#and embracing the one that does

[kinkykinard]

Miracle by CHVRCHES just came on my playlist and with the family vs found family themes we’re likely to see in tonight’s episode it just hit different and now I’m a mess.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i wanted to try drawing him visually softer and now im near tears because I Can't Hug Him

[trappedinafantasy37]

There are multiple gods in the game that you can directly interact with and they all have ties to the narrative. You can interact with Shar via Shadowheart. You can interact with Mystra via Gale. You can interact with Myrkul via Ketheric when he takes on the avatar form. You can interact with Bhaal via Durge and in the fight with Orin. You can interact with Bane after killing Gortash and using "Speak with Dead" in which the soul you speak to is not Gortash, but Bane himself. I would include Vlaakith in this list but Vlaakith is not a god, she is a lich presenting herself as a god. And, of course, there is the Absolute which doesn't really become a god until it ascends into the Netherbrain (although that is debatable).

But, did you know that Lolth will also interact with you? As far as I am aware, Lolth is the only non-story related god in which you do have interactions with. One of them is only available if you are a Lolth-sworn drow, and the other is only available if you are a Cleric of Lolth (you do not need to be Lolth-sworn for it).

The first instance is in the goblin camp with the spiders in the pit. This does require that you are a Lolth-sworn drow and that you have the ability to speak with animals. When talking to the spiders, you will have the option to present yourself to the spiders as Lolth herself. If you fail the persuasion check, Lolth gets pissed off as she was listening to you and is not happy that you tried to present yourself as her. And she tells the spiders you are an imposter and they attack you. But if you succeed the check, Lolth doesn't do anything and the spiders will think you are Lolth. So, Lolth doesn't really have a problem with you pretending to be her. But if you are going to pretend to be her, you better do it right. If the spiders think you are Lolth, you can ask them about what's going on in the goblin camp and the spiders only talk about one thing. They immediately tell you that there is another drow in the camp who has forgotten her way and that she is forsaken. And, as I said, Lolth is here. She heard the spiders admit this. Lolth does nothing about it.

The second instance is in the Underdark with the Phalar Aluve. When you interact with the sword, you have two different checks, a Strength check and a Religion check. If you do the Strength check, you can just pull it out of the stone and be on your merry way. If you perform the Religion check, the narrator will tell you different things depending on certain conditions. If you are a Lolth-sworn drow and/or a Cleric of Lolth, the narrator will tell you that the religious rite to pull the blade from the stone is blasphemous as it pays honor to the weak. If you are of any other race and/or cleric of any other god, the narrator will tell you that the sword is of Eilistraee and the rite pays honor to the fallen. The religious rite is that you spill a little bit of your blood and the sword will rise out of the stone on its own. If you do this as a Cleric of Lolth (you don't need to be Lolth-sworn) you will feel hundreds of spiders crawl all over you as Lolth is warning you not to do shit like that ever again. Not only did you perform the religious rite of another god, you performed the religious rite of a god she hates. And she is letting you know how much she hated that.

These are the only two instances in the game that I have found in which Lolth interacts with the player but there are plenty of other moments in which Lolth could interact with you, but doesn't (such as with the Phase Spider, the baby spiders in Grymforge, Kar'niss, or the dead spider in the Gauntlet of Shar). Of these two moments where Lolth does interact with you, one of these instances is in the goblin camp, and the other is in the Underdark not too far away from the goblin camp. I don't think it is much of a coincidence that these two interactions occur in close proximity to Minthara. Almost as if Lolth has a reason to be in that area specifically to watch and monitor things, and you just so happened to be there. And the only things that compel her to interact with you is because you pissed her off. But, as long you don't piss her off, she will do nothing and she will say nothing.

When Minthara was being tortured by the Absolute, she prayed to Lolth and begged Lolth to give her the strength to fight her enemies. But Lolth does nothing and Lolth says nothing. In fact, that was the full extent of Lolth's "punishment" for Minthara, nothing. All Lolth did was not answer Minthara's prayers and not show up when Minthara needed her the most. Lolth did not torture Minthara like the Absolute did, Lolth did not turn her into a drider, nor did Lolth eat her. All she did, was nothing. And yes, Lolth is known for abandoning drow and no longer interacting with them. A drow has to do something incredibly awful in order for Lolth to just back away from them entirely. But you cannot convince me that Lolth is going to let one of her Baenre's go so easily. It's not as if Minthara has done anything truly awful either to make Lolth that mad.

According to Minthara, she herself has sinned against the Spider Queen, but it's not as if she chose to abandon Lolth, she was forced away and mind controlled into being devoted to another god. But would this make a difference to Lolth? Does it really matter if Minthara was compelled to have faith in another god besides Lolth? It isn't until Minthara is freed and feels the absence of Lolth that she chooses to no longer follow Lolth. Minthara even mentions how turning against Lolth is a big no-no in Menzoberranzan. Minthara herself at one point has hunted down and killed those who turn their backs from Lolth so she knows the same will be done to her if she were to ever return home. In fact, if you are a Lolth-sworn drow or a Cleric of Lolth, you are given unique dialogue options with Minthara to kill her because she is a traitor to Lolth and these options continue to show up until you recruit her into your party and she joins your roster. Despite all of this, Lolth does nothing. Minthara spews anti-Lolth rhetoric left and right, and Lolth does nothing. If you take Minthara to the tabernacle, she will spit on a shrine to Lolth, and Lolth does nothing.

Minthara is also able to walk through the Gauntlet of Shar, which is in the Underdark, and Lolth does nothing. Sure, you could argue that its connection to the Shadowfell and the fact that Shar is there via Shadowheart is enough to keep Lolth away. The lore of DnD does not make it quite clear what the relationship between these two goddesses are. But I am willing to bet that Lolth is smart enough not to step on Shar's toes because Shar would annihilate her. However, there is a small little section of the Gauntlet where it actually does spit you out directly into the Underdark and into Lolth's territory. Minthara can walk right out there just fine, and Lolth does nothing.

But most importantly, Minthara's default ending is her returning to the Underdark with the sole purpose of destroying House Baenre and then killing Lolth. Destroying House Baenre could lead to a chaotic and political disaster in Menzoberranzan, and Lolth does nothing. Minthara quite literally wants to kill Lolth and has intentions to do so after taking House Baenre, and Lolth. Does. Nothing!

If Minthara goes into the Underdark and destroys House Baenre, this will cause chaos and death. And the Baenre's won't be the only ones she has to destroy, but any and all allies of House Baenre in which they do have a lot. And Lolth will feed off of all the death and carnage and chaos that Minthara is about to bring to Menzoberranzan because Lolth loves chaos more than she hates traitors.

Maybe, Lolth has not abandoned her as Minthara thinks she has. Maybe, Lolth has done nothing and said nothing because Minthara has not actually upset her. Maybe, Lolth has done nothing and said nothing because Minthara is already doing everything Lolth wants her to do. And all it took, was making Minthara think that Lolth abandoned her. There was no need for Lolth to answer Minthara's prayers, because Minthara always had the strength to fight her enemies.

[eff-plays]

Is this your remorseful and selfless and uncorruptible meow meow.

[ingravinoveritas]

Stunningly gorgeous artwork of Michael and David at Pub in the Park earlier this year. (Source)

[alicentflorent]

I didn’t sit here for years tryna stay calm and silent while listening to your bad takes on gale (who grew up oppressed, in poverty and then witnessed his entire district getting wiped out then rightly went to fight in the rebellion because it was his inlg chance of tearing down the system the wanted him and his family dead) being a “terrorist war criminal who is single handedly responsible for killing innocent people including prim and who is the REAL villain of the hunger games” just for y’all to turn and start stanning and defending actual facist dictator and child trafficker Coriolanus Snow because you saw a young hot version of him.

[seilon]

i wonder if in a hypothetical season 2, where charles continues on the trajectory he seems to be on at the end of s1 and gets progressively more and more flirty and showy with edwin now that he knows edwin’s into him and all that– if edwin would A) be absolutely smitten and flirty and almost giggly in response to the point where the others would have to snap them both out of their tension-heavy gay nonsense in order to get them to focus on literally anything, eventually culminating in the tension abruptly breaking when one (or both) of them just can’t stand it anymore and kisses the other. B) flattered and flustered at first, but sooner or later starts building up a frustration that eventually explodes in charles’ direction over how he keeps teasing him, acting like he reciprocates and making it feel like he has a chance when he “knows” he doesn’t, making it a cruel and painful reminder of what he wants and can’t have– which charles, impulsive as he is, cuts short by kissing him in such a way that the reciprocation is undeniable.

either way that gayass tension is gonna have to come to a head and i wanna see it so bad i wanna see it sosososososo bad

[rusquared]

the story doesn't care that your heart got broken yesterday, or that you nicked your thumb while chopping the onions today. it doesn't care for the medals you received in 5th grade and it doesn't care for the raise that you keep trying for. the story just asks to be read, and you are its most beloved being for the fact of having read it.

[datshitrandom]

How was to be in a gay relationship (klaine) on screen?

“It was fucking awesome man. I mean the main thing here, like not because I’m trying to be blasé about the obvious thing in this question because we are saying that this is a gay relationship, nowadays, we just call it a relationship on tv, but to contextualize it, a gay relationship on mainstream Fox Network, that’s a pretty cool thing to be a part of. I often equate my relationship to that whole experience to Slumdog Millionaire which is, if you are familiar with Slumdog Millionaire is a kid that gets ask a bunch of questions and he just so happens to have the experience to answer this very specific things, now being cisgender straight kid you go 'oh oh what? are you going to allow this guy to talk gay shit?', I’ve been so culturally queer my whole life, not because I’m trying you know, actually, I was gonna say not because I’m trying to be cool but I’m gonna erase that, is because I am trying to be cool. All the sh— in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from and be inspired by are one hundred percent queer as f—. It was in queer communities that I’ve found people that I idolize, that I want to be, to learn something from. And I’d say that’s a gross generalization, that’s a lot of things and a lot of people. But I grew up in San Francisco in the ’90s. I watched men die. There was an awareness of the gay experience that was not a foreign concept to me. So, it was a narrative that I cared deeply about. I wasn’t like a f— saint or like 'I’m the man for the job', they hired me and they said, 'You’re the guy,' and I said, 'Okay, I’m the guy I will do my best, I will do my best to talk about it in the way I believe and a way that I’m passionate about'. So in many ways I’m glad that it was me because it was a thing that I really like showing up for and it meant a great deal to me that it meant a great deal to other people. Because when people say they were affected by that show or that relationship, it’s not because of me, it’s because of that relationship on a TV and the risks that people took to put that on TV and most important of all it took the people watching it to have the "aptitude" for seeing beyond what was maybe given to them in other avenues of culture. People of all ages, all spectrums of awareness say, 'I didn’t grow up with a show like that and it was a really meaningful thing for me to see,’ and I go ‘I didn’t grow up with a show like that’ and that would’ve been very meaningful for me too, you know?, regardless of the fact that I’m a straight kid. That has value. For anyone who’s been an underdog, we all know, in any shape or form — sexual, religious, biological, whatever — it has value because there’s going to be a lot of people who see that and go, 'Okay, I can now understand this in a context that maybe I wasn’t able to before'. So short story long, what was it like? It was a fucking privilege and I love talking about it and I’m so grateful I got to do it." - Darren Criss at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo Q&A | April 27th, 2024 

[heartslobbf]

hater alert! far too many people say that juri’s character arc ‘isn’t about her being sad about being gay, it’s about being sad about unrequited love that happens to be gay’ and. well. that is not true and by saying that you are completely flattening the brilliance of juri’s character arc which literally culminates in her being able to accept her own lesbianism despite her unrequited love, despite all her shame and self-loathing, despite this pursuit by Some Fucking Guy to try and ‘save’ her from these feelings. like if you think juri’s entire character is just ‘sad about shiori’ how do you appreciate even a modicum of the emotion packed into that final juri duel. it is both about shiori and, even broader, her lesbian identity and what that means to her intrinsically as a person, removed from romantic relationships and just purely as like. you know. Who She Is. the idea that even when juri’s locket is cut from her neck she is still a lesbian that’s still who she is and she cant change that and, crucially, she doesn’t want to even as she is agonised by these feelings. that’s why she forfeits the duel!!!! she’s clocking out she’s quitting she’s saying no!!!!!! this is me and ive got to be ok with that this is me and i can accept that this girl might not love me and i can keep living despite that. like. god im so normal arisugawa juri im so sorry that no one understands you and your intrinsically unapologetically lesbian storyline like i do

[yourlocalguardian]

Yknow I know lot of people think the young therians mainly on tiktok who make masks and do a lot of quadrobics and wear their gear in public are cringe but like. As a bit older kinnie I remember how strong my instincts were when I was that age, how often and how strongly I had mental shifts, and the mental torture I went through my whole young life before I found out that there were other people like me because I felt like I was some sort of freak and didnt understand why I couldn’t just stop feeling the ways I did

Even if you think it’s cringe I know if I had had that community and that ability to engage with my creature-self at that age I would have felt so much better in myself, I wouldn’t have had the deep set self hatred I did for many years, and I think that’s extremely important. It’s extremely important that we don’t let the young members of our community experience that same pain that I and I’m sure others like me have felt

Also friendly reminder too that cringe culture is fucking stupid, if you’re not hurting yourself or anyone else you shouldn’t be shunned for doing what makes you happy. And that means you, person reading this, shouldn’t be the one to make them feel like they should be ashamed. If you feel like it’s cringe keep that to yourself and maybe do some self reflection on why you would think people doing a harmless activity that makes them happy would somehow be wrong. Cringing is a reflex, but that doesn’t mean you have to act upon it.

Additionally if you’re one of those people that’s against them because “they’re making us look bad”/“people won’t take us seriously because of them”. If people won’t accept us in the full extent of who we are then they would never be accepting of us in the first place. Acception when only in a watered down form is not true acception at all. 

[murdockhawkeye]

yk i kinda wish miss chatham was in the later seasons still. like imagine if we got an episode of them visiting the retirement home

i can see it now. they lose miss chatham somehow while in there, and then end up on their own side adventures

lewis is acting like he's found his people and he's invited to the next bingo meet by a gladys. or multiple gladys's. while on the opposite end of the spectrum, rikki gets into a fight/rivalry with some old lady

and cleo and emma end up being wrangled into helping one of the seniors, only for emma to end up transforming into a mermaid and for the senior that they were helping, to see it

and then because for whatever reason this came to mind, it turns out said senior is julia's ex karl, who apparently lives at the same retirement home as miss chatham

he almost gets his camera out for old times sake, because he hasn't changed much since they were teenagers, but then miss chatham gets her tennis racket out

suffice to say. they end up walking out with pocketful of old people candy and also a bunch more lore/info from miss chatham. idk

[themintman]

N e ways here's Jack's actual design for the au I posted about the other day lmao

Love this sorrowful lizard.

[shieldmaiden19]

The Bridgerton boys really are all hoes.

Anthony - the ‘so intense it makes him stupid’ hoe

Benedict - the ‘hoe for a good cause’

Colin - the ‘self-absorbed, dumb of ass’ hoe

[thereturningdemise]

Listen I need to get this out I know it's random as fuck but you don't understand just how infuriating books can be

Major spoilers for Redwall: Outcast not that you should care in my opinion if you do you could still read and enjoy it because I am only discussing the halfway point of the book and the ending

I would suggest for maximum yapping effect to refrain from skimming and to indulge my every enraged screech with your fullest and utmost attention

Now without further ado... The most aggravating book I have ever read in my life.

Redwall is a series I love. I had read a lot of the books and, finally, I was going to read one I had been looking forward to- Outcast. There's a ferret on the cover. That's right. A ferret main character, a race previously considered as "vermin" in the other books. The back alluded to their struggle for fitting into Redwall given the prejudice against their kind and I was so excited to dig my teeth into a cute and whimsical story about my favorite animal

But guess what

In a book in which the cover is a ferret and the back description is about the ferret... Do you want to know... What the book was actually about?

Because it wasn't about the ferret. No. Not until almost to the end of the book and they are a horribly treated side character that gets so astronomically butchered by the story I closed the book in disgust at the end.

The book should have been called Sunflash the Mace because that is actually the main character and he is not an outcast at all. He is more akin to a paladin of sorts. He is a great character and his companion is awesome I have no issues with him it is not his fault for the book being so grossly mishandled

You encounter the story of the ferret halfway through the book. He is the rejected son of an evil tyrant ferret that gets raised in a shitty environment only to eventually be saved and brought to the abbey.

So, what happens?

He is abused and ostracized by his peers for being a ferret and then lashing out for being bullied. Yes he steals things but rather than just saying the ferret is a bad egg why not punish the bullies for once and help the poor ferret learn to be a bit better? The only supportive figure he had was his adoptive mom and you can see him getting worse and worse because of the lack of any sort of help

Then, eventually he runs away to join his dad. His dad, the evil tyrant. He fights for him against Redwall, and this is where things get infuriating.

His mother is almost killed. His adoptive mother. He steps in front of her and sacrificed himself to save her.

At the end of the book two characters discuss this. "I'm sorry, I guess he really wasnt evil from the start..." Another person says.

Then the most evil, sick bit of writing I have ever seen graces the last specks of the page. A phrase that rocked me to my core for all the ferret had been through and what he had done at the very end.

"no, he was. I was wrong."

From the mouth of his own adoptive mother.

Now. You may be wondering- surely, SURELY there's more to this? Maybe in the books ferrets are just evil!

EXCEPT IN ONE OF THE PREVIOUS BOOKS A RAT BECAME A TOY MAKER THAT GIVES BOATS TO KIDS, A PREVIOUSLY COMPLETELY EVIL RACE AND NEED I REMIND YOU THAT THE BOOK WAS SET UP ON THE COVER AND BACK AS IF IT WAS GOING TO BE ABOUT THE FERRET FIGHTING FOR HIS RIGHT TO BE LOVED? I BELIEVE IT WAS MARIEL AND THAT BOOK WAS INCREDIBLE AND THE BEST IN THE FUCKING SERIES

That's all I wanted to say

I wish with all of my fucking heart the book was renamed to Sunflash the Mace I would have been so much less angry. I wish it had focused completely on his ending, rather than randomly having the poor ferret bastardized by his mother in the end

Read Mistmantle instead, guys

[unproduciblesmackdown]

ooh big hug