#also yes both my parents are playing in the campaign with me

[deathbyworm]

HAD A REAL ROUGH TIME IN DND TODAY

I'm playing a Triton warlock who's currently level 3 (and has her familiar, Schnookums, who's usually a quasit) and we're quite literally in hell, fighting our way up a series of connected towers and through a series of hard hitting demons. No, we very much were Not supposed to be here at level 3 BUT OUR TORTLE BARBARIAN DECIDED ITD BE FUNNY TO USE HIS BLOOD IN A RITUAL TO OPEN THE PORTAL-

I've been surviving pretty well up to this point, hex + poison spray-ing the big boss while the rogue and that lot take out the minions. Miraculously none of us have died, though the Tabaxi seems to be trying his best. Okay that's all the context needed rn

SO WE ENTER THIS DOOR into a?? demon citadel thing basically??? and we're now fighting a big boss demon, a giant gargoyle, and 5 other demons spread across the room. I (THANK FUCK) used fiendish vigor before entering the room, and armour of agathys once combat started so I'm sitting pretty on +10 temp hit points and 5 frost damage to anyone that attacks me.

Me and Schnookums are taking down the big boss (paladin and barbarian assisting when not frightened) and we're holding our ground fairly well, I'm sitting at 13 hp but I've been set on fire and am hoping it gets put out before my turn, when the big boss demon lands a nat 20 to hit. (he could have hit with a much lower roll, and had, but the nat 20 was just extra salt in the wound for what was to follow)

He deals 33 damage. I am at NEGATIVE TWENTY HIT POINTS

my max is 30 so I'm not insta dead, but if I don't get myself extinguished now then that's a automatical point towards death when my turn comes around. Luckily Schnookums, in his bat form, rolls a 17 and extinguishes my flames (after a whole debate on whether or not he'd be able to) so I'm feeling SLIGHTLY better about this, though still bleeding out.

My turns comes around. I roll my first saving throw.

Natural 1

IF SCHNOOKUMS HAD FAILED. IF I HAD BEEN EVEN SLIGHTLY WORSE AT DEFENDING HIS FIRE EXTINGUISHING ABILITIES. I WOULD BE DEAD THEN AND THERE. I AM THANKING GODS I DONT BELIEVE IN AT THIS POINT, BECAUSE I AM SO VERY IN LOVE WITH THIS CHARACTER

I'm at the end of initiative, so it returns to top of the round. Our druid tries to stabilise me. she fails. I remind my party members that the rogue and fighter both know I have a healing potion in my bag, of which the fighter quickly informs the rest of the group. The wizard, PLAYED BY MY REAL LIFE FATHER, comes over and takes the healing potion out of my bag-

and uses it on the paladin. who has rolled NOT A SINGLE FAILED DEATH SAVING THROW

anyway, it is enough that on his turn he manages to gain consciousness.

good for him.

finally the fighter makes her way over and stabilises me. Yay to no more bleeding out!!

However, the battle is still going on around me and if I get attacked again (for example, the minion from earlier blasts fire at me. AGAIN) I'm back to saving throws AND I'm still on -20 so I'm a while away from being conscious. Schnookums, unable to help me directly, starts biting and clawing at the demons closest to me. He is kicking ass. I am not

THE PALADIN, NEWLY REVIVED, HEALS ME FOR... 15... points...

that's the highest he can heal rn and I'm STILL unconscious

STILL surrounded by demons

STILL having a VERY BAD, NOT FUN TIME

I have never once had my character die in DND. This warlock is my favourite character I've played, I do NOT want her to be the first oh my GOD

and the session ended there. MID BATTLE because we ran out of time. So now I've got TWO WEEKS of anticipation, praying to nonexistent gods that I will survive.

Fun :')

[eddiemylove666]

The Secret Life of Eddie Munson

Eddie Munson X Fem Reader

Summary:  Eddie has the freshmen over for DnD and they get a look into a side of his life they didn’t know

no real warnings.  Just some fluff.  Daddy Eddie.  Dustin being a sweetheart and Mike being a little shit as usual

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay and play Steve?” Lucas asks as the boys get out of his car

“No thanks I’m good.  So, stop asking and everybody out I’ve got to go pick up robin.”

“You literally spend every day with her at work” Dustin tells him

“Yeah, well not my fault you guys decided to abandon me on my one day off this week” Steve tells them starting the car back up “if you need a ride home later just” he shakes the walkie talking at them and driving off

“What’s his deal?” Lucas asks

“I think he’s jealous we have another older friend who has similar interest with us.  I have tried multiple times to get him to play offered to teach him.  He just says oh and have to spend time with the freak no way” Dustin over exaggerate mocks Steve as he knocks on the door.

“Welcome boys” Eddie answers the door with a flourish letting the boys in and tossing a pink blanket onto the chair as he walks by leading the boys over to the kitchen table.  

“Got us all set up over here” he tells them taking a seat behind his campaign notes as Y/N walks from the hall into the kitchen

“Eddie! I just picked up eleven cups from our bedroom” she tells him walking over to the sink.

“Oh, sorry babe” he tells her with a smile

“you boys want something to drink?” she asks

They are too stunned to do anything but nod their heads. Mike snaps out of it first “Wait!  You said no girlfriends today!”  he says pointing at Y/N

“First off don’t point man that’s rude.  Second, it’s my campaign, my rules, and my house.  Plus, she not my girlfriend she’s my wife and she lives here” Eddie tells them with a beaming smile

“Wait wait wait…. your wife?!”  Dustin asks as the boy sit down at the kitchen table.  

“Yes, my wife Y/N” Eddie says waving a hand in her direction as she walks from the kitchen handing the boys cans of soda.  

“A girlfriend maybe. But a wife?  Were in high school dude.” Lucas tells him voice getting louder waving a hand around

“Yeah, but I’m also almost 21” Eddie responds laughing and leaning his head over and plating a kiss on her cheek when she leans down and wrap her arms around him.

“I guess you don’t talk about me much huh?” she asks him with a smile

“All the time! Who did you guys think I was talking about when I’d say my girl?”

“Your guitar?” Dustin shrugs

“Seriously?  My guitar?”

“You don’t even wear a wedding ring” Lucas argues as Y/N sticks her hand out showing the matching skull ring on her finger.

“These looked much cooler than a boring band” Eddie shrugs kissing her hand

“If they thought you were talking about your guitar when talking about me what do they think you’re talking about when you mention our daughter?” Y/N ask walking towards the hallway

“Daughter?!” Mike chokes on his drink

“You have a baby?!” Lucas shrieks

“what’s her name?” Dustin asks at the same time

“B/N and well she’s two but yeah”

“Two…so she was born your first senior year?” Dustin asks

“The summer before it started actually.  Kind of why I’m still repeating it.  Y/N had much better grades and potential so I kind of slacked off and doubled down on taking care of B/N so Y/N could stay on track with graduating and career and all that.  “

“When did you get married?” Lucas asks

“The day she turned 18, we skipped school that day made it official at the courthouse and packed her and the little princess up while her parents were at work and moved them in with my uncle and me.  Then we worked our asses off that summer to afford this place so we could have a proper little family life.”

“that’s sweet” Dustin smiles

“Definitely worth it I love them both very much” at that the pitter of little feet could be heard running down the hall and a flurry of pink flying into eddies lap smiling up at him.  Untamed hair pulled up into two buns on top her head a few wild curls hanging loose from her nap.  Turning her attention to the unfamiliar boys sitting at the table, thumb in her mouth and an exact replica of their dungeon masters’ eyes flicking back and forth over the three boys.  

“Sweetheart these are daddy’s friends, Lucas, mike and Dustin.  A smile creeping around her thumb when Dustin smiles at her waving “hi’. she lifts her hand giving him a shy little wave back.  Eddie spins her around in his lap facing the table.  She grabs the dice throwing them against the table laughing as one rolls off and Dustin makes a big show of finding it for her.  Eddie pulls out the ribbons in her hair

“let’s get your hair all pretty for your day out with mommy” he tells her combing his fingers through her curls working out the tangles

“What?” Eddie asks at mikes weird look

“Nothing just its seeing you like this is completely different.  I mean you’re doing her hair” he responds

“it’s not like I don’t have the exact same hair” Eddie laughs pulling her hair back up into neat little buns

“She is just a tiny version of you” Lucas laughs rolling one of the dice back to her.

“Not just in appearance, always over dramatic, and loves having an audience for her theatrics” Y/N laughs walking into the kitchen. Proving the point further both turn their head in her direction with twin smiles as she walks over leaning over eddies shoulder and placing a kiss on top of B/Ns head and one against eddies cheek.  Eddie walks over to the door getting B/Ns jacket and getting it on her then passing her off to Y/N before sending them both off with a kiss and an I love you.  Sitting back down in his chair Eddie tells the boys

“Ok I may be a father first but I’m still your dungeon master so let’s get started”

“Kind of hard to take you serious now after the sickening sweet display” mike says with a frown

“Can it Wheeler” Eddie tells him bouncing a d ice off his forehead pulling laughs from Dustin and Lucas.

Tag List!

@whoahoney @hellfire-puppet @waitlalice @munsonmolls @yokaimoon @leahjean @and-claudia @starloststar @yearwalker96 @octomotts

[lvpislvzuli]

No spoilers review for KotPotA

I saw Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes last night and it was WONDERFUL!

Opening scene made me cry 😭 APES TOGETHER STRONG!!!

Noa is the sweetest ape with great potential to become a leader like Caesar. His journey was exciting and emotional. He really leveled up in the third act showdown. Owen Teague is perfect casting—incredible performance, great physicality and voice. I saw and felt his every emotion. He was surprisingly funny too, especially in his scenes with Raka and Mae. Loved his subtle attitude. LOVED that he had beef with a bird.

Anaya and Soona are good friends for Noa and I appreciated some focus on a female ape who actually speaks. Anaya is loveable comedic relief and Soona is a badass. Also, her character design is so pretty.

Koro and Dar were kind and loving parents. It’s unusual for main characters to even have parents in these epic stories, so I appreciated their inclusion, as short as their scenes were. Wished we learned more about Koro. The Master of Birds was an intriguing character.

Raka was such a nice surprise. Good in the trailers but an Instant Icon in the film. Very loveable. Another great mentor character. Up there with Yoda in my opinion—just as funny too. Soooo funny. Peter Macon owned this role.

Proximus Caesar was deliciously maniacal. Stellar acting from Kevin Durand. Chilling voice work. Great character design and movement. Proximus is a natural performer—he knows how to play for a crowd. I was just as hyped as his followers. Semi-spoiler: The way he responded to the gun was hilarious.

Mae has so many secrets. I heard some of them were spoiled in the ad campaign but luckily I went in blind. She and Noa are perfect co-leads and do a great job portraying another tense ape/human relationship. Very nuanced performances in their shared scenes. You want them to trust each other.

But can they trust each other moving forward?Hopefully. Mae made some controversial decisions that affected both humans and apes, but I feel that Freya Allan was able to walk that fine line. I loved her final scene with Noa and the gift he gave her.

Overall, this is Wes Ball’s best film so far. Great directing. He really knows how to shoot an action scene. The choreography was 🔥. I never got tired of watching the apes climbing around.

The world building was thorough and I loved the visual aesthetics of the film. They felt very 1968 Planet of the Apes.

As expected, the visual effects were out of this world. Seriously, how does Weta do it? The apes look more real than real apes.

Great score by John Paesano. Nods to Michael Giacchino and Jerry Goldsmith. Also adored the inclusion of apes singing.

The ending sets up some interesting ideas for a next installment—which I really want to see. I liked the parallel of Noa and Mae both looking up at the sky. It made them feel connected despite their physical and (somewhat) emotional distance, and it solidified their status as our two lead characters.

So yes, I loved this movie. 10/10.

Let me know what you thought!

[stone-stars]

welllll since you're offering to talk about naddpod music, would you mind talking a little about the uses and stuff of Meemaw's Burden? :3 nbd if not, but if it sparks your fancy, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

oh god mee maw's burden. anon. my dear friend. you have no idea how insane uses of this song make me.

okay. so lemme start by saying that mee maw's is only used in bahumia (c1/c3). i think about this choice fucking constantly. you'll discover why shortly.

i'm not going to list out every mee maw's burden use. i could. but i'm not going to. instead, i'm going to point at the fact that the song is called mee maw's burden. we first hear it when mee maw reveals that she's got crick rot to moonshine, and that she's been hiding it from everyone.

and like. jolene is a druid who will live for hundreds and hundreds of years. and lose so many people. she's the matriarch of the crick. she's carrying this so that others don't have to be burdened by it.

and... that's kind of what mee maw's burden is used for. the burden of the living. the burden of the parent. the ones who take things on so that others don't have to. it's... bev sr selling his soul to hell. beverly seeing erlin dead. telaine learning about melora, and breaking down at the end of the fight. "how long do half elves live". calder asking ultrus to make a deal with him.

it's-- mee maw's burden is... living. living when others don't. accepting heavy loads so that others can live on. knowing that you might not, and knowing that you're okay with that. being strong in the face of it, because you have to.

oh! that note i made. about why it not being used in c2 is insane to me. it's because in c2, there's the cycle. of rebirth and reincarnation. the relationship to death and lifespans is different. so... of course it's not used in c2. and of course it is used throughout c1/c3.

also! a fun thing i like to point out is that if you listen to mee maw's burden, and then listen to the song that plays as the boobs talk to melora at the heart of the world in 97 (9:44 in the ad free version), you will notice that the start of the melora song is a variant on mee maw's. enjoy that knowledge. yes, this is the "what an honor, what an injustice" song.

(and, because i'm insane. i did do that thing i said i wasn't gonna do)

campaign 1 uses: (25) mee maw reveals her crick rot (38) joris explains he helped akarot for the sake of the dwarphanage because no one cares about dwarphans (39) jaina and hardwon talk about how they failed gemma (51) the chosen kill everyone at the crick in a flashback (58) bev sr. admits to selling his soul (70) bev finds the field guide on how to defeat his dad (73) bev goes down at akarot's hand (80) bev's flashback to the execution in hell (87) erlin almost has to choose between healing bev and saving red (88) bev sees erlin dead and revivifies him (89) bev and erlin talk about pelor's death (90) bev and egwene talk about erlin being taken (92) moonshine sees pendergreens and paw paw after dying (96) both moonshine telling telaine about melora and telaine breaking down at the end of the fight (98) both pestilence killing balnor and bev defeating qwiksus (99) both telling lucanus about erdan and, of course, "how long do half-elves live"

campaign 3 uses: (7) callie tells the others about her past with stealing the egg and giving it to glen (11) beatrix tells duck team that she's the last of the ruby scale and her dragon has been killed (27) callie goes down in the king durretar fight / king durretar gets his breath weapon back / big bev also goes down / generally shit being real bad in that fight (29) do i need. do i need to tell you when in crown of dreams this is used? (it's calder making a deal with ultrus. it was never not going to be that.) (32) callie disobeys the worm and takes a bunch of damage in order to save hardwon (54) gowan learns about gregor, and tells calder that he can't help because he left and isn't a ranger. "please. we've already lost enough. do not put yourself in a position where i lose another brother."

[skrunklydoo]

me and @lonleyzodiac have been working on a MASSIVE revamp of the dungeons & elements AU to flesh out the characters (or players as they are in this AU) so here are some misc fun facts and headcanons about the players!!

- jay is irish, but ed n edna are welsh. he’s lived in canada with them all his life and was brought up as welsh, however halfway through the master of the mountain campaign (when he (as a player) was around 15) ed n edna told him that 1. he’s adopted and 2. he’s irish

- he told the others about it a bit before a session started and everyone was shocked to say the least

- jay almost exclusively speaks welsh at home, except when his parents talk to customers or when he has people over. his accent is a mix of canadian and welsh, however whenever he gets mad or stressed his (northern) welsh accent (i’d like to imagine that ed n edna in this AU are from anglesey? that’s just for reference) gets noticeably thicker/stronger

- after he’s told that he’s irish, jay starts learning irish gaelic!!

- skylor, nya and pixal (i might call pix’s player something like penelope tbh) are a polycule but all thought it would be funny to just not give their characters that

- nya in particular thought it would be really funny to have her character date jay

- jay and zane are a couple and were in on nya, skylor and pix’s idea for the campaign because they also found it ridiculously funny

- when jay introduced his character at the very start of the campaign, wu (the teacher DM, it started off as a school D&D club) pointed out “jay isn’t this just your life” and he responded with “yes” and did not say anything afterwards

- dragons rising is DM’d by lloyd in a random library

- geo is that one player who does not show up for half the sessions, it’s a 50/50 chance on if he’ll show up or if he’ll be banished to The Void™ (he just goes to guitar lessons)

- eventually he starts showing up for every session and for the first few sessions in a row that he showed up to everyone was like “JESUS CHRIST YOU’RE ACTUALLY ALIVE????”

- cole mentioned to him “oh yeah i’m part of a D&D group!!” once and geo immediately asked him “can i join??”. strangely enough they were the only couple to have their characters also be a couple until wyldfyre dragged her bf into the club to play

- vania is a massive theatre kid, she specifically is a massive starkid fan

- starfarer is an underground and obscure comic series that lloyd and jay are both obsessed with. needless to say they are both shocked when it turns out that jay’s dad is cliff gordon

- riyu is based off of lloyd’s pet cat of the same name!!

- inbetween the crystalised campaign and the new overarching campaign (dragons rising), jay and zane cohabitate together (move in together without being married (just yet)) and adopt a cat called jiro n lloyd ends up basing one of the dragons off of him

- the entire skybound campaign was an omen to the future. jay just thought it would be a funny haha twist if it turned out that his character was adopted. until MOTM

- edna often calls jay ‘blodyn’, which is welsh for ‘flower’ and a term of endearment

- geo is a kandi kid and has made him and cole matching singles (and has made cole a few cuffs)

- geo often calls cole things like dragi (romanian for 'dear') and dragul mea (romanian for 'my love/my dear') as in this AU he is romanian-canadian (and bilingual, he speaks both romanian and english fluently, same goes for zane (for french) jay (for welsh (and some irish)) and vania (for italian))

(obviously also they all speak SOME french but zane’s player is french canadian)

- jay is a wiccan

- jay and zane halfway through the s2 (p1) campaign for dragons rising got married (they specifically decided to get handfasted because see prev. fact about jay)

- jay has a massive collection of incense. whenever people walk into him n zane’s house they’re immediately hit with the smell of dragon’s blood or something and they both constantly forget how just jarring it is for others (also fun fact: when writing this specific fun fact i was actually burning dragon’s blood incense)

[unicorncornflakes]

Political Rivals - Modern AU! | Chapter 3

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter (Coming soon)

Paring: Reader x Aemond Targaryen.

Summary: You always spend your afternoons playing and talking with your friend Aemond on Discord. Now that you father, Eldric Dayne, has to move to king´s Landing, you have the chance to meet Aemond. However, this is only the benning of a rivality between the two of you.

Tags: Alternate Universe/ Friends to Enemies to Lovers/ Emotional Hurt/Comfort Drama & Romance/ Eventual Smut.

Warnings: None, for now :D

Tag-List (If you wanna be tagged in thi series or all of my work, let me know): @thedamewithabook @bluevxnus @glame @tempt-ress @julczimozart

Author´s note: Pls, enjoy! Feedback, shares and comments are always welcome!

Word Count: 4.2K

Aemond took another sip of his beer, keeping an eye on the game. Landing Dragons vs. Sunspear's Sand Serpents. The truth is that that confrontation reminded him of you, but it was better to be there in that bar sitting with his friends from the Fencing Club than at home wracking his brain. The dragons scored another goal and both Jace and he celebrated. Jace clenched his fist victoriously and Aemond smiled slightly, the corner of his lip turning up sheepishly. Cregan was also attending to the game while Alyn was texting someone constantly. It was probably another fling, but it wasn't something he wanted to talk about with them. If not, his verbiage would not have stopped since they had met in that bar.

“It's a pretty close game,” Cregan commented, keeping an eye on the television, and Jace gave him a knowing look. The dragons could not lose. It was impossible... Aemond's phone vibrated and the one-eyed man took his gaze for a moment to the notification that had popped up on his screen. You had connected to Discord. Aemond turned off the screen and continued to watch the game, though this time with less concentration. He should take the custom notifications thing off with you. After all... he hadn't written to you since he found out whose daughter you were...

There had only been a tense silence between the two of you when you had told each other whose children you were. You had told Aemond that he could go, that it was not necessary for him to accompany you until Rodrick arrived, that you needed to think... that you were a strong and independent woman... but, Aemond hadn't told you nothing. He had just lit a cigarette and taken a couple of long drags on it, almost as if he had to weigh what had happened between you. Did you like each other? Absolutely yes. You liked how chivalrous Aemond was and how attractive he was. He was smart, sarcastic, sexy… It was obvious. He liked how smart you were…he was turned on that you were progressive. He liked that feeling that partly came from him of being able to dominate a girl like you in his bed... But, you both seemed to have realized at that very moment that it was impossible. He couldn't bring Eldric Dayne's daughter home and introduce her as his girlfriend. Aegon would laugh at him and his mother's heart would stop even then. His grandfather Otto would tell him that it would be disastrous publicity for his father's campaign. The first thing was the campaign, and then the feelings... you didn't see him taking him to the beach with your friends from Sunspear either, much less introducing him to your parents... you had never introduced them to any of your boyfriends and you imagined Aemond even bringing him a bottle of wine to your father, because he would have to look like a gentleman, surely he would even ask his permission to ask you out... and you would die of shame... You were very different. End of story. You had looked back to say goodbye, but Aemond was already gone, when you entered in the car.

You hadn't written it either. You guys liked each other, dammit. But, it was not possible. He thought about it again as he continued to watch television. But, his attention was no longer there. He was with you. He was wondering if it wouldn't be chivalrous to write to you to at least know how you were after the move, if your cat had already come out from under your bed... or if you wanted to see him again... he shook his head. Really. No. It wasn't possible. With any luck, he might never see you again. Aegon had laughed at him when he came back looking rueful from your date, and he'd been the laughingstock of his brothers all week, as if he didn't always come back looking disappointed after every date he had, and this time he didn't. It had not been for the girl, if not for the girl's bloody father.

At that moment, the Sand Snakes scored another goal, breaking through the Dragons' defense. And Aemond heard a guy celebrate behind them. He turned to face the one he had yelled at. Then his pupil dilated, and not because the snakes were now won, or because he ran into someone from a Dorne team so far from home… but because you were just a couple of tables behind him, staring at your phone while that a guy sitting next to you was celebrating the possible victory of the snakes. Aemond told himself that he must be your brother, that you couldn't have changed him so quickly for someone else… he kept thinking of you. He nearly choked on his own saliva and Cregan looked at him with a questioning raised eyebrow, what the hell was happening to him now?

“Yeah, come on, damn it. What a win, (Y/N)! What we win!" he repeated to you your brother, shaking you affectionately, as if you cared about the result of that match. You didn't even take your eyes off the phone. You were still debating whether or not to write to Aemond. It was true that you had told him that you needed time to think, but after talking with him for so long, you were missing him in that week filled with pure silence from both of us. Rodrick was the one who had picked you up from that date so perfect but which had ended so badly, and he was the same one who had decided not to ask you when he saw your disconcerted face. He had decided that if you had something to tell, you would tell him. He was just going to be there, as your unconditional support. So he had taken you to the movies several times in the last week, you had gone out to dinner just the two of you… and that day he had dragged you to that sports bar to watch the semifinals of the League. You missed Sunspear. There things were simpler. Neither you nor Rodrick were made for King's Landing. "We will win!!!" he yelled again hitting the table.

"If it weren't for how cheaters the Snakes are..." you laughed, knowing that with that you would sting your brother. However, you did not take your eyes off the screen. You kept thinking you should ask Aemond something, anything. The emotional attachment you felt for him was not normal.

“Cheaters?” Opportunists, dear little sister, opportunists” he stressed to you, sitting back down at the table after having almost jumped out of his seat when he saw them score that goal. Rodrick was still paying attention to the game, although he hadn't noticed how most of the young people who were there were looking at him inquisitively. It was rare to see a Dornish so far from home, or at least one so happily declaring his origin in a bar that was typical of dragon fans. But your older brother could care less. He'd gotten you into the first decent bar he'd ever seen and ordered two beers, even though yours was barely touched. Rodrick looked at you and crossed his arms. “Do you want to put the phone down? We are going to live a historic moment” he told you in a bad way and you smiled but kept looking at the chat you had with Aemond. You were just going to say hello when your brother took your phone from you.

"Hey! That I was just going to write to someone important” you told him trying to pick up the phone again, but Rodrick put it in his pocket with a funny face.

"If it was your conservative boyfriend, you can skip it" he said amused and sticking out his tongue at you. And you twisted your face. You did tell Rodrick that the boy you were meeting with had turned out to be quite the opposite of what you thought. And so opposite. He was the son of the current president, but you had saved that part. You would go from Rodrick laughing to him breaking down. "Forget him! Do you want me to write to Martell telling him that you break up with the guy you left him for?" he laughed even more when he saw your face of disbelief. "He liked you enough to know that he would crawl if you told him to come back."

“Would you like to give me back my phone and pay attention to the historical event?” you told him putting the palm of your hand in front of his face and he just laughed, drinking his beer again and looking back at the television. You weren't mad at him. You could never be. At that moment, for the first time since you had walked into that bar, you looked up and then your heart stopped. Aemond was just sitting a couple of tables ahead of you, with a group of guys. He was looking at you and you looked at him the same way. You smiled at him and he looked back, blushing. He was there. He was there. Your heart seemed like it was going to come out of your mouth and you felt happy in a simple moment to later remember that it couldn't be. You were very different.

"She's very pretty," Cregan said, looking at him sideways with a mischievous smile. His hands grabbing the bottle on the table. "Besides, she keeps looking at you... maybe she's even interested" Alyn seemed to realize that the conversation was about women and he looked up from the phone.

"Too Dornish for One Eye's liking," replied the boy, typing compulsively on his phone again. “Besides, the one with her looks like an asshole. I didn't get very close, lest he would end up breaking your nose for looking at her"

“He's a Dornishman too. It seems. It has to be her brother… plus the Dornishmen like it when you look at their women,” Jace commented. "Daemon told me that he once fucked a Dornish woman in front of her husband. They were into that stuff," he whispered and Alyn laughed.

“I love your stepdad's sex life. It is noteworthy at any time. It is just what I aspire to in this life” he said laughing, and everyone looked at him. He could joke, but everyone knew that it could even be true. However, Cregan did not want to miss the opportunity.

"Since you did so badly on that date, could you come over and…" he tried to explain to Aemond, who now had an annoyed scowl on his face.

"That's not the type to get knocked up six times," Alyn teased, and Jace followed in on his laughter. They were both laughing until Aemond banged on the table, stopping all the laughter from his friends. He sat down again seriously and didn't even want to think about what you must think was happening to him if you were looking at him. Gregan looked at you and could only see your look of concern. All the friends looked at each other and Aemond just took another sip from his bottle in silence.

“Hey Strong, how about we go order another beer?” Alyn said, getting up from the table, keeping an eye on Aemond. Jace followed as if he'd had the idea of the century and neither of them had finished their bottles.

Aemond seemed more relaxed and Cregan looked at you again. You were now blushing while the boy who accompanied you continued to enjoy the game. But, you hadn't stopped looking at Aemond, who was now trying to ignore you. Cregan sighed as he too looked straight ahead. He sighed in defeat, as if everything that should be normal for people his age was impossible for Aemond.

"That's the girl I met the other day," Aemond muttered, but Cregan heard him and nearly choked as he took a sip from his bottle. He looked at you again in disbelief. Now you were talking to the boy who accompanied you who put his arm around your shoulders while he continued to encourage the snakes. You laughed and Cregan thought you were pretty. "She's not my type," Aemond lied, and Cregan looked back at his friend.

“Of course” replied the northerner, pursing his lips and nodding ironically “How did you screw up this time, One Eye? Did you ask her if she wanted to wait until marriage or did you just recite some verse about relationship from the book of seven?" Cregan looked at him as if all of this could truly have been done by Aemond on a first date, as if it was terribly obvious that he had screwed up. Aemond swallowed as if he were going to confess.

"She… She is Eldric Dayne's daughter," he whispered. He didn't want anyone else to know. And Cregan's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of the basins, he widened them. And he looked at you again quickly as if he hadn't heard well what his friend had said. "And the bullshit you say doesn't cross my mind to say it to someone I like" he took another sip without stopping watching television. On top of the snakes were cattling.

"I think I misunderstood whose daughter she is" Cregan said, not believing his friend's words, wishing he had heard wrong.

"Yeah, that's what I thought when she told me," Aemond replied, remembering how ridiculous he had felt after introducing himself to you as the son of Viserys. 'Current and future president of Westeros'. What the hell was he thinking? He was an asshole. That was all he could think of.

"He's definitely not your type," Cregan confirmed. “It had to be a terrible date. Did she yell at you about women's sexual freedom?" he tried to imagine his friend dating her. A boy as conservative as Aemond with a girl like that was like mixing oil with water, and you were both going to fight constantly to see who would stay on top.

"Really, it was a perfect date," he said, pursing his lips. "She's quite intelligent and pretty..." But, she just couldn't be. He would rather Aegon laugh at him because he was going to die alone than endure the taunts he was going to receive for being with such a... so... perfect girl. You were perfect. Why did you have to be the daughter of the candidate of the progressives? He would have even earned him that you were the daughter of one of the advisors. But it is that you were the daughter of the candidate for president and the head of the press office of his candidacy. Cregan looked at you again and watched in disbelief as you walked over to talk to them. That was what made you different from a girl they were used to. You took initiatives. You weren't ashamed…and you didn't expect to be courted…at least that was how someone as conservative as Cregan saw it. The northerner saw how your companion shrugged at the fact that you left his table and approached them, but he knew that he was not losing sight of you either.

"Hello" you said with a nice Dornish accent and quite shy. Cregan watched as Aemond's brain exploded at that moment. He had given a huge start at hearing your voice but he didn't even look at you.

"Hello" that single word left Aemond's mouth. You looked at him with a little pink blush on your cheeks, still sitting and holding his bottle as he tried to process the fact that you had approached him. So Cregan saved his ass, as he was becoming more and more used to doing when it came to women. If Aegon was the one laughing at him, Cregan was the one who had decided to protect him on such a sensitive issue.

"I'm Cregan Stark," he replied, getting up from his seat and wiping his hand on his pants. He offered it to you and you shook his hand with a smile. You had noticed that people did not greet each other there as they did in Dorne. "Do you want to sit with us?" Cregan pulled out a chair for you to sit next to Aemond in a very gentlemanly gesture. You weren't used to so much attention or so gallant.

“I'm (Y/N) Dayne,” you said with a smile as you sat down with them. Aemond looked at his bottle without saying much more, in a mix between angry, sorry and embarrassed. He liked your closeness. His hands were sweaty, but you were invading a place where he hadn't invited you. You looked at your fingernails nervously, as if you regretted coming near at the time, but you needed Aemond. He was the person you had the most relationship with in recent months and it seemed unfair to you to have to let him go because you came from such different political spectrums, and even if he had called your father an asshole... Your parents had taught you that you could be everyone's friend, although you got the feeling that they always explained it to you as if it were more an ideal than something they really believed in. Aemond drank from his bottle again, hardly looking at you and you also looked at the screen. “I think ours are going to win, the sand snakes have not reached a final for more years than the dragons. They play with another perspective” you told him with a shrug. Cregan thought you were quite pretty and sweet trying to get Aemond to cross a word with you like there was nothing going on between you. You pursed your lips uncertainly again, and Aemond finally spoke to you.

“Sand snakes are cheaters,” he said, looking at you for the first time, and Cregan was amazed to see how his stoic face gave you a charming smile, like a lovesick fool. And you smiled just as pretty. It no longer bothered him that you invaded his space, it was just hearing your voice and everything changed.

"My brother would tell you that they are opportunists" you replied with a perpetual smile, as if a love song was playing in the background and the two of you were alone. You remembered suppressing a happy laugh. Your father would die if he saw you with the son of his greatest rival. But, you couldn't help it, Aemond was everything you wanted, even though he was so different from you, and you seemed like he was what he wanted too. "Are you itchy because we're going to win, dragon?" you said tilting your head, teasing him with a smirk and Aemond laughed as Cregan had never seen him.

"With cheats, as always" he replied, taking another sip of beer. He needed courage to keep talking to you like that. As if all his anger and rage disappeared for a couple of moments for having you like this for him. "Those of you south there are always the same"

“Passionate and fiery?” you asked winking at him. Cregan thought when he saw you flirting that you two were screwed. Aemond wasn't thinking about what his parents would say if they saw him like this with you, much less his grandfather Otto of him. But, the northerner had also sought it out, inviting you to sit with them. He liked seeing Aemond like this, as if he didn't have a stick up his ass.

"Passionate and fiery" he repeated, looking away from you with an amused smirk still painted on his lips. Aemond seemed to remember whose daughter you were and raised his guard again while you continued to smile at him. At that precise moment, the match ended and you heard a roar right behind you.

"Yessss!!!! Fuck!!!! We have reached the final!!!!” You heard your brother and you turned to see how he got up from his seat and hit the table a couple of times happily. "The dragons come and suck my dick!!!" he said he was extremely happy and you scratched your forehead nervously but happily. In the end they were going to end up hitting you in that bar. You saw how Aemond looked at the screen unperturbed, because he didn't care about the game anymore.

“I'm sorry you lost” you said caressing his hand, and Cregan couldn't think that another woman could suit One Eye better. Normally, defeats made him quite angry, and yet, there he was with you, keeping up the good work, especially considering how your brother was getting after the Sunspear victory.

"I guess sometimes you lose and sometimes you win" Aemond whispered to you and you smiled beautifully at him, while the world around you didn't seem to matter. And Cregan looked at you as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. In all his life, in all his bloody life he would have believed that Aemond could say such a thing.

“Do you want a consolation prize?” you told him. Your eyes sparkled with excitement and he looked at you with his single eye as if he were a puppy seeing a prize for learning a new trick. You grabbed your bag and pulled out an eyeliner. You rolled up the sleeve of his sweater high enough that you could see his pale skin. You noticed that the veins were quite noticeable under his skin and it seemed extremely attractive, it almost seemed like it was paper "My brother took my phone, but... I could still give you my number" you told him while you wrote your number on Aemond's forearm. The one-eyed man was looking at you with his lips parted and a sweet smile on them. You looked at him happy to have seen it. He had never tickled his skin so much with taste "I think you lost my discord" you told him, precious, remembering that he had not written to you in all that week. "Besides, that's how it looks like one of those reactionary and romantic movies that you have to like" you laughed. And Aemond smiled with you. You turned back to see how your brother was elegantly invited to leave that bar for being scandalous. “I have to go before someone hits Rodrick, but it was nice seeing you” you told him and Aemond didn't even say goodbye. He just watched you leave as your older brother was kicked out of the bar and you followed behind laughing.

"Pufff, yes they are Dornishmen, yes" Cregan said, taking another drink again. "Are you going to text her?" Cregan asked, and Aemond rolled down the sleeve of his sweater. Aemond returned to his stoic face and his cold logical reason returned to him as you left. What had happened to him? Why had he acted like this with you? He had distance to mantain… distance… He didn't answer Cregan. He just started complaining unwillingly about how tricky Sunspear's Sand Snakes were.

When he got home, he lay down tired on his bed, with the light off. There were too many emotions for a single day. He began to read the news on his phone... but, his attention went all the time to the number that you had written on his forearm. The truth is that it had not been erased. He thought about whether he should add you to his contacts. He couldn't be with you, although he was quite comfortable in your presence. You calmed him down and made him laugh... he added to you, but he didn't write to you. He needed to think. He saw your profile picture. A photo of you from behind, in just bikini bottoms, and on the beach at Sunspear… He felt a pang of pleasure seeing that photo in a place he shouldn't have, and found himself with his hand almost inside his pants. What was happening to him? He put the phone down and went to the bathroom to wipe off the number you'd painted on his arm.

You were the daughter of Eldric Dayne, not just any girl... he sighed. He wanted to be with you. He started looking for a convincing excuse with which to convince himself that he had to write you a message… but, all convincing excuses disappeared when he saw that the first time he rubbed the eyeliner didn't come out of hisskin. His mother was going to kill him if she saw him with a girl's phone on her arm and he scrubbed at his skin until it turned pink. After he almost hurt his skin, Helaena had effortlessly removed it with micellar water, explaining that it must be a pretty good, waterproof eyeliner. He made Helaena promise that she wouldn't say anything and she just laughed. He hadn't been able to get those numbers off his skin like he couldn't get you out of his head either. In the end you were going to end up being a problem, but you were a delightful problem.

[darkdisrepair]

c3e36 - vox machina and the lady of whitestone

in this week's meta, we break down the appearances of FOUR (four!!!) members of vox machina in campaign 3, five if you count trinket, and what makes them all so different, and how this episode was, in a great, beautiful way, a love letter to vex'ahlia.

now, originally, i think we all probably thought that keyleth would be at the center of all of this, as she naturally has the best connection with bell's hells and orym. i anticipated her being a strong advocate for laudna because of her perspective and relationship with orym- and didn't really see her pushing the "we owe her because of the sun tree" angle as hard as other vm characters would have.

but also, it makes so much sense for matt to call keyleth away. this stops her from becoming too much of bell's hells' advocate and benefactor than she already is, as orym's leader.

not to mention the fact that whitestone is, ultimately, vex's and percy's and pike's, and playing keyleth in a space that really isn't hers and not her authority is an awkward power balance for sure. and it's hard enough playing multiple de rolos and pike in the same episode.

though i did love the beautiful nods to her, that we did get- her cloak trailing beauty everywhere she walked was such a great touch. and her rambling awkwardness while spouting all of the things she was dealing with? perfection.

that being said: 1. i think keyleth the most difficult impersonation. 2. our lady pike trickfoot is just such a light every time she appears. plus, it was nice to see her again, and see how comfortable matt was playing her.

i think pike was a necessary appearance. you need a little bit of a brighter character (in the happiness sense) to balance out just how Edgy both of the de Rolo parents can be, and without keyleth, pike is the perfect balance to them.

that being said.

at the end of all this, the most beautiful part of the storytelling in this episode was vex.

was it also amazing to see percy? yes, but, to quote my friend, "i forgot vox machina are condescending assholes," and percy is no different [lovingly].

his reactions, while completely justified given his history and the future he's built for himself and his people, was also just that.

but vex?

this was so much a love letter to her, and her journey with grief, and her journey with everything that happened in campaign 1.

laudna died for her. she died and was mutilated to look like her. and watching bell's hells grieve for this woman, and despite the danger doing everything in her power to help them? going against percy, spending thousands of gold and diamonds?

how could she not.

in the end, it was never a debate, was it? what vex's perspective would be?

if she could spend all the money in the world to get her brother back, don't you think she would? don't you think that she sees herself in bell's hells, in the grief written all over their faces?

fix him, she can remember grog shouting. and sobbing over her husband's body. and waking up cold and shivering on the floor of the raven queen's temple.

and after all that, how could she say no?

and what makes her different form percy? there's the obvious, that laudna was her representation on the sun tree. but at the core- her heart is so good.

all her money tendencies was because she worried that she couldn't care for everyone in her life. all of her standoffishness was because she couldn't bear feeling like she was losing her brother to keyleth.

and she has lost so much. she lost the person who was her world (percy has lost people, too, but there's something still so visceral about her loss that still sticks with me even now).

she is so perceptive.

how could she not see the desperation on their faces? the heavy burden on imogen's shoulders?

the feathers in her hair are black.

not teal.

and i think that was all the clues that we needed to know that vex would never let whitestone abandon laudna.

[mikesartshack]

Grabs you. Tell me about Soot ? 🥺

YES! I would gladly tell you about my son <3 Soot was one HUGE D&D character for a campaign that unfortunately never got to happen </3 As I mentioned in the post, he's a changeling! In D&D lore, changelings are often seen as shifty, untrustworthy and are unfortunatly just unliked :( due to this they often face a lot of persecution. Soot was born too two other changelings, his mother often took the form of a human, his dad a fawn. His mom would often play with his ears and hair :) They were toy makers! Soot's last name is Finch, and their toy store name was Toys in a Phinch (playing off of toys in a pinch :D) Soot first took the form of a fawn when learning to shift and that made his dad super proud. Unfortunately when soot was around 8 their family was discovered and driven out of their town. It was storming, and Soot was in the back of the carriage. They hit a vine and he was thrown out, and because it was storming and he was so small he couldn't keep up with them :( he fell and hit his head. Dun dun dun When he woke up, he was sick and he needed to find shelter. He wound up wondering into the woods. He soon made a small shelter near a creek. When he fell asleep, he met who would become his patron. This is where his story can get kinda jumbled, as I either go with what I made for the campaign vs what I changed so he could be more independent from it. In the campaign version, he winds up staying near a dark and withering part of the forest to stay in contact with 'fern' (his patron). this eventually leads him to meeting some princes, who guard these woods. They help him re-learn his humanity, and teach him lots of things! This is where he learns to love learning! Eventually he begins to lose contact with fern, the older being seeming sick and withered. He joins the local adventuring guild to hopefully he can find a cure or a solution to help! In the independent version he learns how to force his shifting abilities to work more like wild shape, learning to shift into more monster/animal like forms in order to survive. This leads to him being adopted by a bunch of owl bears! He stays with them, and learns from them. As time moves on, this leads to him meeting a druid colony and beginning his adventure learning how to become a person once more. After being forced to be an animal for so long, it hurts trying to become something he's not. Forcing his magic into being what it once was. It's funky! That's why he looks as messed up as he does, like a janked tiefling :)

Also! Side note, I'd like to clarify in both versions his parents ARE looking for him and DO miss their son. They did not willingly abandon him ;u;

[whumpbby]

Thinking back to that omega JC with alpha NMJ idea, both outcomes are interesting but I find myself more captivated by the version where NMJ lives, the guy doesn't get to live very often after all. He deserves some good things to finally happen to him. The same goes for WQ (and maybe WN). Who I just realized would have a blast taking on the challenging mystery of the Nie's saber technique. Go play God girl.

Sometimes I forget how creative omegaverse allows one to be, not just with the dynamics but with packs too. Both NMJ and JC are dynamic leaders of their inner pack (family) and general pack (sect); both of which have recently taken major casualties. Their instincts are hypersensitive right now. Something they don't fully realize until the baby can be felt kicking not just JC's belly but their parental instincts into overdrive.

God I just want to see these two be parents! JC doesn't have JL anymore because JYL and her husband are thankfully alive and NMJ is finally able to experience parenthood thanks to also being alive. I wonder what type of uncle NHS would make?

Some last thoughts, at least JC has JYL to ask questions about parenthood, WWX will get to be a proper uncle this time, and A Yuan can keep his Wen family. Truly this is a happy timeline.

Sorry for the long time it took me to answer this ask, I needed to put my thoughts in order about this AU, becuase there are A LOT of thoughts about this AU!

I love omegaverse - it allows to pull in such a variety of subjects and themes, from straight-up porn to some really good character analysis and world building:)

In the 'NMJ lives' option, the plot goes a bit different than in canon - NMJ is a rash and righteous character, but I don't believe that he's politically dumb. He's set in his ways and inflexible, sure, but he can see the bigger picture (something that JC is not able to do at the moment due to stress, inexperience and having approx. 3h of sleep a week). He knows what sort of a viper JGS is and how the Jiang being weak benefits the Jin - and how he didn’t have a horse in this race until the option of an heir by JC came up.

Now, the Jiang being strong again will benefit the Nie - a pact with a trade-oriented region? Yes, please. After the war, they all need that. No wonder JGS is so keen on destabilising the region - with his son married to the Jiang Yanli the man probably thinks he has first pick of the trade deals.

However, if NMJ has a child via the current Jiang clan leader, then the Nie get the political priority and that's tempting. The Jin don't need any more power in their hands - and it's obvious that's what JGS is aiming for and JGY is helping him achieve in front of everyone's faces.

Well, then. Huaisang isn't the only one with a mischievous streak in this family. There are not many chances to indulge in it as a Sect Leader - but pissing of other sect leaders is a long-reaching tradition in the sphere of Great Sects.  NMJ wasn't leading the charge against the Wen just so the fat cats that barely lifted a finger could reap the benefits.

And thus begins Nie Mingjue's campaign to be the biggest pain the JGS's ass he can manage to be. He's still pissed off at JGY, so he channels that into less screaming and more interrupting him whenever some speech about Yiling Laozu starts winding up. At Huaisang's prodding, he brings his oldest advisors to the conferences, the old sly foxes that served his father and has them look out for the issues that may evade him. Yao sect leader is so brave when ranting against a young omega sect leader, but somehow has little to say when an imposing alpha growls at him to shut up from across the room.

And it's fun. Most fun MNJ had since the war has started. It relaxes him a little, allows him to focus on something else than the despair of losing so much to the Wen (and trusting the wrong people). It allows him to see the bigger picture a bit more clearly - and while the Nie never paid much attention to the rest of the cultivation world, the threads he can see now aren't running in a good direction. They are staring into the face of another war - all for a pathetic handful of war prisoners and a piece of metal Jin Guangshan apparently cannot live without!

So, yes, it makes perfect sense to get himself involved at this point and help out a fellow sect leader forged in the flames of war. It would be damn shame if the Jin got to fold Yunmeng into their coffers and take the one eligible gentry omega for themselves.

And, that is not to be understated, Jiang Wanyin isn't hard on  the eyes in any measure. And talking to him proved that he isn't much as the rumours painted him - not a rash, angry shrew. Not like his mother was described. He is raw and inexperienced, yes, and very defensive - but he's also reasonable and respectful, and willing to discuss his points until pressed into arguing them. He's honourable and honest. No wonder Meng Yao is able to talk circles around him.

Having a kid with an omega like that isn't a bad idea.

Hell, maybe he even allows JC to take him to the Burial Mounds to see in person how Wei Wxian's army fares... and yeah, that's what he expected tbh. Well, the pup running around is a surprise, but otherwise yeah, he's shivering in his boots. He's not going to admit he was wrong to want them dead - never - but he can admit that they're too pathetic to be a danger to anyone at this point. Seeing the fames Ghost General weeding turnips puts things into perspective a bit. (Maybe that's how he comes across Wen Qing and she makes her case about helping with the family curse?)

[siblingshowdown]

YUNMENG TRIO PROPAGANDA!!!!!

I promise as the moderator of this competition I won’t campaign for any specific sibling sets after this but I cannot let my faves Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng lose in the first round when they were seeded pretty high.

For context, here is who I’m talking about:

Look at those babies!

The Yunmeng Trio are three siblings from the book Mo Dao Zu Shi or the TV show The Untamed.  They consist of oldest sister Jiang Yanli, middle adopted brother Wei Wuxian, and youngest brother Jiang Cheng.  Their relationship is crucial to the story, as it follows Wei Wuxian and his dynamic with both siblings (but especially Jiang Cheng) influences a lot of his decisions, which in turn influences a lot of the state of the world they live in as a whole.

Could these siblings win a physical fight against other sibling sets? YES.  Jiang Cheng is a very skill swordsman and has a magic lightning whip.  Wei Wuxian invented a new kind of magic and by and large is super overpowered (can take on hundreds of people at a time due to his ability to control ghosts/corpses/harness resentful energy).  Yanli, while not much of a physical fighter, can easily win over anyone’s heart with the power of soup.  (Seriously, in the book it lists her weapons as “love and soup”)  Everyone loves her, especially her brothers, which lowkey makes her an extremely powerful character because they’d do anything for her.

Do these siblings have sibling swag? YES.  They bicker! Especially WWX and JC.  Yanli loves to make her brothers soup and they always argue over who has the bigger portion!  They have inside jokes!  JC and WWX are always nitpicking at each other but will not allow anyone else to do so!  They’re all traumatized by their parents in different ways and therefore lean on each other and are unhealthily codependent because of it!  Whenever one of the brothers goes off by himself Yanli always asks the other one to go bring him back, and when she couldn’t do that she waded out into an active battlefield to try to find them!

Do they love each other? YES.  “We are the closest three in the world.”  Jiang Cheng sacrificing himself so Wei Wuxian doesn’t get taken hostage.  Wei Wuxian convincing his friend to perform ethically dubious and extremely dangerous surgery on him to try to get Jiang Cheng back to 100%.  The sole time Yanli loses her temper in the show, it’s because people are yelling at Wei Wuxian and not showing him respect!  She wore her wedding outfit when she and Jiang Cheng went to visit Wei Wuxian in exile because he wouldn’t be able to be at her actual wedding and she wanted him to see it!  Jiang Cheng suggested that Yanli let Wei name her son!  That scene made me cry no joke!

Are they interesting? YES.  I just described how much they love each other but the show actually begins with us seeing Jiang Cheng supposedly kill Wei before we jump back in time, so you know they have some intense emotional arcs going on!  Wei Wuxian was adopted when he and JC were around 6, and his status as an insanely talented and amazing cultivator plays really interestingly with the fact that his younger brother will be clan leader because WWX isn’t in the bloodline, and that influences JC immensely because in a way he has to deal with some of the worst parts of being a younger sibling while also having to deal with things an older sibling would otherwise have to.  Once Wei starts doing big plot things and becomes Public Enemy Number 1, JC and Yanli have to be careful with how they navigate the political world while trying to rebuild their clan and navigate an engagement that could unite their clan with a much more powerful one, but they still try to protect their brother.  Bodies start dropping.  They’re all traumatized over various events that occur before they’re even fully adults.  They make me feel so many emotions it’s not even funny.

tldr: I love them. please don’t let them lose in the first round please just give them this they’ve suffered enough.

[abeinginsand]

you're THE sparrow blog so him, but I'm also rly curious what you think of lark and normal?

Smiling at that compliment, thank you for thinking so!! Makes me very happy hehe!! :D Sparrow, my beloved <3 [was surprised by this] [<--same person drawing/talking about sparrow every other day asdksadssea ] Also thank you for the Sparrow ask as well @lex-the-lesbiann :) I'm back from work so here's the bingos! I rambled mostly about Lark and Sparrow but do mention Normal a bit more in the last two paragraphs. Sorry this took so long! Sparrow:

Lark:

Normal:

I liked how energetic and bold Sparrow and Lark were in season one (and silly haha). Took me a bit to understand what the parenting issue was (or atleast part of the issue) at first? But eventually I got the vibe of not knowing how to deal with anger part as well as that the twins may benefit from a different style of parenting in general. One that Henry struggles to do (as shown with how Darryl and Glenn do manage to connect with the twins a bit by being somewhat playful/competitive).

We are missing a lot of Mercedes point of view on stuff and I wonder if maybe she has an easier time being playful/competitive? I like to think they get some of their mischievousness from her. Both parents did work together to set up a chore based dnd campaign for their kids to play for example. Its brought up in detail in the season 1 patreon newsletter...think its very cute and proves that they are definitely trying to better engage with the twins interests.

I felt for them all as they got tossed into the adventure and the family bond was put to test. I think the reason I'm more attached to Sparrow is due to his interest in drawing, fascination with wolves (and power), and especially his struggles with having to be a mediator between his loved ones. While I do not know much about wolves, I did love cats SO much as a kid that I wanted to be one as a job. I did not understand jobs as a concept yet haha. I'm sure if I was offered some way to be a "love" cat for greater good when I was a pre-teen...I would have said yes before Henry even finished talking lol. Wild shape is such a fun spell (and shapeshifting magic in general).

About the "so mean" square, I have seen a few harsh takes about adult Sparrow. I think a part of why Sparrow gets scrutinized so much is because we get most of the scenes from Normal's view (since he's one of the main characters). And for some reason, (maybe they were both super close in between seasons growing up?)--Normal seems to focus on his father's reactions much more heavily than his mom or uncle. Even though both Rebecca and Lark have also shown to either not like the mascot interest that much ("let me teach you something more useful" -Lark ep 1) or Rebecca being concerned (like his dad) about how Normal's going about it. Both his parents are concerned about the poor hygenie especially because it could make him sick after all.

And even in the calzone conversation, Sparrow explains that a lot of his reasoning comes from worry (and his own past). He doesn't want Normal to get hurt, physically or mentally...and especially doesn't want him to be hurt in the same ways he was before. Were his words harsh? Yeah, he was also drunk and being influenced by a eldritch god too. He wouldn't have said that out loud otherwise and clearly he has never said that before otherwise Normal would not have been that shocked. Sparrow does love both his kids and he's trying really hard (in my mind at least). I think it'd be great if they could all talk again at some point. It would be a nice start to understanding each other better. :[

This isn't explicitly stated but I imagine both the twins were bullied in the various schools they went to. As a unit, they were comforted with each other and quickly felt like others weren't worth there time. They'd rule the world someday, get strong enough so others would not dare to bother them! Which leads to the fires and fights and I think the rumors probably stuck from back then too. Sure, Sparrow comes back vowing to be a lovewolf and actively tried to be nicer (while still mischievous)...but I doubt their classmates would be accepting of the change. Not instantly anyway, but Sparrow is stubborn and keeps on trying for better or for worse which...takes a big hit to his self-confidence, self-love too.

And in contrast, I think Lark stops caring all together about outsider opinions. He cares about his family and friends and anyone else can either get out of the way or put their fists up if they have an issue. He's got an apocalypse reversal to work on! I think...both are angry at the world but Lark embraces the anger--hides behind it while Sparrow feels like he must pretend his anger doesn't exist at all. Unless he is masquerading as Lark...then well suddenly its easier to express it, to not be so scared of it--because he isn't scared of Lark ya know? No matter what, they have each other's backs.

Anyways, I will get to the point haha. The oak-garcia-swallows family is precious to me and I'm often thinking about their relationships with each other or to themselves. I focus most on Sparrow yeah but I do love Lark and Normal too! Specifically for Normal, don't have much else to add but I love his little facts a lot-- marching band cover enthusiast, the mens wear, the fanfic writing etc.

I liked Taylor and Normal right away when I started s2 while both Link and Scary took me more eps to warm up too. Its fun to see them all bouncing off each other when things are silly but pretty compelling in the tough times too (in recent eps). Speaking of Taylor and Normal--they don't get along that well, but I like to write scenarios where they are close friends! They are a very silly and creative duo to me.

[brambletakato]

if you’re worried the wordcount’s gonna scare away readers, it probably won’t. i’d absolutely read a 2k post if it’s about my guy jean desmond descole sycamore. honestly i’d read a 20k post about him if i could. pinky swear

... ok so i was actually working on this a few months back.. I wrote a very long draft, then I saved it and came back to it, cringed myself out and just. never posted it,,, but after a few months since I figured that its just because I went too deep into it right off the bat instead of giving a ""small"" summary so here we go ATTEMPT 2!!!!

(also if you're an oomf, you're a part of the campaign and you know what orange spoilers mean then do NOT read further pretty please bats my eyelashes at you) AND PROFESSOR LAYTON SPOILERS

So when I talk about campaign Des, I'm referring to a version of Descole that I've roleplayed for almost 5 years now (which is INSANE to me . has it been that long??? whar??? since when??? it's still 2019 is it not????)

The campaign hook is that it's essentially a mass isekai/amnesia plot; Your blorbo from some fandom gets sent into this world patchworked from other universes and whatnot, and they have to figure out their past whilst also finding out how to get back home. Super cheesy stuff on paper ngl, if you read it on some tv series' synopsis you'd probably skip

But its stupid fun to be a bit silly and have Jean Descole from the professor layton series interact with The Mario from the paper mario series and its a guilty pleasure :]

So as for a summary as to what happened over the 5 years (and then I can clarify on any points if anybody is curious (cricket noises));

To clarify who Descole is in this campaign, he only remembers bits of his life in regards to the canon/campaign rp. He remembers having a wife and daughter, but he doesn't remember that they're dead. He remembers his parents getting kidnapped and having to give away his brother, but he doesn't remember what happened to him after that. He remembers bits of his crimes as Descole, but never why other than for either the Azran or Targent. He's right in hindsight, but it's not he's expecting in the present time. He doesn't remember Raymond at all :( poor guy

He also accidentally adopted a young Trucy Wright (like... around 7-8 years old?) because her father is nowhere to be found and his group is actually nuts with close to no responsible adults. ... Actually why don't I talk about them for a sec;

He ended up in a party of like... 9-10 people and yes that is just as insane as it sounds. Some characters would join or leave the party but it has consistently been 7 characters attending excluding Descole. and yes they're all played by different people except mario who's played by the host, so thats like. 8 players at the table at one time

Anyway so this party is pretty much the source of most of his trauma in the campaign funnily enough. One of them blackmails him about his past and then tries to turn the rest of the group against him (meanwhile he dont know SHIT !!! given the amnesia situation), Descole gets defensive and accidentally fans the flames which ends up in the greatest betrayal for him;

When that person shot him in front of the entire group, both friends and foes alike, and they all turned their heads away from him as he bled onto the snow.

I'd love to get further into the party's hijinks(?), how the party came to be, and ultimately where they are now but that's the bare minimum you need to know (and I'd love to answer anything about them!)

Anyway, it's still unknown to this day how this one thing happened, but it's heavily implied to be because of psychological stress mixing with a third secret ingredient; Sometime during all of this, Descole kept finding himself in a room in his sleep-- And often his sleep was plagued by unspeakable nightmares, so this uneventful yet cozy room would've been a comfortable break for him...

... If not for the fact that Desmond lived there, too.

So Desmond is played by the fucking amazing host too and he's apparently a manifestation of his subconscious, and Descole REALLYYYY didn't like that (very much weirded him out, especially since Desmond was extremely blunt and near emotionless; he'd try and give advice but Descole was super nuh-uh about it)

His unease around his subconscious was enough to where he tried to sleep deprive himself to prolong seeing that guy + having nightmares, which that went well (he almost legitimately died lol)

As they have more chances to genuinely talk, their relationship changes. For better or for worse?... Can get further into that if anybody asks lol

Oh one more thing, because the canon roleplay took super long to have sessions, some players opted to have non-canon roleplays to fill in the gaps of time... Which ended up becoming their own side-campaigns that the host would sometimes join in as well. In fact the host has like... A few non-canon campaigns that he's running, and to be honest there's a few non-canon campaigns I end up thinking about a lot

You might've seen the terms "SS", "Chamber RP" or "Persona RP" in my tags and those are some of the non-canon campaigns. Right now we're focused on the canon rp and Chamber RP, which Chamber serves as a tutorial/introduction for a huge overhaul of the ttrpg system we use. We're still in Act I of canon, but Act II is VERY soon which will be using the new system.

SS; Player hosted, everybody fights an evil version of themselves that doesn't have amnesia while trying to take down an international cooperation. This is super fun because Descole in this one finally remembers WHY he did all of those terrible criminal things in the past...

Chamber RP; Host's campaign, amnesia is reversed; You remember your canon counterpart but not the campaign memories... But this doesn't last long as memories of the after starts to seep in. In a similar vibe of the Zero Escape series, you have to find a way out of a sci-fi laboratory while carrying the metaphorical torch of your forgotten hundred other attempts.

Persona RP; Host's campaign; In stark contrast it's super slice of life-y most times lol. Des gets a job as a teacher in this one??? It's set almost 3 years in the future of the canon campaign and as the name implies is SUPER Persona based. There's a strange other plane of existence that supposedly has the answers as to why they have amnesia... And the serial murders that's been going around town.

Anyway I'm definitely leaving out big details for the sake of brevity but I'd be happy to answer anything and thank you if you've read this far!! finally feels good to get this all out ngl

[mephestopheles]

I love playing dnd so much. I love our party even more. We're currently running through Hoard of the Dragon queen, and I may have mentioned my character before I want to introduce everyone. I'm playing a half-orc barbarian. She's the youngest in the party, precocious, very smart, not that wise. She went to college in Waterdeep to take over her dad's accounting business, got conned into a get rich quick mercantile scheme and lost all her parents money. She now has panic attacks and when she freaks out she fights whoever is closest or the most threatening. She's wonderful, I love her so much.

Wayne is playing a dwarf cleric of the forge and, well his rolls were abysmal, so intelligence became his dumpstat. He plays it to well, I mean he does such ridiculous things, and will repeat his stories "forgetting" that he told the party several times why his beer steins are named after women in his life. He aged his dwarf up to be much older than usual, so the party calls him gramps. This last session he was dredging the river for scrap metal and jumped off the side of the boat in full plate mail for some reason. The ranger managed to keep him from drowning right away and Nomi (my barbarian) got him back aboard the ship.

"What have we learned?"

"absolutely nothing..."

"metal sinks"

"yes it does, I'm dredging for some"

"you're wearing metal. Metal armor, head to toe"

"I am"

"you will sink"

"Reorx will protect me!"

Mel is playing a halfling rogue, that is currently dating my character Nomi. The height difference is hilarious, the fact that the halfing is the older of the two just makes it better. She's definitely the most cutthroat of the group -- our first session she tried to bully health potions from the mayor of the town we came into save --, and she will prank folks for sport. We're also working on the mechanics that her character can stand on my characters back for ranged attacks.

Homer's character is the ranger, human with the drakewarden subclass, so he's got a pet. He's generally quiet but he's putting his spells to good use, really good tricks with both the mould earth cantrip and the shape water one. The shape water came in handy to keep gramps alive when he dove into the river.

We added a new player this week and the first session went really well. Mechanically I know they're playing a warlock, but he's playing the class close to his chest, he says he's a mage and he's studied for many years and he has a spell book. Pay no attention to the jewel he wears that he can disappear into that's just wizardy magic stuff.

We have a somewhat recurring character a paladin played by Mel's brother when he's home. A decent kind of dude, managed to keep us alive during one particularly terrible fight. Let's just say the rogue now remembers the value of looking for traps before looting.

We're still trying to come up with a name for the party, we're not nearly as chaotic as our other group in the limbo campaign, so we are still trying to figure out something that works for us that doesn't feel slapped on.

[tailsrevane]

[webseries review] dimension 20: fantasy high (2018-19)

watching other people play dungeons & dragons pretty much always ends up being more fun than it sounds like it should be. it helps when they’re wildly entertaining people in basically any context, and i was already used to seeing a lot of these faces on various dropout improv shows. it probably should have occurred to me that seeing them play a game i love would fucking rule, actually, but it kinda didn’t and consequently i was just blown away by how great this is.

i was hardly surprised that brennan is such a fantastic dungeon master, but he still actually exceeded my wildest expectations. i absolutely love how he plays all his npcs. he fleshes them out with such loving detail that they contribute at least as much as the pcs. i particularly enjoy how all of the pcs’ parents are either the absolute best or the absolute worst? (or, in gilear’s case, somehow both simultaneously?) he’s also just so, so good at “yes, and”ing all his players’ ridiculous antics.

in addition to their fearless dm, i think i knew 2 of the 6 players from other stuff, but i quickly fell in love with almost all of them and their characters. i feel genuinely invested in all of their stories and their relationships. i want the best for all of them.

obviously the things i’ve already talked about are the most essential aspects of what makes the show so great, but i was also floored by the production values of the show. from what little i’ve seen of other actual-plays, i was expecting either a “theater of the mind” or at most printed maps and miniatures. instead, all of the setpiece battles in this campaign get gorgeously detailed miniatures and physical sets instead of maps. it really enhances the experience so much. as does the music and other little flourishes like hp bars and sound effects.

i am absolutely blown away by how good this series is. i cannot recommend it highly enough. dimension 20 in general has basically become the thing we turn on every night if we don’t have other plans, but i think they nailed it right out of the gates with the first season.

[gecko-vibes]

Hello!!! I saw your tags on a post and I'm so sorry but I simply must be nosey about your circus dnd character and their changeling partner 👀👀👀 please tell me more about them!!! (Only if you're comfortable of course!!)

OMG!! yes absolutely!! ok mild rant ahead aksjldh

So his name is Dorathel Lefevbre (Dolly as a nickname) he's a sheep themed tiefling! his dad was a sheppard so he grew up arround sheep a lot and he got picked up by the circus after an angry mob burned down his house (and potentially parents) cause they were dumb and afraid and thought they were raising a demon he was lk 9 he didnt actually SEE them die but he also hasnt been back to his home town ever since cause untill he sees the graves they might still be alive so BUT yeah the circus is awesome its all feywild themed! theres a hag, a watter nympth a centaur, all kinds of fun stuff! the owner of the circus used to be lk royalty in the feywild but moved over and brought some of his friends to start a circus cause no one was impressed by magic over there Dorathel is a tight rope walker and sword swallower glamor bard, and his partner is Zazel or Zee for short(they/them), a changeling who also got a kinda shit life, their parents were dopplegangers who used zazel to scam people and tried to sell them to the circus for profit so the circus owner actually said yes to get them out of that shitty situation They re a bit older than dorathel but they became really good friends and then lovers and grew up together as an acting duo! doing stunts and acrobatic stuff together! Zazel is a swords bard/rogue multiclass and they re a knife thrower (so lots of performances together of them throwing knives and dorathel being the assistant) they re very much incredibly in love lk they re THAT annoying couple just being obnoxious over how much they love each other asjkdad they ve also broken each other out of jail a few times for getting into trouble the circus leader disapeared out of nowhere, left only his jacket that he wears now everywhere, so Dorathel's main mission in a campaign whenever i play him will be to look for clues for what happened while Zazel stays at the circus shapeshifting into the leader to keep up appearances and keep the show going. They ve talked about getting married but want it to be special so they both agreed to bet on who can make the most over dramatic insane proposal first askjd with the leader back to officiate them/walk them down the isle! i already got their wedding outfits ready and all! Dorathel is gonna spend all the time just either using Sending every day to check on them or just constnatly write letters back and forth akjsd have some art of them! ps! the golden ribbon thing they both have on the tail and neck, is made from 2 halfs of the first ticket they ever sold for their act together! this way they re always together (and dorathel can recognize Zazel no matter what shape they take <3)

thats mostly it i think! dorathel was my first ever dnd character and has gone through a lot of changes across the years, i put a lot of my self in him and its been a really great way to explore gender expression so he really means a lot to me, and its super fun to have 2 ocs super in love for whenever i wanna draw wholesome content, currently in a campaign with a different character cause it fit better thematically, so i cant wait to play with Dorathel one day! <3 hope you enjoy it and thank you again for asking! i draw nearly exclusively my own dnd characters so im always down to talk about them to whoever is interested ^^ (do feel free to dm me if you wanna/are comfortable to talk about any character of yours i d love to hear about them as well!)

[soul-dwelling]

The thing with Izuku is that the initial motiviation could work if it really got challenged and shown as childish and flawed. The whole story is about the society being comodified into literal hero warship, so Izukus development could be realising how his dream of saving people to feel like a hero is kinda selfish in the way that it doesnt ask why there must exist a class that can save and a class of victims, especially when everybody has powers they could develope, even the quirkless

I’m going to respond to all of the My Hero Academia asks in this one post. 

So let’s respond to the first one above. 

It is challenged, but yeah, not really. 

It is shown to be flawed, but solutions are slow to appear. 

We’re waiting for the manga’s conclusion to address those solutions (or, read Vigilantes, it kind of responds to some of these problems). 

It isn’t quite childish to me, even if I get that merchandising these real-life Pro Heroes is eccentric. 

In fact, something about this just came up in Reddit recently. (Too bad I misplaced the link to that post. =_=; ) 

Just because it’s selfish for Izuku to want to be a hero doesn’t mean that such selfishness is a bad thing. The story does a good job of mostly avoiding this black and white thinking. Yes, Ochaco, Mount Lady, and Uwabami want money--but all of them were still doing heroics, Ochaco is not greedy, Mount Lady does change, and nothing showed Uwabami was bad at her hero work. Yes, there are hero dynasties, including the Iida and Todoroki families, but that doesn’t take away from good work Tenya, Tensei, and Shoto have done. I thought the story did well enough acknowledging that even the most heroic person can have selfish reasons behind their good deeds. Unfortunately, that also means acknowledging that even some real scumbags like Endeavor may have done some good or had some good intentions--because the wife beating, the child torturing, the eugenics, the wife buying, and all of that undermines any good he has done. 

Maybe there is justified frustration that the one who really opposes this selfishness is Stain, so it becomes easy to discount any of this criticism by saying, “You sound like Stain”--except even Iida admits Stain was correct on some points, but wrong on a lot of other points, especially the solutions he had (maiming and murdering). 

This hasn’t felt like a series that wants to interrogate the problems of commodifying these heroes. I don’t know whether I can find a real world analogue to the merchandising of these heroes within their own story, as we don’t quite have the same thing in our world right now. But this is a franchise that wants to sell merchandise, so that’s why we don’t see serious interrogation into Izuku’s All Might merchandise collection, that Endeavor has dolls and masks, that Uwabami is in it for the ad campaigns. The closest we get to criticizing merchandising is how Hawks gets the Endeavor doll because it’s cheaper, how that shows Endeavor’s worth is not tied into his good deeds but his appeal to get an audience to cheer for him. 

But this is still a franchise where someone like me buys the video games and plays at these characters: how do I separate knowing how shitty Endeavor, All For One, and others are, then using them when playing online? 

I do push back a bit against the idea that Izuku doesn’t realize some of these problems. I just don’t think the answers he comes to are as good as they could be. 

Bakugo’s abusive behavior is an indictment against Quirk society that is obvious to Izuku. All Might’s absence and the gap it leaves is an indictment against Pro Hero society that is obvious to Izuku. Aizawa’s sink-or-swim approach is an indictment against both Quirk society and Pro Hero society that is obvious to Izuku. Endeavor’s abuse of his children including Shoto and Dabi is an indictment against Quirk society and Pro Hero society that is obvious to Izuku. Kota losing his parents, and facing relatives and family friends and aspiring Pro Heroes saying he should be happy his parents were willing to die to protect others, is an indictment against a society that keeps privileging big acts of heroism over the responsibilities of individual people and an acknowledgment that Kota is living after trauma. Gentle becomes a harmless “villain” because Pro Hero society didn’t see a reason to direct his skills for good, and no teacher, not without some fault applied to Gentle, was able to make him understand that theatrics and fame should not be his goals for heroism, another indictment against Pro Hero society that is obvious to Izuku. Hawks’s and Nagant’s actions are indictments against the lie of Pro Hero society that should be obvious to Izuku. 

And it’s not that any of this is not obvious to Izuku. He speaks up about most of it, or hears people speak up against it or interrogate it. He narrates to us that Bakugo’s abuse shows that people are not created equal. He sees that without All Might he and other Pro Heroes have to rise to the occasion to make up for his absence. He works harder and smarter to meet Aizawa’s expectations. He tries to teach Shoto that he can use his fire Quirk without becoming Endeavor. He makes himself an example to Kota that the point of heroism isn’t to be so powerful, it’s to take action whenever you can to help others. He sees that, without the experiences he had before, he would have become Gentle, and still could become like him, so he better not forget this lesson. He…says some stuff at Nagant? I don’t know, that story fell apart on me. 

I think you’re saying that Izuku doesn’t ask why there are classes of people, some who can be saved and some who are stuck as victims. I disagree. The very beginning of this manga was Izuku insisting he can save everyone--even if he fails right now. I think the story shows Izuku wanting to create a world where there don’t have to be victims--however naive that may be. He wants to save even Shigaraki. That’s noble, but as it is an ideal, which means it’s not realistic. Having that work in fiction should be enough: it doesn’t have to be realistic. But within the rules of this series, it’s not believable. I think the problem is a lack of more awareness on Izuku’s part that he can’t save everyone. Ochaco seems to carry more of this weight, as she is the one who has to speak to the audience that Nighteye could not be saved, she’s the one who sees the victims from the first war and how many are injured or possibly dead, and she may end this series realizing that Toga can’t be saved, either. 

Now, onto the second question: 

Like the problem with Deku is that even when it seems his ideology gets challanged, he never "loses", never really gets proven wrong - there were many opportunies - like the fact that he really only wanted to be a hero in the way society showed him and got depressed at the mere suggestion that he could be a fire fighter or something (also funny firefighter getting dismissed in the context of FF), more examples but charachter limit

Nighteye dying should have challenged him, should have been a loss. But instead it was presented that, if Eri wasn’t saved, then Izuku lost. Even Mirio losing his Quirk was not treated as that loss. Izuku expresses that regret that his actions led to Nighteye’s death and Mirio’s lost Quirk, and he tries to make amends by offering to give up One For All to Mirio--but Mirio refuses. I don’t get a sense that Izuku carries this weight, of Nighteye’s death and Mirio’s lost Quirk, as loses; he rebounds, he rationalizes that Eri may restore Mirio’s Quirk, Nighteye died as peacefully as possible and died having saved someone. I think if you had a revision to this story to show Nighteye’s death was still bothering Izuku, then something could feel like a loss. Honestly, it should be empowering to see Izuku persists despite everything he goes through, but it also feels like the story doesn’t allow Izuku to define these events as traumas that he will live with. 

I do think Izuku, by this point at the end of the manga, is trying to be a hero that is not like what society imagined. There are details that potentially contradict this: if he had been Quirkless this entire time, that really would have been a hero unlike how Quirk society imagined. But All Might has been the example no one can reach; Izuku wants to do so, that strikes me as trying to defy how society shows what a hero should be. All Might tried to talk him out of being a hero, telling him to be a police officer or a firefighter; Izuku still refused. Izuku should have powered through the Sports Festival, even if he would still end up losing to Shoto; he didn’t, he let Shoto take it out on him to take ownership of his fire Quirk. But these are just Izuku acting against “common sense,” not exactly modeling a different kind of hero that this Quirk society is used to. 

Now, onto the third question: 

The flaws in MHA's society get compartamalised, like oh actually basically all heros are good, there is just some small shady part that does assassinations but that gets delt with offscreen. Oh merchandise is kinda tacky but not a big deal - like it could have shown how beauty standards forced by the ads could drive mutants into villany or make people use their quirks as heros ineficently just to keep the best image etc

Right, the people who actually show Quirk society and Pro Hero society are wrong tend to be the Villains, the antagonists. 

There are ideas friends have said to me, or written in their own stories, where you have people trying to reform the system from the inside. 

Give us characters studying in the public relations and marketing degree programs at UA who want to point out the hypocrisies of Pro Hero society. 

Have Shoji, Tokoyami, Ojiro, Mina, Koda, and others far earlier pointing out appearance-based discrimination and discrimination against mutation Quirks. 

Show us that there are characters we are to cheer on because they are right. 

That being said, there are also readers who would probably say I’m not practicing critical thinking well enough or media literacy well enough. Once the manga does an entire arc that treats the League of Villains as the protagonists against the Meta Liberation Army, that is the invitation to realize that not all Pro Heroes are good, that the Villains make good points. 

And while I appreciate where Horikoshi went with Spinner, Shoji, and Koda, I kind of hate that arc. I had such a bad taste in my mouth when Jiro in the English dub called Tokoyami “bird brain” when up to now the series had shown people were accepting just about every different look people came in. 

I kind of wish the series had avoided Spinner suffering discrimination due to his appearance, when something like Vigilantes showed discrimination in terms of body shape and size compromising access to public services, something that seemed easier to portray. Not unrealistic, given how in our real world people will take any physical marker of difference to represent their utter hatred for entire groups of people out of their bigotry. 

I say this, because I can’t imagine little kids looking at Gang Orca and saying he looked like a villain--whereas I can imagine little kids being excited seeing Tokoyami, Spinner, Gang Orca, and so on, because they look cool. 

(And, not to be horny on main, but we’re really going to act like people, respectfully and not objectifying, aren’t turned on by seeing a Spinner or a Gang Orca? That is not believable.) 

Now, onto the fourth question: 

Or even the question of anti-status quo groups - the only vigilainte in the main series,  Stain, even if sympathetic in a few ways, is basically shown as a deranged killer, the quirk-liberation movement is a shadowy cabal, the yakuza is the yakuza, there are basically no people against the system or outside of it that are basically good, even Gentle needed rehabilitation. Why no comune of quirk users living in the woods, without needing concepts like "hero"?

I agree on just about all of these points. 

Gentle at least for me feels somewhat believable, even realistic. There are “law and order” characters within the series who ignore that Gentle, after that one injury in his failed rescue, was drawing attention to bigger crimes, was more so screwing over bigger criminals, that even coming onto UA property in itself is not terrible except that it exposes UA is not perfect and opens the location up to worse attacks. 

Like I said above, we already have “good” characters who can speak to these problems in Quirk and Pro Hero societies without being bad guys or getting dismissed as “Villain sympathizers.” 

Or, maybe you want to have the story go in that direction, show someone like Tokoyami defending those with Quirk mutations, or even Denki with his “Stain was cool” rhetoric, and have that butt heads with a classmate. 

What if close friends like Momo and Jiro were on different sides of an issue, one sympathizing with “lawbreakers” who are reforming Quirk society, the other wanting “law and order”? 

It’d be similar to Ochaco and Tsuyu refusing to join the Bakugo rescue--it creates believable character conflicts that can drive future plots, character progression, differentiate Class A so that they have more distinct personalities and are not just, well, extras until they get their big moments in the manga’s final arc. 

Now, onto the last question: 

Anyway, sorry for the MHA spam, but just think it has a lot of lost potential because of it conformism to the society, that makes all it criticisms of it shallow, as if they were better not included and it all was just a fun school comedy if thats how the questions raised get delt with.

The archetypal superhero story, for a long time, has been a struggle about whether you want your heroes to uphold the status quo or oppose it. The moment you have them oppose that status quo, are they still heroes? The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a cliche example to turn to, but it’s the best I have right now: you have the Avengers, at least in the first film, propping up a status quo; by the time of Civil War, you have Captain America still getting to be the hero even as he’s opposing the government. 

For a series such as My Hero Academia that comments on just about everything in the archetypal superhero story, it feels lacking in responding to the status quo question. 

I wouldn’t say all the criticisms are shallow, but I think there is more that could be done but isn’t. This can be the problem of just wanting to get to the next chapter, wrap up the next arc, or finish the manga already. 

I brought up Reddit earlier, and that was one of the remark made recently: that the series would be better if it slowed down, took breaks between arcs to do more of the school comedy stuff. And it’s not as if a school comedy lacks potential to address big earth-shattering questions.