#also love his backstory and the writers should add it in like this

[daisysmalia]

‘What the writers may or may not have written yet’ I’m taking that quote as another clue that he’s staying around lol

[druizard]

Alright so, I'm going through my thousands of BG3 screenshots. I tend to snap pics of conversations and dialogue that I like or find interesting and then ultimately forget about them cuz my brain is mashed potatoes half the time.

ANYWAYS, the scene in act 2 when you save Rolan and he has a breakdown has a lot of lines that I adore but also they break my heart because not only do I love Rolan, but I also relate to him in a few ways. At least on the self loathing part.

Right off the bat, this is what he says after you rescue him. There are so many things he has done right, but he cannot see them, not past his failures, no matter how small.

I particularly LOVE how Larian wrote extra lines for different classes in conversations!! I don't have lines from all of the classes I've played (I'll probably add more to this post later if I end up grabbing more screenshots of em) but I do have a few of my favorites. Here we have my origin Gale, telling Rolan, "A good wizard knows when to ask for guidance - for help." To which, Rolan replies.

Heart-wrenching. And if you ask him, "Should I have left you to die?"

(excuse me while I cry)

My Druid/Bard, Aislyn, in another play-through, tells him, "If it helps, when I re-tell this story, I could say you killed all the monsters?" His response:

While he is speaking to you in this scene, he starts off angry and venomous but very quickly his tone shifts and his voice begins to quiver as if holding back tears. (Bravo, George Taylor) He talks a big talk in Act 1 at the grove, but he really did mean it when he said "I care about our lives, our futures!" He says his greatest ambition is to become the greatest wizard in all of Faerûn, but it all means nothing if Cal & Lia aren't there to share his future with him.

Their family bond is so important to all three of them and I only wish we had more backstory. I want to know what happened to them and what happened specifically to Rolan in his past that made him feel this way about himself. I love seeing everyone's headcanons, but I'd love to know what the writers had in mind when they wrote him into the game.

Anyways, I love Rolan, Cal and Lia, maybe more than anything else in the entire game, thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[racefortheironthrone]

What did you think of X-Men Blue Origins?

(I may turn this into a People's History of the Marvel Universe later today, so keep an eye on this space.)

X-Men Blue: Origins and the Power of the Additive Retcon

(WARNING: heavy spoilers under the cut)

Introduction

If you've been a long-time X-Men reader, or you're a listener of Jay & Miles or Cerebrocast or any number of other LGBT+ X-Men podcasts, you probably know the story about how Chris Claremont wrote Mystique and Destiny as a lesbian couple, but had to use obscure verbiage and subtextual coding to get past Jim Shooter's blanket ban on LGBT+ characters in the Marvel Universe.

Likewise, you're probably also familiar with the story that, when Chris Claremont came up with the idea that Raven Darkholme and Kurt Wagner were related (a plot point set up all the way back in Uncanny X-Men #142), he intended that Mystique was Nightcrawler's father, having used her shapeshifting powers to take on a male body and impregnate (her one true love) Irene. This would have moved far beyond subtext - but it proved to be a bridge too far for Marvel editorial, and Claremont was never able to get it past S&P.

This lacuna in the backstories of Kurt and Raven - who was Kurt's father? - would remain one of the enduring mysteries of the X-Men mythos...and if there's one thing that comic writers like, it's filling in these gaps with a retcon.

Enter the Draco

Before I get into the most infamous story in all of X-Men history, I want to talk about retcons a bit. As I've written before:

"As long as there have been comic books, there have been retcons. For all that they have acquired a bad reputation, retcons can be an incredibly useful tool in comics writing and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Done right, retcons can add an enormous amount of depth and breadth to a character, making their worlds far richer than they were before. Instead, I would argue that retcons should be judged on the basis of whether they’re additive (bringing something new to the character by showing us a previously unknown aspect of their lives we never knew existed before) or subtractive (taking away something from the character that had previously been an important part of their identity), and how well those changes suit the character."

For a good example of an additive retcon, I would point to Chris Claremont re-writing Magneto's entire personality by revealing that he was a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. As I have argued at some length, this transformed Magneto from a Doctor Doom knockoff into a complex and sympathetic character who could now work as a villain, anti-villain, anti-hero, or hero depending on the needs of the story.

For a good example of a subtractive retcon, I would point to...the Draco. If you're not familiar with this story, the TLDR is that it was revealed that Kurt's father was Azazel - an evil ancient mutant with the same powers and the same appearance (albeit color-shifted) as Kurt, who claims to be the devil and is part of a tribe of demonic-looking mutants who were banished to the Brimstone Dimension, and who fathered Nightcrawler as part of a plot to end this banishment.

I don't want to belabor Chuck Austen, because I think that Connor Goldsmith is right about his run actually being a camp cult classic in retrospect. However, I think we both agree that the Draco was a misfire, because of how the retcon undermined Kurt's entire thematic purpose as established in Giant-Size X-Men that Nightcrawler was actually a noble and arguably saintly man who suffered from unjust prejudice due to the random accident that his mutation made him appear to be a demon, and because of how the retcon undermined the centrality of Mystique and Destiny's relationship.

X-Men Blue Origins

This brings us to the Krakoan era. In HOXPOX and X-Men and Inferno, Jonathan Hickman had made Mystique and Destiny a crucial part of the story in a way that they hadn't been in decades: they were the great nemeses of Moira X, they were the force that threatened to burn Krakoa to the ground by revealing the devil's bargain that Xavier had struck with Sinister (and Moira), they were the lens through which the potential futures of Krakoa were explored, and they ultimately reshaped the Quiet Council and the Five in incredibly consequential ways.

This throughline was furthered after Hickman's departure, with Kieron Gillen exploring the backstories of Mystique and Destiny in Immortal X-Men and Sins of Sinister, and both Gillen and Si Spurrier exploring their relationship with Nightcrawler in AXE Judgement Day, Sins of Sinister, Way of X, Legion of X, Nightcrawlers, and Sons of X. One of the threads that wove through the interconnected fabric of these books was an increasing closeness between Kurt and Irene that needed an explanation. Many long-time readers began to anticipate that a retcon about Kurt's parentage was coming - and then we got X-Men Blue: Origins.

In this one issue, Si Spurrier had the difficult assignment of figuring out a way to "fix" the Draco and restore Claremont's intended backstory in a way that was surgical and elegant, that served the character arcs of Kurt, Raven, and Irene, and that dealt with complicated issues of trans and nonbinary representation, lesbian representation, disability representation, and the protean nature of the mutant metaphor. Thanks to help from Charlie Jane Anders and Steve Foxe, I think Spurrier succeeded tremendously.

I don't want to go through the issue beat-by-beat, because you should all read it, but the major retcon is that Mystique turns out to be a near-Omega level shapeshifter, who can rewrite themselves on a molecular level. Raven transformed into a male body and impregnated Irene, using bits of Azazel and many other men's DNA as her "pigments." In addition to being a deeply felt desire on both their parts to have a family together, this was part of Irene's plan to save them both (and the entire world) from Azazel's schemes, a plan that required them to abandon Kurt as a scapegoat-savior (a la Robert Graves' King Jesus), and to have Xavier wipe both their memories.

Now, I'm not the right person to write about what this story means on a representational level; I'll leave it to my LGBT+ colleagues on the Cerebrocast discord and elsewhere to discuss the personal resonances the story had for them.

What I will say, however, is that I thought this issue threaded the needle of all of these competing imperatives very deftly. It "fixed" the Draco without completely negating it, it really deepened and complicated the characters and relationships of both Raven and Irene (by showing that, in a lot of ways, Destiny is the more ruthless and manipulative of the two), and it honored Kurt's core identity as a man of hope and compassion (even if it did put him in a rather thankless ingénue role for much of the book).

It is the very acme of an additive retcon; nothing was lost, everything was gained.

I still think the baby Nightcrawler is just a bad bit, but then again I don't really vibe with Spurrier's comedic stylings.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you think they should have made Colt a good father to Felix? Or are you fine with him being a bad father?

I don't think that Colt should have been anything. He died off screen before we even met Felix and Felix is a minor character. Why is he getting more backstory development than Kagami when Tomoe is alive and actively involved in the plot? Wouldn't it have been far more interesting if the play was her story?

But if we must include the mustachioed cowboy man, then I would make him a good father or, at the very least, a mediocre one. I'd do this for reasons that have nothing to do with me wanting Felix to have a happy childhood. I'm fine with him having a tragic past! The problem is that this is a story and, in terms of story telling, there is no reason to give him a tragic past. It adds nothing to the story. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that it detracts from the story, but we'll get to that in a minute. First let's go over why it's a pointless addition.

In his titular episode, Felix is a brat who tries to destroy Adrien's life. Those actions actually made more sense when we thought that Felix loved Colt and was acting out over Adrien not coming to Colt's funeral. Now that we know the full story, we're left asking, "Okay, so, why did Felix do any of that?" And don't say that it was to help him get the ring because it didn't help him get the ring. He got it from hugging his uncle and there were far simpler ways to get a hug.

And why did Felix even want the ring? That has yet to be explained because, in Strikeback, he was planning to go out of the country as "Adrien" without ever offering to exchange the ring. He simply stole the fake peacock and got out of dodge. He had no possible way to know that Ladybug would come to him for help, allowing him to offer up the miraculous and use the ring to sweeten the pot. I also don't believe for one second that he needed to sweeten the pot. He could have offered up the miraculous and nothing else and Gabriel would have gone for it. So once again, what was the plan with the ring, Felix? What was the plan?

While we're on the topic of Felix getting the peacock, Colt being abusive adds nothing to that plot either. Whoever has the peacock can snap any sentimonster out of existence. Felix could have the best damn childhood on the planet and it would still make perfect sense for him to want the peacock!

The only reason to make Colt abusive is if you want to explore that and use it to develop Felix's character, but I have absolutely no faith that they're going to do that. Colt is the Jagged Stone nonsense all over again. They're introducing a very serious issue that would dramatically affect the psyche of most people and then acting like it's no big deal. I think I saw someone say that Colt was only introduced to shut up the people calling Gabriel and Emilie abusive by showing us "real" child abuse as if abuse was an Olympic sport and you need to qualify for the team. I'd buy that theory, but I wouldn't bet money on it.

Even if I'm wrong and they are going to explore Felix's trauma, I still think it's a bad move. There's a thing called compassion fatigue. It's commonly experienced by health care workers who deal with traumatic cases day in and day out, resulting in thing like the inability to feel compassion for your patients because your compassion meter has been rung dry. You can experience a lesser form of this just from watching the news. Story after story of people in need to the point that you're desensitization to these events evoking horror or sorrow.

When you're telling a story, you need to keep this phenomena in mind and be very careful when introducing multiple sources of trauma. The more trauma you introduce and the quicker you introduce it, the less impactful that trauma will be for your readers. If you're a good writer, then it will also be less impactful for your characters. Allow me to explain with a quick example.

I had a brief Marvel phase and, while I never wrote anything for that fandom, I made up a few stories in my head. A lot of them revolved around my favorite character, Tony Stark (aka Iron Man). Tony becomes Iron Man after being kidnapped by terrorists and I love confessions of traumatic backstories, so I was working out how to do one for him and the Avengers to help bond the team. Then I realized that his teammates are all orphans and that the majority of them were raised in poverty. Most of them have also gone through scientific experimentation of some sort and not all of it was voluntary. In other words, in the world of the Avengers, Tony's trauma isn't really special. His team might sympathize with him, but they wouldn't be deeply impacted by his story the way I wanted them to be because most of them have gone through equal or worse trauma.

Circling back to Miraculous: they keep heaping trauma on these kids and it's a terrible move. When Adrien was the only character with a messed up home life, things were interesting.

Now? Well, this is the current list of characters with a messed up home life: Kagami, Zoe, Chloe, Adrien, Felix, Luka, Juleka, and probably Lila. Add in Rose's serious illness, Mylene's mother abandoning her, and Marinette's traumatic past dealing with a straight up hate campaign on top of all the trauma introduced over the course of canon and I just don't care anymore. I am drained dry. They have introduced way too many serious elements without exploring any of them in depth and that is a massive writing faux pas.

Generally speaking, when telling stories, you should default your characters to whatever a happy home life is in their universe unless you're going to do something with the non-happy home life. Non-happy home lives complicate stories and you don't want to introduce a complication if you're never going to explore it. This is why I think that Colt should have been at least a decent parent. It's also why you'll see me say that Emilie should be at least a semi decent parent even though canon has made that option impossible unless you ignore a lot of the unpleasant implications found in Adrien's backstory.

While I love evil villain couples, Emilie is in a coma, so she can't be Gabriel's co-conspirator and I personally have no interest in her waking up to start a new villain arc. When she wakes up (or finally dies), the Agreste's story is over and so she basically has to be nonthreatening for that ending to work. It also circles back to the issue of keeping the trauma tight and focused so that the trauma you do include really pops!

Reminder that the above is a discussion of story telling, not a commentary on what makes real people interesting or the commonality of home life issues. There's also nuance I didn't get into because this was already really long. Writing trauma well is a really fascinating and complex topic.

[elodiah]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love 💞

Thanks @kcscribbler!

This was interesting, because I had to go with my gut feeling in the moment, but I reckon the contents of this list could easily change at any given time depending on my mood.

1) Revival

Summary: Loki and Mobius take what amounts to a vacation, whilst Loki recovers from his harrowing experience of babysitting the multiverse.

This began as a single-chapter ficlet to fill an ask game prompt. Later, I decided to revisit this version of Loki and Mobius to fill a bingo prompt in ch 2, then a random computer-generated prompt I had in my ideas doc for a 3rd and final chapter. Apart from a little Loki-whump in ch 2, it’s generally a sweet, soft and cozy pre-romance, and very cathartic to write.

2) Within

Summary: Loki and Mobius are marooned on a volcanic nightmare of a world, their survival depending solely on Loki's tenacity.

Part of my ‘Patience-verse’ series, this fic contains some of my favourite tropes, such as ‘trapped together in danger’, ‘magical drain/depletion’ and ‘the power of love’. Also a little twist of UST/URT — gummy bear feeding, my beloved! 😆

3) Sleepless

Summary: Mobius and Loki get stuck in a broken elevator for hours, and as a result Mobius discovers what's been bothering the object of his (as yet unspoken) affection.

Also a part of ‘Patience-verse’, and it’s such a trope-y scenario, you’ve gotta love it. I mean, that was the whole point of the original fic that spawned this series, after all. Basically, my reason for choosing this is not just because I’m absolutely feral for exhausted!Loki and sleepy cuddles, but also because I can’t believe I was able to write 3k+ words about Lokius in a lift. 🤷‍♀️

4) Apokruptein

Summary: A curiosity on an unknown world hurtles Loki and Mobius into peril.

A double bingo prompt-fill for ‘Forest’ and ‘Cursed object/artefact’. This 4-chapter fic is not really my best writing, but it’s the only time so far I’ve gone all-out with a full on adventure style fic, with a little worldbuilding/backstory, a lot of whump, and the lovely trope ‘temporary amnesia’ to boot. I worked really hard on the conception of this one, and I’m pretty proud of it.

5) I’ve lumped together two ficlets for my #5 spot, because they’re both similar in that they are absolutely NOT anything near what I would usually write.

a) Sit Tempus

Summary: Furnishing their new apartment, the last thing on Loki and Mobius’ list is a decent couch.

An idea that popped into my head during a boring drive home… and I wrote, edited and posted the whole thing in one night. 😏 My only ‘established relationship’ fic to date (watch this space.. 👀), although nothing remotely spicy, I should add. Just pure cute fluff, and a very vague S2 fix-it.

b) Unexpectedly You

Summary: A kindness from Loki for a mutual friend causes Mobius to have a ‘Moment’.

Terrible summary, but it’s another little ask game prompt fill, so nothing much happens in it at all. A lot of people seemed to like this one, which kinda made me like it more too. 🤣 It’s simply Loki being a sweetheart, and Mobius being proud of him. 🥹

I also wanted to add two honourable mentions for Reach (Loki/Star Wars crossover) and Reset (Loki/Red Dwarf crossover). I never in a million years thought I’d be capable of writing ONE passable crossover fic, let alone two… so the fact I managed it makes me super proud, even if they’re ludicrously niche.

[likeabxrdinflight]

You know something else the live action atla has the chance to address? Iroh.

I don't necessarily mean some of the common complaints I often see- I don't think they'll address his relationship with Azula nor do I think it's likely they'll give us much more if any of his backstory. But what I do think they can- and should- address is the discrepancy between animated season one and seasons two and three Iroh.

Because I've always felt they're fairly different characters in some ways. Zuko's redemption arc was set up pretty early in the show's run, I'd argue as early as episode three when Zhao was introduced. So Iroh had to be likeable from the jump too, and broadly speaking, he was. Season one Iroh has many of the traits that make him a well-loved character throughout the show's run- his goofy humor, the endless proverbs, and he's the embodiment of the "wise caring mentor" archetype.

What's not set up in season one, however, is the White Lotus, or Iroh's role in it. At no point in season one does Iroh appear to be anything other than a Fire Nation nationalist. He shows no signs of disloyalty to the Fire Nation or its imperialist goals and does not ever appear to be nudging Zuko away from those ideals. None of those character traits appear until season two. He is supportive of Zuko, he tries to encourage Zuko to show empathy and concern for others, to be less-hot-headed and impulsive, but at no point does he ever seriously discourage Zuko from seeking out the Avatar (unless there is a direct safety concern, as in Winter Solstice and The Storm). At best he simply stands by and allows Zuko to do whatever it is he's going to do, and at worst, he's actively supporting that goal. Iroh's far from a bystander to Zuko's more villainous actions in season one, and none of this is consistent with the way he's characterized in season two and beyond as someone actively opposed to the war who wants Zuko to give up his hunt for Aang.

There's a million metas and arguments and headcanons out there that try to explain this discrepancy in characterization. Some are even genuinely compelling and make sense with the canon. But at the end of the day, all that is fanon. I just don't think the writers did a good job showing how Iroh gets from point A to point B, and they actively failed in setting up the existence and importance of the White Lotus.

The live action series has an opportunity to correct this. They could foreshadow the White Lotus sooner. They could show us the White Lotus sooner. They could also cut the White Lotus altogether. They could make subtle changes to Iroh's character or add scenes that indicate whether or not he was always trying to steer Zuko down this path or if he has some significant change of heart at the Northern Water Tribe. They could do something with his character that the animated show didn't, show his own growth and development if indeed he has any at all. And I think it's arguably one of the more important things the live action show ought to be doing, because it's one of the few major storytelling failures of the animated one.

[the-badger-mole]

Aang has to be one of the least popular protagonist I have seen on ao3. Out of all the main characters who appeared in season 1 and beyond (aamg, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko) aang has the least stories. I have never seen that happen to a main character before. Aang has like 13,000 stories and he is a side character in a majority, so it makes me think, why do so many people argue aang is such a great main character when he seems to be the least liked even by his fans.

This isn't me trying to do some popularity contest, it just seems like even fanfic writers can't do anything interesting with his character, which is sad because he has a lot of potential to be an amazing character.

Child who lost everyone he has ever known to war and time, waking up a hundred years later with the weight of this new world on his shoulders while still grieving his previous life, is such an interesting character, and the show did nothing with that and so neither did the fans.

You know what show did that premise justice? Futurama.

I think Aang's lack of attention comes down to him being ultimately a boring character. Yes, the premise of Aang had potential, but then Bryke turned him into a Gary Stu. And not even a particularly good Gary Stu. I think the lack of fics centering Aang have few explanations. Making Aang a more interesting character would take a lot of work. A lot more than people who aren't his biggest fans are probably willing to put in. It's easier to treat him like a side character, because frankly, that's what he should have been.

Second, fans who do like Aang- like his canon story and his canon ship- probably don't have a ton to add. I think that's not uncommon with a lot of canon ships. Most of my ships have been canon and although I have written for those shows, I'm a lot more prolific with Zutara- my one non-canon ship. I sincerely doubt I'd still be this invested if Zutara were canon. I'd still love them, but the same way I love Usa/Mamo. Content to just let the story be what it is, for the most part, unless inspiration strikes.

I also imagine some of it has to do with not wanting to admit how awful the canon made him seemingly by accident. In order to make an interesting story about Aang, they'd have to add some conflict, and no die hard Aang fans seem to be anymore willing to do that than Bryke were. Take that with a grain of salt, though. This is just my opinion. I don't spend a bunch of time reading Aang fics.

Third, the lack of Aang centered fics may actually be based on his popularity. I don't know. I think there are way fewer Aang fans than there seems to be, it's just that the main Aang fans are so loud. I wouldn't be surprised. After all, he's the most boring of the main cast, his tragic backstory notwithstanding. I only know two or three Aang/Kataang fans in real life, and they are very, very casual fans. Most of the other ATLA fans I know prefer other characters/ ship Zutara. Obviously, online Aang isn't the most popular character either. Oh, sure, there are plenty of polls that put him/his canon ship at the top, but if you look at the actual fan content...well, you can see for yourself.

[facewithoutheart]

Ten Questions for Writers

Thanks for the tags @shrekgogurt, @artsyunderstudy, @youarenevertooold, & @roomwithanopenfire I’m enjoying all this navel-gazing a whole bunch actually & I’ve done this before but it’s been awhile… sooo

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 169 (niiiice)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? ~950k (yikes) although some of that is Birthday Man and collabs with people from WIP fest. Don’t ask me to do the math tho; that’s mean.

3. What fandoms do you write for? I’ve written for HP, Check Please, and RWRB although right now I’m mostly a CO writer with a toe dipping into 9-1-1. I have one Captain America fic posted and some WIPs I don’t know if I’ll finish. Nobody look at that AFTG fic; it’s pure crack.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Whoo boy do I have thoughts here. I want to be the kind of writer who replies to comments and I harbor so much guilt that I’m not; I know I miss out on opportunities to connect with readers, and I genuinely appreciate comments so much; I hoard them in my inbox like a greedy lil affirmation dragon. I write to engage and connect. So, like, I know I should but at the same time I hate forcing interactions. I like them to spawn organically. I keep my circle small because I get really emotionally overwhelmed and then I feel guilty when I can’t give people what they deserve. And I’ve also never been comfortable with compliments or gratitude, I don’t trust them. So here’s a bulk of emotional trauma no one asked for to say: I don’t reply to comments as often as I feel I should and I’m trying to release the guilt I feel about this while also recognizing that not commenting probably has a direct negative affect on my ability to meet my goal of connecting through writing and at the same time my mental health probably couldn’t withstand the pressure I would need to place on it to get to where I’m replying to comments regularly. Hi I’m a mess who’s trying to love herself and often falls short of that goal; aren’t we all?

5. Have you ever had a fic stolen? No.

6. Have you ever co-written a fic before? So many actually! I didn’t think I’d ever get to a place where I trust someone else to the level this would take but I’ve been really lucky to work with some amazing writers even if not all of those works went anywhere. I actually don’t even think I could realistically tag all the people I’ve collabed with bc I’m afraid I’ll miss someone and isn’t that amazing? Personal growth; we love to see her.

7. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Oh man. I want to just be lame and say it’s me and Mr. Face 🤣 I shipped us when no one else did. Um! Snowbaz is always going to have a special place in my heart, but I’m really leaning into Buddie right now because of age and wanting to explore people in their 30’s still figuring out their lives while battling PTSD and late-in-life sexuality realizations. For, um. Reasons.

8. What are your writing strengths? I do like my dialogue a lot; dialogue is often where I start my scenes and I develop from there. I think I’ve done a good job of honing my ability to vary action/dialogue/internality a lot. I also think I keep people engaged or maybe I just keep myself engaged which is good enough for me. Sometimes I’m funny although sadly not as much recently.

9. What are your writing weaknesses? I struggle with remembering to add in physical descriptors. (Like oh shit have I ever mentioned this character has eyes?) Logistics are a frequent source of pain. (Wait, where were their hands?) I think my plots are kind of basic and boring; I don’t come up with really vivid and detailed concepts. I use the wrong words for things. I really hate detailing out backstory. I have to reread my fics a million times to maintain character consistency. Etc.

10. First fandom you wrote for? Hey Arnold. I wish I could find those fics; I bet they suck.

Tagging 10 peeps @sillyunicorn @mostlymaudlin @martsonmars @bookish-bogwitch @cutestkilla @ivelovedhimthroughworse @thewholelemon @palimpsessed @aristocratic-otter & @you-remind-me-of-the-babe

[davekat-sucks]

(Found this image on Twitter)

I really don't like the Omega kids. I take them as seriously as I take the alphasprites, they don't exist to me. Hearing you guys talk about these little mistakes feels like watching everyone talk about a hypothetical scenario or dream some guy had once... which is the Homestuck experience now.

I dislike them, but it's not just because their stories stem from terrible couples, it's because they're so over designed but there is no meaning to anything.

It's cute Tavros has a bow tie and that Harry has a bandana but those feel like little trinkets that should have been added on later after we get used to seeing them. Show me their personalities first before you overload a character with this much clothing. Yiffy is the worst of these. It's too much. For some reason Eridan feels like a simpler design than this avril lavigne clone. There is something less cohesive and more busy about these designs than the original cast. Maybe it's because it has too many different grays and blacks. She looks more like a vast error character than a Homestuck one.

Look at how simple the character designs start out as, and then they purposely make their own outfits that fit their interests and personalities. Dirk may be a bit of an exception here actually, he changes his clothes right after he is introduced. Which introduces him as anal.

There is meaning here. There is a purpose that the story shares throughout it's run. Look at Rose's dress it was made from the velvet pillow introduced when her mom one-upped her and Roxy's outfit here clearly being a reference to her mom's love of knitting. There is a reason Jade wears blue and John wears green even though that isn't their colors. Dave's shades are a gift from John. John is wearing a bootlegged slimer shirt. I'm not saying the Omega kids need every article of clothing to have a backstory, but if they wear this much clothing it doesn't tell me much.

Why does Yiffy wear cleats if she was hidden away from the world? Did she run around in a backyard like a dog or something? I don't even remember if that is her story or not, I forgot so much about her because I was more focused on how she was a child that Rose had behind her wife's back. They're overloaded with drama too.

To add to that. I haven't placed much thought in it but I don't know what the Omega kids color scheme is supposed to be. I assume the Beta kids colors come from basic web colors. If you invert the beta kid's colors you get the Alpha kids color scheme.

The Omega kids just feel scattered and unorganized. It makes them feel even more meaningless because they don't fit in. If that is the point then why not have five kids to really fuck with the system here? The writers should have really ran with the whole "we're flipping the script and subverting expectations" thing.

I also don't give a shit if this is nitpicky, I'm sure you guys can all see there is something off about the omega kids.

I agree about the accessories doesn't really show they are connected with the Beta Kid adults. If the bandana is suppose to be like a replacement to how Roxy wears a scarf, then let the boy wear a scarf and not a stupid gay bandana. You think that Kanaya, who is a fashionista herself, would be critical of what her daughter, Vrissy wears. And if you are saying she would never reprimand her daughter because she looks like her crush, then that brings up a worse implication that she really is grooming her to be like Vriska by enabling her bad habits. What confuses me is Tavvy's overshirt has the matching color of Gamzee, the one who MOLESTED HIM. You think after his death, he would never wear that color and be disgusted by any shade of purple that's within his sight. Unless him still wearing that purple vest now is still symbolizing he is still bound by Gamzee or can't move on after what he did to him.

But yeah, nothing about the Omega Kids designs makes sense. And I still am on the side that laughs at Yiffany looking more like Nostalgia Critic.

[empire-of-the-words]

I'm 10 and a half episodes into Young Justice (the TV show), and I feel like I should record my feelings for posterity's sake, so here we go (under the cut because it got too long 😅)

(Also I will be using superhero names for the most part since I don't want to look up how to spell Miss Martian or Aqualad's name)

Spoilers: I already know the Red Arrow thing. I'm also pretty confident I know Artemis's backstory. This doesn't bug me, because I love storytelling. A lot. So I keep looking at it from the writers' POV and it's honestly very fun. I also know a piece of Miss Martian's backstop, and the same as above applies

Investment in the characters: Honestly the show is doing a great job at this. So far it's had an episode focusing mainly on every character except Robin (who I'll talk about in a sec). The show is doing a lot of one episode character arcs (which is a great way to get you invested in the characters). Superboy and Superman both have obvious season character arcs going on, but the others have enough stuff that I'm confident they can do stuff with them

Robin: He is so competent in this, and I love it. Him being too competent to lead the team is both funny and adds another layer to both him and Aqualad. He actually hasn't had an episode really focused on him yet, just side plots. But this kind of works, since everyone knows Robin and there's less of a need to make sure people like him. (And this works. I didn't need to get as invested in Dick and Roy (and Bruce and Clark) since I'm already invested in their comic versions)

I also love that he hasn't revealed his identity yet. The little things about it (like in that episode the League of Shadows was trying to hack Wayne Enterprises). Especially with Artemis heading to Gotham Academy, I'm really hoping she has some fun interactions with Dick

Ships: Miss Martian/Superboy is pretty cute. I passively ship it. Just hoping they have real relationships with other members of the team. Kid Flash/Artemis (does she have a hero name?) is a bit more interesting. The amnesia episode did a good job selling it to me, as it shows they don’t necessarily hate each other at a basic level. Also I hate Kid Flash's crush on Miss Martian (or at least how he acts because of it), and rooting for another ship is the same as rooting for it to die. No real love triangle stuff for now, and hoping it stays that way. There's also the ship getting its own category:

JadeRoy: Starting very different from the comics (where they basically started as Enemy Lovers), but, uh, I Don't Care. I love this ship, both in comics and here. They're entirely enemies right now, but they've started to attach extra emotions to each other (not good ones, don't get me wrong, but they're singling each other out). And I know Lian will exist in this universe (thanks dc wiki), so I'm happily excited for Slow Burn (with the back of my mind preparing for disappointment, just in case). Not sure if this is going Enemies to Enemy Lovers or just straight up Enemies to Lovers (since it's a kids show they might give them a happy ending) but either way I'm down for it

(I'm actually horrible at watching shows in their entirety (instead of dropping them after a few episodes) , and the way I actually got myself to push forward and get invested was the knowledge that Cheshire appears in episode 6, and I really wanted to see her)

I'm super invested in the Superman/Superboy plotline. Also, Martian Manhunter giving Connor the last name Kent was just hilarious. The whole League is just like, "you will parent this kid, clark" and I love it. It's also got me thinking about how comic writers indirectly said Bruce wouldn't be great in this situation despite this version of him pushing for it, but that's an essay for another time (possibly never since it might involve reading Morrison!Talia which I desperately do not want to do 😭)

Speaking of Talia. I am dreading it. I know Damian’s just a cameo and it's a kids show, so it can't get as bad as the DCAU (knock on wood), but this is 2011. This is peak Morrison!Talia, and I do not want to see my favorite character's characterization get spit on

Moving on the nicer things, Batman is Peak Batman. He is a dad, and he’s trying his best, and they better not ruin him

The Light: I guess it makes sense that all these secret organizations are secretly all 1 secret organization, but I'm not quite invested yet. Also finding it hard to believe Ra's al Ghul would join an organization where he's not in charge

Also! I have figured out the usual formula. They start the episode with both a mission usually, and give one character a personal conflict. Things get to their worst at about the 16 minute mark, resolve at about 20/21 minutes, have a final scene with the team and a final final scene reveal the bad guys were actually part of the Light conspiracy thing. Honestly it's kind of comforting having a formula

Overall, pretty good. Can't say how quickly I'll watch it, or how often I'll post about it, but I'm going to keep watching it, which is pretty good, particularly for a kids show

Also if someone's reading this and really curious about what I think about something specific, feel free to send an ask, it'll be fun :)

[quasiquack666]

My Gay Agenda aside, it honestly feels really late for Gestella to appear as a love interest for Kayden?

She only first appeared in Chapter 294, which seems like the middle of the comic. And the writers didn't even add backstory for Gestella and Kayden (like they did for Kayden & Kartein or Kayden & Pluton). They clearly don't know anything about each other.

(More detailed spoilers under the break. Screen readers stop now)

There's no way Gestella would believe how sappy those letters were if she knew Kayden, nor would Kayden have been so distrustful of her with Jiwoo if he knew that she had a decent personality (similar to his understanding that neither Kartein or Pluton would likely hurt Jiwoo, which is how he led Kartein to Jiwoo's house and only fought Pluton for jabbing at his ego rather than solely because he discovered their location).

Developing a relationship for KayStella from square one in the middle of the comic sounds like a clusterfuck waiting to fail.

Especially when the whole current basis of their relationship is them being pissed off at each other based on misunderstandings.

The forced romance only feels more jarring when Kartein and Kayden had the perfect romantic setup in contrast. They had a clear background from how they talked to each other, they knew how to get on each other's nerves, they could trust each other (in a bare sense but still), and Kartein was introduced in Chapter 136 which gives readers plenty of time to get to know him. Kartein has several major development arcs since his introduction and only became closer to Kayden. Kartein is a well-developed character whose relationship to Kayden never felt very forced or contrived solely for a romance plot. Kartein is actually a character by himself before he would be romantically inclined.

Therefore, the writers knew how to set up a character to have long-term development alongside Kayden while also getting development by themselves. So if anything, Gestella should have been the one introduced early on so we could get to know her.

I'm just pointing out that it's a mistake logistically for her to be introduced so late, compounded with having no shared background to Kayden. Their relationship will almost certainly be inferior to one that is well-developed over the majority of the comic versus halfway through.

Because personally, I adore Gestella, stupid plotline aside. So the way the writers throw both her and Kayden under the bus for the forced romance plot really pisses me off on so many levels. The plot feels utterly disrespectful to their development. It makes Gestella yet another forced female love interest (which sucks even worse when the only main female characters are made solely for the males). Then randomly shoots a romance plot at Kayden even though he's been fine this whole time as just a cat dad to Jiwoo.

Again, Gay Agenda aside, even my Het Agenda is ruined by this. How am I supposed to ship their canon selves on such a shit foundation? (Although my headcanon ideas for them are still raging; I'm too much of a simp for them separately to not pair them together. Fuck)

Meanwhile, Gay Agenda at full rainbow power, Kartein and Kayden is obviously the queer romance that we will never get in canon. They were the perfect setup and have been since their first chapters. This forced heteronormative nonsense is why queer pairings are the majority of fandom ships, let's not lie.

(Shoutout to @heartrenderscove . Our convos make me realize all this shit)

[absolutebl]

Hi! Why do so many BLs have one character meet the other when they were a child and love them since then…. I’m watching History 5 and the second couple has this trope with the older one loving the child but loads of them have a child ‘loving’ the older guy for years (Minato, second couple in History 4, lovely writer)

Is this a common trope in non-BL Asian dramas? Maybe I’m missing some cultural aspect but it makes me feel a bit weird… I’m fine when they both meet as children but when one’s a child and one’s an adult it feels off to me!

We Met As Kids, Therefore I Love You

Yes, it's a super common trope in ALL Asian romances.

There's a human cross-cultural claim-to-care around having met someone "first" giving one person priority to another's affection and in their life.

For example, think about how many fans (of say a Kpop group or band or actor) will claim to be "better" or morally superior to other fans of that same talent, because they have have liked that group/person "since the beginning" or "before they were famous." How about those who claim superiority because they read the book before the TV series became popular?

To have loved something FIRST is often allied with being better at loving it, there is a value judgement to longevity of association. (This is also true around disliking someone/something first.)

There isn't a name for this logical fallacy, although there should be. I would say something like appeal to tradition argumentum ad antiquitatem (which is a red herring fallacy). So appeal to time, argumentum ad tempus?

(The 8th Sense is doing some VERY interesting things to philosophically battle this concept right NOW, actually.)

Narratively speaking, if you have only a short amount of time to unfold the story (for example We Best Love) this trope gives writers a quick way to justify pining and affection (usually from the seme character). So backstory can be cribbed for character development. That character is already in love, so we don't have to show him falling in love, only one character is in play for that.

In longer narratives (like Word of Honor, Lovely Writer) this is a secret that gets to be slowly uncovered and explored as a plot point. If you have them meet as children, or when one is a child then it justifies one character not remembering the other (because peoples appearances change from childhood to adulthood).

I think the popularity in Asian dramas in particular has to do with collectivist cultures and family obligation/intimacy priority. To have known (or met) someone as a kid adds a level of intimate connection that justifies any affection that much more than meeting later in life.

There's a very funny scene in Kdrama (noona romance) Thumping Spike (recommended) that directly mocks this trope. Near the end the main couple openly together and they are in the car with the (former) love triangle dude. He lost, even though he's the one with the childhood crush. He directly combats this concept by saying (basically): If longevity guaranteed romance, I should be married to the grandma who runs my local convenience store.

Another well known Kdrama that combats this trope is Strong Woman Do Bong Soon (recommended) which goes out of its way to have the love triangle character who would normally lose the girl, actual win her this time. (So the one who loses is the moot crush from childhood.)

In BL, I tracked this one for a while:

Also here are a few BLs that DO NOT use this trope:

(source)

[mochiwrites]

ALWAYS FEELIN' A BIT INSANE ABOUT SONGBIRD!! 💥💥💥💥

Currently very invested in the Scar character development, he's very silly and I am obsessed with how you write him. Eating ur writing, I literally never shut up about it heryehur

He has so much depth to his personality. His struggle with identity, hiding the truth, opening up to others, traumatic experiences, etc. His complicated relationship with Mumbo as they walk on their tip-toes wondering what happened to get them to this point... His love for Tubbo and his hate for humanity. His conflicting emotions about death. His ever-changing view of Grian and what made him so worth it when nobody else caught his eye. The fragile concept of simply being himself and not the monster people think he is. He's so WONDERFUL AAAA!! *shakes you*

EEEEEEEEE YAY :D

scar has easily become one of my favorite songbird characters. he's definitely rounded out a lot since the start of songbird and I'm so !!!!!! about him -- and now that arc 2 is finished, I can actually talk about scar's character arc because GOD DOES IT MAKE ME INSANE. OKAY.

I remember being kinda nervous about introducing scar way back when in welcome to the circus, because I wasn't sure how he'd be received -- I mean, he's basically introduced as an antagonist right away, and he feels so different from his typical characterization. well. he's not that different, but I certainly lean wayyy more into the intimidating, scary image. and when you don't know a character's motivations for that... depending on the writer executes the writing, you could either be Incredibly interested, or you could write it off as out of character/bad writing. so welcome to the circus was absolutely a HUGE gamble. hell, everything that followed was a big gamble!

but I am so happy with how scar's development went. I think I could've added maybe one or two more one shots right before enchante to add a bit more pacing of scar's development, but overall I really am pleased with it.

arc 2 was heavily focused on scar and his betrayal (which like,,, yeah, obviously @ myself GJFHJFG) my biggest goal when writing arc 2 was showing the readers that there was more to scar than just his cold personality. that there was a reason for his behavior. it's kinda similar to how mumbo was first introduced. mumbo was off as well, though granted his true personality came about a lot quicker than scar's did.

so this arc was about exploring scar's character (and his understanding of/warming up to grian) and his growing internal conflict between betraying grian and mumbo and keeping tubbo safe. I really wanted to get across that at first scar had no remorse for what he was doing. but when he started getting to know grian, being given his kindness, when scar started to let down the walls around his heart, that's when the guilt kicked in.

I love scar's whole battle with his identity -- it's one of my favorite pieces of his character, and something that'll be explored a TON more in arc 3 (and perhaps the reason why that battle is there to begin with 👀) the way I've always looked at is: scar isn't human, but he's not quite fae either. so he's had to carve out an identity for himself; the grim reaper, a monster, it's all the same to him. he's not just standing at the cross between two worlds. he's carving a path between these two worlds -- he's creating a third world, specifically for himself

and I think scar's struggle with his identity is something the fandom as a whole doesn't touch on nearly enough as we should. scar is a man who's constantly wearing a mask, and that mask is everchanging. there's some seriously fun concepts to be played with there! which is exactly what I want to explore in songbird and this upcoming arc.

I also feel really insane about all of the backstory crumbs I've left in arc 2 for him. this one in particular drives me crazy:

( it's from the weight of living chapter three in case anyone is wondering :3 )

if you've ever seen in anime where a character has like. some ominous shadow figure looming over them and they look really afraid or panicked, that's exactly the kind of image I was picturing when writing this scene. and that's kinda what happens here! (one day when mumbo and scar's backstories are revealed, I would love to like. comb through songbird for all of the crumbs I've dropped and explain them)

but scar's character is so complex, and I think that's what makes him so fun. he doesn't operate on human morals, but he very much does have human emotions and a human heart that he buries and AUGH!!!

and I can't talk about scar's character without mentioning enchante, because C'MON. IT'S LIKE. THE SONGBIRD SCARIAN FIC HFGJDFGHJ

enchante is SUCH an interesting turning point for scar and grian's dynamic. mumbo and the boys have been kidnapped, scarian are forced to work together and they don't entirely trust one another, and they're running on limited time. and it's through this situation that they're forced to learn about each other. scar learns just how far grian's kindness goes, how he views the world. and grian starts to get some insight into why scar behaves the way that he does.

we see scar step in to defend grian against taurtis the first time under the guise of being offended at taurtis' bad negotiation skills, and not even knowing himself why he steps in! it's the first time scar sees the depth of grian's humanity and his guilt and his care for the ones that he loves. and then in turn, grian learns why scar is so apathetic and uncaring and there's some sort of understanding the two of them reach. it drives me SO insane fae. I cannot express.

AND THE GRIM REAPER STUFF MMMMMMMMM WE'RE GONNA COME BACK TO THAT. IT'S GONNA BE GLORIOUS. I've got some scar story that are gonna make people go INSANE when I drop it. it makes me want to gnaw on my arm man

songbird!scar is just so delightful to me, and I really love writing him a lot. his relationship to mumbo and then to grian is SO fun to examine, and we'll definitely be doing more of that in arc 3. I'm really glad that people love him as much as I do because <3333

[rene-darling]

Bro, I'm so nervous. I'm just writing this because you're like one of my favorite writers, so I'm writing about a lipstick that is hard to get it off in any surface and to be more specific, its also easy to put it on in any surface too. I made like 2-4 fics of this with fluff, but....I was planning to write one for Xiao, and you tease him by wearing that lipstick. Making him shudder as you kiss every spot of his body, which he calls 'unworthy' or ugly.

Dacryphilia warning

Seeing him cry and beg you to finally touch where he needs you? But when you finally do, you simply kiss the tip and smother it with kisses. Making it have many lipstick marks. He begins to sob, holding your hand and pleading for you to let him climax. So you simply sucked the tip, lazily going down and swirling your tongue, which makes him climax. He's already sensitive but now he's super and its worse when you still continue!

He squirmed, shuddering as his head is thrown back. Seeing his eyes roll up as drool started to come out. Seeing him blabbering 'please' like a prayer but he doesn't even know what he wants!

I beg you to give me a tip of advice. What should I add or etc. (Only if you want to)

AWW IM ONE OF YOUR FAVORITES THAT'S SO SWEET<333

Anyways gah damn I love the concept and the whole idea of the fic! I'm drooling from just reading this.

Tips....??? I'm sorry😭 I'm no help with that😭 the best advice I can give you is to read some xiao fics, to get an idea of how to write him, personality vise.

Add...?? Hmm, well maybe you could add a small backstory about how days before he was staring at your lips, daydreaming about wanting you to kiss him with that lipstick of yours. Smth like that!

And then maybe he saw you kiss your friend on the cheek with that lipstick. Him seeing how hard it was to take it off.. It drove his mind even more insane!

Put some cute aftercare at the end!

Maybe write about the next day where xiao is whining about not being able to take off/ hide the lipstick marks!

[corellianhounds]

Curious to know your thoughts on Din’s separation from Ran’s Crew… (you said you wanted a discussion topic 😉)

I meant for this to be a two paragraph response and then when I looked up three hours had passed and my back was stiff from sitting at the keyboard for so long. I wrote ninety-five percent of this in one go, then made a gyro and literally went to go rewatch the episode to double check my quotes and notes before coming back 😆

~ 3.1k words

This ended up being a LOT more context because I don’t feel like I can give a solid answer without laying the groundwork for how I come to the conclusions that I do. I’m nothing if not able to justify my reasons/interpretations, but I also try not to lock into anything unchangeable when it comes to more nebulous parts of a character’s history because I can see how things can go several different ways, all of them interesting and plausible.

One of the things I’ve always loved about Mando from a mechanical/storytelling technique perspective is that he’s one of those characters with a mysterious past we only get in relevant bits and pieces, leaving so much open to speculation and interpretation. (I think that does contribute to how many wildly different takes we see in fan spaces about his character, but I digress.) He’s like Wolverine or Snake Eyes in that, when he’s being written well, his entire past and backstory isn’t spelled out in concrete detail which frees up storytellers to add things in later as they become relevant without contradicting themselves or having to refer back to/be confined by too much rigidly established history or canon.

(Personally I think more authors should do that when it comes to how characters are used in a story (meaning, the character should serve whatever story you’re writing first and you shouldn’t get too precious about elaborate backstories and irrelevant details if they end up blocking you from making stronger narrative decisions). I like only getting bits and pieces because we as the audience fill in the gaps for ourselves and stay intrigued by the remaining sense of mystery)

Because of that, I don’t have a concrete idea in mind for how Din got involved with or left Malk’s crew, and I hope it never gets spelled out unless the writers have a specific story in mind where that comes up.

As much as I like writing Din as a genuinely good man with a strong moral compass and personal code, that does also mean that I think there were times he wasn’t a good man. People are a lot of things in life, and it’s only through genuine trial and error, making mistakes and actively bad decisions and learning hard lessons from bad experiences that people grow into being good people (keeping in mind that everybody is capable of making good and bad choices in life at every step of the way. ‘Being good’ takes active work and it takes even more work to maintain that consistently).

Characters are more compelling and dynamic when they’ve actually done things that are contrary to how they behave in the present (provided the audience is shown the meaningful progression of that change). To that end, I think Din Djarin has done some things in his life he deeply regrets. Some of those decisions may have been forced out of him by virtue of circumstance, and some of them may have been on purpose (or the lesser of two evils).

Sometimes making the right choice will end up costing you something important, up to and including your life. Survivors of any kind have done a lot of things to ensure that survival. Everybody is capable of change, but change can go in a lot of different directions.

I think erasing a character’s flaws or implications of a flawed past does those characters and stories a disservice by uncomplicating the people and world within which the story is taking place. It truncates what decisions those characters are able to get away with as a story progresses if you insist they’ve only ever been morally upstanding up to the present. It closes off opportunities and directions for writers to take regarding the character’s future. That’s not a hard and fast rule, but if you start off with Steve Rogers being a good guy, you can’t have him do a complete 180 in a story unless that’s going to be given the time and focus it would take to make that arc believable and satisfying, and sometimes you just don’t have the time to dedicate to that if that isn’t the main story.

All of that to say, Din has probably done some bad things. You don’t end up working with criminals for (it’s implied) an extended period of time without having to make moral compromises, and though I believe Din’s faith as a Mandalorian has been steadfast since childhood, there are probably aspects of the more honorable teachings that he’s lapsed in at different points of time. (He did, at one point in time, turn over the life of a child to known enemies for payment.) He probably had to not ask questions about targets they were sent sabotage or steal from because if he doesn’t know for a fact that they were innocent people, he can tell himself that he’s not at fault for senselessly hurting people or robbing them of their livelihood (even if his guilt, intuition, and conscience tell him otherwise when he tries to sleep at night).

You know what you’re getting into going into mercenary work, so you can’t get tied up into moral quandaries every time you see the person on the other side of it. The more impersonal you can make it, the more you can do the job swiftly and mitigate as much suffering and collateral damage as possible.

I say all of this because Mando doesn’t exactly refute most of the things the crew says about him during the planning and travel phase of the mission, and I don’t think he has a problem correcting people when they’re objectively wrong about him (even if he’s at a disadvantage here being outnumbered, desperate, and coming to them for work). When Ran says they did a lot of crazy stuff back in the day, Din says “That was a long time ago,” which does admit to at least some of it being true, it’s just something Din makes a point to say he’s distanced himself from. He’s saying that he’s a different person than what he was like back then, which means there had to have been things he did that he’s not proud of.

Sometimes the more you protest though, the more people will pile on the jabs and mockery, especially if said jabs come from elements of truth you as the target can’t completely deny. If you don’t give people the response they want, oftentimes they’ll get bored and move on to something else, or at least won’t linger on that particular insult.

It’s also worth pointing out that anything the other members of the crew say about him could have been false or taken out of context or were perceived entirely different than what the reality was, them not knowing what Mando’s motives were at the time because he’s not exactly forthcoming. Anything they say that implies he did some shady things could have also been things Mando did in those moments that were actually cover for something else. Him letting them think the worst of him so they don’t notice how he’s freeing hostages remotely as they work, or sabotaging their demolition-heavy escape that would have hurt bystanders, or hailing the law to show up and interfere before things go too far and people end up dead when they could be saved. The quieter you are, the more people will reveal themselves and overlook you as part of the background, leaving you free to do what you need to.

Some of the things the mercenaries say about him could also be their skewed interpretations of events. Mando could have been quick, heavy-hitting, and ruthless, but ruthlessness doesn’t always equate bloodthirsty— Ruthlessness just means the most efficient route or means from point A to point B. If he went in on a mission and had to incapacitate people quickly and cleanly, they might have interpreted that to mean Mando was a violent person who liked killing or beating people up for the fun or glory or pleasure of it if he was volunteering to be the first one going in. The reality could have been Din not wanting people to suffer or be killed at the hands of mercenaries he knew would be harsher/more careless if they went ahead of him on a job.

Maybe the mercenaries all thought he was trigger happy because he would shoot first without asking questions, but Din was, in reality, six steps ahead of everybody else and had already analyzed the situation and come to the conclusion that that was the necessary thing to do at that juncture. Maybe the fact that he was brutal and quick to fight back when people on the crew antagonized him in their downtime or tried to take his things made them think he had a short temper and was always raring for a fight, when the reality is you have a much better chance of winning if you hit hard and hit fast, and he wasn’t going to put up with anybody’s disrespect or antagonism by rolling over and letting them think they could get away with pushing him around. As soon as you give people an inch they’ll take a mile.

Even if he was doing some shady jobs, there are still things he’s not going to do even if he had the skill sets for it. Din’s not going to torture people and wouldn’t have stood for it from others of the crew. He’s not a murderer and even when he’s had to kill people in the show it’s always done quickly and efficiently. (One reason why I can’t definitively say Mando would be entirely against hurting someone for information is that he did leave Gor Koresh to be torn apart by dogs at the beginning of Season 2, so he obviously thinks there are some people who have it coming. “You won’t die by my hand, but I don’t have to save you.” He gave Koresh a clear and concise opportunity in the arena to back off and give him the info he came for without killing him though and Gor Koresh didn’t take the chance Mando gave him, so Mando’s not going to lose sleep over what he did in leaving the don hanging there in the street. It’s probable there were similar instances like that while working for Ran.)

Though there are a lot of other immoral actions that come with the kinds of jobs it’s implied that they did, Mando wasn’t killing people left and right, especially since these guys are lower level criminals and thugs, not organized crime members or assassins, and murder gets you a lot more attention than you want if your primary jobs are stealth-based. Mando retained a sense of honor while working for Ran’s crew because Qin wouldn’t have used “You need me alive to get paid; isn’t that your code? Aren’t you a man of honor?” as a guilt trip/bargaining chip at the end of the episode otherwise. Qin’s (mockingly, but probably accurately) quoting back to him what Din had said to them in the past (same as what Xi’an did in transit regarding what he says about the helmet rule). It’s both possible and likely that Din was the one reining other people in when he could, mediating or diverting the crew from killing targets, security, or civilians who ended up in the way.

The reason I think Mando only killed people back then in self defense is that he left the merc crew alive at the end of “The Prisoner” when he obviously could have killed them. To me, what we’ve seen of his sense of justice in the present shows that, had they all proven to be merciless murderers to other people, he would have dealt out equal punishment in return by the end of it has retroactive retribution. Xi’an was the only one he’d worked with before (aside from Qin) and I don’t doubt that she enjoys killing people, and she did kill Davin so she was the most deserving if he had killed her there, but Mando still gave all of them the same last chance he gave Qin years ago; left behind and captured, but alive, despite the fact they all tried to kill him.

(A possible out-of-universe explanation for why he left them alive is that the writers may have had more planned for them in Season 2; there’s concept art in the second season’s Art of The Mandalorian that has Mayfeld, Xi’an, and Burrg on Boba Fett’s ship going into “The Believer.”)

We haven’t seen any evidence of Mando taking active enjoyment in killing people. Needless murder goes against the Mandalorian code, and violence typically isn’t (or is taught that it shouldn’t be) the first resort. Mandalorians are diplomatic enough to have a conversation first, but if you instigate a fight, they’re more than ready and able to finish it. Strike fast and get it over with, don’t drag it out. If you’re going to fight, do it out in the open and be willing to consider a genuine surrender when it’s asked for.

Mando’s not a bad guy. He’s just the best at what he does, and what he does isn’t very nice.

—

So now we’ve established some plausible parameters and the atmosphere for what it was like working with Ran’s crew in the past. There’s a lot of ways Mando could have ended up on the crew, and there’s a lot of reasons why he might have stayed there. He could have been ambitious and arrogant and setting out to make a name for himself, but I’m more inclined to think it was a matter of taking whatever jobs he could that would pay a lot of money and allow him to continue forward. Poor people without resources or connections are often driven to make decisions and find crummy or unethical work that goes against their personal code or preferences, especially when there are people relying on them as a source of income.

The importance of community and family among the Mandalorians is something that’s been made abundantly clear about Din from the beginning so that was probably a driving factor in how he conducted his life and work once he became an adult, and if he was one of the few people who was able to travel to find work and bring money and resources back to the tribe, then of course he was going to do it. There are mouths to feed, children to care for, armor to be built for others. You do what you can to survive.

Now say the more jobs he does with them, the worse they get, but he makes more money that can be brought home to the tribe. Say there are circumstances with bad timing that compel him to keep working for Malk as opposed to finding somebody else (potentially just as bad) to work for; working for the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Maybe he’s saving up for a ship. Maybe he somehow ended up indebted to Malk and was forced to work off that debt for longer than he obviously wanted.

Maybe he was desperate for any work and theirs seemed promising, especially since he had the exact skillset that would guarantee he’d succeed. Maybe the jobs they used to do were just legal enough to pass as legitimate (if difficult) work and it wasn’t until he’d been there a while that they started to become more dubiously ethical, or Ran used the fact that they had a Mandalorian with them to bargain for better paying jobs from clients (those jobs paying more because they were dirty work).

Say that he knew it would be hard to leave the merc crew because if he didn’t do it right, he knew they’d all be suspicious about what secrets and details he’d be taking with him. Who knows who he might talk to? If that were the case, they may have come after him once he departed just to make sure he couldn’t betray them and give them up.

Say Mando had other outside obligations that kept him working with Malk despite the fact he could see the red flags, and the slow, creeping decline in honest work took place over a longer length of time. It’s a lot easier to get somebody involved with criminal activity if it starts small, starts gradual, and can be reasonably justified, especially if you don’t have all the facts surrounding the circumstances under which the job is taking place. No questions asked, that’s the policy.

I think whatever job they took where Qin was left behind was close to if not the end of Mando’s time with them. I don’t get the impression they had a great relationship to begin with, and Qin also seems like he could have held his own against Mando for a good amount of time before either of them had to back down or their fights were broken up. Almost every episode involves somebody picking a fight with Din over the armor or the helmet (or just… anything really), and it’s clear he’s had a lifetime of similar treatment and he’s able to fight back every time, so it’s not a stretch to say he was probably on the receiving end of similar scuffles while working with the crew, including those instigated by Qin.

So if Mando already had reasons why he wouldn’t have risked his hide to go back for Qin, it’s possible something specific happened that was the last straw and Mando decided he would no longer go out of his way to help or protect him, meaning when whatever mission they were on went pear-shaped, Mando left him. A kind of “Those who fall behind get left behind,” mentality, considering he knew Qin could hold his own and would end up alive if he was smart enough to know what was good for him and back down when he was caught. That was Mando’s measure of grace extended Qin’s way. Mando could have killed him on the way out, but he didn’t. He considered that Qin’s last chance.

I don’t think Qin was necessarily caught by the law on that mission, but regardless of how it shook out that crew ended up back at home base with at least one less member among them and everybody having a hunch that it could have been done on purpose, even if Mando had viable justification for why he couldn’t have gone back for him without risking the rest of the mission. Mando was able to make a clean break and walk away from the encounter (because Malk wouldn’t have let him back on the crew in “The Prisoner” otherwise), but not without everybody’s suspicions cast on him as he went, and the longer time passes between people who part ways on a sour note, the more those accusatory thoughts fester and build.

Mando may have made the objectively right call in leaving Qin and had the evidence to back him up, but people’s feelings are finicky things and tend to overrule all better judgment regardless of the facts of a situation, so the fact that he’d been with that crew for a while and had a history there— one that likely included a well-known animosity between himself and Qin— meant that it didn’t matter how justified Din was. If he’d stayed and continued to take jobs with them nobody else would have trusted him to have their backs going forward, which meant there would be no way for Mando to trust that they would have his. For all he knew, their next mission would end with him being left behind, metaphorically or literally stabbed in the back for his trouble in thinking they could work together again.

[trangenderstan]

Tullius has so much wasted potential. As much as i absolutely adore Michael Hogan's voice, i wish Bethesda didn't hire a celebrity voice actor so we could have more Tullius content. He hasn't had a single update to him since Special edition (and even then i'm not sure if the lines they added were just unfinished voicelines or completely new ones)

The writers also seem to constantly be unable to decide if he should be a metaphor for the empire - a tired, old man with a heart of gold but far too much horrors seen to keep going, or a genuine person like Ulfric is (he hates speeches, despises the Thalmor, he comes to like Skyrim and appreciate it's harshness). So we get this amalgamation of symbolism and genuine character that doesn't seem go to anywhere

Especially after playing Oblivion, i wish his personality and views were explored more. He's like the first imperial General we see alive and in the flesh. There are only mentions of them in Oblivion (not sure about the other games). So seeing a man of his importance should be this monumental thing and it isn't

What are his views on the Talos ban? Talos, who is the literal founder of the Empire. Talos, who has a whole section of the Imperial City named after him. Talos, whose presence in Cyrodiil is even more prominent than in Skyrim. He's not just a God to imperials, he's the reason everything they know exists at all. What are his views on the Dragonborn? Where was he born? Is he Colovian or Nibenese? What made him a General? We get bits and pieces of his story and yet they never add up fully in the way Ulfric's backstory does

It makes me so sad that such an incredible concept for a character is completely omitted and reduced to fractions of what could have been. I wish his morality was explored more. I wish we had actual debates about his actions the way the game debates Ulfric. Hell, he didn't even get his own card in the Tarot set. Instead of him there's fucking ARVAK. As much as i love that good horse, goddamit the Chariot literally symbolises war, rebellion, leadership. COME ON

I am very frustrated by the lack of respect for this man. Tullius come here i will make up a backstory for you myself