#all the takes about redemption or restorative justice or whatever are annoying

[swatchlings-art]

hey so pharmister.. do you have any more content for that au? any headcanons? how the fuck does pharma end up with them bc? who's bright idea was it to throw him onto the idiot ship? ToT

and also how do they get together? do they get together?? the spinister rizz(tm) is too strong not to work /hj

OHOHOH I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED!

So, for me pharmister is a ship that exists exclusively for my Pharma's redemption tour AU (which is my own take on a "Pharma lives after the Lost Light finale and now has to deal with the consequences of Everything")

AND MAN DO I HAVE CONTENT FOR THIS AU!!! I have... 72 pages of planning for it, and only 2 chapters fully written (out of 25 so far!) unfortunately most of it is all a WIP haha...

BUT get ready for me to babble AT LENGTH about it here lol

>how the fuck does Pharma end with the scavengers?

In my AU, Pharma wakes up from being braindead a few years after the finale and then gets a proper trial for his crimes, but instead of being sent to death row he's given the opportunity to Reintegrate Into Society after doing what's basically community service. He loses his medical license for obvious reasons, so he gets sent to do his service with The Peace Corps (which... are the Scavengers after being given a purpose in this New Cybertron).

>Who's bright idea was to throw him onto the idiot ship?

this is actually one of my favorite details for my au lol SO the only reason Pharma gets this second chance at life is because Minimus, in honor of Megatron, has formed a Restorative Justice Program for war criminals on both sides of the war. And part of that program is doing this type of Community Service instead of getting the death penalty or infinite prison time. His program is controversial among the populace and very new and experimental, but he's trying his best to make it work. He selected the Peace Corps for Pharma because the Scavengers are actually a glowing example that his program works so far and he thought putting him under their care would help Pharma have an easier time adapting to his new life (wildly unaware that it'd be psychological torture to surround Pharma with decepticons he loathes).

AS FOR HOW PHARMISTER WORKS HERE!!!

>Any headcanons? how do they get together? DO they get together?

yes I have SO many headcanons. The most important of them all is that Spinister saw Pharma for the first time and went "Wow, he's hot!" and only continued to be down bad for him from there (at first having an extremely shallow crush on the former medic, until [Plot Point] happens and he forms Genuine Tender Feelings for him).

Pharma as he exists in my AU is going through a full blown depression, and is having a really hard time accepting that he'll never be a medic ever again, and also he's paranoid as HELL thinking everyone and anything is out to get him. Ah, the wonders of trauma!

And it takes a bit of development for him to start trusting any of the scavengers at all, but the one that is easier to trust is Spinister. Mostly because he's completely honest about everything he has an opinion on. He's extremely blunt! The type of guy that blurts the first thought that forms in his processor without thinking about it first! He's too dumb to make a convincing lie or keep up a charade!

And also, Spinister's very obvious crush on Pharma is oddly reassuring and annoying for him at the same time. He has complicated feelings about being loved as he is! He hates it! But Spinister is just happy to be around Pharma because he likes him without judgements. Spinister has decepticon standards when it comes to love! Whatever fucked up things Pharma has done are Tame for him, hell, he also harvested organs at some point (It's like they're meant to be ♡ <- this comment would get him slapped).

I feel like fully revealing my hand as to if and how they get together would be spoiling that part of my AU. but what the hell!!! I don't get many opportunities to talk about it.

Anyway YES they get together but at first Pharma uses him to try and fill the void inside him (Spinister is more than happy to go along with it), and only later on does Pharma start to appreciate and become deeply fond of Spinister (because if anything, he CAN trust him to be on his side and he even starts to admire that Spinister is just... very at peace with himself despite his perceived flaws. That's enviable somehow).

ANYWAY!

Hope that was a satisfying answer to your question!!! I cannot fully express how grateful I am that someone else wants to know more about my AU and my beloved crackship I accidentally created ♡♡♡ so thanks for asking!

[thousandyearphantombunker]

while I'm at my defense of Steven universe I'm also gonna defend amphibia's ending whereas Steven Universe's ending wasn't good it definitely did everything it needed to the show needed to have the diamonds get redeemed. The show needed Steven to talk to them. It's thematically great and all the decisions made where technically good but it still came out raw and undercooked. Amphibia is fucking perfection. Yes you can complain about Sasha's redemption arc, yes some episodes of season 3 are fucking annoying and yes even though i disagree with the idea that Anne needed an angst arc you can complain about how we didn't really focus too much on how the girls went missing or how the plantars arcs aren't super great. But for the love of God amphibia is about goodbyes, inevitabilities, permeant growth/change/loss like getting older, losing connections and death- the world's being separated, the girls stopping being friends until they became adults, the loss of the girls calamity powers- its good, its sooo good. TOH is an escapist fantasy therefore Luz getting magic back and getting to be in the boiling isles and whatever works in the owl house-when but amphibia is not an escapist fantasy. The show ended perfectly.

I think part of the reason I started to hate the owl house fandom is because of how many people in that fandom had meltdowns over shipping Luz and hunter- as a Lumity shipper and huntlow shipper (cause despite my complaints i do ship these) i got tired. They freaked out over people joking belos was a trans icon and nonbinary and how he gave them gender envy- they felt the need to attack Steven universe's ending while claiming toh did restorative justice better, ignoring the fact that if the show really was doing restorative justice Luz would've tried to help belos redeem himself, he would've been given a chance to grow/change that The collector's orange and blue morality was erased to make him more easy to redeem and how that's pretty common in the show- being absolved of your crimes via either downplaying the characters actions or by Taking away the characters agency when they did bad things via retcons- it doesn't ruin the show but if toh was about restorative justice (which it isn't so im not judging the show based on that) then it failed. TOH didn't make up for the 'sins' of Steven universe, if the show was trying to show was trying to say restorative justice doesn't always work on people like belos then the show should have gone out of its way to highlight that belos had multiple chances at redemption that he refused and highlighted he years to change, we would have seen Luz thinking about him possibly being redeemable (part of the reason I hate the titan reveal is the whole 'wouldn't that make us just like belos's thing was dumb- i get that luz was dealing with anxiety and that can make her irrational but like no? Because Luz's sense of morality never felt that way idk if I'm describing it well). You know what show does do restorative justice well? Steven fucking universe. You know what show does the whole 'restorative justice doesn't always work for people who don't wanna change'- Amphibia, gargoyles, so many other fucking stories. I don't think TOH'S is as bad as once thought it was. I really do like some scenes and have a different interpretation of belos than I used to. but no it did not 'make up' for Steven universe's 'sins' because Steven universe didn't commit a sin- amphibia did not 'fuck up' and make an overly sad/bad ending. 'toh did it correctly because your supposed to kill the genocidal homophobe'- yeah you don't understand restorative justice. 'toh did it correctly because you should get to stay in the fantasy world'- did we watch the same show (amphibia). I'm so fucking tired.

how the fuck was Steven supposed to kill the diamonds? With the crystal gems a team consisting of like 8 people? One is a human girl with a sword, another is a random technician and another is a disabled soldier? With the breaking point? The diamonds are huge and have insane powers they could use to protect themselves with ease so...and if somehow he did find a way to kill them- what would the aftermath be? What would happen to the corrupted gems? The system on homeworld wouldn't have changed, they'd still kill the off colors, they'd still be colonizing planets etc. would spinel still be waiting never knowing anything about what happened to her friend? Like what would have happened- 'oh the diamonds will probably go right back to killing people if Steven let them live and therefore Steven will be responsible for all the blood on their handa when that eventually happens, it's also unjust and toxic that Steven forgives other peoples abusers on their behalf we always let the colonizers have redemption arcs and portray the people they hurt as villains for fighting back' yeah okay, you cop Steven is a moral failure who is guilty of colonization and hes an abuse apologist who ignore the victims and demonizes them(where we watching the same show? Did we not see Steven try to help centipetle? Did we not see him break down over the cluster- could Steven had forgiven the diamonds for the sake of the victims? I do give some shit to Steven for how he acts about rose but even then he's a teenage with PTSD)-The situation also changed from 'homeworld gems are coming back to earth after the war to create a geo-weapon, they thought they won the war and didn't care about colonizing the earth anymore' to 'now they want rose quartz to hang for as justice for what happened to pink diamond' to 'pink diamond faked her death and her attempt to escape the abuse and evils of her home ended up turning her friends into monsters and her deciding to die to create Steven has led her sisters trying to drag her back to homeworld to uphold the horrible caste system' no more going after earth the way they used too, now the conflict was personal.

su's ending was bad- it felt hollow rushed and like so much happened but also like not enough was happening- it was a mess but also, su is about restorative justice and changing unhealthy family dynamics, and that's actually great. I get pissy about Steven Universe's ending-lapis, peridot, lars and bismuth were completely irrelevant the complaints i have about white diamond are the exact same ones i have about the collector (i hate them both) the movie piled more shit onto rose's bad rep sheet when it was really unnecessary and the show only portrays the perspective she was a brat which was great at the start but once you see how internalized she was and that shes an abuse victim the show should have portrayed her more empathetically, and if we wanna talk about the show as a whole- i hate that shattering can be reversed fully now and that jasper didn't stay dead as much as i love her, i hate that the show never acknowledged how toxic sadie was toward lars (kidnapping him and steven the donut prank- lars was a dick but sadie was a psycho) or how its hard to defend pearl after they made her a total creep (even if you don't read fusion as sexual its still super uncomfortable to see pearl lie to garnet like that and take advantage of something that meant so much to garnet) and i dislike that peridot lost her edge and the episode "too far" pissed me off (amethyst you encouraged peridot to be mean and call garnet a slur, pearl a braindead slave and Steven an affront to nature but when she made an accidentally ableist remark while trying to compliment you that's when it became a problem?). Su botched a fuckton of its messages and the filler was hit or miss in terms of quality and a lot the hate was Deserved (it did get uncomfortably sexual when it came to certain fusions- and rebecca sugar being Jewish bi, nonbinary etc doesn't exempt them from criticism- it felt perverted in several parts and rocknaldo was a worthless episode though if I hear another anti-Semitic take on this show im gonna flip- y'all don't know what Nazism is please stop using that word without understanding it) but I while I have my complaints about the ending I think Steven changing the diamonds minds was the only appropriate way for the show to end, the show always was about making amends or living life after the carnage had settled without focusing on vengeance/perpetuating the cycle of violence it was always about seeing nuance and not seeing you people you come into conflict with as enemies. I'm not angry at the diamonds being redeemed, I hate how it was handled, I'm not angry at the show for saying bismuth was wrong I hate how it was handled she deserved better but Jesus christ can we stop acting like the only appropriate way the show could have ended is with Steven 'realizing pacifism is bad and killing the abusers/colonizers is the only answer' because fuck diplomacy and systemic change-

also Steven is fully willing to use violence, Steven would pick up a gun and shoot to before batman or aang would ever if it meant saving his world (this isn't me shitting on those characters just pointing out Steven isn't that extreme of a pacifist) and Steven carries a lot of anger as we see in su future (whether or not you think it's a hot mess it's canon) while i don't think he hates the diamonds he definitely resents them and is afraid of then but holds back (until he ya now gats... Way worse mentally), he wants to fix the system not get justice or vengeance or make huge moral judgements where he is in the right when he hurts others- steven isn't an abuse apologist who believes him self morally superior (he actually kind of is afraid of that) he isn't afraid to use violence if he seems it necessary (he's a diplomat and his skills lie in talking things out- of course he'd go to that first) he cares a lot of about the victims of the diamonds and people who have been hurt- even if they hurt him. Steven is deeply flawed his martyr complex reveals him to be incredibly entitled and desperate to be in control and for others to be hurt or bad so he can fix their problems so he can feel good about himself and deals with a lot of guilt and by future he has developed anger issues- but he always cared about others that's why he did what he did and does what he does

[demarogue]

A Lily on Thy Brow basic plot summary, theme and spoilers

Alright I didn’t want to do this because I hate to spoil my stories, but that annoying argument with the bad-faith reader made me realize I need to clarify some things. 

So, the fic is here – A Lily on Thy Brow

It is tagged “Tamlain” because of something I will divulge below the cut. It is NOT a ship. Maybe I need to tag it differently, but I am not sure what a better tag would be in terms of preparing the reader. I admit to being lousy at tagging.

Tamlin gets both redemption and comeuppance in this story. It is NOT a defense of Tamlin. I am not glossing over what has happened in canon with either Tamlin or Elain. Exploring the theme of “what we deserve” is part of why I am writing this at all. 

FWIW, If you google the title and discover what it’s alluding to, you might get an idea where I am headed with this thing without needing a bunch of spoilers. 

This was my note for chapter 1: I think Elain is really interesting and I wanted to write about her. I think her relationship to Spring and all Feyre's observations in the books about that relationship are interesting. I think the place we left Tamlin is interesting. So I mostly just wanted to mess around with those ideas and try to write something pretty and achey and a bit raw about this as-yet undeveloped character and everyone's least favorite High Lord.

More details below.

I’m going to get more specific and spoilery as this goes on, so I guess stop at whatever point you’re satisfied. 

The first thing I’ll say is that the fic is about politics/the world of Prythian as much as it is about the characters. It’s also really about Elain, and much less about Tamlin.

The setting is post-ACOSF. Tamlin’s been running around in his beast form instead of ruling, and the spring court is suffering for it. Since Spring is such a strategically important Court for many reasons, the IC decides they have to intervene to get it back on its feet. Basically nobody makes sense to send except Elain, and it is her idea to go. 

She has ulterior motives for going. I hint at this a lot from the very beginning of the fic.

Elain is able to do something none of the others can do – lead Tamlin. She is able to do this precisely because she is subtle, and practical, and politically savvy...and, crucially, she is NOT his girlfriend. She is able to set her personal feelings about him aside in order to accomplish her goals. Their “relationship” in this fic is still going to be angsty and characterized primarily by shame around past actions and inaction, the impossibility of trust, and the certainty that any kind of promise would end in betrayal. It’s Complicated. They learn to work together toward this common purpose of restoring Spring. 

There will be a kiss but it won’t be romantic. This kiss and Tamlin’s conflicted feelings toward Elain are why it is tagged Tamlain. They do not end up together romantically. If anyone has a better suggestion about how to tag this fucker, I am all ears. 

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NOW FOR THE BIG SPOILERS.

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Stop reading if you don’t want to know the ending.

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Tamlin does not know why he feels so drawn to Elain, until she reveals that it is because she is the heir of Spring, and Spring is eager for her to replace him. This is also why he felt what he felt for Feyre. In her visions, Elain has seen that much of this was destined to happen, though the specifics have not played out as they could have.

The kiss is a mechanism for the transfer of Tamlin’s powers to Elain. As a Made Fae loved by the Cauldron, aka the vehicle of power and Fate in this world, Elain is able to take her fated place as High Lady of Spring (and something like a goddess of life/growth/CHANGE/REBIRTH for all Prythian) while sparing Tamlin’s life. This is neither justice nor mercy, but grace. Tamlin must sacrifice the power and responsibility that have become his curse (a reminder that in Beauty and the Beast, the Beast was cursed to be the way he was, and his power as a beast was part of the curse) in order to have the chance to be something else. In his new role he is tasked with enforcing the treaty between Prythian and the human realm, protecting the border with his restored order of guards/knights. He learns how to serve the greater good. It is a relief. He had never wanted to be High Lord.

Romantically speaking, at the end Elain’s options remain the same as in canon – Azriel or Lucien – and she is, at least for now, alone. I’m debating a sequel fic, probably set pretty far in the future because I like the idea of her waiting a while to figure out who and what she is before selecting a partner, but that’ll depend on if I’m able to finish this thing or not.

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

So I finished watching Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon. Spoilers under the cut. 

(Mainly positive take, some criticisms. C+/B I’d give it.)

So, first of all, I didn’t play it, I just watched people on youtube so my perspective of gameplay should be taken with a grain of salt. But I really liked the turn taking fighting style! Like a real JRPG, I thought it was fun, it seemed fun anyway, and the strategies to JRPG make more intuitive sense to me than fighting games, which I don’t know at all. I did end up missing the hand-to-hand combat like... aesthetically and it kinda breaks universe rules a little. But, like, Ichiban seeing combat as a sort of heightened fantasy reality actually helps with that and the plot still treats us like average combatants. Like, there’s still no murder, despite a lot more weapon use, including guns. So... it’s a little sad and weird universe-wise, but seems fun to play. 

Ichiban is a great protag! Definitely not Kiryu! He has two dads, like 8 spouses, a lot of hair... He’s only 7 years younger than Kiryu and that’s... that’s a choice ^^; But he’s got a lot of good things going for him and I like his build. Interesting rage-grief he has going and a thing about revenge that Kiryu never had. And I like that actually, I like that Ichiban gets hit with different things than Kiryu did, but he still has flaws. Kiryu was never blind with rage the way Ichi got, but then, Kiryu also didn’t save his brother. Like, they have VERY different shit going on, which is GOOD. So I’m kinda annoyed that in the end we took Ichi’s dad and brother, just like Kiryu’s? Like... damn :/ Lame. Lazy. 

I love Ichi’s team! I love Adachi, Nanba, Saeko, Joon-gi, Zhao. Top notch peeps! I like that they all just like him and are here for a fun adventure with him. They’re all here for something different, which is also really cool. Zhao is sort of redefining who he is in... retirement I guess? Trying out being a companion rather than a leader. Saeko is longing for family, connection, a place to belong. Adachi was here to accomplish a goal, to restore his honor and provide justice. And Ichi’s been a big help to that. Joon-gi is... a whore. I’m sorry! He’s just this beautiful, obedient man who’s just here on lend and he does whatever the fuck you say. Do not put him in charge of decisions, he’s terrible at them, but he knows a lot and has a vast network. But he appears just to be here to serve everyone’s needs, so to speak, and to moon after Ichiban like everyone else. And Nanba. Nanba hates adventures. He hates germs. He hates people and friends and danger and doing things. But he’s here. Because Ichi makes him hate things a little less. Nanba is a cynical, cowardly bastard, and Ichi’s a fucking sunshiney idiot always trying to fix shit that isn’t his problem. And he makes Nanba get up and fight. He makes Nanba believe in tomorrow. Nanba doesn’t trust people, Nanba doesn’t hope. He’s a pessimist and lives only to complain. But he is first in line to get shot for Ichiban every fucking time. He’s always the first to Ichiban’s side when he’s in trouble. Leaving and betraying Ichiban broke his fucking heart and my ship is probably showing A LOT here but I don’t care. I fucking love Nanba, I love his arc, I did NOT see it coming. And they are definitely my ship out of this. The fact that Nanba without fail is always the first to put himself in danger for Ichiban guts me. With how much he doesn’t believe in good things ever happening, it destroys me that he’ll dare it all for Ichiban. Fucking wild. 

I thought it was cool to bring up a political villain, but... we didn’t really carry through on Bleach Japan’s thematic importance. We revealed them to be cruel and hypocritical, but we didn’t end up actually saving the slums or proving why the slums needed to be saved and that’s... kinda lame :/ 

I was really hoping that we might make a stand on why grey spaces were needed, on why organizations like the yakuza are needed but instead we... disbanded? And I don’t even know why? 

Like, it was to fuck over Ryo Aoki. But... he was a TEMPORARY problem. All you had to do was move the organizations underground until he was unseated, which the Tojo already was??? 

But instead... we brought down Tojo and Omi and... WHY?! Like, SERIOUSLY, can ANYONE tell me WHY! Because I have a LOT OF FEELINGS about why that’s a BAD CALL.

What are all those guys going to do now? “Oh, we’ll just make a security company” YOU’LL WHAT?! THOUSANDS of guys used to shake downs will now be hired to patrol rich estates and cover banks and business buildings?! Fighting WHO, themselves?! A LOT of that job is just watching some fucking cameras, what... what the fuck are you talking about Watase?! 

But I guess that’s still better than Daigo’s “I have no fucking idea” plan

NO WONDER Majima’s depressed at that funeral you JUST TOLD HIM his new job is BABYSITTING SOME RICH FUCK’S BUILDING. Fuck you guys! 

And HAVE WE LEARNED NOTHING ABOUT POWER VACUUMS?! CRIME doesn’t disappear just because there’s no one there to manage it! That just means it gets worse! And rasher, crueler people grab power in the interim. Smaller but rougher groups will appear. More and worse crimes will happen now. You just disenfranchised thousands, not all of them are going to come with you to play security detail and not all of them WANT to. So why EXACTLY did we disband the yakuza? What problems did that solve??? 

What about all that shit about the yakuza being a home for people who didn’t fit in? What about people who fell through the cracks in the system, who don’t have anywhere else to go? 

If the yakuza, as an idea, was so fucking bad, WHAT WERE THE LAST SIX GAMES ABOUT?!

You can’t have an established series that accepts the idea that crime and violence are sometimes necessary or are even good things and have a compelling protag who does that, ONLY to turn around at the last second and pretend like it was always wrong!

If you were gonna act like the idea of organized crime is a Bad Thing, THEN THAT NEEDED TO BE A CONFLICT FROM THE BEGINNING

But you didn’t even do that!

We DIDN’T disband the yakuza because organized crime is inherently morally corrupt, no we disbanded because some prick thought he could use us! A PRICK WHO IS NOW DEAD! THE FUCK?! 

And DON’T GET ME STARTED on how this reframes Kiryu’s narrative. KIRYU WASN’T RIGHT FOR LEAVING YOU FUCKING BASTARDS. 

THE WHOLE POINT OF KIRYU’S ARC WAS THAT HE WAS FUCKING WRONG TO ABANDON HIS RELATIONSHIPS I- *screams into pillow*

AND why does Kiryu need to be dead now?! There is no more yakuza! Who does he need to hide from?! 

OH no wait, my mistake! We didn’t disband ALL the yakuza, just Omi and Tojo! You know, the two biggest cities in Japan. I’m sure THAT won’t have Fucking Consequences. But Kiryu still has to be dead for uh... Reasons.

This was just such a fucking dumb universe-building move. It’s not been thought through, it betrays the whole point of the franchise up until now, and I’m honestly just mad that they didn’t even feel the need to address it? Like, the yakuza’s just gone now, but it’s whatever. Who would even care about that. Like, that’s not going to be a plot point next game. It won’t matter, at all, I promise you. All of the in-universe implications this has, none of it matters. And I’m not even mad I’m just... tired. And annoyed a little. that you can’t be bothered to tie up your own rules. You won’t give your own writing decisions weight and that’s just... kinda sad. It’s just lazy and sad that they don’t care enough to connect the pieces. But I’ve had my heart broken enough by yakuza writing decisions. Of course they would do this, of course they haven’t thought enough about their own series to really consider what ending the yakuza would mean. Why would they? 

I’ll still watch the next game. Like, Ichiban is likeable enough and I’m interested in his arc enough that I’d play or watch next time. But... *sigh* We’re the Yakuza series with no yakuza. And y’all gonna act like that’s a good thing or pretend it doesn’t even matter. And I really don’t know what to do with that since you haven’t bothered to examine it either. 

On a nice Kiryu note, I did like that he was scaled appropriately, I like that Ichiban is Wiped Out after almost every fight. He’s a good fighter, but he has human endurance. Kiryu’s still god. He hits the hardest out of anyone you fight and you Don’t win and that’s As It Should Be. I’m REALLY glad they at least let me have that. I’m glad they let us fight Kiryu and we passed and it was a cool passing of the torch. I was so worried they were going to destroy Kiryu’s legacy and at least they didn’t do that. 

The coin locker baby thing... it was cliche and convenient, but in the way that Yakuza is cliche and convenient and melodramatic and over the top. It was sort of fitting and familiar that way. Shame we ended Swashiro like that, I think we could have done more and cooler shit with him but, eh. 

SPEAKING OF MORE AND COOLER SHIT

...all that effort, just to kill him? Alllllll that long time, that hard conversation, that break down with Ichiban... just to kill him. Just to make him Nishiki, all over again. 

I... fuck you. 

Why do you refuse to write a goddamn redemption arc

Fuck, you don’t even have to write it, have it happen off-screen if you’re so fucking afraid of it. Just have him recuperate in a goddamn hospital and, I don’t know, by next game just show that he’s doing better and is getting therapy and whatever.

Jesus fucking christ, he doesn’t have to MATTER in the next game just... don’t kill him. Jesus. Please.

All that fucking work and you’re STILL going to give Ichiban the trauma of losing someone he was trying to save. 

I just... it’s really gutting how much you don’t like your characters and you don’t like to write and you’re cowards. You won’t take risks. You’re too afraid of fucking up so you won’t do what the narrative calls for. 

Killing Masato was lazy-ass, punk-ass, coward shit and I wont’ stand for it. I did not expect to care about his ass by the end but you guys REALLY made an effort in making him a three dimensional character there at the end and explaining why Ichi would care about him and I was willing to come with you! I was willing for us to invest in this dumbass. We walk him all the way up to the edge and step him back. We let him let go. And then you just. fucking. gave up. You goddamn cowards.

I’m so tired of this shit

For all that, it was genuinely a really fun game and a really fun story with a lot of likeable characters. I think a solid C+, even a B. I really did enjoy most of it. It’s just... in usual Yakuza style, they only fucked up 2 things but they were a REALLY IMPORTANT 2 things. 

Oh and I did like the fact that Ichiban Still Doesn’t Know. No one tell him.

[5lazarus]

Winter in Amaranthine, Ch. 4: Oghren

Summary: The Wardens' companions decide to leave, and Warden-Commander Arana Mahariel cannot find a reason good enough to tell them no. Meanwhile, letters between the Warden and Leliana get lost in translation, and Arana makes it worse. Chapter 4, Oghren: Oghren sobers the Warden up.

Read on AO3 here. On Tumblr, read here for Justice & Anders, here for Velanna & Sigrun, and here for Nathaniel Howe.

She stays in her office all night drinking. Arana sits at her desk and sips slowly at her tumbler, enjoying the warp of the fire in the high-priced Serault glass. She is perhaps the only Dalish elf to ever have the privilege to drink from glassware normally preserved for the Divine and Her Holiness’ followers. They had been sent to the Divine as a bribe from the notoriously eccentric Marquis de Serault and waylaid by Leliana. Remembering that, Arana’s hand tightens around the glass and she contemplates smashing it, as she has smashed most of the relationships in her life. But she is the Warden-Commander of Ferelden and the Arlessa of Amaranthine, and it looks bad enough that she is drunk--she does not want to imagine what the servants would say, if they had to clean up glass worth several years of their salary. Instead of breaking it, she tops up her glass. She wakes up to the cool seabreeze whistling outside of her open office window, gulls crying out for bread. Blearily she pulls her head off her desk, cheek sticking slightly to the surface. Her head is heavy but the hangover has not begun to ring through her yet. Arana wrinkles her nose: coffee in a silver pot, embossed with the Warden crest, steams before her, with an equally beautiful silver cup. “Drink up,” Oghren says. “You’re gonna need it.”

She fixes him with a red-eyed stare. Did she cry last night? She should have, if she didn’t. “Food?” she asks. They have done this before, the two of them, after they killed Branka, after Alistair left, and then Leliana. Oghren grunts. “Enough to tide you over,” he says. “Servant’ll be bringing it up, not me.” Ashara snorts. “Distinctions of rank must be preserved,” she says drily. “You want a cup? I imagine you brought your own.”  A servant knocks on the door and brings in a hefty rasher of bacon, thickly-sliced, and three eggs fried in the grease, along with a shot glass of a mysterious green liquid. Ashara raises an eyebrow at Oghren. “Pickle juice,” Oghren grunts. “Works every time. Now get eating, we have to get to the city by noon.” “You don’t give me orders, Warden,” Ashara says, and laughs when Oghren rolls his eyes. “Fine. Enjoy your hangover. I’ll take the bacon.” Oghren feints towards the food, and Ashara waves him off. She eats, feeling her flesh gradually restore around her bones, and takes that shot of pickle juice. It is all surprisingly good. “No hair of the dog?” she says. “That’s a road you don’t want to go down,” Oghren says. “Trust me. Been trying to walk back up it for three months.” He grins at her. “Three months sober today. Sister Nightingale sent me a pretty little amulet to wear. Silver. Supposed to ward off poison.” He laughs. “‘Nuff poison I’ve thrown into myself. And out.” “You’ve been corresponding,” Arana says flatly. She sips her coffee. Leliana has been corresponding personally with Oghren, but has not bothered to send her a letter in months. She is furious--how can she find Oghren more pleasant to talk to than her? Did her letter anger her that much? She could have at least written her back, rather than turning her quill towards other people--to Oghren, of all people. Arana tolerates Oghren, and sometimes she even likes him--she has grown to respect him, after he joined the Wardens and apologized to Felsi, and she knows sobriety is not easy. Still, out of everyone left at Vigil’s Keep, one would think she rates higher than that fool. But Leliana has always liked a good redemption story, especially if she can prompt it. Arana scowls again. Oghren snorts at the look on her face. “Aye,” hen said. “And that’s why I’m taking you on a walk.” “Is this an intervention? I’m not a drunk, Oghren. Not like you--were.” “Andraste’s tits,” he says. “You’re not a drunk like me, no, and you haven’t puked away all your opportunities and shat on all your loved ones--” “You shat on Felsi?” Arana interrupts. Arana occasionally finds Oghren’s stories reassuring: it is always nice to know that someone has fucked up more than she ever can. Oghren pauses. “No!” He considers it. “Maybe. Her doorstep, more like it.” “And she answers your letters.” Arana leans back in her chairs and downs her coffee. Leliana doesn’t answer her letters, and Arana has never even drooled on her, let alone shat on her doorstep. “Sweet Sylaise, that woman has the patience of a Keeper.” Oghren snorts. “She doesn’t answer my letters, but she certainly cashes the notes I send her. You good? You drank your coffee? You gonna eat that? Let’s go.” They leave the keep quietly. The keep is bustling as usual, with the trainers and the recruits and the cooks and the cleaners running about. Arana catches sight of Ser Pounce watching from a young tree she planted, that passes as a Vhenadahl, and she stops a second. Ser Pounce cocks his head at her and mews. He looks very well-fed. “He hasn’t been hunting the Blighted rats, has she?” she asks anxiously. “I do not want Anders to hear we poisoned his cat.” Oghren says, “Ser Pounce took out a hurlock alpha. Think he’s immune to the Blight at this point, Commander.” Ser Pounce lets out a meow, and disappears into the leaves. Arana hopes he has not been pissing on the tree. They move off the main road to avoid listeners, and because Arana deeply craves the woods, the feel of the living earth under her soles, and the whisper of the lost that press against the almost sheer Veil, trying to get their stories heard. They trudge along in silence for the first hour. Oghren hums to himself. He is not a particularly good singer, Arana well knows, but she enjoys having company. They meander, and Arana loses herself in the cool gray copse that acts as a natural barrier between Vigil’s Keep and anyone avoiding the King’s Road. When they are far  from Vigil’s Keep but still an hour  from Amaranthine City, Oghren finally speaks up. “You been getting a lot of mail lately.” “Yes,” Arana says. “I have certainly been filing my dispatches.” Oghren looks at her sideways. “Dispatches,” Oghren says. “From ol’ King Alistair, from that warden from Clan Lavellan, maybe even one or two from Tabris. But nothing from Surana, or Brosca, or Zevran, or Leliana even. Except that one, right? From the batch that came in before Anders left.” “Are you reading my mail?” Arana says, annoyed. Her hand reaches for her sword handle. “Fen’Harel take you, dwarf, those letters contain sensitive information, and you are enough of a drunk--” Oghren raises both hands. “Three months sober,” he emphasizes. “Since Anders left. Ser. Though I guess I’ll always be a drunk, I’ll be a dry drunk for sure. And no--I file your mail. Quartermaster told me to make myself useful, and it keeps me from going to the tavern for lunch.” Arana deflates. She crosses her arms instead, and looks up at the bald trees reaching for the gray sky. It does not snow in Amaranthine, even in winter. She hopes it does not rain. Oghren continues, “Struck me as weird, it did. That you’d only get official business, but Tabris was writing Velanna and Nathaniel, Leliana was checking in with me every two weeks, Alistair even sent me some cheese. ‘Twas moldy to be sure, but I think he did that on purpose.” “Some Orlesian cheeses are supposed to be moldy,” Arana says, amused despite herself. “Leliana told me.” Oghren shot her a look. “Didn’t it strike you as weird that Leliana was writing me but not you? And I didn’t want to intrude on whatever your lover’s spat was, I know how you get.” Arana opened her mouth to protest, but Oghren barreled on, “So I did some investigating. And guess what I found out?  The courier who takes letters from the crossroads, and sends them up the coast? Well, her husband’s got an Orlesian last name, and his cousin works in the Divine’s scriptorium.” His moustache twitches as he beams up at her triumphantly. “The Divine’s been stealing your mail, lass. She’s trying to fuck you and Leliana up.” He spreads his arms out, as if he is expecting applause. “You took me out here to tell me this?” Arana says incredulously. “You couldn’t have told me this in front of my fire?” As she says that, she feels a cold drop hit her forehead. She wipes it away, crestfallen. It begins to rain. She glares down at him. Oghren says cheerfully, “Better get to Amaranthine quick. Time to sprint!” They reach the city gates, mudsplattered, soaked, and sour. Arana bitches the whole way back onto the King’s Road and through the gates. It is the most she has spoken since Velanna left, and her throat gets sore. “And now!” she exclaims, as Oghren shepherds her towards a relatively nice inn near the alienage, “now my throat hurts! I will get a cold, and I will be bedridden, and someone else will need to find a polite way to tell the Chantry they have no right to censor us for recruiting whomever wanted to flee Kinloch Hold, while simultaneously keeping them from scrutinizing too heavily whatever Blighted nugshit Weisshaupt is up to--you know Morrigan has been sighted in Serault, bearing a writ from the Divine? And somehow it’s my fault.” She has not spoken this much, or so openly, since Surana last visited, and though she knows it is perhaps unwise to confide this all in Oghren of all people, she cannot stop the torrent of words. “And, and, I need to apologize to my clan, and--” In the corner of the steaming inn, a woman sits, tuning a lute. Arana stops dead. Leliana looks up and smiles. “My love,” she says. “My heart.”

[squidproquoclarice]

You've made your thoughts on John's redemption only really being able to end as it did clear. What, then, is your take on Ross, the agent of that retributive justice? A deeply unpleasant man by any lights, all right, but does he cross the line into outright villainy or not?

Good Golly Miss Molly, I love this Ask.  Buckle up, because this is going to become a longer meta, since I feel like I need to rewind for the context to properly answer the question.

A quick note: I think if Ross hadn’t double-crossed him, John would have been on a restorative justice path after RDR1.  He’s finally figuring out that it’s not enough to stop doing bad things, and I think he would have done more good, given more time.  FWIW, Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best restorative justice character arcs I can think of to cite as an example.

I love what RDR2 did by choosing to go for Pinkertons rather than the somewhat blandly nondescript “Bureau of Investigation” from RDR1.  The historical context of the Pinkertons is excellently used.  For RDR2 fans, I’m writing a season 3-as-fic for the ex-NBC TV show “Timeless”, and coincidentally, I wrote an episode (3x05: Addams Family Values) set in 1893 Chicago that explores the cooperation and competition at that time between the methodology of anarchy and socialism in achieving rights for the downtrodden, the workers’ rights movement, social work, and the role of the Pinkerton Detective Agency having transformed through the 1870s-1920s from an agency that proudly foiled an 1861 assassination attempt on Lincoln into notorious private guns-for-hire frequently hired by wealthy industrialists and turned against union activists, labor agitators, etc.  And they were accountable to those men for results, sometimes to violent and extreme ends.

Which is why it’s great use of historical context in RDR2 for Leviticus Cornwall, a Gilded Age plutocrat, to have turned to the Pinkertons to chase down these criminals who’ve robbed his train, and who are already on federal radar due to the Blackwater Massacre.  And that’s why Arthur, raised as something of an anarchosocialist, (I’d argue the gang becomes fully and violently anarchic, while Arthur goes more towards full socialist) snarling “You enjoy being a rich man’s toy, do you?” at Milton is historically note-perfect.  In Arthur’s lifetime, Pinkertons have become exactly that–rich men’s toy soldiers, hired so those men could keep the deck ridiculously stacked in their favor.  Of course he would hold that in contempt.

So now we’ve got Andrew Milton, presented as the senior agent in charge, and Edgar Ross, his junior partner.  Yes, Milton is a fucking annoying self-righteous blowhard, but up to a certain point in the game, he’s actually not in the wrong.  He’s technically being paid by Cornwall, but he’s pursuing dangerous criminals utilizing increasingly violent means.  People are getting hurt and it has to stop.  These insane assholes even have a four-year-old child who’s at risk.  So he tries non-violent means first.  He tries to woo Arthur with an offer of amnesty.  He tries to get the gang to give Dutch up.  All in all, he’s not pleasant, and his smugness about “putting down” Mac Callender is in no way admirable, but he’s doing his job more or less responsibly, as is Ross under his command.It’s in Chapter 4 Milton crosses the moral event horizon.  Hosea is very clearly captured, disarmed, and is absolutely no threat to anyone at that point..  I can see using Hosea’s capture as leverage to try to force Dutch’s surrender, but at the end of the day, a just and responsible law officer would have sent him to prison.  Instead, Milton coldly executes him, to prove to Dutch that he’ll either surrender or die.  He makes Hosea his declaration of total war.  And it’s at that point he loses claim to righteousness.  He’ll do anything, no matter how dirty, to get the job done, because he considers the result far more important than being better than the people he’s pursuing.  So he kidnaps Abigail, and is in turn killed by her.  In the end, Milton was savage, and he died savagely.

Ross learned that lesson from Milton, and accepted it.  We will do whatever it takes to get the job done.  And Milton’s been killed by this pursuit, so Ross has to finish it and make it count.  Dutch lost his top two men–Hosea was killed, and Arthur died (or, you know, “died” and escaped to Mexico, but whatever)–but the man himself survived.  And as we see in RDR1, in 1911 Dutch is still very dangerous, because he’s learned nothing.  He’s up to his same old shit of recruiting angry and disaffected young men, and after what we saw with how badly he used Eagle Flies, what he has going in Cochinay with young native men is even more painfully offensive.So Ross feels honor-bound to bring Dutch down.  He founds the Bureau of Investigation, seemingly for the sole purpose of chasing down gang members.  He finds John Marston.  And his capturing John for past crimes would have been understandable.  Trying to convince him to help get Bill, Javier, and Dutch would be as well, in return for some mercy or amnesty.  But kidnapping Abigail and Jack and forcing John to cooperate for their safety is absolutely “dirty cop” behavior.  Killing John after it’s all over solely to cover his tracks so his sins won’t be found out is even worse.  He’s gone even lower morally than Milton did, trying to tell himself that the ends justify the means, that he’s righteous when he’s really pretty amoral.

Essentially, Milton and Ross both became full-blown villains wearing a badge.