#and also hp isn’t high fantasy

[themoonking]

don’t know what you’re on about. if someone is actively participating in the hp fandom they aren’t actually an hp hater, they just have some things to say about it.

what utopia are you living in where the majority of people have “moved on” from hp. you don’t even have to leave tumblr to know that that’s not true. like, i fucking wish. but people still buy new fancy copies of the books, still go to universal studios multiple times just to see the park in different seasons, still put their house in their bio, still buy the merch from boxlunch or wherever and where it in public. i mean a new tv adaptation was literally just announced. what are you fucking on.

and apparently having an opinion on one of the most popular franchises in the world is “being obsessed” now. k.

it’s not actually that weird that people are saying “harry potter was never good, actually” after joanne went full mask off, and no it doesn’t mean that we all secretly think harry potter is amazing but don’t want to admit it. it’s pretty simple actually: most people read harry potter when they were children, when they hadn’t read a lot of other books and therefore didn’t have a lot to compare it to. then every time you reread it as an adult, you’re looking through pretty hefty nostalgia goggles. then, after you’ve realized that joanne is a violent bigot that wants you and / or people you love and care for dead, those goggles are broken and when you attempt to look at hp again you’re more likely to see it’s flaws. it’s not rocket science.

[petruchio]

harry potter is so funny honestly bc ultimately yes it’s just a fairly run of the mill middle grade mystery fantasy series but the thing that really sets it apart isn’t the magic, it’s that it’s a series starring only jocks.

like there was a whole house for the smart kids and not a single one of the main characters was in it. blows my mind that there’s a whole bit in one of the books where harry is gifted a mysterious potentially dangerous enchanted broom while there is a suspected murderer who is thought to be actively trying to assassinate him and when hermione is like idk maybe don’t just immediately use the potentially cursed mystery gift he low key goes ballistic on her bc he cares more about getting to play with cool sports gear more than he cares about, like, being alive. and the book fully supports him in that!! the narration is like, isn’t hermione so crazy for that. she should’ve just let him play with his new sports stuff. how dare she imply that this mysterious object that was given to him from an unknown sender might be tied to the larger plot against harry’s life despite the fact that that’s the main conflict we’re dealing with rn.

idk it’s just so funny to me that hp got such traction with nerds when the entire series is actually just about exploring the question “what if the meathead star athlete of your high school tried to solve mysteries. and also there was magic.”

[catgirlcadaver]

it’s funny I have also seen ppl hating on like pathfinder and shadow of the demon lord for being similar to dnd (high tolkien-esque fantasy games with a heavy focus on combat) but it’s like those games definitely have their flaws but they ARE good alternatives to dnd 5e in terms of combat like 5e’s massive failing is that despite presenting itself as having 3 pillars of play (Exploration, Social Interaction, and Combat), a majority of the rules and crunch are just so overfocused on combat. And that’d be fine if the combat was less stiff and repetitive (HP bloat is SUCH a massive issue at later levels and martial classes are just so limited in options) so I think jumping to similar games that do combat encounters better isn’t like bad lmao especially ones which don’t have such clunky rules like dnd (encumbrance, calculating jump distances, ability scores, etc etc etc)

[talenlee]

October 2023 Wrapup

Dread Month draws to a close! The spookiest of nights, the dawn of the dead, the uh, thing! We shed our shackles and dance in our bones, and tomorrow, go about the business of being people, once again, sloughing out into the drawing heat and the growing, burning, hateful light of a sun that resents us and we celebrate in spite of it. You know, the normal and natural way everyone relates to this time of the year.

Alright, let’s do the Game Pile articles!

Don’t Go In There, a dice chucker board game made in a charming dice tower

Backwater, a really interesting TTRPG about a post-apocalyptic vision of the parts of America that are allowed to stay permanently soggy

Phantom Ink, a hidden information ghosty game in the vein of Mysterium

Carrion, a video recreation of one of my favourite articles to read aloud from 2020

Then there’s the Story Pile!

Bloodthirsty Hearts, a fiction podcast about queer girls fighting gargoyle vampires at a convention in which they learn the valuable lessons that all systems of privilege and power aren’t as important as talking to your gay crush.

The Lighthouse, a black and white movie about what enters you when you take yourself far away from everything and empty yourself.

Jujutsu Kaisen, spoiler-free, a contextualising post about how a great Shounen Battle Anime with horror elements make the idea of shounen anime nonsense.

John Carpenter’s Halloween, from 1978, a movie that is both way better than I expected, and full of all sorts of deliberate choices that people seem to replicate for no good reasons.

Willy’s Wonderland, which is, unironically a Five Nights At Freddies fan movie made by Nicolas Cage in a month and really quite good!

This month also featured a somewhat bumper load of D&D content. First, I did some worldbuilding for Cobrin’Seil, both in revealing a new location, Uxaion, which is a necrocybermagepunk city. It’s an adventure city where you can contend with economic harm and threats, and where you can also just murder your way through cops that only respect the utility of your body as a potential undead – it’s a place for wight privilege. Then I also presented the player backgrounds for characters you could make from the Szudetken province. Along with that, I made an article about Evil Gods, and the antisemitism built into the framework of the D&D Lich, and since I was just in the territory, I made fun of the 4e D&D Vampire character class, even though I think it’s a great idea. Then, in this month’s How To Be article, where I got to hold high Harrowhark Nonagesimus, drowned sad vomiting goth of the Locked Tomb franchise, I also gave a long-form discussion of how to translate a prominent, small-cast character’s vibes in a team based game.

Up here, there’s also room to talk about an OC, Z3R0, and about the ongoing, relentless onslaught of capitalism in the creation of more than half of all valid Commander cards in the past five years.

This being October, I once again did a set of Dread Readings. I know that a lot of my friends have never partaken of a lot of classic, historically important horror media. At first, Dread Readings were Lovecraft Stories, trying to make the difficult readings of his old texts into something more approachable. Then, the year after, I started picking up short stories from other, equally classic horror material that could help – in my opinion – familiarise people with different kinds of horror that you know, didn’t just continue being Lovecraft.

This year, the four Dread Readings are:

HP Lovecraft’s The Thing On The Doorstep, which I bring up as the time Lovecraft dabbled in issues of gender.

A chapter excerpt from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows, in which Mole and Rat meet the Horned King, a totally normal thing to randomly have in an otherwise pretty Christian book!

Destiny’s No Rez For The Weary, a lore tab entry from a videogame. I liked it because it’s horror in a science fantasy space that isn’t

Paul Jenning’s Granddad’s Gifts, a haunting story from an Australian kid’s author. This is a story I really like as an example of horror used to a different romantic effect than just fear.

It wouldn’t be October, the ongoing Dread Month, without some real downer articles. Do you want to read me being a huge downer? No? Okay, well, here are links anyway. I wrote about the Silent Hill Wiki Circumcision Incident, about how we examine the death toll of Chernobyl, about the way we all live the life of Lovecraft’s horror, about the creation of an alternate reality in the form of all media that wants to pretend the Pandemic never happened, and most of all, the horror of a history seeing suicide by immolation become more common. Know what really sucks? Since writing that article I remembered the Arab Spring was kicked off by another one!

Next up, what about this month’s T-Shirt? Since I’ve been watching Jujutsu Kaisen, this horse meme and the narrative of the series came together:

This design was one of those ones where I, with enough work, was able to put together a few variations. Redbubble lets me stick things in collections, and so, here! Have a collection for your consideration of which version looks best to you.

Work-wise, this month is the tail end of semester, which means I have been, I think, marking student work every single day of this month. I’m trying to make sure my students are getting attention they need, and still also provide plans to my cohort of teachers about how we can refine these subjects going forward. This is in addition to my phd work, which…

It’s weird?

I’m excited to work more on my phd tomorrow morning. Like I am genuinely thinking about the stuff I stopped working on today and want to pick up tomorrow. There’s a mindset shift on that front that’s been really hard to get my head around. I’m glad of it.

I’m also kind of boiling with game ideas, and without a theme – and with the upcoming no effort november vibes I’m aiming for… we might see more chill vibes going forward!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[the-francakes]

I posted 1,871 times in 2022

That's 1,871 more posts than 2021!

323 posts created (17%)

1,548 posts reblogged (83%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@the-francakes

@mxlfoydraco

@scatteredstrings

@a-maidens-fantasy

@schmem14

I tagged 302 of my posts in 2022

#dramione - 57 posts

#draco malfoy - 41 posts

#microficmay2022 - 31 posts

#hermione granger - 25 posts

#harry potter fanfiction - 24 posts

#drarry - 23 posts

#hp fanfiction - 22 posts

#harry potter - 19 posts

#dramione fanfiction - 18 posts

#thefrancakes birthday pancakes - 16 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#are they dating are they fucking or are they something in between that? i dunno but you say the nasty shit in bed and its fucking awesome

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

“It’s Zabini’s birthday this Friday. Stop by for drinks?” Draco asked.

“Friday? But that’s Valentine’s Day,” Hermione blurted out. No idea why. It’s not like she had a date; she and Ron had ended things months ago.

“True,” Malfoy hummed almost to himself. Then he looked at her, those soft eyes moving to the dark metal. “Are you free?”

“Yes. I’m free."

CUPID. on AO3

48 notes - Posted February 11, 2022

#4

@microficmay Day 9: ferocity

“Albus Severus is a stupid name!” 

“And Scorpius isn’t?!” 

Neither man was backing down. Again.

“I think my water broke,” Luna said softly. Both father-to-be’s didn’t hear and continued yelling with fury. She grabbed her go bag and headed to the fireplace; they’d notice she was gone eventually.

50 notes - Posted May 16, 2022

#3

Hi! Here’s my rec list of 22 fics to share with everyone. thank you for such a fun year and more to come in such a loving community! These are in no particular order except laziness because i don’t want to put them in ABC order... I also did not have banners for all of these cause i lost track of time so... that’s pretty much on par with me actually i have no excuses. 

MAIN POST

Far Be It From Me by @riptey

voici mon secret by secretpersona

What is this, fucking Jeopardy? by @lumosatnight

The Letter of Intent by @aauroraluna

Doppelgangland by damnedscribblingwoman 

A Dress with Pockets by @pacific-rimbaud

Seeker’s High by @corvuscrowned

All’s Fair in Love, and War, and Paintball by @schmem14

8 Simple Rules For Loving A Vampire by @simplifiedemotions 

Lemon Colour, Honey Glow by trishjames 

Ab Intra, Ab Extra by @arrisha-ao3

 Choices by MesserMoon

The Mirror of Ecidyrue Series by starbrigid 

Isolation by bexchan 

Not Friends, Some Benefits by devdevlin 

Vis-à-Vis-à-Vis by @vukovich

[Podfic] The (Third) Worst Year By TheFrancakes by @ellamcsmellbella 

favourite crime by Anonymous (this was a gift for me and i still dunno who it is but !!! dramione if the drawing room incident went very wrong!!!) 

Secrecy by @Shadowmu

just lovers (like we were supposed to be) by @zeppazariel

Warm Bodies by Betty_Hazel

Rewrite the Stars by KenzieSpenc (this is my cousin and im SO PROUD of her starting to write!!!) 

50 notes - Posted September 22, 2022

#2

me: ughhh i dunno what to write

my wips: (ง •̀_•́)ง 

89 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

@microficmay Day 28: epilogue

Draco closed the book and scoffed loudly. “Pure trash.” 

“What is?” Harry asked, wrapping his arms around his husband’s middle. 

“The ending,” Draco leaned back, still annoyed. “She wrote that you married Weaslette and that I'm balding.”

“Trash,” Harry agreed, kissing Draco’s shoulder. 

“Right?” Draco muttered, “balding? As if.”

181 notes - Posted May 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[freyayuki]

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Llyud and Tifa Lockhart Banner

The Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) event just started in the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game. This event came with 1 banner.

Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) Banner

The Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) banner features the following chars and their weapons:

Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII - Burst or BT only

Llyud from Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, LD, and Force or FR

Zell Dincht from Final Fantasy VIII - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD

Amidatelion from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD

Missing Tifa’s BT, Llyud’s FR, and Zell’s Ex. Have a copy of Zell’s Ex that hasn’t been limit broken at all. Have all the other weapons featured on this banner and they’re all fully MLB already.

Thoughts about Llyud from Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

I like Llyud from Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings well enough but wouldn’t call him a fave or anything.

I did pull for him when he first debuted as a playable char in this game with his 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD weapons. Got to use him a few times too. Even completed all of his Boards and Realized his High Armor to 0/3.

Llyud is a support and healer with pretty decent buffs and auras. His main gimmick is being able to instantly charge the Ex abilities of his allies. He can deal decent enough damage too.

Now Llyud comes back to DFFOO with his own Force weapon. The force time effects of Llyud’s FR are as follows:

HP damage bonus +40% when party member takes turn while level-based buff or special effect active

HP damage bonus +20% when certain amount of HP restored at start of party member’s own turn or party member restores HP on party member’s own turn

Llyud’s FR isn’t meta but since he provides party-wide HP Regen, all chars will be able to increase his FR’s HP damage bonus by 20%.

There are also a lot of chars with level-based buffs and/or special effects. For instance, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII (#ad) has 3 buffs (Jenova, Reunion, and Bringer of Despair) and all of them are level-based.

Currently, I always try to use Sephiroth in any and all endgame content that appears in DFFOO. He doesn’t have his own Force weapon yet though so I need to pair him with someone who does.

As such, am always on the lookout for upcoming Force weapons whose conditions for increasing the HP damage bonus are easy enough for Seph to fulfill.

The first time I saw the force time effects of Llyud’s FR, I thought this could be really good for Sephi. With this, Seph can increase the HP damage bonus by 60% each time he takes a turn. So I made plans to pull for Llyud’s FR.

Llyud’s FR vs Iroha’s FR vs Cor Leonis’s FR

However, the closer we got to the time wherein Llyud’s FR will finally show up in the game, I started having second thoughts. Do I really need Llyud’s FR?

I started thinking that maybe I could do without it since I already have a lot of FRs and there are more coming up that will be even better than Llyud’s and that I want to pull for.

One of the Force weapons that I have and that seems to be the most similar to Llyud’s in terms of being rather generic is the one that belongs to Iroha from Final Fantasy XI.

Kinen no Isshi, Iroha’s Force ability, has the following force time effects:

HP damage bonus +30% when individual HP at least 100% of max on party member’s own turn

HP damage bonus +20% when individual BRV at least 20% of max on party member’s own turn

Iroha’s similar to Llyud in that she’s also a support and healer with pretty good buffs and auras.

Her main claim to fame and what makes her different from other supports is that she allows everyone in the party to retain 20% of their brave in between each of their HP attacks.

With Iroha’s healing and BRV retain gimmick, any char should be able to easily increase the HP damage bonus of Iroha’s FR by 50% each turn.

Llyud’s FR is better in that it’s possible to increase the HP damage bonus by 60% each turn so my plan had been to skip Iroha’s FR and just wait for Llyud’s to show up.

Except when Iroha’s FR showed up, ended up pulling for it. I talk more about that in another post. Was able to get Iroha’s FR. Fully MLB’d it and got to use it a few times.

But I didn’t use Iroha for long. Dropped her as soon as I got other FRs even if the HP damage bonus from those other Force weapons wasn’t that high.

That’s because my Iroha isn’t fully built. She has all of her weapons fully MLB. All of her Summon Boards have been completed. She has her High Armor and it’s been Realized to 0/3.

But I didn’t get any of her Force Enhancements. Only unlocked parts of her Character Enhancement Boards, particularly the tiles that would give me her LD Call and LD extension passive. She has triple perfect Artifacts and one RF Sphere.

She still works well enough in this state but of course chars who were actually fully built were better so I opted to use those chars instead of Iroha.

Cor Leonis from Final Fantasy XV is one of the chars who I have fully built. Have his 15cp, 35cp, Ex, LD, and FR fully MLB. His High Armor’s been Blued.

All of his Boards and Force Enhancements have been completed. He has triple perfect Artifacts and triple RF Spheres. He even has a fully leveled Special or Unique-type Ultima Weapon.

At the moment, my FR of choice is Cor’s. The force time effects of Cor’s FR are as follows:

HP damage bonus +5% after party member’s additional attack triggered not on own turn

HP damage bonus +40% when party member deals at least 9999 BRV damage in 1 hit on party member’s own turn

Cor is a support slash DPS. He can deal pretty good damage but he can also support the party via his buffs and auras. He can battery the party and he even provides party-wide HP Regen.

His main gimmick is giving one of his allies a buff that links him to them. This causes him to attack and deal damage to the enemy right before the char he’s linked with gets to move.

Iroha’s FR may have a higher HP damage bonus per turn but my Cor is fully built unlike her so he deals more damage than her and is able to support the party more. Plus, that 5% can add up since Cor will be able to trigger this every time the ally he’s linked with (usually, I have him linked to Seph) moves.

Even if I get Llyud’s FR and decide to MLB it, I’m pretty sure that he’s just gonna end up like Iroha in that he won’t be fully built. This is especially because it takes a lot of resources to fully build a char.

Completing a char’s Force Enhancements and Char Boards takes lots of scarce resources so really need to be selective in who gets these upgrades.

I don’t think Llyud is gonna make the cut. I mean, sure, he’s pretty good but he’s not that good. And he’s not even a fave or anything. There are other upcoming chars who I want to pull for and who I’d prefer to fully build and max out.

My new plan was now to skip the Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) banner. Well, other than doing the first free multi-draw we’re gonna get as part of the autumn campaign anyway.

Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) Banner Free First Multi-Draw Results

As aforementioned, thanks to the currently-ongoing autumn campaign, our first multi-draw on the Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) banner is free.

The free multi-draw gave me a gold orb, which turned into a dupe of Llyud’s LD. Meh. If I was gonna get a dupe LD, why couldn’t it have been Zell’s instead? Could have used it to limit break the copy I already have.

Reasons to Pull on the Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) Banner

After doing the free first multi-draw on the Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) banner, should have walked away already. Shoul be over and done with this banner.

It’s too bad that I missed out on Llyud’s FR but it’s not like I really need it or anything. But it’s not just Llyud’s FR or even Zell’s Ex that I’m missing. It’s also Tifa’s BT.

There’s another banner that features all of TIfa Lockhart’s weapons. Already have her 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD but was missing her FR and BT so I pulled on this banner with gems.

I talk more about the results of my pulls on that banner in another post but I was thankfully able to get Tifa’s FR without having to pity it. Unfortunately, her Burst didn’t show up in any of my pulls on said banner.

I like Tifa. She’s one of the chars that I want to fully build and max out. So of course that includes getting her Burst and Greening it.

But the thing is I don’t want to pull on her FR banner anymore because the only thing I’m missing there is her BT. My plan is to just use my Burst Tokens to exchange for 1 copy of Tifa’s BT.

Couldn’t do that yet though because there are 2 more banners that will feature Tifa’s BT and that will come with a free first multi-draw. So I want to do the free pull on those banners first before exchanging my Tokens for Tifa’s Burst.

The chances may be minuscule but it’s still possible for Tifa’s BT to show up on one of these free draws. Don’t want to risk spending my Tokens only to end up getting TIfa’s BT for free later on.

Anyway, one of the banners that have Tifa’s BT is the Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) banner. Now I just need to wait for the last banner that will feature Tifa’s BT to get to the game.

Just need to wait for a few days but this feels like an eternity. Want to have Tifa’s BT already. So I decided to toss a few tickets on the Llyud FR banner in the hopes of getting lucky and being able to get Tifa’s Burst already.

Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) Banner Tickets Pulls Results

Currently have 480 tickets on hand.

The Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) banner gave me the usual bronze and silver trash and a few gold dupes. Even got 10-draws that didn’t give me a single gold weapon.

Here are the results of some of my more notable 10-draws on this banner:

3/10, came from a gold orb - dupes of Llyud’s Ex, Llyud’s 15cp, and Amidatelion’s 15cp

2/10 - dupes of Llyud’s Ex and Amidatelion’s 15cp

A bit later on, got my very first copy of Zell’s Ex.

It came with a dupe of Llyud’s 35cp.

It’s always nice to get something new but still wish this had been Tifa’s BT or even Llyud’s FR instead.

Zell’s kinda outdated and powercrept by now. He doesn’t even have his own Force weapon yet so have no plans of using him for any endgament content.

2/10, came from a gold orb - dupes of Amidatelion’s 35cp and Llyud’s LD

Ugh. Wish that dupe LD had been Zell’s instead. Sigh. Also, Tifa BT and Llyud FR, doko da?

2/10, came from a gold orb - dupes of Zell’s 35cp and Zell’s Ex

Then, much later, actually got a force orb. Hell, yes!

Super pleased to see this purple orb. Also super pleased to have gotten my very first copy of Llyud’s FR.

Not sure if I’ll actually bother to spend the resources needed to MLB this but it’s still great to have been able to acquire this anyway. At least I have it in case I need it.

This 10-draw only gave me Llyud’s FR.

Still have 340 tickets left when Llyud’s FR appeared.

It’s really too bad that Tifa’s Burst didn’t show up but since I already have everything else on this banner, can’t really justify continuing to toss tickets here. Should just wait until I can finally Token Tifa’s BT. It’s only a few more days. Just need to be patient. I can do this. Wish me luck. LOL.

Update: ended up not bothering to max out Llyud and his FR. Really don’t need him right now.

Also, I talk more about this in another post but I was finally able to get Tifa’s Burst. Super happy to say that my Tifa is now fully built and maxed out. Even made her a Level 5 of 5 Fist-type Ultima Weapon.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull on the Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) banner? What do you think about Tifa Lockhart, Llyud and all the other chars featured on this banner? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account

[myrskytuuli]

At this point I think some fantasy author should just bite the bullet and write a novel where a teenager protagonist lives as a secret magic-user in our world and tries to master their skills in a magic school, but it is explicitly not an English or American protagonist, and the more they start to understand the world they live in, they more they realise that globally magic practicioners are being heavily scrutinisied and supressed by an anglo-american hegemony, which was established during England’s imperial years and has survived to this day as the “global magical hegemony” where England has an unfair advantage over all others because they stole almost all powerful magical artefacts and now refuse to give them back.

And as the protagonist gets more involved in the ways magic outside of anglo-saxon cultural sphere is being supressed, the more the reader will realise that we are referencing Harry Potter here. People will talk about “That English school” where most hegemony enforcers are alumni from. People will share urban legends that they still allow segrecation and slavery in England, and no one will believe them “because come one, we live in the 21st century” but that one character who worked with the English keeps unnervingly quiet. And there are references to a dangerous high-level enforcer with green eyes who is also a war veteran, who isn’t an evil guy, but from the point of view of the story is very much an antagonist.

And the world is built in such a way that it slots seamlessly into Rowling’s canon, but at the same time not a single Harry Potter related thing is actually named. And obviously there should be a lot of friction regarding the fact that a lot of magic traditions around the world are built around the assumption that Gender-noncomformity and crossdressing and gender-identities outside from the “mundane” two sex system are signs of magical identity, expect for the Anglo-saxon hegemony which very agressively will stamp down on those traditions.

And now that I’m stream-of-consciousness writing all this down, I realise that the story should obviously climax with a heist, where a group misfits try to break into the hidden magical floor of the British Museum and steal back some artefacts.

And the story should be an anthology between several different writers from different countries, all disillusioned HP fans.

[azureflight]

The Legend of Vox Machina Tin Foil Hat Theory: No real death will happen until the one in the end

Alright people, I know that title reads like gibberish, I apologize. I was trying to be as vague as possible in order to avoid spoiling things too much for show only fans. With that said, be warned, massive spoilers for Campaign 1, way beyond any points covered in the animated series.

SPOILERS FOR CAMPAIGN 1 *

*

*

*

Okay, now. What I mean here is that none of the VM will truly die, until Vax’ death in “Race to the Tower”. Several of the important deaths that occur in the story, will instead be really heavy “near-death experiences”, with the only real death being the Vax��s. I also believe majority of the deaths will simply not happen, and we will simply focus on a few key ones that were major turning points for characters or the overall plot. The rest will at most, get a nod in the form of someone getting heavily injured or almost dying to something and making a comment about it. 

My reasoning for this goes like this:

While death still carries weight in the game due to Matt’s resurrection rules, this is unfortunately not something that translates well into a scripted story. In the game, we know anything can happen, because of the roll of the dice. In the show, people will never get that feeling no matter how much meta info is dropped on them. Within the animated show itself, everything feels pre-arranged, so any resurrection will always feel cheap.

While I believe you can absolutely write a story with the generous resurrection system of 5e and still make stakes high and risks compelling, I’m afraid TLOVM did not go that route in the first season and now it’s too late to establish such a thing. Mind you, no show on tv ever managed that yet either, so this isn’t really a point against tlovm, just that this aspect of TTRPGs and fantasy settings is yet to be properly translated onto screen.

Most of the deaths, are results of HP/DS based game mechanics and don’t have any impact on the story beyond the momentary stress it caused the cast and the viewers.

The “important deaths” as I call them, would actually translate into non-death events pretty well and would carry that weight in the animated series in a way that they wouldn’t if they were left as death-resurrection.

The way I see it, we have three important deaths in C1, other than Vax. We have Vex in “The Sunken Tomb”, we have Percy in “Cloak and Dagger”, we have Scanlan in “The Deceiver’s Stand”. Each of these deaths represent a massive turning point in character’s own journey and the overall plot itself.

The first one is obvious. Vax offers himself to the Raven Queen, starting off the Fate-Touched plotline which shapes entirety of his character arc, eventually tying into the very ending of his journey and the story of Vox Machina. Vex herself has a change of perspective and approach, becoming bolder, more carefree, trying to learn to forgive, open up more and work through her trauma and inner conflicts.

Percy’s death is essentially the true closing chapter of his previous arc lingering since Whitestone-Briarwoods. His forgiveness of Ripley with his dying breath, his friends saving his soul from Orthax and Vex’ love confession bringing him back to life. This is the end of his descent and the start of his recovery. Launching of a major romance that builds up the conclusion of both his and Vex’ personal journeys.

Scanlan’s death against Raishan and the aftermath of his resurrection is when he finally get the development that has been hinted at since the start. All of the subtle tension building up throughout the series, the insults, the self-doubt, the desperation, all of it blow up in one infamous rant. We temporarily lose Scanlan completely in the story and instead given Taryon as a character in his place. It is one of the major events that turn the ever tense relationships of VM, solidly into one of found family, albeit a a bit dysfunctional one.

I believe, all of these can be near-death experiences, “almost dead/stuck in purgatory” type of deals:

Vex’s is obvious and they almost laid down the ground work for it in season 1 with the spinning orb of death in Ziggurat. Audience is familiar with the concept of magic failing and some places not allowing normal healing etc. The Sunken Tomb, the domain of the Goddess of Death, not allowing her to heal after Percy triggers the trap, and her slowly fading away pretty much like how Keyleth was depicted in season 1, only for this time, there is no safe place to retreat and instead the entity in charge, Raven Queen, appears, and Vax, who was also desperate to save Keyleth and kept trying till the last moment, offers himself up in a bargain.

Percy gets shot, so far so good. We already know his deal with Orthax and how his gun feeds him souls. Now he is on the receiving end with Ripley’s deal and gun. Again, they try to heal him, it doesn’t work. They realize Orthax has his soul because gun shot. They banish Orthax, Vex calls out to Percy as they try to heal him one more time. He decides to “come back” from the weird pocket dimension of Orthax instead of passing on.

Scanlan almost dies, is in a coma. We first get all panicky, but after his “life” is secured, the party goes on to do stuff, as he sleeps in essentially intensive care, pretty much what they did in campaign. He blows up after he wakes up, just like in the campaign. we may even get a glimpse of Scanlan in drug/magic induced healing sleep, seeing dreams and getting more hints about his inner turmoil.

What does these changes achieve? 

They keep the stakes high throughout the series, without trivializing death itself. It prevents the age old, in my opinion silly, yet stil prevalent complaints of “if they could resurrect X there, why not Y here?”

It lulls the audience into a false sense of security. They know the characters can be in danger and be injured, they will have tasted the drama and emotional weight of all those “close calls”. But ultimately no one died, so “everyone will be ok in the end” will be the common sentiment towards the end.

And then BAM! Vax actually, literally dies. No close-call, no near death. My boy literally gets disintegrated. The shock, the fear, the pain. And then, again the audience will be sure “oh no way, they will find a way right?”

And yes, we do have a “way”. But there is a catch! It is not permanent, it is gonna pass once the mission is done, or the year is over. That anguish and hope we all had, that all of VM had to deal with, the theories and speculations, will properly translate to the audience.

And in the end, when he is not saved, when there is no gimmick, when the Wish is used on the Whispered One and the VM saves the world, but Vax is lost forever... It will be the epic bittersweet ending that was the legend of Vox Machina. It will be adapted not only in the sense of the events being depicted, but truly. They will do justice to the hearth and the soul of the story.

Or they will find a way to depict all those resurrections without feeling gimmicky/plot armor/asspull in a scripted narrative, and we will all enjoy it together.

The reason I call this “tin foil hat”, is because while I am certain most of the deaths will simply not be adapted, I believe the three important deaths I mentioned here can still be adapted in a way that does not cheapen death, at least not by much. I just think this is a far more neat and clean “solution” to the “resurrection in D&D games not translating well into scripted format” problem. 

[tainbocuailnge]

fgo criticisms have been flaring up in the wake of dw’s sakura wars mobile game quitting after only half a year but I have a disease that makes me get defensive when people try to rip fgo apart as this uniquely terrible game with uniquely terrible devs so i’m going to complain about people who are complaining for a bit.

i hadn’t heard of the sakura wars game before it shut down but from what i’ve been able to find it suffered from a lot of the same problems as (launch) fgo, terrible gacha rates with no pity, slow ap recovery rates, barebones repetitive gameplay. so i guess seeing how fast sakura wars was shut down people feel like it’s only the fate name holding up fgo and in the early launch days of barely playable fgo that was definitely the case but I don’t think it’s fair to fgo to act like people only continue to play it because it’s fate, and “being like fgo” wasn’t the only problem with sakura wars either. sakura wars is a vn/dating sim series that attempted to revive the series with a mobile game that featured none of the original cast that fans cared about while fate was already a series with new characters and a new setting every instalment and the thing that stood out in this new game was actually that it DID have characters from previous fates available. hell, it’s not fair to sakura wars to claim that its series name is simply weaker than fate’s when there were other factors involved in its failure beyond “being a delightworks game”

fgo DOES improve, launch fgo is unrecognisable compared to current fgo in a good way. events have become more streamlined (events have mid- to lategame enemy hp scaling but feature damage ce’s to let newer players keep up, mission events are set up so that they basically clear themselves just by farming the most recently unlocked node), they experiment with new game modes and gameplay mechanics on the regular, they’re taking more care to make viable permanent servants and buff the older ones, and the past few months there’s also been a noticeable effort to throw out random banners for minor things as an excuse to rerun old limited servants more often. I’ll admit the bar is on the low side (strengthening quests are a ridiculous model, there shouldn’t be this many limiteds to need reruns in the first place, etc) and progress is slower than many people are willing to put up with, and I’m not saying anyone Has to put up with it or they’re a fake fan or whatever, but like, granblue fantasy is seven years old and still doesn’t have the ability to uncap a weapon multiple stages at a time when its entire gameplay loop centers around farming and uncapping weapons and they’ve buffed heles like 7 times but she’s still shit, none of fgo’s problems are exclusive to fgo.

i LIKE playing fgo. i like tapping the cards and watching my little guys go and coming up with different teams to make them go harder or just look good together or even lean into the Themes. and this is going a little bit on a tangent but i have this post window open anyway i was talking with friends earlier that one problem that a lot of mobile games seem to have is that they use “making the game play itself” as substitute for “making the game fun to play”. the only game with autobattle functionality (out of the ones I play, i don’t know everything that’s out there of course) that I feel DOESN’T do this is arknights, where you solve the puzzle that the stage presents in order to earn the right to not have to solve the puzzle every single time you play the stage and coming up with different efficient or perhaps ridiculous ways to solve the puzzle is part of playing the game. the worst case I know is dragalia lost which upon realizing that playing it sucks implemented an item to just let you skip playing stages altogether. “this game is good because you don’t have to play it” is not the selling point some people (and devs) think it is, and fgo refuses to fall into that trap - something I believe is an intentional decision because of their explicit refusal to implement NP skip.

one big advantage that fgo has over the other mobile games i’ve played is that it’s entirely turn based with no real time elements beyond start and end times of events. fgo doesn’t NEED to continue playing itself when you look away because looking away has no bearing whatsoever on your ability to clear the quest, fgo doesn’t give a shit if you look away for six hours and then close the game and only reopen it another ten hours later, you can continue right where you left off. the problem is not that you have to manually play the quest, because as far as the system is concerned you can take as much time as you like to clear that quest, it’s that the greater structure of the game wants you to repeatedly manually clear the same low-stakes quest for disproportionately small rewards. this one’s easy enough to solve by just increasing material droprates across the board. repeat clearing a low level quest is much less frustrating if you actually get drops every other clear.

but that’s a bandaid solution, because related to the issue of having to manually farm low-stakes quests is the lack of high-stakes quests to do when you want to do something a little more engaging than routine farming. outside of event challenge quests with their time limited availability, certain main story chapters that you can’t replay, and recently on JP the permanently available kiara challenge quest in the main interlude, there simply isn’t any difficult content to play. you could argue about fgo’s merit as strategy rpg in the first place i suppose but if you ask me it does have that merit and there is a clear effort from dw’s part to improve the depth of fgo’s strategy elements, the issue is that there is simply not that much content available to unleash those strategies on. of course you’re gonna get bored if all there is to do is either brainlessly repeat the same quest for minimal rewards or play the specific challenge quest that the game hands you right this moment regardless of whether that’s the kind of challenge you feel like facing right now. the solution to this one, although it’s likely going to take some significant effort on dw’s side to implement, is to make main story quests replayable.

you want to flex your brain muscles but there’s no challenge event right now? you stomped on a boss by using overpowered servants the first time but want to challenge yourself with some 3* this time? or the other way around, you beat a boss by the skin of your teeth the first time but want to stomp all over them now that you rolled some bitching 5*? you rolled a servant that’s not that suitable for day to day farming but would really shine in more difficult content and you want to try them out? you have a silly strategy in mind that would only work against certain story enemies? you’re like me and just really crave the shimosa duels? all of this involves content that already exists and is available in the game, dw would just have to figure out a way to let you access it again after clearing the chapter. and of course ideally this extends to event story quests once they’re added to the main interlude

i guess another way to put it is that i think the reason a lot of people say fgo has bad gameplay is not that its gameplay system is actually bad, in fact it has the potential to be very engaging, but rather that it’s a system that is set up to respect your time through the ability to put down the game absolutely whenever you want without being penalised, only for the game around it to go and penalise you for putting it down anyway. if you don’t diligently spend all your ap farming this quest you won’t get single damn material drop, and if you don’t play the event while it‘s happening you’re going to miss out because you can’t be sure when if ever it’ll return. so the number one way to solve the problem of fgo’s “bad gameplay” is not to make the game play itself whenever it tells you to play, but rather to make content more easily available so you don’t have to play if you don’t want to and CAN play if you do want to. thank you for coming to my ted talk i suppose

[loveatfirstwriteblog]

A Complete Analysis of Harry Potter

Like a lot of kids, we probably grew up on Harry potter. We were obsessed and rightly so. The universe created in the world of Harry Potter was, and is, a hugely successful one because of the fact it gave kids a world where magic exists! It seemed to be a great world to live in and it made even better with the fact that it included elements of empowerment, Whether it be showing girls can be just as successful if not more in various pursuits(Hermione), or the fact that even if you have a history of bad events, you can have a good heart(Hagrid), Harry Potter teaches us a lot.

JKR has written a mind-blowing plot in a world of magic, wizards, witches, wands, potions, friendship, love. Our inner-five-year olds--and actually most of our young adult selves too--jumps around excitedly at the beautifully penned words that creates an exit out of this world and into one where magic does exist. 

As you get older, though, you begin to think of Harry Potter in a more critical fashion. The thought of “oh my god, it’s magic” no longer completely overrides my mind, but more of “but what are the laws regarding this? Can people just do this whenever they want? Are there no ethics?” 

No matter how much we’re going to expose the flaws and plot holes in HP now, we’ll always love the books--we grew up on them! But some things just niggle you as you get older, and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on in this post.

Something I adore about the HP books is that everyone, including the “good guys”, has flaws. Harry has a “save the world alone, do first, think later” complex, a driving force that makes him go save Sirius, Ron is very, very insecure to a point where he ditches Harry twice, probably when Harry needed him the most, Hermione is a judgemental, narrow-minded nag (her thoughts on Luna, divination, Trelawney, basically anything that doesn’t fit her black and white world), Molly Weasley is misogynistic and blatantly favourites her children—probably being one of the main factors behind Ron’s insecurities, Arthur is condescending towards Muggles and makes several comments you cringe at while reading the books as a young adult/adult, Sirius, Snape, and Lupin still haven’t let go of their childhood grudges and hatred, etc etc etc. 

These flaws are what make these characters so three-dimensional, so layered, so human. But the problem was, most of these flaws are never intentionally acknowledged. And honestly, that could have been such a good character arc, because the main characters are mostly students. No student is the same through their teenage years—they change, they evolve, they get over their flaws, they try to better themselves. I would have loved to see Ron becoming his own person, Hermione opening her mind up a little, etc. 

Neville is not one of my favourites, but I love his growth and development, from someone who was scared of his potions professor to a man who faced down Lord Voldemort. Ginny Weasley could have had character development, from the trauma she went through in second year, but that was never written in.  She went through this terrifying ordeal when she was only twelve years old, and jump to a year or two later and she’s absolutely fine, with no transition from her trauma whatsoever.

Some of JKR’s characters are brilliantly written and fleshed out, but some of her others lack the structure and complexity that usually comes with being vital to the plot—Ginny Weasley for one. Her internalised misogyny also plays a huge part in the way her female characters are written. We see this again in the case of how she wrote the character of Ginny. 

Ginny Weasley is not a favourite of ours (if you don’t know that by now). She feels a lot like a convenient male daydream—when she waits for Harry to notice her by dating other guys, gets annoyed by Hermione “not knowing quidditch”, etc etc—and fits the “not like other girls” archetype too much, almost like she was made for it (hint hint). She’s portrayed to be strong-willed, spunky, and independent, and I love the idea, but I really don’t see it. To me, she’s a very shallow character, the least fleshed out one. 

Just like James Potter wasn’t necessarily redeemed just because JKR said he was, and Ginny isn’t interesting just because JKR writes that she is. 

Hermione also fits the archetype, but she’s JKR’s self-insert, so we really can’t say much about that. 

To make things worse, Ginny and Hermione are pitted against each other in a very subtle way. Ginny is the sporty, pretty, flirty girl who’s never single from book 4. Hermione is the not-conventionally-attractive, nerdy girl who’s had a few dates here and there but never a relationship. They’re very different characters (the only thing they have in common is the archetype) but they’re against each other in the defence of Harry. 

Another place where JKR’s misogyny shows up is the way other girls are written. Lavender Brown is shown as vapid and immature, just because she likes clothes and boys and didn’t know how to handle her first relationship. Cho Chang is perceived as shallow because she’s emotional. Pansy Parkinson is seen to be throwing herself at Draco Malfoy. The Weasleys hated Fleur because she was beautiful and sexy and French, and that was ever really resolved in the end (Molly accepted her, but we never got Ginny’s and Hermione’s opinions again). You see where we’re getting at? The typical “girly girls” are portrayed as insipid, shallow, emotional, and boring, while girls like Hermione and Ginny are seen to be fun and multilayered. 

The problems with Harry Potter don’t just stop with non-fleshed out characters. There are plot devices that go unacknowledged, issues like blood purity—which is the basis of Voldemort’s tyranny—are never really resolved, huge Chekhov’s guns that aren’t fired. 

A common misconception, which if cleared up could probably expose a load of problems in wizarding society by itself, is that the wizarding world is racist. It’s not racist. Muggles and Muggleborns are not a different race, they’re a different class, at least according to pureblood wizards. Mudblood is a classist insult (a direct reference to nobility blueblood and aristocracy).

Another factor that wasn’t talked about but made the HP world so complex and realistic is the inherent classism in every single pureblooded wizard, including the Weasleys.

 The “Light” wizards all operate on the notion “at least I don’t kill or torture Muggles”. The Weasleys refuse to talk about Molly’s squib cousin who’s an accountant, the Longbottoms were so desperate for Neville to not be a squib they nearly killed him trying to force magic out of him, Ron makes fun of Filch for being a squib, thinks house-elves are beneath him, and confounds his driving instructor in his mid-thirties, the ministry workers kept obliviating that muggle at the quidditch World Cup, etc. 

This could have been a metaphor for how small prejudices and microaggressions (kind of the wizarding equivalent of white privilege) enable discrimination and murder, if JKR had actually acknowledged it. 

The parallel to Nazi Germany is very twisted and definitely shouldn’t be taken too far, but the Nazi ideology grew on the basis of everyday antisemitism, “that’s not that bad” little things. Voldemort’s circle and army grew because the wizard superiority complex festered and blew up in some people, egged on by a deeply classist society. 

Ultimately, Harry Potter has very, very shoddy worldbuilding, the kind of worldbuilding that’s obsessed with answering the “what” of the wizarding world, rather than the “how” or the “why”, which is strange, considering that fantasy or dystopian-era novels’ driving plots and conflicts are usually answering the questions the worldbuilding raises--The Hunger Games and The Shadowhunter Chronicles are two of the best examples of brilliantly written YA fantasy and dystopian novels. 

In HP, however, the main plot just avoids the questions the worldbuilding brings up like the bubonic plague. 

Voldemort’s agenda is built on prejudice towards Muggles and Muggleborns, but the plot just validates the negative perception of them—at the end of the day, being a wizard is what’s special. The Statute of Secrecy is the foundation of the main concept—blood supremacists believe wizards shouldn’t be hidden away—but only vague, barely-there answers are given to why it exists (a Chekhov’s gun that was never fired). 

There are love potions that function like date rape drugs (even Harry was given one by a girl who wanted him to ask her out), potions that force people to tell the truth, potions that literally let you disguise yourself as another person, but the ethics are never talked about, and the laws are so lax that three twelve-year-olds broke them and were never caught. 

But at the same time, the worldbuilding is so authentic, because it transforms the wizarding world into straight-up fridge horror. The everyday horrors are just accepted and rolled with. A corrupt government, constant obliviation of Muggles, slavery that isn’t even talked about. These things aren’t obvious to us as readers, or to the wizards as characters, because they match up to the real world, which is filled with things that are horrifying if you dig deeper. The multiple, normalised forms of abuse, police brutality, the violence in prisons that nothing is done about, the glaringly obvious cultural problems we have with consent, etc. 

The abusive authoritative figures in HP, like Rufus Scrimgeour, Cornelius Fudge, Dumbledore, Umbridge, etc, are so authentic because real-life politicians and people in high places of power behave that way, and their abuse is excused. 

The wizarding world is just like the real world. Corrupt, prejudiced, messed up, but if you’re privileged, or at least have certain privileges, you’re probably not going to notice. The ultimate problem is that the plot doesn’t acknowledge a lot of fridge horror things are messed up either, which is why it miserably fails. 

[wistfulrat]

this week’s fics! feat. bakeries, bookshops, bisexual awakenings of the angsty and fluffy sort, wolfstar goddads being tender as hell, desi harry reconnecting with his culture, domestic drarry, a lap dance set to akon’s smack that, and more!

But That’s History by @ebbet - 54k - T Harry Potter starts his first year as Muggle Studies Professor only to find that Draco Malfoy has been hired to teach History of Magic.

listen to me. this is one of the funniest drarry fics i've ever read. i was cackling in my bed at 2am because harry’s internal monologues throughout this fic are unhinged. insanely quotable. “what was he, a lothario” and “you were crushing me with your muscular thighs!” are lines that live rent free in my empty head. harry has never played anything cool a day in his life. there’s a faculty meeting where the teachers are planning the yule ball and debating the merits of a DJ when harry decides he must defend his muggle-music-loving honor by dancing seductively to akon’s smack that while a blushing draco loses his mind. i fucking screamed. and the best part is that in between the comedic scenes threading the overall story, you have extremely tender moments of like, padma patil helping harry become a more rooted desi by sharing their cultural traditions, harry proudly donning his sherwani. draco wrestling with his past, going to harry’s lgbtq+ club for students, being sheepish with ron and hermione. ugh, comedic writers with emotional depth are clever and talented as hell!!

Realities, Unfurling by @ebbet - 45k - M Draco Malfoy is released from Azkaban into a changed world.

incredible collage-fic told from multiple povs. 8yrs post-war and everything’s changed. the current state of the magical world unfolds via slice-of-life snapshots from a truly stunning cast. non-binary harry whom is running a non-prof org dedicated to building tolerance and establishing equality for marginalized identities. post-prison-release draco whose life will be changed by the internet. neville’s tender relationship with blaise. andromeda’s fiercely protective mothering. remus and sirius being alive and very hot and just, the tender goddads harry deserved. cho chang being brilliant. baker pansy’s softened edges. found families abound. harry being flustered by their crush on draco and making personalized playlists on an iPod nano.

that all might sound narratively cluttered but the author more than pulls this off. glorious, start to finish.

Knead by @jovialobservationanchor (an @hd-erised​ fic) - 83k - E This is not a story about Harry renovating Grimmauld Place. This is a story about coffee shops and brewpubs, about Ginny and Luna on a farm with creatures, about magical Oregon, coastal road trips, flying, friendship, and Draco Malfoy's lean arms.

cinematic. a love letter to oregon’s expansive landscapes and lively cities. it’s harry finding home in unexpected places and people. in the vast silence of rolling fields, endless coasts, and starry night skies big enough to feel like you’re adrift in space. and it’s also the lingering, intimate quiet of early mornings in a bakery, sitting on a park bench overlooking the city as you eat ice cream next to your crush. it’s harry watching ginny and luna dance and work around each other like bees. it’s the slow unfolding of harry and draco’s relationship as they fill each other’s quiet. finishing this fic is like waking from a good dream. transporting, immersive, lovely. 

Harry Potter and the Bisexual Awakening by @writcraft - 20k - E Harry is perfectly content being single, heterosexual and living in Godric's Hollow with his very clingy rescue dog, Snitch. When Draco Malfoy turns up on Harry's doorstep demanding that Harry teach him how to drive, things quickly become a lot more complicated.

first of all, i feel very seen by draco being a gay-who-can’t-drive. it’s called representation. but mostly i love the ease of harry and draco’s banter, a flustered harry discovering his sexuality, and the way this fic addresses biphobia. also very emo over this exchange: “I think I might be scared of you, but probably not for the reasons you think.” “Yes.” Draco stares at Harry. “I think I might be scared of you too.”

Forged through flowing water by @tedahfromtayla (an @hd-erised​ fic) - 40k - E When Hermione sets up a diplomatic mission to begin repairing the damage British colonisation did to Indian magical communities Harry isn’t going to pass on the opportunity to visit and help his family’s home country. Maybe he should have asked a few more questions about the personnel she had recruited for it before signing on because Malfoy surely has an ulterior motive to be there.

so much to love about this fic. the beautiful settings, from kolkata to mumbai, to the holi festival and colorful lively streets, to remote cave settlements and old intricate temples. it’s harry in the homeland, reconnecting to his family’s heritage and confronting the weight of imperialism in his history. it’s nipping the white savior complex in the bud. this part: That is what England left behind. That is what it still stands for, despite whatever mask of respectability and honour it presents. . .You don't get to step aside and let someone else deal with the mess. You have to listen and learn and then act, Malfoy, you need to learn how to fix your own mess. This is why we're here. my indigenous ass cheered. HP certainly sells the british fantasy but HP fanfic?? fuck jkr, fuck the crown. i love that this fic doesn’t romanticize england’s history. i love that we get to see the vast resilience and beauty of post-colonial india.

Purity Control by yrfrndfrnkly - 28k - T In which Harry tries to ignore his trauma with fantasy Quidditch but Malfoy's Thereness™ is distracting and all his classmates want to talk about are unicorns, virginity, and Muggle music.

tender 8th year fics where they go from bristly as fuck to understanding and soft 100% guaranteed to make me emo as hell. all the teens have traumas and no one wants to talk about it but eventually Things are Talked About. it’s good of the adults to finally notice. everyone just wants someone to hold their hand. and this part: “You’re the only person around here who’s a bigger mess than I am.” “I thought maybe we could be a mess together,” pls don’t look at me as i weep over their gentle empathy.

Advent, a comic by dustmouth - WIP - T It's Harry and Draco's first Christmas together and Draco is determined to live his full yuletide fantasy, come hell or high water.

dustmouth, patron saint of whimsical drarry. whose illustrations singlehandedly reinvented wizarding fashion. whose cheeky and tender comics are like a soothing balm to the utter depravity of this carnal world. harry and draco being domestic, draco’s xmas spirit brand being “traditional unhinged”!! extremely my shit. we’ll absolutely be reading this all december.

Little Spaces by @dracoladon and @lazywonderlvnd​ - WIP - E Draco's back from France and working on the spell damage ward at St Mungo's with Hermione, who invites him over for dinner. Without telling Harry. This is a roleplay, which means Harry is written by one author (lazywonderland) and Draco by another (dracoladon).

the switch in distinct character voices works so well for this fic!! tonally i feel like i'm watching an episode of the office. i personally love harry and draco being Pissed Off at how much they want to bone each other. the battle of the tapenade was the most riveting dinner scene i've read in a minute. clever, hilarious, emotionally tense. can’t wait until that inevitable moment post hate-sex when they’re gonna be like “oh noooo it’s a Heart Boner as well!! >:((” hell ya we’re subscribing for chapter updates.

Dragons Don’t Know Paradise by @teacup-tai​ - WIP - E In 2004, when Remus spends two scary weeks in the ITU due to complications of pneumonia and his HIV condition, Sirius walks around the house like a ghost and Harry finds comfort and strength in Draco through a chat in an online LGBT forum. Harry falls for him, but Draco has a lot of secrets and, before long, will need to come clean—even if he believes that no one is able to understand a dragon.

non-magical bookshop AU. remus and sirius’ relationship is a marvel. the ease of their affection with harry makes me so emo. draco’s friends being insistently present even as he tries to isolate himself. this is a story about acceptance, found families, and falling in love at a distance. the intimacy, the longing, the tenderness. what a fic!! i keep coming back to this part:...he looks at ease, inside his body, a body he needed to fight for. He’d made peace with his struggles and his scars. And Draco realises he wants that. He wants to be at ease inside his body, the body that now carries a virus. He wants to be at peace with his own existence. you hurt for draco so deeply but you get moments like these where he affords himself a kindness that feels foreign and it’s just!! the boys navigating grief and learning to be vulnerable. so good.

[phantomato]

Five Tom Riddle Crossover Fics to Read

Tom Riddle is a difficult character to ship. For those of us who want to see pairings beyond the Big Two (Tomarry and Tomione), canonical options peter out relatively quickly. Sure, we can invent our own pairings by fleshing out side characters, but sometimes, the itch is best scratched by borrowing from another canon.

And it makes sense for Tom more than nearly anyone else in HP. Tom was born into an era that is the subject of so much literature, so it’s easy to find another person kicking around postwar Europe if that’s your goal. He’s an archetypal character, the villain seeking immortality, and can be matched against other villains with the same aims. Hell, even his quest to recover lost artifacts turns into the basis for two of these works—Tom Riddle has the perfect combination of a recognizable context and character model, plus the ambiguity of his canon timeline, to slot him alongside so many other fictional figures.

I want to pause on some of these themes for a second. Immortality or relationship to age, for one, is something that comes up in three of these pairings: the Darkling and Koschei the Deathless are both immortal characters in their own canons, and Edmund Pevensie is not immortal but has aged and de-aged repeatedly in his travels to and from Narnia. The HP series doesn’t give us nearly this wealth of different perspectives on age and immortality, which is fair—HP makes it clear that immortality is unnatural and undesirable, and Flamel is notably a ‘good person’ because of his willingness to accept his own death—but for a character as obsessed with the idea as Tom, some emotions can only be explored when you match him with another character who has a complicated relationship to aging. Even someone like Indiana Jones, not immortal and not trying to be, has an interesting perspective to bring to a story because he has seen so many other quests for power gone terribly awry.

Of course, the other thing we get from crossover pairings is the ability to match Tom with a villainous character. And whether you’re a fan of conflict at the start of a relationship or not, I think there’s something to be found in putting two villains together: moral arguments, when they exist, are rarely about whether death is necessary but about what kinds of death are best used when; the entire concept of either a redemption arc or a breaking bad arc can be thrown out a window. It’s a space wherein our two villains are allowed to be themselves, and the reveal of the extent of each character’s villainy becomes a strange form of celebration. This is challenging to achieve if one sticks to HP canon alone, whereas crossovers are a fruitful space.

My selection methodology was to read every crossover fic with a clear focus on Tom Riddle or Voldemort on AO3. I found crossover pairings by visiting the meta pages for the Tom Riddle, Voldemort, and Tom Riddle | Voldemort tags—I may have missed some pairings for Tom Riddle, as the character has over 300 child relationship tags and AO3 cuts off at 300 displayed. If you know of any ships I missed and should check out, do tell! I’ll also make a note here that one of these fics is my own—if self-recs bother you, skip Bluebird.

The following five fics are ordered by wordcount. Let me know what you think!

Neurotic Virtuosi, by skazka

Crossover: Hannibal Rising (movie version). The wizarding world exists, and Tom and Hannibal encounter each other in non-magical Eastern Europe.

Summary: Tom and Hannibal ride the same train when Tom is hunting down the diadem. Tom shares an apple and thinks about keeping Hannibal.

Mature, <1k, Graphic Torture Fantasies

Why?: This is one of those pairings that I wouldn’t have thought to do when the characters were both young, but it’s so much better for that choice! The length of this fic means we only get a taste of their interactions, but what a taste it is. Tom’s internal fantasies are horrifying and described in a very erotic way, which fits both characters.

This also serves as an interesting vision of what Tom might have experienced during his world tour to find the diadem, a period we rarely get to see. I particularly like that the author chose to write it as frustrating and mostly fruitless; a Tom who is stymied and unsuccessful is a particular weakness of mine.

Two Sides of the Same Coin, by Anonymous

Crossover: Chronicles of Narnia. Both Hogwarts and Narnia are real, and the characters meet in Britain. The magic isn’t the same, but there’s mutual recognition.

Summary: Tom tries to use sex to seduce secrets out of Edmund. Edmund sees something reminiscent of his younger self, the version of him who could join the White Witch, in Tom Riddle.

Explicit, 2k

Why?: Edmund and Tom are a pairing made in crossover heaven, both boys of a similar age born into war in the same country and whose discoveries of magical worlds help them escape it. Both lust for power and make poor choices; Edmund canonically recovers and finds redemption from his actions, and Tom does not.

This fic wears the hat of something pure smut, starting in the middle of a sex scene and tagged with top/bottom roles, etc., and it is that and does that well. But give it a shot for Edmund’s reflection at the end, his hopeful musings that he can apply the lessons learned from Aslan to help Tom before Tom’s utterly lost. It’s a crossover ship with unbelievable potential for both characters, and this fic makes me want so much more.

Shedding Skin, by electric_typewriter

Crossover: Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. Both the wizarding world and the magic of Deathless exist.

Summary: Tom meets Koschei before splitting his soul. They keep meeting, and Tom keeps attempting to match Koschei’s immortality.

Not Rated, 2k

Why?: Immortality via relocation or storage of souls is an idea that easily predates Harry Potter as a series, and seeing two different versions of the some core idea interacting with one another is precisely what crossovers exist to enable. Koschei as an immortal being that found his immortality in a way he considers superior is a fascinating concept, because it creates a power imbalance between them that leaves Tom always running to catch up. And Tom, poor Tom, feels like a desperate man, finding sensation only when he’s around Koschei and feeling nothing at any other time.

This reads a bit like you’re dissociating. The author uses descriptive language to keep the reader a little distant from the grounded reality of the events happening, which has the effect of keeping you focused on the metaphysical question of what it means to have part of a soul.

Bluebird, by Phantomato

Crossover: Shadow and Bone. S&B summoning powers instead of HP magic, set in the real world, with characters’ histories preserved.

Summary: Tom is the second sun summoner to exist, born long after the first gave up her powers and lived out her natural life. He tracks down the Darkling, the shadow summoner who never really died.

Explicit, 17k

Why?: Tom is an immortal being for at least part of his life, and his character arc is about pursuit of immortality, but he is fundamentally a young immortal, and is killed before he can graduate to old immortality. Aleksander, the Darkling, is canonically an old immortal, and his character arc is about the burden of living with the knowledge that you will likely always be alone. That loneliness sets the scene for the relationship between Tom and Aleksander, driving Aleksander’s behavior—he fundamentally believes he will always be alone, even an immortal like Tom passes through his life.

There is a high proportion of smut in this, serving in place of the emotional honesty that neither character can muster, and I recommend it for that. But the story also relies on investment in quiet everyday moments shared between the characters. It’s a fic told through behavior because both men are so cautious around one another, where they nevertheless manage to find sympathy for the other.

Riddles of the Dead, by Maeglin_Yedi

Crossover: Indiana Jones. Blends together the wizarding world and the mysticism present in Indiana Jones films.

Summary: Tom Riddle hires an expert archaeologist and gentleman adventurer, Dr. Indiana Jones, to help him pursue an artifact that might grant him immortality. There’s fucking, fighting, magic, snakes, and some difficult choices in store for our leading men.

Explicit, 18k, Angst

Why?: Maeglin Yedi has been a mainstay of the Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort ficspace for nearly two decades, but an old crossover like this can unfortunately slip through the cracks. It shouldn’t! With an original publishing date in early 2005, this predates the concept of horcruxes, the knowledge of Tom’s early years at Wool’s orphanage, and, well, so much of what we would eventually learn about Tom Riddle as a person. It’s a testament to the author that the story manages to capture Tom’s character in such a way that he’s still fully recognizable to a current-day reader, despite working with so much less canon.

This fic is fun. It’s an adventure, featuring hazards and traps and assassination attempts that you would expect from an Indiana Jones film, but the magic and mystery never overwhelms the relationship at the core of this story. It’s set up beautifully, with a mirrored structure between the front and back halves of the fic that foreshadows the inevitable end of the story. Watching older, confident Indy seduce young, hungry Tom is a delight. One (possible) mark of a great Tom-centric fic, imo, is to be able to portray Tom enjoying the exchange of power, giving it to someone as well as taking it from them, and this Tom is able to revel in giving up some perceived power as he practices being vulnerable with Indy. The romance is quite sweet, especially considering that ‘angst’ tag at the top of the fic!

[sapphia]

It’s only really just occurred to me that a lot of the people who say, “Harry Potter wasn’t even that big a deal, they were bad books that just got a bit of hype.” actually don’t really understand the effect that Harry Potter had because they’re too young. They’re born after 2000 and, to them, Harry Potter has just been another fandom like the Avengers or Twilight, that got a bit of a fanbase before publishers and production companies did what they always do and made a slate of movies for.

And I really need to emphasise that that’s NOT the case at all. Harry Potter was massive before things really got massive. Children’s books like Percy Jackson getting movies didn’t really happen before Harry Potter did it first (and the ones that did were often old classic books, or straight to DVD or got cheap BBC miniseries instead. Google Five Children and It trailer. That was the bar for children’s book adaption. Old, and cheap).

Hell, movie series weren’t even a thing back then. This isn’t entirely due to Harry Potter - Lord of the Rings also had a part in this. In the early 2000s, Peter Jackson had to fight tooth and nail in order to get the Lord of the Rings trilogy, three bricks of a book series, made into three whole movies instead of one. The studios were dead set on only having a single movie, thinking that a whole trilogy (THREE movies!) would be too long and commercially unviable. You would never get that these days - even when Jackson came back and made the hobbit, one much smaller book than a single volume of LotR, they split that into three because of how successful series like LotR and HP had been.

Harry Potter must have been one of the earliest books to get a series film deal while the series was still being written, and this is entirely because the books were so popular the producers knew they could get an audience for all seven. And that was so wildly successful that now all you see are series.

If Twilight created the modern day push for YA literature as its own genre, Harry Potter started the renaissance that allowed children’s literature to thrive so much it COULD be split into children and teen audiences. Before Harry Potter, children’s stories were simpler, more child focussed, and appealed only really to children - Harry Potter is one of the only books in recent years that has managed to appeal to both children and adult audiences. (His Dark Materials also does it to an extent but that’s more to do with its mature themes and the nature of fantasy). And that’s a large part of its success - Harry Potter wasn’t considered just a children’s book, it was considered a book. Adults were as invested in Harry Potter as kids. When I bought my preorder copy from a bookstore, after I read it I’d give it to my parents so they could read it too. My childless aunts and uncles had their copies, because it was a story that appealed to them.

This was unprecedented - not since the Hobbit. And that had had a full, adult-orientated series behind it to drive adult interest. Plus it was written 50 years ago when frankly the literature marketed was less genre-fied, and less competitive. The Chronicles of Narnia sort of managed to be considered literature despite being a children’s book, but you’ll notice that that is still classed heavily in the children’s category and not widely read by adults - and this only really happened with one of its books, not all seven.

Harry Potter is credited with getting an entire generation to read. And that’s not entirely an exaggeration - interest was high. I’ve still never seen the preorder hype for ANY book anywhere near that of each of the later Harry Potter books.

It also showed children - and publishers - that they could read and be interested in longer books. Again, twilight wouldn’t exist purely for length purposes had Harry Potter not published longer and longer books, showing there was a market for that even in children’s fiction.

One of my favourite authors is Tamora Pierce, who writes YA. When she took her original manuscript to a publisher, they made her cut it into four parts and basically rewrite the entire story because they didn’t think a lengthy fantasy book would be able to sell. Now, I love Alanna, but you can tell that originally it wasn’t meant as a quartet, even more so than her later books (also published in fours) which are a bit more cohesive. It would be almost fifteen years before she finally got a chance to publish a work as a single, full volume - and she only got to do that because Harry Potter showed publishers that long works can sell.

For a lot of “trends” in publishing, there’s an element of “right place, right time”. For example, witches are popular right now in fantasy, so if you’ve written a witch book, you’ve gotten lucky. It’s very hard to write to trend as books take years to get written and published, by which time the world has likely moved on.

Sometimes people and books create trends - the Hunger Games created YA dystopia, for example. This was a little bit “right place right time”, despite being a very good series, because YA was booming and people were searching for the “next twilight” (hence the focus on love triangles from pop culture - it was the one similarity it had to twilight). Twilight itself was another trend - the first series to do what Harry Potter had done ten years before. But again, it did this because it filled a niche that Harry Potter had left for it- people were looking for “the next Harry Potter” (and twilight appeals to the Harry Potter generation, who’d grown up into teens by this point- not a coincidence). It’s fantasy, it appeals to parents and children alike (even if that’s mostly female), and it has a raw appeal. It’s a story that can be enjoyed by adults despite being simply written enough to be understood by children, or in this case teenagers, it’s primary audience.

So Harry Potter created the niche that twilight filled. But you have to understand, nothing created Harry Potter’s niche. Sure, the tropes and concepts it pulled from had existed and been popular - it followed a long tradition of fantasy stories and was a “natural next step” to a genre that had gone from the Hobbit to Earthsea to Diana Wynne Jones.

But in terms of the publishing niche? Harry Potter created that all for itself. It was a revolution. It literally created a phenomenon in a way we’d never seen before, in such a massive industry and cultural shakeup that I don’t think we’ll see again, at least not on that scale, and not in the near future. It created a millionaire author in just four books. It created an author celebrity. Steven King has spent his entire career working to get a sliver the fame that JKR achieved basically overnight. Harry Potter remains the most successful series ever by a ridiculously large margin, and it didn’t get there by being bad. It didn’t get there by being average. It didn’t get there by being the right book at the right time to fill an existing niche, because that niche didn’t exist. Hell, the idea of niches didn’t really exist, not like they do now.

So that’s some context for you. When people say that Harry Potter revolutionised the book industry and had a huge cultural impact, they don’t mean that they personally read and liked the book. They mean exactly what they say. Harry Potter was a tossed rock into a lake, and all the media you’re consuming today, from 30-movie long comic adaptation universes to the new YA trend, are ripples created by just how enormously huge Harry Potter’s splash was.

[kirnet]

i don't even play valkyria chronicles but i am so intrigued by this mind blind au 👁️ if you can elaborate please do

OK SO some background context that is important: there’s this ancient bloodline called the valkyrur. They’re pretty much all extinct, but some people still have valkyrur blood that activates when they are about to die, “awakening” them and turning them into incredibly powerful beings. They can use war magic, basically. (My shorthand is pretty much ment= valkyria lmao)

Other than that, there are a couple of different classes in the game, each with their own roles, strengths, and weaknesses. The game takes place in pretty much in a pre-ww2 scenario in a fictionalized fantasy Europe. So there’s tanks and guns and all that .

Also note: I actually haven’t read through mb in a verryyyy long time so this is a lot of remembering on my part

Nick: an awakened valkyrur, but also the tank commander of the squad. In the games, the squad commander always is in the tank and is always one of the main focus characters. I think that translates nicely to a command role that he has in the story.

Gray: also a valkyrur, maybe not yet awakened, and a lancer. Lancers are the anti-tank power hitters that carry these massive missiles that look like jousting lances. They kind of just stand there, but they’re extremely tough to kill because of their high armor and hp, which I think works for grays… whatever his power is called I forgot

Glitch: an engineer! They’re a support class with high movement and very low hp, responsible for fixing the tank when it gets damaged, rebuilding any cover that gets destroyed, and resupplying ammo. They could also work as the actual tank engineer who drives the tank, but I’m trying to cover all of my main playable class slots.

Rosy: ok full discretion I cannot fucking remember if rosy was a sniper or not. But there is a sniper class. They’re super useful, with the only downside being that they’re movement is absolute ass. Maybe they could work as a shocktrooper, but I’ll get into that at the end.

K: a scout! Pretty low hp but extremelyyyy high movement. It’s definitely a tactic in the game to just buff up one scout and run them all the way to the mission point without even engaging in the actual planned combat of the round. They’re quick, stealthy, and pretty useful in combat if they can get the jump on an enemy.

Sally: also a sniper, I would presume. Precognition is pretty much just being able to see your enemy coming from far away righ? Lmao. I’m not even sure she’d be a valkyrur bc there’s nothing that really lines up with her power, but I think she’d have a little skill that boosts her accuracy when she discovers an enemy’s sight lines. Again, she’s not moving a ton, which I think she’d appreciate.

Last but not least, stoja: I originally had her as a lancer bc of her constant desire to protect herself of mental would kind of culminate in a need to be able to counter nick’s tank. However how I think she works better as a shocktrooper! They’re pretty middle of the road, not specializing in anything, ok movement, better health. But they have big fucking machine guns and are pretty much designed to run right into a path of bullets to clear out the enemy. If that isn’t stoja then idk what is

[pathfinderunlocked]

Mountain Tosser - CR14 Humanoid

Regular boulder tossing is lame.

Artwork from Mobius Final Fantasy, copyright Square Enix.  They don’t seem to want to tell anyone which artists made which images for their game.

Giants tossing boulders is a classic aspect of their fighting style across many editions of D&D.  Unfortunately, in Pathfinder, with how many potential other ways you can increase your damage with ranged attacks, the most meaningful difference between tossing boulders and using a longbow - or even a sling - is the difficulty of carrying ammo.  The extra damage from the big rocks just isn’t that interesting.

So I created this NPC as a hill giant monk who uses his ki to launch boulders at its enemies in much more interesting ways, which players can actually interact with.  Having a round or two to destroy an incoming projectile before it hits you is a mechanic that I’m pretty fond of.  The hardness makes it a little tough, but the low AC helps.

I also just find the idea of a giant monk really interesting.  Giants are often depicted as being primitive stupid barbarians, especially the lower-tier ones like hill giants.  But even if they haven’t mastered ship-building or indoor plumbing, there’s nothing stopping from from mastering their own bodies and using the powers of the elements.  The fact that my image of high level monks comes from Dragon Ball Z is probably showing through in the flavor description.

Conceptually, this NPC is a monk, but obviously it doesn’t actually have any class levels.  You can tell your players it’s a unique monk archetype, if you want.  I mean, I guess that’s not technically a lie.  It’s just an archetype that I only bothered to define at level 7 and that’s only available to hill giants.

Mountain Tosser - CR 14

The perfected specimen of hill giant towering in front of you lifts his head and starts to scream, and as he does so, an aura of pure energy cracks the ground around him, and the soil beneath his feat is blasted away, forming a small crater.  Pebbles lift into the air around him, supported by his immense ki.  They don’t fall to the ground until he stops screaming.

XP 38,400 CE Large humanoid (giant) Init +3 Senses low-light vision; Perception +15

DEFENSE

AC 28, touch 19, flat-footed 24 (+4 Dex, +6 monk, +9 natural, –1 size) hp 161 (17d8+85) Fort +17, Ref +12, Will +10 Defensive Abilities rock catching Immune disease

OFFENSE

Speed 60 ft. Melee unarmed strike flurry of blows +23/+23/+18/+13 (2d6+9) or unarmed strike ki pool flurry of blows +23/+23/+23/+18/+13 (2d6+9) Ranged rock +18 (2d6+13) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks flurry of blows, rock throwing (120 ft.)

STATISTICS

Str 28, Dex 18, Con 21, Int 6, Wis 20, Cha 7 Base Atk +14; CMB +24; CMD 43 Feats Acrobatic, Dazzling Display, Deadly Aim, Intimidating Prowess, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Skill Focus (acrobatics), Weapon Focus (rock, unarmed) Skills Acrobatics +34 (+41 on jumping), Intimidate +17, Perception +15 Languages Giant SQ fast movement, high jump Gear Belt of Physical Might +4 (Str, Dex)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Ki Pool (Su) A mountain tosser has a ki pool with 8 points of ki power.  These are used to fuel several of its abilities.

Flurry of Blows (Ex) A mountain tosser can perform one extra attack at its full base attack bonus when making a full-attack action with unarmed strikes.  By spending a point from its ki pool, it can make an additional extra attack at its full base attack bonus.

Rising Boulder (Ex) In place of an attack, when on the ground, a mountain tosser can punch or stomp on the ground, causing a boulder to rise out of the ground from a square it can reach.  The boulder rises up to a height of 20 feet, remaining there for up to 7 rounds before falling.  The mountain tosser can dismiss this effect on a specific boulder as a free action, causing it to fall to the ground.

A rising boulder is a tiny-sized object with hardness 5 and 20 hit points.  It has an AC of 13, benefiting from the mountain tosser’s monk AC bonus.  Unlike a normal object, it takes full damage from ranged weapons and energy attacks.  It takes 150% damage from bludgeoning damage.  Any attempt to move it (such as with a reposition or bull rush combat maneuver, or a spell such as telekinesis) is rolled as if trying to move the mountain tosser, using the mountain tosser’s CMD and saving throws.

If the mountain tosser is unconscious or helpless, all rising boulders it is levitating immediately fall to the ground.  A rising boulder which falls on a creature deals 2d6 points of bludgeoning damage (DC 15 Reflex halves).

Leaping Boulder Strike (Ex) As a full-round action, by spending a point from its ki pool, a mountain tosser can leap up into the air (making an acrobatics check to jump as normal), hover in mid-air for a few seconds, and toss any rising boulders within its reach at foes, as thrown weapons.  A mountain tosser must jump to a height of 10 feet in order to reach rising boulders that are hovering 20 feet in the air, requiring an acrobatics DC of 40.

After jumping, it makes up to four ranged attacks with +18 to hit, with a 120 foot range increment, throwing a rising boulder as ammunition for each attack.  It does not take a penalty on iterative attacks when attacking in this way.  A mountain tosser can only throw rising boulders that it is levitating itself; it cannot throw boulders being levitated by another mountain tosser.

On a successful hit, each rising boulder that is tossed in this way deals 2d6+18 damage.  This damage is reduced by 1 for every point of damage that the rising boulder has taken before being thrown.  A rising boulder that is below half HP has the broken condition, and so attacks with that boulder also take the -2 penalty to attack and damage rolls typical for broken weapons.

A mountain tosser takes no falling damage from falling back to the ground at the end of a leaping boulder strike.

AC Bonus (Ex) While unarmored and unencumbered, a mountain tosser gains a bonus to AC and CMD equal to 1 plus its wisdom bonus.  Any rising boulders being levitated by the mountain tosser also gain this AC bonus.

Fast Movement (Ex) While unarmored and unencumbered, a mountain tosser’s base movement speed is 20 feet faster than a typical hill giant.  This is an enhancement bonus.

High Jump (Su) A mountain tosser gains a +7 bonus to acrobatics checks made to jump, and is always considered to have a running start when jumping.  By spending a swift action, it can use 1 point from its ki pool to gain an additional +20 bonus on acrobatics checks made to jump.

Empowered Strikes (Su) A mountain tosser’s unarmed strikes and thrown boulders count as magical, silver, and cold iron for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.