#It's absolutely fine to look at everything from a fan perspective

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Do you think Harry and his team have been navigating this stage of his career well? I feel like there have been some miscalculations in terms of publicity/public image but I can’t quite put my finger on it. It just feels like the few big press events / interviews / editorials could have been handled much better to give less of an impression of “jack of all trades, master of none”…

I have always been very frustrated with the way fandom approach the question about whether members of their teams do a good job.

It is impossible to know whether someone is doing a good job without knowing their aims and their limitations. You might look at something someone has done and say 'oh that's terrible', but not known that they had an hour to do something that would normally take five and in fact it would show their skill.

And that general principle becomes heaps more complicated when you're assessing something as broad as managing Harry's career.

For starters, it does sort of depend what's going on behind the scenes. If Harry is often an absolute asshole to people he meets - then his team is doing a stellar job of hiding that. If Nathan Hubbard is right and there are lots of women upset with how Harry has treated them, then his team are doing an amazing job. I don't think either of those are true, but there might be aspects of Harry's life that they're doing a very good job of hiding from us and the definition of them doing a good job is that we don't know we're doing that.

We also don't know what Harry wants and doesn't want. To give an example, which is very close to what I think is true, if Harry wants to play stadiums, keep his current ambiguity about his sexuality, and also play Tom in My Policeman - then it's not like his team can just magic their way out of that set of contradictions with their powers.

In addition, the goals of Harry's team are very different from the goals of fans. As It Was broke records. Harry's album has spent most of the first six months in the top five in both the US and the UK he's selling out residencies. The fact that people are making fun of him is not the end of the world and does not need to be top priority for his team. It may cause fans distress when people say mean things about Harry, but it's not a team's job to make sure that everyone only says nice things about a client.

I will answer the question in a second, but first I do want to address one last assumption I feel is in your post - when it comes to individual events - a celebrity and their team don't have complete control. Would it be easier for Harry if he hadn't made completely inaccurate comments about gay sex in movies? Probably, but people say things and journalists write them down. Was Venice a cluster fuck? Sure, but there were so many moving parts, so much surveillance, and so much bad faith reading that nobody is going strategise the way out.

So that's all reasons why I don't think it's that useful to try and evaluate their teams in that sort of straightforward way. I'm much more interested in asking why, then deciding whether they're good or bad. If I think I can see what motivates a particular set of decision, or why it might work, I'll talk about that. But I'm never going to have enough information to say this is a bad strategy. The most I'm ever going to say is that something doesn't make sense.

Anyway having said all that I'll try and answer your question. I think it's worth separating two things - the first is that some people are enjoying dunking on Harry on twitter. That is pretty inevitable and not that important. As big as he is it was that sort of reaction is inevitable. (I also think it's worth being very clear sighted about what has changed and what hasn't. I saw somoene say that Harry used to be the critics darling and now people are making fun of him. And then post an article saying exactly the same things critics have been saying about Harry since he released his first album)

The other question is have the contradictions got too much? In the current environment, is the way he's trying to engage with queerness and keep his fantasy boyfriend issue sustainable. That's far more important that people being mean about him on twitter, because it'll affect ticket sales. I think it does get harder and harder to exist in the space he's in, but I don't know if anyone will be able to predict when it becomes impossible, before it becomes impossible.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Why did Felix hide from LB and CN in S5?

My dear anon, I wish I could provide you with an explanation full of such profound wisdom and clarity that you would speak my name with reverence for years to come. Alas, I cannot because, when viewed as a complete whole, Felix's season five actions make absolutely no sense from any perspective other than, "Well, if he acted logically, then the season would be over in about five episode or, at the very least, Adrien would have learned the truth which would lead to an identity reveal and we can't have that!"

To explain, let's quickly go over the various assumptions one might have made as season five went on and why they all fall flat by the end of the season:

At the start of the season, Felix's hiding away made some sense if you assumed that he was hiding from his uncle. This was a logical assumption since Gabriel should have viewed Felix as a massive threat that must be eliminated. After all, Felix was clearly no fan of Gabriel's and Felix also knew everything one would need to know in order to bring about Gabriel's downfall. None of that actually panned out - Gabriel basically ignored the Felix issue for the entire season in favor of being the world's most obnoxious Adrigami shipper and Felix, well, we're about to get into that- but it was initially a valid assumption.

Continuing along the logical path from our ultimately erroneous fear-of-Gabriel assumption, one might think that a person who was terrified of Gabriel would go straight to Gabriel's enemies for protection. However there was an argument to be made that Felix feared Ladybug and Chat Noir's wrath just as much as he feared his uncle. This was also a fair assumption. Felix had just betrayed them plus, in those early episode, most of us assumed that Felix was going to refuse to make sentimonsters of his own, so he'd have no protection if Ladybug and Chat Noir immediately went on the attack. These assumptions all proved false in the end, but they were all reasonable when the season started.

Another initially valid assumption was the assumption that Felix's ego mania and self-serving world view meant that he only trusted himself to take down Gabriel. After all, past seasons had shown Felix to be clever, resourceful, and deeply devoted to his mother, so it made sense that he'd be working on some brilliant plan to bring his uncle's downfall and restore his aunt if only for love of his mother. You could even add an assumption he even wanted to keep everything quiet for sake of the family image or just a simple desire for personal privacy.

These assumptions and all of the others stopped holding water after Emotion. In that episode, Felix was shown to be fine making sentimonster, fine outing his own secret identity to the world, and fine confronting his uncle directly without a real plan for stopping him long term. The closest thing to a grand plan that we get in Emotion is Felix demanding Ladybug give him her miraculous:

Argos: Ladybug! Good. Now we just need to wait for Cat Noir and you'll both give me your Miraculous! Ladybug: (livid) So that's it then?! You're working for Monarch! You're the reason why I lost the other Miraculous in the first place! And why he took them!! You gave them to him without any regard for the consequences it might have with the people of Paris! Argos: True, except I work for no one.  I only helped Monarch cause it served my plans! I needed the Peacock Miraculous and today I need yours and Cat Noir's so I can make my wish!

But if this was his master plan, then why did he do the Red Moon thing? That took Gabriel by surprise, but it didn't knowingly do the same for Ladybug or Chat Noir. Without knowing their identities, there's no way for Felix to reliably find them during the Red Moon incident since he's snapping everyone he sees out of existence, making it somewhat likely that he'd accidentally snap the very people that he's looking for. You can't even go the snap-everyone-and-look-through-what-remains-to-find-the-miraculous route because he snaps the person and all of their accessories, too. Otherwise he could have snapped Gabriel and gotten all the miraculouses back in one go, then grabbed the Ladybug miraculous as a fun little bonus.

In other words, everything about the Red Moon plan was focused around making a big, flashy entrance for Agros and little else. It's not even focused on stopping Gabriel since Felix doesn't seem to have planned to snap everyone away long term or at least I think that's what's going on here?

Kagami: Happy? When there's no one left?? Adrien: How can I be happy without my friends, without my father, without the girl I love?! Argos: You really think I'm that evil? (goes to open the trash bin where he hid Marinette...) Ta-da! (...only to find it empty; Adrien and Kagami peek inside, too) Huh? That's weird. (snaps his fingers in hopes of bringing back Marinette) Huh?! I don't understand! (backs away from the trash bin) She should come back! (continues to snap his fingers) Something's wrong! I can usually bring back whoever I want, but it's like she's nowhere! Like she's completely gone! (apologetically) I'm sorry, Adrien! Kagami: Sorry? You're sorry?!?! Adrien: You're not even in control of your own power! Don't you realize what you've done? Bring everyone back! NOW!!! Argos: Okay, okay, alright. I never meant to hurt you two...

Well that was anticlimactic....

Note how Felix doesn't take this opportunity to explain the danger his fellow sentimonsters are in before bringing back the people holding their remote controls? And what about his mother? Did he snap away his mother, too? And did he initially plan to perma snap everyone or not? If not, then what was the goal here?

This episode is confusing and could even be argued as a single, giant plot hole because it reads like a mental breakdown episode, but it's also a meticulously planned attack that was hinted at all the way back in Multiplication. So which was it? What was the master plan here? What's going on? Did the writers seriously do all that Felix stuff back in season four without fully thinking through how to make that work in season five?

After the mess that is Emotion, Felix basically gives up on whatever he was supposedly doing in Emotion. There's no master plan to stop Gabriel or make the world-changing wish or anything interesting. Instead, Felix is just there to be Kagami's Adrien replacement. Much like Adrien, Felix has no motive beyond "date the pretty girl and do whatever she asks of me." I guess it's a family trait.

One would think that this would lead to Felix making some interesting new plan to stop Tomoe or even joining forces with Ladybug and Chat Noir since he knows that Tomoe is in on whatever Gabriel is doing (Kagami wouldn't exist otherwise), but that's not what happens. We don't even get Felix going full senti's only because Adrien is left in the dark, a fact that doesn't seem to bother Felix or Kagami. They're too busy being in love to actually do anything to back the nonsense claim that they care about Adrien, but it's hard to blame them when it is so glaringly not their fault.

Letting these two have the sort of active role that would make sense for their characters would ruin the story the writers are trying to tell. We'd probably never get that whole "girl power" Bug Noire thing the show wanted to end the season with because Gabriel would have been stopped way sooner. It would also mean that Adrien knows things and the show can't allow that to happen even if it makes everyone involved look like massive tools. Let this be a reminder to you that you have to let your characters shape the path your story takes. If a character knowing X ruins plot Y, then you can't have both.

In summary, Felix's actions initially made some sense depending on your point of view, but as soon as he became a real part of season five, his character stopped making any sense. The reason for this seems obvious to me: you cannot write Felix logically while also actively including him in the show, keeping Adrien in the dark, keeping Gabriel a threat, and keeping Felix from flat out winning because the peacock is so ridiculously over powered. They wrote themselves into a corner and dumbed Felix down to get around the fact the same way Alya got dumbed down to make the Lila stuff work and Nathalie got dumbed down to make Gabriel's plot work. These writers aren't consistent at writing things like lore or characters, but they are incredibly consistent at the type of bad writing they have to fall back on. Expect to see more of these issues in the future.

[shanieveh]

REVERSE 01 ↺: hi, i love you

wriothesley x fem!reader smau

now playing: niki — take a chance with me

That's life basically.... although Wriothesley is quite literally the biggest fish in the sea, known as the the biggest catch, the lengths you go through to get him still brings shock to people's faces. It only gives one the hypothesis that your obsession love you have for this man runs deep.

But if only they knew... oh okay tmi!!!

"Interesting..." you see Charlotte peeking through your phone—this gossip! you snatched her notes:

'Wriothesley Craze! Life from an Obsessed Fan's perspective'

You then began tearing it to pieces much to her whining and crying. With that, classes began, you open your notebooks with pictures full of him and his defined biceps.

His big game will be next week and you will make sure, oh you will ABSOLUTELY make sure, you will scream and cheer the loudest. After all, seeing his dangerous smirk and his relaxed glare, you're already giddy and focus gone while imagining as the teacher calls you much to your uninterested sigh. This killjoy.

Just as you were about to sleep, the most important notification posted. Ding!

And just like that another picture to be printed. Your innocent teenage crush on this man was taking quite the toll on your mental health, but he's just... he's so perfect.

You can't seem to describe it, but there was no part in you that don't approve of your actions. And even if every valentines he rejects you, or every christmas he puts aside your gifts. Just being on his side, just knowing his thoughts it was enough for you.

This life was enough for you. He was enough.

Hours passed and you finish all your homeworks quietly in the school library. Many have this stereotype that the duke has your whole heart, but that was not true at all.

At least, now when you're doing homework or with your friends.

After all everyone has their limit to desires, everything breaks once its pivotal point is shattered.

But as you schedule the big game in your calendar, you knew it won't be having anytime soon as you read 'Pride and Prejudice' and imagine him as Darcy who'll beg for forgiveness for his constant ignoring and rejecting!

Maybe one day he'll have to do this constant chase, and you'll be:

"Your selfish disdain for the feeling of others made me realize that you were the last man i could ever be prevailed upon to marry!"

You clench your fist to the sky as you deliver it like an oscar-winning actress with a posh and a british accent. In an embarassing moment you looked around to see if anyone saw you in the act, but only the winds and crickets answered back. Thank God.

With that thought, giggles emitted as you exit the library to your home, day over. But little did you know the oldest saying in the book, the walls... have ears.

———————————[ 01 —↺— 02 ]———————————

the whole campus knows about your 3 year crush on the student body president and basketball captain wriothesley. you were fine with his constant ignoring and rejections until something happened, until you stopped, and a reverse took place... now he won't leave you alone.

taglist: @vash-yuu @nayukiyukihira @aethion @whodissbitj @astolary @ayayaaayyiire @randomidk-123 @superdark-soul @sleepy-waffle @kittywagun @ceaether @ichorstainedskin @numwoon44 @eutopiastar @reni502 @fictionalfantasy17 @lucienbarkbark @kyon-cherri @huanator @jqnehr @yourlittlemissworld @zworllyx @unknownlololol @sara-midnight @jaguarthecat @we-wo-we-wo @duhsies @interstellar-equilibrium @ariparri @lolmeowing @aruatsu @k-cris @quacking-simp @vlamouren @semi-orangeapple @tamikahoshiko @imnotgoodwithnamessoidk @portgas459ace @r4yyyyy @vxnuslogy @kazuhasmaid @explosive-wuisa @falors @rirk-ke @shotovhs @aixaingela @ruhaxol @yelleloww

[thisliminalspacedaydreams]

Do not confuse Enthusiasm with Entitlement.

Hello!

I’m relatively unknown in the fanfiction world which is great, but I’ve got some friends who are known, and I’ve got things to say, from an outsider perspective.

I’m a writer, but I’m also a reader. I participate in the fandom in the way I know how, which is through writing stories.

Here’s what fandom should be. It’s a village, called Fandom, and people all interact in the village in some way. Write, Art, Ideas, Comments, Reblogs, Kudos, Podfics, Bookbinding, Etc etc etc. It’s a Smurf village, because currency doesn’t exist, and everyone does what they can for the community to thrive, for fucking free. They offer gifts, and encouragement, and once a week we all gather round in the center of the village and scream about it in a very unhealthy way. Some people are more active than others, some like to be known, some prefer to remain anonymous, some watch from the sidelines and everything is done with care and a warm heart between our teeth.

There are pockets of that, which, great.

Here’s what fandom is, sometimes.

1/People elevating others to the point of God, sometimes dragging other writers down (for no reason, no one asked to be rated as the best fic writer of all time) to make a point. What is the point? Is there one?

2/People harassing writers for more things. Write an epilogue, write another chapter, write this and that. Writers aren’t your own personal AI machine to make what you want to write. A lot is blamed on age, and perhaps there is an element to it, but I believe it’s just decency. An 18 years old kid is capable of making sensible decisions, just like a 24 years old, just like a 14 years old. Your age doesn’t give you a passe-droit to be a dick to people you admire (!!!???!)

3/I won’t even touch on the subject of hate reading because that’s just straight up insanity.

But it’s just… hate and tantrums and anger breeds more hate and tantrums and anger. There isn’t a virtuous way out of that, and I’d love for people to…just, cater to a more positive experience for everyone.

When your fingers are typing rot on your computer, you are venomizing everything that it touches: the people who will read it AND the people who will respond to it.

So far, from what I have seen, this behaviour leads to only one thing: depressed writers/artists/etc who stop writing/drawing/etc, or pull their work, or take breaks, or retreat from the limelight because it is too much.

You are pushing too much.

Enthusiasm is wonderful. It’s a powerful tool and should be used, everyone on this fandom is posting because we looked at The Thing and thought, “yeah.” No one in the history of the world (I hope) has posted after thinking “that is straight up shit and I hate it with a passion.”

Enthusiasm does need to be curated in a healthy way. I understand that Fandom is for fans, but it is also by fans. No one here is better, everyone here is different.

Some writers have a voice that resonate with more people, or stories that resonate with more people, and that is perfectly fine, but, once again for the people in the back, do not confuse Enthusiasm with Entitlement.

In what universe, in what galaxy do you believe complaining about someone’s work will make them go “oh right, nevermind all the work I put into this thing I love, let me just do the thing a random stranger is asking me to do.”

Do not confuse Enthusiasm with Entitlement.

Maybe I sound like bitch, but by god, the shit I’ve heard from my “popular” friends the past few months is absolutely mad. Mad, people.

You are normal people, and SO ARE THEY.

They have lives and interests and they are people. Treat them as such.

Do not confuse Enthusiasm with Entitlement.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I hope everyone enjoys Le Mange Dieu et le Dévoreur de Mondes, which we wrote and enjoyed writing, and which does not mean other writers weren't doing their own thing and writing other stuff in the meantime, and I HOPE we can all start to have some fucking respect for the people who spend hoursdaysweeksmonths pouring over a project and posting it for fucking free, all at once, so it’s not stressful for the reader. YOU.

Because against all fucking odds, we actually care about our readers. When you’re being nice.

Thank you and good day from a Fandom Elder.

[sammythelibrarian]

Just some spoilery and messy thoughts on the boy and the heron

One thing I love about The Boy and the Heron is that Mahito is never mean or rude to Natsuko? He's cold, yes. A bit standoffish, sure. Visibly trying to cope with horrific circumstances, absolutely.

But he never calls her out on her "new mother" comment, he never makes faces behind her back, he's not trying to drive a wedge between her and his father.

And it wouldn't have been awful if he had. A lot of his actions are driven by the norms of the time period (his father and Natsuko are smart for marrying, for keeping everything within the family, for not introducing Mahito to a stranger) and the expected showings of respect to ones own family and yadaydaya, but a grieving kid acting out still would have been fine to a modern audience. But he didn't take his feelings out on her. He didn't particularly care for his aunt/step-mom but he didn't (visibly) blame her even when he struggled.

And when she (seemed like) she needed help, he went to help her anyway. And I think that's just nice to see for once.

I'm not a big fan of BuT FaMiLY as a concept (in fact, I heavily recommend pruning the family tree whenever you feel like it!) but I am a big fan of trying your hardest not to take out your valid but complicated feelings on those around you.

Also a big fan of having a look at a situation and decide you will help this person out, even if you don't like them. Not being liked by me is not a crime, so time to go adventuring.

And to me, while the scene in the birthing chamber has some layers I haven't quite figured out yet, Mahito's acceptance of her there comes from the fact that he's had time to breathe. It's not as sudden as it seems.

Away from Tokyo, from his new home, from his father, from his new mother, from everything, his focus is forced to shift. Suddenly he's attacked by birds! On a boat! Gutting fish? His mini-mom's there now, surely this won't affect the way he grieves at all.

Anyway, I think that after all of that it's easier for him to out Natsuko into perspective. All she (has shown she) wants to do is care for her sister's son, her own future kid, her husband and her home. She's been nothing but nice to him and shouldn't that merit something in return?

Not in the "forced by society" way, but in the self-reflection sort of way. Mahito owes it to her and himself to give her a chance to take on this new role in his life. His mother's not coming back either way, but here is her sister willing to love him like her anyway. (and hate him but like I said, layers I'm still struggling to make semi-coherent to myself. I have some ideas)

Here's a story of a boy who's gone through some unimaginable trauma leaving relative safety behind to go rescue his new step-mother that he doesn't even like, only to eventually realize that they'd both be better off emotionally if she's given a chance to be there for him.

She's the first to protect him from the Heron, too, I just realized. He gets the idea of using a bow from her. She's already passing things on to him even before they become mother and son.

Anyway this got way longer than I thought it'd be (I was just going to note down some random ideas) and I'm not sure how much sense it makes but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've seen a lot of people talking about the themes of this movie, but not many seem to be touching on the relationship between these two (except for talk of the birthing room scene).

One final thought: obviously he has some Issues with fire after the opening of the movie, but by the end it's become Himi's visual (the fire is his mom). Just like how he struggles with Natsuko, but in the end she's become his mom too. Cheesy phrasing? Maybe

[raisay]

Had a rough day yesterday anyway, and the dragon age news isn’t helping, and I’m feeling sick and can’t get back to sleep, so I’m still chewing on it. Rambling after the cut.

I guess what upsets me is that, it’s fine to do a soft reboot, but if they’re doing that, why on earth would you do it with Inquisition 2? Why bring back Morrigan if she can’t remember her own past with you? And I know that some people have mentioned that Kieran’s plot relevance is done, but… I didn’t like him just for his plot relevance. I liked him because Morrigan loved him so much, and he changed her for the better in such great ways. But this Morrigan is just going to be a husk with the face of a friend.

All the things the devs have been saying to justify the decision are just that: justifications. The same way sleezy devs justify dressing female characters in skimpy clothes. These aren’t people with motivations of their own, you’ve written them this way. If none of your choices matter 10 years or 100 miles apart, don’t set your sequel game there. But even then I’m entertaining a silly justification— the choice of Divine is going to matter, even in the north, because most of the people up there are Andrastian according to lore, but if they’re ignoring that lore, that brings up some other, bigger narrative concerns.

I wasn’t even asking for huge pay off from stuff like The Well of Sorrows, but what removing the weight of that choice does, now looking back, is make Solas’s anger over it seem pointless and silly. He was SO MAD, and for what?

There’s also just the logical question of how it’s going to appear in game. Is the narrative going to just weirdly tiptoe around all of the potential landmines? Am I going to constantly go “Huh, it feels weird that this wasn’t mentioned”? Because a game that awkwardly tiptoes around a previously important character’s quantum state is a game that, essentially, unwrites them from existence. If they don’t know my HoF’s race or gender or class, or if they’re even alive or dead, they essentially can’t mention them at all outside of “The Hero of Ferelden was a hero from Ferelden who stopped the Fifth Blight.” Like, damn, we know more about the person that ended the Fourth Blight than this, and it was even longer ago!

And then… what’s with the dev team’s apparent disdain for codex entries? Long time fans of the series LOVE codex entries! I know it’s unrealistic to expect everything to matter in game, but are you telling me I just kind of have to headcanon all the things Queen Anora did, and possibly who replaced her? I just have to headcanon whether or not my HOF cured the blight? Because if I have to write all this for myself, why am I paying BioWare $60? It’s certainly not for the gameplay, I never played these games for that, anyway. From the game’s perspective, Celene, Gaspard, and/or Briala did all this fighting with each other to sit on the throne and do… absolutely nothing of consequence. Are they going to just refer to them as “The Ruler of Orlais” (because they can’t even use Emperor or Empress). That’s going to be really stilted, if that’s what they do. In fact, that would *still* be awkward, because there can be multiple rulers. “The Ruler(s) of Orlais”.

And just more practically, in the case of the character that does seem most important to BioWare: Solas. They’ve stripped all the potential nuance from your Inquisitior’s relationship with him. You can’t be an Inquisitor who was a dear friend vowing to stop him at all costs OR you can’t be an ultra aggressive Inquisistor who is angry and always hated him, because these were rolled into one “stop Solas” option. One of the devs (sorry can’t remember who) also said that the Inquisitor feels some level of guilt for what Solas is doing. Why? Why would an Inquisitor who always hated him, and possibly punched him, feel any guilt at all? They didn’t do this, they’re a victim of his lies as much as anyone else. Solas is solely responsible for his own decisions, don’t put motivations in the Inquisitor’s head. If that level of character motivation from the Inquisitor is needed for this story, we should have played as them again instead.

So, I guess to sum up, I would have been fine with a soft reboot if they had been open about what this was from the start, and didn’t try to bait me back in with nostalgic characters that I love, that won’t remember me. It takes me out of the game and makes me see how Morrigan is PR and Varric is PR. And it’s going to be noticeable, and it’s going to be hollow.

But most of all it’s going to be sad, seeing these characters that I love not know their own past, like walking past an old friend knowing they’ve forgotten all the fun you used to have together.

[tavyliasin]

Fandom Essay - Body Positivity and Validation

Good timezone darlings~ Lia is back at it again with some examination of BG3 Fandom and some more of the wonderful things we can find within it. This time we are talking about representation of different physical features. If you feel this might be a little much for you, either in regards to your relationship to your body or any potential dysphoria, please feel free to skip it. Second disclaimer that I will be mentioning trans and nonbinary people here from the perspective of a Cis person - this is absolutely not my right to speak for or over anyone so I thoroughly welcome the voices of those with lived experiences to join in the comments with their input, but I also did not want to leave the topic out of the discussion and you may just see why as we get into it~ So on with today's long title:

How FanWorks Can Be Important To Self Acceptance And Body Positivity - The Next "Callout Essay" from TavyliaSin (Who is calling herself out with these too) ((there are reasons it feels targeted I know where to aim)) (((but honestly it's fine it's all positive I promise)))

Today we will be discussing: body types, disability representation (only a little though, this one may need a full post of its own), body size, gender (and gender euphoria), scars and "imperfections", visible ageing. This will be through the lens of both the canon inclusion and everything we see in mods, edits, and fan creations of all kinds. As usual I will use sub headers and encourage anyone to skip what makes them uncomfortable, as well as to join the discussion~ so let's begin, shall we?

------- -------

What Does Body Positivity Mean?

Let's start off with the simple one. Body positivity doesn't mean promoting any one body type as the ideal or as better than any others, it is about being positive about the mortal flesh vessels we inhabit and all of their features. A lot of people can find this difficult, to love oneself or even just accept oneself, especially in a highly critical society. But that is where representation and even fan creations can step in - by being vocal and loud about appreciating features that people may feel negative about in themselves, we can help build up confidence and self worth, as well as reminding all of us that we do not have to look a certain way to be desirable and desired~

How Does This Relate To Baldur's Gate 3?

On the surface, we do have a lot of characters with more conventionally accepted body types in the main cast and romance characters, though it is worth noting that the base models were updated to be less "Hollywood muscles" on a couple of characters, which made more sense to the character stats and backstories (unless Gale was working out every day in his tower, he's not that much like a bodybuilder physique).

But aside from this, when you look closer, there's also an awful lot to appreciate in the standard character designs. A lot of these are things which fans pick up on and adore, despite how they may be features that people are actively bullied for or that are seen as undesirable by beauty standards. Those "beauty standards" can get in the trash too, but I'll use it here to point out the things we are shining a positive light on in the face of those societal values~ Karlach - Our tall queen, strong and muscular and not particularly feminine with her tattoos, piercings, and hairstyle. But she is adored for all of those things, even her broken horn is an important feature, alongside the glowing heart and fire that have some in the game view her as monstrous until they look closer and know her. Astarion - His laugh lines. Gods don't we love those? The wrinkles in his face are experience, and of course he has those signs of exhaustion in his eyes that make him so much more relatable to many of us. Lae'zel - This might feel like cheating as she's not human, and is less human-like than most of the other characters, but in a way that is also an important one. She's still desirable and treated as such in the romances, as well as very much adored by the fans. Gale - The little signs of ageing and stress mark Gale's face, and even the hints of greying in his hair are picked up on and chewed on by those who love him most. Wyll - More on him later but honestly is he not the poster boy for physical acceptance? Not only do we have his initial appearance with the stone eye but with one choice his entire body is completely changed and part of his story is arguably learning to live with this and how his new look is likely going to be seen as everything he ever feared. Halsin - Are we cheating with BIG TALL MUSCLE MOUNTAIN because many people find this attractive to start with? Maybe, but again he has clear signs of ageing, as well as very obvious facial scarring. His look might easily be described as fearsome, and yet his personality couldn't be further from it. Raphael - Hello there lovers of older men, who look at each one of those wrinkles and his brow lines and start sweating a bit more. I'm with you, he's gorgeous because of those signs of aging, not despite them. Abdirak - Our real poster boy for scars and visible wounds. Features which have long been given only to villainous characters in fiction (particularly that aimed at younger audiences) and yes he is one of the most violent characters, but he is also immediately deeply sympathetic to the player. So we are no longer equating scars/visual difference with pure evil. In general we have a lot of features that are not overly smoothed out or homogenised to fit certain standards. We have different nose shapes, visible pores, scars, acne marks, wrinkles, greying hair, moles, freckles, body hair, and a lot of variety across face shapes and features. It makes the characters feel more real, more relatable, and seeing features closer to our own can be comforting and validating in a lot of ways. Of course there are more examples, and far more we could say about each one of these and all the things that make them unique that we love about them, but we would be here all day and there are other topics to cover!

What About The Player Characters?

So we do have a range of fantasy races, many of which arguably don't represent real humans at all, and we do also lack variation in body types in the standard game. But we also have player characters with shorter statures with the dwarves, halflings and gnomes. Beyond just being part of the lore and story, there is some representation here for similar body types in real life. I can't say a lot on this as I neither have personal experience nor do I personally know anyone who could speak on how they feel about these races in comparison to lived experiences, but it would be equally unfair to leave the point out of the conversation - please do add something in the comments if you have the knowledge and emotional bandwidth to spare, I would love to hear about your experiences and opinions! Aside from this we have a wide range of skin tones (though my own is too close to plain paper to be able to tell you if this is anywhere near adequate so please feel free to weigh in with lived experience here) as well as scars and other features in the character creation. There's also vitiligo pigmentation, which is not only representing the condition but also normalising it to those who aren't familiar and making some rather beautiful options for our characters in my opinion. Even in the hair styles there are a couple of options featuring thinner hair or baldness patterns. There are less options for textured hairstyles and the facial features are equally limited, but there are some truly gorgeous mods out there which I'll mention later.

Player Characters And Gender

Another caveat to please weigh in with your lived experiences, but this one is one that I've seen friends enjoy and it was really wonderful to see that delight. Being able to select pronouns, genitals, body type, and voice all independently of each other is something which is so vastly meaningful to a lot of players. To some it might just be "oh cool I get to choose what my character looks like naked", but to a nonbinary friend of mine... Well, they were sending me happy, joyful, and what can only be described as "delightfully shouty" messages when they were in character creation. To paraphrase, and to tone it down just a little, it went something like this:

"Wait you mean I can have a character look and exist the way I want to be? I can actually have myself represented on screen, and nobody will misgender me, and nobody will decline a romance based on any of this?!"

Maybe it seems silly but I got tearful to see them just absolutely losing it over having these options. They've been stuck with binary options in most fantasy RPGs for so long... Of course there's still things that could be improved, there always will be, but that joy? Priceless. It meant something in that moment and I hope it will continue to mean something to a lot more people in many moments to come. Of course there are still flaws - the faces and bodies are still gender matched, and it isn't possible for people to refine the size and shape of player character chests. In some ways really what we have is the bare minimum, a start that needs to go further, but seeing as there have been precious few games in the genre to even reach this low bar it is good to recognise it, to say "this brought people joy and is worth the effort to make it happen", and to say "please go further because there is genuine interest."

What About Mods?

This is where we can see a lot more of that positivity flourishing. There are countless options, from having more hairstyles and hair types, to face shapes and features, all the way to body types and adding in top surgery scars. Giving the game the ability to be modded, and potentially even encouraging and supporting it, means we can see so much more of that body positivity and representation. Having a hero who shares your features, seeing romances play out where the characters are valued in every way just as they are. Being able to mod softer and wider body types to the Origin characters too, taking the form away from the bodybuilder/model physique and far closer to more average - and undeniably still devastatingly attractive - body types. Seeing the trans-Origin character headcanons portrayed too, that's just so utterly divine~ (There is a lot to be said about parallels to LGBTQIA+ experiences in the Origin storylines, too, so feel free to comment on those at the end if you would like to) To all of you out there making mods, and sharing the characters you've created using other peoples' mods - thank you! I adore seeing all of these, as well as people's happiness in sharing and using them too~

I don't even use mods, honestly darlings I'm not the best with tech at times and as I'm spending vastly more hours writing than playing it's likely not as worth it for me - especially when people share the modded content for us all to enjoy in videos and screenshots. But I love how many there are, that they exist, and all the ways they give people joy and euphoria to see their own body types and/or body types they find to be desirable~

But Wasn't This Post About Fandom and Fan Creations?

It was - and is! Because after all of the content you can get in the base game and in the modded version, what comes after is where the fans go with it from there.

That's truly where we get the most body positivity and joy. Headcanons leave the head and pour onto the page. We see characters reimagined a hundred times, each with their own twist, their own enthusiasm both from the creator and from fans just eating up every piece that comes out. There's so much variety there seems to be almost anything you could wish for with almost any character, and I can guarantee you that if there's something you'd like to see and aren't seeing out there, there will be an artist willing to work on the idea (most likely on commission basis, we do prefer to ensure our artists can eat after all, but there may be some willing to just adopt ideas to draw as their own too). This even extends to cosplay, with gender-swapped characters, as well as the one thing I will always be vocal about in cosplay - everyone should be allowed to wear the character costumes they love regardless of body types or how well their body/face matches the original character. Though this does come with the caveat that skin should never be darkened to match a character's look (if that character has a natural type skin tone, obviously green etc is not an issue) - just be your own version of the character if you adore them enough to put the costume together.

And your work?...

Thank you for asking Lia, let me answer that one for you. Of course, take it away, Lia! Ahem silliness aside, there is something you might or might not have noticed in my writing. I don't do a lot of body-type description. You can imagine whatever you like as you read - Gale with a soft tummy to snuggle? Yes please! Or you can imagine him with sculped abs, or a more slender frame - whatever brings you the most joy to read. This is especially true for anything I do with gender neutral character fics (usually "character x Reader"/2nd person pieces) - I try to stay away from any specific gendered features and focus on actions and sensations which can be common to any body.

How Does This All Add Up To Body Positivity?

Simple, love - by sharing and making all of these works we are saying "these features are beautiful, we love them, we want to see more of them as we fall head over heels time and time again". It might not seem like a lot, but the mind is both powerful and very easily open to suggestion. If a person keeps seeing negative things about a feature they have (eg, as a mild example body hair on women/feminine people) they will internalise that and wish to change themselves (eg, waxing/shaving/etc). In the case of a bit of body hair that might not seem drastic, but it still changes how someone feels about themselves. At the end of the day, the more we love ourselves the easier it is to look after ourselves and be happy in the mortal flesh vessels we pilot around this terribly strange universe~ For my part, I have seen my body shape which I had struggled with shown time and time again as "wow look at this character who looks this way, they are amazing! I love this feature, and that feature, and the way the artist made sure to include this particular thing-" Every time I see that, every time I see parts of myself I struggle with being applauded and appreciated, I feel a little brighter. A little more comfortable. A little more like I am allowed to dress it up nicely and spend time and care to feel good about it. I also feel less shame for old scars, for every part of myself that has made me look at the mirror with unkind eyes. Confidence is not a single brick, it's many that need to be built carefully with the right cement. If it is chipped away at too many times, even by little self-deprecating "jokes", it will erode. It will crack. It will wear away piece by piece instead of building up. And before anyone decides to try equating weight and health, darling this is not the place. If you truly care about someone's wellbeing, leave their health to the private discussions they have with their doctors, and remember that looking after oneself is far easier from a place of loving oneself. If you care about a thing, you want to look after it. If you see a thing as already broken, you're less likely to be cautious in how you handle it.

Where does this essay end?

Well, I believe that would be here. With the endless gratitude for every creator out there bringing us mods, images, fiction, art, cosplay, content of all of these wonderful characters in every incredible variation that we can think of. I encourage those of you who are feeling lower in confidence about yourselves to really look at the fan responses to these creations - the excitement and desire for every body type, every feature, everything that we might see of ourselves and dislike there are so many people out there seeing those exact same features we have and feeling nothing but attraction, desire, love, adoration, and praise~ We are often our own worst critics, but not one of those characters would ever reject us, neither are we rejecting any of our favourites when we see them on the screen. I certainly hope to see more games bringing us this variety, and going further too. There is power in fiction and fan-works, and it is helpful to recognise it too.

Apologies if this one felt too long, rambling, or like I lost my point - it was done over 3 days and I'm rather tired~ I have other essays coming in the next few weeks too, and I really would love to hear your opinions on any of them~

As a final note - please do add your own views and experiences on the topic! I can only offer my own as a disabled white cisgender asexual/bisexual/panromantic woman with too much time on her hands~ I neither wish to ignore experiences outside of my own nor speak over them. All I can offer is what I see, what I hear, and of course my endless love to all of you~ That, my very dear darlings, is never in doubt. I love you just the way you are, because of who you are, and will see the beauty in everything that makes up the sum of your wonderful selves~

[itsclydebitches]

You know, surprisingly Sweet Home 2 has given me a better appreciation for what some fans might see in late seasons of RWBY. The last 8 episodes were a hot dumpster fire of a story—and I'm arguing that from an objective "You fucked with basic writing conventions in a non-productive way and also a huge chunk of audience expectations, also in a non-enjoyable way" perspective, not just "That wasn't to my taste." Season 2 is a mess, friends.

HOWEVER I was also able to recognize where specific, highly personal preferences were carrying the show for me:

Uh oh, a Main Character died! Oh well. I wasn't super invested in them so it's fine

Now a million minor characters have suddenly been introduced instead? Isn't it lucky for me that I find them intriguing. Better yet, this one guy literally no one else cares about has inexplicably become a fave. His mere existence on screen increases my enjoyment by 70%!

Wow the last twenty minutes of this episode was boring af but look! My ship! That's the only thing that will stick with me an hour from now

Huh, I have no idea what's going on. Like, straight up huge chunks of this make no sense to me. Eh, whatever. I'm binging this on a Saturday night with the express purpose of turning my brain off. Comprehension can come back tomorrow. The hot, morally dubious soldier just made a crazy shot with his rifle to blow up a ton of monsters. Cool!

It really was an interesting experience to watch a show (notably one I already liked from Season One) and spend it going, "That was so bad... and also I need to watch the next episode immediately." Sweet Home 2 was so much fun to binge and I'll be thinking about it for the next couple of weeks at the very least. I also absolutely would not recommend it to others due to [checks notes] way too many reasons to list here. I can't say it's "So bad it's good" because it doesn't have that vibe, rather, it really was just a few pinpoint, personal interests and the willingness to prioritize them over literally everything else in the story that made it "good" for me.

Which put into sharp relief how others might watch another show with absolutely no cohesion, the death/disappearance of Very Important characters, boring as hell stretches, and a fundamental misunderstanding of what fans liked about the original and come away going, "It was great!" Because there was that one (1) cool scene. Because your ship has A Moment. Because while some people might care about answering the myriad of questions introduced, or understanding what's happening in any given scene, you just care that your fave existed for twenty seconds doing a GIF-able action.

Only difference is I'm going, "Yeah it sucked and I enjoyed it" rather trying to uplift those small, super subjective preferences as proof of the story's secret genius.

[xx-slug-xx]

Sluggy, i'mma tell you a story and I need you to spread it as far as you are able:

There once was this girl called Claire, she voiced Sweetie Belle in MLP:FiM, she started when she was VERY young and by age 14 she met a 23 year old fan of the show named Gabriel. Also known as Black Gryph0n.

Now, him being a fan of the SHOW wouldn't have been a BAD thing, if he didn't focus so much on becoming friends with this minor and her family. Years later, they got married. She's now 24 and he's 33. They both swear up and down that she wasn't groomed. And it would be acceptable had they met as adults. But they... Didn't.

Plenty of BIG youtubers have actively supported Black Gryph0n. Among them? Saberspark. Matpat. CG5. Saberspark specifically defended their relationship even from the words of her parents, whom were allegedly abusive. Even if they were it doesn't erase the ick.

Saberspark defended a pedophile. Don't believe him in anything he says.

Oh yeah that guys is absolutely discusting. Fist time I hear that story, I genuinely couldn’t belive it. It doesn’t make it any better that the dude absolutely was obsessed with Sweetie Bell’s character and used his relationship with her VA as a means to essentially get away with his fantasies surrounding the character. That’s a sick person. Even if you like a fictional character, it’s completely obsessive and unhealthy behavior to then groom that fictional characters VA just because you like that character. Because that’s absolutely what happened. Guys a pedophile even before they started dating tbh and I can’t ever see him without disgust

That’s the issue with people grooming minors until they are “of acceptable age” though. It’s such a nasty situation, and the groomers involved know that nobody can do anything about it legally since the victim is now an adult. And you can’t tell the victims anything because it only draws them closer to their groomer since they want to be adults who can make adult decisions for themselves. And it’s true, they are adults who can make those decisions. But adults are still victims of abuse in the same ways that minors can be, and that’s part of the manipulation tactic these people use. “I can’t groom you, you’re an adult”, when adults can be groomed as well. I feel bad that people like that are in those situations, but you can’t treat them like they are still minors or incapable of making their of choices in life. It’s a double edged sword for everyone involved.

I’m not trying to say that he didn’t defend a pedophile (he has), more like that specific mention wasn’t the best way to show it. Just wasn’t the best example and on its own, what he said was true. The relationship is wrong, it does make you feel gross to think about, but legally it’s fine. That’s a fact, as sad as it may be. Imo, the age gap and power imbalance that comes from that makes relationships like this INCREDIBLY immoral, and I can still look at the older involved person in disgust. But morality and law don’t go hand and hand as much as you’d think.

Killing people is illegal, not because it’s simply wrong to kill, but because you are objectively taking away that person’s right to live. You take away their agency, their human right to be alive, that’s why it’s illegal. It’s still wrong to kill, but if we were basing that law solely on that morality, then killing in self defense or from accident would be treated the same way as killing in cold blood. But legally, everything needs to be looked at from a logical perspective more than anything else so that the crime fits the punishment. Same thing can be applied to other crimes as well. Grooming on its own isn’t a crime, but sexual abuse is. Grooming is a cause for suspicion though

I already have to take a grain of salt with anything Saberspark says. That’s how it should be with any YouTube persona. Especially when it’s at a certain point in popularit, they say whatever gets them views lol.

[lilflowerpot]

You probably already know about this, but i was reading an old post where you said how weird it is that Lotor and Keith are perfect narrative foils and I just wondered if you knew there was actually a reason for that? I think (as we can only speculate from what the people involved in the show said) that was by design. However as Shiro was a fan favourite and had unexpected popularity he was written back into the show earlier, despite the fact they had already storyboarded/written at least parts of s4 so they kind of replaced Keith with Shiro in s4 and sent Keith to the BOM. I feel like re-inserting keith back into the narrative though makes so much more sense in some scenes as it explains why some parts felt so *not* lead-up to and out of character and why a lot of loose ends weren’t tied off (Naxzela fallout, Keith being a hybrid never really developed, why the paladins never really mention Keith leaving to the BOM much, Shiro trusting Lotor after very little lead up and giving him the bayard which seems like a much more keith-ey instinctive thing to do, Keith & Lotor’s narrative foils and potential friendship as well as being a perfect way to get the audience to trust and like Lotor even more before his betrayal, Shiro being written suddenly as hot-headed and using Keith’s mannerisms, like his wall leaning thing etc)

There’s an interesting video that explains it a lot better here if you are interested: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFiVFxR_Q8

(Also to be clear absolutely no hate to anyone who made the show, it was still great.)

Also thanks so much for writing little blade! Your attention to detail in world building is amazing and really gives an extra depth to the story and makes it so engrossing.

As you say, we can only really speculate the ins and outs of why certain decisions were made and narrative directions taken, and honestly the fact that there's so much that we as fans simply don't know makes it really hard to comment, but ultimately, whatever the writer's reasoning for doing what they did,,, they messed up.

I'm not even saying this as someone who, obviously, loves Lotor blindly, but to use him as an example, his character arc didn't make sense; I can accept absolutely everything (alteans being used as batteries included) as a valid and narratively-supported exploration of his character up until his declaration that he wanted to commit genocide and wipe out the entire galra race,,, because that went against literally everything his character had been built upon. It wasn't a "twist" that served to prove he'd been pulling a long con, it was just... bad writing, plain and simple. Lotor, who'd been actively working to undermine everything his father had become, is ~revealed~ to want to commit the same atrocity that Zarkon did, just in reverse?? Lotor who begged on his knees for the lives of Ven'tar and her people- Lotor who was so gentle when talking to Allura about everything he'd lost in the past and everything he wished to build in the future- Lotor who was trying to create a second Voltron not as a weapon but rather as a means of supplying an endless source of clean energy for the Empire so that it would no longer have cause to devastate and destroy entire planets... that Lotor?

And look, here's the thing, so they'd planned to kill Shiro off only to be surprised that he was popular and so bring him back, fine, they had enough time to do that and do it well... but did they? Because frankly, Kuron got more dedicated screen time than "resurrected" Shiro, and all they really succeeded in doing was shove an obsolete character into a narrative that no longer had room for him, which was d e e p l y unsatisfying no matter how you slice it. I say this as someone who //adores// Shiro, and wanted nothing more than for him to be alive, but from an authorial perspective it felt deeply disingenuous and like an obvious after-thought. Not to mention, as that video says, "team voltron" didn't feel like a team at all, by the end—they barely knew each other let alone liked one another. Keith's ousting from the squad had so much potential from a "Kuron is a double-agent actively working to destabilise voltron" sort of way, but if they wanted that to work then there needed to be some recognition of what happened? Some apologies from the other paladins for never really fighting for Keith at all? Never understanding he was grieving not only Shiro but Regris too (sans, of everyone, Allura, who was the only person to actually recognise & acknowledge that Keith was in pain)?

Speaking of Allura, she's another character who suffered from what I can only assume was the writers repeatedly changing their minds on the direction of the story and simply shoving her into whatever box best fit. She & Keith at first seemed to be building something important, and while I'm not especially a kallura shipper, god, at least they had an actual foundation for a relationship (in whatever form) hard-won,,, having her throw herself at Lance, who she'd shown ZERO interest in before that point, immediately after her former lover (1) reveals he has a secret colony of her people that he's been using as living batteries, and (2) dIES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER...? She should have been grieving, and //slowly// healing, but instead she jumps straight into a new relationship that the narrative treats as if it's some sort of epic yet tragically doomed romance rather than an ill-thought rebound?

It just.. it wasn't even a good plot, let alone a satisfying one.

Hunk was originally implied to be the beating heart of the group, except they gave him next to no screen-time only to realise in those last couple of seasons "shit, people are supposed to care about him, errr have a tragic family rescue mission". Lance was treated as a joke from day one, despite being set up to (I personally suspect) become Keith's right hand and emotional support in more than just battle. Keith himself was repeatedly given all the foundations for genuinely solid and satisfying plots only to never quite follow through in the end (learning to let down his walls, to trust, to love- until the entire team casts him out never to apologise for it and only takes him back when they lose their replacement once more / becoming a confident leader and Shiro's successor only for it to be undermined and then thrown back together again when convenient / finding and building a relationship with his mother, except they speed-ran it in one montage and had Krolia leave again soon after).

Truthfully, Pidge is probably the only core character who managed to come out at the end with what felt like a properly concluded arc.

[rainbowdaisy13]

Something else about the documentary is how she villainized the people that tweeted the hashtag taylorisoverparty and how that took a toll on her mental health and it was so awful to her and of course it’s terrible when a bunch of strangers say things about you on the internet (which they will and have done with other celebrities too, if you’re a public figure you will have people who like you and people who don’t, hell even if you aren’t a public figure) But when her current ‘boyfriend’ has tweeted terrible things, specific misogynistic sexist things it’s all fine it’s all great cause he’s her man🤦🏻‍♀️ or when she starts literal hate campaigns toward different people by liking certain posts (like she did when she broke up with joe liking those 10 year old memes knowing damn well her fandom will go after him) it’s all amazing and it’s all yes mother is hilarious and yes we love her and let’s hate on these poeple for the rest of our lives (bc yes, years later they still hate on her exes) So yeah throwing pity party after pity party for yourself looks absolutely ridiculous now … Cause like, is her mental health the only mental health that matters in the world?

And another thing about alcoholism: if her wonderful fans love her endlessly and want the best for her and care about her they would caution her and get worried because I can’t stop counting the way alcohol badly impacts your health and I’m not even saying to shame her or anything BUT stop with the whole bejeweled era and the “ crazy fun party girl who has just been released from her prison of 6 years because what she thought was good for her 6 years ago is not good for her now so it’s all joe’s fault and let her drink “🤦🏻‍♀️ if you truly care about her you will at least stop supporting and glorifying alcoholism that is just terrible

there are so many other things that are wrong here, and they get clearer when you look at things from a different perspective

“So yeah throwing pity party after pity party for yourself looks absolutely ridiculous now … Cause like, is her mental health the only mental health that matters in the world?”

YES Anon!!! She told us ⬇️

So tell me everything is not about me

But what if it is?

[dynamite-derek]

Looking at the self doubt and intrusive voices of Alan Wake 2

Note: I tread very lightly on spoilers in this writeup, however I do discuss an endgame scenario, so if you wish to enter that segment of the game completely fresh I would visit this piece after finishing the game. Last year, a lot of praise was circulating around over the movie Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Not only was it apparently a very good movie, but it also contained a realistic depiction of a panic attack. For as much as mental health issues have been brought to the forefront in recent days, it seems like accurate depictions of actual mental health events are quite rare. Especially in children's media

Gaming received a moment like this in 2023 but it is far less talked about. Sure, fans of the game probably discuss it amongst themselves because that's what fans do, but the wider public hasn't grasped onto it yet. Hey, 2023 was an astounding year for games, stuff is going to slip through the cracks.

Alan Wake 2 contains a constantly shifting and complex narrative. The world seems to be changing based on the story the titular character Alan Wake is writing. The player will likely be questioning their memory on certain things as they play. "Did this interaction play out as I remember it? Did I miss a key point in the narrative that would clue me in as to what's going on?" Nothing is quite as it seems and you are constantly guessing about what is going on as you play.

Probably the biggest 'questioning the narrative' moment in the game is related to one of the game's playable characters Saga Anderson and her daughter, Logan. Saga is sent to a town called Bright Falls to investigate a series of supernatural murders. You witness a phone conversation towards the start of the narrative between Saga, her husband and her daughter that's fairly innocuous. It basically just tells you that they're a loving family. But that's the last little bit we hear about this happy family throughout. From that point forward, things change.

Various citizens of the town you're in act like Saga is an old regular of the place. They address her by her first name and speak in very familiar tones. They think she separated from her husband and took her daughter with her to this down. Oh, and also her daughter died via drowning. Kind of a heavy pill to swallow but one you probably shake off the first couple of times you hear it because you witnessed that phone call at the beginning of the game. You HEARD her marriage was happy and you even heard her daughter. Things are fine.

But as the game goes on, more NPCs mention this to you. In fact, basically every plot relevant character including Saga's partner thinks Logan is dead. Eventually you start to doubt yourself. Did you actually experience that phone call at the beginning of the game or is it a false memory? You didn't actually SEE the characters she was speaking to, was it something she hallucinated? Is the twist for this game that the narrative impacting the game world never actually twisted this part of Saga's life?

As the player, it's hard to determine what's real. In a lot of games, the character the player is controlling doesn't actually mirror the emotions of the player. You might be confused but the main character isn't. It all makes perfect sense to them! And for a lot of this game, Saga comes across as someone who absolutely believes her version of events. Logan is alive. Her marriage is fine. Alan's narrative is shifting the world and fixing that will fix everything. As a player I was second guessing everything the game was throwing at me but the character I was controlling was more sure of herself.

However, we get to peer into Saga's mind a fair amount. The game has a gameplay mode called "The Mind Place." In it, Saga can deduce pieces of evidence related to the various cases you undertake. You can get her perspective on a lot of events in the game this way. A lot can be inferred about Saga's personality through this. You find out she is very sure of herself and competent. But in the end game, things change.

After a wild sequence of events, Saga is locked in the mind place. Usually when you can exit out of there with the press of a button, but no matter what you do, you are stuck. With nowhere to go in the 'real' world you are stuck alone with your thoughts and here are where a lot of your doubts throughout the game come to surface. You grab various pieces of evidence throughout your mind and all of them are just overwhelmingly negative. "You are a bad mom, you are a bad cop, you let your kid die, you are a bad wife." With every new piece of evidence you collect, the player and Saga's doubts become more and more intertwined.

It hits hardest when you're dealing with Logan. Every piece of evidence basically just screams "YOUKILLEDHERYOUKILLEDHERYOUKILELDHER" over and over again. The evidence is accompanied by a picture of your daughter that slowly fades after each message. Is everything the NPCs were telling us about this character true? Is it possible that everyone else in the world is wrong and her life actually does suck?

When I'm having a dark period of time and I think everything is bad, I often search for proof that things aren't as bad as they seem. I think of interactions I've had with people or stuff I've done at my job and go "okay so maybe I'm not as bad as I think" but invariably when I try to cheer myself up like this, a voice in the back of my head calls bullshit on everything I am saying and pops up right when I am on the brink of breaking out of it. "Oh that person was just being nice to you" "Oh, you just achieved that because you knew the right person" "You have done nothing with your life." That sort of stuff.

And wouldn't you know it, Saga does the same thing. She rejects that the death of her daughter is a reality and tries to find evidence to support this theory. All very strong stuff and a lot of it is not new information to the player. And yet, with every bit of evidence you collect that suggests maybe you're not a bad wife and mother, maybe you're not a bad fed, Saga basically screams at you that you're wrong and in denial. That you are looking for an easy escape to the obvious solution. That you are merely coping to evade reality.

Eventually your evidence becomes so strong that you snap out of your funk and are able to leave the mind place and return to 'reality.' Saga still has those lingering doubts, but she also has given herself enough reasons to believe that the doubts are in her head. She is at a point where she is comfortable confronting the nature of her personal life. You know in the back of her head she's not sure what she's gonna find on the other side of her mind place, but she is at least no longer content with sitting in obliviousness.

The handling of intrusive thoughts is done so well. You the player are the one who is going about grabbing the evidence that you're not mentally broken, but the voice in the back of your head is shoving all the bad thoughts up front whether you want them to or not. I cannot overstate how gripping the storytelling is during this 30 minute segment. Many people would call the gameplay in this section 'walking-sim' esque, but I would argue it the most gripping bit of gameplay in the game despite not requiring anything out of the player from a reflex perspective.

There are no fail states. It's just you and the mind of one of the characters you've spent the past several hours with. And it is enthralling.

[guiltyofbitchcraft]

Finally read the first issue of the new Flash run and I'm honestly really intrigued about the direction it's going! Do I have a lot of questions? Yes. Is it perfect? No, I do have a few critiques. However, I am really interested in talking about what's going on with Linda cuz I'm actually a big fan of what Spurrier appears to be doing.

First of all, I am not really worried about Linda and Wally divorcing. I think they'll be fine cuz it would be a really stupid move on DC's part to break them up after all the hassle it took to get them back together. To me, the Grodd line about a breakup felt like a red herring. I actually think this has the potential to lead to some really beautiful moments for their marriage and the sense of overwhelm and isolation they're both feeling parallels well with the cosmic horror plot that's going on.

But it honestly the setup for everything Linda is going through makes so much sense. Not only did she just have her third child (and remember that right after he was born Wade was kidnapped and Linda was caught in an explosion, it was not a fun day), but she already has some previous trauma and worries surrounding pregnancy so her having postpartum depression makes absolute sense, although even without those factors it would arguably make sense regardless because it's a super common thing! But she also lost her powers. Linda is the only nonpowered person in her family and while I think she was fine with that, the pregnancy allowed her a glimpse of everything she was missing, it allowed her to connect to her husband and kids in a way she hadn't been able to before and that's gone now. She is absolutely allowed to mourn that, especially since from her POV(and I do love that we're getting so much of her POV), her family doesn't seem capable of slowing down around her.

The scene with her sitting on the couch was beautiful and tragic and I truly felt Linda's loneliness and overwhelm. I feel her frustration with her husband who doesn't seem to understand what she needs. And I honestly get it from Wally's perspective too like I don't think he's necessarily the bad guy in this situation!! The dude has been regularly phasing out of reality into truly horrific realms for the past month, I don't blame him for being super distracted. Plus I do think he is trying he's just missing the cues. He knows Linda is dealing with a lot, that's why he's taking on so much himself to try and give her space. But she doesn't necessarily need space I don't think, that space he's giving her is just making her feel further isolated from her family even though that is absolutely not his intention. He's also completely overwhelming himself to the point that he's missing very basic things like the fact that she can't have caffeine while breastfeeding.

To me, this is the start of a story about a family who loves each other so very much that they're trying to protect each other from their problems and in doing so causing a gap between them. Which is very realistic to me like that happens. And I don't think this story will end in tragedy for them, I think this is very clearly setting up that the way they're continuing cannot last and it will blow up and force them to connect again. I hope I'm right and if I am I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of this story unfold.

[thedomesticanthropologist]

I have something that's been bugging me regarding a moderately popular request from fans to add a way to romance Astarion without having sex with him.

There are so many reasons why this is a very sweet but poor take. I'll start with game reasons and then explain the trauma connection

That route would then become the "Morally pure" or "Only Right" option. Now I know you're just thinking personally you would be more comfortable with that kind of story but people absolutely would not leave it alone. I already see how the ascended versus spawn ending conflict looks, now imagine having a completely morally pure Romance run where you never once do anything that has a perceivable negative connotation.

I could carry on, but now I'm going to move into speculation, fueled by my perspective, which is informed by my experiences:

He wouldn't have gone for it. Certainly not in act one where he's doing everything he can to pin someone down, and this is the only skill he thinks he has at this moment, he's acting on instinct his instinct is to seduce.

You can say that you try to build a friendship throughout act one just like you would in the regular route because hey we also have halsin and minthara who you don't even get to romance until later on in the game, sure, I hear you. So in that case, having not romanced you in act 1 he is now on par with however he would be in a friend playthrough.

He is also in a completely different mental space by the end of it, and since he never had to pretend to be in love with you, he never had to keep up a facade of a developing romance because he wasn't banging you, which he considered a transactional thing that was part of the whole "getting protection" thing

Let me expand a little. Even if you were flirty back, Astarions plans were always "seduce you, sleep with you, manipulate your feeling so you'd never turn on me" and he believes that the sex is part of how you get something out of it too, since he sees NO VALUE in himself as a person, and states in game that he has little to offer but complications.

He would close the book on you romantically the minute you didn't let him sleep with you, just like he does in a regular playthrough. If you wrote it as him going along with a slow burn seduction, same romance talk but no sex, maybe even teasing him along, you may have gotten through Act 1, I will give you that that could be written, and would make great fanfiction. But we are talking about putting this in the canon, in the game, keep that in mind.

Say you get to act 2, the point where he says he needs a break from sex. If this gets you excited, thinking "this is where it pays off" .... No! Because he would never have that conversation, due to not having had sex.

How could you re-write it? Maybe he wasn't in a relationship with you this whole time even though you were pursuing him but you said no sex which would have frustrated him (you see where I'm going with this)

Maybe this is the point where you say like I would like to help you fight Cazador and do everything as your partner because I love you, or... However. You'd have to have the romance confession, because he couldn't confess to you because the only reason in his mind he confesses to you is out of guilt from having used you for you guessed it

SEX

So now let's say you fully support him when you're saying romantic things to him and for some reason you write in that he's tolerating this and it's fine,

He's a complete wreck all the way up until the end of the Cazador quest. This is not the time where he would be getting cuddly and snuggly and Kissy or even spending more time with the main character because in the Canon he is so upset that he's pretty much snapping at everybody, if you romanced him he's taking a break and he will not commit to what you guys are and he's still putting on a bit of a front with the same kind of language and tones of voice he used when he was manipulating you and act one showing that he's kind of going through the motions right now.

So you would have to rewrite the entire romance that from this morally pure point of view he would be in such a better place emotionally with you or the romance wouldn't be able to start until after cazadors quest.

Then you get into endgame where you either ascended him or you left him as a spawn, and the friendship route does what it does but how would you write the graveyard scene how would you do any of this because he would have had no reason to confess any of his trauma to you ever because you were so supportive how would you have gotten that information out of him?

If you didn't know any of that stuff then why is he bringing you to the graveyard how deep did your relationship really get? How did you get a relationship that's deep with him when he wouldn't have divulged that information?

You even see in the love test he is a very private person and the only reason he was ever honest with you was to apologize for how he manipulated you with sex.

I actually could keep going on about this but I'm using voice to text and it's midnight and I should probably just go to bed so anyway I'm not here to super duper put you guys down or anything I think it's very very sweet I think it is beautiful and I think you should write fanfic about it.

I do not think it belongs in the game

Now you go enjoy the things you enjoy, I will read all of your fanfiction, I will love all of your art. I enjoy the hell out of you beautiful creatures who just want the best for this sad vampire man. And wait, can you make it work in his Origin?? Idk maybe try that idea out I haven't thought that one through.

Sometimes really good writing puts us in positions where we feel a little uncomfortable. And that just makes it good writing. I love you all thanks for coming to My Opinions Based on the information I Currently Have 😂

[melishade]

This is more of a PSA announcement if anything. A warning of people you should DNI. Like at all! Because this situation is getting so fucking ridiculous the longer I learn about this shit.

There was this Youtuber that I followed: Lily Orchard. I used to follow her for years. I started following her...between the fourth and fifth season of My Little Pony Gen 4. So since I was in high school. I followed her for at least a decade. I looked up to her and her work for years and thought she was a good role model.

I was wrong.

I've heard rumors about some of the accusations and chose to ignore it when I was younger, thinking it was slander. But it wasn't true. I had actually found out about all the shit she's done just a few months ago from @asunnycoffee and it is absolutely horrid. I mean there's:

Racism Sexism Homophobia Transphobia Brownfacing Lying Support of slavery through her written fanfics Grooming of her fans (BTW she's thirty) Stalking Harassment Hard Implications of Incest in her work Manipulations Gaslighting Emotional abuse Mental Abuse Complete and utter narcissism of this bitch. And so much more that I'm certain one of it could violate some international law.

She's like a fake liberal Catilyn Jenner. But as far as I know, Jenner didn't fucking molest her sister. Because that's exactly what Lily Orchard did to @pleasetiemyshoe AKA Courtney Orchard.

I can't believe I actually looked up to her I feel so fucking sick

Now because I am new to this and really just an outsider perspective learning about this, I'm going to botch any and all explanations of this in detail. Luckily there is a masterpost of all the shit that Lily Orchard has done in detail. https://www.tumblr.com/lily-orchard-gossip-blog/692978295298572288/a-quick-summary-of-lily-orchard?source=share

And there are a bunch of trigger warnings to this and it will be in the tags if you cannot handle it. That is fine to avoid.

But instead of Lily, ya know, owning up to her mistakes and possibly explaining her side of the story, she's done nothing but double down and accuse everyone that come out to expose her for her shit behavior as 'stalkers', 'TERFs', 'Racists' (even though she's fucking brownfacing. Which by the way, fuck her. I already deal with blackfacing enough as it is and she wants to appropriate a culture for views. GOD WHY DID I LOOK UP TO HER WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!) She will slander anyone that doesn't agree with her and do everything in her power to destroy them. And she will use her fanbase to do so. If the fans so much as harass, slander, misgender, and tell people to off themselves that have critiqued Lily in the past, she does nothing. She lets this shit happen. And usually when a creator or a person of power doesn't say anything to stop their fans from doing heinous actions, it's basically giving permission to the people to fucking do it. A perfect example of this is how Trump weaponized his own people to attack the US Capitol.

And it's not just Orchard. It's also her wife Mikaila Orchard, and a former ex now friend, Ginger. Both have followed Orchard's behavior, refused to call her out on anything and have also actively used their platforms to harass people that Orchard deems as an enemy.

And I wish I was fucking joking about any and all of this fucking nonsense, and if I'm wrong I would take it all back! But there are so many people who've come out against her and explained how much of a shit person she is including:

@as8bakwthesage (BTW check out their art it is lovely. And Sage I'm on a transformers forum if you want to join. We have fun.)

@britts-galaxy-brain

@asunnycoffee (A sweet delight. Who's 18, BTW! So Orchard is not above harassing fucking teenagers! And she's not above grooming them either!)

@opinated-user

@pleasetiemyshoe (Her sister. She also posts pictures about cats. But the stuff she talk about with her sister gets really fucking intense. Proceed with caution.)

@glyphosatesolarize

@thetimelordbatgirl

@lily-orchard-gossip-blog

Lizzy Orchard (Which in summary, was Orchard former girlfriend. Orchard claimed Lizzy abused her when really it was the other way around. Lizzy was harassed and bullied off of tumblr and Orchard took her last name which is weird because why the hell would you take the last name of your abuser.

Blake (Lily threatened violence on Blake's fiancee)

Josh Scorcher (An MLP fan. He and Lily used to be friends and there was a fallout)

Patch (IDK if Patch is on tumblr or not)

Poppy and Zena

And that's from what I can remember! That's over ten people that is ringing out warning signs to avoid Orchard at all costs. If it was one person, I'd be skeptical. But 10?! 10! That should be enough to avoid her at all costs! Another perfect example of this situation is when 30 women came out against Cosby and said he SA'd them. Again, when it is multiple people telling different stories that come to the same conclusion, then it's not something that you can deny.

Orchard is a terrible, human being, and you need to avoid her at all costs, and Mikaila and Ginger. These are the names of the channels you should avoid (because sometimes she'll use other people to spy on accounts that critique her and make alt accounts herself to spy on others and make herself look better:

lily-orchard mikaila-orchard lily-orchard-fanart sucky-boi (an alt account) lexyr-kryo (not an alt of Orchard, but the user misgendered Sage and I don't take kindly to that) ginger-snap-talkin-nonsense (Gringer has been known to harass Sunny, who is 18) So block those accounts and follow the others that I mentioned above. Please boost this post as much as you can to help other people avoid them. Although there will be some heavy stuff in some of those accounts, so please proceed with caution. also there's evidence that she wrote an incest story called Stockholm