#am i putting this in the main tag FUCK no!! i know the official campaign tumblr tracks that!!

[a-horse-ponders]

Pondering on Creativity

There is something that is broken in my mind. I don’t know what it is though, as I simply cannot describe it well enough for anyone to understand. The best way to put it is that I am incapable of creativity. There is a disconnect when I attempt any creative endevour, from trying to write fiction, to being a GM in a D&D campaign, to trying to design anything. I cannot express myself in terms that others can understand.

People have drawn things infront of me I still cannot grasp how those pencil strokes turned into an image. I also cannot describe that image to people. Description is probably the main flaw I’ve got, where I just cannot describe things. Perhaps my education was deficient? I doubt it, but still, if someone was to ask me what something looked like I’d struggle beyond the basics. What does this tree look like? It’s a tree. Dunno how tall it is, but it’s got a lotta green leaves, you know, it’s a tree.

When I read descriptions of characters in books, I simply cannot assemble this “mental image” that people talk about. This is probably why I read so much fan fiction, because the mental load of trying to parse a description is simply offloaded to recalling what the character looked like in the source material, or official adaptation.

I’ve been banned from Art classes at school because I’m just that fucking awful at this creating thing, and it’s created an eternal frustration where I have ideas (terrible ones) but I cannot express them in any medium. The written word? Awful, see above for how I can’t describe anything without resorting to using tags like I’m a fucking database. Drawing? I struggle with how a circle works. Speaking? Lol to who? I’ve got no friends.

The only success I found was playing around with this AI art stuff. I input a bunch of tags into a form and 30 seconds later an image that I wanted appeared. It was amazing, I finally managed to convey my idea. I felt this little glow of satisfaction that I imagine all creatives feel when they pull this off.

Of course, I didn’t actually do anything. I just fed text inputs into a program someone else created, to drive an algorithm developed by another person, to then ask my GPU to render something based on stolen assets created by a lot of talented people without their permission. But for that brief moment I looked at the picture on screen and I was so happy.

I made the mistake of mentioning this in a discord channel and I was yelled at for about half an hour about the evils of AI art and how what I made was nothing but some soulless abomination and I’m an awful person for even attempting it. I was reminded that I am some broke brain fuckup who cant create anything. I haven’t touched the AI art stuff since

I wonder if being able to create is somehow tied to being able to create life? I was born with a defective body, sterile from birth. Is there a connection there? Biologically sterile, creatively sterile? Something to ponder in future I guess.

Apologies for rambling, but I need to ramble somewhere, and doing it in my head just makes me sadder.

[equalseleventhirds]

said i was gonna make the post, i'm gonna make the post. sure i have only like 3 followers who listen to skyjacks, that is not relevant, this post is for ME bcos i love to overanalyze worldbullding implications on a wider cultural level particularly in regards to religion,

also important to note that while i am caught up on skyjacks main and have started courier's call, i have not listened to everything on patreon, or read the zine(s?), or backread all the official twitter posts or w/e, so if i am mistaken and this HAS been relevant in the worldbuilding then oh yes PLEASE link me i would dearly love to see!!! i am very much good faith abt this bcos skyjacks aims to be anti-colonialist and does deliver in so so many ways.

anyway. so. skyjacks, speir, the sovereign (+the luminaries a bit), and the unintentional implications when your fantasy catholicism stand-in is like, provably correct about some aspects of their god??? (subtitled: and why it's not as bad as it could be, really, and the world does leave plenty of room for this to be easily fixed and here's how)

thanks for joining me nice to have u here etc etc i write long essays deep-diving into media for funsies are u ready for a ride

so firstly, the catholic church in the real world is.... historically tied to a lot of colonialism. so much. SO much. like, i'm filipino, ok? so much. often in the supposed name of, y'know, god and missionary work or w/e.

and to his credit, james d'amato put a lot of thought into making the church of the slain god, his fantasy analogy for the catholic church, a Bad Institution and tied into colonialism (and other stuff) and a bad bad thing which the players go up against. also some cool stuff done in nordia wrt the church as an institution vs individuals in the church living their lives, etc, altho that is less of the point here.

additionally, prior to the beginning of the campaign itself, in one of the tales from speir, it is set up as just one of many churches, one which happened to gain notoriety and power. the concept of a single god is mentioned pointedly, as though other churches had more gods. it's even explained to the listener, as though it is not ubiquitous among speir's citizens, as though one might hear a priest preaching about the slain god but not really know about it at all. furthermore, the narrator notes that even if he was religious, he wouldn't worship that god; the slain god is presented as an option, a belief, but not a fact.

of course, over the course of the campaign, things develop as they do. currently in canon, we know that the sovereign was real; that he really was pretty close to all-powerful; that he did die; that his death did cause the calamity that befell speir and made it what it is now; that his angels (those that did not fall) do direct the current church, in some way or another.

this is actually provable bcos of the way canon and our knowledge of things has developed. (vitally to my respect towards & enjoyment of skyjacks, the details show that the worship of the slain god, as practiced by the church as a whole, is incorrect in its methodology and morality; and, furthermore, although the sovereign existed, we are led to believe that he was not necessarily a just god. not necessarily a good god. and that there are options besides following a god just because he exists. killing him, for instance.)

further, we know that even amongst people who are not part of the church, knowledge of the sovereign and of the whole 'the sovereign's death caused the apocalypse' thing is common. common enough that when people (hildred, the crew of the uhuru) who are demonstrably not part of the church learn that gable killed god, there is. a bit of a Reaction there. it is widely known.

now, the only other gods really mentioned or worshiped so far (in all the places we have been!) are the luminaries (ok yes fine i believe they are defined as 'not quite gods', but, semantics; they function as a pantheon of deities, albeit not in the style of the sovereign), so let's talk about the luminaries.

it is, perhaps, plausible that the luminaries might be the other gods of (one or more of) the other churches which the narrator of tales from speir obliquely refers to. but let's take a moment and examine how they function and interact with both the common people of speir and the church of the slain god.

first the common people: altho the luminaries may demand sacrifices, altho there are shrines around to them, there doesn't seem to be any sort of organized worship of them? folk-magic invoking them, certainly; widespread belief in them, certainly. other churches dedicated to the luminaries and excluding the sovereign? ehhhhhhh.

as for the church: no one in the church seems to regard the luminaries as competition, as heresy, or as belonging to another organization at all. people who believe in the sovereign seem totes cool with invoking the luminaries as well. perhaps to them they function as lesser spirits who serve(d) the sovereign in some way; it's not really addressed at all.

additionally, the sovereign himself is mentioned as interacting with the luminaries (altho, uh, obvs not currently). notably, the moon belongs to the forest queen (who refers to humans as 'children of the sovereign' i think?) but the stars belong to the sovereign. there is sharing there! bargaining even perhaps?? definite mutual acknowledgement; regardless of levels of power, it would appear that the sovereign and the luminaries (at least the forest queen) are part of the same large pantheon.

the luminaries are also, once again, gods (or 'gods') that are provable. they and their power definitely exist. they are also ubiquitious; universally, at least among the various locations and cultures we have experienced so far, the luminaries are both known and invoked (if not worshiped in quite the same way as the sovereign).

if, as i posited, the luminaries and the sovereign are part of the same pantheon, this means that there is one universal (apparently) pantheon in speir. (occasionally we'll have bits of folk magic where ppl are sorta kinda almost worshiping an element, like fire or wind or trees; this is cool, but not made clear as a religion separate from the sovereign/luminaries at all. also still no other gods. tales from speir narrator tell us abt the other churches with other gods PLEASE.)

taking a step away from skyjacks in particular, it's important to note that this is a common enough occurrence in a lot of high fantasy. you make some gods; those gods have actual impact on the world and the story; of course they are the only gods around. if there were other gods around, they'd just be. y'know. part of the same pantheon.

this is fine for simpler fantasy worlds, where a universal, provable religion is not even the biggest issue of cultural same-y-ness in the worldbuilding. not ideal, but also not a big deal, comparatively.

however! speir is intentionally built to be a wide variety of cultures, with inspiration drawn from many real-world cultures (and many of those locations worldbuilt by incredibly cool freelancers often pulling on their own lived experiences). and part of cultural variety is religious variety.

yes, the sovereign and the luminaries provably exist in speir. but if worship/knowledge of them is universal across speir; if they are the only gods ever encountered in all these various cultures; if they are the only gods that do exist and hold power; then like. oof. bcos you've got, on the one hand, fantasy catholicism; and on the other hand, folk-magic-gods which, let's face it, are based around songs made by the decemberists, who altho they do cool music are also... p much white americans drawing mostly (altho not entirely, shoutout to the crane wife) from western history/stories (and lbr does tell even the crane wife through a white western lens, but also i am not here to analyze the decemberists)

and the implications of that being our canonical true real only universal pantheon sure are implications!! like god yeah i love that gable killed god, i love the luminaries (hit me with capricious deities!!), but also i am metaphorically throwing rocks at james d'amato's window to point out stuff abt history and religious variety and cultural stuff. u kno.

but algie, i hear some of you saying (especially those of you who have followed me for a bit and Seen Some Stuff), why would you do this to yourself? why would you willingly deep-dive into this particular flavor of analysis when it has burned you so badly before with other media that you love? have you not learned from tma and fear soup and robert fucking smirke? why would you once more do the thing where you point out that a white man has accidentally incurred some weird colonial implications in an unthinking moment of fairly standard worldbuilding??

well, imaginary audience member standing in for the bit of me braced for horrible disappointment, listen. yes it's similar, but the situation is different. firstly bcos skyjacks, unlike certain other media, bills itself as anti-colonialist, and so this is important to the actual goals of the show. and secondly, bcos given other elements of the worldbuilding and the overarching narrative, it is both difficult and unlikely for the show to ever say no, actually, the sovereign and the luminaries are the sole and only deities (or deity-adjacent-beings) in the entire world of speir.

the world they've built for skyjacks is vast! and lost!! so vast and lost that it is entirely plausible that there are other religions and deities in other cultures, just as powerful and real and true, that the party just hasn't run into. maybe they are hidden from the rediscovered world; maybe they are part of the rediscovered world and just haven't made it into the characters' paths. it is so so easy to imagine that entire other pantheons exist, and are worshiped, and are real functioning gods... elsewhere in speir. and the story does not at all seem to be heading in the direction to blatantly and completely contradict this.

so that's why it's not as bad as it could have been. shall we discuss how it can be even better?

first, the thing i would not like to see: i am so utterly and entirely disinterested in some kinda 'oh other cultures worship the same pantheon but with different names/faces/whatever'. that's not religious variety of the type the real world has (and the type that colonialism tried to stamp out). none of this with fantasy catholicism still having the True God but y'know, other ppl might have a different name for him. that rubs me wrong in so so many ways. that is not cultural religious diversity at all.

(note: it's been mentioned that the luminaries, at least, may have different... relationships? vibes?? with different cultures. that's neat! i do like to see capricious gods showing different sides of themselves to different people!! as long as that's not all we get. i am cool & chill with the bandari people having a bargain with the forest queen or w/e it was that was brought up in that one worldbuilding ep abt the luminaries; i am even chill with the grand fire giving ppl stones that appear to correspond to the luminaries. clearly the bandari were part of the broad group of cultures falling under this pantheon. that's fine, as long as we aren't told that EVERY culture, without exception, aligns with this pantheon and no other.)

now for a thing i WOULD like to see: would love the players to actually encounter a culture where worship of (and perhaps even common knowledge of) the luminaries and the sovereign is in the minority. a culture with their own gods, gods that are worshiped in different ways to the sovereign and luminaries, but which demonstrably have power. (magic is in the story, this is canon; enough stories about other gods mean the other gods do exist. or vice versa.) maybe they have their own explanation of why the stars fell. maybe they don't have an explanation, but their gods have been doing their best in the meantime. (maybe they wave their hands dismissively; 'oh yes, our gods know about your sovereign. they foolishly did not intervene before things got bad, but they're making up for it now.' there are lots of ways people interact with their gods.)

if we are digging deep into colonialism and implications and drawing on history wrt the catholic church and colonialism: i would kind of like to see a place where religion developed under colonial rule in, say, the style of the philippines (yes yes yes i'm biased shhh). a place where the red feathers and the church came and took over (not by war, since that's not a thing in speir as it is now, but y'know... they've got ways), and the people there with their own gods already said, well, okay. sure, we follow and believe your religion; we just also have our own spirits and even minor gods and so on that don't quite follow your rules, because they are ours. and those spirits and minor gods have adjusted and changed to accommodate the ways the colonizers are making us live, because we must adapt; but still they are here and they are ours.

(in the latter, ofc, they would need a rly rly good freelance worldbuilder and probably another cultural consultant. these ties to real history and cultures and pain need to be treated with respect; eg i would hate for this to be a place that the main cast come in and free from the church, bcos outside saviors are not the needed thing. but y'know, it'd be an interesting culture to see represented and explored.)

ofc the big meta problem with introducing other pantheons with real power is: does this break the fucking game?? if there are other gods on par with the luminaries, can the players call on them for help? and the easiest answer (and lbr the culturally sensitive one) is: no, these are not their gods. they may witness their power. but they cannot use it. play continues the same for them.

but they know stuff now. it maybe won't drastically change their lives and how they live them. but no longer are the people who worship this pantheon the only right ones.

[facepalming-since-chernobyl]

I’m going to talk about personal stuff, but still related to the show. I don’t ask for people feel sorry for me etc. I just want to show something.

Exactly 3 years go my mom died. She got a stroke and was slowly fading away for a week. As you can guess, it was the worst few weeks in my life, whole February was devastating and made me want to crawl into a hole and never crawl back. You know, pretty normal stuff when you loose one of the most important people in your life.

There were three things that kept me sane during that time. My best friend who kept chatting with me on Facebook about real dumb/weird stuff, my TeenWolf salty squad and karamel, that was rising on that time. Two adorable people, falling in love, with an interesting bakcgroud - I guess, something like that can fish your brain form the puddle of depressing shit, even if it’s just for a while.

Too bad Supercorp shippers decided to have a hating party in our tags then, huh? They finally realized that karamel was going to happen and started their shit party. And someone made a list of the most gross blogs, so they deciede it was an attack at “teen lgbt fans” and that thanks to ithat list the “teens” were targeted by awful people.

So, instead of just scrolling down cute shit and meta, I had to scroll down hundereds of posts kindly informing me of what kind of shitty human being I am, homophobe, slave owner fan, blah  blah, plus the “I’m a SC shipper, block me fucker, karamel sucks” kinds of posts (totally ignoring that on that time they were attacking karamel teens - a lot of them deactivated -, but whatever). 

Here I am, having really horrible weeks, trying to deal with shit and keep my mind away from stuff and scrolling down a place where I should find nice things, but instead I just hit block button all the time. I can tell you - amazing experience. 

Why I’m moaning about it? One of the Sueprcorps’ argument, why they are going to “#boycott Supergirl” (now they say “save”, because when you change the name of the tag suddenly all the hate you are going to spread sounds GOOD and resonable) is that the show helps them to deal with reality, where they face horrible people, circumstances, bias, hate and death, basically it helps them to deal with harsh reality.

My problem is - they ask for something, while totally ignoring other fans. 

Supergirl is NOT an exlcusive show ONLY for Supercorp shipppers, it’s a show for every person who watches it. Probably most of the people who watch it, deal with some kind of shit. You don’t know what the person on the other side is going through - no one HAS to inform anyone about it or explain why watches the show or likes this character or a ship. NO ONE. The same goes for the - no one should feel better than others for liking a ship or a charcter. And you know what? The same goes for everyone who is happy person, who just want to enjoy the show. I know, what a disturbing thing, huh?

And here we have Supercorp shippers who basically... feel better than others and think they deserve more things than everyone else. Because what? They have shittier lives? Bigger depression? Worse experiences? We are seriously going to RATE things like this? So we can feel free to hate on the other side? There is only good side and bad side? If you are on the wrong side you can fuck yourself? Your ass is the most important thing in the entire universe? Everything what YOU want should happen? Dear Rao.

I mean, we all want things we like and love to happen, maitain etc. We want to see our ships and characters happy and i don’t think we care about the feeling of  the other “side”. The problem is norma people don’t start hate campaigns, don’t bully cast, don’t harass other fans, don’t try to force the “one true and proper” idea at the producers, don’t pretend that they fight for the “better world” while SPREADING HATE etc. And this is what Supercorp shippers have been doing for the past 3 years. 

I’m aware what they are doing. I’m aware what they are trying to achieve. They tried to portray whole cast at SDCC17 as homophbic and disgusting, while twisitng their words. They called the cast homophobic because they sang a song about Supercorp being just friends, while now they scream that Supergirl crew is queerbaiting them (what an irony). They threw parties after two actors - who were horribly bullied - left the show. They hated still hating on 4 POC actors. They treat the main actress of the show horribly since she started her real life realtionship and still doing it, even when they are aware through  what kind of hell she went through. They make fun of depression and mental ilness only because an actor they openly hate, goes through it, they even hate on his campaign that tries to help people with similar problems. They hate on an actor who just asked to stop putting negative comments under his tweets about the ep he has directed, and accuse him of being homophobic, because he liked tweets of “problematic” people. They ignored every statement of the cast members that said something about trolls or cast hate. They ignored a character in the show and his line about how in the future cyberbullying and trolls are banned on internet. They ignore all of their haters and complain all the time how they are not like them, while liking the posts and gifs made by the most horrible people in their fandom - but they will keep saying something about “vocal minority” and how they are not like that. So you are like who exactly? While you ignore the idiots and keep interacting with them? How you are not like that while you want the BOYCOTT SUPERGIRL TAG trending during the next ep? 

Dear Supercorp shippers, you are not the majority of the fandom. I know what you want to achieve, again, by the hate campaigns, but you won’t. Because the cast, writers and producers know what you have done, oh sorry, what your so called MINORITY have done. All what you do is hating, complaning, moaning and putting shit under every official post. If you think you will get Supercorp after all of it - good luck.

PS. KramReceipts or the stalker who constantly scroll my blogs and sends it to that twitter account - go fuck yourself ;*

[jxffhxrdy]

RAW 5/19/2020

Wassup everyone. Back again with opinions that you didn’t ask for on Monday Night RAW tonight 5/19/2020. I am not related to WWE in any capacity, so what I say is not bible. 

The show in general tonight? Sucked. I’m sorry, but it really did. You’d peaked my interest with a Drew/Corbin fight, because I think Drew is the most talented big guy on RAW and Corbin is the best heel on Smackdown. But even THAT let me down. Alright, let us discuss, shall we?

♡Edge Accepts Randy Orton’s Challenge (-)

I mean, duh. God, I am so bored with this. WWE, I played your little game and allowed it with Wrestlemania, since Edge had just come back and let’s face it- I am a big ol’ fan of Adam Copeland. But this is just overworked, overdone, overpromoed, just... over everything. And calling this “the greatest match ever?” Really? In an empty arena and no fans, no pop, no nothing? Please WWE. Chill with that. It just makes me cringe. I could easily list 10 matches of both of theirs that are undoubtedly going to be better than this match. Minus.

♡Murphy vs. Humberto (-)

Jesus christ. I’m sorry, but you cannot take someone who was literally a jobber last week to trying to take on the biggest tag team on RAW. You just can’t do that. You just sent Humberto to the slaughterhouse because you wanted a hispanic wrestler to stand up for a hispanic wrestler. Let’s be real. Now, if Aleister Black had come out for a little pre-match tussle, it would’ve been more forgivable. But this was just random and boring.

♡Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ruby Riott (-)

Honestly, forgot this match happened. CHARLOTTE FLAIR SHOULD NOT BE ON 3 SHOWS. I see so much of Charlotte Flair during the week that I literally do not care what she does anymore, because I know if she loses a match on Monday, I’ll see her fight on Wednesday and Friday again. Yes, I commend her for working like she does 3 days a week, that must be insane. But it is Charlotte City so much that all of her matches just run together. Give Rhea back the NXT belt, take her off Smackdown, and just keep her on Raw. Less is more here. Also... what is Ruby’s storyline? Redemption? Isn’t that Liv’s story? Like this match just made no sense for either character, unless they’re trying to make Charlotte seem like some tyrant and Ruby even more of a loser than she already is. Seriously, when was the last time that girl won a match? Please don’t turn even more of your female roster into jobbers for the 4HW. 

♡Whatever the Asuka thing was (?)

So it got leaked after Becky’s announcement last week that at MITB this year, we were supposed to get Nia Jax vs. Becky, with Nia taking home the belt. But with her sudden pregnancy and Nia not being the most well liked woman on the roster, they figured giving the belt to Asuka was the safest option. Which, yes, that is correct. I get Asuka and Kairi are cute lil weirdos and they play their parts well, but this was a very weird start to the Asuka/Nia feud. It was just kinda sped through and all over the place. However, I did enjoy including Kairi. I am terrified of them splitting up the Kabuki Warriors. I just don’t really know how I feel. 

♡R-Truth vs. Bobby Lashley (-)

The only positive out of this is I absolutely adore R-Truth. He is so damn funny (until he puts those damn teeth in) and I cannot wait to see how he gets Gronk. On the other end with Bobby.... I just really don’t care? I mean, 3 weeks ago, we saw the man flip a tire. Like, that was a whole segment. And if you want Bobby to seem like the biggest badass, why oh why would you put him with Truth? Why wouldn’t you have a Jinder Mahal vs. Bobby Lashley for top contender spot? That would be FAR more entertaining then watching Lashley put the beating on Truth every week. MVP is settling quite nicely into the manager position though.

♡Women’s Tag Team Championship (A BIG -)

I AM FURIOUS. ABOUT THIS MATCH. FIRST OF ALL. Fuck WWE for ending it on a DQ, because if it were a male match, it would’ve been completely fine and not mentioned. I am very very tired with womens’ wrestling in WWE being so quick to DQ. Second, why would you have an ACTUAL tag team lose to this awful combo? Put Nikki back in NXT with Sanity; you can’t deny that would bring BIG interest into NXT. Alexa... I don’t know. She has a horrible mean girl thing about her that I can’t take any of her feuds seriously because she reminds me of high school. I truthfully don’t see her in the title picture, especially not with the likes of Nia and Asuka, But you know who she would absolutely kill with? Zelina fucking Vega. Ruby, maybe? Liv even? The combo with Nikki and Alexa is just so awkward and I’m over it. The IIconics are annoying- BUT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE. You can tell they are best friends and have the best chemistry in and out of the ring. They are so entertaining and a genuinely good team. Please. 

♡Shayna Bazler vs. Natalya (-)

Natalya deserves better than a year of losses. That’s all I am going to say about this match. Shayna is very talented and will do very well in the current main title picture.

♡Owens/Crews vs. Andrade/Garza (+) (MVP)

I actually liked this match! Kevin Owens is the fuckin’ man. He is so talented, he’s amazing on the mic, and honestly- he is what kept this episode afloat for me tonight. Plus getting Crews back was amazing; he is the most underused talent on the Raw roster. I enjoyed getting a taste of the Andrade/Garza tag team that’s been rumored for a while and I think once Andrade loses the belt (which is undoubtedly coming shortly), I’d love to see them do some stuff with Street Profits. Or even Mysterio/Black if we get that tag team. I would absolutely love to see Crews get that belt next week, it is time for him to. If he does get it and they’re going the McIntyre/Lashley route they seem to be going on- maybe pair Crews with Jinder? Shelton or Titus maybe? I think that would be great. A lot of potential here. MVP of the night!

♡Murphy vs. Aleister Black and randomly austin theory and seth rollins (?)

So, everyone knows I love me some Aleister Black. I think the man is insanely talented and should be in a title picture ASAP. And honestly, I’m a fan of Murphy too! I think the two of these men have great in-ring chemistry and I enjoy watching them fight. The reason this match is getting a question mark is... Austin Theory? Really? So, I know Theory was kinda brought up to give Angel Garza something to do while Andrade was out on probation, but why on God’s green earth are you going to put him with Seth and Murphy? I was hoping after the split of Zelina’s group, he would go back to NXT and maybe work with Undisputed Era or Cameron Grimes. I also know he’s not been moved from the NXT page on the WWE website to RAW yet. But if you’re planting the seed of him “following” Seth, then when are you going to make that pull official? Should they? No. Theory is not ready yet. He doesn’t have a distinct ring persona yet. Out of the three, Andrade is the cocky workhorse, Garza is the flirty ladies man, and Austin is... there. Send him back and if you want to fill your roster, pull someone who could make some good ass TV (Damien Priest with Aleister Black, thank you). 

♡Axe Throwing (+)

Scrolling on Twitter, it seems to be that a lot of people cannot stand the random competitions between the Street Profits and Viking Raiders, but honestly? I’m a fan! With the empty arena era, all of WWE’s matches are just grunts and ring slaps. Long matches become literally miserable to watch (ie. Orton vs. Edge at Wrestlemania 36). Having these random cutaways, while aren’t wrestling, is something different from the usual. And frankly, I’d rather see this than most of the other matches I sat through tonight. I don’t want to see the Street Profits lose their belts just yet, I absolutely adore them, but I think these cutaways are setting up a really fun feud. 

♡Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Baron Corbin (-)

Drew wins, fucking obviously. Did people REALLY think Corbin was going to win here? Against Drew, who is literally a tank? No ma’am, not a chance. This was kind of a throw away match just to set up the feud with Drew & Lashley... yawn. MVP is the best part of Bobby Lashley right now. I just love Drew McIntyre so much, I never want him to lose the belt ever. Bobby vs. Drew at Backlash, most likely. Whatever man. 

♡General Thoughts

~Please just never let Lana speak anymore. No promos anymore from Lana.  ~More Kevin Owens. More Aleister Black. Yes. ~Where the FUCK is Cedric Alexander and Ricochet? Please bring them back, WWE. Please stop destroying legitimately good tag teams.  ~Lana Never Speak Again 2020 campaign. 

Thanks for reading my rambles and I’ll be back on Wednesday for AEW thoughts. <3 

[illegiblewords]

Critical Role Campaign 2: Episode NEIN Spoilers

Ima use some cuts here ‘cause I have friends who haven’t seen the thing yet, but HEADS UP YO I HAVE ACTUAL LEGIT ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT BESIDES JUST SHOUTING SHIT.

Just Shouting Shit:

- GODDAMN IT JESTER. GODDAMN IT. I LOVE YA GURL AND I GET U AND I FEEL 4 U BUT GODDAMN IT.

- No but people in tags are either >:/ at Jester or talking about how Caleb is gonna go full revolution because of extreme poverty, and honestly I think that feels dishonest. Sometimes shit just hurts and I am extremely sure Caleb’s problems are going to get vomited out with a vengeance at some point and I’m getting an increasingly clear oh fuck well that’s analysis. But yeah, full explanation in the analysis bit but I seriously fucking bet that Caleb is going down a sadder and more self-destructive path rather than a “destroy-the-government-for-porn” path.

- But give him his porn.

- And kill that guard.

- People in search be all “Jester’s Mom is dead/kidnapped/unaware”. My dudes, I do not know Matt Mercer well and am new to this campaign, but I take him for both a respectable storyteller and someone who I can look in the eye and find a kindred spirit who twists knives like tops. It would be far, far too clean for Jester’s mom to be off the hook. It would offer less character development. Jester’s mom is a mean lady, didn’t send shit, and was probably full neglectful. Plus Jester (who adores and admires her) would never want to admit that this is the case. Jester was possibly never loved (by her mom at least) but desperately tells herself she is.

- Traveler interaction is extremely cute, I don’t trust him AT ALL but I hope he likes Jester. More discussion in analysis.

- Lol Beau just wants to get in Yasha’s pants. But honestly I think we need to get to know Yasha better.

- Nott and the ponytail scene and the swimming scene.

- Molly’s the hero we deserve. Tbh I could see him and Caleb being interesting ship-wise, but even if it doesn’t happen I think that dynamic is gonna boom.

- FJORD AND BEAU.

Legit Analysis:

- Seriously tho Caleb’s gonna be real fucked up. Right now we know he has some kind of dislike for the government, we know that he has a problem with fire in the specific burning-people-to-death sense, we know his parents are no longer alive to be making money, we know his parents were destitute, we know that from his first appearance he has been called dirty and smelly and barred from various establishments due to poverty, we know he is very afraid of dying but will put himself in harms way for friends, we know he sometimes can be an actual dick granted (he destroyed the ring for the pearl Nott gave him and he also encouraged Nott going into danger while she was drunk), and he is gathering components for a spell possibly for Winter’s Crest that include body parts and mud. I have bet in the past on both the possibility of his trying to resurrect someone he killed and him trying to make himself a lich so he won’t die. I think both of these things are still possible, with the added possibility of trying to resurrect someone he hadn’t directly killed depending on circumstances. But I think whatever he attempts will be extremely dangerous and unhealthy and have a horrible cost. He has been humiliated repeatedly, and I think while it’s possible there was a period of his life when he WASN’T dirt poor I think if that’s the case then covering himself in filth thing is a really close-to-the-bone, uncomfortable cover. Being repeatedly reminded that he is gross and poor (looking at least) is just making it worse. If it’s always been the case that still sucks like hell, but I honestly think this is a return to something he never wanted to go back to. Why? Because it will mean at some point in his life he had hope, and that hope had to be extinguished and he is miserable and because I suspect Liam is also someone who twists knives. I don’t know what nature of spell Caleb is pulling but I am very sure his main motivation isn’t anger, and I’ll put some money on either guilt or fear or both. I don’t think the government is his main enemy but more of an incidental one that fucked him over. I don’t know if he killed family or a significant other, if he left his parents to be a war mage or pursue wizardry, if he just had to make a sacrifice at some point for unknown reasons, if it was magic or mundane fire that fucked him up... but I bet it will be brutal as the day is long, and I bet that part of why he isn’t telling the party is because he wouldn’t be able to take being humiliated and pitied too. I think Caleb wants dignity, and he knows that while the group is unlikely to turn on him for whatever he did they wouldn’t talk to him normally anymore either.

He gonna fuck us all guys. Just buckle up because it is coming.

- I don’t know if the Traveler likes Jester enough not to screw her later for his own purposes, because if that happened the only person who Jester could feel loved her would have been using her all along. If this happens, it will probably be waaaaaaaaaay down the line because Jester would need to have formed strong enough connections to the rest of the cast in the meantime. AND I might be wrong, it depends a lot on the Traveler’s character. So basically, ATM I dig the guy but I think he’s fully capable of crushing my beating heart and I respect that.

- We got some party themes and I think that’s significant. Besides Caleb being traumatized by fire (water puts out fire eyo), Nott being terrified of drowning but taught a little bit how to swim by the team, Mollymauk’s name coming at least in part from a sailing song type deal, Fjord having made a pact with a giant tentacle monster that makes him barf up saltwater occasionally, Jester being daughter of the Ruby of the Sea and growing up in a port area, Yasha worshiping a storm deity massively revered by sailors, and Beau ????? wears blue ???????? some shit goin’ on with water and oceans.

Naw but watch Beau lol some connection’ll come up.

- I think Nott is going to have her heart broken in the future. I don’t know exactly how. Some of this is just instinct, but I think it ties to Caleb being kind of a dick sometimes and also Caleb being self-destructive, and also Nott gradually growing close to the rest of the party when she clearly has trust issues.

- Enjoy the sun erryone my narrative senses are tingling and there be some angst on our horizon.

- Also Fjord is still a goddamn changeling that half-orc at the bathhouse had tusks and Travis only said “interesting observation” or something when a fan mentioned lack of tusks in official art. He is a fucking changeling or doppelganger or some shit I swear to god and him critiquing Beau on how she delivers compliments only strengthens the other evidence.