#and has since watched acoc

[kitchensunflowers]

what am i going to do when i finish a court of fey and flowers. all i want to do is watch lord squak aivaris (ofc alongside his dear cousin) as he goes about his various escapades and shenanigans

[counterspelling]

I keep being so enraptured at the idea of 6 more eps of Emily that I forget we went from Team 3 clerics to Team 0 clerics

[lovecolibri]

Okay, I have been putting it off because I wanted to live in the warmth and goodness of TUC for as long as possible, but I'm going to start Neverafter!

[thepringlesofblood]

i am SCREAMING!!!!! YESSSSSYESSSSSSSSSSSSSS ACOC is one of my FAVORITE SERIES ALL TIIIIIME!!!!!!!!

okwearebreathingwearebreathing

I’m going in-depth on the names we have thus far. Calorum is the setting that has some of the cleverest wordplay ever, period, and I want to know EVERYTHING about our new guys!!!!!

let’s get this one out of the way

Colin Provlone (Zac Oyama) - Provolone is a kind of cheese. Colin is a name of Irish/Scottish origin. It’s nice to have one simple one.

Bishop Raphaniel Charlock (Brennan Lee Mulligan) - hmmmm are we going to get an actually Bulbian cleric/warlock this season????

Anyway, the scientific name for wild radish is Raphanus raphanistrum, so that’s probably where Raphaniel came from.

wild radish has two other names - “jointed charlock” and “white charlock”. So there we go.

Your typical red radish (as Brennan described his character to look like) is a subspecies of Raphanus raphanistrum called sativus.

but!!! even MORE interesting!!!! you know what order and family radishes are in? the order BRASSICALES in the family BRASSICACEAE!!!!! Like a certain pontifex we know of??

This could be 100% unintentional, there’s a Lot of vegetables in the family Brassicaceae, but I remain optimistic.

Lady Amangeaux Epiceé du Peche (Anjali Bhimani) - so, Fructera has always been French, natch.

She is a mango! French for mango = la mangue

Amangeaux = almonds (according to google translate, I couldn’t find this word anywhere else online, it’s extremely possible that it’s just the most French-sounding way of saying “a mango”)

Epiceé  = spicy (can be used as slang for y’know. spICY)

du Peche = of peach. maybe she is of house Peach?

Karna Solara (Aabria Iyengar) - this one has me kind of stumped.

there’s the obvious karn->carn->meat connection, but she’s a chili pepper. lmk if there’s some secret vegetable lore I’m missing with ‘karna’

there’s also solar -> sun, which makes sense since the crest of Brightgarden is a big sun, and we see the DM screen this season has a big sun on it.

pLUS when I looked up scientific name for chili pepper, they come from the order Solanales in the family Solanaceae.

Thane Delissandro Katzon (Lou Wilson) -

Katzon

immediately made me think of katsudon- an egg rice bowl w pork cutlet on top.

thank you @blueaerin for your post about how this is most likely a reference to Katz’s Delicatessan, a famous deli in NYC! I never would’ve know that.

Also “katson” = Finnish for “I look” - from the verb “katsoa” meaning “to look at” or “to watch over” - probably nothing.

Delissandro - deli - deli meat

Delicatessen - the double s inspired by this?

while I was looking at Finnish stuff i found out “delissa” means “at the deli” in Finnish

Thane - y’all who read Macbeth know this one.

In Anglo-Saxon culture, It’s a title of a landowner, specifically someone who was gifted land by a king.

In Scotland, it’s a feudal lord.

There’s a connotation of military use in all of the descriptions I’ve found, so judging by the armor he’s wearing, it might be being used as a term for “commander”

[cloudmancy]

ya know at first i thought your episode 18 posts were a little harsh but then i really thought about it and yeah. i actually agree with you on pretty much all of it. in my opinion one of the most frustrating parts of d20 is watching the intrepid heroes fail to put all the pieces together, and seeing that manifest as a slaughter fest against the rat grinders is disappointing. don’t get me wrong, i understand that we as the audience have a birds eye view and an easier time threading the story together. but still, kinda sucks :/

lumping all of these together because the rushed feeling of the season is definitely there and contributed to how the final conflict is just resolved via battle and not alternative means... I think there were several factors at play here. I'm still holding out hope for the final final episode but:

the way they filmed all of FHJY and its APs together in a very short timespan. FHSY is so developed and interesting plotwise and I feel that HAS to be because they got a whole week in between episodes/streams to sit and think about the information they received. (on that note I feel when APs are filmed directly after the episodes instead of in retrospective, there's very little to say or reflect on since you Just got out of the session and everything you have to say was likely already said during the play session.) the crunch filming + episode limit combo is just not good for health or coming to a satisfying conclusion of all narrative threads

dnd combat is just so inherently fucked as a conflict resolution tool and it's NOT built for anything aside from killing things. we see this firsthand how the rat grinders get reduced to their kits and not their characters (take oisin out first, cut off his head so he can't be revived) both by the cast and the fandom... which leads to some pretty upsetting conflict when you have people who really enjoy these characters as, well, characters and not targets with hit points!

we have GOTTA get one season that doesn't end directly with a final battle. please. we've gotta have one that does a big reveal, an episode to sit with that reveal, a final battle, and then a whole other roleplay episode after that battle to finish off the season. we cannot be doing 15 minute epilogues directly after coming off 4 hrs of dnd combat that is how we get neverafter and whatever the acoc finale was (adding FHJY finale to the list? I'm still holding out for the last episode to give us anything at all. bad kids being under influence of rage all battle reveal? please?)

[sixthsensewulf]

Let's talk about my favourite duos in each IH campaign. . Not the player duos but the characters. Since all the players have the amazing chemistry with each other and know how to build relationships etc.

It's why most of the campaigns just go hard with Found Family with the exception of A Crown of Candy. . That's just Family. But the others - 100% found family.

FANTASY HIGH

All 3 of the campaigns in this world.. the Bad Kids friendship with each other is so heartwarming and sweet it's amazing. The kids are also traumatised as well as forced to grow up into the world. But also how they really do care for each other. So choosing a duo for each year was bloody hard.

Freshman Year : Gorgug and Fig

Honestly yeah. The friendship between Gorgug and Fig is basically why they started Fig and the Sig Figs. Fig got Gorgug into drumming to help with his rage etc.

Sophomore Year : Fabian and Gorgug

How can you not love this duo. They really come into their own this season. It's the hug when they reunite in the Nightmare Forest. Like take the fact that the first interaction these two had at high school was Fabian punching Gorgug. . Then to share a hug after Gorgug told Fabian that he remembers him.

Junior Year: Riz and Kristen

The class president and her campaign manager.. what's not to love. Honestly Junior Year was tough for me to pick a duo since I love all the duos out there. But Riz and Kristen take it. It's Riz watching Kristen when she goes and talks to her parents. It's him backing her play towards the Rat Grinders as well.

The Unsleeping City

This setting I feel like is one the underappreciated campaigns or the underestimated ones. Like it's not underrated. This weirdly has turned into my comfort campaign, I just can't get bored of this setting. Give me more urban fantasy settings D20 please. Like this campaign setting literally gave me my 3 favourite NPC to PC relationships (Ester and Ricky, Dale and Sofia, Liz and Kingston). In the first chapter, you get the very good example of "you don't need every character to have insane character development in order to tell the best story" in Ricky. Chapter Two has sort of the similar vibe with Ida and Rowan.

Chapter One : Kingston and Pete

The Voxs .. I could write an essay on the relationship of these two. The growth and development of both of them. Like come on. .from Kingston telling the rest of the team that he will and would put Pete down if Pete goes out of control... To apologise and revive Pete during the Robert Moses fight. The father - son relationship.. these two had

Chapter Two : Ricky and Cody

The Journey of these two is one of my favourites. Just the duo of Zac and Murph 100% helped, but the growth of the duo was soo good. Ricky and Cody, the paladins of the group are doing insane damage in the final fight.

****

A Crown of Candy : Lapin and Liam

There is a lot to say about the duos of ACoC. They all have their story to tell. They all grow. But the Lapin and Liam story is very bitter sweet. But the reunion between the two of them when Lapin saved the kid and told him of the Bulb etc, was so cute. Like literally the smile and small laugh from Lapin from Liam told him, that he will kill "that carrot".

****

Starstruck: Barry and Margaret

This season was hard to pick. They all are soo good and chaotic. But Barry and Margaret duo was honestly a good duo. The call to arms tactic, Margaret brought in. Make the already protective Barry, more protective.

****

Neverafter : Mother Goose and PiB

Just the two voices of reason of the group. . . Yeah PiB being the voice of reason half the time was very interesting. Like if a trickster spirit is telling the group to calm down a little or reign it in then oh boy. .. but Mother Goose and PiB are such an interesting duo. I honestly quite like the old man and his cat....

(also kinda clocked most of them are the quartet of Zac, Ally, Murph and Lou. . that's not intentional at all... )

[chungledown-bimothy]

So here's the thing about the acoc finale that really bugs me, and it has since the first time I watched it.

I see why Liam made the choice he did to resurrect Keradin and Brassica. It's a choice that's very in character and interesting to think about its ramifications. I also hate it (slight exaggeration but not by much).

He brought 2 people back to life. He chose to resurrect enemies. When Lapin and Jet lay dead.

I see the argument that it would possibly have undermined Ruby and Saccharina's arc, and I get that. I also know Liam was still operating from a place of pain and vengeance.

But god damn it we could have gotten them back.

[operationslipperypuppet]

I only watched acoc for the first time recently, so this may have been brought up before, but I don’t think Gustavo Uvano’s death was entirely natural.

Caramelinda and Amethar seemed surprised by his illness. Brennan made it clear that it had originally seemed as though he would rule the Concord for more than 20 years. Many others lived for along long time (that cabbage for example), but Gustavo was frailer than he should have been.

Theo asked if Plumbeline seemed suspicious at the time of his death, but she just looked sad. No other player perused that path, or a similar one, likely because they had so so much else to do immediately after his death.

However, we know now of an underground cabal working behind the scenes in Calorum to make sure certain goals were and are met. The church was behind the attempts to get Amethar dethroned. They are behind the FDA.

What if they believed that the time for a strong emperor like Gustavo was ending or would eventually end and hit him with a slow acting poison at some point, including possibly in the ravening war, killing him in a way where they (or anyone) would never be suspicious?

I have thought since the beginning that Gustavo’s death was suspicious. TRW and the FDA has me even more convinced.

[kindlespark]

i haven't even had time to watch fhjy and now im Scared. is it that bad

HELP IM SO SORRY LOOK. the insane thing is that i was loving this season so so so fucking much like i hadn’t been having this much fun in canon or fandom since the 2020 acoc lockdown hysteria. and then the latest episode came out and with a record speed of under three hours it completely obliterated any faith i had in d20’s storytelling chops 😭😭😭

but you know what. i was running events in d20 fandom for years without having been actively watching so what’s a few more. i wouldnt be here if the fandom wasnt my favourite part of it all. my super honest frank opinion is that if you do watch fhjy and want to enjoy it u must do so with a grain of salt about the storytelling nowadays because lately the pay-off just hasnt been as satisfying or deep as fh sophomore year or a crown of candy or even naddpod/wbn and i think recently the IH cast has shown they care about the goofs and smackdowns more than narrative themes or moral complexity which is like. fine. its still fun its just not for me and when im done mourning my expectations it will truly be all love but i need like a month to mald about it and draw all the shit i wish happened instead 😭❤️

[milkyetoile]

I postponed continuing Fantasy High after watching the first character introductions because I'm just personally not very fond of high school plots and characters now. but then, after randomly watching Misfits & Magic then A Crown of Candy (and The Ravening War after hahaha rip my heart ig) plus maybe half of Escape from Bloodkeep, I thought I'd just bite the bullet and try to watch D20 series in sequence.

I did not expect to be invested in these magical high school adventurers. but I binged S1 in less than a week and I have decided I'm going to adopt these intrepid heroes as my children lol (can I say I'm Gorgug's dad now too--). it's been so much fun to figure out the mysteries with these teens and seeing their growth as characters. it's also been interesting to see how these brilliant improvisers came together as a team. plus their commitment to all the silly bits, god, I love them, they're so unhinged. like, I already realized it from other seasons but damn, the extent of it in comparison to ACOC, the only other season I've watched with exactly the same cast 🤣🤣🤣

also, seeing their interactions with each other and the adults has been cathartic in a way, as someone who didn't have the best experience with school or my parents. it's been comforting and healing in a way I didn't expect.

anyway, I no longer have the excuse to keep binging since I finally have energy to be productive so S2 will have to wait until I finish working on stuff and preparing for new work starting soon haha but I am looking forward to it <3

[utilitycaster]

Big D20 and ACOC fan here. The "they won't get the rich lore" argument just also feels so ridiculous from a technical standpoint? Like, CR fans watch long ass episodes, the campaigns for it span over a hundred episodes lmao. I'm pretty sure they're actually primed for lore retention and are fairly used to intricate plot points. I personally can't wait to see Matt take this on and bring in more viewers.

Right! Like...firstly, fans of Critical Role, or Matt, do tend to be massive fucking nerds, and CR in particular is pretty heavy on lore so assuming the worst of them is pretty dumb. Secondly, as I said, there's very few resources for this lore other than watching (requires a subscription) or reading the transcripts of the episodes - and I want to be clear, I don't blame the D20 wiki editors, who have as far as I know been minding their own business - but the people hyping up the rich lore have done nothing to bring that canon to potential new fans, instead just tsk-tsk-ing and saying "you wouldn't get it." Thirdly, I'm going to take a wild guess and say again that Matt and Brennan have gone through the lore together and are going to set the stage adequately for new viewers.

Which is the big thing that I think the people attempting to say "you wouldn't get it unless you've continuously been in the fandom specifically for ACOC for three straight years" are fully missing (and which your ask here does take into account appropriately). Dropout needs subscribers. That is their business model, and D20 is one of the shows that brings in the most new and continuous subscribers since many of the other shows, while great, are unscripted quiz-style shows and permit a more, well, drop in and out style of viewing.

The past few D20 seasons have not been pulling in the same viewership, and we can speculate why that is but it ultimately doesn't matter. They are specifically bringing in a popular and well-known DM, having a group of experienced roleplayers, and returning to this specific beloved setting on purpose to do so - both to mine the overlap in fandom between D20 and CR and perhaps expand it, reach out to fans of Aabria or Anjali, and perhaps bring back in people who watched A Crown of Candy but haven't kept up since. A lot of the discussion truly feels like it paints Matt as "asshole who wandered on set and seized control over my blorbos" and not "person who was very deliberately invited to DM this particular season and has the explicit blessing of Brennan, Sam Reich, and anyone else involved in the decision-making at D20." (I honestly don't know if the D20 powers that be are aware that there's a cohort of D20 fans who just passionately hate CR or Matt but the thing is, if I were a hypothetical executive who was, shall we say, plugged into the fansphere? I'd pick the setting of Calorum specifically so that we retain its passionate fandom, even if they don't like the DM, while also bringing in new fans. It would be the smart business decision, and also pretty funny.)

But also...look. I am certainly not above criticizing fan theories based on poor understanding of lore, or when people are like (smug voice) "well I'm a lore muncher so combat doesn't interest me", or when they respond to thoughtful meta with irrelevant projections. But if someone wants to watch Critical Role and make liveblog posts of "hell yeah, Fearne just stole that guy's watch, iconic" without going deep into the lore? That is absolutely just as valid a form of fandom as writing meta, or fic, or creating fan art, or cosplaying. The same goes for any other show. If you want to get into lore discussions and meta then yes, you should be relatively up on the lore, but if you just want to hang out and enjoy the show? You can show up to episode 1 absolutely cold and pick it up as you go along. It's fine, and anyone saying otherwise is an asshole who does not have good intentions.

[akafred32092]

On Grief and Processing Loss

I started watching Dimension 20 in January of 2021 & quickly became feral. I consumed all of the Fantasy High content available, the 1st season of The Unsleeping City, and A Crown of Candy in less than 2 months. I took a pause on new content for a little bit after that just to process everything that had happened in ACOC, but the 1st season of Fantasy High became my go-to background noise for a while. I would listen to it while taking long drives to visit family or if I needed something to fall asleep or even work to. Call it an emotional support show or a hyper fixation, but either way, Fantasy High was a huge part of my early 2021.

In April of that year, one of my great-aunts passed away. Though I had seen her on and off in my early childhood, she'd moved back near my grandparents when I was a teenager, and I had a lot of memories with her. I loved her dearly, but it was also complicated. Complicated in ways I won't linger on in this random post on the internet, but in a way that kind of tinged some memories I had of spending time with her.

As I was visiting with my family after her funeral, I kept thinking about Sandra Lynn and the "You're allowed to be a complex person" line. The idea that my aunt could be the reason for a lot of good memories but was also a different person to different people & she was "allowed" to be a multifaceted human being really healed something for me in that moment. I know it's easy to say that in my late 20s that was something I should have realized before then, but sometimes you just need the right set of words to make everything click, and the Intrepid Heroes provided that for me.

Fast forward to this week. I got a call that one of my best friends, someone I've know for over 20 years, a person who I grew up next to and whose existence was irrevocably tangled with my own passed away suddenly. It's been *a lot* do deal with over the last few days. The pain and grief have hit me in waves and it's been overwhelming.

When I did turn on something just to have noise in the house, it was again Dimension 20 related. I just turned on the Sig Figs Collective and had it going for a while. (of course "Love Me for Me" would just have me sobbing again)

I got that call in the early hours of the morning on Monday & just cocooned myself for a while on the couch. Tuesday came and with that a new episode of Worlds Beyond Number. It was a welcome distraction & a known comfort show.

The scene with Eursulon and The Fox outside of the bathroom had me full body cackling, and it was the 1st time I had laughed since I got the news. It was the perfect thing to break the cycle of doom I was stuck in.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was 6 months ago. This has been sitting in my drafts for 6 whole months. I knew I'd post it eventually, and here we are.

In the time since my friend's passing, actual plays have continued to be a huge emotional support and comfort. Most recently, as I've been working my way through NADDPOD, I got to the "I will be your wings" scene a few weeks ago, and I had a good cry in my car as I thought about how even with my friend gone, her kids and all of our shared memories of her help keep a part of her alive.

This journey of navigating life after such a huge loss is still an evolving story, but I am eternally grateful for the friends and family that allow me to tell random stories about my friend (and coworkers who are extremely understanding of times I need to go have a cry in the bathroom) and these shows and podcasts that help provide laughs, comfort, and even catharsis as my new reality is still forming.

[neurotic-sinkhole]

A Crown of Candy is my favorite setting and season Dimension 20 has done so far. The way Calorum was meticulously crafted in both lore and actual mechanics demonstrates complete mastery of GMing. Political intruige is such a fun yet unsettling type of campaign, and in one of my own campaigns I've GM'd, I looked towards the world building Brennan and the Intrepid Heros did in the world as an inspiration.

With that being said, there were parts I wasn't a big fan of.

I only discovered D20 about a year and a half ago, so I wasn't around when A Crown of Candy was coming out. I have no idea what the discourse surrounding the season looked like at the time. But seeing the current Rat Grinders discourse, I can put together the peices of how bad fans at that time could have been.

Now, with ACOC, my personal gripes with the season aren't little scenes I disagree with. I've rewatched the season many, many times- and every. single. time For Candia Pt 1 (second to last episode) makes me genuinely upset. I'm a Survivor fan. I've hatewatched many hours of TV but preservered simply for the sake of completion for a lotta content. But that episode, the decisions made by some of the cast in regaurd to their character's alleginces makes me so angry.

From what I gather, there was a shit ton of hate to Emily based from her portrayal (and i guess just existance?) as Sacharina. While I don't think Sacharina was a perfect character, the choices Emily made as Sacharina were nowhere near as upsetting to me as Murph's as Theo.

((This is spoilers if ya haven't watched yet))

In For Candia Pt 1, there's the whole conversarion between the Momma Poppa lonely twin inner House Rocks family about how Amathar isn't an adulterer. They talk about how he's actually legally King! And they make the decision to tell nobody, not even Theo, because it isn't the time. Because well, there is literally war going on, and also because they're nervous about it weaseling rebellion in the troops and companions they so desperately need to work together- if but just for a few more hours.

Then the swifty thing happens, Sacharina tells Theo, and the exact thing Ruby DIRECTLY MENTIONS being nervous about happens. Theo can't keep the secret and tells people.

Now, I know that within the cannon Theo wouldn't know Ruby said that. Him knowing that is straight up metagaming lol. But what Theo does know, and hears directly from Sacharina's lips, is that SWIFTY found this out. Swifty, the "advisor" to his queen who is a known shit starter and murderer. Theo only checks if the queen is telling the truth- not Swifty, and doesn't think to double check this info.

Theo says he's known Ruby since she's been alive. He's known Amathar for decades. But he'll take the word of a rampaging violent maurader such as Swifty, who he's only known for a series of weeks.

Everybody- the cast, the other characters in game, MURPH HIMSELF- has waxed poetic about the importance of honor to Theo. Yet he forgets it so easily at times that he needs it most and it drives me WILD.

This is probably my biggest complaint with ACOC. And I know this issue does not come from some weird sense of "morality" or just straight up sexism/racism/queerphobic tendancies like a lot of the issues d20 fans come up with. It's a genuine critiqe of a character not based off of their behavior but choices made. It's criticism that garners conversation. I bet there are people who will think I'm wrong, and that's fine! I think you're wrong then too, and that's it. I don't think you're immoral or a bad person for not having a different viewpoint than me. It's interesting in a way that stirs myself and others to delve further into the season I love so much.

Because that's what fandom discourse should look like. That is what disagreements within online spaces should look like. Especially when the events being dissected are about little food people in the dice game.

[mymaleficaria]

mthedm ---> mymaleficaria

Hi gang! I've had this blog since high school, but somewhere in college it fell into disuse and disrepair. I've been itching to get back on here, as a space on the internet that's not...ya know *gestures at the Twitter-sized elephant in the room*. But I also wanted to go in with a fresh coat of paint and reintroduce myself to y'all, maybe even make some new friends (or enemies. That could be hot.) A lot has changed!

Wait, why do I follow you?

Statistically, you followed me because of Wolf 359! I was big into podcasts back in the day, WTNV, Wolf 359, all those. I also wrote some Wolf 359 fics and was semi-active on the discord. Still fondly remember the show and might reblog fanart once in awhile, but it's not the direction this blog's going to go, so feel free to unfollow if what up I'm to now isn't your jam.

What's this blog about now?

Wouldn't you like to know, weatherboy? Frankly, I'm ADHD as fuck, so that'll vary by the day, but I have a few fandoms (do we still say fandoms in the year of our lord 2023???) that I've been into lately.

Dimension 20: I started watching D20 a little less than a year ago, and it entirely took over my life. It's just a series that's so robustly funny, wonderfully told, and never fails to make me smile. I'm especially fond of ACOC and Fantasy High.

Dracula Daily: I'm in this shit for the long haul! I think Lucy and Mina should kiss, but that's neither here nor there.

Game of Thrones/HotD: This show ended in a trash fire, but it literally lives in my head rent free. The political intrigue, the drama. Ugh. I'm a targ girlie through and through, so I've been eating up HotD, though it's nowhere near as good imo. Am also currently reading the 1st ASOIAF book.

YA lit/Whatever I'm reading/watching: I've read almost 50 books this year so far, and am frankly, insane. Bonus points for queer reads! Not many people to talk about books to irl, so might ramble about them on here instead. Also watch a lot of random TV drama and some anime.

Writing: I'm a fanfic writer, and a fiction writer in general, so I'll post stuff about writing--complaints, story snippets, link to my fics, etc! Headcanons and all will be found here. I've also copyedited before, which is like writing but if you get even more nitpicky about it.

Personal/Whatever the hell I feel like/My D&D Games: Life happens and sometimes you want to scream into the void. Ramblings, jokes, whatever. I transed my gender in the past few years and sometimes I'm mad about it! I also just graduated college! Madness! I play a lot of TTRPGs, and I'm usually on brainrot for one of my characters at any given time.

Why's your new username that?

One of my favorite book series is The Scholomance by Naomi Novik, and in the series, Maleficaria are the horrifying monsters that threaten to kill the students every day, and what is tumblr if not a place full of vile, evil beings? Plus, it means you all can call me Mal.

Anything else?

Nope! Other than to feel free to drop me a line and say hello, especially if you want to scream about D20. I'm p alone in this brainrot irl, so I'm pretty much always down to talk about the Bad Kids... especially Adaine and Fabian. I'm also always down to take fic suggestions in my asks! This show genuinely lifts me up when I'm down, so sharing it with people is one of my favorite things.

My fics (shortlist):

In Sweetness, There is Violence: Angsty ACOC one-shot about if Ruby had made a different choice in the finale. Obligatory Caramelinda Caramelinda-ing.

the words i speak are wildfires: A HOTD one-shot I intended to be smut, that ended up instead being more like a romantic sapphic moment of healing between Alicent and Rhaenyra. What can I say? I like childhood friends to enemies to lovers.

Stay Stellar: An unfinished (and, very likely, discontinued) 15-chapter high school AU for Wolf 359 that I wrote with an old friend. Featuring some truly crazy shenanigans, a lot of embarrassing Kepcobi moments, and a surprising amount of theatre.

[thepringlesofblood]

Major ACOC Spoilers

so, there are a few posts out there pointing out two math errors in acoc ep9 - Liam’s damage to Ciabatta being miscounted as 67 instead of 77, and Jet’s riposte for 13 damage not hitting Ciabatta when it should’ve. this is true. this might lead one to wonder, “well, if those extra 23 points of damage were counted, would Ciabatta be dead? would Jet have lived?”

I wanna clear things up for all of yall who are watching ACOC for the first time after the ravening war, so i did the math (under the cut) by counting his hp in the finale as he took damage.

Ciabatta had 118 hp

it wouldn’t have made a difference. if both errors were fixed and he was dealt the full 77 + 13, he’s still walking out of there with 28 hp.

to be clear: absolutely no shade on the intrepid heroes/brennan. no one clown on this post about whether they should’ve done this or that. it was 3am in a warehouse in Hollywood on a wicked messed up shooting schedule. Jet’s death was a beautiful, emotional scene, and it’d be weird and narratively dissonant to go back and redo it bc some math was wrong.

i did this math bc my logic brain just needs to know how the numbers do for my own personal peace of mind. given the several other posts I’ve seen trying to calculate this same thing, others have the same problem. so. enjoy.

Ciabatta doesn’t physically appear in the finale until pt 2

“The last Ceresian force musters, appears at the front of the wall with Imperator Ciabatta” is at 1:33:00ish

first damage done to him is by Saccharina, when she Cone of Colds his whole force in front of the castle for 41 damage (1:37:08). it hits him and the forces he was leading, and they do not save for half.

after that we have this exchange:

Zac: Ciabatta's-

Brennan: Ciabatta is still very much alive.

Emily: Okay. He's very much alive though, he's doing really well?

Brennan: Yes.

Emily: Okay. Then just to fuck with him, I'm gonna fire breathe on him.

and she does. Cinnamon uses his breath weapon to deal 57 damage, demolishing the rest of the forces

Brennan: He does not save for half. He goes from looking wounded but okay to injured, badly injured.

then of course the final damage is done by Ruby w the water-steel dagger

Siobhan: It's 4d6.

Brennan: 4d6, he just rolled a natural 4 on his Constitution save.

Siobhan: Great, it's actually three Constitution saves. It's 12.

Brennan: 12 damage, but you also add your sneak Attack.

Ally: Oh!

Brennan: Yeah.

Siobhan: 12, 14, 16.

Brennan: More than 20?

Siobhan: Yeah.

Brennan: Standing in the burned and frozen remains of his soldiers, what happens to Imperator Ciabatta?

[as a 7th lvl rogue, Ruby has 4d6 sneak attack dice]

so, presumably, Ciabatta had 20 hp left before being stabbed.

41 + 57 + 20 = 118

now, I highlighted those exchanges for a reason. It is technically possible that Brennan was using a similar mechanic for Ciabatta leading his troops as the PCs leading theirs- being attacked as a troop by another troop does deal the commander as an individual some of the damage, but not all. so, the Cone of Cold may not have dealt all 41 points of damage to him. here’s how he’s described after the Cone of Cold

“very much alive” “doing really well”

after breath weapon “He goes from looking wounded but okay to injured, badly injured“

so it is possible that the Cone of Cold did not do full damage bc of troop mechanics. however. personally I feel like since Saccharina is not attacking as a troop but as an individual (with a dragon), it’s not troop v troop action.

fun fact: Saccharina’s breath weapon attack + Ruby’s finishing blow is 77 damage - the same amount of damage Liam (should have) done to Ciabatta in episode 9 (that didn’t take him down)

so as long as Saccharina’s Cone of Cold did more than 13 damage [Jet’s riposte] to Ciabatta (which I’d fucking think it would even w very unlikely troop mechanics), then it wouldn’t have made any difference.

and bc we know he took at the very least a non-zero amount of damage from the Cone of Cold (“wounded but okay”), nothing would’ve saved Jet. the other assassins had already hit, and even with the math fixed on Liam’s damage 77 would never have taken him down. the only difference even possible is that her 13 damage riposte might’ve downed him, but even that is extremely unlikely - Ciabatta would’ve had to take less than half damage from Cone of Cold, and he did not save.

[cloudmancy]

I saw your latest rat grinders piece (love it love it so much and you are right that song matches so well) and it got me thinking about calroy in comparison to the rat grinders and specifically kipperlily in reference to how the d20 fandom sees them. Obviously there is a retrospective and nostalgic lense to calroy that isn't afforded to kipperlily as of yet, however, I'm trying to understand why it seems that the fandom has this attitude towards them: calroy- evil but liked and kipperlily- evil (read as heavily manipulated teen girl with anger issues exasperated by a literal god of rage) who is disliked. Do you think it has to do with this 4 years ago vs present timing- are people too hot with emotions to think critically? Does it have to do with the setting- acoc is candy land game of thrones obviously there is going to be betrayal and ambitious power hungry characters who can only be found in fiction and well politics vs fantasy high where the audience LOVES the bad kids have seen everything they have been through, have sided with them, 'would like to sit at their fantasy john hughes movie lunch table' and hate kipperlily because she hates the bad kids so she does what she does like an "ambitious mean girl"? I hate to reference harry potter- it's giving "who do you hate more voldemort or umbridge? umbridge right? everyone has had an umbridge in their life" I'd like to hear your thoughts if you have any

okay I talked with my friends about it and I feel like it's:

the way kipperlilly was set up and introduced vs calroy - she was presented as an annoyance and an antagonistic character to the bad kids from the beginning, while calroy was a loveable close friend and advisor to the king who turned traitor. that also makes him a more likeable character especially since people started being fans of him specifically AFTER the betrayal too

people did hate calroy! it's just been so long since acoc aired that the people who hated him stopped talking about him and the people who like him still make content of him. I imagine after fhsy ends the majority of people who talk about kipperlilly will be fans of her OR people watching for the first time

and the last part, you're right. there's definitely some projection to it. lot of people on here going 'she's just like ex-gifted kids/this type of mean girl I had bad interactions with when I was younger' and put themselves in the role of the bad kids. there's also the seeing yourself in her type of hate where it's like 'EYE had rage issues as a kid and I'D never do what SHE'S doing. I'm better than her' okay but you're an adult now. let's give some empathy to her and your own past self please <3