#Role of literacy

[fairy-bard]

i’ve been loving watching critical role recently if for no other reason than because i get to watch a decent portion of viewers actively falling for cult tactics lmao

a forbes article describes cult tactics as when cult leaders “censor dissenting viewpoints, promote a distorted narrative and use relentless repetition and peer pressure”

ludinus needing to monologue at everyone he meets. cherry picking what information to let people know (ie the orb). showing popular world leaders (gods?) at their absolute worst as a means to win over the vulnerable. creating dissent between cult prospects and the people who they’re close to outside the cult. doesn’t take no for an answer. repeating his points over and over, in whatever context he thinks will be most persuasive. targeting people who’ve lost everything. convincing people that they’re special

matt is a genius.

[shorthaltsjester]

there are literally no standouts in downfall because everyone sat down at that table and said hey you wanna see something cool and proceeded to Become their characters but idk if it’s because they’re beside each other and that aids the dynamic or just because it’s the delicious similarities and insurmountable distance between the god of death and the god of (in various ways) life but ayden and emhira’s interactions were so chewy and delicious. i’ll be thinking of their exchange fairly early on after ayden cast lesser restoration on that old man and emhira not cruelly but just simply stating “you cannot heal everything.” and ayden’s equally simple reply “we can always try.” emhira seeing the family trist has built and wondering at the presence of children, “surprised there is laughter in such a horrible place” and i know she’s speaking of hawk’s hill but i wonder if she is also speaking of exandria itself in some ways. the delicious space between in and out of character that only really happens in improv stories where as brennan is narrating and says “in this dark room” and nick interrupts and adds “it is not dark.” brennan’s incisive point in the cooldown that while the love that ayden and trist have for mortals and for exandria is warm and the kind of love someone would likely Want from gods, there is something maybe more honest or whole about emhira who says . actually these mortals are little shits that will kill you not because they fear you but because they hate you. whose very existence should be (and still often fails to be) a reminder that the gods can be usurped by mortals. the insight nick shared in the cooldown that ayden does not forget emhira’s origins but in a way dismisses them, that the god of death is a different beast. ayden wanting to find. way to save the people of aeor, insisting that the prime deities Win if they can find a way to do so. emhira reminding everyone that death is inevitable (and she does not add anything to clarify that she intends such a statement to only exist for mortals) as she argues for them to work to take down aeor and the people in it. the fact that the god with the most present connection to mortality is also the one given the most explicit clarification that she Is the god we know as SILAHA calls her the matron, brennan’s narration clarifies purvon is her champion, taliesin as asha asks for clarification on the recognition of emhira as a god and prompting the familiar spectre of a woman in a white mask.

i want to be very clear that when i say there are no standouts i Mean it because i’ve been awed and endeared and intrigued by every single character choice everyone made and as always brennan’s narration is so incredibly well suited for the mission impossible greek tragedy vibes that comes with this story and i’m so fucking delighted by the fact that laura, ashley, and taliesin are playing gods that their characters have known quite well in the past. i’m incredibly excited by what we’ve already gotten to see from abubakar, nashir, and nick and cannot imagine what other greatness is to come. i’m psyched to see the relationship between asha and the law bearer and am delighted that (perhaps for now perhaps for the whole arc) it is being seen through the lens of “my wife promised me a visit with apples and all i got was a rock ice emissary”. i also have many incoherent thoughts about the fact that, of the players who appeared as the same character in the opening and the story, taliesin’s ash and asha are the ones whose name remains the most unchanged.

i’m obsessed with the fact that this creature sent as a stand in by the god of law and duty believes his primary gift is love. while there is a certain mourning and sadness to every god we see, that SILAHA has a certain playful whimsy and jofyful curiosity about the world. that the only one of them who has been mortal before stops to steal an imp necklace from the neck of a drunk on the train (and that moment between brennan’s narration that this man will be dead by morning but, with death standing invisible in front of him, he is incapable of seeing it coming, and then laura as emhira breathing in deeply and brennan having that spark a coughing fit. they are Story Telling). asha seeing the erased image of a god, of a family member and saying “there’s a hole in all of us.” brennan narrating “this is a place where they tried to kill a story. it’s a very frightened thing to do.” (and god. the motif of fear. especially given the very present fear felt by the gods in current day exandria. they’re doing insane things in the critical role 3 part departure).

trist reminding ayden “he never tells the truth” and asha contesting “he only tells the truth, it’s just rotting.” emhira and asha both as perhaps the less Good™ much more neutral but doing so in such different ways, asha as bitter and hungry while emhira seems uncomfortable but there’s a familiarity and a certainty in her discomfort with mortality (the law bearer would also be included here but the emissary seems much more like trist and ayden (for now) than emhira or asha). something as insignificant as trist and her husband speaking to their children and affirming that little lies are okay while trist has lead a significant part of her life likely dishonest about who she is. the fact that there’s a certain childlike quality to the emissary who they’re all charged with ensuring makes it to the end of things even if they cannot. the fact that nahal (unclear which god they were, and i’m assuming it’s the first god of death but regardless still an absolutely compelling development in a short amount of time) in those opening moments is horrified by the concept of away which is unfamiliar to them only to soon after look upon their family and say. maybe away was better. Especially if those were words spoken by the god who would one day be replaced. these three episodes are going to haunt me and i’m excited to meet the ghosts.

[alliekitaguchi]

the astronomical reaching i’ve seen from some critters across all platforms is insane, and i would like to gently post this so some of those folks can rethink their “orym forced laudna to feed delilah” stances

[essektheylyss]

They should hold an official Calamity marathon rewatch. Just for funsies. I think we would all benefit as a fandom.

[annemarieyeretzian]

orym stating “and I’m telling you, if ludinus had sent people to your home and taken your brother and your father and countless others, how philosophical would you be about it, dorian? he’s done that on a very large scale, far beyond me and my home. think what you want about the gods. we have plenty of sins on our heads to deal with. just like them.���

clearly an unpopular opinion but orym has Every Right,

[mando-abs]

Guys, I’ve read the Wild Robot

And let me tell you, if I hadn’t recently taken a Children’s Literature class in college, I would’ve said this was the best middle-grade book I’ve read since elementary/middle school. I almost read this book in one night (I was sleepy 😴) like I couldn’t put it down.

The heart behind this book is astounding and it never shies away from showing complex and difficult concepts. You will fall in love with Roz and her gosling son along with all of the other animal on the island.

If you’ve got younger ones, I highly recommend reading this to them or having a little book club moment with them. However, be prepared for whatever hard questions may come your way (i.e. circle of life and climate issues). You know your child and how much they can handle/understand. If you’re like me and much older, it’s a quick read and a great way to finish off a long day. It’s a part of a trilogy and you bet I’m patiently waiting for my hold on a copy at the library.

If the movie is anything like the book (which, given a rewatch of the trailer, it’s looking like so), we are in for a special treat.

[doomhamster]

I really am not very happy about the way people keep saying Wyll doesn't have a character arc.

He doesn't have a clear GROWTH arc, that's true! He ends the game more or less the same person as he started it - in fact, interestingly, one of the things we as players can do for Wyll is help reassure him that he HASN'T changed as a person, if he's transformed by Mizora.

But there are two important things here to consider:

1) For Wyll, being the same person in the end as at the start is a TRIUMPH. His identity and ideals are under siege throughout the game, and have been for years. Mizora wants to break him down, to corrupt him; the game forces difficult choices, and pushes him together with people he may not have chosen to ally with if not for shared danger. But Wyll has a clear vision of who he wants to be, how he wants to live, and he stands by it.

2) Wyll may not change much as a person, but his circumstances can change profoundly. Depending on the player's decisions he can undergo a traumatic physical transformation; free himself from Mizora; begin to rebuild his family; fall in love; build a friendship with Karlach that is so strong he literally goes to the Hells for her sake. He can gain a position of power (and complex responsibilities) as the new Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate, or he can gain the self-actualization that comes with finally getting to be the Blade on his own terms.

Growth isn't the only measure of whether a character is worthwhile, okay?

[jazzapples3]

Imogen: the watching comprehension of this Ruby vanguard is piss poor

Ludinus: how dare you say we piss on the poor?

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

Aegon: rapist, enjoys watching his children fight violently to the death, murders innocent people.

HotD Fandom: Poor Aegon, he has an awful mother 🥺.

Alicent: Child bride at 14, rape victim, pimp father, deadbeat husband, forced to have 4 children.

HotD Fandom: Alicent is the root cause of all our problems. This woman is pure evil and the worst mother to ever exist. Shame!

[acebender]

"God loves you but not enough to save you" everyone repeating that but idk guys, I'd save my brother over a bunch of strangers

[secretly-a-catamount]

I would like to sincerely say to all the people on Goodreads or anywhere else who complain about how the narrative in A World Without Princes treats “feminism” and “feminists” as bad and evil, don’t really understand the point of the book.

Because ever single book in the School for Good and Evil series tries to teach a lesson about not falling into one extreme or the other. Because either can hurt you, if you fall to far into them.

For example, in SEG it was Good and Evil. TLEA — Young and Old. QFG, COT, OTK — Truth and Lie.

So, keeping that in mind, what exactly is this kind of lesson that is trying to be taught in AWWP?

Toxic Masculinity and Toxic Feminism.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that Aric Lesso and Evelyn Sader, respectively, are the two characters that embodied these ideas the most.

After all, they’re antagonists, antagonists that oppose both our heroes — directly, in the story — and each other — fundamentally, in ideology.

[shorthaltsjester]

sometimes people will say “going dark” and then what they’re actually talking about is just people no longer presenting a carefully constructed version of their emotions and experiences.

like. emotional turmoil is not the same as darkness. laudna in this Fictional Universe that has tangibly different stakes wrt to death and killing than our own, is at best like . morally neutral for what she just did like. man has been secretly trying to kill you, and then just tried to do so again, killing him back is a fair choice. and even if i was someone who is excited by delilah’s inability to escape from the narrative, this shit isn’t about delilah. laudna made a choice. if delilah is back or whatever it’s a choice that laudna made because something in that grants her more control than her existing conditions did. this isn’t some Delilah Takes Over, it’s Laudna Expressly Makes The Choice To Call Forth Something within Herself to remedy the lack of control that’s been thrust upon her. if y’all want to Continue to limit Laudna’s agency (as the cr fandom is so, so want to do when a female character makes a choice that isn’t Good according to some weird system of virtue ethics) go ahead.

likewise with orym. little guy is not “going dark” because he has finally made direct action about his emotional turmoil in dealing with a situation which has similarly left him without control and has also placed him in a position where his stalwart conviction towards protecting and honouring those he loves and has lost alike is constantly met with other people he cares for going well.. what if they had a point/we are killing other peoples loved ones/etc. which like . yeah that might be frustrating and in fact might lead him to go, actually, i can’t afford to try and maintain some abject morality where I carry a locket that will literally only provide guilt. orym is completely committed to his beliefs, the locket and what it represents has never been a limit to what he will do, only a reminder of the consequences of what he might cause in those actions. but they Are at war and orym has a billion things on his plate. he can put down the locket. especially when bor’dor is the explicit manifestation of that locket’s symbolism. the subtext rapidly became the text and orym doesn’t need a reminder. it’s there in the fact that team issylra is walking away with two friends, not three.

these are character who have at every turn denied their own emotions in various forms while still being acutely aware of what they deny, whether that awareness was/is fully realized or not. many of laudna’s early convos with ashton show us that there is some awareness to the lighthearted spooky goth girl and how that persona fades when she thinks too much about what has led her and maintained that reality. likewise the entirety of orym’s story thus far is defined by his grief in a very literal sense, it Has extended from that grief to also the commitment he had to the purpose of figuring out the assassination attempt on keyleth but as we have seen, that purpose has fallen apart. paired with the quasi-reopening of his grief that was getting to see will again only to have to turn away, i don’t think there’s a lack of awareness in orym of how much he hurts. but between his actions and 4SD, that hurt tends to get buried under guilt or Responsibility.

and now, finally, both of them have admitted to that Not in the safety of small introspection or one-on-one conversations but with actions that they cannot shy away from or deny. laudna killed bor’dor and orym encouraged her to. and it Is a complex situation but truly I don’t really think it’s a “going dark” one. because they’re not giving into some overhanging Darkness of Morality™, they’re admitting that they are hurt and have long been hurting.

or, y’know, tldr for those who continue to deny laudna and orym agency or fully villainise them for whatever weird reasons . you could listen to laudna and ashton’s conversation that pretty much lays it out explicitly. laudna claims she’s weak for having chosen to kill bor’dor. ashton denies that and affirms instead that, no, she’s hurt.

[catofoldstones]

“They’re making the dance about Alicent and Rhaenyra when it’s supposed to be between Aegon and Rhaenyra!!!!!” buddy, the source material is called the Princess and the Queen, and you won’t like who the princess or the queen is, but one point at a time

[rovermcfly]

I don't really know what to say about this video except to implore people to listen very carefully to every single word he's saying

[bleachblomde]

sometimes i remember it’s not technically confirmed that imogen is gay or in love with laudna….. haunting

[suffersinfandom]

Half-baked thoughts about Izzy and toxic masculinity that I'm never going to bother turning into real posts part two (part one here for the curious, but it's not that good or organized).

Some folks think that season one Izzy was only being mean because he was worried about the crew's survival. I'd argue that they legitimately misread this character's purpose.

(Because yeah, secondary characters in well-written stories typically serve some kind of narrative purpose (which doesn't mean that they're not characters!). In OFMD, Izzy is the face of the specific kind of toxic masculinity that has controlled Ed and told him who and what he can be throughout his life.)

Izzy is mean because he's a miserable, power-hungry man who doesn't have the talent and charisma to attain the status that he wants. He hates it when men are soft and expressive and -- god forbid -- openly gay because that is not how he thinks men should be, and Stede and the entire crew of the Revenge are, in his eyes, idiotic subversives. Izzy is particularly cruel to Lucius because he's homophobic, not because Lucius is lazy (and Lucius isn't lazy, he just knows what his job is and who he takes orders from).

And Izzy dies at the end because this is the Dismantling and Destroying Toxic Masculinity Show. Yes, Izzy improves over the course of season two after he loses the job that is his personality and grudgingly accepts the compassion that the crew shows him, and that's great! It's hopeful! That tells us that it's possible to alter harmful, damaging patterns of behavior that have no space in a society where masculinity doesn't have to be controlling, violent, homophobic, and anti-feminine.

But even though Izzy can improve, he can never fully change. He was Ed's primary antagonist for years and will always be too tied up in everything that our main characters are trying to leave behind to be entirely free himself.

Izzy represents traditional piracy and all of the bullshit toxicity that that kind of violent, aggressive, emotionally stunted life entails. He dies because traditional piracy is dead. He dies because, for Ed to be entirely free, the man who loved and encouraged the monstrousness of Blackbeard has to go.

You can't divorce Izzy from the theme of toxic masculinity without making the show incoherent, and I think that some of the hate for season two comes from this. A lot of people want Izzy to be more than what he is in canon, and truly believing that he is more distorts the entire story.