#THREE MONTHS OF IGNORANCE

[tulipe-rose]

BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE BSD FANDOM.

IT'S SPELLED 'YOKOHAMA', AND NOT 'YOKOHOMA'?

[lucy--chen]

WHY ARE FANS SO OBSESSED WITH BUCK AND EDDIE'S RELATIONSHIP?

There's something in that connection between Buck and Eddie that I think speaks to everybody. — Oliver Stark

[themintman]

My favourite characters from the new chapters maybe I love them sm man..

Do you think when they're really happy if they stand close enough together they can make rainbow lights dance along the floor around them like when the sun shines through a glass of water just right. ☹️

[nipuni]

Early April photo dump 📸 More picnics, regency dance classes and some rainy walks. Everything is blooming these days!

[cleocatrablossy]

That one square wheels episode of mythbusters, am I right?

[ssiggss]

"Ace smells like bergamot and a hint of cologn-" that man smells like a campfire and sea salt and if I'm lucky the soap from the last bath I made him take otherwise sweat

[muirneach]

the sunset star quilt 🌟🌄💛 pattern by me, both machine and hand pieced, and machine quilted.

[el-bellanaris]

Veilguard’s lack of identity as a game and Rook’s lack of an ownership over their own story is so interesting and insulting for the latter part.

With the lack of identity as a game it comes from the devs focusing more on giving all of that to the factions then to our actual faction that we spend the entire game working in which is the veilguard. They get symbols and unique armour and we get to spend the entire time getting lore drops about Solas. When back to Origins it was about your character becoming a grey warden and that united the games identity, 2 is about Kirkwall so the symbol of the city is meaningful and iconic representing your hawke’s journey and obviously the Inquisition has its own symbol for an organisation your character is the head of.

Rook doesn’t get some uniting motif to attach to their story because they don’t really get to connect to their world. Now a big reason that is because the game is all visuals and cool moments and no world building that requires depth or complexity. Another reason is that the game was born out of the ashes of another so the world doesn’t actually belong to what the actual game we got is about. As a result there’s no actual world for Rook to connect to except the factions but again the factions aren’t Rook’s story they’re their past and the story of their companions. I find this interesting because it's a pretty basic concept that you want your game to have an identity. And all three other games focused on creating one so Veilguard not having this strong identity makes it feel like its very actively missing something.

Rooks journey then is also both disconnected from the actual game that is happening and also actively written to discredit Rook’s ownership over the game. This intentional feature is what makes it feel insulting at times.

There has to be some reason the main character of a game is you and not someone else and with a game this uniqueness needs to carry your whole gameplay. In Origins it lies in your character being a grey warden, you and Alistair are the last available wardens to fight the current blight and fix the political issues using the blight as a scapegoat cos it serves to help your cause continue its operations. Now you or Alistair could be the leader of your group however Alistair by design takes a backseat he doesn’t want to be a leader which is something that ties deeply into his character and character growth. It’s a very deliberate choice that both makes Alistair pretty interesting and makes sure your character doesn’t get undermined. This choice is a narrative choice that allows your character to feel important through out the choices you make and in the finale as without you or Alistair no one else can actually end the blight and having both people allows for a variety of endings.

Rook’s uniqueness in the narrative plot lies in your little blurb at the beginning of the game but it’s not particularly powerful or holds its weight over the game. Getting plucked out by Varric for having a good heart doesn’t really correlate to having the ability to kill a god and any of this stops mattering once the opening of the game is over. This is another miss by just selecting different plot points from previous games to make up Veilguard without considering how it actually correlates to actual game you’re making. Like Varric loving Hawke and defending them to Cassandra works as a narrative point because the stakes aren’t high. But when the stakes are literally fighting gods being good pals with a guy doesn’t really cut it.

The other side of video game main characters being unique and standing out is not always but often a power only they can wield. Other characters can have similar powers but theirs must be unique and is what you’ll use in fights. Inquisition did it really well having the anchor, no one else can use it as it’s literally implanted into the Inquisitor’s body and it ties directly into the overall narrative and used often when exploring. The inquisitor also gets to claim ownership over this power through having it the entire game and only finding out its source right at the end since it was belonging to someone in their inner circle. Again by design your companions weren’t written to overshadow your Inquisitor with what made them unique as a main character.

But Rook gets a dagger that belonged to Solas and is introduced by showing him using it to begin the plot of the game. Now this dagger is a regular dagger, Rook keeps it attached to their body and goes about their days and it doesn’t necessarily need to be wielded by them. The real crime here is that all we get from it is to summon our companions powers to help ur character jump up onto rocks. Both overshadowing our character and ruining the daggers ownership to Rook. It’s no longer something only Rook can wield rather it’s just a reason to call over someone more helpful. We as the main character have to literally take a back seat regularly cos the game couldn’t even give us a unique power in a game where everyone else gets nonsensical abilities. Intentionally designing the game the insult your character for considering themselves as important.

And if that doesn’t help Rook feel less important another aspect of the game is it literally saying the squad needs to work through their personal issues before fighting the gods cos their problems are causing infighting. But Rook doesn’t get to have any personal issues, so once again they take the backseat for some epic moments that belong to their companions and they get a thanks for the help sticker. Several aspects of the game are intentionally made to feel like your character is just a camera to watch other people do stuff because Rook wasn’t written to actually fit into the game they exist in.

Which is so baffling, I don’t think I’ve ever played a narrative game where this happens. Where I’ve spent 60 hours playing just for my own character to feel like the odd one out and for the game to actively make me feel like I should feel grateful I’m even here just to be pitied with a dagger that calls better people to my rescue. The contempt BioWare has for its own title, the devs who made dragon age exist and for people who spend money on it for them to have profits is crazy.

[gooptroupe]

some daps for the heart

[doingnotsogoodalso]

thunderbolts came out on streaming so I finally watched it with the missus. who decided to name them all.

(and at the exact same time as walker decided that bob was stupid and that he was Bobby and Bobbink for the rest of the movie)

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Computer Problems

If anyone heard the muffled sounds of violence that was me strangling my friends for telling me to do this.

And being logical and sensible about it how dare they!

Anyway so. I'm not sure who's actually aware of this? I don't think it's most people. But last year in February my computer got a huge crack down the middle of the screen, and the battery decided it wasn't going to be a proper battery anymore. Those of you who've been around for a while will remember that last year was incredibly difficult for me financially as the steady job I'd had for a couple years disappeared and other jobs I'd been promised dried up (ah, the joys of freelancing).

I now have an office job but it still couldn't fully cover bills until I got a raise which kicked in finally in March. I took on two extra jobs the last few months to try and take care of the debt I accrued last year trying to survive (and taking care of family members; I have been partially supporting a couple of them for the last 2-ish years).

I've put off taking my computer in to be fixed as long as possible. At first it was because until this office job my computer was my income, and I literally couldn't afford to have it out of commission for even a few days. Later it was because I simply did not have the money - my credit card was maxed out, etc - but it's been over a year and I can't see big chunks of the screen, and the battery is doing the equivalent of hacking up blood like a Victorian heroine about to die of consumption.

It's going to cost me $800 to get it fixed, and that's where this post comes in. I have a Ko-fi, and if anyone has anything to spare to help, that would be so deeply appreciated.

I know there is so much going on in the world and people who need financial assistance so much more than I do. Nobody owes me anything, and I feel terrible for even asking. But I've been informed there's no harm in asking, and so here I am.

Thank you for reading this long post, and my (as usual) long winded explanation. Any little bit helps, as does reblogging. I apologize for taking your time sharing this, and I hope everyone is staying safe and taking care of themselves.

Ko-fi

I also have a Patreon that's been on hiatus and I'll be returning to shortly.

[ianthedebonair]

*quietly resurfaces from the shadow realm to post this*

For legal purposes, @m3k-fhr shall be held partially accountable for this (jk, jk, but I did say I'll do 'lil continuation for their secret santa gift last December).

hehe 🌶️🌶️🌶️

[moonshynecybin]

when affluent white people talk about just picking up and leaving the usa for other countries that are ALSO going through a shift towards right wing politics and fascism it is so plainly clear to me what they actually want to do is live an apolitical life

[hn-undercover-9503]

finally starting that Garp character study

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Ravi and Albert's Guide to Fake Not-Dating

It would be so easy, and Ravi was not looking to get any more involved in the 118 A-shift nonsense than he already was. It was sort of an unspoken rule he’d made with himself. He always showed up to the off-duty events he was invited to, usually large parties or station-wide outings, but that was more than enough for him. Just hearing about the drama his coworkers dealt with was more exhausting than regularly running into burning buildings and he had no interest in deliberately adding himself to the inner circle of rom-com-level bullshit that seemed to curse a select few members of the 118. He wasn’t about to tempt fate by dating his coworker’s formerly-estranged younger brother.

So, knowing all of that, he really should say no.

Read it on AO3

~~*~~

Average Hanikkar shipper: Hey wouldn’t it be funny if Ravi, the guy who famously wants nothing to do with the A-shift’s bullshit, accidentally fell in love with Chim’s brother and is super mad about it? Haha such a funny crack ship and the actors are both hot, we are having a great time.

Me, dropping a 50k word fic in the Hanikkar tag with no warning: Hey so what if Albert was a person who was so terrified of failing at anything that mattered to him that he would rather quit than fight as hard as he could and discover it wasn’t enough and what if Ravi was a person who had spent his entire life fighting just for the right to be alive but he was so tired he didn’t have any fight left in him but then they meet and fall in love and learn what it means to have something worth fighting for because even if you do fail you know it was worth trying, it was worth the possibility, it was worth giving yourself the chance.

People who follow me for Newsies content: Saf what the fuck is this, where did it come from, and when are you gonna finish your mini-bang fic?

[thewomaninlilywhite]

i've have never even been in a relationship but i'm already planning my bachelorette party because i'm stressing about my cousins and that's like not what a bach should be ????