#aabria when I get you when I fucking GET you

[meraarts]

I can’t fucking believe Aabria looked Brennan Lee Mulligan in the eyes while they made Tula a revenant knowing full well she was gonna have Phoebe force her to attack her own family in the finale

[asexxxualauthor]

I think the best part of finishing Burrow's End is the moment about six or so hours later, where you're chilling in the shower or in the middle of dinner, and you suddenly realize that the tape—you know, that tape—wasn't all five of the Firsts dog-piling and murdering Dr. Winnebago, but literally just Phoebe. And just that one stoat was enough to cause the carnage the kids found in the store room and turn the doctor into a Meat Dave when she didn't even know how to speak human yet.

[seawitchkaraoke]

never gonna get tired of Aabria and Brennan playing dnd together, they know each other so well, they are so fun, they're clearly having so much fun ''does Evan have a grenade??'' ''idk will you let me? :)'', ''you know what I'm gonna ask'' ''yeah I throw myself in front of Sam, absolutely'', ''I'll give it to you, if you detach your shadow'' ''.....(pause, clearly aware that with Aabria as a dm, this will have Consequences) yeah I do it, I want to get all of them'', ''is my shadow back with us?'' ''no :)'' ''okay. (concerning)''

And that's just this episode, but there's so many little moments in all of their campaigns that really read as ''I will fuck you up <3'' ''I know and I am walking into it with open eyes <3'' from both of them, never hold any punches, because they know the other one doesn't want them to, just. Inflicting emotional damage on each other for funsies is a love language I guess?

It's beautiful

[rollaroundincompliments]

Also shout out to the names of the episodes. #1 A Meeting of Misfits, #2 Magma and Mingle

#3 A Place of Knowing.

Because the M words are the fun whimsy side of magic. And this is the episode when magic got fucking real.

[hades-least-favourite]

sometimes i forget that not only are the cast of mismag talented comedians and improvisers but also incredible actors capable of taking your little heartstrings and shredding them with a violin bow. and then i watch A Place Of Knowing

[goathouseofficial]

imagine how much you'd have to trust someone, to not only let them possess you, but to welcome it

imagine how much you'd have to trust someone to possess them. all that you are, under someone else's hands, in someone else's shape. every lie wiped away. every skill at their disposal.

[wizardnuke]

i love dnd..i love playing heavy utility/support/backfield and i love having three to six attacks in a turn and an insane ac. at heart im a support player ill get my hands on whatever we're missing in a group

[lopeach]

seeing a lot of mismag negativity and i just wanna come out with a counter to that and say i think this season fucking rocks. every single player is hitting it out of the park with their acting and character choices. i love seeing these huge swings so early in the season.

danielle and brennan developing their friendship and how genuine and earnest she is with sams reaction to evans ghost. just pure love and support. sam says shes afraid no one takes her seriously but i think shes one of, if not the, most important character of this season bc of her ability to put so much emotional significance in such few words. ("my wands not working" "of course ill carry you")

erika accidentally snapping their wand and discovering that magic breaking mechanic. leaning into k's self-righteousness and deciding they know how to "fix" things that arent broken without confirming everyone was on the same page. the "breaking magic is more your thing" line. (i had to get up and leave the room after they said that). erika is so good at finding the rough spots on a character and poking at it over and over again, and it makes for incredible and dramatic storytelling

jammers unwavering support of his friends. but also the fact that he dropped out and stopped doing magic. he tells people his familiar is from temu. but he would do anything for the pilot program. lou is such a heavy hitter in comedy, but between this season, crown of candy, and worlds beyond number, im so glad we get to see him flex his dramatic skills too because god. he can act.

evan holding fast to the belief that he is not worth saving, and how much strain that puts on the group. him not realizing it hurts his friends when he doesnt process their love for him. and i think brennan is doing a great job portraying someone who deeply needs therapy but doesnt have the resources for it amd instead is just doing his best.

AND AABRIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GODS ABOVE!!!!!!!!!!! if there are zero Aabria Iyengar fans on this world then i have died. she said she wanted this to be the funny season but im really happy its so tense and dramatic. not only does that give the players a chance to shine, but its also so 100% aabrias wheelhouse. her storytelling is so evocative and honestly i think we are too early in the season to be throwing stones about plot and satire effectiveness. i trust her, and have seen enough of her other work to think that however messy it feels right now, its gonna pay off at the end. she knows what shes doing. and shes good at it too.

[cottoncandybitchfuck]

Burrows End

“It’s interesting to watch someone go from wanting to survive, to wanting to live” -Teedles

“It’s better to go together than to go alone” -Viola

"Gentle parenting is an aspiration but sometimes you have to tell these kids to get out of this fucking bear"-Brennan Lee Mulligan 

"We prepare for the worst that could happen, and the worst has happened and you’re still alive."-Viola

"The truth is that the blue, the monsters, the dust in the air, all that, the real reason that grown-ups talk about this like they have a big secret is because we're scared too. Because as much as you think we know everything, the biggest secret of all is we mostly don’t. And that’s what we hide from you. The thing we hide from the kids isn’t that we know everything it’s that we don’t know everything. Cause we don’t want you to be scared." -Tula

“I can’t put any more effort into being a daughter”- Tula

“You can’t guarantee safety. You can’t guarantee that you get to hold onto everyone forever. What you do get to choose is who you love.” -Tula 

“This isn’t just corruption it’s power. But is there a good type of power?”-Viola

“I’ve seen very powerful people collect power, and I’ve seen un-powerful people do what they can to get by, and I think the things they both have in common is none of them ever seem to have any choice about what happens next. I wouldn’t spend life chasing power. It’s hard enough just to chase happiness” -Tula

“Funerals are so often not for the dead, but for the people they leave behind.”-Aabria Iyengar

“How can you not look back when something sees you?” -Aabria

“If we’re in the dark we know nothing, and if we know nothing, we’re not safe.” -Thorn

“I think the truth is, the monsters were always going to be coming back.” -Sybil

“What are a bunch of monsters to all of us and everything we can do?” -Sybil

“Whatever we have discovered, these monsters were clever enough to make, and they do know it better than us. No matter how much we are obsessed with it, confident that we can harness it, the sky and the water. That’s the blue. That’s where we come from. For all we know, where it comes from is these monsters. So I don’t know where this confidence comes from, but if confidence could keep you alive, then Geoffery would still be here.”-Tula

“There’s always something unknown and scary, monsters in the dark trying to get you, but when you find something in people that can help push that back, you hang onto that.” -Ava

“The radical change that can happen when you are kind in the face of doom can change the battlefield.” -Tula

“Look around us, there is nothing but death, and all I can see is people squabbling.” -Thorn

“If you want power so badly, you have it.” -Bennett

“I think that someone who kills other beings to absorb how they live is something that wants power more than any person I’ve ever seen.” -Viola

“We’ve spoken a lot about hope and a lot about survival, maybe there is something else that we can do that isn’t just pushing them back and hoping that  they don’t come back with a bigger and bigger thing and scarier truck and all these things that will end all of our lives.” -Thorn

“A little pro tip, don’t do a bunch of mass murder, without having a little plan first.” -Olliver

“It was unlucky that we lost dad, and it was lucky that we had you.” -Tula

“Well I don’t like thinking about luck because if things happen by chance , then that means I have no control over what happens to you two or your kids.” -Ava

“You can’t lead with your fists” -Viola

“Chaos is good from time to time, but so is order. There’s a balance. You have to be able to embrace change, but you also have to be able to know when there is structure needed.” -Tula

“Power exists. Power should make you sad and tired. Anyone who seems to like power is suspect.”-Tula

[gluzzo]

Brennan Lee Mulligan during the fireside chat for The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One - Episode 9

[Image ID:

Screenshots of excerpts from the transcript of the Worlds Beyond Number podcast’s fireside chat on The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One - Episode 9.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And, to me, that describes so many heartbreaking situations, where something deep and true does come, like- the number one belief I have, in terms of like, whatever my secular morality is— is that there's a weird attitude in some parts of our culture, that like, impulses are sinful, and morality is like a structure?

Aabria Iyengar: YES!

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And that bullshit. Moral impulses are incredibly real. Nobody needs to explain what's wrong with-think of the first age you are, where someone's mean to another kid, or an animal, and something in you goes, "Wrong!!" And that's primal.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And like it's-it's brutal! It's very Imperial. It's like this oppressive weight, from a very smart opponent, who is convincing themselves. Like, the reason the arguments have that urgency, is that Suvi is also self-indoctrinating, and it's part of that thing that comes back up. And I think the big, sinister part of, of….. The idea of principle. Like, what, in principle, is different from a demon being bound in a circle of salt, and what you saw happening to Naram out under the derrick. This is-I don't have time to explain this in this talk back. I have issues with the philosophic concept of principle, point blank.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Yes. And I think that the idea of principle, from-especially to a wizard, who is all about organization, taxonomy, patterns, and systems-principle is this idea that, maybe is built on sand, right?

Aabria lyengar: Yeah.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: When we think about "what are your principles," we use it as a synonym for being a good person. "Are you principled?" But the idea of principle being like, maxims, axioms, "What are some rules that I can ALWAYS follow?" And speaking of them, like, if you go back to Aristotle's Golden Mean, maybe living by principles produces bizarre, immoral edge cases.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: So it's this idea of, like-but it's unexamined by Suvi in that moment, and the reason it's unexamined, is because I think it's one of the main tools of the indoctrination of the Empire. What have you already accepted? Right? I see this in ethical discourse all the time, which is why whataboutism is so powerful, in modern philosophical discourse, is people go like, "Okay. You've made a moral point. You've made a call to action. You've said, 'we need to do something to make the world better.' So what I'm going to do is find some other moral failing of yours, hold it up in front of you and say, 'but you did this bad thing like this,' or this other situation occurred that was similar to this, where you did not act. So wouldn't you in fact, be a hypocrite by acting or not acting in a similar way this time?'''

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Which sounds, when you see it in the world, like sound moral reasoning, and it's garbage.

Taylor Moore: [Laughs]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Because it's basically saying, like, "Instead of helping, why don't you be consistent?" And it's like-

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: It's like stupid. What the fuck is the point of consistency? Like principle as a measurement of consistency, and the Fox's whole deal would be like, "Yeah, yesterday I did something bad and today I'm going to do something good because I want to." That's all.

Erika Ishii: Yeah.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And someone would be like, "You're a hypocrite." And he'd be like, "Okay! I'm gonna get some fish slurry."

End ID.]

[baldrickwhethers]

hi so. i know i should probably move past the 13 min mark in the ep but i just need to rant real quick about fucking up in character making a character good while still being flawed. spoilers for mismag s2 ep 2 and ep 3 under the cut

i love. LOVE. that erika fully committed to having k fuck up. he didnt back down when aabria did the 'are you SURE' and they didnt back back down when she said the dc. erika knew the odds were close to none and he STILL went through with it, resulting in the most dramatic and incredible character death and roleplay moments i've ever seen from d20. and what drives me more insane was that it was completely in character for who k is.

k's job as itsy is the guide. their whole thing is helping people new to magic get their foot through the door and work on their magical abilities. and she's GREAT at it. however, it also seems to have put her in the mindset that she can just 'fix' things. even when they arent already broken.

evan was fine. his bone had been healed wrong, sure, but his arm worked. he was fine. he didnt need to be helped in that moment and he never asked for it either. but k saw a poor, scarred man, ('he's so SAD') and decided to help him.

not realizing how royally they were going to fuck it up.

and it's beautiful it drives me CRAZY because it's a perfect encapsulation of how to show a character flaw even as someone 'good-aligned.' k asserted their will over evan and he suffered the consequences. it was, to be blunt, selfish. in their craving to assist, to be helpful, they've done something that's irreversibly changed evan's life. he didn't even know what was coming.

i commend EVERYONE at the table for taking k's mistake and just running with it. i may only be 13 minutes into the episode but the emotional toll is so bad i've had to pause twice and take a break so i dont start weeping.

[strugglingatart]

at this point my bad memory is making things actively worse for me bc Brenan and Aabria are doing this amazing scene with Evan and the fucking goat of truth (I will not check how his name's written or misspell it) and it feels and clearly is a huge dealand also so great) but I'm stuck on the fact that I don't REALLY remember what Evan wanted to know when he got the book someone get my brain fixed PLEASE

but also "I don't like you because there could be clarity here but you're not giving it to me, seemignly on purpose" IS A WHOLE ASS MOOD

[bananathebookworm]

TLOVM S3 Eps 4-6 Ramblings

Ep. 4

Ashley is just... so good at what she does...

Hell is disgusting. I love it.

I know splitting the party is almost always a bad idea in D&D, but I really like how they've done it in this series. It helps to get through so many important plot points. (And also makes it easier on the animators to have less characters involved in each scene.)

The concentration check fail to drop their disguises is a nice touch

I like that we get more about the NPCs stories simply because they introduced things like EXU later. They expanded on lore that didn't exist when this campaign was originally played and it's really cool to see. I'm only disappointed we didn't get to see Senokir.

Loving this card game between Pike and Zerxus.

I really want Bell's Hells to go to the Hells and talk to Zerxus. I mostly just want Luis back at the table. Let him take over like Abu did.

Also the Aabria, Brennan, and Matt in the stained glass pictures while Zerxus is retelling of his friends during the Calamity is phenomenal.

"Do you want your family here?" Damn Pike. Get him.

"We all have blindspots." I refuse to believe that wasn't a deliberate reference to Ashley's show. Especially after Scanlan's reference to Phoenix Wright a few episodes ago.

I need a mini-series of Zerxus life in Hell please.

Ep. 5

Kima and Allura being badass is always a plus. I want a mini-series of their adventuring days.

I wish they had included Scanlan slaying the pit fiend with Mythcarver. It was one of the only times Scanlan used his sword and we got one hell of a cutting words song from it. And also no one but Keyleth saw his victory which would've added to the "Scanlan is not appreciated enough" story.

"Let's get weird." I love that they throw in the various player phrases too. Not just the one-liners from characters, but the actual quirks of the players at the table that span all characters.

Kaiju battle! The only thing missing is Pike's Divine Intervention punching Vorugal out of the sky.

The Magnificent Mansion baby!

Ep. 6

Chateau Shorthalt! Love it.

Okay, but the cannonball contest is one of my favourite downtime moments. I know it was probably passed over for time, but I'd love to see it animated.

Oh god, the bath scene. I knew they wouldn't pass it over just because of how everyone reacted to that moment, but I wasn't sure how they were going to do it. Welp. Here we are. Fucking hilarious as always.

I love these moments of character bonding so much. I know we can't have as many of them in the series as in the game, but it's good that they include at least a few.

Oh this scry is rough... Scanlan is not well.

Well shit. I didn't think he'd leave at that moment. Though I do like that Pike both knows and encourages it because Ashley wasn't there for this whole thing. Sam said that if she'd been there Pike would've been the only one that could've convinced him to stay. I'm really curious if we're still going to get the "What is my mother's name?" breakdown.

Are Kash and Zahra going to return? I know they were there for at least part of this lead up to Thordak.

I really love how these different battles are choreographed. I love that they can combo and support each other's abilities now that initiative order doesn't need to be tracked.

General

I'm really enjoying this season so far. So many important character things are happening both independently and as a group.

I don't necessarily love the pacing, but I also understand that condensing a 500 hour campaign into seasons that are about 4.5 hours long total is a fucking behemoth of a task. Like even if we go two more seasons, that's only 20-25 hours total. So much has to be cut and reworked to make a coherent story.

[utilitycaster]

yeah! I need to get ready for work and I could write an entire essay about...truly, any character, but the fundamental nature of D&D (and therefore actual play as a medium) is first that these are extraordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and expecting them to have calm Pro and Con list 21st century Twitter Therapy Speak reactions is fucking bananas. (frankly expecting any character in any story to do this is fucking bananas unless it's a satire of people who expect this, but that's another discussion) The second is that D&D is extremely about power, and about the characters growing in their power and their agency. Player agency is the TTRPG buzzword, and yet when players are indicated to have had their characters use that agency to have done something less than...well, 21st century Twitter Therapy Speak approved everyone goes up in arms.

One of my favorite story themes is "you are partly responsible for your own problems" both because it's immensely true to life and because I find it honestly more comforting than "you are entirely powerless and could not do anything about the things that happened to you." My favorite characters for the most part engage with this heavily (and to be clear I'm talking about adulthood actions and clinging to trauma responses and self-pity that no longer serve them, not childhood trauma itself), and it is unbelievably frustrating that so frequently there's a not-inconsiderate fandom response of "um actually they are the sacrificial lamb with the whitest fleece who never did anything wrong ever and were merely buffeted about by powers that manipulated them?" Like ok, well then they're really boring I guess, time to move to someone who actually takes chances makes mistakes and gets messy.

I could talk about Steel forever bc I love her and she's fascinating and complex but while all those thoughts about what she means within the worldbuilding and the story and to Suvi and during the children's adventure and within the Empire are important I really do think in the end I'm like. some of you just want all parents to be evil, and not just evil, but evil in a very easily written-off way that requires no thought or understanding of why they might be that way [which does not mean their behavior is justified, simply understandable] and I think that is very boring and dumb of you.

[chungledown-bimothy]

it’s wild to me that people are conflating the issues with jkr herself and issues they may have with the story that is hp, and couching it purely in rhetoric regarding transphobia and transmisogyny. hp is not a transphobic book/movie series. the author is the problem here

hp was written by jkr and going back to it as an adult and also with the context of the type of person jkr and the hate she spews means you can see some things definitely stand out as Not Great. but there are two things to that: one is that it’s mostly racist and antisemitic tropes or lazy stereotypes—not great but abundant in fiction, and in particular the context of these books being written in the late 90s/mid 00s by a white christian british woman means it’s entirely unsurprising in the context of when it was written. the attitudes shown in the books were typical of the time. we’ve come extremely far since 1997 and not everyone remembers that

and, more importantly, two: the books themselves are not overtly transphobic, and i’d argue that perhaps with the exception of certain interpretations of chamber of secrets, aren’t transphobic at all, and at the very least are unintentionally insensitive

jkr is the one who’s transphobic. and again, going back in time, she was actually considered quite progressive at the height of this franchise. she’s been radicalized over time, especially online, as many people have been in the last decade or so. it’s unfortunate that she’s a high profile enough person for that to be a really big problem, and it’s no excuse. she’s a vile person, and she spews vile filth, and many people listen to her because she’s jkr, and that hurts many people, and there’s unfortunately little to be done to stop her

but we also can’t pretend that hp wasn’t a cultural touchstone for an entire generation, and dominated media significantly for a decade. most people who were kids, teens, and young adults in the 00s- early 10s have core memories attached to the series. that’s not going to just drop from memory. but she doesn’t actually own an entire genre of children’s literature (even though she may have revolutionized its expansion). unless she dies tomorrow, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to divorce the author from the work completely for a good few decades

so what’s left? we do what aabria did with the story. we pull the parts that were good, flip it and change it into something else. make new stories in the magic school genre. if hp is the only recent thing in that genre because people don’t want to go near it, it’ll only ever remain that way. if it makes you personally uncomfortable that’s fine, no one’s making you watch it

but it’s insane to act like watching a show that’s not actually hp on a platform unrelated to wb made by people entirely unrelated to jkr and her team is actively funding jkr’s crusade and giving it visibility and a platform. it’s really really not

while i largely agree with you, i do need to push back on a couple of things.

first: your claim that there isn't transphobia in the books.

rita skeeter, whose whole thing is disguising herself to spy on people- specifically children in the books- is described as physically "mannish" a lot, specifically her hands, shoulders, and face. and, iirc, her hair, nails, and other denotations of femininity are described as Very Obviously Fake.

while it's not the most explicit transphobia jk's written, that very much is a Fucking Problem.

second: while i get that the horrible take that sparked this is mostly about transphobia, some of your phrasing comes across as dismissive of the other bigotry.

the racism and antisemitism absolutely go above and beyond what could possibly be excused by "product of the times" shit. that cannot be ignored.

BUT all of that is secondary to the topic at hand, which is summed up very well in your last two paragraphs, i think.

[fillingthescrapbook]

Let's Talk About: Burrow's End and the First Stoats

Hi, invasive investigators!

And speaking of invasive--oof! That ending! But first: What an episode!

My MVP this episode is Brennan Lee Mulligan and his decision to weaponize kindness even when it could backfire majorly. Amazing man.

But I also want to give major props to all the planning Aabria Iyengar has done for this season. The stakes for the stoats would not be this severe had she not mapped the roads that the art department could then pave for the players to take. This was a massive ordeal, and I cannot believe there are three more episodes after this because this felt like finale-levels of heavy.

Guys, one stoat died at the start of the episode. Immediately followed by another one. My heart stopped for far longer than it should have. Honestly, when Aabria said "I'll certainly try!" to Izzy Roland's "Kill them all--" I didn't realize the viewers weren't safe as well.

I mean, she yeeted a player off the table! In the middle of the episode! That is crazy! And then when Sybill was brought in? My thoughts were: "oh no." "Oh no!" "NOOOOOO!!!" and "AABRIA, YOU'RE TRYING TOO HARD TO KILL THE STOATS! NOOOOOO!!!!"

Oh, and I'm not gonna forget: "A WOLF?!", "The flesh easily gives way?! Aabria?!", and "EVOLVE?!"

That was absolutely narsty. And another thing that was narsty? SILENCE. Holy rabbits! Which is something Silence cannot eat--because THEY DO NOT HAVE A JAW. AABRIA.

And then the Natural 1s came rolling in. When Izzy and Siobhan Thompson rolled their twin 1s? Oh. My. Goodness. It was funny when they were rolling against Jasper--who rolled a four and elicited thunderous cheers. But in the middle of a battle? When they are fighting for their lives? Izzy's Lila was down to 2 hit points at one point. And the battle was still far from over at the time!

My goodness. And the thing is, this is a streaming show. I could absolutely pause and take a minute to take a breath. But I didn't. Because the tension is high. And I was already breathing too fast. So I just continued to watch with my eyes growing wider and wider.

And, look: Sybill has a point. What is the plan after this battle? Like, granted, asking in the middle of the battle was not the best time--but she's still right. I can't wait to find out what the answer is next week. Along with what's going on with Aabria's other bombshell. Because, in the words of Rashawn Scott to one Brennan Lee Mulligan, "you're such a secretive bitch!" To which I add, "Tell 'im, Rashawn!"

Stray thoughts time:

I understand that they need to have a teaser at the end of the episodes, but I truly wish we didn't see the second map last week. Because I feel like our reactions would've been just as visceral as the players when Aabria said "now bring in the other map--" had we not known that it was coming.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Tula is fucking scary.

The Wolf of Theseus was a fun pun.

Director Dictator Dude feels like a game akin to Fuck Mary Kill.

This is the first time I felt really bogged down by 5e's combat mechanics. No shade to Aabria or the players. I understand that they're going to do what needs to be done because everyone wants to survive. This is completely a system fault for me.

Now let's get to the screencaps:

Oh, and one more thing:

"You stood here for generations... Was that on four legs or two?" Tula asked as she looked down at the downed First Stoat. "The humans are already here."

Chills.