#L3 Communications

[revenancy]

impossible fires || the post.

One hundred twenty years ago, the starship Atalanta left a shattered Earth behind.

Designed by an anomalous intelligence calling herself the Matriarch – something from beyond the scope of human understanding – the mission of the Atalanta was clear from the start: Survive long enough to find a new home for humanity.

Thirteen decades in, doubtful whispers are building. The Matriarch isn't concerned about humanity, they say. The ship doesn't have a destination. There is nothing outside the Atalanta but the void of space, and empty galaxies beyond.

One thing is clear: It's too late to turn back now.

[[ under serious construction ]]

setting

The Atalanta is a layered ship – society given structure, some might call it. Everyone else would call those people apologists. If they're being nice about it.

The odd levels – L1, L3, and L5 – are reserved for the engineers and other scientists that work to keep the microcosm in balance. They follow the Matriarch's vision and commands. L3 is also home to the R&D divisions of most companies on the ship, and is a veritable hive of corporate wealth. L5 is poorer – home to an elite class of engineers that have an innate understanding of the Atalanta's inner workings, that doesn't stop it from being home to the steepest poverty rate and addiction levels on the ship.

L2 is a city of prosperity. French bistros and film studios, pet shops reclaiming nearly-lost species, a vibrant emergency response service and well-trained police force – this is home to the hundred people important enough to have their name printed in the press, and the forty thousand people under them who serve to create a stunning tableau of postmodern life.

L4 is barely a city. Formed of six fragmented quarters, the people of L4 are crowded and filthy and passionate about their home and their faith in the Matriarch. The last century has seen churches built in her honor, and her priests have come to enjoy some semblance of social security. Hundreds of thousands of people are stacked on top of each other, each clawing for survival, clinging to their hope for a better tomorrow.

That doesn't mean there aren't dissenters. Somewhere in L4 is the base of the Stillwater Gospel – a doomsday cult that disavows every promise the Matriarch has made. Followers of the Gospel still their own tongues, communicating solely with the aid of auxiliary radio transmitters installed in them by their leader. They believe the end is coming, faster by the day – and they will do everything in their power to bring it about.

plot

Someone is lighting fires. Building feeds cut. All surveillance down. There are no hints to their identity, their motives, their desires – they're a non-entity, and the all-knowing Matriarch hasn't said a word about them. Instead she's set the police on their trail: Hunt. Find. Apprehend.

On L4, there's a buzz around the latest fires, as rumors start to spread: I heard it's the Gospel.

I heard they're trying to burn it down.

characters

Marley Haight → an engineer, turned dropout. Haunted by her past, searching for her next high, walking out of dead-end jobs – and crashing with whatever friends she has left.

Jacín Rial → an atheist cleric. He inherited the congregation from his father, and he can't turn his back on the hundred people who need him most – or, when an old friend comes knocking, Marley.

Nile Whist → a ghost with a fake name. Pulled back from the brink of death thirteen years ago, he owes his life to the Gospel that saved him, and he would do anything to repay that debt.

Song Liran → an artist and, reluctantly, a daughter. Born into wealth and forced to play into her parents' wishes, she finds herself apathetic at the thought of whatever future they want for her.

Katsura Yukimori → a police inspector and tabloid personality. Betrothed to Liran since they were eleven years old, he's trying to talk himself into being happy about that. He'd rather just work.

Eliza Fallon → chairwoman-elect of her family's company. It took two years to outgrow the title of Yuki Katsura's ex – now the bios call her a devoted wife and mother. But when Yuki needs help, she's there.

—

more to come.

[thisisnotthenerd]

back at it again with more d20 stats

this time we're talking intrepid heroes seating arrangements. disclaimer: i'm not doing this for guests because all of these rely on consistency and patterns.

sequel seasons are counted separately, to make the total number of seasons seven.

table format:

i organized this by assigning numbers to the seats at the table, formatted like so:

L or R for left or right side of the table from the dm's perspective

number indicates distance from the dm. the higher the number the further you are towards the point of the triangle.

thus, the full seating chart is below:

most common player per seat:

L1: tie between emily axford and zac oyama: 2/7

L2: tie between emily axford and zac oyama: 2/7

L3: lou wilson: 3/7

R3: siobhan thompson: 3/7

R2: brian murphy: 3/7

R1: brian murphy: 3/7

you may ask, why doesn't ally have a most common seat? well my friend, they often occupy seats that murph does, and he sits in them more than they do.

player side preference:

this refers to the side of the table the players most often sit. this will also include distance from the dm.

murph leans hard right: 6/7 seasons on the right, close to the dm (3R1, 3R2, 1L2)

ally follows close behind with 5/7 seasons on the right, generally the 1 or 2 spot (2R1, 2R2, 1R3, 1L1, 1L2)

emily leans left: 5/7 seasons, generally in seat 1/2, much like ally. she's been moving steadily to the right with each new ih world (2L1, 2L2, 1L3, 1R2, 1R1)

zac also leans left: 5/7 seasons, but is closer to a middle split than emily (2L1, 2L2, 1L3, 1R3, 1R1)

siobhan started right and is moving left, but is often in the back: 4/7 left (3R3, 2L3, 1L2, 1L1)

lou has the same back lean that siobhan does, and same left: 4/7 (3L3, 2R3, 1R2, 1L1)

player combinations:

for the purposes of this, L3 & R3 are functionally both next to and across the table pairs. in some cases this will look a little weird. numbers may also be skewed by the number of times someone sits on an end seat (L1 & R1). this is the full list for everyone, so there are repeated numbers.

emily axford:

next to:

zac oyama (4/7)

brian murphy (3/7)

lou wilson (2/7)

siobhan thompson (1/7)

ally beardsley (1/7)

across the table:

brian murphy (4/7)

siobhan thompson (3/7)

zac oyama:

next to:

emily axford (4/7)

siobhan thompson (3/7)

lou wilson (2/7)

ally beardsley (1/7)

brian murphy (1/7)

across the table:

ally beardsley (6/7)

lou wilson (1/7)

siobhan thompson:

next to:

lou wilson (6/7)

zac oyama (3/7)

brian murphy (2/7)

emily axford (1/7)

ally beardsley (1/7)

across the table:

lou wilson (4/7)

emily axford (3/7)

lou wilson:

next to:

siobhan thompson (6/7)

zac oyama (2/7)

emily axford (2/7)

ally beardsley (2/7)

across the table:

siobhan thompson (4/7)

brian murphy (2/7)

zac oyama (1/7)

ally beardsley:

next to:

brian murphy (5/7)

lou wilson (2/7)

zac oyama (1/7)

emily axford (1/7)

siobhan thompson (1/7)

across the table:

zac oyama (6/7)

brian murphy (1/7)

brian murphy:

next to:

ally beardsley (5/7)

emily axford (3/7)

siobhan thompson (2/7)

zac oyama (1/7)

across the table:

emily axford (4/7)

lou wilson (2/7)

ally beardsley (1/7)

placement around the table offers an eye into player dynamics, mostly in terms of player synergy and dm-player communication.

being next to someone gives good opportunities for communication--the players can collaborate and discuss options in a way that they can't necessarily do with the people who sit further away. also very funny opportunities for space work and joint bits.

being directly across from someone lets you read their face easily and tends to have strong character interactions. also deep bit potential that someone next to you might not catch. some examples: 'i can see my dick!' from tuc, the hairy baby gag and every sofie-kug interaction, kingston and misty, barry and gunnie, fig and riz, margaret and skip, jet and ruby, saccharine and ruby, theo and amethar, liam and lapin, sidney and riva, pib and pinocchio, ylfa and rosamund.

this obviously isn't exclusive. a lot of the funniest moments come from interactions across the table that aren't in the pure combinations.

seat archetypes:

this is a little more opinion from me, but here's my general impression of the characters (not players) that end up in each seat. this obviously isn't a hard and fast rule, but more vague in their application.

L1: you're in for some nonsense buddy. lots of personal change, realizing who you are and what that means after one major change in your life. arcs vary in how prominent they are, but by god you're going to get some bits out of it. lots of mixed martial-magic.

fig faeth

ricky matsui

liam wilhelmina

gunnie miggles-rashbax

rosamund du prix

L2: reliable energy. their arc isn't always most prominent, but their development is strong and they're steady throughout. sometimes holding the key to saving the world in their hands. even split of martial and magic.

gorgug thistlespring

sofia lee

theobald gumbar

riva

mother goose

L3: lowkey chosen one energy. their arcs get very involved with the overall adventure arc. pointing in the direction of plot movement, but also learning to connect/reconnect and care for others after being isolated. heavier on the full casters

adaine abernant

kingston brown

jet rocks

saccharina frostwhip

norman "skipper" takamori/skip

pinocchio

R3: the journey involves their sense of self and their place in the world. wearing a lot of masks and hiding your struggles only for it to come out violently. even split of martial and magic, heavy on rogues, bards, & sorcerers.

fabian aramais seacaster

misty moore/rowan berry

iga lisowski

ruby rocks

margaret encino

puss in boots (pib)

R2: recognizing the harm and wrongs done in your past and seeking to correct them by becoming more than who you used to be. also just some nonsense. absurdity built into the character concept. even split of martial and magic, with several mixed martial mages as well.

kristen applebees

kugrash

cody walsh

amethar rocks

sundry sidney

gerard of greenleigh

R1: pointing in the direction of plot movement. taking the power that is given to you and learning duty and responsibility from it. moving past loss and engaging with the world in a new way. also a bunch of bits. a little heavier on the martial than the magic.

riz gukgak

pete conlan

lapin cadbury

cumulous rocks

barry syx

ylfa snorgelsson

and that's it for now on thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats. tune in for the next thing i hyperfixate on. this one got long.

[mysterycharacterbracket]

Season 2, Round L3, Poll #15

Character 28:

Bald

Loves to cook.

Is a good Dad to his son.

Lost his wife in a tragic battle.

LOVES BASEBALL. WOULD KILL TO PLAY BASEBALL WITH HIS FRIENDS.

Found out the hard way that a foreign people think he can commune with the God's.

He can commune with them, he just doesn't like it.

Doesn't take shit from anybody.

Has to decide wether his conscience is worth more than the lives of billions.

Best friend is partially a worm.

Character 50: Just a dark-haired bisexual neurodivergent Scottish Lady who studies languages and history and sets her sights on making a respectable name for herself in academic circles. She is also a dedicated blue-stocking and suffragette and will support any cause if it is right. Along the way she gains a new interest in birding.

[its-kayyyy]

anti-furries try say that furries have mental illness but there the ones that are fantasizing killing people who cosplay as animals wearing plastic, faux fur, and foam? Sounds like its not the furries who have the mental illnesses.

also for the people who want to fight me, (1. furries do not bark and if you heard they do its either a lie or one out of tons of furries (2. furries are not attracted to animals, those are z00ph!l3s. And even if a furry is a z00p!l3, they aren't welcomed into the community and are sometimes shamed for it. (3. furries don't identify as animals. The closed thing to that is a therian; And therian only identify as a animal on a non-physical level and fully know they are human and don't act like animals all the time. (4. just to prove my point furries have done amazing this like donate thousands to children's hospitals. they are also a very welcoming community and most if not all of them are nice!

[communistkenobi]

i never really paid much attention to star wars before the mandalorian so please forgive me if this is super obvious but: are we supposed to view the droids as being kind of alive? beings with artificial intelligence? i was very uncomfortable with how the ugnaughts (sp?) were portrayed in the last episode but i didn’t think much of the droids because always just saw them a technological tool. i was a little surprised when the bartender droid gave their monologue about the droids wanting to work and catch the bad droids, and thought maybe they want to work to fulfill their programming. but maybe i should have been more considerate. (i am kind of a dumb bitch too tho so maybe this is just something that’s super obvious to most people and not me :s)

Narratively I think droids are supposed to represent an advanced form of automation - astromechs are navigational droids that handle the immense amount of math that’s required to travel through space, droids like C3PO house linguistic and cultural information for diplomatic purposes, etc. I think originally, given that Star Wars was created prior to the internet being a thing, they were used to represent mass sums of human information, but access to that information was restricted to wherever those droids happened to be in spacetime. They’re essentially mobile computers, but not in the way we think of them (eg phones). But because they’re mobile and have to communicate with human beings without any touch screens or interfaces, especially in the case of droids like C3PO, they are by default anthropomorphised. It’s on par with people naming their roombas. These are tasks that are within human capability, but have been offloaded and automated to make everyone’s lives easier (and probably also many financial and political reasons, but that gets into like, the political economy of Star Wars, which if you talk about that you threaten to take Star Wars too seriously).

But, given how expansive Star Wars is, the answer to your question is maybe sometimes. Chopper in Rebels seems to fill the role of the beloved family pet. L3-37 in Solo is explicitly calling for droid liberation and insists that she and all other droids are equal to organics. Mouse droids likewise seem to be viewed as robotic animals. Mando again makes equivalent droid automation and slave labour.

However, this becomes complicated because there are also actual slaves in Star Wars. The clones are the most obvious example, but the twi’lek as a species also are often enslaved. There are also slaver “planets” and “races” who base their economy off of the buying and selling of slaves (that was in the clone wars, I can’t remember what episodes though). Droid liberation is often framed as inherently farcical in the franchise, but “droid liberation” also exists as a form of deracialised political action, and I mean that in the real world sense - droids are not analogous to a given real world conflict or historical process the way that like, twi’lek are (who even have french accents and speak space french! Now Filoni is an idiot and says this is because he’s drawing inspiration from the French Revolution as opposed to the much more appropriate and obvious Haitian Revolution, but whatever). So when drawing parallels between slavery as a thing in Star Wars and slavery as a real world historical process, it becomes frustrating to talk about, because droid lib is both set-up and punchline, but it’s also the most “acceptable” way to explore ending slavery in SW because it means the white writers don’t have to engage with systemic racial oppression in a way that might make them feel uncomfortable. As a comparison, there are multiple episodes in clone wars where clones refuse to follow orders or try to escape and they’re treated as defective or wrong or insane. That shit fucking sucks and it takes on a much more insidious tone than “haha, the droids want weekends off. how cute.”

And then the counter COUNTER problem with that, which is explicitly invoked in The Mandalorian, is that droids are essentialised to their code or “base functions.” These are facts about a droid that are intrinsic to their nature and cannot be altered or removed, and to attempt otherwise means perverting the “true nature” of droids - they are doomed to be what they were created for (I guess forget about IG-11 being rehabilitated lol). So when you call them slaves, and then insist they are forever shackled to their programming, that’s not a neutral storytelling choice, and you are essentially invoking the idea that there are some races or people for whom slavery is more naturally suited. Which is explicitly a white supremacist idea. And given the context of this storyline in The Mandalorian’s broader political problems, it becomes particularly nefarious.

All this to say - droids are maybe slaves. It depends on the story being told and why, it depends on the writer, etc. But when analogising it to real world history it becomes fraught, given that there are actual slaves in SW who are intended as obvious parallels to real world acts of slavery in human history, a thing that is omnipresent in star wars while also being largely ignored or dismissed by the writers

[gorbalsvampire]

Building Koldun in V5

So a while back I was in the 'tism hole over Tzimisce koldun, and talking a big game about rebuilding Koldunism as a series of Rituals for non-Sorcery Disciplines. I pulled a bunch of names from the WW Wiki, assigned them to parent powers and started writing situational modifiers. But I also looked at the Paradox Wiki to see what had made the jump to V5, and... there's a lot more of the old Tzim-Tzim flavour in Blood Sorcery than I'd initially realised.

The thing is, Blood Sorcery is a messy Discipline, with its powers representing (at least) three magical traditions and spread out across (at least) five rulebooks. So... I went through everything I could access and picked out the Rituals with the right vibes, plus powers at each level to serve as the baseline. And then I started making full character builds because, er. I have brain problems?

Blood Sorcery

L1 - Koldunic Sorcery Beelzebeatit, Clinging of the Insect, Coax the Garden, Craft Bloodstone, Douse the Fear, Enrich the Blood, Herd Ward, Letter Ward

L2 - Scour Secrets [Protean: Visceral Absorbtion] [Dominate: Ancestral Dominion] As Fog on Water, Calling the Aura’s Remnants, Depths of Nightmare, Elemental Grasp, Tiamat Glistens, Viscera Garden

L3 - Transitive Bond Communal Vigour, Elemental Shelter, Essence of Air, Eyes of the Past, Firewalkerm, Galvanic Ruination, Herd Ward (Major), One With The Blade, Seeing with the Sky’s Eyes, Seeking Tiamat, Soul of the Homunculus, The Unseen Change

L4 - Blood Aegis Compel the Inanimate, Defence of the Sacred Haven, Feast of Ashes, Guided Memory, Land’s Sustenance, Rending the Sweet Earth, Riding the Earth’s Veins

L5 - Reclamation of Vitae Dominion, Elemental Attack, Fisher King, Heart of Stone, Transferring the Soul

The parent powers I've selected are mostly concerned with acquiring knowledge (the scrying effect of Koldunic Sorcery and the speed-reading capacity of Scour Secrets), moving into management of Retainers and Herd at the higher levels.

Other Disciplines

Dominate: Compel, Cloud Memory, Domitor’s Favour, Ancestral Dominion Protean: Eyes of the Beast, Feral Weapons, Earth Meld, Visceral Absorption, One with the Land Animalism: Bond Famulus, Animal Messenger, Messenger’s Command, Animal Succulence Fortitude: Resilience, Enduring Beasts Auspex: Sense the Unseen, Unerring Pursuit [Reveal Temperament], Eyes of Beasts

You're not going to get all of these and Blood Sorcery, but I wanted to showcase a few potential pathways. Dominate is there for the Old Clan vibe, building up Retainers and Mawla once the utility powers are out of the way.

Protean powers are more in the vein of touching ground than meat crimes, but you can totally sub in Vicissitude for Feral Weapons and Horrid Form for Visceral Absorption if you want to be basic. ;)

With Animalism and Fortitude I've tried to build into another "retainer" concept with the Famulus powers, kind of a witch's familiar that evokes the Mephistophelean Minx ritual from before.

And finally, Auspex. For the old-fashioned true-Tzimisce stans out there, we have perceptions extended into the spiritual and bestial, tying into Animalism to observe as well as instruct through the Famulus. You could also take a swarm approach here, if you wanted (for example) a chattering rookery as spies for the Koldun.

Recommended Loresheet: Veins of the Earth.

Predator Type: If ancilla, Osiris will allow Blood Sorcery 3 at character creation (if you can twist your ST's arm into letting you take the first one despite Not Being A Tremere, which I think is reasonable: it's not like there were Tzimisce rules when the V5 core was written). If neonate, Osiris is still the most efficient from an XP standpoint, but the 10 XP for Koldunic Sorcery and a Ritual are within easy reach for any Predator Type.

The house considers Montero to be flavourful for an aloof scholar and scryer whose Retainers do the boring bits for them. I've been wanting to make that Predator Type work since I first saw it and it just hits right for a Tzimisce.

Complete Builds

First up, the Refugee. This neonate character has a lot of flexibility, isn't bad in a fight (six dice Brawl pool with a Rouse, and Aggravated damage - you could always shift the 4 dots into Strength if you wanted more combat focus, or chuck Feral Weapons for Vicissitude if you wanted some classic meat crimes in there).

I've built them as dependent on a sponsor, an elder of their chosen sect who's taken them in: perhaps they were a street kid with potential, or perhaps they're a recent defector from the Sabbat who left without much more than the clothes they stood up in.

And now, a playable ancilla, the Lady of the Scene! This concept eschews broad Disciplines in favour of deeper Koldunism and a more developed Famulus; they're a leader, not a fighter. They've been around for a while, building a community around themself and embedding themselves into the city at large. They're not exactly famous, but it's known that they can intercede on your behalf and get things done. If you have a problem nobody else can help with, the witch is there...

We've got some classic vampire weaknesses: the invitation thing works for an old-fashioned Tzimisce (this one's much more Old Clan in feeling, without even the potential for Vicissitude) and holy water ties nicely to selecting water as their Koldunic element (I see this character having a scrying pool in their basement). There's some post-Sabbat baggage in the form of the Shunned flaw, and Stigmata feels like an appropriate "hide in plain sight" choice for a character who could well be a cult leader. In fact, if we look closely at the sheet, I went more specific with this one without meaning to... I engineered this with the Santa Muerte cult in mind, and that's the concept I'd lean into if and when I personally got to play this one.

This is the first time I've shared something like this, but I really hope people like it, and it makes sense, because I love building premades and I could very easily do more of these. Maybe even by request? If you've got a concept you want me to put some numbers behind, get in my askbox. Otherwise I'm gonna start blurting about the Redemption coterie - unless people REALLY hate the focus on sheets and numbers and want me to go away and stop talking.

[tiptapricot]

Alright. Finally getting my thoughts together about Mando S3 episode 6! Forewarning this is a very critical and disappointed view on the episode, however I do try and be as nuanced and explanatory as I can, as just like with the rest of this season there is so much potential, so much I almost love, but it’s just not carried through or is handled in a way that makes me confused and frustrated.

This is somewhat organized, but not overly edited, so if things jump around a bit or if there’s typos, excuse me. Other than that, let’s get into it.

So this episode brings a first two seasons side quest vibe to stuff, which personally I enjoyed as I think those side quests (while many ppl see them as filler/a distraction from the main plot) are more ab exploring our characters under different stressors and circumstances and seeing how they act/react as a result. The design for Plazir was gorgeous and intriguing, and it was fun to see Jack Black and Lizzo and Christopher Lloyd. Similarly to a lot of people I had a “HEY I KNOW THOSE GUYS” moment, and it made me smile and laugh.

But then you get into the plot and I just. I was so icked out and uncomfortable and baffled at how it was handled. Plazir is, as it’s set up, an absolute fucking dystopia. Star Wars has never been good with its droid issues, something that always makes me extremely mad and uncomfortable, but beyond the Solo story, I think this may be one of the worst handlings of those issues yet.

I’ll be sharing ideas with the video “The Traegedy of Droids” by Pop Culture Detective pretty consistently in passing here, so please check it out if you haven’t or aren’t aware of what I’m talking about with “the issue with how SWs handles droids.”

The mini plot of this episode is, in summary, our main protagonists helping to carry out a targeted physical oppression of a droid revolution in order to maintain the droid’s enslaved class status and allow the citizens to continue living on free labor. Not only that, but the revolution and fighting back is revealed to not be a choice, but a drugged reaction from an evil human source. The droid bar literally called The Resistor is not, in fact, an underground place for droids to find community and power and push back (despite the fact that it proves they have off time and desires for relaxation and comraderie) but a place for our mains to be reminded that droids actually just love being an enslaved class, and that oh yes these violent push backs actually make them look bad, and what if they’re forced not to work anymore? No they care about their oppressors and couldn’t imagine fighting back. Action like that has to be forced out of them by humans and is unnatural to their regular existence.

And none of this is framed in the dystopian way it should be. Plazir and it’s leaders and citizens are not framed or presented in a negative light, and the moral is not put on helping the droids to not be the forced labor class for a whole planet. The interesting and terrible ideas presented are taken at face value of how the ruling class sees it, and we as the audience are meant to root for Din and Bo as they chase after a droid Din harassed into fighting back, who is running for its life and defending itself, who they kill. We are meant to be happy when they shoot it, feel triumph, see these outbursts the same way those on Plazir/our mains do. We are meant to see droids as both the enemy and as rightfully subservient.

And that’s. Absolutely fucking wild? Similarly to Solo and L3, I cannot fathom the thought process going through the writers brains while setting up a plot that focuses on droid revolution and freedom, only to treat it as a joke, or to end up condemning droids to a fate worse than death/to a content slave class. And all of this, again, our protagonists go along with.

Bo and Din never once question droid rights or sentience, never once go “oh hey we should actually help these guys out.” They stop the uprisings, Lizzo knights Grogu, and the story goes along its way like it was just an unimportant side quest, and not a nightmare. The mains don’t care, the writers don’t care, the world is telling the viewer not to care.

This is exemplified, unfortunately enough, with the use of the cameos. That reaction of “Omg haha! Lizzo! Jack Black! Mr Lloyd!” add to the comedic/trope-y framing of this episode. The acting was great, this is not against the actors present, I was happy to see them, but their presence added to the episode’s unserious/comedic/don’t think about it too much tone. Seeing celebrities we like takes the focus off of the content of the plot and onto “Haha people I like!” And that sours their presence for me.

And like. Droid stuff not being serious has always been around, with protagonists playing into/joking about droid oppression right from the original trilogy, but hating droids has within the mandalorian itself been built up to be unreasonable and a flaw.

Din is droid-racist. That’s been part of his character since the start, and it has been something he has grown with, that the story has attempted to show him working against despite his prejudices. Yes, he is not over his hate for droids, trusting a few will not change his views on them all, and his actions still being violent and prejudiced this episode are not totally out of character. But he’s been shown to be working on that, and the issue comes with the fact that these actions are not seen as an issue past being impulsive. Kicking a line of workers until one lashes out, saying “if they’re programmed right they shouldn’t mind,” threatening to kill a droid bartender, not questioning forced labor, being excited to kill droids, are all framed as funny or correct or just regular “fighting before talking” type characterization, and not as the deeply flawed and bigoted actions they are.

I’ve seen people in fandom saying “well it’s because of his battle droid PTSD” “din still hates droids that wasn’t resolved” “he’s not just going to be fine around the droids that killed his parents” and like. Yeah, sure. But that doesn’t excuse the actions. They should still be seen as a big fucking issue, as him acting grossly out of line and holding up a “one bad experience means the whole group is bad forever” mentality. Not just a character quirk or something funny or an excuse. The best I can liken it to atm is racism from war vets against the group they fought against. You may be able to understand the distrust and trauma associations but hey guess what! Doesn’t excuse the racism/xenophobia/etc.! But the plot and story framing sure does, and it’s been effective, because the fandom has been doing the same thing too! And it’s. Wild to me!

Like I get many people don’t think about stuff, because again that’s how the world frames it, but you gotta? You gotta see the messages being pushed here?

And from a narrative standpoint you can’t just introduce a storyline like this without dealing with the implications it therefore burdens the story with discussing. Otherwise you end up with something reductive, trivializing, and at its core really really ideologically gross, which is what we got here.

This also doesn’t even touch on:

—The further use of the amnesty program in a way that doesn’t fully dig into the messed up results or the irl parallels to operation paperclip

—Ugnaughts being the only organic labor class we see besides those monitoring security, another group that’s framed as loving to work on the things the ruling class don’t want to, and also living in the dark underground

—The implications of direct democracy and non-militant societies being seen as weak and unreasonable

—Leaders finding loopholes in their laws to intact violence into a revolting class without having to answer for the repercussions of rule breaking

Mainly because I don’t have the brain to unpack all of it. But hey! Just shows how much they introduced with no real thought of how big a can of worms it opened up from a political and social perspective. Something that while a constant in Star Wars at this point never makes it alright. It’s lazy and shows the underlying racist/capitalist politics running through most main pieces of the universe, of which this episode I’d say is probably Mando’s most outright example of. (There are exceptions, Andor being a huge one, but lord is that an exception with everything around it)

And like in concept a neo-noir detective story/procedural with the mando cast sounds awesome, that’s one of my favorite genres, but this was just good old fashioned copaganda and race/class fumble episode with no real nuance, point, or lingering effects on our characters and their view of droids. When I’m fully able to say Detroit become human did a better job handling the ideas of robot sentience/freedom/uprising/changing sides, I think you need to take a good hard look at your story.

So just. That’s that part of the episode. And that’s already so much, but then we have the ending/it’s ties into the overall plot.

From the start we get no real explanation for why Din is with Bo and no one else, what the fallout of the armorer’s decision and reveal of Bo’s place in things had on the covert or on Din and Bo. We just jump in. Then you have Din and Bo showing their individual leading strengths in the episode, the balance between diplomacy and action, heavily implying some joint ruling need, or even showing Din finally showing leadership skills.

But then we get to the final scene with the Axe and Bo fight, and I’ll say I loved that combat! Beat each other up! It was great and I think shows their competence and the statement that fighting makes in mando culture, as well as asserting Bo’s place leading her group. But then we also get two really fucking stupid things.

The first is Axe saying Din isn’t a real mando because of blood even though that? Has never really been a staple of the culture??? This opens up an idea that the night owls have different views on Mandalorian culture than the larger consensus that understands it as a religion, a culture, a people, but not a homogenous group with direct biological descent. Foundlings are huge! So where is this coming from? What’s the background there?

It muddies up a lot of character stuff, culture stuff, and the analogies Mandalorian culture has to real life groups like the Jewish community, various Indigenous and colonized communities, etc. As with so much of this season, Mandalorian culture and politics is begging to be explored, to be fleshed out and dug into in a deeper way than it has been already, and even with new ideas the writers decide to use, it’s given almost no focus. It’s frustrating and disheartening.

Second, ofc, is the Darksaber hand off. I have talked previously about one of the largest issues this season being the writers wrapping up Din’s arcs and plots with no real focus or fanfare, and this was another slap in the face in that regard. Officially, every single important thing from the end of S2 has been wrapped up either in a spin off series that shouldn’t even have had sm Din focus, or in the second episode of the third season. Everything that poised Din for a huge character arc at the end of season 2, at a fundamental change and exploration in himself, has been tossed aside. And it makes no sense to do that. So let’s go through them each!

1. Grogu. Throughout the first two seasons Din and Grogu’s relationship was a focus. It was about Din breaking rules and getting into danger to save this kid, his drive to protect him, to connect him with his people, and then to save him from Gideon. We get that line “He is more important to me than you will ever know,” and then Din has to give him away. This sets up exploring how Grogu has changed him, how that relationship has affected them both, how Din now operates without him.

But then he was reunited with Grogu relatively easily, and there has been no focus on how the newfound understanding of Grogu’s importance to Din affects their relationship now. He hasn’t even recognized himself as Grogu’s father yet, and there’s been no real bonding moments past some in the first two episodes and the background shallow cute moments in others. There’s been no side interactions of Din asking about what Grogu learned, or treasuring having him back, or reflecting on his place as a parent, or making sure he doesn’t lose him again. In episode 6 Din even leaves Grogu with strangers he’s just met for the entire episode and that has no fallout or recognition, despite one of them being an ex-imperial.

2. Breaking the creed. Throughout the first two seasons, again, Din’s faith and his adherence to the CotW’s beliefs are a huge focus. From episode one and on we get variations of the question “Why don’t you take off your helmet?” “Just take off your helmet” “don’t mandos never take their helmets off?” And we see Din is willing to die rather than break that, rather than not be Mandalorian anymore in his eyes. But he does anyway. For Grogu. A testament to not only his growth because of him, but to his commitment to Grogu over all else.

And he is in some ways hopeless because of that. He willingly takes off his helmet again to show Grogu his face before he says goodbye, because he is all Din has left at that point, all that matters in the moment.

But, of course, there is no lasting effect. Bathing in the waters, built up to be a season long arc, was aborted to being finished in episode two with relatively extreme ease, and even then, had no lingering focus on what being redeemed meant for Din. There was no questioning or clinging to faith, no discussions of how much this meant for him, no lingering on the bathing (because it was turned into a rescue action scene for Bo’s story!), no discussion of how being accepted back and cleansed affected him. One of the largest parts of the character since his introduction is. A footnote.

3. The darksaber/ruler of Mandalore story. This one’s just. Nothing. Also resolved retroactively in episode 2, and with no plot presence otherwise. To start this out, no I didn’t think Din was going to have this great rise to being Mand’alor, that was never really where the plot was going in my eyes. But no matter where it should’ve gone or what it should’ve been, it should’ve been something. Yes! He doesn’t want it! So show us why, show us what that responsibility or implication means to him, why his sect of culture doesn’t care about it, why he doesn’t believe himself to be the one to rule or unite. Make him giving it up feel as earned as if he’d kept it. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of this episode and a final straw in my vendetta against the writers.

The dark saber doesn’t even make an appearance between episodes two and six, it’s that unimportant. There is no conversation with Paz or the Armorer, who both know Din has it. There is no discussion about what it means with Jedi vs Mando history, or with Bo Katan about her history with it. This therefore makes Din having it pointless. It did nothing beyond maybe some combat scenes and the brief Butt up against Paz in BoBF. Another case of more actual plot engagement being in BoBF than the main show. There was no point for it to change hands to Din, because him having it changed nothing, made no one grow, made no one think. It affected Bo, which I’ll touch on again in a bit, but the story blooming there could’ve come around by many other means and was not tied to Din at all.

But before I dig into that aspect, the amount of times I’ve seen “Din never wanted the saber that’s why hes finding an easy loophole to give it up” “Din likes being a side character” stuff is so!!! Like!!! Yes! He doesn’t want it he doesn’t want action and responsibility and he doesn’t care about it but he is not making choices he is not real he is being written lazily! This is the writers not wanting to engage with their own character that they built up and created and set the arcs in motion for.

A show can have multiple mains, can shift character focus, but “The Mandalorian” at its inception was referring to Din Djarin and there was no precident for that focus to completely shift. This isn’t a show that changes protags every season, he used to be a shape in the title, is on the merch and the branding. And if there is meant to be a protagonist shift it has to be gradual, and to still involve his development in the impact on that other character. The explanation of “Well it’s called The Mandalorian not Din Djarin” just makes me really mad cause yeah? It is? But it’s also called Star Wars and not Luke Skywalker but we still understand he is the main protagonist, even if other characters develop and are present alongside him.

And there’s no excuse to sideline Din, because the truth is he does have growth to get, he does have arcs to explore, the only reason he’s so flat and has nothing to work towards right now is because the writers threw that away. Specifically in ways that did not make sense from a character or writing perspective.

And why is that? Because they wanted to write someone else, they wanted to write Bo Katan.

Which is exciting! I love Bo as a character from what I’ve seen of her. She is complex and flawed and has a deeply fucked up past that’s intrinsically connected to Mandalore and it’s future. That is a fascinating character to work with, and I don’t mind her being more present in Mando as it tracks for the goal of bringing Mandalorians together. But! This plot is not doing her justice either.

Throughout this season Bo has been dragged along through the shallows in her own journey. There has been no discussion of her past, of Death Watch’s terrorism and torture and murder, of Satine, of her several past attempts to lead Mandalore, of her history with the civil wars and with clan Viszla and with so much more. Which is wild, because you’d think a season which has chosen to focus on her would? Give a shit about her? Would actually engage with the character she is and what she brings to the table?

Instead she’s been handed every plot point, reduced to a girlboss leader, and her rise to getting the saber again is not only forced with no real discussion or nuance, but she’s once again been given it on a technicality. Just as Din giving up the saber is not a decision and shift earned by development, Bo getting it again isn’t either.

And as I mentioned earlier, she was affected by Din getting the saber in that it led to her people leaving her, and led her to question things, but it being Din having the saber means nothing. The same thing would’ve happened had anyone else gotten the saber, or had it been vented off into space or lost or hidden or whatever. By giving it to a specific character, that begs for interaction over that ownership, for discussion and reflection and connection with that character.

And yet there has been nothing. Bo and Din have had some good interactions, yes, but the development the show seems to want for Bo, seems to want the audience to be rooting for and going along with, is not being shown.

To make all of this more basic, the issue with this episode and this whole season thus far, is that it refuses to engage with its own ideas to a fault. It doesn’t want to get its hands messy, doesn’t want to untie the complicated and fascinating and fucked up knot it’s tied for itself. Instead it’s slicing through all of those Gordian style and leaving us to wonder about what might’ve been, about what the story seems to want to be.

I love a lot of the concepts this season, I love what it could be. I love the characters and the world and the religion and the politics, but I have to actually see what is set up, what is set in motion, what is built, to feel like I am watching the show I loved at the start.

And though it’s not as relevant to this episode, it feels relevant here: This should’ve been a Mandalorian politics season, not a new republic politics season.

Yes, they are intertwined, but at the moment the new republic development feels like a main focus, meant to set things up for further installments in the franchise or retroactively explain pst choices, and the mandalorian culture a side focus, and this has caused a detriment to both. Neither gets explored in their full complexity and nuance, and the story feels unfocused and weirdly disjointed as a result.

I’ve seen people upset by the great divide or presence of fandom negativity lately and I get that, but I feel there needs to be an understanding that people aren’t hating just to hate, this is a serious disappointment with the tanking quality of the show and it’s lack of commitment to itself. When something doesn’t deliver on what it markets itself to be, what the writing lays a basis for, that breaks trust and engagement and enjoyment, and leads to people being pissed. It happens. You can still enjoy the show, while also recognizing there is a boatload of valid criticism and issues and flawed messages that are making people uncomfortable, disinterested, and angry.

And having expectations doesnt devalue those criticisms either. I’ve seen a lot of talk of like “you wanted it to be something it’s not” and while that’s true in some cases, I had no solid ideas for this season beyond… what it showed it was going to do. And I am trying to engage with the ideas it is presenting. Again, I like the hypothetical arc at play, but the execution just. Isn’t it for me. The writing quality isn’t good and isn’t smooth and as I hope I’ve laid out, isn’t living up to its own potential or ideas.

So. Yeah.

I just want a show to be what it was begging to be, what it set itself up to be, what the characters and plot threads are wanting to be, but aren’t able to reach in their entirety. I want stuff that makes sense, that makes me think, that isn’t bigoted and lazy and frustrating. But I haven’t been getting that. And that really sucks.

TLDR: a train wreck in motion, but it was carrying cargo I would’ve loved to see.

[kanerallels]

i would love to hear your thoughts about droids in star wars!

Aww thank you!! They're not super extensive, alas, but I do have a few parts that are important to me!

First of all, you're right. Droids are 101 percent treated as less important in most Star Wars media. R2 didn't even get a medal for the Death Star plans situation, for heaven's sake! And they're usually treated as expendable or less important or, often times, just annoyances. It's kinda sad, honestly

But! There are actually a handful of times this isn't true and I love them very much! For instance, L3 from Solo. Lando seems to dismiss her a little at first, but it becomes clear that he pretty much couldn't get by without her. And his reaction to her death is just as devastated as he would be over a human crew member (although there's still plenty of examples of the, for lack of a better word, droid discrimination in this movie.). She also leads a droid rebellion, which I think is very cash money of her

Then there's Chopper-- he's kinda in the middle, but it's very clear that Hera views him as a member of the crew, and treats him exactly how she would treat any other of her kids. When Zeb gambles him away in season one, he gets in Huge Trouble (and honestly, that's fair)

OH OH and B2EMO in Andor!! After his owner, Maarva, dies, the other people in the community (namely my main man Brasso, the myth the legend himself) take care of him and look after him and treat him like a grieving family member! It's super wholesome!

But, I'd say the best example of droids being treated fairly and like equals in Star Wars? CLEARLY BD-1 and Cal Kestis in Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor. He becomes fond of BD really quickly, and by the end of the game it's clear that Cal values BD just as much as any of his other crew members! The game shows them chatting and even telling jokes at one point (seriously, that's some of my favorite dialogue in the first game) and he confides in BD in a way that he doesn't with the others. And whenever BD is missing, or injured, Cal gets super worried for him! (there's this one scene in Jedi: Survivor where he calls for him and is all "BD! BD-1!" and I SWEAR it has "parent using the middle name on their kid" vibes, I love it so much)

Long story short, I mainly wanted to rant about how much I love BD-1 and Cal's relationship, but you're right! Even in Chopper and L3's cases, I can think of times they are treated with a little dismissal. But they are also loved and valued, and regarded as important members of their crew

[thisisnotthenerd]

following up on my previous posts about d20 seating: 1 & 2

seat archetypes (all seasons)

as you can imagine, finding a throughline that exactly fits every d20 character that sits in a seat is never fully going to work. i'm not jamming them into an archetype that doesn't fit. these are big general thoughts, just like they were for the intrepid heroes seasons. anyway:

L1: pretty even mix of martial and magic--lots of partial casters. 3/4 d20 paladins. i checked. in game, there's a penchant for big swings and wild decisions. sometimes the payoff of that is insane: ricky's sacrifice in the final battle, fig making arianwen lose her magic, liam's wish, sunny & the bell, maggie giving birth, rick diggins' everything, antiope killing charity in one round, gunnie going ftl with gnosis, conrad's appeal to madam loathing, i could go on. many who sit in this chair have a penchant for party guidance/leadership. they may or may not be an official leader, but many of them are the heart of the party morally and just generally.

Characters:

Fig Faeth, Maggie, Ricky Matsui, Rick Diggins, Liam Wilhelmina, Sunny Biscotto, Gangie Green, Whitney Jammer, Antiope Jones, Terry Talbo, Gunnie Miggles-Rashbax, Dr. Aleksandr Astrovsky, Andhera, Rosamund du Prix, Thane Delissandro Katzon, Troyánn (Karkyn?), Conrad Schintz/Conscience

L2: Martial lean--only a couple of full casters. in game, these characters kick ass in high stakes scenarios (sometimes), or hit rock bottom. there is no in between. sometimes their entire arc is getting knocked down and the getting up from rock bottom in order to kick ass: leiland's whole deal, sofia's chapter 2 arc, timothy . a bunch of tanks. also, a tendency towards older men.

Characters:

Gorgug Thistlespring, Leiland, Sofia Lee, Boomer, Theobald Gumbar, Barbarella Sarsaparilla Gainglynn, Buckster $ Boyd, Katja Cleaver, Riva, Captain K.P Hob, Mother Timothy Goose, A. Tension/Attention

L3: the magic chair. lots of full casters. all 3 d20 wizards sit here. the lowkey chosen one energy persists. think about it. strong narrative investment. several characters who make the hit that takes down the BBEG. either some kind of chaotic gremlin or a parent. oftentimes both simultaneously. actually the split more reflects parent or parent issues. isolated characters who feel ignored in some way taking control of their narratives.

Characters:

Adaine Abernant, Efink Murderdeath, Kingston Brown, Agnes, Jet Rocks, Saccharina Frostwhip, Cheese, Daisy D'umpstaire, K | Dream, Penny Luckstone, Megan Mirror, Norman "Skip" Takamori, Squing, Lady Chirp Featherfowl, Pinocchio, Bishop Raphaniel Charlock, Princess Foehammer, Hunch Curio/Curiosity

R3: slight magic lean. it's the bard chair. 5 of them, to be exact. a lot of charismatic characters sit in this seat. if they're not charm-based, they go the complete opposite direction. not friendly, surprisingly violent, quite abrasive at times. learning to really understand other people and move past your perception of your own needs by contrast. this can go either direction: you can have a fully self-interested character like margaret or you can have danielle barkstock's insane selflessness.

Characters:

Fabian Seacaster, Sokhbarr, Misty Moore, TI-83, Ruby Rocks, Myrtle (the Bitch), Iga Lisowski, Rowan Berry, Vicar Ian Prescott, Sam Black, Danielle Barkstock, Tuti IV, Margaret Encino, Wetzel, Lord Squak Airavis, Puss in Boots | PIB, Karna Solara, Gertrude, Imelda Pulse/Impulse

R2: Split of martial & magic. it's high WIS or no WIS, people. trying to do better than you did before in various ways: kristen's religious crisis, kugrash's atonement, cody's whole deal, gerard's whole deal, dan fucks' revolution, rue coming out, jack's whole deal. there's a very funny split that i've found here; the ladies who sit here have a lot of power and use it to devastating effect. examples: kristen making a god and naming an old god, ostentatia's commune & divine intervention, lilith's everything, sidney taking a vercadian out in one shot. the men? they either hit rock bottom during the season or start there and work upward. the only exception i can think of is bean. and the nbs, rue and lars, are just fabulous.

Characters:

Kristen Applebees, Lilith, Kugrash, Bean, Amethar Rocks, Jack Brakkow, Cody Walsh, Lars Vandenchomp, Ostentatia Wallace, Sundry Sidney, Delloso de la Rue, Gerard of Greenleigh, Colin Provolone, Dan Fucks/Desire

R1: the rogue chair. it's more than R3's bards, with six rogues. no multiclasses. it's the rogue chair. otherwise, a bunch of rangers and sorcerers. this chair is for the plothounds. they're searching it out and making connections, or they're making big magic swings and connecting themselves to gods. they tend to put the detectives here. everyone here is going to make the dm's job easier by idk, communing with a death god (2 nickels for this seat), or going off on their own to find clues to a greater mystery.

Characters:

Riz Gukgak, Markus St. Vincent, Pete Conlan, Car-Go Jones, Lapin Cadbury, Cumulous Rocks, Marcid the Typhoon, Sylvester Cross, Evan Kelmp, Sam Nightingale, Seven, Big Barry Syx, May Wong, BINX Choppley, Ylfa Snorgelsson, Lady Amangeaux Epiceé du Peche, Twyla, The Fix/Hyperfixation

and that's all for this installment of thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats. feel free to tell me what you think, whether you agree or disagree. as always, the spreadsheet can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g7skmX8WuPRsjvU1K0lAjVf4rNVnuuarW3Zb87A5hx0/edit?usp=sharing

@perksofbeingalittletwat you inspired this with your comment on the last seating chart, so thank you for that.

[mysterycharacterbracket]

Season 2, Round L3, Poll #2

Character 66: Some are created great but not them. their purpose foresaw a pretty mundane existence. Until they held the blade! Now people move out of their way and they have risen through the ranks! They are unstoppable!

Character 23:

Hes got a kind smile

Hes a working man (hot) 

He has talking vehicles. I think. I dont remember it very well. That or he thinks he has talking vehicles

Hes a beloved member of the community 

He takes safety seriously

Good with kids 

Banging theme song

[theklonoafan]

These incidents doesn't need to be what Klonoa's legacy is.

You might've heard of a lot over the past few months. The big people being exposed as creeps, other people being exposed for creepy behaviour and disgusting motives. While they are usually bad that they are here in this first place, things like this are unfortunately gonna happen inevitably when there's a series that has a community, especially ones that are obscure. There will be more coming, there will be more that is still there but hidden. However, people outside of the community and possibly you will look at this and think that this is what the community is about. Toxic p3d0ph!l3s with the grasp in the community, people s*xual!sing a character and Psychopaths that want to take control of other people and do their bidding. Which would discourage people from looking into Klonoa in the first place and even become the joke in the internet along with stereotyping.

This shouldn't have to be what Klonoa's legacy is.

Although it is also inevitable. The built up legacy from the games, broken to pieces. Possibly leaving it with a dead franchise. This shouldn't be what Klonoa is going to be. People are behind incidents and the people should be blamed, rather than the community. Opinions of what Klonoa is shouldn't have to rely on a person, it should be what you loved about it instead of what a person did to it. Klonoa's legacy shouldn't die or be because of toxic behaviour, especially your thoughts on it. It should never become something you hate. Communities are like a tree and of course, there are bad apples. However, one bad apple doesn't that it is a bad tree. There are many good apples on a tree and so is a community. I'd implore you to favour the good people there instead of making the bad people be your thoughts on a community or a thing you liked. Promote what you liked about your interest, make art about what you liked about it, any form that shows that you love it so much. What I am saying is, don't let that incident be what Klonoa is... (This also applies to other communities as well.)

[the-cooler-newton]

listening to A More Civilized Age while knowing barely anything about star wars is so wild. I'm listening to their episode about Solo: A Star Wars Story and am delighted that they all hate what that movie did to L3 as much as I did, but then Austin whips out receipts from an EU story that describes the Millenium Falcon as having THREE DIFFERENT AI cores in it???? like when L3 got uploaded there were already 2 in there???? and they kinda operate individually but are all part of the same ship system. and L3 is IN THERE. having THOUGHTS. ACTING as a character in the scene! she's STILL THERE.

and I'm like. THAT is so fucking sick. as a concept. a ship with 3 different AIs in it that all do different things??? that could have been so cool!!! if it was done properly!! millenium falcon with a sarcastic navigational AI?? with different AIs controlling different parts of the ship, communicating in different ways? L3 fusing with the ship she piloted, by her choice, on her own terms, as an exploration of consciousness and death and life and commitment and personhood, all that good robot shit you can do with robot characters.

instead we get L3, who's desire for robot emancipation is played as a joke for the whole movie, dying and having her navigational core stuffed into the Falcon without anyone giving pause or taking a second to be like "hey maybe we should consider this person as a person rather than a useful USB stick". instead we get L3 absolutely robbed of any agency she could've had. instead we get something gross, a breach of trust. they scrape away the person and just keep the things about her that were useful, and plug her into a lifetime of servitude. sickening.

[architecture-ljmu]

Liverpool School of Art & Design Degree Show

Launch night – Thursday 25th May, 5pm – 9pm Show continues Friday 26th May – Friday 9th June Closed Sundays and Bank Holidays

John Lennon Art and Design Building,

2 Duckinfield Street, Liverpool, L3 5RD

The show is a celebration of our final year students across;

MArch Architecture / BA Architecture  BA Fashion Design & Communication BA Fine Art BA Graphic Design & Illustration BA History of Art & Museum Studies

BA Interior Architecture

Please join us on the launch night to see performances, displays, installations, fashion shows, portfolios, films, screen art and magazines and to meet staff and students from all the courses featured

[mysterycharacterbracket]

Season 2, Round L3, Poll #10

Character 17: He is a young boy with dark hair and glasses. He likes to read and learn. Often he can be found with a book in his backpack and a notepad to keep track of thoughts. He is also a brave kid and always tries to do the right thing.

Character 23:

Hes got a kind smile

Hes a working man (hot)

He has talking vehicles. I think. I dont remember it very well. That or he thinks he has talking vehicles

Hes a beloved member of the community

He takes safety seriously

Good with kids

Banging theme song

[anaxenxelxmachen]

I don't want it to be like this. I want to have a dad who wasn't a god damn p3doph!l3 and loved me and actually put me or really anyone of my siblings before himself. I wish I had a mom who had the intelligence and emotional stability above the level of a fucking teenager. I wish my parents actually tried to be better people and gave me the life I deserved if they were going to be selfish enough to bring me into this world for the sake of them cosplaying "normality." I wish my siblings actually cared about me. I wish anyone in my family cared about me. I wish I had a family. I wish I had all the experiences and things I should have had. I wish I had a fucking childhood. I want so badly to have the hope I once had, to dream and daydream endlessly and have a reason to keep going. I wish my stupid ass bitch of a narcissist selfish asshole of a sibling kept me ignorant and now I can't go back, I can't unknow that I have trauma and abuse and no one did a goddamn thing to save me and in fact they kept me ignorant and around my abuser unchecked and with full access, leaving me completely vulnerable and alone. I wish I had friends and people in my life who actually stayed. I'm grateful for my boyfriend and my dog but even my boyfriend isn't around that much because of his work schedule and my dog is no substitute for a community. I'm so tired of opening myself up to and extending myself for people who don't ever do the same for me. And then they leave. They always do one way or another. I'm so tired of being me, I'm so tired of having to live this life. I'm so tired of no one understanding. I'm so tired of people minimizing my emotions and trivializing my experiences. I'm so tired of people wanting me to "snap out of it" so I can resume being a cog in the machine of corporate America on their timeline. I'm so tired of having to schedule having fucking emotions around everyone else's needs. I'm so tired of being told I should have nuance towards my fucking abusers but no one extends that courtesy towards me, the one person who was always innocent in all this. I'm. So. Tired. I'm waiting for the switch to flip back to the way it was but I don't think it ever will. This reality is all I've seen and I can't fucking handle it. I don't want to be independent anymore. I don't want to be self reliant anymore. I want to know that I can break down and I'll actually get help. I don't know if I want to live anymore if it means keep living like this. I don't have the energy I used to, the joy I used to. I can't even fucking lose weight like I used to. I don't know what to do.

[dude1818]

I want the FTL in G Witch to be discussed more. Most of the show takes place in the Earth sphere, which seems to extend to the L1-4 Lagrange points. Getting between Earth and L1 or 2 within a week under constant acceleration is within the ballpark of modern technology, so the traveling Prospera and Delling did between their offices and school makes sense

The L3 and 4 Lagrange points are a hundred times farther. Plant Quetta is literally as far from Earth as the Sun. Yeah it was more of a trek, but it didn't seem like that much. But fine, that can be ignored for ease of plot. Even the missing 8 minute light travel delay in communications doesn't matter for the plot, so it's fine to handwave away

Except now it does matter. The giant space laser fired from L4 takes 8 whole minutes to arrive at Quiet Zero, which gave Eri more than enough time to reconfigure into a defense position. But only if she somehow intercepted an FTL signal from someone at the SAL base, because by definition you can't see a laser coming