#I want. To make fantasy shit

[mintytrifecta]

Real bold of me to get into crafts with a known math disability as if calculation isn't one of the most important parts of it

[codingfate]

thinking about gorgug thistlespring, a barbarian half-orc raised by tinkerer gnomes, who tried to teach him that his anger was not a bad thing, that he was not a burden, that he should channel those negative emotions into something good and positive, like singing or making things, and so he did. he made friends, he learned the drums, he fought, he protected, he saved the world and met multiple who liked him for who he is.

thinking about gorgug thistlespring, a teenage boy with his first girlfriend, who was so devoted to protecting his friends that he made a mistake, he didn’t consider her feelings, so he fought so hard to make it right, he felt so guilty and so angry at himself so he built something just to be able to talk to her again. his parents taught him to channel his emotions and he realised he was just as good at creating as he was at raging. and even when the nightmare king’s forest threw his fears and insecurities in his face, he carried on, for his friends, because “its gorgug, keep going.”

thinking about gorgug thistlespring, an artificer-barbarian who figured out who he is, what he wanted, what he’s good at, who knows how to channel his anger into protecting and creating, to save the world and his friends, only to be told that he couldn’t do that, he couldn’t do what he wanted, his anger was for destruction, not for creating, not for putting his life on the line for his friends, that all the things his parents had taught him, all the things that he had learned while saving the world were wrong.

thinking about gorgug thistlespring.

[dukeofthomas]

Can't believe Bruce canonically picked up a random 12yo homeless child who had no intent to become a vigilante and suddenly thrust Robin onto him without asking if that's what he wanted because he missed Dick (whom he fired because being Robin was too dangerous) and people still act like any take that's not "all the Batkids became vigilantes on their own completely independent of Bruce (who tried so hard to stop them but sadly just couldn't do it)" is a complete idiotic bad-faith take and that you're crazy if you disagree with people saying that Bruce has never ever absolutely NEVER picked up a kid for the purpose of making them into a vigilante.

[dandelion-roots]

[ID: a digital drawing of riz gukgak from fantasy high. in the front is a relatively small drawing of riz juggling books that are falling out of his hand and a phonecall, and he has a huge backpack on. he looks a bit overwhelmed, hair flying in all directions, and has a nervous smile on. in the background is a large shadow of riz, only one glowing eye and a shining gun visible. the background is red, giving an eerie feel. End ID]

Kill your best friend

Cheat your way to your rogue teacher

Announce your presidential campaign

Don't let them know how angry you are

LEARN TO RECOGNIZE A MONSTER

[bacchuschucklefuck]

gukgak specifically from my typing (man w/ three jobs & a creeping sense of dread)

[maelancoli]

i'm kind of late to this but i just finished reading the scholomance trilogy by naomi novik and i feel like it is such an underrated urban fantasy?? taking the chosen one trope and turning it on its head with a fmc who has been prophesied to bring death and destruction, who is imbued with terrible power, but cannot even properly use said power to solve any of her obstacles because it would obliterate them and her soul. it takes a tired trope and the idea of an 'overpowered mary sue' and throws it back in your face by showing how all the power and destiny in the world is useless against a system filled with corruption that has burdened you with an easy way out (evil/destructive magic) that you can't take so now you have to work twice as hard as everyone else just to do simple, constructive spells instead of flicking your wrist and being done with it.

[0m3n-0f-d3ath]

Princess Lily

[elpeadro]

Part 1: The Good Ending

Part 2: The Bad, Tragic Ending

If the writers wanted CaitVi to be their canon OTP so bad, they had two ways of going about it…sike there was a secret third ending all along!

THE DISJUMBLED, TONAL MESS OF AN ENDING WE GOT:

Despite the pacing and dialogue issues of the first three episodes, I have nothing bad to say about Act 1’s ending. Caitlyn’s corruption arc, while extremely rushed in getting to this point given where her characterization was at in season 1, reaches its climax as we see just how far she has fallen: being willing to shoot a child, lashing out and hitting Vi, saying some incredibly bigoted things toward Vi, and, the pièce de résistance and one of my favorite scenes in the entire show, becoming the dictator of Piltover as the enforcers and Noxians beat their chests in salute to her. When Ambessa drapes that cloak over her shoulders and Caitlyn thumps her fist against her chest, it feels like the birth of a monster - and I mean that in the best way possible.

And she is a monster…except her actions are mostly confined to two music montages in episodes 3 and 4 and then shuffled off to the side for Warwick in Act 2 and the Machine Herald War in Act 3.

Just as it is a major problem when she goes from naive and priviledged, but good-hearted S1 Caitlyn to “let’s commit war crimes against a civilian population” S2 Caitlyn in the span of the Heavy is the Crown + Hellfire montages, it is even more a problem when the near-entirety of her dictator era is confined to the Paint the Town Blue montage. Because while I would begrudgingly accept the former being rushed to set up the latter’s payoff, the writers don’t pay it off.

At the end of episode 3, Caitlyn ascends to dictatorship. At the beginning of episode 4, she is questioning Ambessa, the justifications for martial law, and Maddie even suggests she could reinstate the council and remove herself as dictator. Can you say ‘jarring’?

That’s not how this works! You don’t write a good character having a fall from grace into a villain arc, then fast forward through the lowest and worst points of said arc. It’s like they made her a dictator just for the flavor it would give her character combined with the angst of her and Vi breaking up. Which, that’s bad writing process to begin with, but it’s especially bad when the writing has her BECOME A FASCIST DICTATOR.

You absolutely cannot evoke the political imagery of fascism only to not follow through on it. It is a conscious, deliberate choice to write and animate the end of episode 3 and the opening montage of episode 4 as they are presented.

In the Paint the Town Blue montage, we see: 

banners with the Kiramman crest being hung up all over the city

security checkpoints for Zaunites with armed enforcers standing watch

a prison with watchtowers and tall, barbed wire fences

enforcers acting as riot police (complete with riot shields)

Zaunites throwing Molotovs at said riot police

unarmed Zaunites running from armed enforcers

a Zaunite prisoner being photographed standing against a wall with a bag over their head (I really want to point this one out)

an enforcer stepping on the head of a Zaunite who is already laying on the ground and being handcuffed by another enforcer

Zaunite rebels hiding in a boarded up shop from armed enforcers

Zaunite prisoners being marched forward with their hands behind their heads

an enforcer beating someone

a line of Zaunites kneeling with their hands cuffed behind their backs as an enforcer beats another prisoner

Caitlyn being framed in shadow with a brooding, sullen look

graffiti of Jinx as a revolutionary figure waving a blue flag

In short, a dictator’s regime putting up propaganda posters and symbols, political repression by the state, mass imprisonment, police brutality, civilian resistance against an authoritarian state, and people rallying around a revolutionary symbol. And don’t forget the opening of episode 3 where we hear the recording of Cassandra Kiramman say “the people of the Undercity deserve to breathe” only for Caitlyn to immediately go “umm actually no they don’t; time to weaponize toxic, carcinogenic smog against them and revoke the most basic of human rights.”

(Side note: “Paint the Town Blue” as the song for this montage doesn’t feel right, tonally. A bit too energetic and idk, peppy? This is a montage showing an oppressed group of people being brutalized by a fascist state. Maybe go for something somber and/or horrifying? Or something that makes viewers sick from how angry they are at the sight? Just a thought.)

If the writers were going to do something with all of this, then they did a good job - song choice notwithstanding. 

The problem is they don’t. Not a single character confronts Caitlyn over the atrocities she committed.

When Vi sees her - the woman who broke her heart, who betrayed her, who became a dictator and stepped on the necks of Vi’s people for a year - she’s more annoyed and mad at Caitlyn for attacking her on accident than she is for, I don’t know, THE WHOLE DICTATOR THING? Season 1 Vi would’ve let Caitlyn absolutely have it, if not outright fought her for what she did to Vi’s city.

In what is one of the most stunning bits of character assassination I’ve seen, Jinx APOLOGIZES to Caitlyn for killing her mom.

Ekko got written out of the story to where he never interacted with Caitlyn this season, because if he was giving her shit in season 1, then he would’ve let her absolutely have it, even harder than Vi did.

Sevika got written out of the story entirely after episode 4.

Jayce never comments on it once he gets back.

Mel never comments on it once she gets back.

The writers try to trick us with Vi and Caitlyn’s argument in episode 8, and then Caitlyn’s one-sided venting to Jinx in the jail cell about how they can never repay their crimes, but those are both so weak and half-assed.

We never see Caitlyn realize the weight of her crimes. She needed to have a scene where she “wakes up” and is horrified at how far she’s fallen and all the terrible things she’s done. We don’t get that. She’s already woken up and questioning things when we see her for the first time in episode 4. Nor does she suffer from the guilt of said crimes. Again, I’m going to complain about the blatant Macbeth reference in her part of the intro credits, because how do you deliberately evoke fucking MACBETH for a character who undergoes a villain arc and commits these horrible actions only to not have her crumble under the weight of her sins…you know…like what happens in Macbeth.

So Caitlyn isn’t held accountable either externally or internally. This wouldn’t be a problem if handled properly. A villain doesn’t have to be held accountable nor realize they’re a bad person to be an effective, satisfying character.

The problem is the tone of everything that comes after the opening of episode 4.

It’s almost like the writers are actively trying to have Caitlyn commit as few on-screen, bad actions as possible during her dictator era. Really all she does is threaten Singed with the prison cells she has deemed too inhumane to use. (Oh yay! She hasn’t been as awful as she could have been). After that, she immediately flips back to Vi’s side to help save Warwick, has a very surface level argument so people can say “but Vi did call her out”, “wins” Vi’s affections over Jinx and has sex in a jail cell with Vi going down on her (that sex scene could be its own post god I hate it), gets to be one of the good guys in the war without any pushback, and gets her happy ending with Vi.

The framing of all of this, both textually and by word of God via the authors, is simply incompatible with the weight of her crimes. 

The jail cell scene is presented as Vi and Caitlyn reconnecting and finally coming together, complete with a happy pop song - ignoring Vi’s sister being clearly suicidal and Vi certainly having trauma from spending 7 years in prison where the warden beat her enough times that he didn’t bother keeping count, to say nothing of Caitlyn not having earned Vi’s trust and intimacy. (Also, Vi couldn’t have gotten any pleasure or attention? They couldn’t have taken it to an actual bed?)

The way Vi talks about herself going behind Caitlyn’s back is unhealthy and toxic. (“I went behind your back (for my sister, who has committed far less heinous crimes than you, who just watched the kid she sorta adopted die right in front of her and is now a mental wreck, after you locked her up using your unilateral power as dictator of Piltover.)”)

Vi being very, very emotionally fragile and in no way composed enough to have sex is ignored. (It shouldn’t have to be said, but if someone is this close to having a breakdown and has already punched the wall until their knuckles are bruised, you absolutely should not have sex with them when they’re in such a vulnerable state.)

The “I’m the dirt beneath your nails” line is framed as cutesy and romantic, when that’s actually a horrible, demeaning thing for someone who is a member of the oppressed class to say about herself when her partner is a member of the oppressor class and quite literally was a dictator that violated the human rights of people like Vi, called them animals, and said their blood made them this way.

And most importantly, Caitlyn never has to confront the fact that she became a dictator and did all of these terrible things while in power.

Which, I truly cannot believe I am having to say this, but if you aren’t going to touch on the fact that a protagonist went down a dark path and became a fascist dictator, DON’T WRITE HER BECOMING A FASCIST DICTATOR.

(Or you embrace the tragic, toxic nature of leaving that stuff unaddressed, as discussed in part two.)

TL;DR: the ending CaitVi got is framed as a happy ending, except Caitlyn didn’t put in any of the work for it to be anywhere near a happy, healthy relationship, so it comes across as hollow, forced, and tonally off.

[aberfaeth]

this is not going to be well articulated but i think the reason i and lots of other people feel a bit weird about certain aspects of tonights ep is that like. the ratgrinders have literally never posed a genuine threat to the bad kids in any aspect of their lives—social, academic, relationships, even their physical wellbeing, any of it. they bodied the last stand, they bodied the dragon fight. the closest thing to a bad thing happening this season was kristen almost getting expelled and that was all bobby dawn who wasnt even a part of the battle! like i genuinely cant relate to people feeling catharsis at the RGs going down bc i was just sat there like. what did they even do other than be kind of a general annoyance and a little bitchy lmfao

[demialwrites]

FF7 x Reader Mpreg HCs

Because I need to write this.🤰 But you don't need to read this🤡

Cloud

Annoyed. Grumpy. Doesn't appreciate all the extra attention, even though it's positive

Would prefer to chill alone and think deeply about what kind of parent he'd want to be and all the places he'd want his child to see

His friends have to drag him out of the house because he ended up brooding inside for too long

You bicker a bit at first because you can't keep your hands off him and his growing stomach but he likes space. You end up compromising on using a stethoscope to listen to the baby

Rude

Surprisingly chill. Content, even. Talks even less than usual.

He always wanted at least one child and he blushes occasionally thinking about taking care of his little one

There's a few instances of clumsiness if he tries to train while showing but he gets used to it pretty quickly

Reno is extra protective

Constantly cooking his own cravings. He even gets up in the middle of the night to cook something you could easily make or buy if he asked, making him pretend to be huffy when you scold him but he secretly enjoys the fussing

Reno

A bit annoyed because anything that gets in the way of him doing his job well is, well, annoying

To everyone's surprise, he becomes less reckless but doesn't give up the tendency entirely

If any opponent goes for his stomach, they're dead. No questions asked

Demands you touch his stomach at least once a day. He's proud of himself

Chatters endlessly about it to those subordinate to him, to the point where everyone dreads getting assigned to him in the field

Tseng

Takes being pregnant like a champ, at first

It's a real hassle getting him to slow down, to the point where everyone has to outright refuse to spar with him (and secretly start completing his paperwork) later on in the pregnancy

Has a mini-crisis when he can't do his job fulltime anymore because he struggles when he's not feeling useful

Repeatedly informs you that you will do the bulk of the childrearing because he intends to return to work immediately (changes his mind completely after laying eyes on the baby)

Vincent

Not annoyed like Cloud but mopey. Behaves as if his life experiences will translate into a possible curse he will pass on to his child

He can try to mope inside the coffin but the lid doesn't fit flush near the end of the pregnancy. It's adorable but you must not giggle; it will make him pouty

When not moping, he's the exact opposite. Serious™️. Must make up for what happened with Sephiroth

You pray the hormones will chill him out somehow. Many discussions, lots of reassurance that things won't be as bad as he assumes they'll be

Rufus

Alternates between pissy (how dare this happen to me? Why can't you do this?!) and proud (well, of course, my child will be better than all of you peasants) before adapting quite well. In fact, he uses the pregnancy as an excuse to shut down bickering during board meetings whenever possible

Becomes a bit of a paranoid shut in. It's because he feels more vulnerable but he readily admit to it

You wake up to Darkstar on the bed in between you because he wants to protect

Becomes a terror about his cravings and it may lead to actual arguments if he doesn't get what he wants immediately

Also informs you that he will go right back to work but does not change his mind

Reeve

Poor man suffers from excessive nausea and struggles to gain the proper amount of weight

You have to work together with his department employees to make sure he eats enough. He hardly notices because he's still absorbed in his work

The best baby shower gift is a Cait Sith plushie, maybe one you knit/crocheted yourself. The hormones make him feel so touched that he weeps

[ewwww-what]

Save me teenager who was never taught how to properly regulate his feelings and goes into emotionally distressing rage episodes as a result. You will be my hero always.

[koukouture]

*insane person voice*

Do you think the fact that primals are god like beings materialized by mortal desire that often doesn't reflect what they actually are and tempers people to become undyingly loyal to them to the point of insanity is a metaphor for the weaponization of religion and how often times a religion's lore is taken out of context and used as justification for bad things

[devilsskettle]

i’m kind of bored that the be-all end-all of horror sfx is realism. i would much rather see less realistic sfx that focus on visual interest/design and i really admire creative problem solving to achieve a particular effect, and i think the focus on realism makes it harder for low budget filmmaking to have a shot at being made and/or respected. i don’t think this is an uncommon opinion either but i think there’s just this prevailing assumption that films should represent reality and that that’s what audiences want and even when you’re making a movie that’s already based on an unrealistic premise as is often the case in genre fiction, if your movie doesn’t seem realistic, audiences won’t be able to suspend their disbelief and/or they won’t take the movie seriously. and sometimes this does seem to be the case! but also i wish we could all give each other the benefit of the doubt that audiences are able to recognize and engage with unreality in fiction. because it’s fiction. and that unreality in fiction can be intentional on the part of the filmmaker and can be done well and in fact be the correct choice for the movie overall. not that i want no realism ever but i don’t think it should be the only acceptable mode of filmmaking

[bacchuschucklefuck]

okay unironically I love so much that porter is like this world SUCKS its BAD here and it HURTS you why do you care abt it!!! and literally every single bad kid is like ngl we just hate ur ass it does not matter what ur philosophy is

[ryan-nugenthopkins]

Edmonton Oilers + Fictional Hockey Card Inserts

Photo sources: x | x | x | x

I've gotten into designing trading cards for a separate interest, inspired by sport trading cards, music group photocards, and gacha card games.

For hockey, Upper Deck and O-Pee-Chee usually have special series of inserts in their packs, with some series differing between season. They're typically a more complex design than your basic pull, and quite a few of them are goofy (the UD Portraits come to mind), but it got me thinking what type of card I would want to pull if I actually bought a pack.

I'm not taken with the set names I've come up with, in all honesty; I'll happily take other suggestions for names or themes as I figure out the logistics of actually printing cards for the other interest.

[canadianno-gravityfalls]

I wanna make a joke in my fic somewhere at some point where Bill says "I pledge" and gets interrupted by The Gang of kids mundanely reciting the pledge of allegiance which scares the shit out of him, but to do that I need to Know The Pledge Of Allegiance and. I do not and I don't wanna Google it