion is if you are roleplaying a pushover OR you are being Meta because you the player find him attractive. Even Lae'Zel who starts the game really mean (somewhat justifably so since shes put in a cage and racially abused after being put through what her people claim is a fate worse than death), has a good reason to be kept around, she claims to have a cure for the parasite and will share it with the rest of you. Ast*rion offers nothing other than trying to stab you when you meet and then trying to drink your blood without consent while you sleep. Realistically his luck should have run out like if it was Wyll or Karlach or Lae'Zel in charge and you didn't control them he'd be dead. Probably even Shadowheart and Gale would as well.

2. By changing how DnD Vampire Spawns work they made his plot actively very confusing.

OK so Vampire Spawns are meant to not have any control over themselves, their master is meant to be able to control them. We briefly see this when one of the Spawns goes to disobey Caz*dor later. The issue with that is if Caz*dor can control them.... why does he need to punish them into submission? Ast*rion says he almost escaped once but why did Caz*dor ever give him enough freewill to even attempt that? Is Caz*dor just a sadist? If so they don't do a good enough job portraying that. They make the hunger and bloodlust that Spawns feel seem almost.... inconsequential for Ast*rion after that first feeding scene, they basically plays so fast and loose with the DnD Vampire lore but still used the lore to justify every bad thing Ast*rion did under Caz*dor so that he doesn't have to admit any fault like no don't bend the lore into a pretzel but then still use the lore for justifying and exonerate Ast*rion.

3. I don't get the impression he changed as much as people claim.

Like does he grow through his romance? Sure he starts to see Tav as more of a person and less of a tool. That's great. But Lae'Zel and Shadowheart both have fantastic development OUTSIDE of their relationship to Tav. The bar was set too high for you to hide his development behind a romance route I have no desire to do. I'll admit this is an issue Gale to a degree suffers from as well, less so that he doesn't change if you romance him but in his case more so his very examples of his growth are hidden in his romance scenes.

But with Ast*rion I did not think he really self reflected in the ways I would have liked. Even right before fighting Caz*dor he was still claiming he had no reason to feel guilty about what he did as a servant of Caz*dor, like yes the game wants me to believe you had no control, but someone with a conscience would still feel guilty about it. Also everyone else provided you've been pushing then towards good throughout the game will choose to make the right decision on their own accord when given the chance in game, every version of the Ascension scene I've seen requires a persuasion roll for Ast*rion, meaning he doesn't choose to not do the ritual himself he always needs to be persuaded not to whereas provided you've pushed Shadowheart towards good the whole game she will choose to save Dame Aylin on her own, Lae'Zel will choose to turn against Vlaakith on her own etc. The only way he doesn't need persuaded is if 1. He never learnt about the ritual from Raphael, thus he is only there to kill Caz*dor anyway or 2. You kill one of the Spawns in the battle thus the ritual can't be complete

4. He was favoured by the developers at the detriment of other characters.

It's insane that there's literally proof from some of the people who worked on this game that they favoured Ast*rion over other characters when it came to content. And some of his fans think this is somehow a good thing? When all this does is show the rest of the fans (who let's remember the most recent stats the majority of players are not Ast*rion Girlies, they are very loud within fandom but fandom is not everyone who bought and played this game) that we are not as valued by Larian and that's gonna breed resentment.

Wyll got absolutely shafted compared to other companions and everyone got shafted compared to Ast*rion. When the game had to cut out content for Wyll and Karlach but was able to add in like double the amount of romance scenes of Ast*rion when compared to the next companion with the most scenes then we need to start asking why this was allowed. We'd all rather have a complete story for everyone than an extra sex scene with Ast*rion that doesn't add anything to the plot.

5. His fans are obnoxious

Now.... I will be the first to admit all the fans of each of the characters are kinda obnoxious (except most Wyll fans, you guys are cool, I like you). I love Gale and even I know that his fans can be overly defensive at times (sometimes justifiably so, other times they just need to take a step back and realise not every joke at Gale's expense is hateful). BUT because Ast*rion fans are so prominent in fandom spaces you are more likely to run into obnoxious Ast*rion fans than the rest. Like if a post doesn't mention him, don't bring him up in the comments, if someone says "I'm role-playing a Lawful Good Paladin etc. I need a Rogue cause my character wouldn't bring Ast*rion along" don't spend the next hour of your life trying to twist yourself into a pretzel to justify why someone who is Lawful Good should be OK with having the man who disapproves of you helping slaves around. And stop throwing the "canon" word around. This is an issue I have with fandom in general nowadays but "canon" doesn't matter much. BG3 will NEVER canonise a love interest for Tav, they might never even canonise a class or race for Tav. So stol trying to argue that because Ast*rion x D*rge got so much extra content that it's canon to try and win some silly Internet war. All you're doing is annoying people.

What's kinda sad is... I found Ast*rion to be incredibly charming early on, not my type for romance but I enjoyed having him around for the snarky commentary. But whenever his plot came up I found myself rolling my eyes cause the rest of the game Ast*rion seems so self aware that he's kinda an asshole yet when his plot scenes happen he seems to lose that self awareness and it just soured the character for me. But hey, by most modern day gaming standards he's still basically Shakespearean in comparison so this will likely be the only post I make detailing my issues unless I'm asked something more indepth.

[abubblingcandle]

⭐star⭐ 

Ah thank you! So the biggest fic that I have posted recently that I have had sort of director's cut thoughts about is Get You Down.

For those who haven't read Get You Down - this is my Jamie & Rebecca canon divergence AU fic where Rebecca becomes Jamie's 'godmother' after they meet when he is about 10.

I'm going to put the analysis under the cut but for this ask I'm going to focus on the idea of what stays and what changes in canon divergence what if style fics.

I love writing and reading canon divergence style fics. I find it the most interesting thing to think about what impact would the little butterfly wings have and for this fic the big question was "would Jamie being in Rebecca's life for ten or so years before he came to Richmond make each of them worse, better or the same but with a friend?" and I still think there's evidence to support each of those paths and each of those paths would have been a valid route to take.

I chose to go for same but with a friend. And I did that because of what I think the duo would be looking for in a familial relationship, unconditional love. Based on what we know about Rebecca's family life I don't think she has experienced unconditional love. Her father was absent and cheated on her mother at least once. Her mother is flighty, too forgiving of her husband and seems emotionally detached and Rupert, that man never did anything unconditionally. Jamie on the other hand had the exact opposite of unconditional love from his father and I think did have unconditional love from his mother but seems to have the reaction of himself feeling like he has to earn or pay back everything she did for him even though she doesn't want that. Therefore he doesn't see it as unconditional even if she does. So you've got two people who are used to fighting for affection just wanting someone who loves them and cares for them as they are. Therefore they are not going to try and change anything about each other, they just want to be there and involved in each other's lives. Jamie will still be a primadonna and bitchy towards his team. Rebecca will still be angry that she allowed Rupert to ruin her life and their actions will still stem from that and may even be bolstered by having someone in their corner even if they are making bad decisions.

(Which is why in the fic the biggest canon divergence comes when Rebecca steps over the line and reveals she is tanking Richmond. Because there is nothing in Jamie's brain that can justify deliberately losing and Rebecca has unknowingly found the line of Jamie's devotion and stumbled over it into bad news territory.)

My point being - when writing canon divergence like this, it is so easy to see it as an opportunity to make the characters better because they had different influences in their lives but in this case I think it is more likely that the duo would act as an echo chamber of familial trauma and need outside influence to start pushing each other to be better.

[snonkerdoodlefizzy221b]

their relationship is so complicated.

I'd say Mav did the first wrong thing by pulling Bradley's papers without asking him about it first. He also didn't tell Bradley the truth--that Carole asked him to do it, instead throwing out lies like "You weren't ready", which must've absolutely broken Bradley's heart (he was young and more importantly in a really bad headspace, he couldn't really reason that out). He did it, however, because he loved Bradley like a son, and parents will go to any lengths for their children.

But what Bradley said during their argument that they (presumably) had was also unforgivable. Bradley was angry and said a lot of things he didn't mean. However, the fact that he didn't mean them doesn't mean that they still didn't cut Mav to the core. It doesn't mean that Mav took them to heart in his darkest moments where he was ALONE because Bradley cut him off. A central figure to his life, possibly his only father figure. He CUT HIM OFF.

Maybe Mav said some things he didn't mean as well during the argument because he got mad (because that's in character for him). Possibly solidifying in Bradley's mind that he wouldn't be welcome back.

Bradley must've missed him during the time that he was gone. But he always got too angry to ever go back.

Mav must've missed Bradley while he was gone. He mustve made every effort he could to reach out. (Or maybe Bradley told him to never contact him again and Mav complied.)

Both of them festered under the horrible things said that night.

Then there's what he said to Mav during TGM which is so horrible in so many ways. I don't think I need to re-explain how those words affected Mav.

And yet, Mav, because he is an angel, forgave Bradley. Even though Bradley said all of those things to him. Why? Because Bradley is his son. No matter how justified it was I don't think that Mav could ever bring himself to hate Bradley. For a few seconds? Sure. But his parental love overwhelms that. Parents will go to any lengths for their children.

So what now? Honestly I think Bradley should have enough awareness to try and work on everything. To earn Mav's trust back (because you know that the leaving cut him like nothing else, his fear of losing people and specifically Bradshaws). To earn the trust of the Flyboys back (because they don't love him parentally or to the degree that Mav does [aka allowing himself to be a doormat for Bradley], and therefore will make him work for their forgiveness). I hope, at least, that he tries his utmost to make it up to Mav, starts checking what he says when he's angry, and gets therapy. They both need therapy. Maybe they change for the better--keeping their sparks but also knowing firsthand how destructive anger can be. (It's okay to be angry but not to burn bridges in ur life because of it.) Maybe Rooster refuses to accept Mav's forgiveness until the Flyboys and everyone close to Mav deem him forgiven.

Do I think Mav could've said something like that to Rooster? Maybe if they met unfortunately during those 15-some years. Maybe in the argument. Maybe if Mav truly got his hackles raised enough to be angry at Rooster. But canonically, at least, and in my head? No, not then. Because he loves Rooster too much.

Mav deserves to say something like this to him