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tuesday-teyz · 1 day ago

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Butterfly Reign chapter 40 😧

Hi!

First of all, I just wanted to say how much I love Butterfly Reign—your writing is incredible, and I’ve been absolutely hooked from the start. I think I started reading when there were only about 10 chapters out, which feels like a lifetime ago!

I just finished chapter 40, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the direction the story took, particularly regarding Theseus and Wilbur. Their relationship has been such a complex and emotional journey, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing them work through their issues. Honestly, it’s crazy to think back to when I first started reading, and how I would’ve been rooting for Theseus to get his revenge, but now, with everything that’s happened, I didn’t expect the story to take such a tragic turn.

While I’m still deeply invested in the story, I’m curious about a few things—particularly the choice to have Wilbur die. I’ve been wondering, how long have you had this planned? I noticed the MCD tag from the beginning, so I’m wondering if this was always the direction you intended to take their characters or if it evolved as the story developed?

I’d also love to know your thoughts on Theseus’s actions here (without giving away any spoilers ofc). In the context of the story (obviously not condoning murder in real life 😭), do you think Theseus did what he had to do? Do you see him as someone who is still redeemable, or do you think that this was a mistake in his journey? I ask because, even though I’ve been the number one Theseus defender (his rights and wrongs) throughout the story, I found myself struggling with this moment. It’s the first time I’ve felt so conflicted about his character. I’m really curious about your perspective as the author, especially when it comes to the moral complexities in his decision.

Thank you so much for sharing this story— and I can’t wait to see what comes next! (even though i'm not yet willing to except that it shall continue BR!crimboys-less) at least give me hope for Br!discduo if nothing else

Hi, thank you for the ask, it made my morning!

To answer your questions, it's a little complex when exactly the decision came about. In my original outline back in 2022, this whole scene did not actually involve any fire. Instead, it was Theseus and Fundy stranded on the lake as ice begins to crack. Wilbur gets Fundy to safety first, and then when he comes back for Theseus, they fall through. From there on, there were two versions of this scene that I fluctuated between: one, Wilbur cuts the rope connecting them and lets himself drown, and two, the same happens but both of them get saved by a third outside force. This is followed up by Wilbur falling into a coma and being absent for the rest of the fic, sans the epilogue where we see him awake. Simply put, it was never my plan for Wilbur to be present in the final arc; he simply has no place there. His story was always meant to end in this chapter.

However, as time went on, I realized that using a coma is a very cheap (for the lack of a better word) way to write off a character, and his death by sacrifice did not feel right. As I mentioned in another post, br!Wilbur was, off and on, for nearly a decade, br!Tommy's abuser. To have someone who caused so much pain for him die saving him didn't sit right with me. Tommy was working for so long on accepting his past and unlearning the behaviors Wilbur brought up in him that it felt like an injustice and a poor message besides to basically say 'oh well he loved you at the end of the day'. And exploring his death from the point of view Tommy being relieved by it and feeling guilty at the same time is too repetetive of the story itself from when Wilbur ran away the first time. That's when the decision for Tommy to kill Wilbur was born.

So short answer: Wilbur's story was always meant to end at this moment. The idea for murder hatched during the travel arc.

I could not tell you exactly when did I realize that the plot was heading towards Tommy killing Wilbur, but I very firmly stand by the point that it's something that has been brewing up in the background unbeknownst even to me. The thing, Tommy has always been a killer. You have always known him as one (Clara was killed by him 3 years into the past), even though you didn't know his full backstory. An important part of this arc in its entirety is that it's Tommy unpacking and healing from the trauma he experienced 6 to 3 years ago. When Tommy gets sick and Wilbur takes care of him – that's 11 year old Tommy getting closure from Wilbur leaving him behind, and trading their family for the life of a commoner and a family of his own. It's not about them learning to be different in the future; it's about them mending the past. At no point at all this was meant to be about redeeming Wilbur.

Off to the next question: was this necessary? Did Tommy do what he had to?

Not at all. I address that in the chapter itself. I believe it's three different times that an image of Clara tells that Tommy must do it, meaning kill Wilbur, but the only time Tommy voices that thought himself (after the dialogue with Warden), the must changes to can. It's him taking agency over his own choices and acknowledging that he has this option and it's his decision to proceed with it. He tells Wilbur not to make excuses for him for Clara's death, knowing he's about to commit the same crime again.

As to how to feel about his actions – that's entirely up to you. You're not meant to feel a certain way about any of the characters, and especially not Tommy, but I am curious to hear your guys' thoughts and analysis. What do you think?

#br asks

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mlobsters · 2 days ago

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taking the question in good faith, I will answer in good faith. saw people are being assholes in the reblogs about misha's appearance, which is bullshit, regardless of my feelings on him as a person.

appreciate the points above and will add some thoughts of my own. I went into the show knowing destiel was a huge and popular ship, but not knowing much else. I watched the show in a relative bubble over a year plus. I was already deeply invested in sam and dean's canonical relationship and the wincest ship side of things by the time castiel showed up. I had a friend that was waiting to hear my thoughts on him and it took me a long time to even have an opinion. and by the time I did, it tended toward negative. I liked when he was snarky and powerful but his characterization flip flopped all over the place episode to episode the longer he was on the show. as I was writing up my little recaps I would often boggle over how the show would talk about how dean and cas were best friends and so close, but I (and might be bold to say we the audience) never saw it. he just wasn't around much! supernatural, when it wants to make a point or a parallel, is not subtle about it. it will beat you over the head with their point. I guess the only thing they were hammering home to me was, we aren't gonna take the screen time to show it but these guys are tight, trust us! it was weird to me.

I wrote about my reaction to 15x18 here which was basically where flying fuck did that come from

the longer his character stuck around, the more it reminded me of derek on teen wolf. a fan favorite character that it felt like they didn't intend to have on the show for very long and didn't know what to do with. but the teen wolf run was much shorter and hoechlin left. and I also found some similarities in how popular the ship sterek was, they were similarly working with crumbs of canon. but I didn't see that fandom get weird about it the way certain factions of destiel fans did. maybe they did and just weren't as loud? or since I wasn't around when it was at its peak I didn't see it? but I never got the impression there was this full court press by some to convince people that the ship had roots in canon people were just missing.

I was really soured on supernatural fandom in general by how loudly anti-wincest a lot of people are, I used to go scrolling through the main tags and regularly bump into wincest dni on, you know, gifsets from the show. which is strange and also like okay, yeah. message received, I don't want to be feeling shitty and unwelcome just trying to look around. I understand it's a squick for some people, but I've never been around a fandom that was so loudly hostile to a ship unprovoked.

and equal opportunity souring, within non-destiel fans there's people that hate one of the brothers, making arguments how canonically abusive one of them is, etc. I think that's what a lot of it comes down to for me, headcanon being stated as canon fact. there's always wiggle room in interpretation but so many things are so far outside the show I watched, I just get all riled up which helps no one so I stay away from most show/character discussions at this point.

and if I wasn't already soured on destiel enough, some of things misha has said downright left me appalled. the "balls deep" homophobic cw bullshit comment, joking about jensen's "bdsm paraphernalia." I personally think if most anyone else on the cast talked like this at cons, they wouldn't be invited back. but I guess it's okay with everyone involved or whatever is going on there, so I just try to avoid misha related content in general.

it's a bummer that I'm missing out on destiel fic because there's so much of it, but I wouldn't be able to enjoy it.

I was rereading my sterek bookmarks recently (my personal favorite ship on teen wolf is scott/stiles but there's very little of it comparatively) and now that I'm out of the thick of my tw fixation period, I notice how out of character they often need to push to make the story work. and that's totally fine and cool, but the way my brain works, I'm much more interested and invested in the ship that I see reflected on screen. even while actively wanting and looking for the sterek potential in the show, there just wasn't much of it. that was the one thing that did surprise me, how little fans were working with. I love the creativity and the way they've made so much with so little.

so I'm sure I could have enjoyed destiel fic at one point in the same way I did sterek if I was never exposed to spn fandom outside of AO3.

these days I make stuff for fandoms and read fic, but otherwise don't really engage with other people's stuff. I follow a few spn people that I know I vibe with, but that's about it. I'm too literal minded in some ways and inflexible about certain things, it's just best I stay away from most stuff.

and I usually avoid engaging in this type of post too but guess I had some things that have been bubbling around my head for a while that I wanted to get out

Non Destiel Shippers, what stops you from shipping them?

What are the reasons you don't ship them? Im just curious, not looking for a fight.

#fandom wank #destiel #wincest #sterek #long post

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nobodyexpectsthe · 2 days ago

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rubs a hand down my face. okay, i finished weisshaupt and i've got feelings and they continue to be not great.

i'm very... underwhelmed.

so, my major complaint about this game has primarily been it has an issue with matching the tone of previous games. and i think weisshaupt just like... locked in for me that's not gonna change. people kept saying that weisshaupt was where the game got dark, and if this is its idea of dark i'm... not hopeful for the rest of it.

like, i'm gonna pull at this thread. mila and her dad.

i'm not saying i want the little girl and her dad to die horribly, but i am saying that it's weird that they didn't in a part of the game that was meant to be upping the stakes. mila just being there also felt so... tonally dissonant? how is this adorable little girl not dead. am i being lured into a false sense of security? was this a moment to get attached that's going to bite me later, because she and her dad lived & i foolishly drop my guard and think they're safe?

because otherwise they would both have died horribly to set the stakes and tone. we would have clearly been moving out of the 'everybody is bonding and getting to know each other!' part of the game and directly into the "oh fuck, shit is getting real".

in any other game, that reunion would've also had to have been something you earned. like... this should have been what haven was in dragon age inquisition, where all the calls you make decide whether or not she lives or dies. but there are no calls, there are no choices. other than punching the first warden.

which didn't really seem to affect the outcome?

but i don't think anyone other than some nameless grey wardens died?

i know, i know, dragon age games give you the illusion of choice. you can't do or say anything that is going to drastically alter and impact the story - but it was good at making you feel like you were an active participant in the narrative. this is not the case here.

like, you would have needed to do something to get that outcome. and you would've felt the weight of it when you failed. again, like haven. or even like adamant. there would be moments of choice that would make you feel like you were impacting the world, but as it is - i run from room to room killing bad guys, until i have gone through the end of the scene........ which i don't even need to pay attention to because the game has decided for some reason i have to have recaps at the end of every chapter and i hate that because it kills absolutely any momentum, immersion and investment.

i know there are big moves later on that will dictate whether or not your team lives or dies, but i'm gonna be honest - i actively hate that. because baking those choices into the story meant making a choice that everyone has to live and stay with you to the end, meaning that every other choice in the game that would have had the characters reacting naturally to your leadership and friendship gets tossed out the window.

which means yeah i'm not excited about this next part of the game being a fix-it felix story for our companions bc that feels like a rapid de-escalation of stakes.

like i appreciate everyone has their own personal plots and issues they need to sort out, but it's actually buck wild to go from "the goddamn world is ending" to "rook you need to play therapist for your new friends".

rubs my face

i don't know how to feel about this game. i think i'd like it if it wasn't a dragon age game and wasn't meant to cap off a story that's been running over a decade. it's impossible to meet these high standards, i know, but it just feels so different.

it genuinely feels like some executive played god of war ragnarok and was like "this is popular, this is what dragon age is now" (which like lets be real that's exactly why the game was started and scrapped twice, the refusal to just let the dragon age franchise stay in the goddamn crpg genre it was meant to) and then decided it was also an MCU team up movie.

i think what's compounding the issues is i continue to feel like there was a whole fucking prologue that was cut and things are happening too soon in the story for me to care about anyone. i am doing sidequests, i'm trying to bring everyone out to get attached, i actually do like the companions - but everything feels do disparate and there's such a lack of weight to it.

anyway, ending this rant with this: i don't blame the creatives. at all. knowing how the games industry works, none of these calls were in their hands and they were just desperately trying to get the thing out the door in the timeframe that was demanded of them. making a game with the kind of narrative depth that a dragon age game requires needs so much time, money, resources, and for the devs to be left alone with a product that isn't going to get jerked around constantly by executives that only know money and don't understand a goddamn thing about an enjoyable video game.

there is an enjoyable game here. there is.

i just really wish it wasn't the ending to dragon age.

#ooc.#veilguard critical

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scribeofmorpheus · 17 days ago

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everyday i learn more about joplin, everyday i wish they just cancelled veilguard or took longer to make the joplin project they envisioned.

i think i'm just gonna put all the blame on anthem atp.

[article link]

if they were in such a rush to make me5, why didn't they just go ahead with that project and then make da4 after--if the funds allowed for it?! i bought the artbook and that literally just made me go down a spiral.

like... this hurts me so much man.

[link to video where comment is from]

#dragon age should have been bioware's magnum opus #their chance to redeem themselves and end a series RIGHT after mass effect #but noooo #now i have to deal with a subpar narrative sequel to one of the best pieces of media i've ever loved #feels like i'm living through the whedon-verse again and how joss ultimately hurt his popular characters as if out of spite for fandom #dragon age #veilguard critical #joplin #dav spoilers #solas #dragon age the veilguard #da:tv #emotional investment is getting cumbersome guys #like i have very few nuggets of love left to give to things #everything is getting cancelled #complexity is one in a million in publishing #original stories and comics and games literally have fight tooth and nail to be appreciated #grassroots isn't a sustainable form of development anymore #actors not already linked to hollywood rarely get their big break #i keep sighing and no god can hear me!#corypheus was right about the throne of the gods being empty #i'm wallowing and drinking red wine rn.

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alongtidesoflight · 2 months ago

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so here's my honest thoughts on dragon age: the veilguard, after ~40 hours of playing. i finished the main quest after having finished all companion quests and major faction quests. just to clear up what content i saw, i played as an elven transmasc rook who is a member of the lords of fortune. he romanced lucanis (although after finishing the game i'm now leaning towards taash). i don't know what's happening in playthroughs that have a different race, gender identity, romance or faction going on.

full spoilers ahead, i mean it. don't read further if you want to avoid them. i don't want complaining about it in my asks.

oh and also, if you're worried because of a few negative reviews online i can comfort you by saying don't give a fuck about a certain big name youtuber who is very much tied to bethesda franchises giving this a negative review. i'll explain why.

i'm starting off with the things i liked

the game looks really pretty. i was worried it wouldn't feel like thedas anymore (with them trying to "focus on northern thedas only" i thought they'd make a clear cut in environmental design. they do and they don't. it's complicated. i'll elaborate on it when talking about the negative stuff). anyway it does. minrathous feels like kirkwall. treviso enchanted me like the winter palace did. the hossberg wetlands reminded me of the hinterlands and a couple other inquisition maps. arlathan looked like... arlathan. the crossroads were different, but familiar. overall i like the way it looks and feels. it's thedas, with a twist. it's a good one, and gives everything a solid but unique feel.

combat is top tier. if you're a hardcore dragon age player you WILL miss the tactical aspect of it for a bit, but i promise you, once you're used to the way the combat works, you will be lapping that shit up. and once you get to ability combos you'll mourn the control you used to have over your companions in battle a bit less

the MAIN quest and its story. i expected worse, way worse. and for a while the game even had me tricked (harr harr you'll get it in a second) it is Really That Much Worse. but holy shit was it good. i walked away satisfied ngl.

your choices have SOLID weight. there's consequences, good AND bad. i got minrathous blighted, ruled over by venatori, and the leader of the shadow dragons ultimately died because of my decisions. i made those at the beginning and throughout the game. he died at the end. DAVRIN died because i didn't expect what i was saying to have that much weight. i thought i was in the clear. he had hero status. well turns out, your choices can still get your companions killed even if you do everything right. i fucking love him. he shouldn't have made that sacrifice just because i told him to do everything it takes once.

the inquisitor, morrigan and dorian being there, surprisingly. there's also negatives to this though, see below.

speaking of companions dying and the inquisitor playing a bigger role: the final quest feels like me2's suicide mission. i was blown away by it and the fact that i got to see the results of all my efforts playing out in front of me.

bioware are NOT trying to redeem solas. they love him as a character yes, but i wasn't forced to see any good in him. he betrays you. he fucked my rook over twice. he fucked him over right back, for good this time (the veil wasn't torn down, i anchored it by binding him to it, he's doomed to uphold it). but solas really lives up to his name as the trickster elven god. rip to all the people who grew really attached to him over the years.

varric died. if you like him that's probably as hard reading it as it was watching it. varric died and the game lies about it until the very end. when the realisation hits, it hurts. but in the very best way.

the amount of care they put into gender expression and trans identities this time around. (i'll add onto this with negative points as well too).

rook feels very much ingrained in the world of thedas. he doesn't ask questions that expose the player to lore through dialogue as if he's stepped foot into thedas for the first time. those conversations feel very solid and good. i hope other faction players got as much joy out of this as i did.

and the things i didn't like and boy there's a lot unfortunately

the music. let's just get that out of the way holy shit. it doesn't feel like it belongs in this universe. it gets so incredibly sci-fi-y at times you'd think it's taken straight from mass effect andromeda. there's not a single song unique to veilguard that i really enjoyed. it broke my immersion, real bad. hearing a busker play the tavern songs from inquisition on a lute right after i killed some venatori with wobbly bass songs playing in the background is just odd. weird tonal shift. don't like it. it's made for people who like flashy light-weight cinema.

tevinter nights is required reading. the podcasts are required listening exercises. the game is so fast paced, especially at the start, that there's no time to introduce you to characters and how much weight their names carry in-game. i would not have known who half these people are if i hadn't skimmed over tevinter nights. i'd care even less about them than i already did. there is no time to get properly attached to them. people will act as if you're talking to a legend personified and you'll be thinking man goddamn which chapter of tevinter night were they in again and what did they do???

there's a weird mismatch with the animations. you'll have beautifully fluid ones, like emmrich casting spells. and then you'll have rook's face animating in the most unnatural manner that's sorta reminiscent of mass effect andromeda's "my face is tired" addison, when their emotions SHOULD be landing with the player rn instead.

i'm not vibing with the art style. sometimes it works. most of the time it doesn't. at points i felt like i was watching tangled.

that also brings me to some of the dialogue. same issue. i am watching frozen. i am watching tangled. someone on the writer's team really likes the adorkable trope. bellara is its victim.

for all the talk about identity, bioware sure doesn't like theirs. the grey warden armor got a redesign again and it just makes them look like a generic army. i hate it lol

in general, i don't like the armor design. the wardrobe/appearances system is fine, but it's just not helping if all the armors are just... kinda bland or downight bad looking? and don't get me started on the lords of fortune armor. that is orientalism personified.

the world states should have been carried over, full stop. i know they said they didn't because they want to separate what happens in the north from what happens in the south, which... i could have lived with that. but the inquisitor sends you letters that keep you up to date on... the south of thedas. you learn that there's a blight again, that people are standing strong but it's difficult, denerim's fallen, the rulers are taking care of it, orlais is fighting and they're successful for a while, etc etc. what's good bioware. i thought we don't care about the south this time around. why are you feeding me so much boring generic information. if you're not gonna show any of it and just write letters, then carrying the world state over should not have been an issue. i have a game dev background. those few lines of code would not have broken your budget or pushed your engine's limits. fuck right off.

this gripe of mine carries over to all the cameos. as a lord of fortune you have to deal with isabela a lot. it's fun. i missed her. you get to go drinking with her and taash and bellara! also my hawke romanced her. she's not mentioned once. they had the opportunity to put a sentence or two about her in there with not a lot of effort, trust me.

when varric dies, all she has is a single line about it. for gold, for fortune, for varric. she only says it if you interact with her on your way to the final push. that's not mandatory.

morrigan is there. kieran isn't. the old god soul that mythal and then solas absorbed? who cares at this point, the gods are dead now and solas is locked away for eternity. i suppose? why is morrigan there. she feels unneeded. i wish they'd just left her down south, at least that way i wouldn't have had to witness her god awful redesign.

dorian at least feels as if he belongs in this story. the shadow dragons are a crucial part to protecting minrathous. he's also weirdly underutilised. isabela and morrigan had more lines than him in my playthrough.

on the topic of romance: bro that was underwhelming. no, genuinely. you know when romance picked up a bit? after the point of no return. i heard maybe two lines of companion banter about it before that. maybe i missed something which i honestly doubt, but romance did not play much of a role in lucanis's storyline. i saved his grandmother as he wished me to (and if you read tevinter nights you know she was rather abusive and their relationship not the healthiest) and told him to focus on his family. a reunified family my rook wasn't even introduced to as a partner at the end of all that.

really, do not buy this game if you're only in it for the romances. others might be better, lucanis's basically gave me nothing. except for an outing (the second coffee date i had with him, it was getting repetitive) all of it played out once i committed to the final quest. the sex scene was a fade to black. annoyingly right after davrin died. if you're looking for well paced and good spice, pick up something else. the sweet talk and the final goodbye were nice though.

for all the good the ever-presence of gender identity does, it is brought up in such a disruptive manner too. it doesn't even play out naturally if you CHOOSE the lines that are meant to be said. hearing the words trans and non-binary in this setting doesn't feel right, and i'm saying this as a trans guy. i think it could have been handled more gracefully. the amount of times my rook went "i'm a MAN" as if he's about to start drumming on his chest and roaring any second now got super nerve-grating. "i'm so glad you're into me... the me who is trans. remember?" just. tell me one trans person who'd talk like that to a person they've grown close with and are trying to romance. this game doesn't handle sexuality well, so all this hey my body might not look like the way you're expecting it to look talk amounts to nothing anyway. i feel about this the way i feel about krem: this is partial exposition to trans experiences... packaged up for cis consumption. the ONLY exception to that is interacting with taash. holy shit was all of that heartwarming and bro did it feel good and natural to talk to them about theirs and rook's gender.

rivain and nevarra are new locations added by veilguard. they're also incredibly underwhelming, small and constricted maps. rivain is a coastline with a few ruins. the hall of valor is a partial ruin nestled into a cave on a beach, with a fighting pit. isabela is there in her skimpy outfit commentating your pit fights. that's it. i'm sorry if you were looking for a bustling pirate cove or whatever. you're not gonna get it. the nevarran crypts btw are a long ass dungeon crawl. that's it.

speaking of maps. i thought people were being dramatic when they said you're gonna be fighting the same enemies on them again and again. i thought they were figure of speeching it. they're not. you WILL fight the same amount of enemies. in the same spot. every time you reload the map. best to stay on a map and clear out the enemies and do as much questing on that map as you can before leaving, because you WILL have to do it all over again once you return.

the three choices i made for my inquisitor didn't matter lol she didn't have to face solas and therefore couldn't stop him at any cost as she had sworn (maybe because my rook tricked solas into binding himself to the veil, there was also an option to fight him. would she have stepped in? who knows). blackwall wasn't mentioned. and either her using a small amount of her forces in the final fight was the reason the civilians of minrathous fared so well..... or it just didn't matter. ultimately i think she had very little impact on anything

#datv #datv spoilers #dragon age: the veilguard #oh wow i hit a limit typing this #anyway to tie this up a bit: the good and bad to the environmental design being that well-known architecture like minrathous and dwarven #ruins look fire and remind me a lot of the previous games #but newly added locations are very... generic... very bland #i was very excited for rivain. i thought we'd get to see ships. not a bunch of ruins and a fighting pit and that's it #and why did i say to ignore a certain guy's review? bro because he was complaining about taash being ace and that taking up their screentim #and them being too up in your face about their identity. he did all this while she/her'ing them constantly #but my man they're trans. nb. not ace.#y'all need to be careful about bad reviews. they're coming from people who are upset about gender identity being handled as a topic in this #game. meanwhile they have no clue what they're even talking about. i don't think matty knows the difference between ace and trans #and neither do the hundreds of people who are one star rating this game currently #i liked this game. it's not top tier. it's not something i'll sink hours and hours and hours of my life into #it has tonal issues and it's moving away from what made dragon age stand out for me #but i do think that it's a genuinely fun play and people who are very invested in dragon age will squeeze joy out of it wherever they can #i had a hard time warming up to the new characters (taash and lucanis being the exception because they have an older bioware air about them #but solas's and varric's story (and don't get me wrong that's what veilguard is about) is GOOD. that is how bioware used to be.#and i wish they'd given us that energy all over the game. that direness. that grit. serious and mature writing.#that consistency is lacking #and whether you're gonna enjoy this game or not is entirely dependant on what you came here for and how well the game delivers on it #i think their weakest points are ironically the thing they advertised the most: the new companions and their writing #you won't find nuanced and good enemies here (i already reblogged something about this. you can go scroll around a bit and catch up on that #really the only thing that had me super invested and emotional was the main quest.#so make of that what you will. ultimately i was more frustrated with the game than i got enjoyment out of it. i was close to just put it #aside for now... until i went to minrathous to end ghila'nain's and elgar'nan's ritual. that all blew me away. still on a high off of it.#anyway yeah that review got cut short by the character limit maybe i'll add more to it tomorrow but rn... i am heading to bed #thanks for coming to my ted talk. also i'm sorry. zevran REALLY isn't in this.#dragon age

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avoidmint · 10 months ago

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While scouring the internet I noticed sometimes people like to make the Green Flavor Gadget from the one game cover into his brother? I liked the idea of an older brother for Gadget so I just made him bigger and fluffier. I have named him Sage and he would not approve of his lil bro's future boyfriend probably.

Anyways I immediately killed him off for the drama of Infinite killing Gadget's older brother alongside his friends but y'know-

#sonic fanart #sth #gadget the wolf #infinite the jackal #sonic au #he probably would approve even less now #I guess it's technically an AU??#also no I... still haven't played the game I'm just very overly invested in these characters for some reason #my entire concept of them is entirely made in my head and from tidbits from the fandom shhhh #Sage the Wolf #I'm gonna tag him in case I ever draw him again I guess #sonic oc #infidget #rookinite #technically since it's... implied #don't look too close at Infinite's arms also I can't draw crossed arms and tbh I didn't even really try #minturts #this was before I found out there's a Sage already in the Sonic universe also #prolly gonna rename him eventually

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yuseirra · 6 months ago

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I'm so????

?????

No but Fatale really must be Kamiki and Aqua's song, I need the full song

There are two singers singing this op, what if that implies that it's the two boys that were the closest to Ai expressing their feelings towards her? Oh boy..; she really IS a fatale. She's got these boys hopelessly(in a literal sense) attached to her. I think there could be a reason why the op is a duet.

#oshi no ko #oshi no ko spoilers #she's unintentionally made the boys who loved her fall into despair and (probably) go extreme lengths...#I'm sure ai's always meant good for them but boy #that's tragic #considering what kind of character she is I always felt her lover would be hopelessly be in love w her since she's designed to be “lovely”#so I am not surprised one bit #I hope my thoughts about this song is true #then Ai was at least loved very dearly(may it be a really..twisted one)#I wouldn't support it if he tried to hurt her or never cared. that's just wrong but if it turns out to be otherwise..I hope that is the cas #hikaai #kamiai #tell me if there's a better tag for them..I may end up getting a lot more invested BECAUSE #I need the full op like now #oshi no theories

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tracle0 · 11 months ago

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a colourful comic sans intro :)

Been a little while coming now. Hope you enjoy!

#writing #am writing #writerblr #writers on tumblr #writblr #my writing #colour wip #comic sans intro #woooo!!!!!!! this!!!!!!!!!!!#I'm making them all in one day atm to introduce them all slowly so you can get a comprehensive navigation guide to my blog haha #but this has been a while in the works #I was debating about whether or not to include elan in this or not. they're an important character but are they gonna be around...?#yeah they are I have decided for now #been very invested in clem recently :)#hope you enjoy!!!

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prettyholic7 · 1 year ago

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Ok so this may sound kinda random, but

I just got an idea for two Monster High OCs. What if there was a mananggal girl and a teke teke girl, and the teke teke girl just went dragging herself around asking people if they've seen her legs somewhere like she usually does and then she'd come across the manananggal girl who'd be like "Oh, I haven't seen them but you can use mine!" and then she'd just deattach her upper body and the teke teke girl would just stand there (not stand, but I can't remember a better word) looking perplexed and then they'd start hanging out and become besties.

#or girlfriends #you decide #has anyone done something similiar before?#idk this popped into my head and now I'm very invested in these two nameless characters #gonna make OCs!!#monster high #monster high g1 #monster high g3 #original character #character idea

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cipheredsong · 2 months ago

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Don’t Ever Lose It: an essay on threads consistent for Vi throughout Arcane, and what it means to have and lose your place in the world through the loss of loved ones

for the first time in years I've gotten way too excited about a piece of media that isn't from my own head, and how do I engage with it? by writing an essay. academia has changed me irrevocably but I hope that someone else can also enjoy my descent into madness.

if I get the time, I have a paired essay planned for this regarding Caitlyn and grief, which I skimmed over here to remain focused on Vi's arc and character. warning: this post contains SPOILERS for act 1 of Arcane s2, as well as the whole of s1. buckle up kids, this is 3k words of me being one hell of a nerd. I've never posted something this long on tumblr before so let's all hope the formatting survives.

Vi as Her Family’s Protector

There are more than a few words to describe Vi at the beginning of Arcane — sister, leader, fighter, then criminal and ally. Protege and prodigy, who wins against men twice her size in fights where she is outnumbered. At the core of every fight, at the center of who she is, is “protector.” Vi has charged herself with this task, and been charged with it by outside forces as well: Vander, who warns her that her crew looks up to her; Powder, who adores her and follows her all but blindly. It is this central identity as a protector that Vi carries throughout the series, and it is this identity which is stripped from her by force in season two, disrupting her place in the world and the story.

The first time that the audience sees Vi, she is in that role as leader, executing a heist in Piltover with Mylo, Claggor, and Powder. The other three look up to her and follow her, and when the heist goes south and causes issues both at home and above, Vander is sure to remind her of her power.

[25:40 ep. 1 – Arcane s1 act 1]

He warns her that because of their willingness to follow, Vi is the one who bears the weight of responsibility for whatever she leads them into. This warning is filled with good intentions for all of their safety, but also unintentionally serves to instill in Vi a guilt over all that is to come. Vi becomes resolute in her desire to protect her family. She is, in fact, so steadfast in this desire that she nearly turns herself in to the Piltover enforcers when she learns of the trouble that her heist is causing, and the ultimatum that has been given to Vander. She believes that this would protect her family, and her actions also uphold another of Vander’s messages to her: that not every trouble can be solved with fists, because sometimes violence only serves to deepen divides and make situations irreversible. Vi is only stopped from turning herself in by Vander, who, at the last moment, shows up and takes her place.

This choice on Vander’s part, to, in turn, sacrifice himself for his family, is what leads up to the end of s1 act 1. It is also a choice which is nearly identical to Vi’s. There is a reason that Vi is sometimes seen as Vander’s protege, and it is because they step into similar roles. In the moments before his arrest and then capture by Silco, Vander tells Vi this:

[3:40 ep. 3 – Arcane s1 act 1]

Immediately after, he tells her to “protect the family.” He validates her choices while stepping in to take the fall, confirming for Vi that her choice to take this blow for her family was the right one. Again unintentionally, Vander, through the best of intentions to protect the children he has raised, has given Vi reason to believe that taking blows for others is the right thing to do, and that nothing is more important than family. She is young, and desperate, and in circumstances that feel dire, she has no chance to take in this lesson and parse through it. Instead, she takes it and flings herself into a rescue attempt. In the process of the rescue attempt, as a way to further protect her family, she insists that Powder stay behind.

It is this sequence of events that builds up to Powder’s attempt to intervene on her own, and the deaths of much of Vi’s family. Which is, of course, not to pin all of the blame on Vi, who was still a kid doing her best with what she’d been given — but Vi does eventually take much of the blame on herself for not protecting them, and especially for not protecting Powder, who she turns her back on at the worst possible moment. She spends years in prison thinking that her sister might be dead, and one of the first things she says when they’re reunited is that she tried to come back. She was a scared, grieving child, as was Powder, and the clash and blow between them were a mistake born of Vi’s fear and anger.

[33:55 ep. 6 – Arcane s1 act 2]

There’s a lot of significance to the points of contact in moments with Vi. Here, the way that she reaches out to hold her sister’s head is a parallel to the way that she struck her back in act 1. It’s also similar to how Vander held her face to tell her, in a moment of urgency, that she had a good heart, and how she held Powder’s face in scenes when she was younger. What she wants is her family back — a chance to be her sister’s protector again, because she never meant to give it up. Despite knowing that her sister has changed, she wants another chance for the two of them, because she believes that deep down the two of them have stayed the same, despite outwardly saying that they’ve both had to change. Her refusal to call her sister by “Jinx” is a mark of that. She holds onto that thread of family, and of having a good heart, hoping for her sister to be the same.

The tragedy of things is that while Jinx has changed in ways that have made her more independent, ways which are for the most part internal, Vi’s changes have predominantly been surface-level. Internally, there was little change that she could undergo while in prison, and she remains the hopeful protector, still trying to pick things back up from where she was forced to drop them years ago.

Vi and Caitlyn: Belief in a Good Heart

It’s both fortunate and another tragedy in the making for Vi that someone else is there to believe in her good heart — Caitlyn Kiramman. Caitlyn is a fresh viewpoint, someone with no prior experience with Vi, who nevertheless sees the good in her nearly immediately. By doing this, she both confirms Vi’s good heart for viewers as an outsider of sorts, and confirms it in a narrative sense confined within the bounds of the story: she is an enforcer who challenges Vi’s beliefs about and experiences with them, proving that Vi is willing to open up to those who reach out and overcome her biases. In turn, Caitlyn begins to overcome biases about Zaun’s residents by seeing Vi as more than the criminal that she was made out to be.

After Vi’s fight with Sevika, Caitlyn is there to pick her back up and look for help. Though Vi is hallucinating and exhausted, speaking to a younger Powder who isn’t there, it’s Caitlyn who responds to her, accepting an apology without a second thought, and insisting, just like Vander, on Vi’s good heart. Regardless of Vi’s intentions, Caitlyn is open to not just an alliance with Vi, but to her as a person. Unwittingly, she calls back to multiple people that Vi lost a long time ago, and solidifies herself as a character who plays a major role in Vi’s sense of purpose and sense of herself. She draws on Vi’s grief over what she has lost, but also provides some hope in the form of reassurance that she hasn’t lost what makes her good.

[17:59 ep. 6 – Arcane s1 act 2]

Throughout all of Vi’s grief as she comes to terms with how her sister has changed, destroying what little is left of her family, there is someone there to tell her that she has a good heart in the form of Caitlyn. Though grief is present throughout much of Vi’s life, and holds tremendous weight in all of her decisions, she has time and time again had someone tell her that she is still on some semblance of the right path. If this is the course that Vander set her on, then Caitlyn has told her to stay that course.

This is true again when we reach season two, and Caitlyn has apparently spread the word of Vi’s good heart to the rest of the enforcers. It’s because of this insistence — that she has a good heart, that she’s one of the good ones, that she can do something to help people because of all the good inside of her — that Vi is persuaded to join Caitlyn’s strike team as an enforcer herself. In fact, in this scene with Maddie, Vi once again has it confirmed for her that enforcers don’t always match her expectations. She expects to be subjected to a random search, or escorted off the property after a long night of drinking. Instead, Maddie talks about how Caitlyn has spoken highly of her, and how it’s “nice to know there are still good ones left” after some of the corruption — Marcus, previous Piltover sheriff — in the enforcers came to light.

[19:54 ep. 1 – Arcane s2 act 1]

In these stills, we can see Vi’s trepidation, her reluctance to believe this, and possibly also surprise that Caitlyn would say these things about her after she left the night before when offered a badge. There is an aspect of potential manipulation at play from Caitlyn, as we have no evidence that Vi actually enlisted herself (she did just refuse a badge) — Caitlyn’s grief, and subsequent manipulation and how she herself is manipulated, are a major factor in act one of season two, and cannot be ignored. However, for the purposes of focusing on Vi at the moment, that manipulation must be treated more simply, and the nuances of it left for another essay. It can be left at this: Caitlyn is not currently emotionally stable, nor is she the same person that she was in season one, and this, in turn, has an impact on Vi.

Regardless of her hesitations, Vi joins the strike team. She is ready and willing to fight her sister, even if she hasn’t given up all of her hope — she holds on, still, to that idea of having a good heart and using it to protect others.

Rather than focusing on her own good heart, though, Vi begins to hesitate because she questions Caitlyn’s. Implicit rather than explicit is Caitlyn’s own good heart, shown through her trust in Vi and her questioning of Piltover’s authority and decision making in season one. Vi has previously been given good reason to believe that Caitlyn will act with the general good of people, regardless of their status or citizenship, in mind. Caitlyn has been Vi’s new cornerstone of belief, both in Vi’s good, and in there being good in the world to count on. With the advent of season two, and Caitlyn’s own grief, all of that belief in good is shaken.

In the third episode of season two, we see Vi begging Caitlyn to see reason, and to still maintain her own good heart, though not through such straightforward words. What Vi asks of Caitlyn is for her not to change. It’s just unfortunate that this moment of immense grief makes it impossible not to change. Though some theories suggest that Caitlyn’s sigh is because the ensuing kiss is another manipulation, there’s an equal chance that it is because Caitlyn herself knows that what Vi asks is impossible, whether she might want to give that assurance to her or not. She has already changed, and she cannot stop herself from changing, but knowing how to convey that in such a tense moment is difficult under the best of circumstances, and she has been handed, instead, the worst of them.

Vi herself may already know that Caitlyn is changing — she steps between Caitlyn and Heenot in the previous scene, sensing potential violence, and she knows that Caitlyn before her mother’s death would not have been so aggressive. She has reason to ask Caitlyn to talk to her, and to make this request.

[8:15 ep. 3 – Arcane s2 act 1]

Vi’s face is desperate in this still where she asks Caitlyn to make her this promise. The kiss that they share is desperate, on both sides — see Caitlyn’s hesitation, the moment that lingers between them, the way that Vi so quickly drops her guard to reach out. In some ways, Caitlyn’s response, the way that she could well know the inevitability of her own change, stands in stark contrast to Vi’s arc. Vi is so resistant to becoming something other than the protector that even in the midst of tremendous change for Piltover, Zaun, and everyone within them, she is trying to stay the same. She can’t let go of the things that have changed, and this includes her sister, despite her claims otherwise. She is in her role of protector at this very moment, trying desperately to protect the Caitlyn who convinced her that there were still ways to be good in this world, and simultaneously protecting Jinx: the Caitlyn who Vi first met would not have been so ready to kill her without hesitation.

Vi Without a Person to Protect

Vi’s continued belief in her sister becomes evident when we see when Vi won’t let Caitlyn take the shot in episode three of season two. Moments before, Caitlyn shoots Jinx’s gun out of the hand of the child protecting Jinx, so clearly her aim isn’t actually in question. Notably, though, Vi had no power over that shot, and may not have even known that Caitlyn was about to fire: her eyes never left what was directly in front of her, and all she sees is this child’s determination to protect Jinx. There can be more than one influence at play: multiple possible influences here could be Vi’s continued hesitance to kill Jinx, her fears of Caitlyn’s change, and what she sees in Isha, as the series credits name the child.

Vi’s feelings toward Jinx have genuinely changed, even if she still holds onto some hope. Vi specifically says that her sister is gone, and she does seem to believe something like that — but all she has ever known is that she was supposed to protect that family. She was protecting Powder from a very young age, even if she wasn’t alone in the task. Now she’s faced with a child, a child who could be just like she or Powder was when they were young. Vi’s protective focus has first and foremost been on that younger version of her sister, and she hasn’t been able to get to know Jinx as she is now. The desperation of a protective child has to be a moment that shakes her, and makes her question what she’s doing now — if she has abandoned who she is, if she has changed just as Caitlyn is changing. Because of both of those things, she has reason to fear that this could go wrong, and that she’s recreating the things that hurt her all over again.

At the time which Vi stops Caitlyn from taking the next shot, Vi, despite herself, must see something of who she and her sister used to be in the child. She still can’t quite let that past go, and odds are that she’s thinking of more than just Isha when she turns to Caitlyn.

[26:35 ep. 3 – Arcane s2 act 1]

Certain aspects of Vi’s protectiveness have transitioned to focus on Caitlyn, which can be seen in just how badly she wants Caitlyn to retain her own good heart, and, in more visibly evident ways, how her first priority when Sevika triggers the setup that Jinx has been working on is to grab Caitlyn. She may be questioning Caitlyn’s decisions, but she has her back, and has no intention of leaving someone alone again. Just as Caitlyn was there for her when she was struggling through her own form of grief, she clearly intends to be there for Caitlyn as best she can.

[27:31 ep. 3 – Arcane s2 act 1]

And that’s what makes it all the more heartbreaking when the aftermath of the scene finally hits, when Vi and Caitlyn are alone together again, and all chance of taking out Jinx is gone. In that moment, Caitlyn doesn’t see Vi’s good heart anymore, and Vi has just had her view of Caitlyn’s own goodness at the very least altered, if not shattered.

In that moment, Vi is the one who is left alone. Her form of grief and Caitlyn’s form of grief clash in ways which make their differences too difficult to reconcile; things like class differences, which could be overlooked when it was just the two of them together, become much more complicated when Caitlyn holds so much power and is filled with so much anger. Caitlyn hurting Vi is quite possibly a snap impulse, something she will regret when she has more time to think about it — but it also directly parallels, for Vi and for viewers, how Vi hurt her sister and left her behind. And because she was the one to stop Caitlyn from taking the shot, given the way that Vi has responded to events like this before, it seems plausible that there is some part of her which will believe it to be her own fault.

In the intro of the new season, Vi smudges over the tattoo on her cheek, the tattoo which, in a more literal sense, is a part of identifying her — when Maddie finds her in episode one of season two, and Vi asks how she knew who she was, Maddie says it’s “written on [her] face.” The combination of the intro, the focus on Vi’s good heart and how she is identified, and the scene in episode three where Vi is left entirely alone, suggests that Vi’s identity is being changed and blurred, whether she likes it or not. Her ability to protect has been compromised by the fact that in her desperation, she left herself unguarded, thinking that she was safe with the people she had chosen to let in. She has clung to her identity this whole time, finding it at the center of all her relationships. Left alone, she has effectively been robbed of all the impact of the good heart that so many people have insisted is her best trait, and left with those physical capabilities that she uses as a form of protection, which explains why she might turn to the pit fighter arc depicted in trailers for season two. Now that she is on her own, she will need to find something new, or a way to adapt, but she sets out by doing the only thing she still knows: fighting her way through.

Vi cannot protect everyone, and she has just taken a literal and metaphorical blow from the one person she was still vulnerable with. Throughout the series, there has been an emphasis on her good heart and the way in which she protects people, which, while physically effective, often causes further strife down the line. To the people Vi meets, her good heart is considered valuable, and yet it has only brought her pain. Her identity has been torn away from her in a way that collapses her entire existence, because the one stable thing left to her was her connection with Caitlyn, however new it might be. As of the end of act one of season two, we see Vi cut loose and adrift, and we can only hope that we will see her overcome grief again, and perhaps finally learn to accept her own change in a changing world.

#arcane #arcane season 2 #arcane spoilers #ciph speaks #essay #i'm in too deep loving a piece of media again whoops now my heart hurts #caitvi #vi arcane #character analysis #i am way too emotionally invested #btw this essay is only very slightly caitvi but the ship has the potential to absolutely break me and I live in fear of the next two acts

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