#Nick too

[nocoastposts]

Being a mostly gay queer woman makes the existence and knowledge of Taylor Zakhar Perez a truly complex and beautiful experience.

[digitalfaehaven]

why is this the hottest photo ever

[reliquiaen]

Solomon is set up to be a trustworthy and reliable character. He is gracious when Sarah gives him a piglet, he warns her to be careful in the woods (or is he just worried she’ll catch him; if he knows about the parties, then he probably knows they visit Widow Mary, hm…). He is kind and understanding when she tells him she loves Hannah, he is protective when Pastor Miller tries to kill her in the chapel. He tries to talk sense into the other townspeople. He seems like a genuinely good man. But he’s not, and when I did my rewatch, I looked at his words and actions through that lens instead.

It's fairly self-evident that he’s selfish and cares about others only insofar as they can be of use to him, but knowing what he is from the start allows for some interesting reads.

First, this exchange right at the end with Sarah; the tinting of my lens:

Solomon: “Consider, Sarah, a single soul,” (Cyrus Miller) “Just one. And in return, what no amount of praying could ever bring. One person every few years seems a small price to pay.”

Sarah: “One person? The pastor slew twelve children.”

Solomon considers one person to have been sacrificed. Sarah argues it was thirteen. Both of them leave out poor Widow Mary, a total of fourteen people. Neither of them mentions the other costs: the divisions and suspicion it sows in their community, the dead livestock and the toll that will take on a small village’s food supply, or the potentially unending casualties this will have going forward. Obviously, given the situation and how shocking this is to both of them, I’m willing to put aside these things. Heat of the moment and all that. And Solomon expects there will BE no consequences in the vein of poor harvests and such.

What I really want to emphasise here is this: Solomon views his only victim as being Cyrus Miller, Sarah considers all of them to be his victims. This is interesting because it highlights not only the completely askew moral compass Solomon is working with (and I mean, yikes, you know), but also how he views women. Again, this is an “at the time” thing that I’m mostly willing to wave off as being pretty standard. Men did see women as less than at the time so it makes sense that he’s not really visualising Widow Mary (who had a Reputation for being a bit of a weirdo anyway) as a Victim Who Mattered. Children were also, generally speaking, a woman’s concern. He shows no remorse at all for the children being killed; the children who would’ve been Union’s future. And he WAS a father. We never find out how his wife and child died (or maybe I’m just not sure I believe his story), but I’d be very curious to know if this is his first foray into the occult or if perhaps he had previous victims. A trial run or some such.

HOWEVER. This idea of Solomon not actually giving much of a shit about women got me thinking about another scene from earlier in the movie (and this is where I really started to re-evaluate his actions based on new knowledge).

This is Solomon upon entering the chapel where Cyrus has just murdered a dozen kids. You can see in his expression and movements that he’s unsure what to expect; he doesn’t know what he’ll find in here. He clearly knew there would be SOME effect on poor old Pastor Miller, but my guess is he just assumed the man would die horribly and that’d be that. So imagine being Solomon here and having to confront what you’ve REALLY done.

This is the shot where he fully comprehends what’s happened. The horror on his face. He was not expecting this. Something bad, yes. Gouging out kids’ eyes? Not so much. (There’s a slightly zoomed out shot of Solomon on his knees just after this and it’s great, it’s like here you are Solomon. Behold the consequences of your actions. And he’s sitting among all these dead children, we as the audience are getting a moment to fully take in the horror of what’s just happened, but HE is taking this moment for it all to sink in. In this moment, he’s got to be wondering “Is this really worth it?” and I wonder what kinds of things he’s weighing up in his head. I wonder what would’ve happened, what he would’ve decided later, if Sarah hadn’t stumbled onto his secret and condemned him for it. Anyway.) Please also note the lighting behind him: not an accident, he is literally being posed here as a saviour of some kind, a vengeful angel, perhaps. We are being positioned to see him as the guy who will Do Something about all this, starting with Cyrus Miller we must assume. Very good framing in the “don’t let the audience figure out he’s the bad guy” kinda way. But wait up a minute.

The townsfolk spill in the doorway, they find the children relevant to them and have a horrified moment and then there's Sarah in the front row. The pastor comes around the stand with the clear intent to kill her, and Solomon has a moment. He knows what’s gotta be coming, he has to know, there’s this anger in his face, and he calls out to Sarah as a warning. Goody Miller says, “Cyrus no!” and then Solomon impales him. No hesitation. This is a man beholding his works and being very conflicted about them.

What’s interesting to me is that the first time you watch this scene it is VERY easy to say that he does this to protect Sarah whom he has feelings for. Super easy. It’s set up right from the start with Sarah’s conversation with her dad and her lil visit out to see Solomon and their friendly banter. It’s established and it’s understandable. The contrast is between Solomon and literally everyone else in the room, however.

The townsfolk with children come charging in to find out what’s gone on and they all go right to their children because they love their kids/siblings obviously and want to look after them. Goody Miller’s instinct is to go to her possessed, murdering husband because she CARES for him. But Solomon does not go to Sarah. He stands there, staring at Cyrus and that’s it. He doesn’t even LOOK at Sarah. Why not? He’s supposed to care about her? But does he? Does he value her at all outside her potential as a wife?

Now, Solomon is obviously Going Through It, here. He did a thing, it escalated WAAAAY beyond his expectations, and now he has to wrestle with that. He has to decide is all this worth it? Does he care so little about people that’ll he’ll do it again?

This is largely the scene I was considering. But there are other little changes to a reading of Solomon. Such as when Sarah tells him she loves Hannah, which she did right before this scene in the chapel. Here’s his expression:

This is Solomon’s face when Sarah says, “And if it wasn’t? […] That’s why I’m so afraid, because it was not just a dalliance.” That is the face of a man whose grand plans are crumbling. On a first watch, it's the face of a man hearing something he's not expecting to, something he might find a little distasteful about a person he cares for and respects. On a rewatch?

He KNOWS that she and Hannah have been having a lil thing going on, he SAW them in the woods. But he’s clearly decided that it doesn’t matter, he’s got his own reading of the situation happening in his head and it goes like this: a woman loves a man, they get married, they have kids, there are no deviations from this; if there ARE deviations, they are just… practice for the real thing, nbd. Therefore: Sarah will love Solomon, they will get married, have kids, all will be well and as people expect. So when Sarah very much has no intention of going along with this view… he’s got to be wondering how it’ll work with his devil plans. He MUST have this niggling doubt in his mind that she's even worth including in his master plan. And when he saves her in the chapel but never so much as looks at her? He has a decision to make, there.

And it makes ME wonder: how much did he ever really care about Sarah? Did he love her? Or did he just love the idea of having another wife? A take-two at being a family? Did he love the idea of proving his brother (and the town) wrong and being a hero with a thriving farm and a quaint lil family? Because he turns on Sarah easily enough, he chooses the devil pact over her and the other townsfolk. He chooses not to live his life but to end others. (Solomon Goode has two hands and he's making that everyone elses' problem.)

So when he’s standing in the chapel over the body of Cyrus Miller (his one and only victim, we PROMISE), what’s he really thinking? Yes, more than one person has died. No, that doesn’t have to put a dent in his plans. Perhaps Sarah can still come around. Is he considering how to get rid of Hannah? Is he wondering if Sarah is worth it? She’s a very strong personality (she is no lamb, after all), it’s not like she’d let him go about his business without any questions, she’d stick her nose in everywhere, maybe find him out. Is that risk worth it?

Solomon actually says when they’re wrestling at the end, “Don’t make me hurt you, I love you, Sarah.” And it’s the ‘don’t make me hurt you’ that’s so typical of men like him. He doesn’t love her, he loves the idea of her, the idea of what she could give him or be for him. He's a man who lost his wife and child and he feels that keenly; a failure or absence in his manhood. So his faults and shortcomings become her problem. Any woman could be substituted and as long as they were malleable and suggestive enough, it’s all the same to him. Which is clearly the conclusion he eventually arrives at since he turns on her and she hangs.

Should Sarah have figured out he was untrustworthy and insane earlier? No. I don't think so. It's not like Solomon was waving red flags around everywhere. He seemed like a normal dude on the surface, definitely pretty great in comparison to Thomas or Caleb, which is what makes him so dangerous. It is interesting to watch again knowing the truth, though. The things that make your hackles go up with more context, the subtle hidden meanings in his words, the way everything he does is for himself, it's a very nice reframing.

Sarah’s final line also drives me absolutely insane: “I will never let you go.” She didn’t want anything to do with him, but now? When it ends like this? When he’s decided she’s not worth it and he doesn’t want her after all? When he's taken away her chance at happiness? When he's ripped all the solid ground out from under her? That’s when she says she’ll never let him go? And that word choice? It's not 'I'll never let you forget this' or 'I'll never let you rest' or something more like that, it's 'never let you go' she'll hold onto him forever. He's made his issues other people's problems and now she's making herself HIS problem. Taste of his own medicine. Never let him go. Vicious, outrageous, iconic. I love her.

Everything is about HIM, and he uses all the tools at his disposal to make sure things come up Solomon. He chooses himself every time. A great juxtaposition to Sarah who chooses Hannah every time (even when Hannah tells her to run and she does, Sarah still goes back. It's a stupid decision, monumentally dangerous, but she wants to help Hannah, she goes back because she CARES). And I think the really great part is that to everyone else in the town, it looked like Sarah was just being a bitch, but she made her choices with the goal of protecting people; she tried to protect everyone in Union – Hannah, foremost, sure – but even that is a selfless act. She knew it was one or both of them so she saved Hannah. Solomon knew it was him or like… hundreds of people. And he chose himself. Would love to know what Hannah did after this, we don’t see another Miller in ’78 or ’94 so like, where’d she go? (The answer is probably ‘got married, took her husband’s name, no more Millers’ but like, c’mon, something more interesting please.)

And listen, I know Solomon must’ve gotten married again and had more kids, that’s obvious enough; and we know he kept going with the rituals, but I BET he pictured himself as the poor, sad, unsung hero of Union, doing this for the Good Of Everyone™ and having to live with the suffering in silence. I bet he thought he was living a miserable life because it didn't turn out EXACTLY how he wanted. Because he had to justify it to himself somehow, and it started with his ‘these lands are fertile’ so he’s got this picture of himself in his head where he’s solving everyone’s food problems as if he didn’t cause them in the first place.

He’s the very epitome of “be careful what you wish for” because he wished for Sarah Fier and by god he got her, teeth and all.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Cracked my first beer. Who's you're drinking buddy of choice?

[muirneach]

being subjected to leafs halloween pictures. cant tell if this is good or bad

[lettherebemonsters]

Hot take and extremely controversial opinion.....

Michael Myers has the cutest smile.

[johnnyspells]

Downfall: Part Two

[bairdthereader]

When older sister magic goes rogue

[nickmarini]

Ayden’s Build 

TL;DR: Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 8 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 9 (Peace Domain). Feats: Squire of Solamnia, Remarkable Recovery, Warcaster, Knight of Crowns, Spelldriver, Tough.

Building Ayden was a joy and a journey. To begin we were told we had 20 levels to work with and stats of 20 across the board. The only thing I knew about Ayden from the session 0 was that he was going to be a Cleric of the Everlight and that I wanted to make him the best support character I could. I also knew that the Dawnfather was aware of the mission briefing and so would have directed his growth to the task at hand. 

Stats of 20 meant multiclassing into any class was possible and that any ability score based bonuses or proficiency based abilities were going to be very good. I figured that with a warlock and a sorcerer we’d have some pretty good counterspelling and 9th level spell access, so I didn’t worry myself about either of those, instead focusing on making sure we all survived. 

The Dawnfather and The Everlight share 2 of 3 Domains. Life and Light. The Everlight’s 3rd domain is Peace. The Peace Domain cleric is an excellent subclass and its 6th level ability, Protective Bond, was something I knew I wanted to build around. The ability to take hits for, and aid, my siblings while teleporting around the battlefield is an excellent support ability and it also lets allies in the bond do the same, fostering sibling unity and cohesion.

With the Dawnfather having Nature as his unique domain separate from the Everlight, and literally sending himself to Exandria to infiltrate a city full of the greatest mages of the age, the Oath of Ancients Paladin seemed like an obvious path. It is the nature Paladin, (his domain) and 7 levels gives you both Aura of Protection and Aura of Warding. This means as Ayden moves through the battlefield with Protective Bond he will be granting allies +5 to saves from his cha as well as resistance to damage from spells. Incredibly good going up against the wizards of Aeor he knew he would encounter. I didn’t want to go to 10 with Paladin because I didn’t want to be immune to frightened. I just felt that fear played too large a role in the reasons the gods were here and although aura of courage is probably my favorite ability going back to 3rd edition, I felt like it wasn’t right for Ayden. He had to fear in order to reinforce his need to hope. 

These two classes were set relatively quickly and then I began looking at how else I was going to build him out. 

I really liked the idea of being able to grant my allies some extra attacks and so I was looking at battle master to get commanders strike and goading attack as well as maneuvering attack to help take hits for and position my allies. Action Surge is also a great ability that could really come in handy if I needed to save someone and needed one extra action to do so. 

I was also looking at the 2nd level Divination Wizard ability Portent. The ability to fully dictate 2 rolls is very powerful in certain circumstances, especially if the numbers are very high or very low.

Both these seemed good but weren’t feeling totally right from a character perspective. They felt too forced.

As I was playing around with these two classes I was also building Aydens backstory. I really liked the idea of him being agriculturally focused, as this aspect of the Dawnfather is actually his youngest. Sun begets days, and thus time and seasons, and as civilization evolves agriculture follows. The fighter levels lent the idea that he has spent some time training under a knight or some such warrior, and I knew that he would eventually find his way to Trist to begin his tutelage and become her cleric. I liked there being these different eras of his life. 

It was around this time that I got an awesome email asking me to describe Ayden visually so that the incredibly talented Hannah Friederichs and Cael Lyons could begin to bring Ayden and the Dawnfather to life. I wanted Ayden to be a simply dressed with a shield he took from his mentor, but no sword for striking. They sent 4 sketches and told me I could mix and match as I desired. Image #1 however was exactly as I had envisioned him. It was the simplest and had this depth to his eyes that told the story of a much older soul in this 15 year old body. It was so perfect that it made me realize I had been going in the totally wrong direction with fighter and wizard. The concepts of nature and agriculture were suddenly staring me in the face. It was not wizard, but druid, and his mentor could have taught him to be a paladin as easily as fighter, but if he is the bringer of agriculture who has he brought it to? A remote tribe still hunting and gathering was the answer. Barbarian therefore replaced fighter. I can’t tell you how influential the sketch I received was. It felt like a bolt of lightning suddenly clarified everything. 

I was for sure cleric 6, Paladin 7 and now looking at druid and barbarian. 

I didn’t know Druid subclasses very well but Circle of the Stars jumped out from the pack just with its name. The Sun after all is a star. When I read its 2nd level abilities Starmap and Starry form it was so obvious. I can cast Guiding Bolt to set up those attacks I wanted to grant, and I can glow instead of wild shape and either heal more or have a massive bonus to maintain the concentration spells I knew I wanted to cast. For the keeper of time to know how to read the stars just felt right. It also feel right that the druids of a tribe that had been hunting and gathering during the tumultuous Calamity would have learned to navigate by the stars, a singular constant in an every changing age. 

Barbarian has a number of interesting subclasses but none felt like they clicked. 1 level of Barbarian though, for a character with 20 dexterity and 20 constitution, catapults your AC to 20 and it also gives you a proficiency in Constitution saving throws if you take it as your first class, again reinforcing those concentration rolls. He was found as a child by this barbarian tribe and his first class is also his first community. Barbarian was the strong foundation I would build upon. 

I was now Cleric 6, Paladin 7, Druid 2, Barbarian 1. Reorganized to be the order Ayden would have taken them in it becomes the following:

Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 7 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 6 (Peace Domain)

4 more levels to distribute. As a player who has mostly played 3.5 (I think downfall just about doubled the amount of 5E I have played) feats are my absolute favorite things, so getting to multiples of 4 in class levels to grab some was something I wanted to do (also I didn’t have to worry about ability score increases)! I had already given one feat up by taking barb and druid but I made up for it with the human variant. I also took the Knight of Solamnia background to give me Squire of Solamnia, the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns which would give me the ability to grant attacks to my allies without needing battle maneuvers. 

So I upped paladin from 7-8 for a feat and then decided to take Cleric from 6-9 because it gave me a feat and access to the spell Dawn. I mean the Dawnfather should be able to cast Dawn after all! 

Now to feats

1) Background: Squire of Solamnia to give me the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns

2) Human Variant: Remarkable Recovery. I knew I’d be taking extra damage so having 5 extra hp from any healing I get might just be the difference. It also plays into his background. He had to leave the Barbarian tribe he brought agriculture to because his skin could not retain the ceremonial tattoo ink that would have symbolized his initiation into the community. 

3) Cleric 4 Warcaster to get advantage on those concentration checks, that along with proficiency and starry form of the dragon means I need to take 28 damage (56 if it’s a spell) to even have to roll, and when I do I get advantage and proficiency on the check. Getting me to lose concentration is gonna be a task. 

4) Paladin 4 Knight of the Crown getting to grant an attack proficiency times per day combos wonderfully with Starmaps free guiding bolt, conveniently also proficiency times per day. 

5) Cleric 8 Spelldriver I’m gonna be casting a bunch of spells so the ability to cast multiple each turn is going to make my support spells come out much faster. I have a big fam to take care of!

6) Paladin 8 Tough I really went back and forth between this and Inspiring Leader. Granting all my siblings 25 temp hp is amazing but ultimately I decided that as I’d be tanking a bunch of damage I’d need toughness. Toughness gave me 15 more hp than Inspiring leader would have, and I ended up going down to 14 at one point so it was a decision that very much paid off by a single HP! Don’t wanna pop a deathward if you can help it!

Last but not least we were granted 2 magic items. One very rare and one uncommon. For my uncommon I chose a cloak of resistance, a parting gift from the tribe that Ayden could not join. This upped my saves to 11s or 17s and took my AC to 23. For his very rare magic item I took a spellguard shield, inherited from the knight who brought him from the remote tribe to Trist‘s school, giving me advantage on saving throws vs spells and magical effects and inflicting disadvantages on spell effects targeting me. Combine that with resistance to spells from Aura of Warding and that’s a nasty nasty combo v wizards. 

All in all Ayden’s build is an incredibly hard to target tanky support character who can move through the battlefield protecting his allies and being an absolute nightmare for enemy spellcasters. The only thing I really didn’t fully consider was just how much damage he would take from Warding Bond which totally bypasses all those wonderfully crafted defenses. As crazy as it is, I think we barely got to scratch the surface of Aydens full potential and it’s probably good those mages decided to cast spells at everyone else because Ayden was going to be a tough character for a spell caster to crack. The Commanding Rally did get to shine allowing characters who specialized in weapon attacks to get a little extra out of those 20 level commitments. Ayden’s build was crafted to keep his siblings alive and let them shine as bright as possible together. I’m very proud of him!

If you read all this then you’re as nerdy as me and deserve a reward!

[captainofthetidesbreath]

Nick said, "Are you telling me there's dragons in this dungeon?" (or whatever the specific wording was) and this is all I could think.

[laylakeating]

NEW GIRL REWATCH | 1.01, Pilot

[callsignchicha]

Sorry that its kind of a long post, too tired to figure out why the ‘read more’ thingie isn’t working :’3

[sturnioloho]

he did not need to make that noise

[solasgf]

Fallout 4 (2015) dev. Bethesda Games Studios

[stopper-my-heart]

Nick stroking Charlie's hand with his thumb

[jennipond]

first time using procreate, here's a little nick nelson drawing