#and is thus still fine

[baejax-the-great]

Veilguard does the important work of reminding us that people's religiousity is generally rooted entirely in rationalism, logic, and goodwill toward everyone in the world and not just specific ingroups.

When the Elvhen pantheon, who in many ways take after the Greek pantheon from our world, are revealed to be flawed individuals, something that the Dalish are already aware of because their myths convey some of those flaws all these years later, logically, the Dalish then abandon their gods instantly and without any sort of emotional response and turn toward the rational goal of killing those gods.

After all, during the Trojan war when Apollo felt slighted and decided to send a plague to wipe out the Achaeans (and their dogs for some reason), didn't the Trojans all look at each other and go, "Actually, that was a kind of fucked up thing for Apollo to do. And scary. There's nothing to stop him from using that ability against us. Maybe we should just go kill Apollo"?

No? They didn't do that? Because that would be absurd and entirely out of keeping with how people understand and express faith throughout all of history?

Weird. Well, I'm sure there's an example out there somewhere that jives with Veilguard's quality writing.

[joshuamj]

been scribbling out some little comics for my EoW!Zelda Impersonates Link AU!

[sainteclectic]

and btw since I'm posting a lot of wholesoul content (intended as platonic but still), i do want to make it clear: my analysis of whole as a character is purely within the narrative of the story! while i am aware that behind the metaphors is whole is cj himself, that's never what i'm writing whole as in my work. basically I'm using the internal logic of the fiction (whole as viewed by the characters in the album) rather than the reason for the fiction existing (as a fictionalized version of chonny's mental state), just like i do with all the other characters. it's important to make that distinction when you're dealing with a piece of fiction so heavily based on the creator i think. I'll never use cj as a basis for how I write whole because I find that a little off putting tbh ^^;

basically I'm playing with touys. ok? play touys with me

[neonhellscape]

The towering creature comprised primarily of metal spikes looks at you with its nine optics.

[nanamis-bigtie]

not to be a bitch on main again but. i really don't like how the topic of realistic sex mechanisms is often reduced to mocking people who have a different experience than average one or don't have experience at all

[creativity-deficient]

“Tweek can’t be chubby he’s on meth nnghh!!!”

Shhh don’t care. Didnt ask. <3

[vamp-bites]

Vashwood watercolor doodle for @acetrigunweek day 5: casual nudity :)

Based on/a redoing of an older sketch of mine that ill leave under the cut!

This was sketched back in September. I've noticed a habit of mine of sketching vashwood shirtless, it's fun, i can visibly shove my transgender agenda on them (except I accidentally covered where WW's top surgery scars would be with Vash's arm this time oops)

[synchodai]

Not too keen on how the first scene of HotD made show-only viewers think that Aegon the Conqueror diplomatically convinced Torrhen Stark to give up Northern independence because they both believed in stopping a prophesized apocalyptic Long Night because it downplays the brutality of Aegon's Conquest.

Not the show's fault since it is realistic that Cregan and Jace would frame it like an amiable peacetalk given their current goals and circumstances (and they did touch on the intimidation aspect of it). But show-onlies don't get the context that:

Torrhen was the person who started a dialogue with Aegon I, not the other way around.

Aegon didn't fly North to meet with Torrhen. Torrhen was the one who marched south with his armies to stop the man who was burninating the entire countryside.

Because he was marching south, Torrhen saw the utter carnage of Aegon's Conquest. At least three entire dynasties of kings were extinguished at that point. Torrhen was thus faced with the possibility that the entire Stark line would be wiped out like them if he fought.

Aegon and Torrhen exchanged letters at the Riverlands when both their armies were about to meet, but those weren't what convinced Torrhen to kneel. Torrhen had to actively stop his brother Brandon from attacking Aegon's dragons when they got there. The Northern King had already made his mind prior to talking to Aegon that he didn't want to fight.

Aegon's Conquest wasn't him making buddy-buddy with the 6 kings. It was him and his sister-wives intimidating them into submission by threatening to wipe out their families.

[weidli]

oh, berlin, nobody knows where you've been

[northstarscowboyhat]

Just coming in with a quick little PSA to clear the air about something in regards to my Lucky Clover AU;

Please do not tag any of my artwork of Older Clover and Frisk as ship.

I am totally fine if people want to draw and make their own interpretations of Frisk and Clover's dynamic! Fanart of them as the same age is a okay! But just as a reminder, this is an AU where Clover didn't die and thus aged normally before Frisk entered the Underground. Clover is an older teen/young adult age (around 18 years old), and I personally interpret and draw Frisk for this AU as 8 years old. Thus, I do not want my art of them to be interpreted as romantic in any way.

Again, you're fine to draw your own art and interpretation of them! I have zero issues with that, be free! I just do not want my personal interpretation of them where they're adopted siblings with a large age gap between them to be taken as romantic in any way.

Thanks for understanding!

[essektheylyss]

I will say, there's definitely a possibility that Essek is technically contracted to the Cobalt Soul, but probably not as an archivist. But on the slim chance that he is, I will, on account of the state of real-world archives jobs, be reaching into the narrative to throttle him with my bare hands.

[batemanofficial]

my mother is going to be home for a full week instead of the 3 days i was originally told. i will be seeing nosferatu back to back to back from 12/25 on until i am forcibly removed from the premises

[icewindandboringhorror]

examining a seemingly normal image only to slowly realize the clear signs of AI generated art.... i know what you are... you cannot hide your true nature from me... go back where you came from... out of my sight with haste, wretched and vile husk

[mc-critical]

Bonus:

2.22 (46) / 2.24 (48) / 2.25 (49) / 2.35 (59) / 2.39 (63)

[dazais-guardian-angel]

alright I've thought about it for a while, and I'm fairly confident that is in fact Bram, and that Aya isn't hallucinating/seeing an illusion.

The biggest thing casting doubt, aside from the obvious different outfit, is the fact that the chapter ends on this reveal, suggesting it could be a cliffhanger bait. However, BSD's cliffhangers always involve something terrible happening that gets rectified in the next chapter(s), to scare us before giving us back hope; there's never been a case of the other way around, where something good happens to get our hopes up, only to have the rug pulled out from us at the start of next chapter to show that we were foolish for hoping. Asagiri is never that cruel. He loves his death baits and his dangerous situation baits before letting us know that everything is okay, and he'd never suggest that it was wrong for the audience or the characters to have hope, when BSD is quite literally about having hope even in the most absurd situations.

But more specifically, just.... what would a fakeout like this accomplish? The only way I could maybe see it was if this is Fyodor, and we think Aya is safe but she's actually not, but there's no way it's him, because we see him with the singularity and Kunikida/Tanizaki at the same time as this, he's wearing Bram's outfit and not the one this person has, and we've established that he wants to protect Aya, not hurt her. Granted, he obviously doesn't care enough about protecting her since he let her escape and get hurt all on her own lmao, so that's exactly why I ask what would be the point of him suddenly showing up just to save her from the rubble, only to then just hurt her anyway? None of that is logical.

And then, if it's Akutagawa, then that means we had our emotions played with for a twist that is just.... mildly disappointing but also not outright bad for the characters? Disappointing because Bram isn't back after all, but also not a net negative because Aya is still being rescued by someone we know and trust. If that were to happen, Aya hallucinating Aku as Bram, I just can't see it happening as a chapter cliffhanger fakeout at all; it would just feel cheap and cruel, playing with our feelings (not to mention Aya's feelings!) regarding a character we want to come back, for a reveal that isn't really worth it and doesn't change the status quo (because she's still safe regardless if it's Bram or Aku).

Aside from the lack of narrative justification, I also believe that if Aya were to hallucinate Bram, she would see him exactly as she knew him back when he regained his body — I mean, she basically does see him like that when she's remembering his last moments with her in this chapter and in the previous one when she's yelling at Fyodor; sure they're just repeated panels as flashbacks, but they're still her memories of how she sees him. I was unsure for a while about the figure's identity, but it was seeing it pointed out that Bram no longer has his nails that was really the final nail in the coffin haha get it, it's a multilayered joke, please laugh- for me: why would Aya hallucinate Bram not only not in his own outfit, but with his body altered from how she knows it? There'd be no reason why she would, and no way she could. She's never seen him in a different outfit, with different nails. Note that every other instance we've gotten of characters hallucinating significant figures in their lives (Atsushi, Mushitarou, Dazai), they're always wearing the clothes they're most known for and what the person knows them to wear. There's no reason to assume this would be different for Aya, and that she'd imagine him wearing a completely random outfit from the one she associates with him, and randomly without his signature long black nails.

This closeup panel of Bram's collar right when he first begins speaking pretty much proves my point. It's inconsistent with the new outfit (Aku's outfit) we see him wearing on the last page, but with the framing of this, with him being entirely in shadow in the rightmost panel when he first appears, it's clear to me that Aya can't see him clearly yet, so she's imagining him the way she remembers him. And then he gets closer/lifts the beam higher so that the shadow starts receding from him, and his feet and hands and different outfit become visible. The tone of this moment and the way it plays out is exactly as I've seen in numerous other visual media, where a character thinks they're on the brink of death and has lost all hope and is ready to accept it, before the slow, grand reveal of the person they thought they'd lost rescuing them, often with them posing a philosophical question to challenge their current despair or their belief that their loved one couldn't possibly still be alive, just as Bram does here. If you've seen enough movies and TV, you can probably imagine exactly the kind of scene I mean, and exactly how this moment would play out if it were animated I say "would" because it's never a given that Bones will adapt it with the right tone like I imagine.

This is framed as a triumphant, hopeful scene, of a knight coming to rescue his princess after he was thought to be dead. Aya has hurt her leg here, she's trapped, she's realizing she's about to die, and she's at last fully convinced herself that everything she so staunchly believed in was wrong and that everything she fought for all that time was for nothing; firstly, why would she suddenly hallucinate Bram if she had already lost all hope, but most importantly, why would the narrative have Bram defy death and return to her and challenge the idea that all her ideals and actions were meaningless, only for it to turn out that it isn't really him, when she misses him so bad? That just.... wouldn't be right at all, that's not the feeling this scene gives at all. This is their moment, Bram has to be the one to say these things to Aya with their history together, not anyone else, and I can't imagine Akutagawa saying something like what Bram says to her here, about royalty carrying out their pledge to protect someone without fail, even if he has inherited Bram's protectiveness towards Aya like Fyodor has. No, I'm 90% certain that is indeed Bram. It can't possibly be anyone else.

...And so, all that to say that yeah, I believe that Bram has Fyodor'd himself into Akutagawa's body, since he's wearing his outfit. We don't really know the extent of Bram's powers, but it's looking likely that he can bodysnatch any of his vampires for himself if something ever happens to him, or perhaps Aku might be special since he was the first vampire Bram created at the start of all this. Needless to say I'm not at all worried about Aku though; this is probably the beginning of why he ends up with that suit of armor later on, since Bram has his clothes... I just have no idea how we get to that point. But Aku will be fine, I'm sure; this may even be the only way he can come back from being a vampire.

[alagaisia]

Okay somebody should have mentioned that booping on mobile can lag out your whole dash :( I updated my app for this and I hate updating apps :( things are arranged differently and I’ll have to get used to that AND one in every idk twelve boops I have to quit the app and start over?

I’m now the person mentioning it. If you’re going in you should have all of the information.