#also very funny doing an evil run and having so much more approval with him than shadowheart or lae'zel

[buntchugley]

romancing gale on an evil run (esp evil durge) is wild btw

act one

Gale: This is the worst moment. When the screams of the dying have faded, and the conquering hordes howl and yelp as they come to their vile climax. Gale: Massacre. A spectacle of slaughter. And I participated. Gale: What are these bloody stumps that used to be such delicate harpists of the Weave? Joy: Perhaps we've gone too far, but what's done is done. Gale: No! Gale: Two shadows are darkening my soul. The shadow within and the shadow without: Gale: You. Gale: You led me down this path. Joy: I'm sorry you feel that way. Gale: It's time to stop making excuses. Gale: I don't know myself anymore. All this… It's not who I am. Around you, I'm not who I want to be. Gale: I should leave. Joy: Stay. We make each other stronger. We make each other survive. Gale: Yes. Yes, I suppose we do. Few things are more powerful than the will to live. Gale: But carnage such as this… The shadow within is spreading like poison, corrupting kindness and compassion. Gale: I thought the orb to be the greatest of my sins, but I see now there are darker depths to which I might yet sink. You may be content to sink into that abyss, but I assure you - I am not.

then act 2

Gale: It's quite thrilling, to fight off such grim creatures as this region throws at us. Especially being at your side. Gale: I once read a book that explained in some detail the effect a brush with danger has on one's desire for… other forms of stimulation. Gale: Have you ever read anything on that subject? Joy: Read it? I could have written the thing. Gale: I believe you. You never look so beautiful as at the end of a stirring battle, your cheeks flushed, gaze bright, muscles glistening… Gale: Perhaps it's just the thrill of our near-undead experience talking. But standing at your side through such darkness and disrepair, it only makes me want you more. Gale: Unfortunately this is neither the time nor place to indulge such feelings. So, we must be patient and push all such thoughts aside. For now.

guess that abyss isn't looking too bad now, huh?

[distort-opia]

I'm wracking my brain with what Joker would do in an established situation, like how would he keep those homicidal urges at bay (sex and intimacy can only go so far I imagine) and also there's so much unacknowledged mental health concerns. Bruce would just have to always be ready to pick up the pieces I feel like (God these two are a tragic mess). I don't think normalcy is possible but I don't think their relationship is built for that anyway (I've been writing notes down for a story for days and it's just been consuming me)

An actual relationship between Bruce and Joker is a very complicated thing to imagine, yeah. I agree with you that normalcy is entirely out of the question-- as in, a typical "healthy" relationship. What I think they could have is something that works, but not something that most people would understand or approve of. If you're writing a story, I would say it depends on how they got into the relationship a lot, and if Bruce is compromising as much as Joker perceives he is. For instance, a rehabilitation scenario inherently implies a power imbalance, which Joker would resent and Bruce would not be able to help not taking advantage of. This would not end up working out, in my opinion, unless they got back on equal footing somehow. So a scenario with them an equal footing is what I will be rambling about.

Joker's homicidal urges and mental health issues are indeed a big obstacle. It'd take a whole lot for him to even agree to try for a relationship that involves something other than violence, but this denotes a willingness to compromise from the start. It means he cares about Bruce enough to risk opening the door to his humanity, something that he's very keen on eradicating. Joker can allow himself to love Batman as long as love equals destruction; but once love begins to mean more tender things, things that only people and not monsters can feel... it's a threat to his very identity, to his very core. Hence, just the fact that Joker is in an established relationship means that he's accepted, one way or another, that he's a human being.

Human beings don't need to kill people. Monsters do. It's relevant to note that Joker has an incredible capacity to reshape himself. He's done so multiple times in canon, and always in relation to what he perceived Batman needed. He was murderous when he emerged, but after Robin appeared on the scene he went for funny silly gags, and then he recreated himself back into a horrific threat... In his head, Batman -- the drive to see meaning in all life, to fight for sense in one's existence -- is the force of nature that he's the opposite of. Joker molded himself as the force of chaos: he kills carelessly, sometimes almost joylessly, because he believes he's embodying the true way the world works (though he's shown signs he'd like to be convinced otherwise).

After all, like his fall in the acid and the trauma he went through proved, catastrophe is random. It doesn't matter if you're good or evil, if you've got a family or if you're alone, if you've contributed to society or not. You can get run over by a bus, you can have a heart attack, you can mix the wrong medications, you can get shot in the head by a madman because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. My point with this is that Joker sees himself as an agent of the cruel randomness of existence, and him killing people is very much part of it. So if he stopped seeing himself as an inhuman force for chaos, I think killing would not be a necessity anymore.

That's not to say he wouldn't think of other people's lives as worthless or that he wouldn't instinctually want to kill someone because they're inconveniencing him as some kind of fly buzzing around, but it does mean he wouldn't need to do it. Being with Bruce undermines the very point of being Joker, it means being a person instead of raging at the world. In an established relationship, he'd need to once again reshape himself, figure out who he can be. It'd be very difficult, if you add Bruce's controlling tendencies in the mix. You mentioned Bruce always having to pick up the pieces, but the thing is, Bruce would want to. He'd want to do that too much, he would enjoy seeing Joker be vulnerable, because afterwards... Bruce would be able to put those pieces back together the way he wants them to be. And Joker would be rightly afraid of that, and Bruce himself would be afraid of his own need to do just that, and it'd be a constant push and pull. That's basically what I think it'd be like for a while, before Joker figured out who exactly he's comfortable being, and if he can trust Bruce to still be there when boundaries are being pushed. It'd be a lot of "make me" even in the context of intimacy, until Joker initiates something that doesn't hurt on his own and like... Bruce doesn't move a muscle as if he might spook a wild animal or something. And then Joker snaps at him to stop making it weird, hah.

I'm going to stop here to avoid turning this into a Batjokes relationship essay, but I hope this helped inspire you, Anon! We can always use more Batjokes stories, excited to eventually read yours.

[dsaf-confessions]

So like after making that I think Steven's tragedy is overlooked confession I realised it isn't just him but also everyone else . Including Jack & Dave the most popular characters in this fandom

So like Dee. She was a child. I think around 6 years old. Idk but Im sure she wasn't even 10. And she also died in her birthday??. So like imagine being so young going to a pizzeria to celebrate your birthday, and then, you get killed by a pink fuck, in a place you thought was supposed to be fun and harmless children entertainment fun. And then said pink fuck, FORCES your soul in an animatronic. So like you spend decades, trying to save other children so they won't end up like you. Jesus, she tried her hardest to save other children, to help give them their happiest day that was taken away from them at such young ages. But it was a cycle of failure. She couldn't save them. She was still, a child, like them. A child that was forced to mature at such young age. Can only do much. It's so fucking tragic. I love her I rlly wanna hug her.

Peter. People seem to say that he abandoned Dee and Jack. But I don't think he did. He just moved on with his wife. That's kinda what married people do. Just because he wasn't there, doesn't mean he outright abandoned them. If he had. I don't think Jack would had run off to his place for help after his and Dee's death. Or that Henry's line about his family dying just to get away from him, and that he meant more as a phone guy than he did to his family when he was alive. Would had affected him, if he actually tried getting away from them. He feels bad for not being there for them. I don't blame him. He was a working man. He probably COULDN'T be there at Dee's party cause of work. Fazbender's is a shit ass place to work at anyway. He still blames himself. For his family falling apart. For leaving. He spent many years slaved at Freddy's while also having flashbacks/memories when he was alive. Sounds awful. His suicidal outburst in the evil route isn't talked about enough. He wanted to die. If it meant he'd see Caroline again. Oof

Even Jack and Dave's tragedies are overlooked.

Dave's backstory is so messed that it actually makes me sick in my stomach. No kidding. (Not saying it's bad or anything) So I'd prefer to not talk too much about it. Hope you understand .But in a nutshell. It's about someone who never had any kind of love growing up desperately trying to get the approval/love of the people he loves. And even considers family. So much that he's willing to take any kind of abuse, fucked up experiments, manipulation and literally killing him. To be with them. Cause he never had any love. He thinks they care for him. And that's enough for him to literally cheat death and posses his own corpse, over, and over, and over again. Just to be with them. That he was willing to murder. For them. Cause they told him he was doing good. Jesus. It's messed up.

Jack's own tragedy, and blackjack's, he lost his parents and was left as an orphan to take care of his sister at an actually young age. I think he was in his 19-20s when that happened. In fact Im sure he wasn't even old enough to drink on the state he lives in. Which I think already explains how messed up his mental health actually was. And then one day he messed up. He left Dee and that led to her death. He tried to find her, to save her. It cost him his own life. He was dead, soulless, people didn't saw him as human. They knew him as the ' scary orange man/guy'. But he made a promise. It's sad, one of the very few times he's actually acknowledged as human. Is the dsaf 3 good ending. Aka where he literally did everything for everyone knowing that in the end he couldn't pass on and get his own happiest day. And blackjack's regret. It was so strong that it gave him the power to go back in time. Just cause his guilt to turn back the clock and save Dee was that strong.

I think people should start seeing dsaf as something more than just "haha funny orange and aubergine guys have sex in Vegas". There are so many other things to it than davesport. For a series that's as much of a shitpost as dsaf. It's actually filled with angst. And so much potential only for the fandom to focus only on one part of it.

Anyway hi.

Can you guys that I like angst by now?

.

[mdhwrites]

(Owl House question) What do you think of the fandom discourse around Hunter needlessly suffering? A lot of other toh critical posts have been pointing out how Hunter suffers so much but never gets to address any of it, he's just expected to be okay with it in time for the next traumatising thing to happen to him. And I agree. He is a child soldier who literally cut his hair out of a nervous breakdown to not look like Caleb in TTT and later that very episode, after he confesses to finally liking who he is, he gets possessed, gets more scars, loses his first and best friend, and his hair grows right back. And he's never allowed to mourn Flapjack or process any of that (love that the only time he's allowed to be angry about what he's been through is in a dream). Hell, the writers confessed to originally wanting him to be covered in Belos goop in King's Tide and have a breakdown there itself. It's just all suffering, no healing with him.

Plus, he ends the series with long hair, his classic hair noodle, a woodcarver, and possibly dating Willow. He literally just became Caleb. It's so ironic that the writers who made him have a panic attack over looking like Caleb in TTT just transformed him into Caleb so much more potently in the finale, complete with the fact that his personality has been diluted enough to be blank enough for people to just HC him as anything - just like Caleb. And I think that's just so funny cause now Belos got exactly what he wanted. Hunter truly lost himself to just become Caleb by the end. Which wouldn't be a problem if he had not been shown to want to distance himself from Caleb as much as possible.

It all just feels like the writers wanted to give Caleb closure and a happy ending THROUGH Hunter but they sacrificed Hunter's character for that to happen. Not to mention, Hunter has never expressed interest in woodcarving prior. And besides, there was a much easier way to give Caleb closure - just let him be a part of Belos's death. Make him and Evelyn appear even for just a little bit in the finale so they get their closure and so Hunter can remain as himself. Between him not being there for Belos' death and the fact that he never gets to grapple with how he helped Belos even more than Luz did, it feels like he just got done dirty by S3.

Sorry for the jumbled thoughts though, but what do you think?

So I think the first thing one needs to remember is that this show does not like the male characters in it. That's not me accusing the creators of anything or the like, it's just how their writing style comes off. Every male character is evil, was evil, or a joke/was a joke. There are very few exceptions to this, usually requiring them to be dead at this point or debates on if they ever counted as a villain, like Bump in his first appearance theoretically counting.

So, that's the basis for male writing in the show in general. They are not treated as human. Now let's also discuss how members, including ex-members of the EC, are treated. They are treated as jokes, with part of how the EC is portrayed as evil, especially in the long run, being that just joining up with them makes you look like a moron. As such, if you're kicked out of that group, you must be genuinely brain dead in the writer's eyes. The only one that escapes this is Steve... And he's the only who left by choice who gets more than one rant. He is made out to be better than the EC through this enlightenment process. Lilith though? Absolutely loses her competence and intelligence, except for the 'smart character' ways a lot of show do intelligence that fucking sucks once she leaves the Emperor's Coven. Even her trauma with Belos or what she used to have to do is a joke. Remember, 'I'm realizing I was bad at my job' instead of any form of sympathy for just how codependent she is for others approval.

At the intersection of these two problems is Hunter. You have a male character who has to be redeemed but also is too important to be purely a joke. You cannot make him comic relief like Gus, King or Hooty but you also can't make him enlightened eventually like King became late in the series because... Reasons. That's because he's ex-EC. He's a dumbass enough that he didn't leave Belos until his life was at risk which genuinely puts him WORSE than Lilith in the show's mind because Lilith at least did it for someone else.

So kind of the only thing that this writing team, with their skills and how they treat male characters/EC characters, has is to lean into the trauma both for spectacle and for comedy. Look how sad the boy is. Look how mad he is. Look how right Luz was when he pitied him by calling him a sad but mad boy (which sorry Lunter stans, is NOT an endearing term because he wasn't sad in Hunting Palisman. This is Luz just straight up calling him pitiable AT BEST.)

NOW I will actually be fair and say that a full S3 could have genuinely handled this better. It would have had the time to have two episodes, one in each half, about all that was hurting him, at least theoretically. Without making S3 literally only about Hunter (which is the show's own damn fault for S2 making it so only Hunter, Luz and Vee had narrative potential left for human realm stuff) during the three specials, you just can't cover his trauma properly. There's no time for it. One could argue they should have pumped the breaks on it some then but possessed Hunter was one of the few things the fandom actually seemed to like out of Thanks to Them as I saw art of that before Lumity FINALLY dressing up canonically as Hecate and Azura. People REALLY liked that twist and Flapjack's death at least gave a large amount of spectacle that was different from the last time the cast got their ass kicked by Belos ONE EPISODE AGO.

And frankly while I started this with one potential explanation for why Hunter ended up the way he did, narrative necessity could be it too. You have a final season with characters in a world very similar to theirs, who are OP because of their magic and all their loved ones are far away. Their character arcs are over or stupid so you have no drama to milk for the specials out of them without damn near completely fabricating them like with Willow who... Even if it's true, she's doing a real shit job at being everyone's rock.

Hunter meanwhile is both important enough lore wise to deserve attention and ripe for abuse for cheap, soap opera level drama that is actually befitting a fantasy story. He's even weak enough to actually be threatened unlike everyone else. But then you get TOH never cutting anything so they can't decide if Hunter should be inspired to follow in the steps of the good man he is based on or to try to be someone new entirely... But the first one is a FUCK TON easier to do, fits in with getting in Belos backstory and is easier to do visually so it's the one they leaned harder into despite it being against the core theme of the show that individuality is literally the most important thing on the planet.

Tie this together with how TOH treats male/EC characters and... of course the first mention of Flapjack's magic isn't him marvelling at the power and having a moment from realizing that he now has magic, what his friend gave him, etc. like that which would be reasonable for the excuse of mourning but instead "The Power of Friendship?" Because really, how different is that then the line targeted at Lilith about how warped her perceptions of reality and self worth were in the EC? And in most kid's shows, that'd actually be okay. However, this is the same show that a fandom meme of a quarter of S2 being the weekly trauma club meeting, inviting all new members. It wants to have its cake and eat it too, even when it comes to its progressive outlook.

It's how you get a very obviously Zuko inspired character who ends up feeling NOTHING like Zuko. Then again, that's The Owl House in general, isn't it? Wanting to be Avatar, or any other great kid's show, maybe even better, but in that ego and hubris crashing into something that makes you question why it was ever compared to it in the first place.

[rottenbrainstuff]

Bg3 redo thoughts: after I finished my very first big amazing bard drow durge playthrough, I’m going back and doing it again with a tielfing paladin, to see what different things I run into and whatnot.

I’m really enjoying all the small little details and updates that have been changed since I last began a playthrough: stuff like Astarion’s boar now sometimes being found in a different spot. When I went into the spider cave, this time I noticed flies buzzing around the corpses… I swear I don’t remember seeing that detail there before?

Since my tav this time is a tielfing, she’s not getting her ass kissed by the goblins anymore, which is interesting. She failed an intimidation check with the goblins at the windmill so we got into a fight. Well. My guys are tired and health is low and there’s a lot of goblins here but whatever, we’ll see how it goes.

Then I hit Fezzerk one single time and he surrendered. Lmao! I had no idea that was even a thing that happened, it’s been so neat to see that even though my first playthrough was extremely thorough, there’s still been neat stuff to find.

I didn’t automatically decide who I would romance this game, I thought I’d just sort of let things happen as they happen. The end result is: I’ve got Gale and Astarion’s romances locked in now. I really just don’t get the folks who say they have such a hard time romancing Astarion, or even just getting him to like them. He’s consistently always the second in line for me, behind only Gale. Possibly Lae’zel would be quicker if my tav made less decisions that pissed her off, but it seems that they’ve also made some changes with recent patches and she needs a couple conditions to be met now before she starts talking about how much she likes your stink. I mean I haven’t even got to the necromancy of Thay yet, or Gandrel, or the goblin camp. I triggered his first romance after I recruited Karlach.

Astarion gets cranky at a few choices in the grove, but I mean, so does Wyll, so does Lae’zel. I dunno. Like, here’s some quick tips if you guys aren’t just making jokes and do legit have a hard time making him like you:

You can send him back to camp, along with Lae’zel, as soon as you enter the grove, because they’re both going to be cranky. Once you’ve talked to Zevlor and saved Arabella you can bring them back. Astarion likes Auntie Ethel so be sure to bring him back before you chat with her.

He has a lot of little cut scenes and special dialogue, and a lot of little approvals come from these and they add up. I wonder if people are missing these. Be sure to camp often. Like seriously. Camp all the time. There’s the first night camp scene, the musing about how would be best to die, the stargazing scene (although I dunno, I don’t think that gives any approval?) musing about what each companion would taste like, the drunk from bear blood scene, and the mirror scene.

If he’s on your party when you visit Raphael he has a couple approvals to give there if you refuse to be Raphael’s toy.

When he bites you, you’ll get five approval the next morning if you tell the other companions they can leave if they’re not happy about a vampire in the group, and you’ll get five more approval if you don’t force him to keep biting you, but instead just agree to his plan of biting enemies. You can get almost 30 approval just from the bite scene alone!!!!

Like I said, I triggered his first romance after I recruited Karlach: I had barely even left the grove at that point. I wasn’t being evil. I only sent him back to camp for two events (talking to zevlor and saving Arabella). I think I still could have romanced him just as early even without doing that. It shouldn’t really be this hard. I know it’s funny to joke about how he hates everything you do, but if you guys are seriously having troubles with it, I dunno send me a DM and I can help maybe, I’ve been very thorough in my analysis of his approvals.

[gothyanki]

I'm curious about how other githyanki Tav/Durge players rationalise Voss almost completely ignoring the PC in favour of Lae'zel when he visits camp. It's so funny to me, but also comes with a huge amount of characterisation/backstory potential?? Almost everything else in Act 1 is SUPER reactive to a githyanki PC (a lot of the crèche dialogue is different, right down to the most minor one-line NPCs), which makes it stand out even more. Even this conversation is quite reactive, with plenty of origin-specific lines - almost all of which Voss passes over to continue focusing on Lae'zel.

Sticking the rest of this behind a readmore because it's longer/mostly just me yakking about headcanons re: my own PC and Voss (+ some images):

Live reaction shot of Vin'ath after Voss names Lae'zel "Sister in Freedom" and says the two of them - just the two of them! - will be their people's light:

♫ hello darkness my old friend ♫

Voss’ dismissal of Vin actually fits right in with the backstory I gave them - they fell out of the crèche system as a teenager after their capture + rescue by a fellow outsider from a society deemed "evil" by DnD rules + accidental partial cult deprogramming. That means they're 1. already on board the "fuck Vlaakith" train (though they'd never have dared to so much as fantasise about taking the fight to her - their childhood trauma is the one exception to their "run after it and whack it as hard as you can" approach to problems) and 2. in a complicated insider-outsider position with regards to githyanki society. Voss seems to see Lae'zel as a protégée - I think she reminds him of himself when he was young, and also of other highly talented/dedicated warriors who've served under him. Compared to her, Vin's just a bunch of confusing mixed social signals and ??? motives.

Vin'ath pretends they couldn't care less about this - Lae'zel's the one who can't stop talking about silver swords and red dragons! They let go of that desperate craving for a superior officer's approval a long time ago! - but they are

I think they (unwisely) end up confronting him about what he thinks of them at some point in Baldur's Gate. Voss gives them a devastating "I don't think about you at all" kind of response, but he is ALSO

because given what he wants to do, I think he'd be unwillingly intrigued by a very-young-from-his-perspective githyanki who's already thrown off the shackles of Vlaakith's rule/the crèche system (to some degree - more on that later!) The fact that they did it by accident, moreover, has to be borderline infuriating.

This is the point where I admit I haven't had enough uninterrupted playtime to get far with Act 3 yet (I have spoiled myself extensively via youtube videos, though), so I don't know how the scene where Voss gifts the silver sword goes for a githyanki Tav. If it's similar to the non-githyanki scene and Voss passes over them AGAIN to give the sword to Lae'zel, I'm going to howl with laughter. And Vin's going to have that long-awaited breakdown not react at ALL and be FINE because they DON'T CARE. They DON'T CARE AT ALL that this celebrated hero of their people they grew up hearing stories about is standing right there not recognising their efforts. Kith'rak WHO???? He's not even that cool in person and they are DEFINITELY not flashing back to the starry-eyed adolescent crush they had on him. Shuuuut uuuuup.

[presidentdisastraofgallifrey]

Judging Doctor Who: Twelfth Doctor

Disclaimer: this is all in good fun and I don't take fandom seriously

Good episodes I like

Deep Breath - The t-rex is a little random, but the robot plot is a delightful setup for a new dynamic. Also beginning of Missy's first arc!

Robot of Sherwood - It's so fun and weird and charming, and he's so grumpy about it

Mummy on the Orient Express - the mystery is intriguing and I love them fighting but refusing to acknowledge that's what they're doing

Flatline - excellent silly monster of the week story

The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar - Everything about this is so ridiculous and delightful. It's a great daleks episode! Missy stops planes just to get Clara's attention! She casually murders people because she's having fun being evil! The Doctor throws a depression party by breaking time travel rules! He's so full of nihilism but can't quit compassion! I kinda ship Missy and Clara I think, in a really messed up way

Under the Lake/Before the Flood - YES, appropriate use of time travel!! Go solve the mystery in the past!

The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived - One of my all time favorite arcs. The tragedy of an act of kindness destroying her, the way she can't hold all her memories, the way she stops caring but finds a reason to again. It's so sad! But so compelling!

The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion - I always thought this felt like it was missing a third backstory episode, but even so the entire situation is wonderful. And the Osgoods are in this one!

Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent - Such a great arc ending for Clara, very Doctor-like of her to erase his memories and run away in a TARDIS. With Me as the ideal companion. Also first nu who use of Gallifrey that I approve of.

The Husbands of River Song - The whole thing is just so funny after so many stories of genuine emotion. He can't find a way to explain to her because he's too autistic caught off guard. That "hello, sweetie" kills me. Oh and they finally get their relationship concluding date night

The Return of Doctor Mysterio - I love the superhero theme, how lighthearted it is (despite actual brain stealing!), and the Doctor feels unusually Doctory for Twelve

The Pilot - Excellent intro for Bill

Smile - Delightfully creepy while being colorful and bright. Also, emoji horror

Knock Knock - silly but also horrifying and sad. Also, we should see Bill's school friends more

Oxygen - Delightfully anticapitalist, and I approve of the Doctor having to deal with a disability (even if the sonic sunglasses are cheating a bit)

Extremis - Another au episode! And the start of Missy's second arc!

The Eaters of Light - This one just has such a sweet sad tone and ending to it

Twice Upon a Time - It does give the Doctor some closure, and I like the idea of everyone's selves being saved like that. Also always here for the Doctor meeting himself!

Bad Episodes I like

Dark Water/Death in Heaven - Cyberpollen is ridiculous, I will always be mad about fridging Danny, and if he dies then Orson can't exist later. But it's here because this was such a great scheme and reveal for Missy!

Last Christmas - Not the most coherent and I always hate the hints at the end that maybe it was real, but I enjoyed it a lot. It's very creepy but sweet, and the fake out of the Doctor meeting old Clara really reveals his side of the companion trauma I think.

The Pyramid at the End of the World/The Lie of the Land - It was not a good decision to blind him then undo it, ok. It just wasn't. He should have stayed disabled until regeneration. But a lot of the plot was fun, especially the au bit, even if I'm not sure how Bill won made much sense.

World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls - I couldn't decide where to put this, tbh. There is so much wrong with it. It's a terrible ending for Bill, and bad timing since she felt like she was just starting to really settle in as a companion. It's also a terrible end to Missy's very good arc. But I like the tragedy of Bill spending years alone while the Doctor spends so little time, and for once it wasn't his fault. Also as much as I hate cybermen, this was a harrowing backstory and horrifying reveal.

Good episodes I don't like

In the Forest of the Night - I don't actually think this is a bad episode. I really like that the answer was plants protecting Earth and for once it wasn't an invasion. But the pacing is a bit slow and I thought having this revealed by speaking through a child like that was unnecessary (they should have deduced it)

Thin Ice - This episode is fine but didn't hold my attention well

Bad episodes I don't like

In the Dalek - This one was boring. And also it felt weird that Clara is suddenly a teacher but there's no line about her having a new job. Maybe they meant for it to be a time skip, but it felt jarring

Listen - Possibly my least favorite episode of the whole show. It makes no sense. They get no answers. Are these telepathic guidance circuits ever used again? And they absolutely should not be able to reach Gallifrey's past, right? I do like Orson Pink, though

Time Heist - Simultaneously confusing and dull

Kill the Moon - No. Just no. Not even worth the Moon is an egg jokes.

Sleep No More - Hate this ridiculous contrived plot, and hate even more the implication at the end that they didn't win anyway

Empress of Mars - It felt really slow to me for this kind of episode

Episodes that are kind of offensive

The Caretaker - The Doctor's attitude towards Danny is hypocritical, and unfair, and this only seems to happen with companions' Black boyfriends so I'm blaming the show for this writing choice

[fallowtail]

Top 5 Hetty outfits - jk ahem. Top 5 ghosts dynamics?

Oh this is rough their dynamics are all SO good....aahhhh ok. Ok. Going to try my best to fight my brain fog and lack of articulation skills to briefly explain why I chose them! These aren't in order either because that'd be just too evil, lol. Ok.

...I'M DOING SIX YOU CAN'T STOP ME because I accidentally wrote six of these because I miscounted and I don't want to delete one that I already wrote up, lol

Hetty and Trevor ...ok, this one is obvious, but they're just. So. Weird. In a way that you don't expect but that works absolutely perfectly. They're so similar when you get down to it and they bounce off of each other hilariously, I feel like that scene from Isaac's book where Hetty has created a scheme, and is so proud of herself for how devious she is, while Trevor rolls his eyes because he knows how stupid it is but he is still going along with it anyway because he knows if he does she'll give him a treat later (which she does!) sums up their dynamic really well. I love that they butt heads so much and think they have nothing in common when they so clearly do, lol. The way he's slowly shifted into being fondly amused by her vs aggravated is really cute- the way they're both so enthusiastic about what they get up to in the basement is so sweet, Trevor actively wanting Hetty to open up to him, to talk to him and be silly and let loose...that fond little smile she makes at him when he's being a goober during the pillow talk scene. Ugh. They do genuinely like each other but are just so stuck in their ideas about what they should want that they dig their heels in. This is the one I am the most mad about not being able to properly explain how I feel because there is just. SO. MUCH. Going on there with them. Why am I not good at writing, AHHH

Isaac and Hetty THE BESTIES! Oh Isaac and Hetty are just sooo funny like he watched her live her entire life, they are best friends, the two of them both think they run the house but they constantly default back to each other and are usually the only ones the other will listen to, he tried to romance her and then told her he was gay, he enables her bad behavior, he both refuses to take romantic advice from her but also desperately wants her advice, he deeply loves her but very clearly thinks there is something wrong with her, they have dates where they just stare out the window for hours, she clings to him constantly like he's a security blanket, she envies his ability to find love but also kind of hates his boyfriend who she encouraged him to get together with LOL, they're gossip besties, they both deeply crave the others approval, Isaac being happy Hetty found her stableboy but also not being sure why she's chosen Trevor, like. Oh my god. I love Isaac and Hetty so much that I can't find the words even more than the others. They're just so, so, so perfect together and you can always see Brandon and Rebeccas best friendship come through with these two, their scenes are always my favorite.

Sam and Hetty Wow, I wonder if there's gonna be a trend here with which dynamics I enjoy the most because it involves my blorbo, hmmm Something about Sam and Hetty finding family within each other and wanting to learn from their past mistakes and heal from their family damage with each other and then still falling into those same patterns they did in life but with the desire to fix it this time when they realize is so interesting. I love how even in the pilot Hetty warms up to the idea of her moving into the mansion so quickly despite claiming otherwise, and that even in as latest as the Halloween episode you can see them butting heads over Hetty's need to manage people to express care because she thinks she knows best and if she knows best, why wouldn't she tell people how to get what they want? And Sam lashing out when people do that to her because she wants her accomplishments to be her own and for someone to be proud of her for what she does.

Hetty and Flower and Alberta Look I said there was gonna be a trend but I'm squeezing the Lady Ghost Society into one group so that my last 3 answers aren't all for them, lol. The way the lady ghosts interact is so fun and I love that they're all different- Hetty and Alberta being all over each other this season despite their huge conflict at the end of s2, the way Flower and Alberta were the ones who volunteered to be roommates originally, Flower not realizing Hetty didn't understand what good sexual stimulation felt like and then being distraught when she realized Hetty didn't know what happened to her on the washing machine and Hetty feeling comfortable enough to come to Flower to confess her sins and Flower helping her work through it, Alberta having forgotten Flower's name in season 1 but then in season 2 she's the one who makes sure Flower remembers what her name is, it's just so...!! The fact they have a Lady Ghost Society Council is so cute too, oh my god.

Isaac and Trevor Oh my god one that doesn't involve Hetty, what the hell Isaac and Trevor are so interesting...they're kind of similar to H-Money in that on paper you don't think they'd get along, but their interactions are so?? I think Isaac envies Trevor in a way because he's so easily "one of the guys" which is all Isaac ever wanted, buuuut he also thinks Trevor is kind of an idiot, lmfao, because Isaac just thinks everyone in the house except for him and Hetty aren't particularly intelligent I think. (Also he can't get past the pants thing.) Trevor and Isaac both so very, very desperately, just want people to like them, both of them make up these stories about cool things they did to fit the persona they so badly want the others to believe...The Liquor License is such a good episode for them, the way Trevor is content to tease Isaac when he thinks Isaac is having fun doing his snooty thing but then as soon as he realizes Isaac got left alone he goes to find him...they're just really, really fun to pair up together and I'm looking forward to this next episode with them being a duo! You can really see Brandon and Asher's friendship shine through in their scenes together.

Isaac and Sam Isaac and Sam's relationship is so weird and I absolutely love it. Isaac shadowing Sam all day in the new episode and kind of making fun of her "Yogaaaa!", them doing yoga together and her ditching him when he fell asleep...there was an interview back in December where Rose talks about the Sam and Isaac dynamic and how weird it is saying Sam just really seems to want to serve him and his best interests and that there's something going on with Sam for her to want that out of Isaac LOL, she really does seem to cave into him the most out of any of the ghosts because something in her just seems to want to impress him? But at the same time he annoys her. It's fascinating. That little heart to heart they had about not needing outside approval but then immediately dropping it as soon as they got approval for her book was SO funny and they really just want everyone to like them and be proud of them and it makes for such a fun relationship to explore.

Phew! Ok, that was long, and I'm frustrated I can't properly say what I actually want to say or feel for any of these but hopefully that all comes across decent enough! <3

Ask me my top 5 anything game!

[narzissenkreuz-ordo]

mmmmm i dont have coherent thoughts rn but

nikolai parallels with the melusines. who were both ostracized by their origins or appearance.

nikolai finally meeting silvanus again and being nervous about walking around in public since he has a tail and visible scales/rashes but is encouraged by silvie and lyney/lynette/freminet to go out and do things with them.

like furina, he has Trauma when it comes to being on stage and preforming. but he little issue with doing his street preforming acts in other nation [to gather info for the house of hearth/the knave] but but has a hard boundary about doing anything public in fontaine.

thinking about him clumsily meeting the rest of the fontaine cast. and everyone is eager and friendly interacting with him. since a lot of them were there for silvanus' trial and very aware of both of their situations.

charlotte wants to do an interview about about nikolai's disappearance case and how lucky and happy it is to see the siblings reunited after so much pain and misfortune. silvanus quickly doges that and offering charlotte an interview with herself & neuvillette.

wrio has met niko once back when he was caught sneaking about in meropide. wrio is pretty casual/laid back and comments about niko made the right decision. and is very content with seeing silvanus so happy. sigewinne is also very friendly and curious and wants to do a medical exam to see if she could get any new info tohelp his & silvanus' medical condition

niko meets furina in passing while strolling the streets with silvanus. niko used to hateeee the hydro archon. seeing the archon who represented justice let so much injustice happen in fontaine, including his own situation.

Furina very much remembers silvanus' and was rather nonchalant during it all. but absolutely guilt ridden and terrified for silvanus' health. and is obviously terrified when running into both niko and silvanus in the streets. niko knows that she was faking being the archon for a bigger cause. and realizes now that she was a victim of constant performance (just like him, when he was owned by the Evil Circus)

so all those emotions he had towards the hydro archon & fontaine's government system as a whole all funnels to neuvillette instead. he heavily dislikes neuvi's relationship with silvanus and it shows when they interact. neuvi handles it so very awkwardly but neuvillette ends up deeply apologizing for being complicit with injustice that is fontainian high society. and makes it clear the since he has complete authority over the nation he will do everything in his power to stop political corruption that leads to injustice.

and in general i think it would be really cute for the melusines being absolutely enamoured with nikolai since hes also funny looking and has a tail

also dont get me started on the silvanus & nikolai narzissenkreuz adventures. then being the two to face jakob and rene/narzissenkreuz in the primordial see (and now exactly who they are), gives them the lore dump that they are distant relatives and that they have diluted abyssal god juice in their dna which is whats causing their incurable illness.

and after that nikolai goes on this conspiracy theory rabbit hole like an insane person connecting the dots with red string a bulletin board. over the harbinger sandrone who looks so much like mary ann and has an obsession with robotics just like alain guillotin and wants to figure out what the Fuck is up with that (its mostly a personal mission but the knave approves it because itll give HER more info on sandrone to keep in the back of her mind)

o h my god i rambled for so long holy shit. good night

[plotwholls]

“Papa!!”

Baby!! 🥰👹🥹🤗👨‍👧🥰🥹

Yeah the league is screwed

Danny is taking his daughter back thank you very much you don’t deserve her

The league is absolutely gobsmacked watching this Eldritch being coo and purr and clutch his baby to him bc no you cannot have her >:[

I get the feeling Danny’s going to confiscate all the clones from this universe :/

They don’t deserve their clones if they treat them like this

Eventually everyone sits down and talks and everyone is very stunned to find out Dani has only ever been situationally evil. At WORST she’s an antihero (which has always been fine by Danny)

“What? Why?” / “what do you mean ‘WHY’? You think I WANTED to be a hero??? Nah man— besides, ACAP, fuck the government, defund the police and eat the rich are all important lessons I learned from being a hero”

“Wait not all clones are evil?” / “…I think I need you to repeat that. Bitches say Hwat?”

I feel like it would be funny (and probably a bit fucked up) to watch the clones all go through this identity crisis because this whole time they thought they had to pick a side to get even SOME support and then there’s Dani, who nearly killed her original (who hates it when he’s called that btw) and has such a close relationship with him that he considers her his daughter, his baby, his lil munchkin, his baby angel

Danny is the kind of dad who would spoil his kids rotten I’m right and you know it

Dani’s stomach growls once and: “!!!!!! Oh my goodness when is the last time you ate????? Nevermind doesn’t matter here’s a tub of your favorite— don’t tell your mom, she’ll kill me and your dad— and here’s your ectoplasm incase you’re running low— oh no do you need ecto dejecto? I have that somewhere in my bag one sec—” and Dani’s just chilling with her beef stroganoff bc she knows this is his panic response and it’ll be over faster if she doesn’t fight it

Sam is mom, Tucker is dad, Danny is papa, and I think Vlad should be ma, just because he seems like he’d get mad at being called that

By the end of the meeting Dani is crunching on some metal as a lil’ after-meal treat and Danny has decided that he is in fact taking custody of any current and future clones for this universe

He sends them all to therapy w Jazz and she’s fucking horrified

“Danny!!!!! I do not have the TIME to give them all proper therapy!!!” / “Jazz they were so SAD, and who else has the experience you do!!”

Jazz is running a very profitable office of thirty therapists, two psychiatrists and ten psychologists. Also two behavioral therapists (who Jazz keeps a tight eye on), but they may need more. They’re working on it.

The clones are……. making progress

The biggest hurdle is making them realize they can just,, exist. They don’t “need to be” anything. The next big hurdle is correcting their ““moral compasses”” bc while they have good ones for OTHER people, they’re going full-on thought police on themselves and not only is it not healthy, it’s unnecessary

Jazz has already found three with some kind of mental disorder that has a common symptom of intrusive thoughts. She is expecting more.

Every once in a while, Danny goes back to DC and every single hero freaks out, trying to figure out which of them got cloned before Danny disappears again

One time Diana corners him and asks him to just bring her clones to her because she wants babies and her mom wants grandbabies >:(

Danny is delighted. Diana is now in a groupchat for clone parents and she loves it

Diana now has three lovely daughters and a very shy son, all of whom she coos at incessantly

Diana’s son got denied to visit Themyscria once and Diana spent three weeks teaching him how to float with barely an effort before bringing him to see his ancestral home. She flipped off anyone who tried to deny him because exCUSE ME his FEET are not TOUCHING THE GROUND

Also she got approval from Hera but she was waiting to put the big card and good gods did she enjoy looking her mom in the face as she declared she’d gotten the O.K. from the Queen of the Gods

When they got back to home to Washington DC, Diana’s son found a letter from Aphrodite on his bed and it was an official invite to themyscria that was open ended

The baby cried

Diana is living her best life with her four kids and she is extra willing to beat the snot out of anyone who tries to stop her, gods forbid try to hurt her kids

Danny is loving it— finally, another parent who GETS it

Danny starts coming over to get weekly coffees with Diana and they like to watch the JL scramble like ants :)

Dani is hunted by the JL

So dani was traveling around the infinite realms and came across a universe that she and danny would LOVE

Their are super heros, and clones and wizards, and alians

Dani send danny the location of the universe with the caption:THE WORLD OF HEROS AND ALIANS WHICH WILL YOU MEET FIRST

Danny texted her back a voice massage of his screaming the word alians

.

.

.

So dani was exploring this new universe when she saw asshole.1 berating a teenager about how he's not fit for this life

The asshole.2 chimes in and AGREES with asshole.1, at this point the kid looks upset

and dani could understand teenagers in the superhero business is not the best(she asked) and sometimes tough love is what it takes so she was going to leave

Then she heard asshole.1 say" clones should just be terminated to save everyone problems like this"...

No...dani didnt hold back in teaching asshole.1 a lesson in clone rights via: trial by fist

.

.

.

But now 3 months later she decided to ask the assholes what they want and why they keep harassing her

She didnt expect a rant about how an unsupervised meta(and a clone asshole.1(whos name is superman WTF is super about him))

Then they all had a meeting about her IN front of her

The options ranged from finding her original to termination to imprisonment to forcing her to be a superhero

They eventually decided to make her a superhero in training...

These people are IDIOTS, if you dont trust her why put her WITH A TEAM, why not just let her leave, the most she did was get payback for the insensitive shit superman was saying but the sheer notion she was a clone was enough to FOECE her into a life she dosent want...

Oh hell no

So when the JL and clones in the background came up to tell her that they decided to give her a chance at "redemption"

She looked then in the eyes, smiled a too sharp smile said

:no

Then she screamed

PAPA

.

.

.

The next thing anyone knowes is the watchtower is in an unknown location with a person that looked scarily similar to the unknown clone

And then he said

WHY DO YOU HAVE MY DAUGHTER

[nevertheless-moving]

INFODUMP AU continued

(Star Wars AU #22)

Possible Continuations from INFODUMP. I headcanon that exchange taking place about a year before episode II and episode IV

A) Anakin Force Shenanigans

Anakin walks up: “master- who’s this guy?

“You can SEE him/me?”

Obi-Wan urgently cry/yelling at Anakin to either wear a condom with Padme or at least take her to a healer if you’re worried about her pregnancy (seriously healer BEFORE evil sith wtf)

(its been a number of years for Ben so he’s pretty much puzzled out the ‘doing this for padme’ bit)

just before obi-wan fades out anakin panics because ben hasn’t told him how he gets together with padme

yanks him into this timeline and now Old Ben has to deal with Obi-Wan and Anakin freaking out over all the info he just vomited at them AND everything else

B) Brush Off

Obi-Wan practices some good old fashioned repression to mostly convince himself it was all a weird dream

yoda always says in motion, the future is anyway

he mostly puts it out of his head until a year later when Anakin VERY obliquely references having dreams of his mother

“...what kind of dreams, exactly?”

end-up rescuing Shmi shortly after her capture, Obi-Wan’s there to make sure Anakin doesn’t go off the deep end

Council is a little disapproving of their side mission because now Anakin is even more attached/devoted Obi-Wan 

Obi-Wan is a LITTLE freaked out but Shmi being in danger isn’t exactly a hard prediction to make considering they left her on Tatooine but...

almost immediately after they get specially requested to protect Senator Amidala.

things proceed like canon and when Dex says the dart is from Kamino, Obi-Wan has a little panic attack attack

the whole trip to Kamino he’s just thinking pleasenoclonearmy  pleasenoclonearmy  pleasenoawFUCK THAT��S A CLONE ARMY

good news here is when he’s bullshitting his way through the meeting/ inspection he very confidently brings up removing the control chips

at first there’s some hemming and hawing ‘oh you mean the inhibitor chips, are you sure you want them removed we’ve already installed them’

“I DEMAND they be removed- I- can i speak to your manger? Do I need to take my business elsewhere??”

Nala Se is very reluctant, “I was ensured by certain high level parties that the chips were intended to be an important safeguard...”

*Obi-Wan sweating, but all-in at this point* “Well, uh, Master Dooku and Chancellor Palpatine themselves told me they were concerned about the chips being abused by the wrong parties, and sent me to supervise, so,”

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were read-in on the project architecture to that extent, well here are our options-”

Obi-Wan still chases to Jango to Genosis because he’s got a mission and ‘this might as well happen’

Still gets captured in that stupid rotating energy field by Dooku 

“What if I told you the senate was now controlled by a dark lord of the sith?”

“...I would say that I would be very interested in any holo-recordings or legal documents you might have to that effect”

“oh?”

“would very much like some sort of proof to bring before a court of law, yeah.”

The rescue attempt actually goes well this time! Anakin is well rested and practically glowing after his week-long all-expense paid vacation at Varykino

They all manage to escape and intercept reinforcement mid-flight

The council is pleased Obi-Wan is safe and not surprised to find Anakin there, but it doesn’t really change their mission as the senate has ordered them to take out the federation army before they can attack...

“The Senate ordered it?”

“Yes, much has happened, while gone you were. Were given to the chancellor, emergency powers. Drafted a military, he has. Generals, the Jedi have been made. Uneasy we are, but serve the senate, we do.”

“Oh kark, the Chancellor ordered it? We DEFINITELY can not invade.” Obi-Wan's starting to have another panic attack, not sure how to get out of the sith trap

Anakin’s a little offended. “Obi-Wan! The Chancellor is a good man; the Jedi must do this, for the good of -”

“PALPATINE’S A SITH LORD”

“what”

C) He tries, ok? (inspired by @ourhitofsucrose )

Very similar to B except for the full year between the ‘vision’ and aotc, Obi-Wan is desperately trying to follow the future’s warnings but failing hysterically

kamino and genosis have both erased from the archives and it doesn’t occur to him to ask dex so he doesn’t even have a direction to go on

tries to find some proof about Palpatine but he is a sneaky bastard

tries to separate palpatine from anakin but he’s like I’M AN ADULT NOW YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO

tentatively brings up Dooku falling ‘in a vision’ to the council because that is something they can check up on- Yoda gets really offended

‘garbage planet on the outer rim’ is not a lot to go on

when he tries to get help searching because he knows that the sith who killed Qui-Gon is still alive and planning to kill his ex-girlfriend even Anakin is like... ‘ok buddy, i think you might be under too much stress, maybe we should visit the healers...”

best he can do for Shmi is leaving her an emergency beacon

A+ success in relationship repair with Anakin tho! through the application of a very awkward hug and a mumbled “you know I love you, right?”

Anakin drags him to the healers immediately, and after a drug test and an overnight stay finally responds by bursting into tears and ugly crying on Obi-Wan’s robes because “YOU’RE A FATHER TO ME BUT I THOUGHT YOU HAATED ME”

Obi-Wan is uncomfortably patting him on the back “Of course I don’t hate you! You’re my padawan! Why would you think that?”

Then when Shmi activates her emergency comm the same night Anakin has his first nightmare about his Mom and they fly to her rescue he’s even more OBI-WAN 5EVER  than canon or scenario B because

“You...checked in on my mom?? Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“I’m sorry Anakin, I knew the council wouldn’t approve...”

hugs Anakin again since that is the only piece of advice he can follow from his future self and he just thinks ‘well its a long shot but hopefully this is enough to prevent any lava planet incidents’

it is 

Seriously in this version of events Anakin actively RESISTS being knighted because he was already obsessed with Obi-Wan in canon and now with hugs + verbal affection + protecting Mom proactively he is ALL IN FOR OBI NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN

low-key ruins palpatine’s plans by itself because now when he tries to drive a wedge between them with his bullshit ‘your master doesn’t truly trust you’ Anakin gets huffy and responds with a space powerpoint presentation

i mean other stuff is going to go down once we get to the armies but already the stage is set for him to go running to Obi-Wan the minute he has a nightmare about Padme dying and him responding “J. Force Christ, lets just... go to a healer, fuck’s sake Anakin I hope it doesn’t need to be said but do NOT turn to the darkside over this”

canon would definitely diverge before that point but its also very funny to me to imagine RotS playing out more or less the same but when he gets to Palpatine’s big offer he just goes ‘sorry dad told me no’

[theamityelf]

How Each Descendants Character Would Be As the Mastermind (Danganronpa AU)

Mal- If she were the mastermind, she would be less of a gremlin than I establish her to be in my previous Danganronpa AU post. She would have to be Descendants 1 Mal, coyly pulling everyone's strings but never seeming obviously antagonistic towards anyone. Like, she would use manipulation and passive aggression, but no clear bullying or accusations. Also, the whole thing was probably her mom's idea, and she's doing it to earn her mom's approval. That is to say, bringing down the other Ultimates was her mom's idea; the killing game itself was really hers, and she was happy to tell Maleficent of her plan until she realized she was actually going to have to do it. Her actions are being closely monitored by Maleficent at this point, so even when she feels quietly guilty about what she's doing to her classmates, she doesn't feel at liberty to do anything about it; she already made the mistake of giving her mother access to her class, and now she's just stuck in this plot. She does enjoy some of the deaths, violence, and conflict. If someone dies in a way she finds funny, she will fully have to leave the room so she can laugh without drawing attention.

When she gets found out as the mastermind in the final trial, she puts on an evil smile and gloats and mocks everyone, but she really is not happy to lose her friends. Maybe Jay remembers something she said early on that was actually a subtle warning or hint, but she still was helping Maleficent with the killing game at every step, and it's still her fault it happened. Maybe she gets a laugh-cry in, for old time's sake. Basically, she's tormenting herself almost as much as she's tormenting them, and Maleficent is behind a lot of it.

Evie- She would make a pretty sad mastermind, I think. She's not doing this because she likes it. She has some ideology that she's trying to promote or some end that she's working toward. She loves all of her classmates and hates to see them hurt and turning on each other. I feel like, in an actual Danganronpa game, this would be a case of "something something despair" being the full explanation. Just, she fell to despair at some point and felt called to share her despair with her friends and the world, out of some warped version of charity. She's very good at convincing others to join her cause; she definitely has a whole movement behind her.

When the class finds out that she's the mastermind, she lets them yell and protest. She just stands there with a sad look while they demand why she would do this. When they let her explain herself, she is quiet and miserable but unyielding. She fully believes that this had to happen; otherwise, she wouldn't have done it.

Don't get me wrong, I can imagine a version of mastermind Evie who is enjoying herself, but this is the version I most readily picture.

Carlos- He is a mastermind who is either having a ton of fun or feels nothing. He has the tech skills to pull off pretty much all of this himself. I think I best see him as a more stoic, Izuru-like co-mastermind with someone who's having more fun, so this could be a Mastermind Jaylos situation, or Carlos and Mal. Mastermind Carlos and Evie would be a situation where neither of them is having fun, but Evie believes in what they're doing and Carlos believes in Evie.

If it is a scenario where he enjoys being the mastermind, though, I see it having vibes of "genius who was never challenged enough finally doing something he finds engaging". Operating Monokuma, controlling all the contraptions in the school, running the broadcast, and all while being a participant in the game and interacting with everyone. His shyness isn't an act; he does get flustered being around them all, and he has to be careful not to accidentally say something he isn't supposed to know, and he is fully aware that they could kill him at any time. But he finds that kind of thrilling; with his intellect, he has never had to deal with the possibility of failure like this. When he's discovered as the mastermind, he rolls up in dalmation clothes and black and red sunglasses, laughing that they actually figured it out.

Jay- He would be a pretty laidback mastermind. He's the type of mastermind who would go, "Jeez, you guys are boring me. Can we skip this part already?" But he'd say it with a smile on his face. I feel like he is similar to Carlos, in that he thought up the killing game just to have some enrichment in his enclosure, so to speak. He's a smarter guy than he gets (or seeks) credit for, and he has a lot of unprocessed issues. With his looks and people skills, he can easily trick people into helping him set this up.

On the surface level, I think when he is revealed as the mastermind, he presents himself as enjoying the violence for its own sake (similar to Mal), but really, I think his reasons for doing it could be related to his plotline in Descendants 1: overcoming his "me vs. us" thing, practicing teamwork, and more broadly coming to terms with the idea that the world doesn't have to be an inherently combative place that is out to get him. If Jay in the Danganronpa universe has the backstory that I gave him in that other post, he could easily have come to the same survival mindset where selfishness is the only way to survive, and after spending some time at Hope's Peak and having this worldview challenged by these incredibly brilliant people who he's now built relationships with, he needs to see, once and for all, if cooperation can win out over conflict. If the world isn't dog-eat-dog, then they shouldn't kill each other, right?

He was curious what they'd do. They didn't fully disappoint him. The survivors who didn't kill anyone, plot against anyone, or get killed all interest him. But in the long run, they didn't prove that they wouldn't kill each other, and he didn't prove that they all would. It's a lukewarm result. What's he supposed to do with that? Well, all that's left is to give them the choice of whether or not to kill him. They've won the game, their friends are dead because of him. But they're free to go. All they would get out of killing Jay is vengeance. Will they do it? (If they vote to kill him, he won't actually let them; he'll just mysteriously disappear with his adversarial worldview reaffirmed. If they vote not to kill him, then he has some things to reevaluate. Maybe these people really are his friends! He doesn't even mind that they think he's kind of a monster.)

Uma- This could be a case of her mind just breaking from having gotten through so many horrible situations unscathed, causing her to almost compulsively start to engineer worse situations for herself out of survivor's guilt or some other self-destructive urge. Or it could be spite; maybe she's tired of the weird social darwinism with which the Danganronpa universe treats talent and wants to show the "normal" people of the world that Ultimates really aren't so special. So, Option A- she's gone through so much that she feels invincible, but in a bad way, and has become so inured to catastrophe that she has to find some limit to her talent, and she's using this elaborate killing game to do it; Option B- she hates how the Ultimates are placed on a pedestal over everyone else and feels like she's giving something to the broader world by exposing their flaws.

Harry could either be in on the plot from the beginning (like Mukuro), be told about it during the killing game and join her, or find out when everyone else does but joins her anyway because she's the one he's closest to. Or he died during the game, worsening Uma's survivor's guilt or making her cling more tightly to her conviction that she's making a noble sacrifice. (If he or Gil dies in the killing game, she is absolutely wrecked emotionally.)

Harry- Okay, there's a yandere option and an angsty option. Yandere option: He's the mastermind because he knows that Uma is the Ultimate Survivor and he wants to see her triumph over all the other Ultimates. Maybe he didn't think they respected Uma's talent enough when they were in class together, so he thought of a "fun" way for Uma's talent to shine over theirs. (As the Ultimate Assassin, he can get very creative, as far as ways to kill people. They didn't just give him that title because of his weapon proficiency; he has great planning skills.) He has full faith that she will survive the killings, and his ultimate plan is for some fire or explosion to destroy the building after the final trial, which he is also certain that Uma will survive. ("What about the rest of us?!" one of the other students demands. "Best of luck!" Harry answers, with a grin.)

Uma would be shocked when all of this gets found out in the final trial, and after he gives a very yandere speech to her, she pretends to go along with him but then puts an end to his plan and keeps him pretty much on a leash. He's cool with it; he's proven his point, and really he didn't expect her to be willing to kill them all.

That's one all option. The other option is that actually he's only the "mastermind" in the scheme of their class; really, he was hired by some third party before school started, to assassinate them all. He still was the one to come up with the killing game, because he's still ridiculously creative about his kills. He joined the class with the intention of doing this but struggled with this decision when he made friends with Uma and Gil. He went through with the plan but does everything in his power to protect them and feels really bad about the whole thing.

Gil- Himbo mastermind. Just conceptually, I already love it. This could be because of a worldview inherited from his father (and this is about to be wildly stupid, so buckle in). Like, his strongest human connections always came with an element of sport or competition, and he was never allowed to express emotion or fondness outside of those contexts, so when he finds himself really loving his classmates, his only way to fully express the emotion of it is by making them fight.

Okay, so there was that idea. He could also be co-mastermind with someone else, which I think makes sense; he fits well into "cheerful henchman" territory, and while he is capable of hurting people, I don't think the killing game is something he would come up with or set up on his own, in most scenarios.

Although, invoking the Obfuscating Stupidity trope and making him someone who can inspire enough loyalty to get others to help him set up the killing game by acting as a himbo does seem pretty cool. Like, a version of Gil who is genuinely chill and cheerful and fun to talk to, but he also easily comes up with the killing game and has no problem setting it up, so he can watch his good friends fight all around him.

I think any version of mastermind Gil comes with some cognitive dissonance as to his own culpability. Either it's a matter of him not being the one to personally kill the others, so it's not his fault, or it wasn't his idea to do the killing game, so it's not his fault, or it's really just the circle of life and animals kill each other in nature all the time so there's no reason to get too bummed about it. Yeah, he'll miss his murdered and executed friends, but it happens. "Why the long faces, guys? At least the rest of us are still alive."

Ben- I feel like this would also probably be a case of mind break. He's the Ultimate Moral Compass for a reason; if he's behind the killing game, something has happened to drastically warp his mental state to the point where he thinks he's doing the right thing, similar to Evie and Uma. He would be a very earnest mastermind; whatever logic led him to think that this is what he needed to do, he believes in it fully, and when he is revealed as the mastermind, he is serious about trying to make the others understand why this was right and good. He really does care about his friends! He hates that they think he enjoyed doing this.

Audrey- I immediately think of a Queen of Mean situation. I feel like that would be her vibe as the mastermind. Very "Bow, peasants!" But it took magical brainwashing to get Audrey into that mode in Descendants 3, so what would get her there in the Danganronpa universe? It could be a situation where Evie fell to despair but didn't go out of her way to spread it; she just despaired quietly and channeled it into her work as Ultimate Fashionista. But Audrey, as the biggest fan of her fashion line and a princess who was already kind of on the edge emotionally, feels Evie's despair through her work and is also thrown into despair, and she's way more...proactive...about it. And she has the resources of her whole kingdom at her disposal to share that despair with her Hope's Peak besties.

Or maybe it's not related to Evie at all. But I do think she'd have to be brainwashed to go Queen of Mean.

Otherwise, as a brainwash-free mastermind, she would be very prim and a lot like Sonia in SDR2; she's bubbly and sheltered and into dark topics. Human consequences barely register to her, because she was raised as royalty, and lives are just pawns.

Chad- I feel like if he were the mastermind, he wouldn't participate in the game as an actual player; he would watch arrogantly from the sidelines and enjoy the show. The participants wouldn't meet him until the end. From the perspective of the audience, he would be very visible, in that he would be the host and have Kuzko-style interstitials where he talks about the participants over a freeze frame and makes fun of them. The killing game is his way of proving his superiority and earning the world's attention. He isn't smart enough to get all of it done on his own, but he's rich; he can afford to hire smart people to make his vision happen.

He would basically be Junko's queen persona. I don't even know if he would bother to make it a secret from the participants that he's the mastermind; he might have portraits of himself hanging all over the school.

Lonnie- She would be having a blast. She doesn't even mind being found out. She still considers all the participants her friends, and she is super companionable with them. "Wasn't that fun? Come on, I kept it fun for you guys, didn't I?" She definitely had some reason for doing all of this, and I feel like it would be a situation where some worse thing was going to happen otherwise. Like, maybe she was tasked with killing all of them (again, by some third party) but decided to do this instead; maybe someone hired her to kill them, not fully grasping that a skilled swordsperson is not the same thing as an assassin, and she pretty much just went "lol sure" but did the killing game instead. Internally calculating that if she doesn't agree to kill the Ultimates, her employer will just find someone else to do it, so she may as well set up a fun competition where their lives are enough on the line to satisfy her employers while they still have a fighting chance and she gets to enjoy the sport of it all. Or something like that. Basically, it's a combination of a guaranteed worse outcome and her thinking a killing game could be cool.

Jane- I feel like this would be an inferiority complex type of mastermind. Kind of like her outburst at the end of Descendants 1; she feels less special than everyone else, so she seizes power over them. She has the organizational skills to pull it off. I think she'd be a Laughing Mad mastermind. Like Chad, she has no larger reason for doing this. Unlike Chad, I think she would remain a participant even as the mastermind. As soon as she is revealed, she might launch into some rant about how all the Ultimates think they're so great but don't have the basic overall competence that normal people have.

Doug- I almost want to say that he would also be an inferiority complex type, but thinking about his character, I think I see him being more like, "I surprised you, right? You didn't expect that?" Idk, despite the way I tend to think of the character, his actual in-canon vibes are more "Well, that just happened 🙃" than anything, I think. Like, he would calmly admit to everything once they accuse him, like, "Yeah it was me. And the results were fascinating!" He isn't really a chummy mastermind or a sad mastermind or a broken mastermind. This was pretty much a science experiment to him.

[sweetea-rosey]

Ooo hi I saw you take requests? I have a writing request if you want to :))

So here is my idea:

Remus has a notebook given to him by the other sides to write his thoughts down in. See, Remus has clear impulse control problems so this notebook of for him to write his thoughts down instead of just doing and saying whatever comes to mind. It gives him a chance to think about it. Sometimes, maybe like once a week give or take a few days one of the other sides will sit down with him and read his thoughts with him just to make him feel validated and heard. Well this particular time one of the sides (of your choice) sat down with the notebook and found some rather interesting things.

Now, you can take this one of two ways (it’s really all up to you!)- You can make this something angsty (hurt comfort), or you can make it something shippy! It can be any Remus ship you want but I personally am more partial to intrulogical hehe 💙💚

Take your time and have fun with it!! Have a good day :)

Ah! Ty for the request! I started writing it on the day you submitted it, but Tumblr deleted it after a while of not saving :') so now my motivation to do this is deterred

Anyway, this'll be my first time not writing something Roman centric =w=""

Remus held the book in his hands. He remembered the day Roman gave it to him, when he risked traveling into the dark scape because he knew his brother needed this. Because he did, too.

An outlet.

A place for his monstrosities to be, other than inside his head, allowed to torture him to their best abilities. The illusions his mind creates are no longer just in his eyes. It's no longer insanity- it's creativity. The journal isn't the first one. But he and Roman make sure to keep eachother stocked up; they get filled rather quickly. The Imagination holds an entire library dedicated to their filled journals from over the years.

The journals have also become sort of diaries to them. So, imagine what were to happen if one of them got lost? The possibility of their secrets being seen by unbidden eyes.

Remus burst into Roman's room, "Ro!"

Roman jumped from his spot at his desk, "Jeez- ! What is it?"

Oddly, for Remus, he seemed almost anxious, "Have you seen my latest journal?"

Ah, that explains it. Roman understands the severity of losing something that holds your private thoughts. He stood up from his desk chair, turning to face Remus better, "No, I haven't. Is it missing?"

Remus nodded, unable to speak through the panic coursing through his veins, the hormone mixing with the feeling of the plasma we call blood rushing through veins and arteries, rest in his heart, which is thumping with vigor, the- Remus shook himself. The imagery coming on its own with nothing to do with it, "Thoughts, thoughts thoughts, thoughts, blood, where? Everywhere? It is me, I am thoughts and blood and gore and death and slime, and..."

Roman pulled his brother in, the physical touch of his second half grounding him, finally balanced out with his brother there to help him.

"Breathe, Ree...I get it...I'll help you look for it, okay? Do you have any spare journals?"

Remus shook his head. He had just started this one, he was too busy brainstorming on the pages to remember to restock.

"Okay, do you have the focus to conjur any, right now?"

Remus shook his head again. No no, of course not! He's too focused on the one that's missing!

"Alright, that's okay, Ree. I get it. Here, use this for now," As Roman spoke, he pressed a plain black book in the unstable man's hands, "Get some thoughts out on that, then we can start looking, okay?"

Instead of answering, he made the rest of the way into the prince's room and started letting the thoughts out.

.

.

.

"Feel better?"

Remus let out a breath and nodded, "A lot, thanks. Can we go look, now?"

"Of course, let's go."

It took hours. The sun was gone in Thomas' living room and they were still tearing the place apart, searching absolutely everywhere. Remus was tempted to just dismantle the mind palace and look through the stuff that gets left behind. The fear was boiling in his gut in the ocean of acid.

"What if we don't find it? My blood, sweat, and tears went into that book! Pieces of my heart are in there, I can't lose it, what if someone else finds it and reads it?"

Roman shuddered, because he didn't believe that Remus was being metaphorical, "I understand the severity of the situation, Ree. We should go look in the Lightside, now..."

Remus shrugged as much as his slumped posture will allow, "Sure..."

"We'll find it, Ree..."

"That's not what I'm worried about. If I lose it? Fine, I have others, I can start a new one. I'm scared of someone else finding it and reading it... there's things in there I don't want others seeing..."

"I get it, you know I do. We'll get it back before anyone else can even know it exists, alright?"

Remus just shrugged off his comforting hand, "Stupid prince, always making promises you don't even know if you can keep. Don't do that to yourself and don't do it to me. I'm not stupid enough to fall for that shit."

Roman recoiled, almost physically, "Sometime, people just need reassurance."

"And then, when you're wrong? I know you don't like breaking promises, Princey."

"...Then hopefully we'll figure it out."

"You're such a fucking optimist, it's gross."

Roman rolled his eyes, "I'm helping you look, be nice, you doofus."

"Oh wow, "doofus", I'm so offended," Remus said without much effort.

Roman ignored him.

.

.

.

"It's not HERE!" Remus screamed, a pot crashing through the wall.

Roman manged to muffle the noise and quickly put it back together, "We will, this was only the first room in the Lightside. You need to calm down."

"I can't! What if someone else already found it and read it? What if they hate me? What if they never wanna talk to me again because nothing in there makes sense, what-"

Roman caught his hands, "Woah! Woah...Remus, when did you start caring so much about what the others think of you?"

"I don't!"

"But...-"

"I don't care about what Logan and the other think of me."

"Of what...Logan and the...? Remus...is this about Logan?"

Remus hesitated just long enough.

"Oh great Aphrodite, it is..."

"Aphro-? NO! No, I don't!"

"Remus, is there something about Logan on that book?"

Remus said fuck it in his mind and sighed, "Yes... I...some fantasies...that he might not approve of..."

"Oh, Remus..."

"What if he finds out, and he...? He just doesn't...?"

Roman hit his brother on the head, "This is why you're a doofus. It doesn't matter if he finds it, you have nothing to worry about."

Remus rolled his eyes. Literally. He rolled them like dice and Roman had to look away, but got the message.

"How would you know?"

It was Roman's turn to roll his eyes (PROPERLY).

"I'm leaving you to figure that out. But, I do."

"Sure. Whatever. Asshole."

Roman moved on to look in the next room.

.

.

.

A flash of green leaped onto him and he was tumbling over, the item in his hands flying out.

"Remus!"

The man scrambled over and snatched the book up, "Did you read it?"

"I- no, Remus what is it?"

"It's mine. Roman, I found it!"

Roman? Since when do those two talk? But, as Remus said, Roman walked in.

"Oh, thank Hades."

"Logan had it."

Roman sucked in a breath, "Did he read it?"

Remus shook his head, relief is a weird expression on the man's face.

Logan wouldn't mind seeing it more.

"What is this about?"

Roman took the liberty of answering, "The book is Remus' and it's private. Reading it would be invasive."

"Oh, my apologies, then. But, I had just picked it up, it was left over from Remus' running through the room and into the Imagination, along with some other debris I cleaned up."

"It's alright, nerd."

Logan's gaze lingered on Remus a bit, before he bid his farewells, reminded Roman of some work he needs to do by Friday, then left.

"Y'know," Roman said as they turned to walk back, "You could tell him how you feel."

Remus scoffed, "I'm not self destructive, like you, RoRo."

Ignoring Remus' jabs is difficult for the prince, nevertheless, "And do, pray tell, how it's self destructive?"

"Because he'll say no and that will hurt. I don't like when things actually hurt. I'm not risking him hating me even more."

"Woah, woah, he doesn't hate you."

"Doesn't he? I'm chaotic, irrational, vile, ik everything he fights to keep under control."

Roman digested this and thought hard on how best to explain this, "But that's exactly why you two are perfect for each other. You help him let loose when he's being a stick in the mud and he helps you keep in control of yourself and stay organized.

"You're delusional. He doesn't like me, he can't Ro. It goes against our very beings! Go ahead and fool yourself, but you can't do that to me. That's just cruel." Remus disappeared and Roman sighed as he tried to brush off his brother's words.

As the embodiment of romance, he thinks he'd know when a couple will work out or not. How will he convince his brother and Logan of that? He supposes he can't blame them for that, who would listen to the love advice of someone who loves someone that loves someone else? Kinda hypocritical.

.

.

.

"Just leave me alone!"

"Remus! Would calm down? Just listen to me!"

"No! You're a liar and I hate you! Do you want me to get hurt? You're an asshole you good for nothing prince!" He screamed. Why won't his brother let this go? Doesn't he see that everyone is better this way?

"Fine! You're right! Is that what you want to hear? Call me an asshole, call me stupid, call me evil or whatever! But I'm not wrong! Why don't you believe me? Ha! Why am I trying to reason with the self proclaimed unreasonable?"

Remus looked down from his perch on the guillotine, "Wait, RoRo-!" But he was gone.

"Fuck."

He rushed out, hoping to Loki that he didn't do too much damage.

"Roman!"

But he found who he wants looking for.

"Why are you screaming in the middle of the common room?" Came that cool and sexy voice.

"Looking for my brother, duh."

"Funny, I just spoke to him."

"Where'd he go?"

"Not sure, but he told me to stop being a robotic fake and confess to you."

"He- ? ROMAN!" Remus summoned a hammer and maybe there's a new hole in the wall.

"He was right, surprisingly."

Remus was not expecting that, "Come again?"

"I have noticed, over the course of our interactions, that I have developed feelings that I didn't recognized until Roman brought them to my attention. Remus...I have romantic feelings for you."

And it was the last casual and calculated confession Remus ever heard. He imagined something with ropes. But it was the best thing he ever heard. He didn't expect to be crying.

"Remus?"

"I like you, too..."

Logan brightened and stood up, his heart beating unnaturally, yet pleasently, as he moved closer, "Then... perhaps we...?"

But before he could finish, Remus pulled him in and there was no need for words.

Part 2 with what happened with Roman afterwards?

Ty so much for the request and I apologies for the long wait.

@fireflyjunkie

[superanonymousthethird]

In the recent ign interview they were like "We could've substitute content for evil run but then it wouldn't be a consequence! The agency is in getting less quests and getting stuck in combat more often" lmao.

Larian. Guys. It's a game. Whether in games or irl most ppl don't do evil out of nowhere. Most ppl are evil for their own gain. A game typically offers a reward for being evil, some *power*, influence!.. Unique quests if it's an RPG!..

Devs seem to think that the only evil that a player might enjoy is chaotic evil where they just attack everything on sight. For ppl who talked of how they felt like ppl would enjoy trying the evil route too, their approach just feels like intentional punishment of the players.

"But you get into more combat encounters!"

You mean you get less allies, companions and resources (choosing Minthara and not Halsin makes you lose the owlbear, Arabella, Rolan, Zevlor, Mol and Halsin as allies in the final battle; going with the Durge quest or choosing to try out Shadowheart's Dark Justiciar run makes you miss on Jaheira and her haprers + all the listed above allies + the gnomes + Minsc, and within act 2 you storm moonrise towers with just 4 people) AND GET ASS KICKED MORE OFTEN???

Gee thanks.

Also. Okay. Rewards. Halsin, Rolan, Zevlor, Mol, Owlbear and Arabella are *allies* as in they give you a buff/can be summoned in final battle. The choice is between all of that and Minthara (which is already insane enough of a tradeoff).

Lets compare Minthara and Halsin. Minthara is not an ally. No buff from her in the final battle (god how is some shitty cop, a child, Shadowheart's abuser and a hag are all allies but not Minthara???). Halsin's personal quest (well it's impossible without his present) is crucial for act 2, Minthara has no personal quest.

Halsin has different lines when you're dating. Minthara doesn't. Halsin can be kissed, other characters react to you kissing him and he was the first to get an updated kissing animation. Minthara can't be kissed. Halsin's sex scene is unskippable in act 3, Minthara can be romanced without massacre but her sex scene requires you to murder the tielfings (and happens before you even know her truly as a person :( ). Halsin can be broken up with. Minthara can't be. You can ask Halsin about what he thinks of you. Minthara can't be asked that. And she still has several bugs plaguing her and her romance.

I also find it funny how they talk about Minthara. It almost feels like "Yes she's very likely to only be naturally recruited by murder hobos so we added the line where she asks *why* did you kill the tielfings to make you feel horrible". Yay thanks for giving evil so little content, giving one (previously) exclusive to evil companion to only later have them turn and morally judge you for evil ways.

They keep talking about choices and reactivity but is it really a choice when choosing "wrong" in the devs' vision path just makes you *lose hours of content*?

Also lol her writer said that if they were to add more to Minthara it would just be "a few more lines about Orin". Huh? Sorry, Halsin who was added because ppl were thirsting after him and who has no big plot reason to hang around with the party in act 3 (he doesn't even have a tadpole) has a more developed quest and romance content than Minthara, basically main reward for trying out evil... and you'd only add more lines about her traumatic past?.. Like cmon she's much more than was done to her by Orin :(.

She is also being inconsistent! Her approving of accepting Bhaal feels OOC, her reaction to Durge killing themselves is bland af, she is the only character to not say anything about the Slayer, she quite wierdly approves of giving up Scratch even though verbally she says several times she likes the dog... She lacks a lot and what is there has a bunch of conflict in act 3!..

What's also interesting that act 1 does show *signs* of evil run being... something rewarding.

Sided with Minthara? Oh you got the spider lyre and she explains how to get to Moonrise. Also, most explicit sex scene. Also the tielfing battle is easier. Sided with Nere? Yeah he tells you about Minthara and the shadowcursed lands. Spared Ethel? Get her hair piece.

But then you get to act 2 and it's like... Ah yeah Minthara has no personal quest, the cult still is against you (and tbh you have no reason to side with them in the first place), you're missing shitton of content and items because tieflings were extremely crucial to this whole act and Nere randomly dies offscreen and can show up as a zombie...

Ah and recent patch made it so *Nere doesn't mention Minthara at all*, and gives you *a spider lyre of his own*, so there's 0 hints to Minthara being anything valuable and recruitable snd no reason to help her.

Also the game *shames* you for not lifting the curse.

As an evil player if you killed the grove you walk in and have no idea the curse can be lifted. You're also likely to continue and make Shadowheart a Dark Justiciar. Yet when you leave act 2, Shadowheart says she's sad about not lifting the curse (hello? you worship Shar??? that's her darkness??) and your evil bastard of a character also feels very sad about not lifting it!.. Firstly I had no way to lift it, secondly why does narrator decide for me that my evil character is sorry about keeping it as is?..

There's also a Durge moment where you can reject Bhaal and think "ah now I can be evil for my own sake, without Father's control", but then everyone praises you as a hero, most dialogue choices seem like you're abruptly good and narrator goes "you're sorry you killed Isobel :(". No I'm not sorry for that, I'm sorry how the evil ending is the shortest out there!.. But evil ending is a rant of its own.

About the new "knock out" Minthara method to recruit her, I get why they put it in, but I will say, I consider it a lame cheap bandage solution. Are we seriously supposed to believe that our Tav that have been slaughtering Absolute cultists the whole camp coming in, and tasked with eliminating the goblins leaders, would just be like "ok that one lives". It's not like there's a special dialogue after you down her to 0 hp to spare her or a cinematic in which she run away. No, we just see a cultist and arbitrarily decide to knock her down because of meta knowledge. It's lame, it's cheap and it needed a serious narrative rework to be interesting for a good aligned player.

The fact is Larian put one of their companion behind a deeply unpopular choice. You either kill her, the most common option, you leave without saving or killing the grove, the boring option, you kill the refugees, the chaotic evil option. Both leaving and genocide cut ton of content afterward with little reward in return. Larian really should have included better alternatives if they wanted it to be played. They treat you being evil like you're a complete psycho, it's a very lackluster and disappointing path overal.

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian Chapter 15 rewatch thoughts

- mayfeld does hear when the droid talks to him the first time, you can see him pretending not to like he hopes he’ll just go away haha. I also guess he’s had a lot of time to think, picking apart pieces of the large fascist machine he used to be a part of and going over everything he clearly regrets 

- hahaha fennec and boba are in the back intensely keeping watch the entire time they’re on the prison planet. I suppose a good two thirds of this crew is uuuuh extremely wanted by the new republic lol

- the thing din’s voice does at the end when he says “but you still know your imperial clearances and protocols. don’t you.” is beyond fucking words, it sends a chill right through me

- 

1) din fiddling with that panel; I think he’s phenomenally nervous behind the helmet here, that’s the sort of keeping his hands busy he does when he’s anxious and 2) why the hell does boba have this many chairs instead of like space for cargo haha does he throw bounty hunter parties in here or what

- ngl boba correctly guessing at a glance what sort of ore they’re mining and informing everyone in his sardonic deadpan voice is Big Sexy  

I love how he and fennec are standing together when they’re both present in these opening scenes too, first at the very back when they’re keeping a lookout: 

and then in the foreground while they discuss the scan 

it’s a nice subtle way to get across that they already have a dynamic, they’re somewhat used to working together as a unit at this point. (she’s also looking over at him when she asks what they might be mining in there, like she’s mostly asking his opinion instead of opening it to the floor. they’re talking the mission out between them before din enters the conversation)

- the inside of slave 1 when the ship’s moving makes me a little bit motion sick, I really love seeing it but I hope we don’t stay in here too often haha

- aaaw the small weary sigh din gives upon realizing none of his bros can go with mayfeld. I’m sorry about basically your entire life buddy

-

the awkward way din adjusts the helmet like he’s trying to get used to the way it feels ;______;  

- ah the distinct implication that mayfeld is needling din about this because he’s actually feeling super uncomfortable being back in empire gear and he needs to transfer that discomfort over onto someone else so he won’t have to feel through it... very psychologically understandable and such a fucking piece of shit asshole character trait to give in to haha

- din’s level of side eye is so epic you can see it straight through the helmet fhaskjfhd

- neat detail: din’s head turns slightly toward mayfeld when he calls mandalorians a ‘race’. (it’s sort of cool  that we as the audience know why that bothers him, but mayfeld probably didn’t even pick up on it). also shows that mayfeld doesn’t actually quite understand what he’s talking about, even when he makes decent points he’s caught up in his own myopic nihilistic point of view. ‘we’re all the same’ ------> ‘everyone’s secretly as shitty as me deep down’. (which also betrays a lot of self loathing, since we see later he does have the capacity to NOT be that shitty when he chooses to. rick famuyiwa manages to get a LOT of really interesting nuanced stuff into this character in two short episodes, that’s super impressive)   

the bright sunny look on mayfeld’s face when din finally gives in and takes the bait tho fsajdkfhasj he’s awful but that’s very funny

- rip all these excellent dudes who really only wanted to accomplish the noble goal of ruining the empire’s entire day and didn’t know they were also trying to blow up My Dad Who Does Not Deserve Any Of This, it’s honestly just really sad that there’s no moment to talk that out

well at least they blew up the entire refinery on their way out, I’m sure that’s the way they would have wanted their memories honored lol

- the comedy beat of din running out of ammo for the first time ever and the music briefly cutting out for it is so so good for me 

hahahaha din seems to actually take a moment to be a little aghast at that dude who ends up crushed under the treads of the tank thing, he’s just sort of staring for a few seconds too long and that’s how pirate nr 2 takes him by surprise and shatters his shoulder armour 

- I feel a bit bad -- two of the ‘pirates’ try to hold on to each other for balance and then din punches them apart and off the tank :( I mean it’s not like he could just let them murderate him either but like. ouch I’m guessing this one might haunt him for a while for several reasons huh

(the sequence is actually this guy, let’s call him pirate 3, swings the spear at din and misses, instead hitting his buddy who’s trying to get to his feet, then looks horrified and grabs for him to make sure he doesn’t fall off, and then... mando’s forehead happens to them haha)

- poor fennec and cara just running up that hill while everything’s on fire, they must be wondering what the FUCK is going on (at least cara knows that things blowing up is a sure sign din djarin is in the middle there somewhere)

- everything about carano in real life aside for one second -- I do like that we get this contrast in build between our main female characters of the episode and the way their costume designs enhance it

 - awwww the little gesture din does with his hand after he removes it from mayfeld’s chest after stopping him from leaving, it’s just so... sweet. it’s a little bit appeal, a little bit reassurance, it just lightens/softens the tone of what he says a bit (he has quite a lot of like... not conciliatory mannerisms exactly, but small touches here and there that are there to communicate that he’s not angry/aggressive or trying to be a dick about it even when he’s emphatic. I keep wondering how much that is just him being him and how much is him being practiced at settling other people’s hot tempers)  

- this shot is just... genius

it’s din seen entirely from the outside, with nothing of what we’ve learned to recognize as him for almost two seasons now in view -- not even his face, which we have at least a tenuous fledgling attachment to from before. it’s like we get introduced to him almost as if anew again and again in this episode, just like he’s getting introduced to new aspects of himself and what he’s willing to do and having to struggle to find ways to have that fit with who he is. his discomfort and stress is our discomfort and stress. it’s so interesting 

- I can’t stop cackling at this moment even in all the tension -- you only get a sliver of din’s profile but you can feel the sheer MURDER radiating off him sdhfasjk

- aaaaaaaagh the way you get a whole different view of din’s habitual impassiveness when you can actually see his face... the way he keeps appealing to mayfeld ‘just don’t make more trouble, just shut up’, the way he goes completely silent and watchful and frozen..... those are all really obvious trauma responses, and it leads you to wonder how often he touches into that even when he’s in his element, when he’s got the full armour on. hmngh my heart  

- ‘the believer’ is such a galaxy brain title for this episode, because it could be referring to either of the three men around this table or all of them at once. (and crucially the only person whose beliefs aren’t in a living, breathing state of adapting to the world around them is the empire officer, with his horrific inhuman ideology. mayfeld thinks he believes in nothing, and proves himself explosively wrong by the end of the episode, and it’s redeeming for him in some capacity. din is facing a more internal dilemma of different parts of his (and his culture’s) beliefs/values clashing and having to decide which one’s more important, to his identity and to how to exist in the world as a person (and love for the baby wins out supremely in the end. of course it does Y_____Y). the empire dude only sees the same sterile fascist world at the end of his shit rainbow that he’s clearly always done, even when faced with proof that it’s untenable. (I mean he wouldn’t give a fuck that it’s immoral because he’s y’know evil, but he’s not even fazed by the fact that the empire provably FAILED, and failed so quickly) his belief is a dead and deadening thing to contrast the others. man when this show goes off with the themes it goes OFF haha) 

- love the triumphant heroic mando music kicking in as we’re finally getting to pick off imps, love that for us 

- din’s protective instincts at work again, he helps mayfeld to his feet and makes sure he’s safely on board before going further in himself ;_______;

- fennec’s professional approval at mayfeld’s shot hahaha. well I guess he was supposed to be a sharpshooter back in the day huh

I do Not think she likes mayfeld even after all that, though, the withering look she sends him on her way past... should have killed him stone dead on the spot

- seeing din back in the armour is like a physical relief, I can breathe again haha

- tfw you catch yourself thinking ‘at least when all this is over we can go back to the razor crest and everything will be normal again’ and then you rEMEMBER 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[hawkland]

(Mostly) Destiel Fic Recs #5

This is a LONG recs post because it’s been a while since I did an update and I fell hard into reading one author’s work (DeanRH). In fact I could easily do a rec post just of their fics alone, but for this round I’m just going to pick out a handful of my absolute favorites so far, the ones I’d recommend to start out with, along with more other authors’ works I’ve especially enjoyed lately.

Absolution at the Five-and-Dime by DeanRH (125k)  - this is perhaps THEE DeanRH fic to start with if you want a good, long read with a little bit of everything (Roadtrips! Intriguing casefic! Americana! Tasty Dean/Cas pining! Wing!kink and unique angel lore! Kinky soul fisting and tentacles!) It’s kind of two of parallel stories in one: the first, a flashback to Dean and Sam's first year hunting on their own (as well as trying to avoid hunting, and John in general); the second on how Dean and Cas finally get together during an unusual case and when Dean is able to really let go of his past trauma and accept himself/accept love from Cas. 

What I love about DeanRH’s work is that they write from the unique point of view of a drifter, so they understand living on the road, traveling place to place, and the highs and lows of that life like no others I’ve encountered in SPN before. (The author’s notes are often as much fun to read as the stories themselves). They also write a kickass angel!Cas and never lose sight of his non-human traits and background. Their writing style is unique - almost poetic in nature, and I know some readers have found it difficult to get into. But it works really well for me in their SPN fic...gives it the flavor of oral story telling as might actually happen at a drifter’s camp (with one story written exactly as such). Be warned this particular fic does play up the idea of John Winchester being mentally abusive and Dean having to turn tricks when he was younger in order to support him and Sam, so there is some dark stuff. But as someone who grew up with mentally abusive parent, reading this was extremely cathartic to me and believably written (unlike some stories that go too over the top with abusive John, or just don't understand how that kind of abuse leaves lifetime psychological scars.)

The rest of this round’s recs below the cut.

Carnevale by DeanRH (18k) - Actually the first fic by this author I read, because I just couldn’t resist a story set in my favorite place in the world, Venice, Italy. Castiel is the Angel of Venice, banished there for so long he does not even know or remember the reasons why. But Carnevale season is the one time a year he can let his wings out - figuratively and literally. And during this particular Carnevale season, he meets an intriguing masked young American tourist there with his brother and their one night stand turns into something far more powerful than either expected. This one’s hot, romantic, and achingly sad at the end as it all ties together unexpectedly with canon-verse...though with a hint for the future so it’s definitely not totally sad. I loved how DeanRH clearly understands Venice as a fellow lover of the city, the side of it most tourists never see unless they spend a long time there. This story made me cry just from wanting to be back in Venice again.

Ice cream was sweeter, food more satisfying, everything was an epicurean delight. There was just something magical about Venice, and he had lived here in the city for hundreds of years, so the shine should have worn off by now.

But it didn't, and there was always something more, something wonderful to discover around the next corner. The painted eaves of a church. The beauty of two women dancing with flowers in their teeth across the Piazza San Marco one day, overcome by the sheer joy of just being there. The way the university students still created Venetian masks, like Castiel's extravagant volto mask and Dean's humble servetta muta, with crafts that had been handed down across the generations. The morning silence that lay against the stones.

Hard Landing by DeanRH (26.9k) - A bit similar in theme to Carnevale. A pre-series Dean and Sam are sight-seeing in Spain when an angel, struck by a babel-spell, crash lands right in front of Dean. A strange yet seriously hot encounter with the angel turns into something much more complicated when the brothers return home and realize something more serious is afoot and they are both trapped in the middle of it. This is another story where things are very much not as they seem at first (as fun as that is!) It features master strategist Cas at his best, with a side helping of delightful trickery care of Gabriel and Balthazar as they deal with Lucifer, Michael...and a few others along the way.

The Sacred Band of Thebes by DeanRH (14.5k) - The last DeanRH fic I’m gonna allow myself to include in this round up, because it’s just very soft and sweet and beautiful - for a story about Dean & Cas being magically transported back in time to ancient Sparta! This is another story infused with a great knowledge of place and history, with some wonderfully delightful original characters added in that make it all the more enjoyable to read.

And now on to some other authors, I promise!

IPAMIS OL OLPRIT by emmbrancsxx0 (56k). A really wonderful fic that take a different look at what might have happened with a temporarily resurrected John Winchester during Season 14. Dean & Cas are in an established relationship here, and John here isn’t too happy about it — though mostly because he sees Cas (and Jack) as monsters, the kind of monsters he spent his lifetime hunting. This is a great fic for the emotional complexity of how John, Dean and Cas are all handled. John isn’t a cardboard evil dad, Dean is struggling between his loyalty to his father and to Cas, and Cas is increasingly bitchy/frustrated at Dean still being so desperate for his father’s approval (and all the more complex for not just being a quietly suffering perfect supporting boyfriend.) There’s some great action sequences in this too along with the emotional angst and a delicious dose of hurt!Cas if that’s your thing (as it is for me :D)

Abrenuntio by Neonbat (51k). A very dark but compelling AU take on the/a apocalypse universe. Dean, Sam and John are all alive in this post-angel war-apocalyptic world. They are part of a group of human survivors fighting against the angel army when they manage to capture “Blue” — a particularly feared angel of death. Dean is tasked with bringing Blue in for interrogation and he becomes a prisoner in their camp after John is killed. As mentioned, this is a pretty dark/sad fic (with some rather gruesome torture scenes) but I still found it quite compelling as a look at how things could have gone in some other parallel universe. And somehow the author manages to make the Dean/Cas relationship come together despite them starting out as complete enemies. This is one of those AUs that works for me because the core of the characters really shine through despite the differences in the setting.

if it all fell to pieces tomorrow by spocklee (37k) - a gorgeous post-Empty rescue fic that takes an approach I haven’t really seen explored in detail before (despite being something I’ve actually thought about as something that could’ve happened.) What if Cas has spent so long denying himself happiness, and then trapped in regrets and false-rescue scenarios created by the Empty, that he can’t trust that his rescue is real? And so he runs off to be on his own - literally stealing the Impala because he can’t handle being in Dean’s presence one moment longer - and only slowly comes to terms with the idea that it’s over now and he can be happy with/around his friends and family. This one’s both deliciously angsty and at times funny/sweet, looking at Cas’s relationships not just with Dean but with Sam, Jack, Claire, even Eileen. It does some fun stuff with other returned angels and demons who now find themselves back on Earth (and human), and...I just really enjoyed this one a lot.

Both Saved and Lost by angelfishofthelord (13.7k) Gen Cas character study, absolutely gorgeous and sad and one of those fic I couldn’t stop thinking about the day after reading it. AU where Apocaverse!Cas isn’t immediately killed by our Cas during 13x22 but instead hitches a ride back to the main ‘verse. Dean and Sam want to keep him alive for information on Michael; Cas is torn and trying to figure out just how similar—or different—they really are. Some great angel stuff here (I also highly recommend this author’s Jack & Cas “dadstiel” fics, they’re equally lovely and heartbreaking at the same time.)

flesh of the mighty by Mudprophet (2.7k) - THEE “What exactly did Dean eat in Purgatory, anyway?” fic you’ve probably already heard about. *cough* I’ve been trying to work up the courage to read this one for a while and finally gave in and OH MY CHUCK I’m so glad I did. It’s perversely disturbing and beautiful at the same time, Cas is wonderfully DERANGED and ALIEN in that way that I love it when fics managed to convey just how much angels are NOT human. Do heed the tags.

Full of Grace by ilovehowyouletmefall (11k) - Another one for the weird-as-fuck-angel!Cas lovers’ list. Heaven/canon-compliant fic where Dean knows he should feel happy and at peace but he just...isn’t, even with Cas and all of his friends and family there. He finally goes looking for Cas when he’s been absent for a time and, for the first time, gets to not just see but experience his true form. Another one that hits some kinks I knew I had and others I didn’t...until now. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

don't ask me where i've been by saltwound / @1x06 (8k) - I can never resist a good 09x06 fiction gap fic! What makes this one really stand out is how well it captures Cas’s internal voice - his struggles adapting to human senses, limitations and emotions versus what/how he experienced things as an angel. The longing and feelings between Dean & Cas here are so achingly beautiful and I just wanted to cry when Cas says he misses hearing Dean’s prayers, so Dean, he...oh, I’m not going to spoil it. *happy sigh* Just read it.

this room is wrong by DarkHeartInTheSky (12k) - Sometimes I like torturing myself with some good 15x03 divorce arc angst and this fic hit that button just so. It’s an alternative take on where Cas might have ended up after leaving the bunker and features some great Cas & Sam friendship feels, when Sam sets out to try to bring Cas home. It’s all the stuff you’d wish the writers would’ve let them talk out in canon.

Well that’s more than enough for this round! Go forth, read and give some great writers some kudos & comment love!