#I think there was also a Spirit who was interested

[frasier-crane-style]

I can tell you why this keeps happening, but you're not going to like it. I keep seeing posts like "oh, why do these lesbian shows keep getting cancelled, but the shows about BOYS KISSING get renewed?". And, you know, there's an answer. You won't like it, as mentioned, but I'll tell you. If you don't wanna know, just look at this gif of Lando instead.

Okay, the first thing you have to realize is that gayboy shows have an unfair advantage: they aren't aimed at gay men. They're aimed at straight female yaoibunnies. This is why all gayboy shows and movies are created by women: Red White & Royal Blue, Heartstopper, Love Simon. All of 'em. Even Brokeback Mountain. It's all by and for horny women.

Horny women, obviously, are a huge demographic. Fifty percent of the population. And, this is important, they're predisposed to like romance. Romance is cocaine to women. Gay romance is crack cocaine because they get to toss out the woman and throw in another pretty boy to replace her.

This is why you never see a gay movie about a bear, it's always twinks. Who do you think finds sexually nonthreatening boys, like, the hottest thing ever? Women and K-pop fans.

So a lesbian show will never do gayboy numbers, because it's only aimed at lesbians, while gayboy shows get to summon up a huge spirit-bomb of horny bitches.

But what about men, you might ask? Don't men like lesbians?

Well... they used to.

Years of girlboss feminism kinda poisoned the well. Not only are men generally not interested in romance because it's stupid and gay, but also these female-led shows tend to poorly plotted, politically preachy, and outright hostile to men. Especially straight white men, which is the biggest demographic there is next to horny bitches.

Most straight white male characters in these shows are portrayed about as well as an infomercial character.

They're evil, incompetent, stupid, inept, oblivious, obnoxious, disrespected. Would you want to watch a show where your 'representation' is depicted that way? Obviously not. And at this point, it's happened so often that it's just expected as par for the course with any show that has progressive themes.

Why would you take a chance on The Acolyte when it's been made clear "this isn't for you" and that THIS is how the creators see you?

Which leaves only lesbians as the audience for lesbian shows, and they're only two percent of the population. And even then, that two percent of the population will never all watch one thing.

I guess the "good news" here is that ideologically driven entertainment companies still think they SHOULD make lesbian shows, because those are even more progressive than simple female-led shows, so these first seasons will keep getting made.

But the numbers will never add up because there just aren't that many lesbians to form a fanbase, gay men don't give a shit, straight women don't give a shit (as mentioned, they like gayboy shows because those don't have one woman, let alone TWO), and straight men don't give a shit.

And that's probably where we're going to be for a while until entertainment companies get it into their heads to try chasing trans audiences, which are even smaller than lesbian audiences and will have other audiences giving even less of a shit, but why should that stop DIsney from spending several hundred million dollars on a eight-episode show about Gag Shitto, penis-y Jedi Knight?

(It will be deleted for tax purposes in three weeks.)

im done i genuinely cannot do it anymore

[matchalovertrait]

24 screenshots of 2024! ✮⋆˙

Thank you for the tag @itmeansiris, @cakepoppresent, @euphiesims, @rosienthe, @simscici, @smulie, @living-undead, and @elderwisp!! 💗

January

Infant Dulce!!!! Aw how precious 😭 I love her little pigtails and look in her eyes. She looks a lot like her dad here lol.

One of Generation One's requirements in the Joy of Life Challenge is to "Throw the best parties for your child(ren), full of yummy cakes and treats!" and this was the very first of many cute parties :) Ángel's 5th birthday. I was still very new to the Sims 4 and I felt pretty proud of myself.

February

MY FOUR BABIES 😭😭😭😭 I love them with all my heart.

This took soooooo much work as a beginner omg!! I thought it was just okay but it got a lot of love :o

Ángel, Esperanza, Dulce, Guillermo, and Matthew as kids! I had no clue what the future held for them lol. Look at all of them appearing so cute and innocent 😆

March

An ofrenda for in-game Día de Los Muertos. It turned out pretty decent. That's a picture of Noemí's mom, Ynez.

Again, I don't know what possessed me to do a Diced Junior arc 😂 Besides the lighting and ugly text, I'm really proud of it. So no, I will never stop mentioning it.

April

A lil too much text 😅 but I liked showing the personalities of Dulce's cousins more here. Fun fact: It may not seem like it but Guillermo has the genius trait. A handful of his lines in this legacy insinuates that lol.

This was right after Dulce posted the Alto exposé video. I like how I showed a few different opinions from the comment section of her video. Also, it's a little ironic that she would meet a somewhat familiar fate due to Caruso's video about her 😅 hehehe.

May

My free-spirited Dulce 💓 maybe one of her future kids can become a basketball star, hmm.

Ynez and Infant Noemí <3 Translation: It’s just the two of us, but that doesn’t matter. I’m going to put in A LOT of effort to give you a good life. Hopefully, you grow up to be a person who is very kind, strong, and noble. And she did grow up to be like that :)

June

I'm not religious but Noemí practices catholicism. That's the main religion in Mexico, where she is from! Ngl I think I have religious trauma, but I can recognize when people have good intentions when they pray over you. I kinda like it, shows they care. ...Not in the Southern way when people say "Bless your heart" when they don't mean it like that. Context matters 😂

Bruh, Dulce 💀 Also, I will admit that Caruso looks kind of cute here 😂 I see why some of you fell for him. But that was part of my elaborate plan 😈

July

Okay, the first Lizaxi Legacy post went pretty hard. I'm pleasantly surprised about that LOL! We have some good lines, interesting characters, and decent shots!

Part of Mimli and Smeagie's house :> you'll find cacti, aliens, and stars throughout the home.

August

I LOVE the post that this came from 😂 This save was a lot of fun, I need to revisit it.

My Pierrot clown!!!! One of my favorite posts of this year!! I'm so proud of it :> Her outfit, her makeup, the long sorta-side bangs, the balloons, the fog, her facial expression. Love it.

September

Uh oh, Erick met Caruso and he was NOT having it 😅 Erick is such a kind guy too.

The big move to Del Sol Valley!!! Remember when we thought she was moving to Scotland? 🤔 Anyway, Dulce looks so pretty here! I love the palm trees in the back.

October

I reallllyyyyyyyy like the colors of Dulce's office and how I decorated it :>

Dulce's disguise 😂 man I love turning the ideas in my head into reality. Even if it's all pixels.

LMAO this is so funny and unserious to me 😭😭 Why is bro showing off his body, tattoos, AND jawline in the office??? We're supposed to be having a serious convo here, hellllppppp

November

Okay, this is pretty cool. Now that I look at it, that definitely looks like a supervillain house. I also like the fonts that I used and how you can see that the party is about to begin.

Dulce showing off her knowledge from secret agent movies! She's so silly hehe

[burningcheese-merchant]

PLEASE MERCHANT LISTEN TO ME

I started watching Burning Spice Cookie's flashback in the game and suddenly I started thinking "is that all? How stupid" because there are characters older than him and who apparently haven't had this problem of "boredom from "same old thing" so he leaves the Burning Spice Cookie thing as childish. but then I started thinking, what if I developed this? You see, if a person doesn't have a proper childhood they can develop psychopathic traits (more or less what I've seen in Burning Spice Cookie) so what if he and the other Beasts didn't have childhoods? We are not given any clue that they have grown, which gives us to understand that they appeared among the common cookies as adults.

Imagine that you barely have time to know your own name and suddenly you are thrown into... (I don't know, a battle?) expecting you to help calm everything down. What if, as soon as Burning Spice Cookie was born, he began to be burdened with many responsibilities and having to fight to unify Beast-Yeast into one nation? It would be a good reason why he "got bored" with everything, since some psychopaths have that trait of enjoying causing harm or hating monotony and social rules (it could also be an explanation for your au's Burning Spice Cookie).

I am SO glad someone else sees the problem with Burning Spice's "boredom". We have a million immortal characters in this universe and not a single one has had this issue with their lives. The Ancients live forever thanks to the Soul Jam, and they don't seem bothered by it at all (hell, look at Golden Cheese. She is actively pursuing immortality, for herself and especially for her loved ones). The Elementals are immortal, and they have zero complaints about it. Millennial Tree and Sugar Swan are older than the world itself, do you see them crying about it? Nope. They live and carry out their duties happily. You don't even see this with the ones that actually WERE mortal once. Fire Spirit? He loves who he is now, he's said so out loud in cutscenes in Ovenbreak. Sherbet? Though he misses being with Cotton, he otherwise loves being free to travel and see the world almost entirely unburdened, the way he always dreamed. Frost Queen? She adopted her role and upholds the balance of nature with grace. Life and immortality are only what YOU make of them. The Beasts are a bunch of stupid, selfish babies. The end.

"Not having a childhood" IS an interesting point to raise, though. You're absolutely right: having a tumultuous youth can and often does lead to psychological issues of all kinds, big and small ask me how I know lol. And for all we really know, they WERE born adults right from the jump. How Cookies are born and how they age are SUPER weird in this series and neither is ever explained properly besides "baked in oven", so... What's keeping anyone from imagining characters just born fully grown right away?

With this in mind, and with the points you've raised, we can maybe look at the Beasts like this: people who were brought into the world without being asked (although no one is), and burdened with nigh-impossible responsibility right away. Immediately told to sacrifice themselves for people they do not know or care about, who do not know them or care about them. To uphold a balance they may not understand, nor did they create themselves. Never having been allowed the chance to live and grow as all sapient beings are entitled to; to go out and have fun and be foolish and make mistakes that they end up learning from. They were born abnormal, and they never never allowed to escape that abnormality once. They live only for others, never for themselves, not even for small things. One has to wonder if they even counted as people at all in the eyes of those they fought for, or if they were just archetypes whose faces and actions were used to placate and justify whatever anyone wanted them to.

... Yeah, that sounds pretty shitty when you put it that way lol. It just goes to show how the Ancients are the true rightful owners of the Soul Jam, in my opinion. They EARNED that power, it was not given to them on a silver platter. They were able to live life as regular mortals for a while, then actively sought out that power and proved themselves worthy of it. Hollyberry united an entire region of warring houses. Dark Cacao tamed dragons and brought peace to a long-devastated land. Pure Vanilla endured the many arduous trials of the Sugar-Free Road in pursuit of truth and enlightenment. These are all things that require hard work, dedication, humility, and a certain wisdom that you gain from experiencing life in general. Wisdom that the Beasts may or may not have possessed, because they may or may not have ever been able to attain it in the first place.

As for my Yandere AU Spice... Yandere Spice is well and truly a psychopath (all the Yandere Beasts are). It's the thing you see often with actual stalkers: he's more in love with the IDEA of Golden Cheese than the woman herself, as she actually exists. It's all about what HE wants, what HE needs, what HE expects from her. Pure, utter selfishness, projection and delusion, as psychopaths are fundamentally incapable of empathizing with others (that's what marks them as psychopaths in the first place). With the Accidental Yandere Golden Cheese one, he's the same, but A) leaning a bit more into his bloodlust/enjoyment of harming others (which is also common in psychopaths, like you said), and B) him actually being clever/manipulative enough (at least to some degree) to know how to play into Golden's wants and feed her ego in order to sway her (Golden in this AU is also just kind of a fucked up person on her own, independent of Spice, so it's an unlucky combination). She's not "boring" like everything and everyone else is. She captivates him, she surprises him, she keeps him on his toes. He "loves" her. Therefore, he owns her and vice versa, and he will do whatever it takes to have her all to himself, up to and including hurting and killing innocents (it's not like they mattered, anyway). What caused him to be this way ultimately does not matter; maybe it's that overwhelming burden of responsibility and lack of a choice or a chance to live life that we addressed earlier. Perhaps he was just born broken. Whatever it is, he's a bloodthirsty, selfish, uncaring monster and it is Golden Cheese that he has chosen to make pay for it, unfortunately.

TL;DR Not liking immortality is a skill issue. The Beasts are dumb little crybabies. Yandere Spice is disgusting and should face a wall. I like writing deranged people far too much. I enjoy engaging in meaningful conversation with others about things. Thank you for the ask, I vibe with your thoughts and ideas, I hope you find lots of money on the ground today

[love-byers]

how can you reiterate that the duffers said NO NEW RELATIONSHIPS and then say will could 'very well' have a love interest that isn't mike in the same breath 😭😭

so...a new relationship?? i thought there weren't gonna be any of those..

if you truly think none of the relationships and dynamics will change and evolve through a season where each episode is nearly 2 hours long then you clearly have no understanding of writing and character development and WHAT MAKES A STORY. that is one of the biggest things you learn in creative writing classes, you have to find what makes your story an actual STORY and not a block of text. the driving force, the sparkle, the umph factor, the spirit, the soul, the heart, the VOICE. what i've learned is that that factor, whatever you want to call it, is nearly always the characters and their relationships. how they interact, the complexities of their dynamic, how they evolve and change, etc. not to toot my own horn but in my writing workshops in college my stories were always the most well received and got the most emotional investment because i heavily leaned into love and connection. i had classmates diehard shipping my characters and begging for me to develop them further in a follow up. my professors told me i was one of few students who have a true understanding of voice and heart and the driving force, and that is why i was successful and could have a future in writing professionally. like im not talking out of my ass here. if there is absolutely 0 change in any of the relationships in s5 then there is no story. that's just plot. like it's literally a nothing burger and no one could possibly sit through 10 hours of that. and i really truly believe the duffers know better than that.

and besides, shawn levy has literally confirmed what im saying twice already lol:

"People talk about mythology and The Upside Down, and all that is huge, but the magic of season five are the characters who find a sense of belonging with each other and through that connection, become heroes."

"[Season 5] it's about a group of people who question their value, who find each other, and who find superpowers in connection."

you are just very simply plainly wrong.

like seriously think about it critically for a second

think about the state of the characters and their relationships at the end of season 4. for example jonathan and nancy. they are in a weird tense place at the end of s4 and clearly have a lot of talking to do. do you think the duffers would set that up just for it to never be addressed again because they "don't have time for it"?? why would they write it in the first place if there's no time for it to unravel in s5??? do you REALLY think jonathan and nancy are going to be in the exact same awkward place at the end of s5, aka 1990, aka whole 4 years after the end of s4????

and what about robin and vickie? are they just never going to get together now since there's no time for that??

there WILL be time for relationship development BECAUSE they aren't introducing new relationships. the duffers have called s5 "endgame territory", they are competing the arcs they have already been developing for 8 years. they are tying everything up nicely. yes, there will still be development and change, it will just stemming from something that is not brand new, something that has already existed in the show for a while and is just at the end of its arc and progression. they're not spawning a bunch of brand new relationship arcs that have to go through the process of being introduced and started properly. THAT is what there is no time for. and there is also no time for lolly gagging such as steve trying to find a girlfriend and taking a girl to the basketball game. there will be none of that. we're in the real shit, the real connections the real driving forces of these characters and their souls.

like as a writer yall sound so stupid when you talk about things you have no clue about 💀💀 wholeheartedly believing there will be no relationship development in a nearly 12 hour long season is the most insanely ridiculous thing i have ever heard in my life . genuinely

take a creative writing class pls

I'm not a mean person, but istg I'm gonna laugh when I open up this app and see that byler isn't endgame and all the shippers lose their minds after 5+ years of the creators telling them it isn't gonna happen.

[nerdygaymormon]

Some thoughts on queer identities and relationships

I think by refusing to recognize the intense amount of variety & complexity of the real world we live in, the LDS Church makes it hard for itself. Humanity is diverse. The church needs to do some work to make sense of the diversity rather than continue to ignore what that has been learned in the past century. 

One way the church tries to avoid this is by saying queer people should not make their sexual orientation or gender identity be a primary identity. Our primary identifier should be as a child of God. It’s strange because to non-queer people, they teach that their orientation & gender identity are central to exaltation. These are “eternal” characteristics.

There are very few people I know, straight or gay, cis or trans, who would say that their sexual orientation or gender identity is not an essential part of who they are and how they experience the world. We have large body of witnesses from queer people testifying that God made them like this.

By telling queer people that these things are “not central to identity,” it feels like they’re rephrasing the past teachings that we are broken and will be fixed, that these attractions & feelings are to be resisted at all cost. When my bishop would try to tell me that being gay is like an addiction, a temptation, I’d respond that being gay is like being straight with the exception of which gender I am attracted to, but otherwise very similar. I don’t like language that makes us sound abnormal or unhealthy when the reality is we’re a natural variant of the human condition.

Our church leaders don’t provide a compelling story or theology for why queer identities and relationships exist yet are wrong. The closest they get to explaining why being queer is wrong is that “in the beginning” God established a relationship between Adam & Eve. They also point to the Family Proclamation which says marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God. I wish they could point to a revelation explaining why God supposedly limits marriage to the male + female model, but they can’t.

Sometimes they will say only a marriage between a man and a woman can lead to exaltation in the next life. For the sake of argument, let’s say this is correct, if being single or in a gay marriage will neither lead to exaltation then why is being alone considered superior to two gay people being married to each other? Even if it’s the “wrong” kind of marriage, why would allowing companionship in this life be morally wrong? 

While I haven’t heard the leaders publicly make this argument, I know it goes something like this--a man & a woman can have sex & create new spirit bodies, and that’s required for exaltation. This seems very much based on how we create physical humans on earth. The problem with this is here on earth we’ve figured out how to do the procreation thing while avoiding the physical act of sex, such as using IVF, surrogacy, and so on. Scientists have been experimenting with using bone marrow stem cells to create artificial gametes, or eggs and sperm, which would allow two women to conceive a baby together. Are you saying such technology won’t exist in the Celestial Kingdom, that our earth life is more advanced than heaven?

It is an interesting academic exercise to look at theological support for the full inclusion of queer folks, but to me it comes down to fruits. We’re taught we will know that something is good based on the fruits it bears. Alma in The Book of Mormon taught this. Jesus taught this. Many have taught this. It’s an observable, concrete way to judge if something is good or bad.

The fruits of the Church’s homophobic & transphobic policies and teachings are broken families, shame, depression, suicide, and estrangement from God. The fruits of loving and committed same-sex marriages are, in my observation, stability, happiness, and connection. This isn’t complicted. It’s just not.

[abbysimsfun]

24 25 Favourite Screenshots of 2024 (Part One)

Only two parts, nothing major, but I got as far as New Year's Day in game, counted 50 total, and decided to do two posts. Part 2 will post on New Year's Eve, but thank you for the tags @hashimasims, @itmeansiris, @rosienthe, @finchfin, @lostinsixam, @matchalovertrait (your post was different but I'm counting it!), @changingplumbob, and @simscici!

All in chronological order, and all from Sims In Bloom since I have no other gameplay!

Above, (1) young Heather meets Sophie the Snail in her Henford hometown without her front tooth, and (2) Heather was the photographer for this adorable shot of her parents, expecting her sister Hazel and cuddling at the Finchwick Fair.

(3) The save's first tragic death was Eliza Pancakes, mother of three and wife of Bob, and I love this picture of them for the starry sky alone, honestly.

(4) Master botanist Daisy with one of many oversized crops she grew in her garden over the years.

(5) Loved this shot of Daisy taking off in a rocket at GeekCon so much I used it to represent her changing careers to full-time astrobotanist with the Sims Aeronautical Space Agency (SpaceY).

(6) Golden hour in Henford in springtime.

(7) Uptown San Myshuno and the San Myshuno Bridge.

(8) Winter in Henford-on-Bagley, with pink sunsets in the sky and wild fox Pawbin Hood in his Sherwood Forest getup in the foreground.

(9) Mortimer Goth married his soulmate, Karl Nesbitt, at their penthouse in San Myshuno. Their guests arrived and had to comply with a new ordinance declaring 'We Wear Bags!' much to my disdain.

But I look back now and consider it one of the more iconic screenshots of the series so far.

(10) Heather checks out the view from Malcolm Landgraab's penthouse in San Myshuno while balancing a plate of midnight French Toast.

(11) The ferry dock from Cavalier Cove to Deadgrass Isle on an overcast day in Brindleton Bay.

(12) A pink sunset backdrop added perfection to this shot of romantic Holly Nesbitt dropping her new hubby, Kris Bell, for a passionate first kiss (totally autonomously).

(13) A wild love interest and his perfect dog appear from the Gallery and enter the game, and everyone rejoices. Especially Heather!

(14) Malcolm Landgraab finally steps up and takes an interest in his son while tired working mom Heather naps in her living room.

It's hard to remember this house before I added the stairs and the second floor, but there it is!

(15) Even with the clipping and the shabby apartment decor, I love this pose. Just feels like they're truly hungering for each other and that was my goal!

(16) I think the lighting is great, but something about seeing Everett so content and proud inside a Gallery build made me love this one even more!

(17) This one's the banner on my tumblr page. It's Heather's house with the second story addition from across Sable Square and the fall colours really do it.

(18) Conrad takes Gord to work with the magic of MCCC and the brilliance of deardiaryts4 💖

(19) Conrad comforting a guilt-stricken Heather after Ash's near-death accident/mod vs update glitch. I just love them.

(20) Alexander Goth nonchalantly walks in on Heather channeling spirits on his mother Bella's seance table, while Conrad worries like mad about his soulmate.

(21) Toddler Ash cuddling one of Queen Cupcake's kittens (who were soon rehomed because five cats was so many. I couldn't keep it up!) Also, King Tut's ghost makes an appearance by the patio door.

(22) Teenage Conrad posing with his parents near the midway in Copperdale - the last trip the Gordons took before his mother's death.

(23) Gord smells the Grim Reaper before Heather and Conrad, who called him on a Grimophone borrowed from Bella Goth, realize he's there.

I've always loved watching him wander up to people unprompted because he's a friendly dog, but sensing the Reaper was a whole new level of amazing.

(24) This Spooky Day photo of Ash with his dad, Malcolm, and stepmom, Miko, was too cute not to include.

Bonus (25) Heather learned she was expecting again after a miscarriage and I love the ultrasound machine cc.

Tomorrow we find out whether Marcus' lead will pan out for Conrad (please, he is tired!), and the second half of my favourite screenshots go up Tuesday!

Part 2 ->

Hope you're having a great end to 2024, and I'm trying to think of whose Top 24/favourite screenies I haven't seen yet for the tag... @matchalovertrait I know you've been tagged a lot but if you want to do this one, too! @dreamyyesenia with your gorgeous screenies, and @purplesimmer455, too!

And anyone else who hasn't done it and wants to, tag you're it. I really enjoyed strolling down memory lane with this one!

[headphones-lifeform]

I made a post a while ago asking if anyone wanted to see my [very, very rough] idea for a unification/spirk pokémon. A spirkémon, if you will.

Here it is:

Spirlash! the Unified Pokémon Ghost/Psychic type This pokémon is made of the combined spirits of two seprate pokémon, reunited after death. They are so close that they have essentially become one. Its halves communicate telepathically to decide what they want to do.

As most pokémon are based on an animal of some sort, I was thinking about animals associated with Kirk, Spock or Star Trek in general before reaching the infamous Alfa 177 canine.

So... yeah. I merged Kirk and Spock with each other and then with the unicorn dog. I also gave Spirlash some cat and lionlike features because it seems common for people to associate Spock with cats.

The name "Spirlash" is obviously from "spirk" and "slash", but in-universe it would be from "spirit" and "slash".

I assume that ingame, you could get one pokémon for each and have them both faint in the same battle in order for them to evolve into Spirlash.

If someone wants to write up stats for this thing, I would be honoured.

Tagging the people who seemed interested:

@they-meme-well @cipher-fresh @inconsistent-person

[mumms-the-word]

I think that we can also see how Mythal changed Flemeth. Like looking at Morrigan and Flemeth - (forgive me if I'm wrong, but from what I remember of the games...) Flemeth was so obsessed in turning her daughter into a perfect receptacle for Mythal. Like Morrigan makes no mention of passing this on to her own kid/anyone else from what I remember. Morrigan comes to understand the burden but maybe Flemeth didn't have a choice and someone groomed her into accepting Mythal like she tried Morrigan.

Idk just thoughts but please expand on yours!

Ooohhh buddy do I have thoughts, and I should probably collect them a singular post or something but for now I’ll say that while, yes, Flemeth raised Morrigan to be the next vessel for Mythal (and yes we know she was abusive and weird about it), we also know that Flemeth herself says “a soul is not forced upon the unwilling” in DAI

And I think about that a lot

Morrigan fears very little in this world except for two things: losing her son and losing her autonomy (and since having a son is conditional, her fear of losing autonomy or her identity is her core fear)

When the memories of Flemythal come to her (as she explains in DATV) they explain everything in full and then give her a choice. She doesn’t have to receive Mythal, but if she does, she preserves a part of the old magic, the old lore, and has access to untold depths of knowledge. But she hesitates, because she doesn’t know if it will completely overwrite her and make her lose herself. And, she says, she realizes that doing so means that her mother, who has been quietly observing her, will never see her again. And she mourns that, you can hear the heartbreak in her voice

(I really need to do a deep dive in Morrigan’s dialogue in DATV about this because it is so rich and full of little hints about the complex relationship she and Flemeth have)

All that said! Just as Morrigan had a choice to accept or reject the memories of Mythal, Flemeth also had a choice. I’m talking the OG Flemeth, Flemeth who was once caught in a feud between her lovers/husbands centuries ago and who was betrayed by them. Flemeth who cried out for vengeance and the spirit of Mythal answered. Mythal didn’t just take over like a demon, they bonded because of their mutual desire for vengeance after betrayal. We know Flemeth became an abomination by accepting the spirit form of Mythal into her body, but also…if the spirit you are carrying in your body is one of the Evanuris…

Well it’s no surprise that it makes Flemeth a different kind of abomination than Anders, Wynne, or Lucanis.

Somewhere in that relationship Flemeth agrees to sustain her life in order to sustain Mythal’s. That’s why she has her daughters, and raises them to become powerful mages, and then takes over their bodies. But from the sound of it, it sounds like eventually every daughter gets the full story and a choice—accept the memories of Flemeth and Mythal and become the next Flemeth.

I guess the more interesting question is, is Morrigan’s mother THE Flemeth of centuries ago…or is she just the latest generation, someone who was given a different name at birth, like Morrigan was, but chose to keep and continue Flemeth’s name and think of herself as Flemeth? In other words, does she willingly give up her born identity to continue the name and legacy of Flemeth, as well as Mythal?

This is why I think Morrigan is a cycle-breaker even though she accepts Flemythal’s memories. If every other Flemeth in history chose to keep being Flemeth, while Morrigan chooses to remain Morrigan…she’s always been interested in the great changes of the world. This is another great change in the legacy of Flemeth and Mythal.

I joke that Morrigan becomes Flemorrithal but that’s not really true, at least not right now. She bears “many appellations” as she says, but she introduces herself as Morrigan for her preferred name. Maybe in one hundred years when everyone has died or forgotten her she’ll pick up the Flemeth title again, but for now…she’s still Morrigan. Just with extra memories.

But, ah, listen to me ramble. There’s so much to pick through when it comes to Flemeth/Mythal/Morrigan lore and their relationships with each other. It really is hard to sort my thoughts into anything that makes sense sometimes haha

[persephoneggsy]

Random fact about Phryne Ingellvar:

Her favorite animal is the humble rat. She caught one in the kitchens once as a child and proudly presented it to her mother, asking if she could keep it. Prudence Ingellvar was horrified, soundly rejecting the idea and making her release the rat outside. But little Phryne was so mopey that Prudence eventually gave in and agreed to let her have one as a pet.

Prudence, a noblewoman, arranged for an Orlesian fancy rat to be presented to Phryne on her ninth birthday — because if her daughter insists on having a rodent, it will at least be one with a pedigree!

Phryne named her new rat Melchior and loved it with every fiber of her being. Unfortunately, even rats in fantasy settings don’t live for long, so Melchior passed away at the impressive age of four, when Phryne was thirteen.

But we’re in Nevarra, babey! Land of the undead, wisps and spirits in abundance! A passing wisp noted Phryne’s sadness as she buried her pet, and decided to inhabit Melchior’s corpse. Phryne was delighted to see her beloved companion back on their doorstep the following morning. Her mother was… concerned, but being a necromancer herself, she quickly deduced that the wisp was harmless. And she loved to see her daughter happy.

The wisp acts exactly like Melchior did in life, causing Phryne to believe in the theory that some part of the departed’s souls do indeed come back upon reanimating. Even as Melchior’s fur falls out and it becomes just a skeleton scurrying about, Phryne still loves and cares for it (it doesn’t eat anymore, but it does like having its skull petted, and it likes being carried around in pockets or on top of heads).

Phryne passed Melchior down to her children, twins Elke and Rothe, who also adored it. Then, Rothe had his own son, Malavai, and Melchior passed to him. It’s still living its best un-life with the ever-doting Ingellvar family.

Eventually, Phryne introduces her oldest friend to her new paramour, Emmrich. I think it would be interesting if Emmrich had a minor phobia of rats (due to the headcanon of him being trapped in a collapsed building for hours with nothing but his parents’ bodies and rats for company). So he’s terrified of Melchior, and Phryne notices. But when she apologizes and tries to take Melchior out of his sight, Emmrich stops her. He knows that Melchior is like family to her, and he wants to be on good terms with all the important people in her life. Even if they’re undead rats.

Besides, a creature that’s been benevolently possessed for nearly four decades! His fear aside, that’s astounding!!

[vickyvicarious]

To anyone who is interested, here is my thoughts on Nosferatu (2024). In briefest sum: it's not my thing. I didn't really like it by large.

To be a little longer, but still remain mostly spoiler-free: There are several elements running throughout the movie. There's stuff taken directly from the original Nosferatu, there's stuff added in from Dracula, and there's also some elements that appear to me to be informed by other adaptations or reputation, as well as more modern tastes in the way horror movies operate. It is definitely still a horror, and for people who like this style of horror, I think a lot of them would enjoy it. Personally, I'm not super into gore or sexual horror scenes. There are definitely several of both. In general I like more subtle psychological horror, and in a lot of ways I think this movie is pretty in-your-face about what it does. That is a personal preference for me, though, and definitely not universal.

Also, while I find the combination of elements interesting, in several places I personally feel like it weakens characterization or at least my interest in the characters. That said, some character things that fans of Dracula like would probably include: Orlock is definitely still evil/hated by all. Thomas and Ellen (the Harker figures) are in love, and both protagonists we're meant to root for. There are also a lot of added scenes that call back to various events in the book. On the other hand, there is some degree of Ellen/Orlock that is likely a major turnoff for a lot of people, and also Friedrich (the Arthur figure) is definitely not our Art. Also, many of the callback scenes involve similar events, but almost inevitably twisted in some way, either to fit the changed place in the plot, the different characters, or to feed in to horror scenes that are more gory/sexual than you'd see in either original book or movie.

Finally, more specific spoilers under the cut:

Sorry in advance but this is more of a ramble than any specific progression throughout the plot.

I think that the story wanted to have its cake and eat it too a little bit in regards to the original book, the original film, and to pop-culture derived interpretations of Dracula themes and characters. I also think there was a degree of playing in to more typical modern horror expectations. Some of my thoughts on this are pretty suppositional because I don't actually like watching horror movies much and also haven't seen any film adaptations of Dracula (aside from the original Nosferatu and now this one). So feel free to disregard me if I'm wrong on any of those points. But I feel like there are several scenes that either alter events or add in gratuitous nudity or violence just because that's expected.

Like, for example, when Thomas arrives in the town near the castle. There's a whole odd scene where a bunch of people are dancing around and then kind of mocking him before he gets into the inn. Once there, we have a scene more like in the original movie (OM from here on out) where there's horrified reaction to him saying he's going to the castle, and also similar to the original book (OB) where he is given a crucifix. Then we have a scene that seems like a "queer dreams" reference (but when he wakes his shoes are muddy showing it really happened) where he follows a bunch of locals leading a naked virgin on a horse to a grace where they then stake a vampire. I think this is the same group who were outside the inn mocking him, though I'm not totally sure.

The staking scene irked me more in hindsight because it seemed to be suggesting a possible alternate ending, with the virgin potentially 'distracting' the monster's attention while its body was staked. I kind of wondered near the end if this was going to happen to some extent with Ellen taking out the shadow and Orlock's spirit while the men staked his physical body. Now, that too would be off from both originals and was entirely my own theory so it not being fulfilled isn't really a knock on the movie, but... While I guess we can see the connection here, the actual way the whole "pure woman offers herself to the vampire to kill it" plays out later has nothing really to do with this scene. So it still feels kind of like there was no point having her there, since all she did was ride naked on a horse, and so it felt more contrived to show a boob than really relevant to me. The people also are weird because of this. Are they in Orlock's employ and scornful of Thomas? Are they opposed to vampires and want to protect him? There's a weird mix, only increased when everyone is gone when he awakes (including the innkeepers) and have stolen his horse. I didn't feel like their behavior made sense.

OrlocI did like several of the trippy bits about Thomas' journey to the castle (though the empty carriage reminded me more of Curse of Strahd, haha), and some of the parts of him being there. The scenes where he is eating with Orlock and where he's being pressured into signing a contract he can't read are pretty good moments of him having to try and keep calm and polite while freaking out hugely internally, though it's all much more condensed and quick to become blatant attacks on him than the OB. But that itself is more similar to the OM. The scene when Orlock makes him say "my lord" instead of "sir" is pretty funny. I also quite liked the way Orlock turned his excuse to leave ("I've been having horrible dreams since getting here, I think I'm ill") against him into a reason he must stay ("It's not good to travel when you're sick, you must stay here until you get better"). From the book, we get scenes like Thomas asking about local traditions and being shut down, running frantically about after learning he's trapped, being threatened by wolves, and escaping out the window. But the way it happens is typically very different, with Orlock just having some wolves in his crypt apparently. Thomas going in there and opening up the coffin to see him isn't really led up to in any way, other than him running around searching for an exit. We do get an attempted shoveling, except it's not a shovel but a pickaxe, there's no apparent reason for it to be sitting there, and Orlock (who apparently sleeps totally naked) physically repels the blow and then chases after him/shadows him and then drinks him while also humping him. He wakes up in his bed afterwards, and escapes out the window while fleeing wolves that have been sent to attack him after Orlock (presumably) leaves. Then he falls into the river.

I think in general his character is closest to the equivalent OB character. He loves his wife intensely, and is determined to return to her and to protect her/kill the vampire who harmed her. There are still some really unfortunate moments where he tells her to ignore her creepy dreams and basically be normal (as well as disregarding her warnings not to leave, though that at least I seem to remember happening in the OM), and he's the one to say of course she'll be left behind when hunting vampires. But he never seems to think about leaving her, and definitely loves her a lot throughout. I also like him getting a limp after his escape from the castle, showing some lingering physical effect. Though he also apparently has bite marks since he shows them to people later on.

Von Franz is shown to be more lost in his 'crazy' theories than Van Helsing. He also is too willing to sacrifice others, and kind of has a crazy monologue while setting a bunch of stuff on fire which feels super out of character. But he plays a smaller part and I liked both him not being shown as a super vampire hunter (the one scene when Friedrich asks him how to kill the demon he's talking about and he's just like "I dunno, I've never actually seen one of these before" was funny) and him having respect for Ellen. He insists she not be tied up and empathizes with her psychic nature being preyed upon, being clear that the results are not her fault. Dr. Siever plays a really small role, and Knock (the Hawkins/Renfield medley) is just as comically evil as he is in the OM. He does get naked in a pentagram and gnaw on animals/people onscreen, but doesn't have a huge role. I had fun laughing at Orlock carrying his own coffin in the original but sadly no luck in that regard thanks to Knock escaping to help him.

Friedrich irks me the most because he's got a larger role and it's so different from Arthur. While Emma (Lucy) doesn't do too much, she's at least still a good friend to Ellen. He clearly doesn't like her from the start and just kind of puts up with her weirdness because of other people. He's a loving husband and father and that's where the most sympathy for him comes in, but also skeptic who hates the influence on his life that Ellen brings and has a hard time believing Von Franz about supernatural causes. While Siever apparently suggested it in the first place, he still is the one who approves tying Ellen up, and he's a jerk to her about her not being normal and not doing what he tells her. Not to mention kicking the Hutters out in the middle of a plague! As well as trying to flee when his wife is already suffering from the plague. He does traumatically lose his whole family, and he gets the shadow keeping him asleep while his children were killed, which originally happened to Jonathan while Mina was attacked. The scene of the nosferatu carelessly dropping a dead child reminded me of vampire!Lucy tossing aside a child in the graveyard. And in fact, having Emma be the only one awake rushing about to try and save her family and having to face the vampire alone is sort of similar to the night of Lucy's memorandum if you squint. I absolutely hated Friedrich's ending - he's visibly caught the plague and wanders off to the graveyard where he then has sex with his dead (not undead, just dead) wife and then dies doing so? Euch. If they just left out the necrophilia then it would feel much more coherent to his character, just kind of selfish and very intentionally 'normal' but still deeply loving his family and losing it after their loss. But that just seemed kind of thrown in there to add to the erotic horror to me, and since I don't like it, well. I didn't like it.

Ellen, now... it's hard to talk about her character in this without also talking about Orlock. But let me start with just her and then get to that after. They lean way in on the psychic Ellen from the OM, which I initially quite liked. She also seems to deeply love Thomas, though there are some later scenes that add a weird dynamic there. One being she only became 'normal' when she met him, and so he seems kind of like an escape from her psychic dreads. I initially really liked her connection to him when he was on his trip. She gave him a token of her hair in a locket, which she cut while staring psychically out into the night, and it seemed like it was linking her to him. Then, when Orlock took the locket, the connection seemed to contribute with her sometimes overlapping with Orlock in a way I initially thought was kind of cool. I really liked the way the actress did her own version of the clawed hands and the Orlock walk/silhouette, she embodied that really well.

The sexualized trances/dreams and seizures were definitely not to my taste thought, and the whole more Exorcist-style scenes where she seemed almost outright possessed didn't really make full sense to me most of the time. I really disliked what the story behind them and her connection to Orlock ended up being. Apparently she psychically reached out to something dark in her lonely youth and ended up waking him/making some sort of marriage pact with him? This is what aroused his interest in her all along and seemed to drive many of his actions. And while we do see that she hates him consciously, and outright rejects and insults him to his face in one scene, there's all this stuff where she seems very drawn to him despite that. I really hated the Hutton sex scene. It was bound up in an argument between them during which she seemed to at least partially believe Orlock's words about Thomas selling her (this was apparently the contract he couldn't read but signed because Orlock was menacing him) for a bag of gold. She also throws in his face that he's never satisfied her like her dream lover (the nosferatu). She seems to be getting partially possessed or something throughout this fight. She takes on the nosferatu posture and uses a different voice, but it's not made clear how much of this is some influence against her or her own inner darkness or her actual thoughts. Thomas looks scared of/for her and also freaked out by how crazy she seems, and then she crawls up to him begging for no doctor and then they have aggressive sex while she commands him to kiss her heart. That in particular makes it seem like she's trying to emulate her dream sex with the nosferatu, since he's always shown to bit the chest/over the heart. So that left a bit of a nasty taste in my mouth.

Again, we do see that she loves Thomas and wants to save him. But the eroticization of the vampire feeding (once again, they are clearly having sex while he drinks her blood. The only reason I wasn't a hundred percent sure this happened with Thomas is because he at least was wearing clothes thought Orlock was naked at the time) combined with the visual horror of making Orlock look so open-wound and corpsey combined to have a really weird feel of just wanting to show a woman having sex with a horrible monster. The sexual horror thing... but she agreed to it, yes as a plan to kill Orlock, but what with the dreams thing and her making sex noises and whatnot it kind of seems like she's enjoying it too. Then when they find her body there's this kind of weird detail where she has a hand holding Orlock to her chest (she drew him back down and asked him to drink more blood when he started to notice the onset of dawn) and Thomas takes her other hand, and it feels symbolic somehow. Her lover being death and her husband reaching out for her but her clinging death closer... I dunno. The whole sex and dream connection/prolonged haunting aspect made it seem a lot less resigned sacrifice than it did in the OM, and definitely way more of her being drawn to him in return than in the OB.

Orlock himself was a pretty nice mix of Dracula and OM Count for most of it I think. I liked when he called himself nothing but hunger, it feels like it leaned in more to his OM counterpart. Using Thomas's fate against her (and before that, the Hardings) was very much something OB Dracula would do too. But his whole past with Ellen and consequent fixation on her kind of took over everything he did. And since I didn't like that element... I did love the shadow stuff, and enjoyed when he did the classic nosferatu walk with the hands reaching out, though it wasn't as often. His design was definitely creepy as well.

I liked the plague elements. I also liked the shadow of the vampire, and kind of wish there had been more emphasis put on that. I feel like in the OM, more horror was shown in his movements and his physicality partially just due to the medium. But it was also really iconic, especially the shadow, and I liked the instances when it was used to reflect his influence.

Not a fan of all the thrashing about (sexually and also just seizing/shaking) and drooling/vomiting/blood spilling from mouths. But those are more personal preference and again feel like more modern horror staples to various degrees. My biggest grief is the Orlock/Ellen stuff and how that infects other things around it.

BUT... if you like this sort of story, as I imagine many do, and if you are able to see it as its own thing enough not to get upset with the divergences (for example Orlock/Ellen, or Friedrich vs. Arthur) then I think a lot of people would enjoy this movie.

[mumms-the-word]

I think about this a lot. I normally play elves first but this time opted for a human Rook, and now my second Rook is a dwarf. While I won’t say either of them aren’t sympathetic to Solas’s plans (my human Rook was a veil jumper mage, she would have been interested in what a Veil-less world would have looked like were it possible to do so without chaos), neither of them are on Solas’s short list of lives worth saving if/when he sunders the Veil.

Solas says he has spirits ready on the other side of the Veil who are going to help him minimize the damage. But I’m pretty sure if he had succeeded, those spirits would have only sought out elves to protect, or at least prioritized them over everyone else. His letter to a romanced Lavellan makes it sound like she’ll survive the fall of the Veil, no matter where she is—“when you read this the world will be as it once was, and you will see why all I did was necessary.” Not “if,” but “when.” Why? Because he is sending spirits to protect her directly? Or because all his spirit allies are prepared with orders to protect certain kinds of people?

I don’t think he means for everyone to be wiped out in the sudden rush of magic and demons. The strong and the capable will surely survive, no matter their race. But there aren’t enough spirits in the Fade to save every single life in Thedas, and Solas has made it clear ever since Trespasser that his goal is to restore Elvhenan, to restore immortality to the elves, to fix what he broke in elven culture, life, and longevity. In that final mural with Mythal, he literally says, “Why should I not tear down the Veil and bring back immortality to all the elven people? They deserve it!” Human, dwarf, and qunari life? Not exactly high on his priority list.

Solas was going to minimize the damage, yes. And on some level I do think that he spared a thought or two to the damage he’d do to humans, dwarves, and qunari. But they were never going to be his first priority. Just as an Inquisitor can develop a friendship with Solas and get him to see the world around him as real and valuable, if Rook develops a relatively positive working relationship with Solas they have a chance to convince him that his plan to tear down the Veil isn’t going to be worth the cost to anyone other than the elves. Sure, the elves may get immortality back, and the world will get magic back, but at the expense of who? Who is actually paying the cost here?

Solas wants to restore the world of Mythal. Mythal, the Protector of the People. Mythal, the All-Mother. Mythal, the goddess-queen of the elven people, her children, her subjects. There are no dwarves, humans, or qunari in her kingdom. So why should he bother to save them when he restores her world?

I think this is also partly why in the last mural with Mythal, specifically Flemythal, we hear her defend the modern world against Solas’s schemes. “The elven people of today do not deserve to see the world they love be torn apart to salve your conscience.” That’s not just Mythal speaking as a protector of the elves. That’s Flemeth, too. Flemythal, with the weight of living several hundred years as a human. Flemythal gets it. She shapes the world as it exists now. She doesn’t try to restore what was.

And that’s why Solas had to kill her. She wasn’t his Mythal. And like the Inquisitor, like Rook, she could be too persuasive. He would be willing to listen. But he can’t. He thinks of himself as oath-bound to restore the world of the elves, the one he broke when he was seeking vengeance for Mythal. And if no one is there to stop him or convince him otherwise, he will honestly and truly believe that the deaths of countless humans, dwarves, and qunari are a sacrifice worth making. There will be survivors, and that’s good. But many won’t make it.

So, yeah, why wouldn’t a human, dwarf, or qunari Rook want to stop Solas?

It seems like people on my dashboard only have elven Inquisitors and elven Rooks, because I haven't seen anyone saying that Solas' plan at the end of Trespasser would only benefit elves. My protagonists, both humans, want to stop Solas, because he plans to destroy their world and wipe out all humans. That's exactly what he tells the Inquisitor at the end of Trespasser. All this "I want to create a new prison for my fellow gods" appears already in the Veilguard.

Dwarves and qunari? Solas doesn't bother thinking about them. Genocide for all except elves. And spirits. Which are basically the same.

"I would have entered the Fade, using the mark you now bear. Then I would have torn down the Veil. As this world burned in the raw chaos, I would have restored the world of my time… the world of the elves."

Exact quote from the game (thanks @daitranscripts)

That's why I don't have any "regrets" for stopping Solas' ritual. It would have been worse. Yes, even with the gods out of their prison.

[victoriadallonfan]

Avery Kelly: “I’m doomed to be alone and unloved for the rest of my life :(“

Avery Kelly (taking one step outside of Kennet): immediately swarmed by three different girls who are obsessed with her

[scribefindegil]

"Only in the darkest depths of fear can true courage shine" is obviously about Mob but I keep thinking about it in reference to Dimple's actions in Mogami arc. He was so scared! He started shaking like a leaf as soon as he recognized Mogami and he begged Mob & Reigen to leave, but he STILL faced Mogami head-on in Mob's body as a distraction and voluntarily entered Mogami's mindscape to get Mob out! The trust conversation hits even harder when you remember that this isn't an abstract danger they're up against; it's an entity that Dimple has very specific trauma about!

[merlinfromberlin]

Imagine. TFP but there was an ancient spirit/deity living in the Star Sabre.

Bee, after the fight at the Omega Lock, can't remember anything that happened after picking up the Star Sabre for the first time. His memories only set back in once he pulls Optimus back up onto the platform.

None of the Autobots discuss it either. The only thing they told him is that he killed Megatron. But they refuse to elaborate beyond "you grabbed the star sabre, jumped down, stabbed Megatron & saved Optimus".

Bee himself is not even aware of the hole in his memories at first. But then Raf starts asking questions about the fight and Bee always answers with the same sentence. "You know... it was a real doozie, but I got... lucky, I guess."

The first time Ratchet hears Bee say that, he flinches violently and then pretends like that is absolutely normal behaviour. No, you did not just see him crunch his incredibly fragile medical equipment. It's always looked like this.

Optimus also starts acting odd towards Bee. He can't quite look him in the eye but keeps observing him from a distance. They've also stopped their philosophical discussions (yes; I'm going to insert my headcanon that Optimus and Bee watch ATLA together and then use it as a jumping off point to discuss Cybertronian philosophy and culture into everything).

None of the bots would admit it, but all of them are doing their best to keep Bee confined to the base. He is barely out on patrol anymore. It gets even worse once they are back on Cybertron because now he doesn't even get out to pick up Raf anymore. He's always kept busy indoors. Not even Smokescreen wants to sneak out with him.

Still, no one wants to answer his questions about what happened at the OmegaLock. He tries to corner Smokescreen and Bulkhead about it because they are the weakest link when it comes to resisting Bee, his shenanigans and questions, but neither of them budge.

And then Bee starts noticing other signs of change. Sometimes, his optics will suddenly just burn brighter. Bright enough to illuminate dark rooms or reflect on metal surfaces around him. Sometimes he is no longer sure that they're really blue.

Then, one night, he has a dream. He is lying somewhere, prone on his belly, unable to move and incredibly tired. It's hard to comprehend anything that's going on. His surroundings are bathed in blue (?) light and he can't see him, but he can feel Optimus being there, incredibly tense as he stands in between Bee and something that's so old it should have dissolved into dust eons ago. Optimus and the thing are talking but he can only gauge snippets of their conversations before something soothes him back into deep recharge. Last thing he hears is Optimus' yelling his name.

Then he wakes up at the entrance of their base, Optimus and Ratchet waiting for him as he returns from a drive. He has no clue where he went. Or why they look at him as if he was a ghost. Until he checks his internal chronometer and realises that the equivalent of a week has passed.

And when he asks what's going on, Optimus just pulls him into a hug and holds him for a long time, not saying anything.

[transpathfinder]

HELLO, LICH DEFENDERS! thank you for responding, there're a lot so i'm just gonna file responses here to look at easier when i search for it, you do not have to respond to my replies, no pressure :}

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@boeing-787 said: hi, it’s me. i romanced emmrich first and i chose the lich path. when the stats got released and people were talking abt the lich choice being like, i think was it 27% of people picked? and how those people cant be trusted? like shuuuuuuut uuuuuuuuuuup

that's one of the things i got soo shocked by, when those stats were released and i went to look at it once i completed the game.. i was sure it would be a closer match between the two. i think it really boils down to many emmrichmancers finding that option gross when it's really just a choice he has been working towards all his life? i feel there's a lot of infantalising him for his decision and want, when he's a grown ass man in his 50s who has known and studied this for years

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@13skeletons said: i chose lich first! and then played through the ending again to see the other route. I like Manfred, but the lich route is soooo good and so unique. (and it’s the skeleton sex route eheheehheh). anyway i follow someone who has written some really good pro lich route posts. let me find a link / ok here’s one meta: tumblr.com/veilkee… and that person has a few about his lich route in its tags. it actually changed its pfp to lich!emmrich when all the anti lich discourse got too irritating. / also the idea of him finding another partner and being mad about it is so fucking laughable to me. like, he seriously expects you to dump him before he goes through the rites. he tries to hide his face from you during the final romance scene. do these people really think he’d ever open up to someone again? He’s afraid he’ll mourn you forever!!!!! Sorry I’m not normal about him. His lich route is some of the most tragically romantic shit bioware has ever given us / also. also. acting like it’s selfish to accept that death is a part of life, even for spirits? uhhhh (just remembered a post that acted like he couldn’t possibly still love rook afterwards because his heart is gone. love is stored in the blood pump, you see.)

thank you for the link from other lichmancers, that's good, gonna check it out in a bit. and yesss i've seen that post you mentioned too i think about like... how emmrich can't possibly feel anymore, be it love or compassion or whatever for rook and others. and i think this is flat out a false reading of the game when they literally tell you he holds all his same opinions and feelings, just without the flesh?? they're acting like lichdom steals away your soul or something to become a mechanical unfeeling being

the thing about being selfish about manfred is sooo crazy to me cos i felt the opposite of what most people who bring back manfred felt in that it's emmrich accepting a spirit's death! after being bright and brilliant and sacrificing himself for a mission! if anything, blindly bringing manfred back is what makes it sound like emmrich is not ready to accept death as a part of life

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@corvidexoskeleton said: I didn’t like the lich path at first tbh, but when i did my second playthrough and romanced him, i did the lich path, and now ive actually changed my opinion on it. I find it extremely interesting and compelling, but so many people are too caught up in bitching about it 😭😭😭

i see! yes i totally get how the first playthrough may make an emmrichmancer pick the non-lich route, but it really is a compelling arc for him as a character with purpose, using his skills and interest. even in the romance section, there's so much left. i've seen so many posts bitching about it i got so annoyed at my recced stuff lol like please stop acting like it's some disgusting option to choose damn

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amalstra said: I hate people saying it’s a cop-out and running from his fear of death….like did you miss the part where he literally has to DIE to become a lich? How is that not facing it? On top of that he has to face manfreds death so…ya hes facing it.

exactlyyyyy i reeeeally don't get that reasoning cos it's straight up lying about what the game is trying to tell you. like what do u mean he's afraid and not facing it.. that's literally the opposite of what it means to becoming a lich. he perfectly understands he's gonna outlive people he loves, and he accepts death, but he stands for a greater cause and what he deems important in his culture??? if fans are just sad manfred died and want him back they should just admit that lmafafo instead of coming up with shit that's not true

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@ianuarius said: Love the Lich route as much as the Mortal one, personally. As it is, I enjoy it, though I do worry about how his character would grapple and handle with the death of those beloved by him. There’s nice touches, ofc, such as the dialogue with him and Harding about how she may be immortal now in some fashion and they can be friends forever. But I do think how the other backgrounds outside MW are handling that he is functionally immortal and that they do not have this option in the future. / Unless, I suppose the Lich Lords aren’t all specifically of the MW? And may offer them the chance with some convincing? But we know so little of them, currently. And, for Emmrich, I think that while he may have passed through death, he doesn’t yet quite deal with his fear of death but transfer it to Rook. Fears like that aren’t so easy to break, so I think it does just find a different form to take. If not taken care of, properly, I can see his love becoming unhealthy and toxic, which is… yeah. / But, on the other hand, he also has potential to surpass it with help and time. And, I just, currently wonder what all he’s meant to do and more as a Lich Lord other than broadly protect the order of things. Lots of grand promises in this route that makes me wonder what else may be revealed about these guys.

hmmm i see... i guess i don't think of it as a bad thing, that he has to watch those he loves die, the same way i don't think it's unhealthy or toxic with his love. but that's mostly cos i don't see the scenario of someone you love dying in their full age as something to fight or rage against, and iirc there's dialogue with lucanis where he's happy to constantly learn and experience new things, but that's not without to say he won't mourn those who pass on before him. i suppose i see him as a character who is interested and awash with experiencing new things, people, feelings, that lichdom isn't something i see for him as tragic, but freeing.

but yeeess i think there's a lot to explore with and without the mourn watch background with this. i don't think the game gives enough with this choice, but then it's like you said it's a route less travelled and we don't know much about it yet. will be nice to get some meaty info about these lich lords and their general lifestyles

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@trickster-in-training said: My 1st romance with him was the non-lich path, and I thought it was very sweet! My next Rook will be a MW lich romancer. I’m excited to see how it plays out. I don’t think there’s a “right” or “wrong” choice, just different flavors of an experience.

niceee, i hope you have fun with the lich route, especially with a mw!rook, i think it could open up a lot of dialogue or at least understanding of his choices due to shared culture and affections. same, i really don't see it as good/bad, but i do get the feeling a lot of fandom sees the lich route as... less than, surely, because they're uncomfortable with concepts of death and immortality in romance.

okay in my esteemed authority as a lucanismancer acknowledging we have the most annoying fanbase, it seems the second most annoying fanbase are emmrichmancers who are soo anti-lichdom. i liked a few emmrich romance posts and then tumblr was reccing so many other posts by those who hate the idea of him being a lich, calling it selfish or disgusting and being mad he'll outlive rook, potentially finding another partner, etc, when of course, lichdom is his lifelong dream and has a lot of themes of nobleness in service, archiving, respecting, and protecting culture, in nevarra

there must be emmrichmancers who chose the lichdom path romance, i know it. i wish they were more outspoken (or maybe i just haven't seen any on my dash) and i'd love to see their ideas more on this love. it's the choice i chose for him, and found it very fulfilling and whole. but almost all emmrichmancers i've seen tumblr reccing me sound childish as f about it being the ''bad'' choice, getting their undies in a twist about it and they're the ones more vocal about it when lich!emmrich is so rich with love, respect, and faith, in the concepts history, the dead, knowledge.. there's a sacred reverence to it that blind childish lichdom haters do not seem to want to engage in conversation with i'm just irritated every time i see some bs on my dash

[utilitycaster]

I have not finished the latest WBN episode but it is darkly funny to me that in the CR fandom there's a lot of ongoing discussion of "is it understandable that one might strike down the imperial wizard city for explicitly trying to kill all the gods" and in my (rather more limited) experience of the WBN fandom, people have been gunning for the destruction of the imperial wizard city for, among other things, possibly trying to bind the (effectively) gods to service since day one.