#and he views it as a game

[mysticalskunk]

you know that feeling when you really like a character but you cannot find any good content for them because people just ... don't really get them.

[demigods-posts]

headcanon that percy is historically hard to beat at monopoly. and it's intially the most mind-boggling thing ever watching him turn the tide of a game. because he's definitely losing at the beginning. but percy is not only an amazing strategist. he has a deep understanding of money and knows how and when to bet on the board. he knows when to test his luck. and he's amazing at getting into people's head.

[borealing]

the first time gihun nearly cracks a smile in the games is when inho calls him by his name and then goes oh i just wanted to try calling you by your name.. do you mind? which raises the two incredible questions of 1. was that a slip of the tongue and if yes, does inho call him gihun when he thinks about him? not player 456, even though that's how the frontman addresses him? and 2. was gihun actually suspicious for a second there or was he completely appeased by the idea that a random guy in the games is trying to speedrun being his bestie given what happened last time (everyone he was friends with died)

i really wonder how badly the games traumatised gihun, like hes meeting these new people and expecting them to die within days. he meets them and has mourned them before he knows their names. he nearly cracks a smile when someone becomes his friend despite the pre-emptive grief he must be feeling. it just speaks to the kind of man he is, trusting to a fault and desperate for any kind of connection

[wuzeio]

if you okay with requests some jeaneil please ?? i absolutely adore your artstyle and your neil is so 🤲🤲🤲 lil guy 😺

hii thank u 🥺🥺🧡🧡!!! a few people requested jeanneil so here is them listening to music hehe (explodes into 9 million pieces)

[mollysunder]

There is a theory that the way children play serves as a means to simulate and prepare them for the tasks they'll take on as adults. So for all the narrative weight both Jinx and the story give the boxing machine at the arcade it would never have prepared her or the kids to take on Piltover.

What are the two things that Piltovans excel at over their Zaunite counterparts to keep the hierarchy? Weapons and technological development.

When you look at the way Piltovans invest in their children, they don't prioritize hand to hand/melee combat training. Piltovans focus on giving their children experiences in handling firearms, a pursuit that is both leisure sport for the wealthy and a key offense against dissenting Zaunites.

And from the show notes even Jayce, whose family occupies the upper middle class, was sent on educational excursions across Runeterra to explore the world and learn what it had to offer. Without Jayce's education abroad he would never have been inspired to pursue the concept hextech.

It's no wonder that the two figures that are set to be Piltover's biggest threats from Zaun are Jinx and Viktor, becasue they engaged in the same kinds of games and activities as their Piltovan counterparts.

Jinx didn't have an entire forest preserved to help her practice her sharpshooting like the high houses of Piltover, but she did excel in the few games at The Rift (the arcade) that built on her talents. She's the only Zaunite thus far who's long distance offensive is a strong counter to Piltover's forces.

Viktor couldn't travel the world like Jayce did, but for better or worse he managed to stumble into an opportunity to get real opportunity in research not offered to his peers through Singed. It was through that experience that Viktor knew to turn to Singed when he was at the end of his rope, and the consequences of that will be fully realized in season 2.

Ironically, the kind of skill the boxing game champions is only good for keeping other Zaunites in line. Vander's days of fighting Piltover were way behind him when we first met him, and Vi spends season 1 primarily fighting other Zaunites. It's no surprise the Zaunites who embody the old ideal of strength in Zaun that the game portrays, Vi and Vander, are largely at the mercy of Piltover and end up collaborating with them to avoid further harm.

Zaun's future as an independent city-state couldn't happen if they stuck to their old ideals. The people who stand a chance against Piltover are the ones that not only succeed but excel at playing Piltover's games against them.

[yelenadelova]

TBOSAS has me thinking about how Finnick was likely one of the only people alive who knew even some of the story of what happened in the 10th Hunger Games and after. It’s apparent that Snow or the Capitol in general buried any record of the 10th games and Lucy Gray to save face.

However, who knew all of Snow’s darkest secrets and dirty laundry? Finnick. It’s reasonable to assume he probably learned at least part of the story. Not only that but Mags won the 11th games, directly after Lucy Gray’s Games. It is canon that there wasn’t much coverage of the games in the districts but I’m sure even if she didn’t watch them there were likely rumors about it during the next game. And when Snow reappeared as the president she likely remembered his role. And as Finnick’s mentor and mother figure she probably told him a lot.

There’s no real point to this information but I just think it’s very interesting that despite how hard Snow worked to bury his past it probably still lived on. And despite his efforts to control, oppress, and abuse the victors, it was one of these victors who knew his dark past. It was one of the people he tried to control that eventually gained an upper hand over him and helped play a big role in his downfall.

[pespillo]

a god´s view of his devoted subjects is as flawed as the view they got of themself, it is easier to believe that they are always happy to serve you, that their love for you will never fade. makes you forget why you loved em first.

"were you always this...."

"ugly? yeah."

"no, no ... this- rugged?"

[taiistired]

i need you more than anything

[cannibalisticskittles]

so much of the wigmaker's job continues to stay with me but especially this bit.

like. do you think illario hearing lucanis brush off the possibility of his death again and again contributed to illario giving lucanis to zara.

because yes, of course there's jealousy. of course there is. lucanis is primed to get everything illario wants and nothing illario does seems to change that in the slightest. he can never be good enough, not when there's lucanis to measure up to.

but. not only does lucanis not actually want what's coming his way (he does not at all want to be first talon but they both know caterina DOES want this and lucanis could never tell her no), he's also throwing himself into these jobs with such disregard for his personal safety that there's a sense of inevitability that surrounds the idea of his death.

this conversation feels like... it may not have been discussed like this so clearly before, but they've at least poked around the edges in the past. thought about it. and this moment might have been a turning point, in a way -- illario coming to terms with the fact that lucanis really just will. not. stop. for ANYTHING. his cousin WILL get himself killed doing this and lucanis won’t have any regrets. he’ll leave illario to go this alone. (no one to follow after anymore.)

i wonder if he started to think -- if lucanis is going to die anyway, maybe it’d be better to have that happen sooner, rather than later.

lucanis wouldn’t be happy as first talon (+ honestly, maybe this part is a stretch, but illario seems to see that what lucanis is NOW isn’t so much ‘happy’ as it is ‘obedient and content to accept the scraps that gives him’), and he’s GOING to get himself killed doing this, anyway…

so yeah, he could wait it out. wait for lucanis to do something foolish enough that he can't just walk away from it. maybe he’ll even last long enough to be made first talon (if caterina can bear to loosen her grip from the title) and be miserable for a while. years even, maybe! before lucanis, again, does something he can’t walk away from.

or.

illario could cut through all the pointless waiting and get right to the point. go straight to where this was always going to end up. and if illario is in charge of this, maybe he can benefit from it, and salvage one good thing from this whole mess, instead of being caught up in it later down the line.

(which then might tread into the territory of anticipated grief, too – lucanis' loss will be agony, but, if illario controls when and how it happens, he can control his grief. …except he hadn’t accepted the inevitability of lucanis’ death quite as well as he’d thought and when he gets sloshed at the wake, real grief seeps through the cracks)

just... something about this conversation. both of them viewing lucanis’ death as a foregone conclusion. lucanis accepting that easily, and illario struggling with that more -- and maybe having that shape his actions. not exactly a healthy expression of grief, but since when has anything this family done been healthy?

[clowndensation]

thinking about connor in prague saying "dad's theory was you got two fighting dogs, you send the weak one away, you punish the weak one." in relation to this episode, and the way the siblings view abuse inside their own family.

shiv and kendall and their belief that connor and roman are the weak dogs that got the brunt of logan's worst behavior, because abuse is reserved for the kids who can't behave - the ones who aren't smart and mature enough to make it in the world. abuse evokes pity, because abuse is what happens when you expect too much from people who obviously aren't capable of more.

and then they go forward in life, believing that they're just naturally more intelligent and more capable than connor and roman, as if being raised seeing what happens to you if you aren't a perfect child wasn't the entire point of the "punish the weak dog" mentality that logan instilled in them. the looming threat implied behind any praise they do receive that tacitly tells them "you're not like roman and connor" because everyone knows what happens to roman and connor.

the absolute height of the rich capitalist mindset. "we're succeeding because of our own merit, and other people fail because they don't have what it takes" when in reality they're succeeding because of arbitrary rules made up by someone who knows that infighting makes meaner dogs.

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

Do you know this queer character?

Saber is Transgender, Nonbinary, Bisexual and Polyamorous, and uses she/her pronouns!

[paper-mario-wiki]

here's something fun that came out of the Kendrick/Drake beef that more casual listeners of rap might have missed:

YG, a west coast artist that Drake mentioned in a song as an example of someone who's more "real" than Kendrick, came back later the same month he was shouted out with a response called "Weird", where he makes fun of Drake in the most "nana nana boo-boo" schoolground tone i've ever heard in a serious rap song. it's hilarious, and one i've been listening to on repeat recently.

[scholliski]

I will forever love that from every point of view we’ve seen, whether that be Jeans, Neil’s or even Aaron’s in the extra content, they’re all instantly mesmerised by Kevin but he will literally never know because everyone has seemingly made the silent agreement to never publicly compliment him so that his ego doesn’t get even bigger than it already is

[dykedvonte]

I think a very interesting idea and misconception within the fandom is the idea Curly himself spreads the idea about his superb leadership and status as a great idealistic person.

A big personal issue with him is the very idea that he doesn’t think he embodies much of either. Or rather doesn’t think it was meant for him. The status is placed onto him from people like Jimmy, the rest of the crew to an extent and Pony Express themselves. He is never exactly excited or eager to hear praise on those fronts as he’s grappling with the existential woe of imposter syndrome and feeling like he’s done nothing despite moving up in those roles.

We buy into Jimmy’s belief that Curly holds himself up on the same pedestal and cares when he’s placed up there and scared of coming down, not that he doesn’t want to. He also just sees himself as some guy. A guy with a lot on his plate. A guy with a lot of responsibilities he doesn’t want. But still just a normal guy. Good and bad. Average. He’s very honest with himself about his own faults, very aware of the the thoughts plaguing him, both by his dialogue in the HFIM DLC and the awareness he shows to Jimmy before he’s shit down. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s good at expressing it to other people but it is the stuff he actually believes about himself.

The reason he keeps up the facade is for others, the necessity of his job for the Captain to be put together but oddly enough he never tries to reinforce it himself. He falters at the praise and bristles at personal concerns to himself. If you outright asked him if he thought he was a good person or even a good captain, there’s of course the objective answer and then the one he’d have…

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.

[gazkerber]

Pre-Magitek infusion Kefka requested over my Patreon!