#I will take no constructive criticism at this time

[m4ple9x0x]

Sᵒᵘʳ Cʰᵉʳʳʸ

-Chapter V-

Hyunin x fem!reader

WARNINGS: SMUT MDNI !! a lot of swearing, lmk if I forgot anything.

Genre: strangers to friends to lovers, smut, stalker!Hyunjin, yandere!Hyunjin, slow burn.

a/n: hi guyz!! i hope y'all will enjoy this chapter! if u have any feedback or opinions write it down in the comments, im open to some constructive criticism, also if u wanna get added to the taglist lmk!! <3 maple out~

dividers by: @cafekitsune <3

Previous chapter

The sky outside is painted in the deepest hues of gray, tiny raindrops starting to fall slowly only to be crashed on the ground or dragged down by gravity forced to partake in the race that was located on the glass of your window. The curtains were dancing sending an earthy breeze on a mission of sneaking into your nose. Your eyes slowly open and you blink multiple times attempting to get used to the light in your room. A yawn escapes your mouth and you stretch your arms above your head your thin blouse exposing your belly. Today was the day that you were gonna meet the man that was gonna change your life, but you had no idea. You get out of bed lazily, taking a quick glance at your phone you see it was already 13.*I wonder if he’s still waiting to see me, I should hurry I don’t know when he’s closing the cafe*.

The bus was pretty crowded, you felt like you couldn’t breathe properly and your thoughts were filled with what happened last night, no matter how hard you were trying to shake off the thought of him, his face out of your mind, his smile, the taste of his lips, you just couldn’t, it was so eerie.

*I should get off at the next station. It’s pouring outside… I forgot to get my umbrella… amazing*.

As you step out of the bus you already start feeling your clothes getting wet, you were wearing a white blouse and blue oversized jeans. You start running to the cafe that is 5 minutes away from the bus station. You get in front of the door finding shelter under the awning of the coffee shop, but when you take a closer look at the glass door you see a “closed” sign.

*Dammit…I really thought I made it in time...*, you lean against the door and sigh.*Well I guess I’ll go back home then*, you get ready to leave but then you hear the door opening.

-Sorry we closed early today but if you want a coffee I could make you one since is pouring out here…

You turn around and you freeze in place.

-Painter boy? What are you doing here?

-Um… I work here? He was shocked but also confused at the same time.

-Wow… so you’re Joanna’s coworker…

-Yeah, and you’re the girl that she was talking about...so I see that after all you do accept my coffee apology. He smiles down at you and opens the door more so you can get in. You sit down on the tiny red couch next to the window, and he sits right in front of you.

-So what would you like to drink?

-Joanna made me something with cherries last time, I can’t remember the name…

-Oh… the latte right? He says rolling his eyes.

-Yeah, what’s wrong with it?

-Nothing really, Joanna loves it and I personally despise doing it but whenever she knows I’m working she starts recommending it to everyone just to make my shifts worse.

-That sounds funny. You say smiling at the tall man.

-Yea sure, women making fun of a poor beautiful and talented man, nothing new. His hand goes over his head acting all dramatic, he surely was getting your attention, he was kinda interesting after all.

-Kinda sassy and narcissistic don’t you think?

-Am I wrong though? Now his gaze was fixated on yours, and was slowly going down as soon as he reaches the chest area he blushes looking away. Your white blouse was wet from the rain, and was clinging to your body leaving almost nothing to the imagination, you were wearing a black bra underneath so that wasn’t really helping either.

-My eyes are up here mister… You start saying in a teasing tone.

-Hyunjin…I’ll go get you something to cover yourself, you might get a cold if not. He rushes over to the counter, the shame on his face visible from being caught red handed.

-Yeap sure, I’m Y/N by the way.

-Nice to meet you Y/N! You hear Hyunjin shout from the other side of the cafe.

Suddenly images of your dream start flashing in your mind, you remember asking him what was his name, but that’s not the only thing you remember, the way he was touching you in your dream… *Fuck, how can I be in this cafe with him alone after I literally touched myself thinking of him? But… I didn’t think I’d ever see him again… Jesus this is so embarrassing, what were the odds of seeing him so soon again*. You get startled feeling Hyunjin’s hands on your shoulders as he was wrapping the blanket around you.

-Sorry, did I scare you?

-No it’s okay, I was just thinking about something…

-Hm, and what was that?

-Um… nothing really, it doesn’t matter.

-If you say so...I’m gonna go ahead and do that damn latte. He looks at you giving you that warm smile again. *Why is he doing this… is he trying to flirt? I think I’m just reading too much into this. Fuck pull your shit together*.

-Soo.. you live around here or…? Hyunjin breaks the silence and you turn your head in his direction, he was preparing your drink and all you could look at were his hands as he was stirring some ingredients. *Even his hands are hot...damn*.

-And why would I tell you this?

-Why not? Aren’t we friends?

-Friends?

-Yeah…

-Um, we bumped into each other twice, actually three times now, I wouldn’t say we’re friends.

-Well the second time I've seen you was at the grocery store, and I would assume you live near me, plus I consider you a friend now since tomorrow we’re gonna party together, and also you’re Joanna’s friend so you know, a friend of my friend is my friend as well. His serious face now changes when he smiles again and shifts his glance towards your face.

-I see you’re pretty naive, don’t forget a friend to all is a friend to none. You say smiling back at him.

-I see you’re not that positive huh…

-How did you come to this conclusion? Is it because I don’t consider you a friend yet?

-Yet…I see, so we’re gonna be friends someday? You start laughing at Hyunjin’s optimism, it’s like a breath of fresh air to see someone so full of energy and positivity.

-What? Why are you laughing? The man starts laughing too his long black hair falling over his face. His laugh is truly contagious, you don’t know what exactly is the reason but you can’t stop laughing.

-Is just… I don’t know, your laugh is funny.

-Oh, so now you’re making fun of me again huh. Hyunjin starts walking towards the couch placing the coffee in front of you and also a cup of what seemed to be iced americano.

-Iced americano with this weather outside? You really wanna catch a cold don’t you?

-Aww, you’re already concerned for me? He jokes while sitting down again in front of you.

-Haha really funny.

-So do you wanna get to know each other so you can call me your friend?

-Sure whatever. You say rolling your eyes.

-Sassy.

-You’re one to talk?

-What? You're saying I’m sassy?

-Yes, that is in fact exactly what I’m saying.

-Thought you didn’t know me well enough.

-I can smell it on you don’t worry.

-Come closer maybe you’re gonna get to know me some more.

-See, if you keep flirting with me we aren’t gonna be friends surely.

-Why? Are you afraid you’re gonna give in and fall for me? He says laughing and taking a sip from his drink.

-You just have an answer to everything that I say don’t you?

-Well I’m pretty smart what can I say.

-Yea so you’re gonna flaunt it just how you flaunted with your painting skills too right? At this point you were just trying to provoke Hyunjin, you weren’t usually this bitter or stuck up but you were just curious, he was challenging you from so many different perspectives and points of view and you just wanted to see what he’s made of.

-Thought you forgave me for that day… He lowered his head, his big long palms resting over his face, and then he proceeds to look up at you. You hated this, the exact stare that he’s giving you now, is just how he was looking at you in your dream, head down eyes looking up at you from below, it was making you weak on your knees.

-What’s up? Cat got your tongue?

-Um...no I just…

-Look Y/N, I’m usually not rude or disrespectful, that was just a bad day, and I didn’t bump into you intentionally obviously, and when I heard you scream at me it was literally the last drop…so you know… for what’s worth, I’m sorry again.

-It’s okay, I told you back then in the grocery store that I accepted your apology, and I didn’t lie...that was a bad day for me too, sorry for screaming at you like that…

-It’s okay, apology accepted...so I see we both had a bad day hm..

-Yea I was already late to a job interview, and then you said that stuff with the paintings and I realized I was at the wrong place.

-Thought it was pretty weird when I saw you without any paintings and stuff…

-Yeap… why did you have a bad day?

-Well...let’s just say those guys were complete assholes, and they wanted to buy my paintings but they wouldn’t offer me a place to display my art and stuff, and they didn’t want to refer me to someone that could represent my paintings to a gallery or exhibition.

-Oh… that sounds shitty, but wouldn’t it be fine if they just payed you for them? I’m not that informed in this field so I don’t know…

-Well for some that sounds amazing that’s only if you want to make quick money, but they anyways weren’t willing to pay me good money, and I just don’t wanna do that, painting is like second nature to me, and I wouldn’t want my paintings to be in some rich asshole’s house that would anyways don’t understand the meaning of it, I want my art to be exhibited, I want the world to see it and relate to it, and feel a connection, I want people to sit in front of it and think for hours… It’s very meaningful to me, especially one of the paintings I showed them, they just laughed at it and called it ugly, but art doesn’t have to be beautiful, art doesn’t have to be anything, the only thing that art is, is emotion, is feelings, is rawness, it shouldn’t be labeled as ugly or pretty or stuff like that. You are completely speechless staring at Hyunjin that was talking so passionately about painting, you just couldn’t understand how someone could be so perfect, the way in which he talked about his work, about his art, like he was deeply enamored.

-I-… that’s so beautiful Hyunjin…

-Thank you…but it’s just facts, I just hate when someone doesn’t understand the vision behind something and they just take the easy way out and call it ugly, just because you don’t understand it that doesn’t mean that it is not worth exploring and understanding.

-It’s the same way with people…

-Huh?

-I mean… people are art, art is imperfect just like people, people are complex and weird just like art. You know... throughout my life most people just gave up on trying to understand me or get to know me and stuff…

-Because you’re too “complicated”, right?

-Exactly… I was either too much or not enough for them you know…

-Y/N…

-Yeah?

-I wanna get to know you more, and I promise you, for as long as we’re gonna get to know each other and maybe someday be friends, you’re never going to be too much or not enough for me. You and Hyunjin were making eye contact and it was just unbreakable as if anything else just disappeared and it was just you and him, nothing else, you felt stuck in a void, the silence was becoming unbearable, it was a little awkward, but not the type of awkward in which you didn’t know what to say to stop it. It was comforting somehow, you didn’t feel the pressure of saying something you could just stay like that and you knew deep down that you weren’t going to be judged by him.

-That actually means a lot for me…thank you…

-Why are you thanking me Y/N?

-I just… no one ever told me this before. You tried, you really tried very hard to hold it back but as soon as you said this, tears started falling, and you were trying to stop, you felt that pressure in your throat, that horrible feeling of holding back tears.

-Oh...fuck, I’m so sorry I didn’t wanna make you cry...fuck. Hyunjin was visibly panicked, he immediately gets up and comes next to you, he starts stroking your hair and then he hugs you. He was holding your head in the crook of his neck, one of his hands was on your back gently caressing it, the other on your head doing the same thing.

He held you so tightly as if he was afraid you were gonna break if he let go of you. Your tears kept on falling, his hug was so comforting, it felt safe, which was weird because you just now got to know him actually, and not even that well, but the way in which Hyunjin talked, his voice, he was so soft spoken and gentle, he made it feel like you knew him for years with only a few words, you never met someone like him before.

-Sorry. It’s all you were able to say between sobs and sighs.

-Oh just shut up and let it all out. He was laughing softly but not in a mean way certainly, he was just amused by how even in moments like this you’d manage to put others over yourself. His mouth was right next to your ear and he whispered:

-I’m here Y/N, if you want me to be here I’ll never leave. And then you started crying even more, you knew people for years that weren’t this nice to you… how could a stranger be so nice? There was something really weird about this all but you just stopped overthinking, you shut your brain off for a second and allowed yourself to melt into Hyunjin’s comforting gentle touches and caresses. After a few more minutes you let out a deep sigh and without realizing you buried your nose in his neck and inhaled deeply, his perfume was filling up your lungs, and you were loving it.

-Are you feeling better?

-Yes… I’m sorry… I just, it’s been tough recently...and-

-Shush, you don’t have to explain yourself, it’s ok. Hyunjin let go of you, you looked up at him, his hand brushed against your cheek and he started wiping away your tears. He looked down at you, a soft smile appearing on his face.

-I’m gonna make you another latte.

-N-

-Shush, don’t wanna hear it. His eyes stayed fixated on yours and his hand lingered on your face for one more second before leaving. One more second, that was all that your brain needed to go crazy.

*I’m fucking delusional...he’s just trying to be nice*.

You take a look outside and you see the sun peeking through the clouds, the rain stopped.

taglist: @lezleeferguson-120 @hwangjoanna

[arcane-ish]

I think the common criticisms that I think are legit but that I personally don't feel as strongly about are:

1.) It just makes the world smaller and incestuous if everybody knew each other. If there are no "normies" in the world and instead almost everyone is special and has a special relationship. (I feel the same about the idea that Cassandra could plausibly have encountered Silco or Vander when she built the vents/had the vents built; or about "Viktor was the mage/Viktor knew Jayce as a child")

2.) It makes Silco's actions morally worse if he was willing to kill the children even though they were Felicia's and he had a close relationship with her. (and the supplementary material suggests that he had thoughts about/admiration for Felicia's decision AND him being there at the bridge to me suggests he didn't just take off and immediately had a falling out with Vander before the kids were born/grew older)

3.) People feel it creates plot holes because it is not acknowledged in season 1 that Silco should be having a relationship with these children outside of what they mean to Vander. (ie kids don't show any signs of recognizing him, neither him nor the kids bring up him knowing their mom) [ie the scene where kid!Vi fights Silco's goons in the cannery, scene where Silco initially thinks of killing Powder and ends up taking her in, scene where Vi and Silco shittalk each other before he sends the shimmer goons after her are all situations where Felicia could have come up semi naturally. If Vi was aware of who he is, she could have called him out. If she doesn't remember him because she was too young and he's changed too much, he could have taunted her with knowing her mom]

My personal feeling is that imo it was always pretty clear that Vander knew the parents, but it was plausible that it was in a more distant "just one of many followers". And imo it that would still have worked with Vander's guilt and unforseen consequences, being faced with the consequences of his actions. (and also been a contrast to how Vander handles the responsibility towards his followers versus how Silco does)

To me that flashback just feels like ... too much. Too sugary. Felicia isn't just a woman raising her child in the Lanes and getting pulled into politics.

Vander is the first one she tells about her pregnancy

He names Vi

Felicia made him swear to help

Felicia is a firebrand and potentially huge inspiration

Maybe you can read that scene as people being in love with her

It just feels like ... too much ... too sugary. Excessive.

I get the instinct that maybe the writers wanted Vander and Vi to have the chance for more time together, for Vander to have been part of her life even before.

But the move of "he maybe already was top babysitter and taking are of her" to "he does only more of that" is just smaller than. "He is faced with the consequences of this action and now has to get to know and win the trust of this kid he didn't know that well and has to get used to this completely new role as a father".

(funny enough: this reminds me almost like a version of the people who are super mad that Silco is shown to throw the molotov because they were super invested that Silco wasn't violent at all before Vander attacked him, because they want the change to bigger and more impactful, for Silco to go from very light to very dark. Something that I personally never subscribed to, but I get the instinct that the moment just feels more impactful if the change it bigger)

In the end, I think some people are open to the "OMG their lives were always connected" concept, while I personally tend to think it's cringe and overly constructed. Again I feel the same way about "Viktor knew Jayce as a child".

it just instinctively makes me roll my eyes while others probably foam at the mouth and think that it so deep and poignant ("OMG, Vander named Vi and he changed his life for her and he loved her till the very end").

And the problem here isn't necessarily that it's unrealstic that Vander would know her and preferentially take care of his sort of goddaughters [again probably actually quite plausible if Arcane as a realistic setting, in shit socities the whole "godfather" thing is all about "making deals about who is gonna take care of your kids if you die young/can't raise them"]. To me it just makes the whole situation feel more trapped and I just personally, from a taste point of view, like that less.

In the end, it's personal taste what you consider tasteful and what excessive. For example, I LOVE that Vander has the Vi tattoo in the AU but doesn't talk about her at all beyond that. I love how subtle that is and I don't think it would have made the episode better if Vander had gotten a dialogue line where he actually voices that he loved Vi and is still sad. Because for me subtle understated hints like that is what gets me foaming at the mouth. (ie like Vander having and hiding the scar on his arm in season 1. I don't think the how would have been better if we had gotten a "spell it out scene" where Vander ie shows Vi the scar when he talks to her on the bridge and just flat out tells her "I got this scar from a close friend and I'm still sad we disagreed so harshly, that's why you shouldn't lose contact with Powder who you care about a lot")

^^^ This “criticism” often comes at the expense of details in the scene they laud so highly.

Vi and Powder approach a burly man beating someone up without fear in a setting where any normal person would be terrified to meet someone who might do them harm.

They approach him and point to themselves, indicating they’re looking for their parents.

Vander ACKNOWLEDGES their gesture and points to their parent’s dead bodies. Meaning not only do they know he’s someone they can trust, but that he KNEW who they were and who their parents were.

The “revelation” in season 2 that Vander knew them doesn’t change the way this scene plays out in the opening. It’s clear as day that they aren’t just some random kids he adopts. He KNEW them. They knew HIM. That’s all shown in the opening scene.

I do not understand where this wishful misinterpretation comes from.

[soyellowcurtainsthen]

Who’s the man at the prison gate in the Pit Babe Series 2 Trailer?!?!?

Hi, I’m an idiot with an internet connection So, here is my totally accurate and scientifically sound analysis in support of my theory that it’s Pete. Grab your tinfoil hats friends and follow me down the rabbit hole.

First, I’m going to need you to turn your brain off and live in a world with me in which we won’t even consider that this is a new character who has not been introduced yet ( jokes on me because change2561 would pull this type of thing).

Now we need to narrow down the pool of candidates from our currently known characters. Obviously if our Prison throuple of Kenta, Winner and Dean are out of prison and spying on the X-Hunter squad we can safely assume the person who got them out isn’t likely to be in the inner circle of the X-Hunter team, so we can safely disregard Babe, Charlie, Alan, Jeff, North, Sonic, and Kim. Now we have three players in the running- Way, Pete and Tony.

So let’s get to narrowing this down, behold Exhibit A

Our man in black stays out of focus for most of the clip, but from what we can see it seems that this man is dressed in a suit and as we never see Way ever dressed in those types of clothes the whole season I think it’s fair to also vote him off the Island.

Now to our final two candidates, it’s time to analyse some heights baby!!! We are going to use Kenta as a control subject, height wise, for this as he is the most likely of the prison throuple to have had scenes with both the remaining candidates.

So let’s start with Tony, it’s ridiculously difficult to get shots of these two together where Kenta isn’t half a mile behind and throwing off the perspective because of that, but I tried my best.

As you can see from these over the shoulder shots, Tony and Kenta’s eye level looks to be about the same, with them being almost exactly the same height ( Tony being slightly taller at a push). With this shot also confirming that they are very similar in height to each other.

Moving onto Pete, we can see that our baby boys have a bit of a height difference, with Kenta being the shorter of the two. His eyeline whenever talking to Pete is directed upward.

Now let’s head back to the original shot of the mystery man’s back and use our new found knowledge, and attempt to solve this by using the ancient scientific method of drawing lines on pictures.

As Winner isn’t standing at full height I’m disregarding him from the experiment, much like I wish I could disregard him from the narrative completely.

So let’s draw onto our screenshot where Kenta and Dean’s eyeline should land if they were looking at someone that was of similar height to them.

And now let’s draw where their actual eyeline ends up, taking into consideration where our mystery man’s shoulders are to give us a rough estimate of where their eyeline should land if they were looking at his face, which they are.

Now as you can see from my totally foolproof scientific method, both of their eyelines are pointed slightly upward indicating that the person on the other side of the gate is taller than both Kenta and Dean. Now there is only one of our candidates who is taller than Kenta and that leaves us with only on option left… Pete.

I rest my case.

( Also just on the logical side, why would Tony get the man who betrayed him and stabbed him out of jail, like that makes no narrative sense)

[bamsara]

I think that one thing people fail to understand is that unsolicited literary criticism coming from an online stranger who is reading with no knowledge of what the authors intended goal is, is not going to be received the same as say: the authors beta reader or friends who know what the authors intended goal and has the sufficient knowledge and input to help the author reach that desired outcome.

"But I'm only trying to be helpful" How do I know you have the knowledge and literary skill for you to be able to actaully do that when we don't know each other and you are essentially a stranger to me? Are you applying this criticism based out of personal biased experience and desire to see the story or characterization be driven in another direction or tweaked, or do you know the author's intentions for the character? If the story is incomplete, are you basing your criticism of a character on the incomplete narration with only partial information available of them or are you building up a report until the story's completion? Did the author provide you with the information needed to make a fully informed criticism?

Have you discussed with the author what their plans are or are you assuming them based off the narration, especially if the narration is proven or implied to be unreliable or missing key points of the plot? Are you unbiased enough to help them reach their desired outcome for the characters and story regardless of your personal feelings towards the characters/antagonists and setting? Can you handle being told your specific input isn't wanted because you're a reader and/or have no written anything relating to their genre or topic? Do you understand and respect that the author's personal experiences might influence their writing and make it different than how you would have done it personally? Do you understand if an author only wants input from a specific demographic relating to their story?

If it's for fanfiction or other hobby media, are you holding a free hobby to a professional standard? Are you trying to give criticism because you feel like the author has produced 'subpar job performance' of their fic? Are you viewing their work as a personal intimate outlet or something that must conform with mass media? Are you applying rules and guidelines when the fic is shared for simple sharing sake? Is your criticism worded appropriately and focused on the parts where the author has requested input on rather than a general dismissal and or disapproval?

Have you put yourself in a place where you assumed you have the input needed for the story to evolve better, or have you asked what the author needs and what they're having trouble with? Can you handle having your criticism rejected if the author decides their story doesn't need the change and not take it as a personal offense against your character? Are you crossing that boundary because you think you are doing the author a favor? Are you trying to be helpful, or do you just want to be?

I think sometimes when people hear authors go 'please don't give me unsolicited writing advice or criticism' they automatically chalk it up to 'this author doesn't want ANY constructive feedback on their stuff at all' and not "i already have trusted individuals who will help me with my writing goals and- hey i don't know you like that, please stop acting so overly familiar with me'

[spockle]

I’m going fucking feral JUNE 5TH EVERYONE!

[klysanderelias]

Reblogging @nongunktional's tags-

I agree and I want to talk about this because, y'know, I like talking, but also because I think that talking about player agency and engagement can be kind of obtuse sometimes and I want to drill down on that.

I think a lot of DnD campaigns have fallen into the 'fantasy epic' structure of things like Lord of the Rings - where the idea is to take the same characters through an entire far-reaching and fully connected plot, from level 1-20 or whatever, where the big bad is introduced in act 1 and you kill him at the very end.

And I think that this comes from a lot of sources, but what it means is that you start seeing DnD games that are written in such a way that the players are railroaded pretty hard. After all, to use BG3 as an example, the entire game is focused around the illithid parasite - being able to remove it would break the entire story and render the later parts of the game completely unusable. They're written like novels, which means that the players have to go HERE next, because that's where the next plot point is, and if they DON'T go there, the story stalls to a halt.

And not to be a materialist, but I can't not mention the profit incentive for this - Paizo sells their Pathfinder/Starfinder adventure paths for 20-25 bucks a book, 6 books an adventure path. DnD sells their campaign books for like 50 bucks a pop. If you split away from the story on book 1, Paizo is losing like a hundred bucks.

And the problem I have is that it strips away basically all player agency and input - you might be allowed to pick which of three places you want to go, but the story won't progress until you do [x], and no matter how much it obfuscates it, the story is linear and can't react to the player's choices.

The entire first act of Balder's Gate 3 is such an egregious example of this - you follow up on like literally six or seven different leads to get the parasite in your head removed, and literally all of them go exactly nowhere, because again the plot requires you to have the damn thing in your head. There's even a point where a powerful devil pops out of nowhere to ask if you want to sell your soul in exchange for some pest control - and even if you say yes, I will 100% right now sell my soul to you, he goes 'I'll come back when you're desperate' and disappears.

And that's been my experience with a lot of recent material - it's either leading PCs by the nose from place to place by restricting the breadcrumbs, or it's constructed in such a way that they literally don't have any other options that aren't just abandoning the conceit of the adventure entirely. You don't get meaningful choices, you get a split in the flowchart that comes right back to the next node anyway.

Which is why it's so bothersome that the whole 'how do you want to do this' thing took off - again, I think there are other criticisms to be made, but primarily my problem is that it's a carrot that kind of disguises how little the GM gives their players creative input.

And specifically I talk about 'agency' and 'creative input' because that's very different from 'choice' in my mind. Players make choices all the time, from 'do I hit this goblin or that goblin' to 'am I going to serve this unjust king'. The thing that I'm looking for is, if the players do something the GM wasn't prepared for, do they get pushed back onto the rails, or does the GM roll with it?

If the players go, 'hey, we are willing to sell our souls right now, 100%, in order to get these parasites out of our heads', does the GM go 'well the devil says no' or do they say 'okay, huh. let's talk about what that means and where we would go from here.'

Or, for a lesser example, if I as a player go 'actually I sympathize with this villain, and instead of killing them I want to try to find a way to protect them and figure out how to make peace', am I allowed to? Or does the monster entry say 'fights until killed'? Am I given the opportunity to change and affect the world around my character, or is this a cutscene where my only option is to press F to perform my finisher?

And to be fair, part of the reason why GMs push back against this sort of thing is because a) it requires WORK and b) it often requires them to throw out prep. If you kill the big bad in act 1, assuming they let you, they have to completely rewrite the adventure to account for that, and they're sure as hell not getting paid to do that. But also, it's because a lot of players want to GET that result without putting in the work themselves - they expect the GM to rewrite the entire adventure without any input from themselves.

Y'know, creative control comes with responsibility. I as a player feel like it's my job to pitch ideas and work with the GM to come up with a solution for things I want to do - if I say, hey, I want to save this villain NPC, my job is to say 'and here's my long-term plan, and here's a next step we can do as a scene, I'm going to start working on [x] in my downtime' and so on. And that's not what the culture is.

I think there's a lot of factors to blame, but regardless of where it comes from, the result is that a lot of GMs aren't willing to share creative control, because they're worried (and maybe rightfully so) about players breaking their toys and acting smug about it, and a lot of players don't push for agency, because the GM absolutely stonewalls them.

And there are a lot of solutions to this, primarily not setting the entire damn adventure in stone before the players ever touch it, but also I think there's a culture of very adversarial play, where GMs try to force the players into a predefined route and players try to break their way out of that box, and both sides are doing it with zero respect for each other.

And I think combat is the easiest thing to compromise on because the story can't proceed if everyone dies, so if the GM forces you into a fight, they probably need you to win it. But I think there are a lot of choices that the players are denied leading up to it - partially, again, because the maps are already made so you HAVE to fight these bandits here, fuck you - that would lead to much more fun and engagement if the GM and players shared their toys. Weathertop is a great scenic location for a fight, but it's also a choice that Aragorn and the hobbits make ahead of time - they go there to get a vantage point to see the Ringwraiths coming, and to hide, and it's specifically characters making bad choices that bring the fight there. Players who feel like their decisions mattered, and led naturally to the outcome, are going to be more jazzed about playing it out.

And, conversely, players are going to check out hard if they feel like nothing they do matters - always arriving just a little bit too late to save the town, or watching the bad guy teleport away AGAIN gets really draining because you can feel the rails. Of course I'm going to be passive if I feel like I'm just watching a movie anyway.

And y'know, I think that there are too many GMs who read the campaign book cover to cover and get so invested in the cool book they just read, and completely forget that the players don't know ANY of that. And I can't meaningfully agree to everything in that campaign book! Yes, I understand the premise of the adventure, but at a certain point if I want to go off-book because I'm not interested in fucking exploring the underdark for three chapters, well, that wasn't part of the pitch!

Maybe the thing I hate the most about Critical Role's influence on ttrpg culture is the 'How Do You Want To Do This' shit - I hate it so much.

And like, y'know, there's a conversation to be had about the way it centers grotesque, over the top violence, and how it often produces wildly dissonant moments where a character suddenly goes wildly outside the bounds of who they are simply for a 'cool moment' or where it dramatically changes the tone of a fight and thus how I feel about it (and that's not even mentioning the way that players will do shit like that randomly - I will never not be upset about the way that Dim/ension 20 had the whole 'goblin up the asshole' thing)

And there's also something to be said for like, it's just a fun thing matt mercer wanted to do to let his players feel cool and give them the mic for a second to cut a promo, and it's definitely not the only thing that the show is about, but like...

It's like the GBBO Handshake, y'know? It's something that's Iconic, and gets this sort of following because it feels momentous or special, and suddenly all anyone cares about is getting it. Like, it is annoying to me how people will fall over themselves to get a handshake from paul hollywood but literally no one cared about impressing Mary Berry to the same extent. She didn't have a Thing and so her feedback was always rated lower than Paul's because the Handshake Mattered.

And I don't think it's Matt Mercer's fault the way I think it's Paul Hollywood's fault, exactly, but it is one of those things that I do have to assign blame to him as the originator of a thing that I hate.

Specifically because.

It creates this culture where the biggest moment you can get, the thing everyone wants, is to get the messy kill. It creates this culture where getting to describe an over the top Doom finisher is an ideal, and where it feels like it's the one moment where every GM is willing to share the spotlight a little.

And that sucks. For a lot of reasons, but primarily because it decenters like, any other agency the player can exert.

It sucks so bad when the only time you get creative agency as a player is to say how much you kill a thing. Throw out as many ideas as you want in the rest of the game, and get ignored or shot down, but this one guy? This rando bandit? This is your moment, brother.

And again, I don't think this is necessarily how Critical Role is run, but it's definitely how it's played, and how it models behavior for players, which is why it's so upsetting. I love listening to ACTUAL actual plays, where things are discussed openly at the table, because it gives people a model for how to handle things. Critical Role, all that stuff is discussed off-stream, all the backstory stuff is worked out ahead of time and all the major story beats are pre-planned, even if just in vague terms, and I think that's fine! IF you're doing a stage show, and not an actual play. Yes, players should discuss ahead of time whether they're interested in having their characters pursue a romance, and yes, if a GM is going to introduce a major plot arc based around a PC there should be discussion about it ahead of time, but obfuscating all of that just means that people listening don't understand how to DO it.

And what it means is that the big moment where players get to hold the reins for even a second, on-screen, is the kill.

And all the other stuff? Well, y'know, you don't need to ask the players for input. Just be a good DM, like Matt. Just tell a great story and they'll all sit in raptured silence and be so excited to follow the tracks to the next plot point, and the only time you need to check to see if they want to DO anything is when they roll a crit.

And it's just like, there are basically no 'how do you want to do this' moments in the HUNDREDS of episodes of Friends at the Table, and all of the memorable moments are players taking agency and pitching ideas. Like, there are big kills in Friends at the Table that fucking HIT, and none of them are because they're Doom Finishers. Hadrian in the Hieron holiday special fucking HITS because it's a meaningful, powerful character choice. Mother Glory in the other Hieron holiday special HITS because it's such a tragic, hateful thing to have happen. Hella killing [redacted] isn't cool or exciting, it sucks, and it plays directly into her 'I would rather destroy something than try to understand it' morality, so it fucking HITS.

And like, I could go for hours, and I couldn't tell you ANY of the 'how do you want to do this' moments from the 50-60 episodes of critical role that I watched, because they all suck. They're all just spectacle, just getting keys jingled in your face for a few seconds, and it's so frustrating that it feels like that's the only thing people have taken away from Matt Mercer's GMing (I have a lot of OTHER critiques about his GMing, so I'm not saying that learning from him in other ways is better, but I'm also a hater).

But y'know, they clip well for tiktok or whatever.

It's just one more goddamn thing I hold against 5e culture, but it's also so quintessentially AMERICAN - of COURSE we're going to want to spotlight a grotesque kill, have you watched ANY of our tv shows. Of course the only time that a player's input is needed is so they can narrate their finisher - that's EASY and it's FUN because we have no concept of the humanity of the people we kill. It's fun to climb up a monster's asshole because no one has to consider whether that COUNTS against a nonperson.

And it's just like, y'know, I feel like there's this glorification of violence as long as you can feel justified, and it's easy for us to feel justified, so you end up with people making zombie movies just so that they can sell fantasies of shooting your neighbor in his face for mowing the lawn too often, or you ignore any morality because someone hurting you in the past DEFINITELY justifies waterboarding them with isopropyl.

And like, I don't want to be too high-and-mighty because I do think there's a place for over-the-top violence, and for retributive violence, in storytelling, but I just don't think it should be as a highlight reel, and it shouldn't be a candy-coated reward for rolling good.

It matters, it's noticeable, how you as the GM frame the camera. It's obvious what you care about depending on what details you ask for. And y'know, it's obvious what you're not interested in when you don't ask.

And again, it should not be the only time you ask a player to describe something.

[isawjamfirst]

🐺🐺🐺

[isbergillustration]

Tiktok said this one was illegal for unclear reasons. Please appreciate my cat tree filming set up and cat cameo here instead.

[whorkn33]

smack komaeda's ass and all of his bones shatter. smack hinata's ass and all of your bones shatter

[star--anon]

please tell me nobody's done this yet

[writer-room]

Obsessed with Lloyd never mentioning his grandfather is the First Spinjitsu Master, apparently to the point even Arin didn't seem to know, because "eh, it never came up". Cause like, yeah, sure, my grandfather is God, what of it? Normal day for me. Shit happens. My dad is also evil, you wanna talk about that? I sure don't.

It's also funny from a character arc perspective. Here's itty bitty baby first season Lloyd, loudly proclaiming he's the son of Garmadon, and probably also making sure everyone knows he's God part 3 electric boogaloo. And then one Tomorrow's Tea and a few more years later and he's doing everything physically possible to NOT care about his heritage. In fact he'd probably rather his parentage was literally anyone else. Dude could care so less he forgets about it most of the time. King behavior.

[boasamishipper]

list of 911 characters who have wanted and/or currently want bobby nash carnally

tommy kinard (looooved it when bobby took his shirt off and showed off his scars)

evan buckley (strutted around that firehouse the first few months on the job wanting bobby to fuck him so bad it made him look stupid)

chimney han (put twenty bucks on the viking)

athena grant (when asked if she was still mad about the rooster her first thought was i can’t Not fuck him)

brad torrance (wants to study bobby tip to tail iykwim)

michael grant (met him at hen’s party and went 👀👀)

[fairytypingg]

this fucking ffrEAK. is CHANGING my brain chemistry

(traditional doodles under the cut ↓)

[secretly-a-trekkie]

all I need in life

[iam-anordinary-human-orami]

I've been thinking about this thing we do in the aftg fandom, what we call the "twinkification" but I'd much like to call it "softication?", "softyfication?" of Neil and sometimes Andrew. I just want to clarify, personally, when I reblog posts about these characters being "misinterpreted" and/or being made soft in fannon spaces, I don't actually mind these interpretations.

Aftg cannon characterisation goes hard, and yeah Andrew and Neil are not unproblematic uwu little boys. As many like to clarify, both of them have killed at least one person - amongst their many character traits, we also get homicide. But here's the thing, although I shy away from some of their interpretations in fannon spaces, I think there should always be room for soft Neil and soft Andrew and soft any fox for that matter, particularly the monsters. It doesn't much have to do with the characters themselves but more with the reader, it's not a betrayal towards the cannon text if you headcannon that they say I love you, or that they cuddle or whatever. Personally, I think it's more that you wish for them to be able to have that connection, that freedom, because at the end of the day if they can have that after everything that's happened to them, then so can you. The reverse is true as well, if you can have that, maybe so can these characters.

Reading aftg for the first time really helped me come to terms with my own issues surrounding past experiences, particularly sexual trauma, I don't know if that's true for the majority of the fandom but I can safely say that some fox and their particular trauma usually hits home for people. It's okay to read, write, and create art where these characters are "soft". It's okay to want to see this type of content mixed in with "he wouldn't fucking say that", because yeah he probably wouldn't, but we're all on different healing journeys and sometimes we like to play with blorbos online like dolls after a particularly illuminating therapy session.

[asterain]

loop with a suspiciously star-shaped lump in their throat: we outta timeloops