#a whole combo of bullshit

[midnavidalia]

So scared of being perceived that I can't go on facebook rn

I'll hang out here where I can be mildly funny to two(2) strangers sometimes

[mugwot]

the besties! them!

alt barnaby that i didn't have the heart to discard

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic: double blind] If there's not too many AU questions yet, the AU from one of the previous asks lives in my head rent free - the one where somehow (magic? probably magic) extremis!Tony and cured!Tony exist at the same time and the former realizes that Peter very much prefers the latter. So if it's ok, question for that extremis!Tony:

So what are you planning to do now, how will you go about "winning Peter back", so to speak? Will you do anything about the non-extremis-enhanced version of yourself? Will you still try to continue with your plans, or will this development cancel them/put them on hold? I'm so incredibly curious xD

I will… have to try to understand him. He doesn't… see the world the same way, and… if he can't accept my plans, in the end-- he has to come first. I… none of this is worth anything without him.

I need him to-- trust me, that I want the best for him, and… if he doesn't want what I'm offering, I'll have to-- give him what he does want instead. I can do that for him. Easily. Easily.

And when I've re-earned his trust we can revisit my plans, and I can make them new with his input-- it will be better that way. It will work. I can make it work.

[anarkhebringer]

Packige 2: Electric Boogaloo

[dravidious]

You're quite amazing

Last night I was like "Ah, 8:20 pm, and I've just finished all my Stuff & Things. Perfect timing to go to bed... I'm gonna write an essay about an update for a free-to-play game."

Thoughts on the Path of Champions Constellation Update

Part 1: The new progression is good

In the past, I've ranted about how the progression systems in Legends of Runeterra's Path of Champions gradually worsen the improvisational deckbuilding aspects of the game. In summary, as you progress, your starting deck and its associated strategy become stronger and stronger, while the cards you get mid-run stay the same power level. As your starting deck improves, adding cards to your deck goes from helpful to detrimental, ruining the feeling of getting stronger over the course of the run.

A recent update to Runeterra added a new progression system called Constellations, with a variety of new perks. Some just add more items to your starting deck, and each champion has at least 1 new starting power that further emphasizes their default playstyle, both of which further contribute to the problem. However, two notable perks help to alleviate the problems: Star of Discovery and Star of Legends.

These perks both do mostly the same thing: Add items to cards you get mid-run. Star of Discovery adds a certain item to a certain category of card, such as units from a specific region, or spells of a certain mana cost. Star of Legends adds an item to your support champion. The items given by these perks synergizes with the champion's default strategy, which is something I criticized in the past; building a deck of random cards feels less significant if it's always playing the same strategy.

However, these perks are a definite improvement to the improvisational gameplay. Path of Champions isn't a game about improvising a strategy; it's right there in the name, you choose a champion with a specific playstyle. But that model has always been flawed; in the early game with no star powers or starting items, you rely a lot on card rewards, and you might not get the cards needed to actually play your champion's strategy. In the late game with a powered-up deck and star powers boosting your strategy, you're forced to clog your deck with weak cards that don't synergize with your starting tools.

These perks solve the issue beautifully: By powering up the cards you get mid-run and making sure that they synergize with your champion's strategy, you get the best of both worlds, improving your deck over the run while still getting to play the strategy you wanted to. The deckbuilding used to get worse and worse as you progressed, but they've managed to make it so that progressing enough eventually loops back around to making it good again.

Part 2: Everything about this update is a fucking mess

The new champion released in this update, Viego, has a spell in his starting deck called Possession. As one of his level up rewards, it gets the item Nomad's Medallion, which gives -2 cost. One problem: It doesn't fucking work. After getting this reward, playing a run will reveal that Possession still costs its default 5 mana. It just doesn't fucking work. At all. How the fuck did this not get caught in testing?

Possession + Nomad's Medallion is far from the only mistake in this update. Pretty much everything added has some mistake that came with it. For example, they went back and added new rewards to old adventures, but players who had already gotten all the old rewards would be unable to get any of the new ones. The good news is they've fixed this one. The bad news is that this is the only mistake they've fixed so far.

There's a new weekly quest that rewards you for winning 3 weekly adventures. Background: Weekly adventures are randomly generated adventures that give a reward the first time you complete them. They come in sets of 3, and a new set of 3 replaces the old set each week. Problem: The weekly quest refreshes on wednesday, while the weekly adventuers refresh on monday. That means that either A) You have to wait 2 days before doing any of the weekly adventures, B) You have to do all 3 weekly adventures within monday and tuesday, or C) You have to do one or more of the weekly adventures twice, without getting any rewards for the 2nd run.

Viego has another bug, in his 2nd star power. The power says "Whenever an ally with 4+ power dies, reduce the cost of units in hand with 4+ power by 1." The cost reduction actually only applies to units in hand with 5+ power, so either the power has a typo or the programmers messed up. This is especially egregious because Viego has a unit in his starting deck with 4 power, so basic testing should have revealed this bug.

Daily quests now give a "bronze cosmic vault" which gives 5-10 fragments of a random champion, but they didn't add a vault opening animation for this one, so you can't tell what champion you got the fragments for or even whether you got any fragments at all. You DO get the fragments, it just doesn't tell you. Speaking of fragments, they also broke the "upgradable" notification.

Oh lord, the upgradable notification. Background: You upgrade champions by spending fragments of that champion. You also get wild fragments, which can be spent on upgrading any champion. Before, when you had enough champion fragments to upgrade that champion, the champion select button would glow, and the champion you can upgrade will be moved to the top and glowing with the label "upgradable". This is very useful, and not annoying at all because there's no reason not to upgrade a champion when you have enough of their fragments to do so. It's not like you can spend their fragments on anything else. Obviously, this doesn't consider wild fragments, because that would be stupid; not only is it likely that you want to save up your wild fragments for a certain champion, but giving an upgradable notification for any champion that you could upgrade with wild fragments would make literally every champion "upgradable" once you have enough, making the notification completely useless.

The upgradable notification now takes wild fragments into account.

This is almost certainly a mistake, and a quirk of the new upgrade purchasing UI that came with the Constellations update. But for all of this, every little messy aspect of this update, you have to ask: How did this happen? How did they fuck this up? How rushed was this update that they couldn't find and fix these issues? What the fuck is happening? Is the dev team working off a budget of $2 and a bag of peanuts?

Part 3: Free-to-play games suck

I was thinking about how I'm definitely never giving this game any money when I thought "Well, what if there was an Unlock Everything button that costed $5? Or even just $1? I'd probably buy that so I could… Wait. What would I do then?" I realized that I've spent so much time playing this game just to Make Progress and Get Things that I don't even know what I'd do if I actually had all the things I wanted. I realized that this game is an evil treadmill of FOMO and daily quests that has no purpose other than to drain as much of my time (and ideally money) away as possible. And I fucking fell for it like a chump.

I have so many games, real games that let me play at my own pace, sitting in my Steam library, yet here I am grinding for hours on this treadmill because I don't want to miss a daily quest. I am going to uninstall this game.

After I clear the "Beat Lissandra with Viego" quest because it has a time limit and gives a big fat diamond vault but AFTER THAT I'M QUITTING FOR REAL I PROMISE!

Epilogue: Ultrakill

Even since long before I bought it, Ultrakill has been a fascinating game to experience. I HATE spending money, so I naturally drift toward free-to-play games, but these games often have grind treadmills meant to tempt you into skipping them with microtransactions. Even some real games with no microtransactions have grindy progression mechanics, such as Monster Hunter and most RPGs. I've mostly grown numb to it and just accepted that this is how games are.

It's not, that's a lie, and Ultrakill is the greatest counterexample of all time.

Being as cheap as Mr. Krabs, I first experienced Ultrakill through its demo. Now, Ultrakill is a game with very little progression; the demo has 2 weapons that cost currency to buy, but they're super cheap, you'll get enough to buy them just by playing through the demo levels. There's no grind. Just 6 levels.

I played those 6 levels so many times. I played them until I P-Ranked them, and then occasionally I would just boot up the demo and play through it all again. I had everything, all 2 unlockable weapons, and even all the non-mechanical stuff; the secrets, the P-Ranks, the bonus challenges. There was NOTHING for me to get, but I kept playing anyway, because the game is fucking fun. I want to play games like that. Games where you run out of things to chase, and still keep playing because the game is fun. Rhythm games are a great example; no stats to level up, no weapons to obtain, just pure gameplay. Racing games are another; I've had a blast playing F-Zero GP Legend, just booting it up every now and then to play a quick Grand Prix.

Even games that have progression can play like this sometimes, like my many, many playthroughs of Tales of the Abyss. And games that have a story mode with a clear endpoint are also appealing. I want games where the progression is finite, where you're expected to reach the end, not just keep grinding for currencies on an endless treadmill. Because the best way to know that you truly love a game is when it runs out of things to give you, but you still keep playing.

Okay essay over I just have a thing to put at the end here because this morning I beat Lissandra on my very first try

Stole her own OP Watcher, and even if I had only killed it instead I think I still would've won lol

Finally uninstalled the game afterward. Goodbye.

[echoxshxrx]

.

[majorasnightmare]

HEXBLADE PROPAGANDA! warlock is a charisma caster. as we all know, charisma is godtier because you can cast KYS. you get eldritch blast, the best cantrip, at a d10 damage and deals force (resisted by nothing), which also deals double damage to structures meaning you wont take three turns to smash through a wall. you can choose seperate targets for every blast, letting you snipe multiple low health targets, and can add CHA as early as level 2. invocations also let you snag extra skills profs without multiclassing

now hexblade SPECIFICALLY is fucking NUTS

hexblade lets you use charisma INSTEAD of a melee stat for calculating weapon damage. this means you can focus EXCLUSIVELY on charisma for a melee focused character and have both your weapon attacks ANNND eldritch blast deal stupid bullshit damage all for the cost of ONE stat. by taking ethels deal and bumping a 17 cha to 18, you can get a flat plus 4 to damage and attacks as soon as you can beat her ass in her own house.

with bg3 SPECIFICALLY this ALSO means you can snag phalar aluve and stack its scream damage on TOP of every fuckin thing else. this also makes multiclassing into other charisma classes a BREEZE, and a hexblade paladin combo hits like a fucking freight train

lore wise, hexblades make their deals with sentient weapons that typically crave death and destruction, which fits very nicely into a durge storyline, and while i dont know if larian will add extra dialogue options just for hexblade, the preexisting warlock ones are especially nice, and also makes using the necromancy of thay easier.

tldr. take hexblade warlock. make a durge whos bonded to their favorite knife. make the streets run red and if anyone gives you shit, multiclass into paladin (works nicely for both embrace AND resist durge) to hit them for a fat stack of short rest rechargable SMITE. its fun both roleplay AND mechanic wise and warlock is honestly my favorite class period. hexblade gets other cool shit in 5e too like summonable specter at level 6 which is also fun, cuz even if i kill you your STILL not done with me 💜 attack my foes for me now

I think if i did make a durge once the new classes are out id either do death cleric or shadow sorc.

Pay no attention to the two sorcs and 3 clerics ive already played

[fkitwebhaal]

My friends and I have had a very fun conversation which revolves around one question: if you are Ulder Ravenguard, which of the origin companions is the worst option for your son to bring home as his intended.

These were our conclusions:

Gale: one of the best choices as far as Ulder is concerned. College educated, well respected (well despite the orb thing), relatively well natured. Yes, he tends to talk about a subject to death and yes, he can be bitchy but if you gotta pick someone who can make it through a high class dinner without causing an incident from the party at whole, he’s one of the best options. Also he can cook.

Karlach: what Karlach lacks in high society experience she makes up for in sheer warm personality. The fact she fought in the blood war isn’t great, but it was against her will and she’s got a home town hero vibe to her. Yes, if Wyll dates her they will be trekking around Avernus BUT that means Ulder has a ready excuse why they can’t be at political functions: they’re doing hero shit. A solid and respectable choice.

Shadowheart: depending on where she ends up this varies widely, but she was at least part of a cult with an evil goddess, so not great for optics. She also doesn’t take bullshit and will talk shit about you to your face, which isn’t a great combo. However, she does like scheming and that is a point in her favor. Middle of the pack.

Astarion: there are multiple fantastic fics on why Astarion is Ravenguard’s nightmare of a son in law and they are all correct. However, Astarion is charming and assuming no one finds out about the vampire thing, and he’s not ascended, he can make it through a political gathering and not only charm everyone in the room but also get a handful of blackmail. He will absolutely cause problems for Ulder on purpose at the highest rate of any of these options which is why he is so low, but at least it’s on purpose. It could be worse but my God, Ulder is ordering extra ale for his nerves.

Lae’zel: funniest and worst possible option. Zero understanding of politics and zero desire to learn said politics that treated her fiancée like shit. Might take his son to fight a lich in another plane. Would deck a man for talking shit. Causes problems both on purpose but also completely on accident. 10/10 Ulder’s nightmare.

Bonus:

Durge: it in fact, could be much worse

[irisinluv]

Playing video games with your yandere sucks. You can’t compete- they keep letting you win! Even if they’re sneaky about it, it just gets takes the fun out of it if there’s no risk. And you tell them that after your 7th win in a row.

They look at you for a second. And the look in their eyes reminds you…. Oh…. Yea…. This person is proper psychotic. If you were anyone else they might introduce more “risk” into games by just playing Russian roulette.

But instead, they simply nod silently…. And then proceed to beat you the next round. And the next. And the next. Until finally you’re pouting, rubbing your temples, and completely baffled at how they keep managing this. This isn’t a video game. This a massacre.

Your Yandere soothes you and compliments a combo you did, praises you for staying alive a whole three seconds longer than the last round…. And suggests taking a break to cuddle and watch a movie instead.

The night ends with you wrapped in their arms, and it never even occurs to you that this was their plan all along.

Earlier, when you decided to game, your Yandere wanted you in their lap, arms wrapped around you as they hold their controller, sneaking in a kiss to distract you….. but you said no. You wanted to sit next to them instead. Said some bullshit excuse about how you move around too much and you’re more comfy gaming this way. So. Naturally. Yan no longer was excited about gaming with you. What’s the point of anything if they’re not wrapped around you while doing it? So, they decide they’ll just throw the game. Bore you till you decide that cuddles are much more exciting. And then it turns into just demolishing you so they can comfort you, in their arms, where you belonged from the start.

( If you ever do agree to play while sitting in their lap or snuggling in some way, you’ll find that the match suddenly is much more balanced and fun )

[existentialgaybirdnerd]

Soap, shot and drifting in and out of consciousness: "there's something I haven't told you"

Price and Gaz about to fucking cry cause they think he thinks he's dying

Price: "no no, don't do that, you're gonna be fine, I promise"

Ghost, feeling some bullshit about to happen, tears in his eyes but not giving up hope: "don't you dare make a dumb ass joke, I stg"

Soap, always one for chaos: *proceeds to quote the whole "I didn't like the godfather" scene from family guy*

Ghost: "I'm going to fucking actually kill you"

Gaz and Price just staring in concern at both of them

Soap was fine, exhaustion+bullet wound isn't a fun combo. He got smacked over the back of the head but a soft kiss on the forehead for his bullshit and for not dying.

[queenlua]

hey lua what decks do phoenix aceattorney and miles aceattorney play in magic

PHOENIX WRIGHT

once upon a time, a friend bullied me into going to a Pro Tour Qualifier, which was probably the largest Magic tournament i’d ever been to at that time, right?

i was happy to be bullied, to be clear, but the problem was… i hadn’t played standard-format Magic competitively in about 2-3 years.  so my knowledge of the current metagame, what deck archetypes were popular, and what the current cards even were, was staggeringly limited.

“it will be fine,” said my friend.  “here, take this spare deck i built.  it’s super-straightforward and easy,” he lied.

he said this to me approx. 8 seconds before the first round began, so uhhhhh, i sure was playing a game of magical cards without ever having even looked at the damn deck before!

so, lo, literally in the course of playing the deck, i was learning how this shit was supposed to work.  “oh!” i’d exclaim with delight, halfway through my turn.  “THAT’S how those two cards are supposed to interact.  oh that’s super clever.  what a neat combo.”  and then i’d proceed to shiftily look at my opponent over my cards, riffle those cards a lil bit, and then say “pass” with as much of an enigmatic vibe as i could muster.

meanwhile, my opponent was Actually Prepared, and they were Trying To Win, and they were pissed.  they threatened to call Slow Play on me because i was taking so fucking long reading all the cards.  as in, he literally called a judge over, who stood there watching me the whole time, in order to determine if i was being Criminally Bad At Magic versus just A Regular Amount Of Bad At Magic, and i was sweating bullets the whole time because i didn’t know this deck or their deck or any of those cards and AHHHH why is the judge staring at me!!!

….which only served to make it EXTRA-humiliating for this poor fuck when i proceeded to eviscerate them 2-0.  hahahah get dunked onnnnnnnn nerd!!!

and then i also proceeded to eviscerate my next opponent???

sheer dumb luck.  i cannot overstate how ill-prepared i was for this tournament.  i absolutely did not deserve these wins.

meanwhile the friend who gave me the deck was having a much worse time with their deck, and they were like “what the fuck. you weren’t supposed to win. how are you winning with that shit, my deck’s so much better than yours”

anyway.  i think that’s the kind of scenario Phoenix would get into if he were an MtG player.  dude Gets Himself Into Situations And Then Uses Cleverness + Bullshit + Luck To Get Out Again.

(AA4-era Phoenix seems like he’s doing the same thing… but, in reality, he’s actually been meticulously crafting his deck in secret for the past six months.  he’s not even aiming to win the tournament, he’s just exploiting a known weakness in the opponent-matching system that lets him know with certainty who he’s going to get matched up against (spoiler: first round is Kristoph), and he’s hyper-optimizing his deck to beat Literally Only Those People.  meanwhile, Apollo, who built a tryhard hyper-optimized variant of Red Deck Wins, is lowkey annoyed that Phoenix's seemingly-random pile keeps vaulting him just one table above him in the standings, because Apollo knows his deck is better. he knows it!!!! just let him go 1v1 and prove it aaaaughhhh!!!)

((also, in case you want Actual Concrete Cards And Colors And Stuff: in general i think Phoenix prefers limited play (draft, sealed, "anything where you open booster packs on the spot & throw a deck together") to constructed play, because he doesn't like being tied down to any one game plan. when he does play constructed, i think he's less attached to a specific colors and more attached to specific mechanics. in particular: he's not a combo player exactly, but he likes mechanics that feel like bullshit. dude saw Madness for the first time & his eyes lit up & he was in LOVE, "you mean i'm discarding the card but then i can cast it for free??? hell YES." he absolutely ran a poison counter deck during New Phyrexia. ah fuck i just realized he was probably a huge stan for noted awful expansion Battle for Zendikar, i think i gotta cancel him now, sorry))

((and i think Phoenix also has a touch of Timmy in him! like, i went to a huge state tournament once with a bunch of really skilled players, and there was this one dude in our car who had a really solid deck, clearly adhered to a lot of the trends in the meta at the time... but his win condition was a Shivan Dragon. which wasn't a bad card at the time, it was a reasonable win condition, but it was... slightly suboptimal? not at all the obvious pick? sort of random? and multiple people asked him "why is that your win condition" & he shrugged and said "i like dragons." so the dragon stayed & that dude ended up getting second place in the whole tournament so FUCK optimal play, bring a dragon. i think Phoenix would sneak in a dragon now and again. just 'cause))

MILES EDGEWORTH

this one is trickier!!!

young!Miles is just going to play Whatever The Meta Deems To Be The Best Deck, right. the von Karma perfection thing and all. it's all very boring & micro-optimized to be the Best Deck Of Its Kind & he pours over the results of the big name tournaments week after week & does some math or whatever to hyper-optimize his own build of the Obviously Correct Deck. there is no soul in any of this, purely Executing On A Formula.

...but then he experiences Character Growth & has his big gay crisis & now he has to pick up the game again. he opens the latest tournament results... clicks around some win % stats for various cards in a desultory kinda way, and... his heart's just not in it, right?

enter 2-4 era Miles. 2-4 era Miles is playing some utterly unhinged Five Color Good Stuff thing. there's a lot of Planar Chaos cards in there, because that whole set was about Weird Shit & cards doing Stuff You're Familiar With (But In The Utterly Wrong Color!!!) & all that is resonating with Miles more than he'd care to admit. he cannot possibly talk about his unnecessary feelings but he can make a weird noise rock album about them. and by noise rock album i mean this fucking Magic deck.

and he's playing this deck with a 100% straight face, as though this is the exact same behavior that won him the Junior Super Series five years in a row & not a desperate cry for help from a madman. everyone else is like Miles... are you playing fucking singletons... in a fucking standard deck... you know your deck will be more consistent with four-ofs right... and then he gives a cool fish-eyed stare & taps out to cast some arcane bullshit legendary creature & gives a single rap of his knuckles against the table to indicate that he's passing the turn.

and it works, is the thing! all those years of training to be the Spikiest Spike Ever have paid off; this Five Color Good Stuff thing relies on some pretty clever insights to make the mana base work, and parts of what he's doing eventually get adopted by the larger metagame to become an Actual Serious Deck. but, like. it's still a monstrosity. any skilled players watching are still definitely wondering Are You Okay, Dude.

after 2-4, i think Miles settles back into playing something more normal. he still cares about winning, but he's going to do it with a touch of class. he wants a game that involves dialogue, some actual back-and-forth, because just trying to combo off is lame coward behavior.

aw yeah baby we're talking counterspells!!!

he's a blue player at heart & he's happiest when he's updating the autopsy report shutting down whatever his opponent's plan is. he'll splash other colors as the occasion calls for it, but he'd be happy running mono-blue the rest of his life. like, i ran a pretty fun Legacy deck back in the day which consisted of:

every kind of counterspell i could get my hands on,

propaganda because FUCK creatures,

thieving magpies for the card draw,

and a few silver wyverns to, y'know, actually win the game

...and i think Miles would appreciate that deck. just play counterspells until the opponent runs out of steam & then cruise your way to victory with a couple birds. simple. elegant. classic. doesn't involve any of this modern Planeswalker bullshit (Miles regards most developments that happened to MtG post-Time Spiral block or so as affronts to game design).

(i do think Miles has a secret fondness for sagas as a card type, however. they remind him of all that Character Growth, but in an abstract/subconscious/nonthreatening way. too bad most of them are a bit of poor match for the kinds of decks he likes to play)

FINALLY: i think Miles hates playing Commander with every fiber of his being & Phoenix loves it & this is a pretty serious point of contention in their relationship. poor dudes

[nynyhaha]

Spider Themes: Partial empathy and the effects of utilitarianism

A huge Spider centric philosophy rant where I’ll digress many times(sorry)

The Phantom troupe is an embodiment of the Robinhood troupe as much as it is a deconstruction and subversion of it. https://www.tumblr.com/nynyhaha/761225991501873152/phantom-troupe-failed-robinhoods

They don’t do what they do for fame or money,but when it comes to using horrible means for noble ends,they also fail. After years of pondering the Spider’s purpose,I’ve found that seeing them as a warped version of heroes makes the most sense. Ex-child soldiers,running rampant after they’ve outlived the anticipated period of self appointed service.

After Sarasa’s death Chrollo clearly states that he sees no possibility for achieving his goals peacefully, in his eyes they never had a chance to accomplish anything while staying the good guys.

Of course he couldn’t succeed if he didn’t even try! But why didn’t he,and why is there so little stopping a person as caring,responsible and community-minded as him from turning around and betraying humanity at large,detaching himself from all the good he could’ve caused?

I love that Togashi let the not yet Spiders as well as us,the audience,see this typical hero cartoon for children where the good always wins because of the magical purity of their hearts. Where if they just believe hard enough,it will be fine.

In reality..all Chrollo can do is bring flowers to honour the graves.

It means there was always a separation between fiction and reality for him,despite being eager to watch and dub the power-cleaners story,Chrollo never believed it. Or maybe he did before he found Sarasa,after which all the illusions he might’ve had shattered.

The knows it takes a sacrifice to make great change,not just of his life but of his morals.

Chrollo shows an unusual level of self awareness for a child. In the following panel he announces he’s going to become a villain. Not a rebel with a cause,or a noble avenger,a VILLAIN. His view is so pessimistic,that it must take a villain to defeat villains. There’s no way to keep his “pure heart” and all this talk about ✨faith✨ was bullshit. To me this is a very interesting summery of Chrollo’s view of his role. It’s how he assesses it before he actually does anything,which makes it all the more fascinating since we don’t know how much his outlook changed once he actually started his plans. Or do we?

Why utilitarianism? Isn’t the regret he shows here in advance indicative of deontology?

If I was tasked with defending the Spiders and presenting them in a more favourable light,I’d pull up with the combo of

-“us vs them” -> they were defending their very marginalised community that the world turned its back on,against such horrible organisations as the mafia. Their initial mission is self defense. One might also look at it the way aot fans do,where being mistreated by outsiders justifies crimes against them.

-utilitarian principles-> even if innocent people were hurt in the process,it’s worth it in the end because a greater number of innocents are saved.

Chrollo however,simply says he’s going to kill a lot of people,not specifying if

-he will kill more people than he’ll save

-he will kill more innocent people than he’ll save

-he will only kill bad people

-he will kill outsiders for the sake of meteorians

But I assume he’s going to kill those whose lives he still values,why else would he feel bad about it? In that moment we see a person who is torn between two extremes,and chooses one whole acknowledging the other.

Chrollo in that instance does NOT believe that killing evil outsiders is a righteous quest he’ll embark on,neither does he believe that killing many,even for the sake of saving many,is justified. He still decides to do it,just not as a hero,but as a villain.

Sarasa wouldn’t want it because she didn’t live long enough to experience loss and hate,altho she did experience extreme pain so who’s really to say she wouldn’t have wanted revenge? Either way,it seems Chrollo isn’t just talking about going against Sarasa’s principles,he’s talking about abandoning his own,that the two of them shared until she died together with his naivety and innocence.

The last three speech bubbles are the most puzzling for me. Unless by “repenting” he means being held accountable and paying for their crimes,this opens up crazy ideas about those kinds of people actually feeling bad about their crimes.And the notion that legal systems are powerful enough to cause such changes in a person.

This raises the question whether Chrollo will ever repent for his crimes.The answer is yes,he did already…Before he even committed anything.💀💀

Since this post is a HxH analysis mixed with philosophy,let’s look at honouring vs promoting values.

Honouring the value of human life would mean never ever taking it(Sarasa’s alleged view)

Promoting its value in this case would mean fighting for the recognition of meteorian lives by the world and stopping the mafia from killing more kids,even if for that you’d need to kill (Chrollo’s path)

In short,kid Chrollo holds values he’s willing to break and about to abandon.

The Spider ends up operating on the two principles mentioned above,valuing the whole over individuals and acting in favour of Meteor City at the cost of outsiders.

When I say “utilitarianism” I don’t mean maximising good or happiness,but acting in favour of the goal/organisation above all else

Inheriting values:One for all and all for one

The Elder here promotes the value of life of his people,he’s willing to sacrifice 31 of them to do so. Mathematically this seems stupid at first:killing 30 more people than the one originally harmed? Couldn’t more lives be saved by inaction? Couldn’t Chrollo keep his friends rather than losing four more over the death of one?

But,consider how this incident paints Meteor City,how actually standing up for themselves in such a brutal way does a great deal of inflicting fear on the world,likely preventing it from wronging Meteor City again. 31 people may die for the message,but spreading the message will help the sum of people living in Ryuseigai. Well,it’s supposed to help,and for the sake of argument let’s say it does.

Similarly 13 people giving up their lives can help the community as a whole. Will I ever shut up about the Spiders breaking the mafia deal? No.Because by doing so,they accept the responsibility of protecting their home from any threats AND getting the necessary money(haha,it can never be enough)

If just 13 people will commit enough crime to gather whatever the mafia was previously paying the city,there won’t be any need for human trafficking AND they’ll commit the crimes on their own terms! ✨Independence✨ through 🕸Spider Scapegoats🐐

Basically,the Phantom Troupe can be the sole solution to many problems,even if they’ll never solve the core of them. That,and the immense pressure that lies on them,might lead to nihilism and loss of any motivation which drove them to start what they do in the first place.

The loss of empathy

Chrollo’s definiting character trait is his relationship with humanity and his connection/disconnection from it. He’s speaking as if he’s not human himself,and in the fight vs Hisoka he displays just how deep he’s sunk on his journey.

He uses bodies as instruments(for utility),specifically the bodies of the audience(people who might not be “innocent”but have very little to do with him). He couldn’t care less about them. The Elder used the bodies of his own comarades,but how much did he care about them if he was capable of such a thing?

The Elders remain enigmatic but my impression of them is that of a powerful but inefficient council of people whose task is so enormous it numbed them to minor things such as necessary deaths. Much like the Spiders,the Elders have to use horrible means for an end too big to achieve. They don’t even have an end,they just run the worlds biggest orphanage and homeless shelter,a “safe” oasis for anyone abandoned and wronged by the world. They’re supposed to be fixing whatever injustice there is,they’re peak philanthropists and altruists,so much so that they’re willing to kill and arguably sell out (traffic) a number of residents for the sake of the whole of them.

It’s a matter of scale for them. Or maybe not even,it might not be about efficiency anymore.

They’re not unlike normal politicians,arguing about semantics instead of taking action. At least in that way the Spiders are better,and since “nothing has changed” the chapter illustrates exactly why the Spider is needed,the Elders have apparently always held this outlook.

Yes,because they actually go deal with the problem and figure out if the transformed residents can turn back. When they can’t,we see them expressing sadness about it

We even got Fei looking sad. Sad.FEITAN.Am I hallucinating?

Once Phinks figures out a way around feeling too bad about killing their fellow citizens,the other Spiders also regain their confidence,now knowing what to do. I’m grateful for the manga because the anime wasn’t as expressive with their expressions,lol.

We clearly see them concerned for people outside the troupe,and while Phinks hates feeling pity because he sees it as dishonourable for the ones turned,it’s obvious that that’s what he experiences.

Speaking of Chrollo..Wasn’t Phinks the one arguing against going to save him?

Self dehumanising/Cog in the machine

While the strong bons between members humanise them to no end and create the cognitive dissonance (how can this silly friend group commit such atrocities?) they actually show quite well just how much they have to put on line to live as they do.

If the Spiders didn’t care as much for each other we wouldn’t care as much for them either,and we wouldn’t see what the Spider-set up takes from them.

Firstly we have Shal causally determining someone’s worth by their ability ✨😀

Next we have Shizuku calmly speaking of her death as if she’s talking about the weather

This moment especially shows how much Chrollo’s cold,tactical approach can hurt,cause I was pretty annoyed at him at that moment. He’s only being reasonable tho,wanting to avoid more deaths while Nobunaga is being emotional. Still,his friend just died and while not letting that death influence them to the point of losing more people makes sense,the way Chrollo phrases it “you were willing to die,so Uvo was ok dying but those other members are crucial so they need to live” is very cynical. We know Chrollo is far from accepting Uvo’s death and his way of coping through the requiem can only do so much,however when he needs to,he shuts his emotions off completely.

Judging each other’s worth based on ability and how strategically useful they are to the Spider runs contrary to the notion of friendship,it forces them to see themselves and each other as instruments,as mere cogs in the machine. While some Spiders hold those principles more strongly,the whole organisation operates this way.

Chrollo designed it that way,since they all went into it ready to give up their lives,he made the organisation a priority but not the individual. Still,when the time finally comes to out his ideas to the test,only several members stay true to his principles.

This is the same Phinks who acted like a girly girl with a crush,worrying about Chrollo,unable to wait. Ok,maybe losing Pakunoda and seeing Chrollo through her eyes changed him,but I don’t think that’s likely. Phinks cares about Chrollo but he cares about the Spider more.

Feitan will also break rules of negotiation and risk Chrollo’s life to find out more information. He seems to see no obligation whatsoever to play fair and obey the enemy’s rules,I also don’t believe he has a concept of 🕸honour among thieves🕸but he did max out on loyalty.

While Phinks’ and Feitan’s actions seem to just stir up trouble,once we understand their pov it all makes sense.

If you put the Spider first,why would you NOT go above and beyond to ensure you have all knowledge you could possibly get and secure the most advantageous position? He’s not doing that because he’s a sneaky little shit but because he’s operating on the principle of maximising the Spider’s strategic advantage!(im such a good advocate for my boys)

We also can’t forget that the well-being of the Spider as a whole overlaps with the well-being of the majority of its legs,which means choosing the spider in practice is synonymous with playing it safe and protecting the remaining members

As harsh and damaging their approach may be,in some way it’s inevitable. There was no right choice in this dilema,and there was also very little certainty so it was a matter of trust.

-Kurapika might play dirty and actually control Pakunoda as far as they know

-Its Chrollo’s death vs a guaranteed but unspecified number of Spider deaths

-preventing further deaths is good both for the whole and the individual members

Also Chrollo being “worthless as a hostage” might just mean he’s on a democratic standing with the rest and isn’t more important than them. He likely made this rule to prevent others dying for him just because he’s Danchou (and failed)

Conclusion: An organisation such as the troupe HAS to operate on utilitarianism if it

-serves an important purpose (guard dog of Meteor City)

-is valuable by itself and most concerned with persisting

No matter how you look at it, whether the Troupe selflessly performs acts of necessary evil for their people,or if it’s a cult/collective entity that exists without any clear reason,it’s survival is more important than the survival of its individual members. Which is a shame,because it poisons the very bonds that were formed while they fought for their cause side by side.

[thr0wnawayy]

So I was looking at the 'Get It Done Chargebolt' Fight and realized how bullshit it is.

Your telling me the MLA. A militia ideological group with numerous connections, a major one being Denerat (A Tech Company!) cannot give one of it's higher ranking members anything more than a taser!

(god, this is so forced.)

His quirk (Ampivolt) seems to work by taking electricity from any source and releasing it back out from his body, much stronger than it once was. (No, I did not read the wiki when writing this)

His body acts like a power amplifier, taking the watts absorbed and imparting some of it's own energy into it before sending it back out.

In a fair scenario (not manipulated by Hori and his bullshit), our elektromaniac here should have won out.

So, in a bid to do the MLA one better, I present to you my own contraption:

(Not my best. I made it on my cell while on the move, also yes that's the Denerat logo)

I've effectively strapped a car battery to this guy's back.

It's outer chasis made of a lightweight non conductive mesh, as to not drag him down. The battery stays locked inside, needing to be opened to charge beforehand.

The gloves are attached to gold wires to ensure maximum output and lifespan (as gold doesn't tarnish) and are wrapped in a sturdy carbon mesh. The gloves themselves act as tasers for both long ranged and short ranged attacks, having holes in the front and back to allow for combos and continous fire.

You may point to the Tesla coils that sit on either the sides of the battery's chasis and wonder what their purpose is?

Simple, destruction. They also ensure that the battery doesn't overload.

When the battery has reached it's max capacity, it will send some of that energy to the coils and these in turn transfer it to the single spike located at the end of each coil.

The spike on the end acts as a reverse lightning rod. sending the excess electricity outwards in a devastating attack that destroys anything in it's path.

Both coils are positioned outwards as to not harm the user as well as to ensure the electricity does not arch between the coils.

The battery then uses advanced tech in it's chasis to reabsorb some of the linering electricity floating in the air and recycles it back into the battery.

I don't show it here but the backside (facing the users back) of the chassis is a very plush material, as to not leave the user in discomfort. It is also where the straps are hidden.

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

Test Drive (Or Denki's cooked, literally)

Ok we have the equipment, we have the MLA soldier. Now what?.

Well we speculate of course!

We know from OFA and the USJ Nomu that absorption and accumulation quirks usually have some upper limit.

We've also seen Denki fall victim to his own quirk numerous times (and quite severely at that), so it's not much of a stretch to say he could be burned by his own quirk.

Let's say Denki gets hit with Count Shock-ula while he's wearing the battery.

Above is the amount of electricity he normally expells when using his taser. Even now it could probably cause severe nerve damage or even death.

To save on length, we already know this man is a trained soldier, likely has been his whole life.

Given this, his fighting prowess and strategic mind should lend to him getting the upper hand in his fight with Denki, one of 1A's lowest ranking students in both academic and physical.

He hits Denki with a clean shot, maintaining a constant transfer of energy.

Even even as his muscles spasm and clench, Denki thinks he has the upper hand as does Jirou.

But now the battery is there providing a constant supply of electricity and Denki can only keep up so much, as Shock-ula's quirk does it's magic and increases the output.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Exposition Time:

Presuming that Denki's stockpile is located at his center of gravity, we can say that the focal point of the overload will start here.

The inside of human bodies typically sit at an average of 98.0 Fahrenheit or 36.64 Celsius, about the same as a 50w light bulb.

The maximum amount of heat a human can take before they begins to burn is around 140°F (60°C).

The human body temp can flare up to as high as 106°F (41°C) when in extremely stressful situations (though this is more in the regards of certain anxiety disorders)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As Denki's stockpile begins reaching it's limits, he begins to stress slightly. He can begin to feel the effects of his body temperature climbing and his growing panick isn't helping.

Jirou may try and interfere, but is either hit when the tesla coils expell the excess energy being absorbed or she is unable to approach all together as electrical currents surround the two electricity weilders.

Either way this only contributes to Denki's stress. He begins feeling the heat build in his abdomen, just above his bellybutton. Soon his insides feels like the inside of a hotspring.

Any attempts to sweat are foiled by his own electricity's heat evaporating it as soon as it forms on his skin. His body has no real way to cool down.

The MLA member may feel guilt in killing a child, but chooses to look at the bigger picture and what's at stake if he fails. He tries not to dwell too hard.

A long, aching moment passes by.

Denki is actually burning now, his intellect increases with each passing second and with it comes the ability to truly comprehend the situation he is in.

Trapped.

Denki's blood feels like it's boiling as he struggles to shut his eyes, fearing they may melt out of their sockets. His head is pounding and his stomach is rolling with intense nausea, a sign of severe heatstroke.

Yet the heat continues.

Blood vessels burst in his nose, lungs and eyes as the heart goes overtime, the kidneys have long stopped functioning and by this point Denki can't even think coherently.

A few moments later.

His organs and muscle fibers are now becoming covered with burn scars, he can smell himself burning and is finally then that Denki passes out. Perhaps for the last time.

××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

So, pretty grim huh.

Had MHA been darker (and more thematically consistent) this could have been a possible scenario.

It really makes you wonder what the fuck the heroes were thinking sending teenagers to fight in an active war zone.

Really makes me question the competency of both UA and 1A's respective parents because lord almighty...

Sending them to raid the base of the biggest crime organization in the country is already bad, as mentioned in my Jaku Disaster Post, not knowing what your doing is even worse.

This isn't the first time we've seen this either, remember the Shie Hisakai?

Yeah they pulled that shit too, despite knowing the entire base was a death trap but I'll leave that dissection for later posting.

It's not just Midnight who could have died, we could have been looking at roughly 10-13 members of 1A being dead (Not counting Bakugo) and that's just off the top of my head.

You know if Hori wanted to add shock value, rather than pulling shit out of thin air he could've just tossed some excess weight by utilizing his threats properly.

Really his over reliance on surface level "shock"* value in the later seasons, doesn't exactly put me in high hopes that his horror Manga will do well.

(*Retconning Rei's family, AFO's constant returns, Stars and Stripes, The Mech suit, Vestiges, etc etc)

If Hori wants to write horror, he needs to reapproach how he writes. Simple as that.

===============================

Note: To the person that sent me the AFO ask. My apologies for not answering, I accidentally wiped it by mistake when trying to post, please feel free to resend the question to my inbox and I will glady give you an answer.

That was a wild one, so have a quick-sketch gag based off an MLA AU that's been floating around my notes for your troubles.

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

When answering asks I mentioned several times that while I agree that Aegon's character arc is the best one this season (among the Greens and overall), I still don't like it. No one really asked but I decided to put it out there anyway - because he is my second favourite character of the book/show combo.

When I think about Aegon in season 2, this bit from the trailer comes to mind:

If we are to take Aegon more or less as a separate character (which is not so easy as no character can/should exist in a vacuum), his storyline has been quite decent (the effort to be a good ruler despite the lack of actual preparation, the obvious love and care towards Jaehaerys and heart-wrenching reaction to his murder, the failed attempt to prove himself at Rook's Rest - and now the signs pointing to him becoming a new man after what happened, more cunning and harsh). Besides, Tom has been given quite a few really good moments where he could show, truly and without being restrained, just how talented he is (it was the least HotD owed him after the treatment he got because of the shitty writing for the previous season). And even with that, I am still far from being convinced that the writers won't fumble it all in season 3 (just look what they did to Aemond this season after him getting IMO the most compelling and consistent beginning of the character arc in season 1).

But if we look at Aegon in connection with other characters? I am not merely disappointed, I am fucking furious, actually.

He's the character who suffered the most this season (feels like suffering takes up 90% of his screentime) - and this is understandable given what he's been going through. But how does the show present us this suffering? More precisely, who is presented as being responsible for it?

The first big blow dealt to Aegon was the murder of Jaehaerys. And which characters are actually shown to be the cause of Aegon's anguish?

Not Rhaenyra - she was as clueless as poor murdered boy himself. Not Mysaria - her opressed self "just provided the names" to Daemon. Daemon is the closest to it, but even here we were treated to this "ambiguity" bullshit about him supposedly not giving clear instructions to Blood and Cheese - and apparently he deeply regrets his actions. Boo-hoo, poor baby (I am not even a Daemon hater, actually, but the "he is just a tormented soul" thing he has going on this season has gone too far). The audience can't even properly hate the murderers themselves because of the shallow and cartoonish way the whole event was handled on screen.

But we get to see how Otto turns the horrible murder of an innocent child into a propo show - and Alicent sides with him (both are shown to disregard Aegon's feelings on the matter). Criston is presented as the one who neglected his duties and in doing so facilitated the heir's murder (and later he tries to shift the blame to Arryk which eventually gets the latter killed while fighting his own twin brother). Aemond doesn't gaf about his nephew's death (or the way it affected anyone in his family, specifically Aegon) for which he is partially to blame. And later Aegon gets a parting gift from Otto in the form of "you are a useless piece of junk - and a naive one for even daring to believe otherwise" - and Alicent's inability to console him when he needs it most.

Things only get worse from here. The Blacks are doing their thing on Dragostone (in Daemon's case - at Harrenhal) while Aegon keeps being abused, neglected and terrorized by those closest to him. His council members (including his mother and brother) do not respect him, Alicent flat out tells him he is useless in the most hurtful way possible (comparing him to Viserys who, as Aegon learned, didn't deem him worthy either after all). Oh, and by the way Viserys' neglect towards his children - Aegon in particular, in this case - is now completely taken out of the equation. Instead Viserys is presented as almost a godlike figure, someone to be worshipped and as infallible as the Pope.

And then, as the cherry on top of the cake, Aegon and his beloved dragon get horribly injured, almost killed by Aemond who Aegon trusted despite everything (Rhaenys' part in Aegon being hurt is minimal). And even after that Aemond proceeds to torment his bedridden brother, physically and mentally (I am aware there are supposed layers to it but I really doubt a lot of viewers gave that scene a second thought), so the former could remain in power; Alicent experiences remorse in all the wrong moments (and then proceeds to tell Gwayne how she is disappointed in both of the sons she actually knows and seems to redirect her hopes towards the one she doesn't). The only person who actually seems to care about Aegon is, surprise, Larys Strong, a reigning Kinslayer Supreme who actually murdered his father and elder brother while playing the game of thrones (and there is a BIG question whether Larys would give a single fuck about Aegon and his condition if he had been granted promotion by Aemond). While it's nice that the indisposed king has at least someone on his side, it's really fucked up that out of everyone else around him it had to be precisely Larys, whose loyalty is very much conditional.

To sum it all up, the writers gave Aegon an extreme amount of suffering (in accordance with his story in F&B and even more), clearly aiming to make the audience pity him as much as possible - and in a dirty and lazy writing move weaponized this pity against other TG characters (it's not clear for now whether it worked to the degree they expected for GA - but for the fandom it certainly did). Meanwhile TB is whitewashed once again. Now it's understandable where all this "they all hate each other" promo jokes (that turned out not to be jokes after all) made by TB actors came from.

In conclusion, I despise the way Aegon's suffering is being used in the narrative, and it takes a really big chunk out of the positive feelings I have about Aegon's arc in general. The F&B Greens, while being flawed individuals and not the most well-functioning family, were loyal to and cared for each other. HotD destroyed the majority of inter-Green relationships, and I am really, REALLY not here for it.

[brucewaynehater101]

I think the whole Tim doesn’t know self care thing is shit bc he is great at it!!!!!

the parts where we show Tim struggling with self care is when everyone in his life that mattered were dying one after another and he was going half manic with grief.

but when he is not actively drowning in grief he is great at the whole self care thing in most comics

Hmm... I'm not sure if you're referencing a specific post/AU of mine or just the fandom idea in general.

I do find it strange that somehow Tim is often seen in fanon spaces as highly competent, independent, and efficient, while, at the same time, not being able to do basic care tasks (like cooking, eating properly, laundry, etc).

On the other hand, his Red Robin comics are some of his more popular ones (at least in being referenced in fanon material). That's the baseline a lot of people base him off of. That, or they exaggerate the Drakes' abuse for Tim.

In all honesty, I could see that, after Red Robin, he may become worse at taking care of himself if he never receives proper support for all of his grief and hardships. Similar to a severe depression, it wouldn't be too speculative to fantasize that (after all the bullshit of RR), he let's his self care tasks fall to the wayside. It could be a cool fic to see him getting frustrated at not being able to do all of the shit he used to do because he's so godsdamned tired.

There are some other cool fics out there that do highlight Tim being on top of his game with disinfecting, taking his medicine, and getting himself on the proper diet after his splenectomy.

I wonder if you have an issue with the common tag, "Tim Drake has the survival skills of a wet paper bag."

I personally get a little bit unnerved when a fic backs Tim into being parented against his will. Just the lack of choices, the disrespect of him having and still being able to make decisions for himself, and the feeling of being trapped are not a good combo for me.

These are just personal preferences, though.

For the Tim being good at self care bit, perhaps fanon writers could use his ability to take care of himself in the moment as a subtle indication of his mental state? For instance, Tim, at the beginning of the fic, has a relatively clean apartment, showers regularly, eats decently, and gets a decent amount of sleep. As he falls further into the plot (maybe chasing a horrifying case, falling out with the Bats, losing a loved one, etc.), his self-care falls to the wayside. As the story is wrapping up (if it's a good ending), the writer could indicate that Tim invites his family over for dinner (to showcase a clean apartment and ability to cook again).

This would be a background but mental health accurate indicator of how Tim is feeling throughout the plot

[mochiiniko]

follow up to this ask! this time im just gonna be talking about my coloring process (i also want to let you all know that im not an expert in color theory since im still learning, im quite literally just going random bullshit go on the blending modes 💀 lots of explanation under the cut)

the three blending modes i mainly use are exclusion, hard light, and overlay. from the guide above you could see how the blending modes work on their own, and how they look like combined altogether. the cool thing about blending mode layers is that it really is all about experimentation and finding the best combination for a piece (also to any fellow inabakumori enjoyers GRAHH lagtrain pose jumpscare)

i went through a bunch of blending mode phases before i ended up with those main three, though it's funny how ive been using the same overlay color for about 4 years now (multiply used to be one of them, and i still use it from time to time, just not as much). im gonna be honest the whole reason why i know about blending modes being helpful was because one time i accidentally had the fill bucket on and had a certified eureka moment 😭

the best way i could explain these three modes is:

exclusion - honestly i still dont understand how it works either 💀 when i use a really saturated blue color and lower the opacity, it gives a cooler feeling to the palette. feels like a mix of multiply and overlay with how it adjusts the colors without making it darker

hard light - gives more saturation and color

overlay - gives off a glowy effect, especially if the lineart isnt completely solid (this is why it isnt clipped on the folder as shown in the example below, keeping it above the layers gets that glowy effect)

i still use the same colors for exclusion and overlay (while i do alter them with hue saturation brightness from time to time, i just use the same blue and brown for most of my works) though hard light is what i use to make drawings lean towards a temperature

i tend to use warm colors a lot because i think theyre neat and also im biased sorry <3. as a warm palette example, i drew yinu and used this orange color on hard light and lowered the opacity

cold colors have a similar process, it's just the matter of adjusting the hard light layer. i wouldnt really say it's completely cold since i still add warm colors because im still biased </3. as a cold palette example, i drew sayu and used this purple-pink (??) color with the same settings

when it comes to drawings that have characters with contrasting palettes, it does take a bit of trial and error but i most of the time i mix both warm and cold methods like the example above. this also helps for art with several characters in general, since the blending modes help make the colors go well together despite the variety

theres also instances where i dont always use the warm + cold combo, since sometimes drawings lean towards a specific temperature instead (like environments with set lighting/shading, so usually i follow that even with characters with different palettes)

tldr; there are lots of palette combos you could make, not necessarily with just the three blending modes i mention. random bullshit go genuinely helps with experimenting with colors!!