#and those two are very different! for me at least

[britcision]

I do also agree with OP, although I am gonna throw in a little reframing

TTRPGs and RPGs in general are games; they work based on chance and mechanics which tend not to change based on what would be narratively convenient, because the game doesn’t know what would be narratively convenient

(Notable exception: Abnimals, Travis McElroy’s game which explicitly includes a pool of My Time To Shine dice, which players can add to rolls they think are narratively important.

The dice still don’t care and will still dish you up all failures, but you do get to juice to improve your odds)

And what this means from a narrative perspective is that all the players and the GM need to be ready for big moments to go wrong. For the vital roll to fail, for the wrong character to get the last hit on a BBEG, for a dramatic and impassioned speech to fall flat

And that’s especially a challenge in a short campaign or series of oneshots, where you can’t necessarily just extend and expand the story until the Grand Finale is actually just a Big Character Moment

But it is still a big character moment

As the McElroy’s say… a failure is more interesting than a success

A failure adds free depth, free angst if you’re lucky!

Because… is anyone actually upset and unsatisfied if the story goes too well? If you succeed in a place where a failure might have been more exciting and dramatic?

The key is the kind of story the players (especially western players) are expecting to tell, and will find satisfying… because again, these are games

We go into them expecting or at least intending to win

This means various things for different games, you don’t play Call of Cthulhu for a happy feel good ending where everyone rolls off into the sunset, but you still want to win

It’s a lot more likely for people to feel it was a narratively satisfying story once they’ve gotten the end they wanted, even if some areas fell flat

And trust me, it’s something my players very much also struggle with; it feels bad when we fail something we wanted to succeed on. It feels worse if we built it up to be a big narrative moment… and it doesn’t work

But that is still a big narrative moment

If you’re going to play a game, where chance and mechanics decide the fate of all your dramatic moments, you need to be prepared to tell at least two stories:

- One where it all goes well

- One where it fails

(Maybe one more for a natural 20 equivalent and the stars quake at your passing)

It is hard to lean into failure, but when we do it… what would have been an unsatisfying ending is now just another twist. Free depth and character development, something to wallow in

And we know that those types of stories, even ones where everything goes wrong and the heroes lose, can be so very satisfying

Just look at the prevalence of whump and hurt-no-comfort on AO3

It’s normal and expected to feel bad and dissatisfied when the story doesn’t go the way you wanted it to, but it is your choice to leave that story as something unsatisfying and feeling bad about it

Every unexpected failure is another microwave to toss your blorbo in

Every moment that falls even a little flat is an opportunity for a genre-savvy quip, for a “well that just happened”, for someone to fall to their knees and scream and re-amp the tension

The key is in the player’s flexibility, not the game’s

Even if you are doing a short campaign… you can imply the rest. Let the story not be over, even if your time playing it is.

Let the beaten heroes be ground underfoot, crawl away from the dungeon, have to work and suffer but grit their teeth and know… so long as they’re alive, they can try again

They can have their revenge

(And then you can run the campaign again later, maybe with the same characters a level or two higher than you started last time, and thrive on the new dark and bitter story)

Or let your past characters be an inspiration, either for friends and loved ones who come to avenge them, or to the new heroes who heard their story and heard they failed, but that’s no reason not to try

Prev is also so right about a lot of modern dnd basically expecting the DM to tell a mildly interactive story live to passive players; it’s definitely one a lot of my players came in with, and it’s part of the problem

To tell a narratively satisfying story, you cannot just passively go along and expect the dice rolls to conform to your narrative

You need to actively engage, embrace the rolls as crossroads in the path of destiny, and be prepared to build the narrative no matter which path you take

You don’t go in expecting the right results at the right time to make a satisfying story; you go in knowing where the key moments will be, and what will happen if you succeed or fail

I have told my players several times, and I’ll tell y’all until I die:

I as the DM am not telling the story

I the DM have made the world, the NPCs, the background and setting of events

You the players are telling the stories of your characters, in that setting

There is an overarching plot that the party as a whole will also be telling the story of together… but not only are the players the ones who pick the theme music, you’re the ones who chose the main characters

There’s a reason a prefab campaign will be different for every group that plays it, even with the same GM

Even if you have no idea what’s coming next in the main storyline, you need to know what is coming next for your character

How you want them to grow, what you want them to learn - and then any unfortunate rolls aren’t a let down or a problem, it’s an opportunity.

Sakura has to learn something important about herself and others before she can ever collect a card - which means something usually goes wrong

She tries and fails, and then looks at that failure and learns from it and grows as a person, and that’s what makes the narrative satisfying

Sticking your feet in and sulking if the game mechanics don’t follow the narrative you want will make an unsatisfying story no matter what game you play

Gleefully and enthusiastically stuffing your blorbo into the blender of fate, hitting Purée, and turning every stumble off the narrative path into its own adventure will give you a much deeper, more compelling, more complete story than you might have expected…

But that’s the fun part

The truest mechanism of an RPG or TTRPG has nothing to do what is written into the rules of the game

It’s your own skill at improv, and if you’ve ever been even remotely stage shy, avoided drama class, or thought improv was hard, let me reassure you:

Improv comedy is not the only improv. You don’t have to be funny

And it’s a lot easier than you might think

So long as you know your character, actually really know them beyond the backstory you created… so long as you take the time to think “well what do they do when things go wrong? What would they give to get what they want? What would it take to force them to do the things they’d never do?”

You can bullshit through basically any situation

Because there’s no rule against playing ahead in your mind

Daydream your character into any situation you think might come up, write the fanfiction version of the perfect narrative in your head, and then do the tragic version. Do the slapstick version. The gritty noire version

Because the greatest secret of improv and playing your own character is that you will never be wrong

Only you define success or failure

So long as you know and understand your characters and can be flexible with the mechanics and the story, you can always build a satisfying narrative

This is a lot more work than just being reactive and expecting the GM to tell a story for you, and just rolling dice and “hit big monster” when prompted

That’s what makes the story actually satisfying though; taking ownership of it yourself

The game belongs to the designers

The story belongs to the players, GM and PC alike

There's this idea floating around the general TTRPG space that's kind of hard to put one's finger on which I think is best articulated as "the purpose of an RPG is to produce a conventionally shaped satisfying narrative," and in this context I mean RPG as not just the game as it exists in the book but the act of play itself.

And this isn't exactly a new thing: since time immemorial people have tried to force TTRPGs to produce traditional narratives for them, often to be disappointed. I also feel this was behind a lot of the discussion that emerged from the Forge and that informed the first "narrativist" RPGs (I'm only using the word here as a shorthand: I don't think the GNS taxonomy is very useful as more than a shibboleth): that at least for some TTRPGs the creation of a story was the primary goal (heck, some of them even called themselves Storytelling games), but since those games when played as written actually ended up resisting narrative convention they were on some level dysfunctional for that purpose.

There's some truth to this but also a lot of nuance: when you get down to the roots of the hobby, the purpose of a game of D&D wasn't the production of a narrative. It was to imagine a guy and put that guy in situations, as primarily a game that challenged the player. The production of a narrative was secondary and entirely emergent.

But in the eighties you basically get the first generation of players without the background from wargames, whose impressions of RPGs aren't colored by the assumption that "it's kind of like a wargame but you only control one guy." And you start getting lots of RPGs, some of which specifically try to model specific types of stories. But because the medium is still new the tools used to achieve those stories are sometimes inelegant (even though people see the potential for telling lots of stories using the medium, they are still largely letting their designs be informed by the "wargame where you only control one guy" types of game) and players and designers alike start to realize that these systems need a bit of help to nudge the games in the direction of a satisfying narrative. Games start having lots of advice not only from the point of view of the administrative point of view of refereeing a game, but also from the point of view of treating the GM as a storyteller whose purpose is to sometimes give the rules a bit of a nudge to make the story go a certain way. What you ultimately get is Vampire: the Masquerade, which while a paradigm shift for its time is still ultimately a D&D ass game that wants to be used for the sake of telling a conventional narrative, so you get a lot of explicit advice to ignore the systems when they don't produce a satisfying story.

Anyway, the point is that in some games the production of a satisfying narrative isn't a primary design goal even when the game itself tries to portray itself as such.

But what you also get is this idea that since the production of a satisfying narrative is seen as the goal of these games (even though it isn't necessarily so), if a game (as in the act of play) doesn't produce a satisfying narrative, then the game itself must be somehow dysfunctional.

A lot of people are willing to blame this on players: the GM isn't doing enough work, a good GM can tell a good story with any system, your players aren't engaging with the game properly, your players are bad if they don't see the point in telling a greater story. When the real culprit might actually be the game system itself, or rather a misalignment between the group's desired fiction and the type of fiction that the game produces. And when players end up misidentifying what is actually an issue their group has with the system as a player issue, you end up with unhappy players fighting against the type of narrative the game itself wants to tell.

I don't think an RPG is dysfunctional even if it doesn't produce a conventionally shaped, satisfying narrative, because while I do think the act of play inevitably ends up creating an emergent narrative, that emergent narrative conforming to conventions of storytelling isn't always the primary goal of play. Conversely, a game whose systems have been built to facilitate the production of a narrative that conforms to conventions of storytelling or emulates some genre well is also hella good. But regardless, there's a lot to be said for playing games the way the games themselves present themselves as.

Your traditional challenge-based dungeon game might not produce a conventionally satisfying narrative and that's okay and it's not your or any of your players' fault. The production of a conventionally satisfying narrative as an emergent function of play was never a design goal when that challenge-based dungeon game was being made.

[snuffyg1rl]

daddy has cams in your room

Two little glimpse:

Those doe eyes gleam with relief and confusion as she opens the gift and stares at it confused, turning the dainty pink gift between her fingers. Surprise shines in her eyes as she lifts her gaze back to me.

“D-dad… p-please,” she whimpered shivering. “Fuck sorry.” I release my tight grip just for a second before tightening it again. “You know what? Fuck it.” My hips slam forward again, tightly she clenched around me as I fuck the blood back inside her.

Warnings: incest, hard fucking? Sex, 18+, stalking disturbing behaviour, Age gap, manipulation and more freaky stuff…

That are all just random imaginations. If you don’t like it just scroll :3 English isn’t my first language so I’m sorry for any mistakes ૮ . . ྀིა⁩

DMs are open for requests or yk older guys :3

His pov:

I watch her.

My sweet, sweet girl. So big already. Humping her pillow so desperately for relieve as she moans and grinds her hips against the pillow. Slow and deep. Her hair all messy covering her face while she bites into her pillow.

The cameras are only there for my baby’s safety, so I can keep an eye on my precious daughter. My oldest and favourite daughter. All that crap about parents don’t have a favourite child… is a fucking nasty lie.

My thumb graced the display of my computer and I wish I would touch her instead. I know it’s wrong, sick. Disgusting even. But aren’t I’m allowed to use what I created? She’s mine, literally and througwholy. All fucking mine.

Her body twitches in those sweet pajama as she let out a whine, her body laying wearily in her bed, panting heavily as she slowly released her mouth from the pillow. My cock strains against my pants painfully. I don’t jerk off. It’s pathetic.

After some minutes when I see her slowly coming down from the hollow orgasm, I lift from my seat and walk out of my office down the hall of the manor I bought this family. Knocking on the dark wood door with pink stickers.

“yn, can I come in please?” I ask monotonously as I hear her shuffling in her room, her bare feet’s padding on the floor before she finally opens the door. I love those hazy eyes with these pretty pink cheeks.

“D-dad?” She stammers, trying her hardest to not give herself away. Fiddling with her pyjama pants, she tilt her head to the side. “Happy birthday, pretty girl.” I stretch out a black gift with a pink ribbon. With her eyes go wide my cock goes harder, my heart pumping hard and fast.

“I..” she takes a shaky breath before she opens her pretty mouth again to add, “I thought you forgot my birthday.” Tears pricking in her eyes and fuck I wish she had tears in her eyes for a different reason. Those doe eyes gleam with relief and confusion as she opens the gift and stares at it confused, turning the dainty pink gift between her fingers. Surprise shines in her eyes as she lifts her gaze back to me.

“Thank you!” She squealed and hugs me tightly, my arms wrapping around her gently as I feel her pressing her tummy harder against my lap. “B-but what is that?” She asked confused, tilting her head.

“A suitable gift for my eighteen year old little girl.”

“Thank you, dad!” So excited over something she didn’t even know how to use. So naive.

“How do I use it?”

Finally, she asks. I settle down on her bed, just beside the pillow she had mounted like a little needy bunny. “Come here.” Patting my thigh, she settled down on it and I reach for the pink metallic plug. “Tell dad… what were you doing while he was away searching for a gift for his little princess?” Her body stiffened as she opened her mouth to lie. “I was watching tv.” Liar.

“Mhm, tv?” I arch a brow and she wiggled nervously on my thigh. “Yup. You were away so I thought you forgot me…” I know that wasn’t a lie at least but a full lie.

“I should apologise for breaking my daughter’s fragile heart,” I whisper in her ear, circling my thumb on her belly, the fabric soft. Breath hitching she nods eagerly humping my thigh slowly. Very slowly.

As if I wouldn’t notice it. Oh, the pants are wet I guess from earlier humping her pillow. “Shh, what are you doing? That’s not what good daughters do to their daddies.“ Guilt spreads over her delicate features as she gasped a stammering, “Sorry.”

“What would mommy say?” I feigning a scold, my thumb pressing harder in the soft flesh of her tummy. “Rubbing that little pussy on your dads thigh, tsk tsk.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise so much. It’s okay, daddy is yours all day… or night.” The clock hits 8pm. My wife won’t come home any soon. Thank god or whatever higher might chills up there.

My fingers slowly slip to the wet spot on her pants rubbing over it. Rubbing my index finger over her hole before pressing down, drawing out a whine of her. “W-what are y—“ before she can continue I press harder. The tip of my finger buried in her hole with her pants. Slowly gliding my finger back. “My, my, so wet it just stays sticked to you little hole.” Gasping she reached to her pants but I stop her before she even can pull the sticky fabric out of her pussy.

“On your tummy and stick your pretty ass up like a good little girl, yeah?” She tilts her head, thinks and plops down on her belly sticking her ass up. The Color of her eyes brighten as she peered at me curios.

“Let’s put your new little toy to use.”

I pull down her pants and her panties with a swift motion, a moan slips from her mouth just like the fabric from her hole. She didn’t look at me, her gaze turned to her pillow, her slender fingers curled into it.

“Fuck so pretty.” My tongue darts out as I grip her ass and lick through her slit. “D-dad!” She yelped surprised tries to wiggle out of my grip, probably realising what she’s doing.

“Stay still.” I plunge my tongue in her hole. It’s so warm and sweet, her hole fluttering around my tongue like a nervous butterfly. Withdrawing my tongue, she whines again but this time sad. She deserves a punishment for teasing me all the time with her little skirts and silly boyfriends. I take the pink buttplug in my hands and smile to myself a little. Oh she will enjoy that or maybe not.

“Suck, my silly girl.” She opens her mouth, her plump lips tremble around the metal as she sucked and licked it wet, coating it with her salvia. “Mhm yeah that’s enough.”

With a wet pop, I pull it out of her mouth and circle the rim of her asshole, coating it with her salvia before putting pressure on it. “No!” She screams her feet’s kicking. Sweet. So sweet. She’s scared because she didn’t know yet that she’ll crawl back to me let me put bigger things in that pretty ass.

“You’re a big big girl. Calm down.” I force it in slowly, tears streaming down her flushed face sending shivers to my dick. Adjusting my pants slightly uncomfortable and pull her onto my lap, belly down on my thighs. I get fed up with her damn struggle and slam the fucking plug in. Screams echoe in the empty manor. “It hurts.” She yells at me in tears. Such a fucking bad girl, she just had my attitude.

“If you would just behave it didn’t would’ve hurt,” I explain her calmly, drowning my anger and open my pants. My cock springs free, bopping against her side. My hand curl around her waist, lifting her up I throw her into her bed. I climb on top of her and press my chest against her back, my hand wraps around her throat squeezing while my other hand reached between us, lining myself up her pussy. Ramming in, swift and fully. Another scream. More tears.

“Shh, you’re a big girl now. You deserve to get treated like one.” I don’t move. I love her, but also fucking hate her sometimes. Her pussy clenched so tight I fear she might strangle my cock off. My eyes peer down between us, her hole stretched around me, blood paints my veiny skin. Mhm fucking adorable.

Her breathes calm down from screams into sobs. My sign. I pull my cock fully out, feeling the cold air circling the wet skin of it before delving into her warm pussy. My hips slam against the plug causing her leg to flinch violently. The tip slamming in her petite walls against something, forcing out a sharp gasp of me.

Forget how small she is. Like her fucking mother just better, more pure. No one knows that slut was cheating on me with her boss because she wanted more. More money, more time for herself… and less of this family.

“D-dad… p-please,” she whimpered shivering. “Fuck sorry.” I release my tight grip just for a second before tightening it again. “You know what? Fuck it.” My hips slam forward again, tightly she clenched around me as I fuck the blood back inside her.

“I fucking hate her. You know how much she would freak out… finding out this… fucking our innocent little daughter head out.”

“Dad. I love you.” She sobbed yelping and twisting, gasping for air.

“I know you fucking do.“ Heat fills my body as I thrust harder, and faster, my hands falls from her throat to her tits pinching her tiny nipples hard. “Agh-“ she huffed her tears slipping exhausted from her eyes.

Cum shots into her, paints her walls her head falls back, her hip thrust into mine, my cock disappears fully into her pussy. A strangled sob ribs from her throat as I slip out with a wet squelch. “Mh…” her eyes flutter shut.

Silly girl. The white substance embraces her hole slowly trips between her labia to her clit. I grin and my finger circle the sensitive nub. With a swift thrust I slam back in, the sperm shooting deep inside her stretched pussy.

Her eyes shot open and eyes roll back in a moan.

“Silly girl, we need to set a new bedtime so keep your eyes open for daddy, yeah?”

E N D

Hey it’s my first story in English…. So enjoy… or not

I’m always thankful for you sharing your opinion on it with me. Be kind and I try to improve my writing…

[megabuild]

hey megabuild can you elaborate on the complicated feelings re: bdubs apologizing to tango thing because I too have feelings about it that are complicated and i either need you to confirm I'm insane, confirm I'm not insane or make my insanity feel more enabled

(cracks my knuckles loudly and uncomfortably) the number one c!bdubs defender has logged on for another take hated by all

i think the most key thing to take away from this interaction is not that bdubs is being manipulative and dishonest but that it very clearly lays out the main issues with tuff guys' ability to function, that is, they all have different goals and ideals of what an alliance should function as, but also they have far too much baggage and history that they are all either unable to or unwilling to move on from.

looking at this conversation and taking it at face value- that is, bdubs went in with the intent to manipulate and lie, and then immediately caved when called out- is extremely uncharitable at best when similar behaviours from other players (such as scar) is often handwaved away as them playing the game correctly or exhibiting trauma responses. why these players are afforded such leniency while bdubs never is.. well, that's simply a mystery because i can't think of anything that immediately and obviously might set bdubs aside from the majority of his peers (hint: there is.). this coupled with the fact that bdubs has spent the first two sessions making genuine, if extremely flawed attempts at communication and problem-solving (see: horse discourse, which DID actually work though only after etho defused and approached it on his own terms, and the formation of tuff guys, which is an extremely flawed plot but also tackles the main issues at the core of the alliance- etho's commitment issues, tango's fear of betrayal, and bdubs' reputation) and i find it extremely difficult to believe that this conversation is entirely made up to gain some sort of leverage, because by saying that one must imply that retroactively both of those prior conversations were also probably in part manipulation- at which point we're painting bdubs as a multi-session plotting mastermind and that's just not who he is.

reading over the transcript there's a few key points that i think are really important-

bdubs comments that he's truly apologising, because he apologises in last life (poorly, but still) right after the matter, saying "he's sorry, but he had to". not in any way justifying his treatment of tango in last life, because moments before he also calls him fodder, but this gives us some insight into what bdubs is thinking- that is, it is likely he DOES feel genuinely bad about tango, or at least is able to acknowledge that they need to resolve their prior conflicts if they have any hope of succeeding. otherwise, there is little point in bringing such conflict to the forefront of tango's mind; that's manipulating him in the wrong direction by reminding him of his past traumas and giving him more ammo against bdubs. strategically i cannot understand why he would do this (outside of from a creator standpoint having more drama to mess with, because cc!bdubs is known for this, but if i get into the very murky territory between cc and c here it'll stretch everything out a million miles longer).

bdubs also barely gets a chance to defend himself after his initial apology is not accepted- tango is the one who builds up a "self reflection hole", both immediately dismiss it as manipulation (they are the first ones to suggest this, not bdubs!), and they pick on small tells such as him not having his head down and smiling as proof that he isn't genuine. indeed, when bdubs goes into the hole he asks them to come up with a plan since he won't be leading them, and tango openly laughs at them, signalling to Me that there was never any chance of genuine communication; tango has already made his mind up from the get-go that this is bdubs fucking with him and is unwilling to take it any further. (the phrase "i'm not going to perform my rock bottom for you for the sake of being believed" comes to mind.) it's only after this sentiment is echoed (more unsurely) by etho that bdubs gives up. at no point does bdubs add anything of his own to the conversation past this, he only agrees with what tango and etho are saying about him. with his attempt at communication having failed he defers to "yes and"-ing all the negative things they are saying about him. when bdubs has just spent most of secret life imo proving that he doesn't need to be dependent on others after being dismissed as such for multiple seasons, i think that immediate rejection of his independence and ability to stand up for himself must sting, a lot.

I know they're his teammates but jesus christ he could not have picked worse people to do this with. every character can be assumed to be extremely traumatised as is the nature of the game but etho and tango both have severe issues with communication and trust, both of which stem in part from bdubs' actions in last life (which again, i will defend him to the grave but that was fucking insane of him.) tango on the whole, however, is a character to me defined by his bitterness, especially in WL where he's acting out and being openly cruel to others (which given his previous experiences is honestly understandable). his immediate dismissal of bdubs is exactly what i would have expected of him given everything right now. meanwhile, etho is more cautious and unsure, only committing once he has tango's backing, because despite his issues with bdubs he has more reason to believe him (see: horse discourse once again) and also he's just extremely insecure. go girl.

little to say on this point but the bravado he exhibits after being dismissed also to me reads in line with other bdubs moments where he's putting on a show- he isn't gloating about pulling the wool over their eyes or laughing about how quickly he was found out, he's just.. bigging himself up for the sake of it? i don't know exactly how to word this point but i hope you understand.

tl:dr; i don't think bdubs is intentionally trying to manipulate people here, though i also don't think his timing and choice of apology was especially well-thought out; he's making a lot of attempts at genuine communication this season, for better or for worse, but it's coming from a place of recognising the necessity for it if he wants to get anywhere rather than a sign of genuine emotional growth. and while i wish they could have heard him out i do not fault etho or tango even for a second for assuming it was a ploy.

[starsonablackboard]

managed to finish another decent ish piece so here's narinder's inutial design!! as always probably will change later

we're living by furry laws in this house so "head fur" aka hair is an option and im using it. period. another unpopular(??) choice is giving narinder a fur pattern, and don't get me wrong i love the pure black void nari, but as an artist i enjoy making up details to draw, so i indulged myself here. (but if i ever were to draw comics with him i would simplify it or just make him all-black, because repeating this every frame is a misery. fun for a one-off ref sheet tho)

not a lot of lore stuff for the guy since the idea of the au is still fresh and im figuring it all out, but there're design inspirations under the cut if you're interested!!

sooo lets go

i wanted narinder to have that dramatic sharp featured og cartoon villain look, so i took inspiration from oriental longhairs for the facial structure and from maine coons for fluffy dramatics. also i just love using maine coons as cat references. look at those things. marvellous.

from the very start (pretty much) my brain was consistently giving me images of narinder with hair, specifically dark long-ish straight-ish, so i tried to walk this mental image backwards to find the origins of it, and i think scar and ozai are my best bets. in my first sketches narinder had shoulder length hair with slight waves, but in the end i opted for long and straight. not really a reason to, just was vibing better to me

clothes are pretty standard narinder robes i think. i find it funny that fandom unanimously gave him basically a priest outfit, and i like it too, so i kept it. that red stripe gave me a little bit of a headache though, couldn't get it to look okay and not weird or tacky. i think i managed. i had to contain my urge to design him an intricate outfit with different textiles and embroidery and shit, but i try to keep it at least somewhat tied to logic and the au, and let's say that no-one was willing to do something this elaborate for narinder for quite some time

and some lore crumbs

• narinder is declawed (after his defeat that is).

see the narinder's claw relic and the whole do no evil motive. the most evil narinder directly did was the injures he inflicted on his siblings, and he did it by, quoting shamura, "such sharp claws". so yeah, that tracks. funfact i considered taking only one of his claws, from the left ring finger, because the relic is "narinder's claw" singular, but "callamar's ear" relic is also one ear and not two, so it didn't feel kike a good enough basis to take only one claw yk. so sorry big cat, all your claws are now gone

• lamb did kill narinder after defeating him. there's nothing on the pic that's tied to that fact, just thought it would be interesting to know

[voice-of-the-tired]

(ramblings of a madman upcoming. this is borderline nonsensical but I just gotta get this out there)

ugh, I LOVE the voices parallels so much. they make me insane. and I've been thinking about opportunist/hunted and skeptic/smitten the most rn.

for the first two, in their respective chapter 2s they are survival responses put in situations where said responses are entirely reasonable, but will end up reinforcing the "status quo" if entertained. this is somewhat the case with most of the voices, but I think it's especially noticeable with them.

the opportunist has a "betray them before they ever get the chance to betray you" mentality, and would you look at that, the witch has the very same mentality! and he is CORRECT in thinking she will betray you. because she will. but by following him and what he thinks, you're just making it impossible to break the cycle of violence (this is literally the point of the thorn).

the hunted behaves... well, like prey, and uh. the beast IS a predator. he IS prey. she is hunting them. but if you just follow your instincts you'll never be able to free her, or defeat her, or leave together or learn about reconciliation or do anything else that isn't survive.

so their situations are reinforcing their behaviour, then their behaviour in turn reinforces their situation; they are stuck in a cycle. at least with the hunted you can have the skeptic to make a plan later on in the den, I guess. but it's still a fascinating thing.

I think the stubborn and the broken chapters are a bit similar to them in this regard, but those have more to do with giving meaning to the princess and choosing whether or not you should fight against it in the end. it's a bit of a different situation. skeptic and smitten also don't quite... doom themselves if you just follow them, even though they actively feed into the chapter's "concepts", because they're sort of "tools" made to complement and help you towards your goal (free the princess through skepticism or blind devotion) as opposed to survival responses.

talking about them... oh boy, skeptic and smitten in their respective chapter 2s. you can just go through with whatever the plan was (leave with her), but if you don't, they won't ever get the only thing they sought and will hurt others (and themselves) in their desperation. you take away smitten's happy ending, and you leave skeptic without answers, and to that they just. fucking lose it. going with the previous tool comparation, you could say that's what happens when a "tool" isn't useful in a specific situation any longer. it can't do anything else except for its designated function. so

when the illusion that love makes everything possible and that all you and the princess needed was each other shattered, the smitten couldn't believe it. this was everything he ever wanted and everything he knew; you are the hero. she is a damsel. you are in love. you save the damsel and live happily ever after. that's what HAD to happen, and if it didn't, then it will. he has to make it happen, because it can't and shouldn't work in any other way.

in the prisoner, if you don't take her head, you are shoved into eternal nothingness while left with only questions. what is this place? who is the narrator? what is he hiding? who is the princess? why is she locked up? how could she end the world? is there a world? where is it? why are we the ones doing this? why did the princess cut off her head? not only could they not go through with saving the princess like they tried before, but there are SO many questions, and skeptic didn't get any answers! they can't be left unanswered, the truth HAS to be unraveled. that's what he's been trying to do all along. it's the only thing that matters. they WILL keep going and they WILL figure it out.

they are too obsessed to care about anything else. they are too stuck in their tunnel vision to accept anything else. they are too far gone to do anything else.

lord help me I am going insane because of this game /pos

[astral-circuitry]

i really really liked the lil digital care package idea from @boombox-fuckboy, so here, have some lil recs and goodies from me !!

here is a link to a google drive folder. in there you'll find pdfs of:

Different Seasons by Stephen King, a short story collection feat. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption as well as The Body and one of my all-time fav Kings

The Book of Lists - Horror by Amy Wallace, Del Howison and Scott Bradley, a collection of recommendations and little fun facts, all to do with the horror genre across different types of media and with contributions of various horror authors, directors, etc

Do Zombies Dream Of Undead Sheep by Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek, a book about the neuroscience of zombie brains; fiction, obviously, but the two authors approach the funny concept with such a genuine, deep appreciation for neuroscience and its implications re: Every Dead/Sick Person We Study Is Somebody's Friend/Family; it's a great and entertaining read

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann; a sheep detective story in which a flock of sheep investigate the murder of their shepherd

A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects by Sally Coulthard, a non-fiction book about rural Britain explored via one hundred specific objects one can find while driving along the countryside

Life in the Machine, a 2 person mecha ttrpg by KiennaS

adrift in the station revenants, a 2 person mecha ttrpg by Caro Asercion

four ways to die in the future, a very quiet collection of four science fiction ttrpgs about death for no/one/two/three to six players depending on which game by P. H. Lee

games and podcasts:

poki.com - a website full of fun and chill lil mini games, including ones where you can rescue gold fishies by pulling out bars obstructing the way, you know, like in those annoying fake mobile game ads

Moida Mansion, a free horror-ish web game on itch.io

Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast with an insanely long backlog, which will thrill you if you get into it but might be overwhelming, so my rec for something rather short and sweet: start with Bluff City, available here on their website and here on youtube

Zero Hours, a podcast telling different stories about endings, and, more specifically, ends of (the) world(s) at different points throughout time, brought to you by the people behind Wolf 359

while we're at it: Wolf 359, a science fiction podcast about alien life, plant monsters and dysfunctional people, just in case you don't know it yet

Among the Stars and Bones, another science fiction podcast about xenoarcheologists researching alien ruins

I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, a podcast where Joseph Fink, one of the people behind Welcome to Night Vale, and John Darnielle from tmg talk about art, life, cute animals, and, of course, music

Media Club Plus, a media analysis podcast made by some of the people of Friends at the Table. the first season introduces Jack to HunterxHunter, but there are a few bonus episodes focusing on other anime

last but not least, here is a great site for tv shows and movies, and if you're looking for anime/manga, go here, because the "never ever share your 🏴‍☠️ links!!!!!!" people are Wrong, and also you should download whatever you want whenever you can so you have it Forever

[la-principessa-nuova]

for me it's between vinyl and streaming

i'm tempted to say flac because technically the best music sounds for me is listening to a flac on my good hi-fi headphones at my computer

but maybe just bc i never really tried that hard, but i find managing the files and having to know what i want to listen to in advance kind of ruins it for me, and i just don't want to listen to music sitting at my computer

and once i'm listening on my phone, it's so much easier to just stream it, and i'm going to want wireless headphones, or at least not to have an amp so then I'm not using my best headphones, and honestly the quality difference between the two is only noticeable when I'm like sitting still and really listening to the song to appreciate those elements, and only if that song is mastered properly and in a good enough quality and everything else

but usually when i want to really connect with a song it's more about the emotion or the lyrics, and then that very slight difference between my best wireless headphones over streaming and my best wired headphones at my computer just doesn't matter

and yeah, my final answer is streaming, but also i do like vinyl because i like having a physical collection of music, which i find less confusing to manage than files, and more satisfying because there's a physical object and each one is a big thing I've sought out and obtained versus with files it is easy to obtain a large number of files very quickly

and also they go spinny

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

Hiya! I was curious, in the HoM AU, what worlds do each of them share, if at all? For example, we know Rex and Ben are from different worlds thanks to the crossover, and likewise that means Zak Saturday is from Ben’s universe, but what others? Is Rex the only other dimensional member of the group or…?

Sorry if this has been asked before, or if you’ve clarified. I’m just curious since in your Jenny and Ben post, you implied that those two exist in the same world, so I wondered if there were any others.

Love the way you draw Rex, btw! I actually have your piece of Ben and Rex sleeping on the couch as my phone home screen. So ye!

Oh, don't be sorry! I uuuuuu yeah I just realized that I never actually specified about the world, I guess? 😌

But, yes, basically all of them share a universe! With exception of Rex, lol. He is a tourist, so to say. xD

So, I guess this AU is technically not a Crossover AU, but more of a Fusion Universe where they exist in one world? Honestly, when I first conceptualized the idea in my mind, it made more sense to me just to make them exist in one world. Since besides Ben and Zak canonically sharing the universe, Kim and Jake share one too, thanks to Lilo&Stitch crossover episodes. It made it easier and more interesting to me personally to figure out how to fit others together into one world, and also gave much more interesting opportunities for complicated relationship builts (like with Jenny and Ben).

Honestly while I like AUs where people cross universes and meet each other in silly adventures, I wanted more of a universe where I can explore the consequences of so many exceptional people existing in one world, if that makes sense? <;D

Rex is a special case, if only because of his canon story. It would have been almost impossible to incorporate the Nanite event into the others world and make it feel organic and make it make sense. Rex's canon story is almost perfect TBH and I didn't want to cheapen it by changing it too much. I've seen a few AUs where creators incorporated the Nanite Event into one world, but I ngl I never particularly? Enjoyed it very much. So I just took the crossover episode and run with it. ;) It would be revealed in more details in the story about why and how exactly Rex found himself in other's universe and the consequences of it, and i know it probably won't make sense to everyone, but i hope to at least make it fun and interesting!

And Awww thank you! <3 I'm flattered that you liked it so much, hehe~ And that you enjoy how I draw Rex! (he is actually one of my biggest concerns design wise, because i hardly changed/made him more interesting, but it is relieving to know that people like him nevertheless ;3)

[signanothername]

firstly: AAA YOUR ART AND COMICS AND STUFF ARE SO AMAZING!!!!

secondly: do you have any advice on how to come up with comics and then get them out of your head and onto paper?

BZHXHXHD THANK YOU SM!!!

And ooh that’s a good question

I usually come up with comics in one of two ways, either seeing something (whether another artwork, a text, something irl, etc) that inspires an idea for a comic, or via artworks I made that I expand on

Other times, it can actually be both

For example, the “A little life update” comic was actually inspired by this beautiful artwork, I saw it, and I immediately thought of Killer, idk something something about the despair of being stuck between a rock and a hard place etcetera etcetera (yes the comic that shows Killer to be in such a better place in life and show the hope he has, was inspired by crushing despair in actuality)

It made me wanna do something with Killer trying to call someone on a public phone, and so the first page came to be

Here’s the twist tho, I originally was gonna just make it into an artwork (yes, one single decision could’ve meant that comic wouldn’t have ever been made)

But a lil habit of mine is ask myself a shit ton of questions when it comes to my own artworks (it actually helps me turn what’s supposed to be artworks into comics), and that’s another way of how you can come up with comics, ask yourself questions, why is the character doing this? What are they doing? What if character did this? Etc

so I saw what was originally gonna be an artwork, and asked myself, who would Killer be calling if he ever did and why?

And the answer to those two questions that made sense to me most was Nightmare, but that led me to two more questions, when would Killer be calling Nightmare and for what?

And that led me to have a basic idea of how I wanted the comic to go

So it was basically like

Who would Killer be calling? Nightmare

Why would Killer be calling Nightmare if he ever did? That actually had different answers, to taunt him, to inform him of something, cause he misses Nightmare in his own fucked up way, etc

When would Killer be calling Nightmare? After he’s saved, or while still under him? After he’s saved makes more sense

What would Killer call Nightmare for? To give him an update about his life with Color

How would Killer be calling Nightmare? Through a public phone

Where would Killer be calling from? Somewhere in an AU in the surface

These six questions, what, why, when, who, where, how, are important to think of, they give you a basis to work on when it comes to comics in general

You don’t need to have a very clear answer to each of them to be able to work on a comic, but if you can at least answer 3 of them, that would give you enough information to work with in a comic

Now that I have a tiny bit of a clear idea about what I wanted to do (it doesn’t have to be perfect or completely concise) let’s talk about how you take these ideas out of your head and into paper

You can do that by imagining the dialogue in your head and then immediately putting it into paper, as I mentioned here, I actually struggle a lot with dialogue, art? No problem, I can easily imagine the art, but dialogue? It’s hell (please take the time to read the linked post, I talk in depth about how I handle dialogue)

That’s why you shouldn’t worry about perfection at this stage, just put every little piece of dialogue you imagine into paper, even if it feels like it makes no sense or is out of character, that’s something you can worry about later

Put in the dialogue, every little bit of it, and draw the panels that feels right for the dialogue

Here’s a little bit of example about what I mean when I say put the dialogue in then draw panels that make sense for it

This is a comic I plan on making, I actually drew that first panel as a stand alone artwork, then that inspired the dialogue, I wrote the dialogue down immediately, it’s a rough version of it, maybe I’ll keep it the same, maybe I’ll change it up as I work through the comic, but so far, I’m drawing the panels based on the dialogue so far, see what I mean by write the dialogue down? It helps IMMENSELY

It doesn’t have to be perfect and it certainly doesn’t have to be the final version, but writing it down will help you imagine the art that comes with it

Does that mean you can never start with the art then think of the dialogue? NO

You absolutely can start with the art for the comic first, in fact, sometimes, doing that actually helps you imagine the dialogue better, other times you can’t really think of a dialogue but have a very clear image in your head about certain character interactions, draw that it’s ok, silent comics focusing on character interaction, is a thing that you can do without worrying about dialogue

Now when it comes to the actual making of a comic, first tip is find your own footing when it comes to comic making

Like listen, people are gonna tell you that the correct thing to do is that you have to make thumbnails for the comic before you make the actual comic to make sure the flow is good and you have room for speech bubbles and what not

Here’s the thing, making thumbnails for your comic is a life saver, it’s great, if you can do that go for it! But for a person like me with little to no energy, I can’t do that without losing interest and immediately abandoning my comic, I can’t do that without becoming frustrated and hate art for it

That’s why I say find your footing, if making thumbnails before working on the actual pages works for you go for it! or you can immediately just work on the actual comic itself like I do, it’s all about what you’re comfortable with and what makes more sense to you

That being said, when it comes to the panels themselves, always aim for less panels and more pages than the other way around

Sometimes, emphasis on certain emotions or aspects of the comic can only be done with fewer panels

That’s why my own comics would sometimes have pages that are either one or two panels max

The less panels you have in a page, the more concise, clear, and easy to follow your comic is, one of the biggest mistakes I made as a beginner artist, is that I focused on cramping the story in as few pages as possible rather than focus on the clarity of the comic

Here’s an example

Good luck reading that dggxgdgdh

This is a very old comic I made back in 2018? 2019?, I wanted the comic to be one page so bad I cramped everything into it without thinking about the fact people are gonna have a very hard time reading it, like this easily could’ve been 3-5 pages but old me couldn’t imagine doing that many pages (if she could see me now with 15 pages comics dhhdhdg) not only that, but the panels’ arrangement makes 0 sense

So when you make your panels there are 2 things to keep in mind:

1- less panels and more pages = clear easy to follow comic, as well as a better emotional impact

2- panel arrangement has to make sense and should be easy to follow, you can make sure it’s easy to follow by reading your own comic over and over as you’re making it, if you find difficulty following the dialogue or art, then it’s best to refine, change or edit your panel or dialogue arrangement

Another thing to keep in mind when making the comic is the flow, the best way to go about making sure that the flow makes sense is by thinking of the comic as you would an animation, how did the character go from point A to point B?

For example this page

Killer clearly has a bit of a distance from Nightmare in the second panel, so how did Killer go from being at a distance (point A), to right in front of Nightmare in the last panel (point B)? That’s what the two panels in between the these two points are for, is to show you that 1- Nightmare is using his tentacle, and 2- that tentacle wrapped around Killer’s arm, the rest would easily be filled in by your brain that Nightmare basically pulled him closer

Now for the ending of a comic, not every comic has to have a clear ending where it marks the end of a story, but rather, you can go for whatever satisfies you as an ending, or keep an ending ambiguous or open, to expand on a comic later

I say that the perfect ending for a comic is what gets the point of a comic across, if the point is made, then it’s a good panel to end the comic with

Don’t be afraid to scarp any page or panels if they make the comic awkward or if they don’t make sense or if it seems out of character don’t hesitate to change, edit or completely delete it

An example is the “choice” comic, it actually originally was 4 pages, I just decided to scrap the last page cause of two reasons

1- it added nothing to the comic

2- it was out of character for Stage 2 Killer

My last advice is don’t force the process, sometimes, the best way to go about making comics is to make them on your own time and slowly, sometimes, you get stuck with certain things in the comic, other times, you need a bit to figure out how to proceed with the comic, completely normal in the process, that’s why it’s important to work on comics in a way that suits you, but you can’t find what suits you without trial and error, so go and test the waters, you can never learn until you practice it yourself

Good luck, hope this helps, lemme know if you need more clarification or help, i’d be happy to help where I can <333

[h50europe]

8.06 post mortem - Buck/Tommy - General - 9-1-1 Zombified

Many of us wondered why a cut emergency case from episode 7.04 was used. A novelty and if you look closely, you'll notice that the characters appeared very different from how they did in the rest of season 8, and the scenes felt erratic. This inconsistency is reminiscent of the writing from Andrew Meyers, who also wrote episode 7.04. However, in that episode, he had a co-writer who was clearly more talented. Episode 8.06 was poorly written compared to 7.04. Alone the scene in the beginning. Buck could have pointed out that this chick was interrupting the date he had with his boyfriend. Tommy then mentioned the Kinsey scale

Our walking encyclopedia had no idea what his boyfriend was talking about. Seriously? Also, Buck doesn't want to buy a present for their 6-month anniversary, and Tommy gives him 2 Lakers baseball cards and awkwardly mentions that Buck could go with Eddie? Is this dinner supposed to be romantic? Well, they could have gone to McDonalds. Meyers should have consulted his co-writer at this point; we're heading straight for disaster. Then Tim had this wonderful idea with Abby and thought it was hilarious. The guy's humour isn't just weird, it's kind of crude. Abby never mentioned that she went out with another guy from the 118. Isn't that weird? No one ever knew about it? Not Hen, not Chim? For two years? Did Tommy keep her locked in his basement? This plot is so poorly constructed that it's cringe-worthy at best. And that's when Himbo's jaw hit the floor… along with the audience.

The only good scene was Josh's GLEE speech. And I may be reading between the lines, but I felt that the way Josh talked about post and past GLEE and how Buck can't blame Tommy for his actions because times were different was a wink and a nod to the haters. I really had the impression that this was a cunning move to address why Tommy was who he was back then and why he has changed now.

But seconds later I nearly choked on my drink, and I can tell you it's orgasmic when a sip of Pepsi comes out of your nose, when Maddie said, "She wondered how many men Abby had turned gay." Because I was chatting to a friend before I watched the episode and I almost said the same thing. I live in Europe, so I watched it the next day, knowing what was coming, but nothing about that particular scene. Which, frankly, was terrible.

Forgive me for ignoring the emergencies in this episode. They were repetitive, to say the least, just with different protagonists.

So far we have a recycled episode, a recycled ex, a recycled emergency and a recycled scenario, Maddy is pregnant (hooray). It begins to reek of decay.

Brownie points to those who aren't already traumatised or bored to death. Now for the highlight: Tommy shows up at Buck's apartment in a great mood. He is looking forward to a date with his friend and hot sex as the icing on the cake (that's what I had in mind). Tommy gets suspicious when Buck asks him to sit down. It doesn't take long before he pulls out his phone and shows his friend photos of Abby and a younger Buck. This is followed by an awkward explanation of why he didn't share the news in the restaurant, and Tommy's reaction is a little awkward too. But this is only the overture to the worst retconning I have seen on television in a long time. The coincidence is swept under the carpet in the blink of an eye, and now it gets creepy.

Compare the scene in the coffee shop with this one. It has the same structure, bit by bit. Buck invites Tommy to the wedding in the coffee shop, and Tommy says, "What?" Here it is: "I want you to move in with me." We have a mashup of the first kiss and the coffee shop scene, and Oliver plays it similarly. The worst part is when Tommy turns into his zombie version. Excellently played by Lou. No doubt about it. He gave it his all. He maimed that shitty script, which felt like Meyers had raided AO3, picked the worst written fics and went for the most cringe-worthy insult he could find for a bisexual. "I was your first, but I won't be your last." Hello? This topic only comes to Tommy's mind after he is asked to move in together? I was expecting "I can't move in with you because I wouldn't know where to put my car lift and Muay Thai studio". No, it's because all the trust and love Tommy put in Buck is wiped out by the retconning of Tommy's personality. He succumbs to total chaos. This is not the Tommy we met in S7 and certainly not the one we met in 8.05. Fuck me! It didn't make sense. We would have needed a lot more background information ON SCREEN to make it believable. A scene from Tommy's past. Who hurt him so badly? It wasn't Abby. She only managed to traumatise Buck. Was it after he met Abby? Was it another guy?

Hello writers, are you still in your right mind? We have no clues. Neither the loyal fans and certainly not the new ones. You're reducing a character to a sad laughing stock. You rob him of all his merits, which you had Buck recite like a poem in school. And then you expect us to believe it? You steamroll over everything that's been painstakingly built up to this episode? It's actually convenient, I let the whole relationship run off screen. We don't see any flying lessons together, no training together, no cosy get-togethers in front of the TV, no exchange of affection, nothing. It's all headcanon. Guys, I've seen shows and movies where a sequence like this lasted five minutes and you knew where the couple stood. Maybe a flashback or two into Tommy's past would have helped. But no, instead the audience had to put up with the same old nonsense. A ridiculous story about an urn, a guy who sneezes and his intestines fall out, a kid who doesn't fall down a drain but slips down a pipe. They give us nothing, but we're supposed to believe everything, retconning is so great. If any of us wrote fanfiction like that, we'd be banned from AO3. And as if that wasn't enough, Tommy stands up and says, "Believe me, I didn't see this coming either. Tell me, were you on drugs when you were writing? There are a thousand ways to respond sensibly to "Let's move in together" without turning it into such a dumpster fire. The crowning glory of all this madness is when Tommy says "I'll see you around Buck" instead of Evan (the same words he said to Evan when he left him standing outside the restaurant on their first date). Where did that come from? It's as if Tommy had lost all respect for his lover, or as if he wanted to punch him in the face while he was already on the ground. We, the viewers, also had this feeling. And Tommy's behaviour was completely disturbed. I wonder if he checked himself into a mental facility right after that.

I won't say anything about the rest of the episode because I'm a polite person.

Conclusion: Please take the pen away from this lunatic and never let him write anything again or give him a co-writer like in 7.04. The guy is totally unhinged.

Extra brownies, you made it!

[doppel-doodles]

I do not think Ratau would be a good dad

Now listen-

I love me some Ratdad content as much as the next guy and while I like the idea of a fatherly Ratau I definitely don’t personally think he would actually be good dad.

At least not without learning to be one.

And this does only concern Ratau being a father figure, not a mentor.

Those two things are different and can overlap but they don’t always do.

Also I’m talking in the context of Ratau having to care for an actual child.

Like have you seen his house once his friends come over?

Just-

Dang bitch you live like this?

He also doesn’t really strike me as, I guess emotionally available? Or kinda closed off is a better description?

We do find out that he had written letters upon letters trying to tell the Lamb just how proud he was of them only to never be able to actually TELL them that even when writing a letter.

To me that just suggests that he has trouble communicating his emotions or at the very least, telling people how he truly feels about them.

So this were my two cents on the matter, again this doesn’t mean I dislike the Ratdad concept.

Hell if anything I’m it’s biggest fan.

What I am saying is we don’t talk enough of the potential angst,struggle and character growth we can have this stinky old rodent go through as he learns to be a proper caregiver.

Anyway I’ll now push the agenda of „Ratau would make for a shit father at first but through the sheer love he develops for his kin he’ll be better.“ till the day I die.

Goodnight folks, thanks for coming to my ted talk. Stay hydrated!

[the-soraya2004]

Grieving for Buck and Tommy on 9-1-1

I knew this week was going to be a dark one, because I predicted two things would happen:

Trump would get re-elected; and

Buck and Tommy would break up on 9-1-1.

Never have I wanted to be wrong so desperately on both counts, yet here we are! :( I'm leaving the first one alone for the sake of my continuing sanity; as for the second, it is deeply disappointing. And for those thinking that this frees up Buck for a relationship with Eddie, I don't think it's great news for them either!

It's hard to put into words how much I have enjoyed watching Buck and Tommy's relationship unfold. Despite the relative scarcity of their time on-screen, I found myself genuinely enthralled watching the two of them take those first tentative steps along a new relationship. They truly were beautiful together, and their love story drew me back to watching 9-1-1 regularly again. Each week, I found myself excited to discover what lay in store for them as a couple. Some that joy was tempered after stumbling across instances of, frankly, utterly hateful speech and ugly behaviour directed online at the actor who plays Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr). It's one of the reasons why I tend to keep my distance from fandom and unregulated, unmoderated social platforms. But, ultimately, what frustrates me about this ending is that, from my observation, it doesn't appear to fit with the narrative set up. It felt akin to one of those franchise movies where a character is abruptly killed or written off because of some behind the scenes issue, like the actor is too expensive or contract negotiations have failed. I'm not necessarily suggesting that is what has happened in this case, just that this abrupt left turn doesn't appear (to me) to fit the story that was building, so logic would dictate that there's some other driver. One could speculate ad nauseam, but ultimately that serves little purpose.

It's a shame the showrunners either weren't willing or able to proceed with the Buck/Tommy love story, but honestly I can't say I'm surprised. And objectively, I don't think it spells good news for fans who want to see Buck and Eddie get together either. My reasoning is:

If you look at the main characters, Hen, Bobby, Athena, Chimney and Maddie are all in serious long term relationships (married). Therefore, no hottie-of-the-week for them, unless the writers plan to go full on soap opera to break up these established couples

Buck and Eddie are the attractive single men, who can be available for relationships with a revolving door of characters played equally attractive actresses. This allows for fresh eye candy for the sort of viewing public that wants that sort of thing

Eddie, as a character, is more reserved and therefore less likely to jump from relationship to relationship each week. Which leaves Buck as the main engine to drive the hottie-of-the-week cycle. If Buck were to go off the market (semi) permanently like the other main characters, the engine/cycle breaks (or at the very least slows down), which means less eye candy for the viewers who tune in for that, etc. and so on.

If you suddenly had Buck and Eddie dating each other long term seriously, then the show would likely need to bring in new characters to fill the "attractive single man available for relationships with hotties" void - all of which is a different sort of behind the scenes issue for showrunners.

Overall, while the Buck/Tommy love story may be gone from our screens, it can and will (I hope) continue to thrive in Fanfic. At least there our beloved characters can go where studios are unable (for whatever reason) to tread. Sincerely, I wish Lou Ferrigno Jr every success in whatever projects come his way, and even though he'll never see this post, I want to thank him for helping bring to life a little piece of screen magic that brought a lot of light and joy into my world.

[sampirism]

talkn bout my opinions on rook and varric and roleplay and feeling disconnected (roleplay in a game sense not the freaky sense. sorry) - SPOILERS FOR ENTIRE GAME, BEWARE. this post is WAY too long. sorry about that too.

it's very evident that bioware/EA wanted an action/adventure game first and an RPG second, but let me type at you.

i hate to say that i didn't feel particularly sad about varric's fate, due to the structure of the game. it is, in hindsight, completely obvious that he was not alive! i just hadn't been thinking about varric much at all the entire game because you have limited opportunity to talk to him in the infirmary or when he plops around barefoot when everyone decides to sit at a table and talk about how fucked we are. i genuinely forgot he was there otherwise.

he barely feels like a guy himself. because there's no personalized worldstate, any specific mentions to events or characters might be jarring to the player who may have made a different choice along the way.

no one talks about how sorry they are about varric because they CAN'T or the twist is completely revealed. even with another DA2 character in the game (who my hawke romanced. who is now dead in the fade. glad to see you're LIVING IT UP ISABELA!!! (I'm jk. a little.))

there's no response rook can say to condolences outside of "oh, thanks" without the game fully revealing its Twist, because "I'll tell him you said hi" and "he'll be up and walking in no time!" are only reasonable responses from a Mourn Watcher, and even then, should still cause your companions to be a little alarmed. the closest we get to this is the inquisitor making reference to lost friends, and rook visually registers it, but its swept under the rug and moved on from immediately.

(i know we're all mentally unwell in this lighthouse repressing our feelings but jesus christ)

despite spending two games with him and enjoying him as a character, I struggle with feeling much for his loss AS my rook, because i found there to be no meaningful connection between him and rook. i was only told i was supposed to have one.

the game wanted so badly get the ball rolling with an immediate threat, its at the expense of roleplay. you could argue that da2 and inq also started with Immediate Threats but you are also very limited in the choosing of your backstory in those games.

rook was deliberately designed to be more open-ended, with more similarity to origins, but still gave you a prequel where you felt what your life was before The World Began To End.

there's this conversation you can walk in on with lucanis and davrin, where they're talking about their worst jobs. there are three dialogue for rook I think and i can only remember two but they were "I don't want to talk about it" or "man I have the dreadwolf in my head". (I... honestly think the third option was very similar to the second one but I have a very bad memory. sorry)

i played a mourn watcher mage. i had to have done some messed up spirit stuff. some bone shenanigans. not able to mention my Down With Nobles rebellion at all. i halfway expected it to be revealed that my rook was just like a shitty pawn (haha) and actually all her memories are fake and not real. but obviously you meet people from your shared backstory and they do know OF you but they don't really know you

in mass effect 1, there were some unique missions related to both the backstory and psychological profile you picked for shepard. they were short, and nothing happens like that in 2+3 that i remember, but they are unique to your character and are something at least.

no one really asks you much more about yourself! mourn watcher rook is literally Found In The Crypts as an Infant, an incredible mystery that you have to fill in the blanks yourself, which could be something someone wants-- but i personally like my characters a little more predefined in a game such as dragon age. vague history worked for me in games like skyrim and fallout new vegas, even baldurs gate! but makes me feel wholly disconnected from the story and group here.

there was a fair amount of dialogue choices for mourn watcher, especially with Emmrich-- talking with emmrich was one of the few times my rook felt like A Person-- but there were other times that my companions seemed to think emmrich was the only necromancer/watcher on the team. (i even specialized in death caller!)

by containing all the dialogue with companions to ! markers and outings, it's weird to be unable to have any conversations without being able to provide personal insight, whereas some NPCs in inquisition actively asked you about your past.

its particularly noticeable because of lucanis, whom my rook romanced. the dude has a lot to say about nevarran culture and the necropolis and such, and we can have zero conversations on the matter lol.

maybe this is like, really a mourn watcher thing? maybe it feels better as a crow or a warden. but if you offer me the choice to be a freak crawling around in a tomb. i am going to be.

TLDR: i really feel that a prequel mission, a recruitment by varric then a timeskip, a personal quest tied to the consequences of your backstory, something, anything, to make rook feel like an actual part of the world, was a necessity and sincerely a missed opportunity. if you actually read this far, thanks!

[syndrossi]

Dont talk to me I'm trying to process the latest chapter it was a lot😭😭 everyone made me wanna cry. Jon so fiercely trying to protect his father (and brother), jon confronting the king, the rhea feels!! Him wanting to hate her but feeling guilty a part of him loves her and that redfort jon relished in her love bc he was so deprived of affection!! 😭😭😭 the cat and Robb parallels! Ghost feels!! The baelon and aemon shadow/ghosts were SO present this chapter. How jon is soooo much like daemon even in his internal thoughts 😭😭😭 jon noticing the similarities between viserys and daemon and how viserys probably took care of daemon when they were younger and they probably got it from THEIR dad! Uwah gonna cry. And then you've got daemon seeing rhaegar die in aemon's place and that mixing in with his canon death broooooo that's a lot. Daemon scaring and hurting rhaegar 😭😭😭😭 dude ik he's thinking about aerys rn😭😭😭😭😭 and poor caraxes something is messing with their rider and interfering with their bond but he cannot do anything about ittttt😭😭😭

There was so much cute moments at the start of the chap with jon and rhaegar playing detectives and debriefing and then rhaegar excitedly sharing his dragon discoveries with their dad and their dad reading to them in HV (and then translating after for jon cute) ik he was relishing being able to have a story time with his kids🥺🥺🥺

Anyways this chapter made me feel a lot. This is all so very convoluted I hope it makes sense rnwjsjw I just love it sm

This chapter sure was A Lot™️, wasn't it? I made sure to throw in the sweet moments at the start to offset (enhance?) some of those punches later.

The Rhea feels honestly caught me by surprise when I was writing the Jon+Viserys scene. They sort of just--bubbled up to the surface. Jon's been trying to suppress Jon Redfort's emotions/memories for a while now, and it's hard when so many frightening/painful/awful things have happened to both of them. And Jon is particularly attuned to a child being treated differently/poorly by a mother figure, except he's on the other end of it this time, so there's that added complexity of seeing himself in Raymar, both the loved and the unloved, that he has to deal with.

(Also my heart was breaking in two for little Raymar, who wanted so desperately to love and be loved by Rhea in return. It's not that she didn't, it's that it was much more difficult for her, and when you're a twin, that inequality is so incredibly obvious. It hurts and they had no Ned to give them at least one source of parental affection.)

And then the rest of the breakfast scene...I think Viserys kept going back and forth between seeing Baelon and Daemon in Jon, though more of Baelon in the end, with Jon laying it out so adamantly what his duty as a brother was. And of course we got the inevitable Viserys-Daemon friction in those moments when Jon most reminded him of Daemon. It's a shame that Jon's tough love isn't really what Viserys needs to mend things with Daemon, because the problem isn't that Viserys doesn't love Daemon (though him not protecting his own brother, especially where Otto's insinuations are concerned, is certainly a flaw), it's that he's shit at expressing it and reluctant to trust Daemon enough to explain things.

(It's hard to explain in narrative format where Jon was sitting/where Daemon always sits, but it's basically at the end/"head" of the table, while Viserys usually sits at the end of the side facing the window. And that detail killed me a little when I realized it, because that's where I've always written Daemon sitting in his scenes there with Viserys, and it's so obvious why. Viserys seats him in an inverted version of that during their supper the first night in King's Landing, with Viserys at the head and Daemon to his side. It's the closest Daemon can get to being his brother's Hand.)

...I'm realizing as I'm writing this that I should probably be throwing this in the DVD commentary, but oh well, I can copy-pasta it there later.

I've been calling the Daemon-trance scene a low-grade horror scene for Rhaegar, because imagine that from his POV, especially given his history with Aerys. He's operating at maximum Aerys-mode for a while, reading Daemon at speeds enviable by modern CPUs so that he can figure out how to defuse the situation / "fix" him before any (unintentional) harm is done. And the parallels with Aerys's paranoia is incredibly uncomfortable, even if he understands that Daemon is suffering under an outside influence.

Meanwhile, Caraxes is all: GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF HIM, wishing he could pick Daemon up and cuddle him until the sorcerer scent is completely gone. (He's had to deal with his own version of that before, of having his bond with Daemon tampered with, and it's even more upsetting from the other side!)

And you made perfect sense! There was just so much to process.

[asherthehimbo]

Love talk - Song Mingi

prev | M. list | next chapter | [WITH MY BIAS?]

words: 2.3K

notes: warnings, mature language, Mingi going through it, HONGJOONG is going throigh it bro somebody save him

“I'm still not seeing him, what if he's really not here, what if I lost my one chance to be with the love of my life because I was stupid and clumsy and spilled water over a fucking card when I should've put the number in my phone the moment I saw the card. Or what if he is here and he doesn't recognize me because my hair is different what if-” Mingi's panic is stopped by Yunho, “Calm down” it's simple and had it been anybody else those words would not serve to soothe him, but Yunho's been his rock for longer than he could remember and they offer at least a bit of comfort.

Sitting in a Vip box right in front of the stage, Mingi and the rest of his members try and look around for the person Mingi described, it's a break in the concert and the first half had been great, the lead guitarist Hongjoong loves was back and had even angled his guitar in their direction a couple of times, whatever that meant. He was dressed differently from the other members of his band, his whole body covered, almost in a cultish cloak which matches with the vibe of the first few songs, but Mingi couldn't bring himself to focus on that too much.

He was constantly looking back, trying to spot the mess of pink hair between the see of bright pinks and blacks behind him, it was fruitless, he knew the area was too big for him to see [Name] by himself, and his friends had agreed to help during the breaks but they had been invested in the concert whenever the music riff would start. Something about the lead singer's voice seemed almost familiar, calling out to him but he pushed it back, ignored it in favor of looking through the crowds, it may seem disrespectful but he'd apologize after the show, they would understand right?

“I can't just calm down Yunho, I know you guys think it's silly and that I only knew him for a week but it was- It was just so real. It was like he knew me, like I knew him. He held me like I was the one thing he'd been searching for and it couldn't have been just my own mind Yunho, and I hate it. I hate it because the thought of not seeing him again didn't even cross my mind. I've started to forget his voice, do you know how much that breaks me?“ Mingi is almost crying, not caring that if anyone were to look into the box they'd see him.

“Listen, I know we all thought it was silly at first, but we know how much this means to you, I know how much this means to you. We'll find him alright? even if it's not right now, we'll find him, you don't have to worry. Just, just try and enjoy the rest of the concert, try and relax, if you're relaxed your memory might become more clear. Just for a few songs, if you still aren't feeling better you and I can walk out and get some fresh air okay? you said you met him outside last time, we'll look for him then” Yunho hand on Mingi's shoulder grounds him as he tries to blink away the tears, grateful for the dimming of studio lights as the concert will supposedly begin again.

He can hear the band walk back up the stage, the voice of the lead singer humming and a few giggles of the others ringing through the stadium. He can't see them, the lights are far too dark for that. “We've teased you a lot recently haven't we my petals?” The voice of the lead singer speaks for the first time that night, Mingi tilts his head in confusion at the feeling stirring in his chest, but it's blocked out by the screams of ‘yes’ from the crowd, the loudest being Hongjoong beside him.

“hmm, I'm pretty sure they've figured it out, our petals are smart” a female voice speaks from the stage, “yeah!” two other voices agree. “Very true, Soyeon” the crowd goes wild as a name is said, making Mingi remember that until now, it seems, everyone in this band has stayed anonymous. “Well, petals, I'm afraid I can no longer call only you mine.. you see, you've supported us through a lot, helped us in our search for our pink flower” he speaks again, Mingi faintly recalls Hongjoong giving everyone a run down on the bands lore, how the pink carnation is supposed to symbolize the happiest part of their life, their heaven.

“Even gave some of us ours” another voice says, “shut up Beomgyu” a female voice , different from the one identified as Soyeon speaks, the crowd loses it again as another member's name is revealed. “You're just jealous Petals love me more, Ryunjin” Beomgyu spits back, and this time Mingi is prepared for the eruption of screams that don't seem to end. “You two fight like an old married couple” the drummers, Mingi thinks, voice speaks. “SHUT UP CHANGBIN” the two shout in unison. The crowd is lively, all screaming newly learned names of the ones they love, next to Mingi Hongjoong is losing his mind as he buzzes in his seat waiting for his bias, the last name to be revealed.

“If I could continue my earlier sentence” the unnamed male speaks as the two youngest let out tiny huff’s of sorry’s, the crowd going dead silent as his unsaid way of asking for silence reaches them. “Tonight, as you could tell, we are sharing ourselves with you fully, and to do that, I wrote a song, it's quite different from what we usually give you, and for that I'm sorry. But as our story has gone on, and we've seen glimpses of all the incarnations pink flower” he takes a deep breath, “I believe I've found mine.. he's in the crowd tonight, so I hope he knows this songs for him” the last words are a bit shaky, and Mingi silently applauds the man for being brave enough to share this part of himself with his fans.

“Alright guys, don't go easy on him, you gotta tell him if you don't like his simpy song right?” Soyeon asks and the crowd gives a corus of agreement. “Here it is, Love talk, written by [Name] [Last name]” she screams, the crowd screaming with her as the lights turn on and the music starts. The air is sucked out of Mingi's chest, the name hitting him hard, the face he's met with afop the stage, staring down at him the moment the lights turned on, now dressed in much more revealing clothing, body littered with the tattoos Mingi recalls in his dreams? they hit him even harder.

It's not him who starts the song, but he's mouthing something to Mingi before he starts his own part, Mingi can't tell what it is he's saying. He can feel the eyes of his members on him, boring into him as they recognize the name and description, all probably equally as shocked as he is, but he can't tear his eyes away from the man atop the stage. The words he had said previously floating around in his head, the song was written for him, for Mingi.

Falling for a stranger (Yeah), good gracious (Yeah)

I might even fly out to Vegas (Catch a flight)

I'm thinking maybe you'd be down to do it (Yeah)

But you don't know what I'm saying (Saying)

[Name] moves his left hand that's not holding the mic, pointing his wrist in the direction of the crowd as the camera zooms in on what he's showing, a little pink flower, tattooed in the middle of his wrist, it's vine creeping up the palm of his hand and wrapping around his middle finger. He smiles at Mingi hopefully, and Mingi only smiles in turn.

“with MY bias, you fucking slept with MY bias I can't have ONE thing in this group YEARS I spent thirsting for this man and you got to him first!” Hong Jong wails, as he's being comforted by Seonghwa, the members being in a room backstage, they were brought here by the security guards after the concert had ended, being told “The incarnations want to see you.” and no further explanation.

Mingi's stomach is rumbling with nerves, now that he's not looking at [Name], that [Name] isn't looking at him he wonders if the other is mad, he paces back and forth in the room, blocking out Hongjoongs wails and Jongho and Yeosangs giggles. He knows the thought is irrational, the man had just done an identity reveal just so Mingi would recognize him, but there's still a nagging voice at the back of his brain.

“Still can't believe you slept with him, - like I can't believe he's [Name], like damn dude I get why you loved his fingers now.“ Yunho speaks from where he sits and eats some candy, his face between impressed and uninterested. Mingi wants to smother him. “Never really given my fingers much thought, I'm glad flower liked them” a deep voice speaks from the doorway, the now open doorway, the doorway that [Name] and the rest of his band are standing in.

The voices in the back of Mingi's head disappear and his body acts on instinct as he moves to [Name], the taller meeting him midway and their lips entwining in a passionate kiss. Mingi's hands steady themselves on [Name’s] shoulders, fearing his legs might give out beneath him if he doesn't, the guitarist has one hand, his left hand, on Mingi's cheek, the other gripping his hip like a lifeline.

When they break away, eyes locking and laughter bubbling from their throats, Mingi hears a whine behind them. “Goddamnt, now I owe Ryujin 20 bucks. You couldn't have waited 5 minutes?” Beomgyu grumbles as he plops himself on the first open chair he sees. “I'll give you forty if you stop placing bets on me” [Name] says as he spins Mingi around so they're both facing the rest of the people in the room. Mingi's back pressed against his chest so tight he can feel the other's beating heart, his waist encircled by [Name’s] arms as he rested his chin on Mingi's shoulder.

“Deal!” Beomgyu chirps from where he sits, “I swear you're all idiots, introduce yourselves” Soyeon gives her bandmates a pointed look and they all make ‘O’ faces in realization that they have yet to do that. “There's no need, Hongjoong-Hyung raves about-” San’s words are stopped shen Hongjoongs hand loudly slaps his mouth shut, looking at the band in a panic. “what he means to say is we heard on the stage, right?“ Hongjoong directs the last word threateningly at San, who nods his head fearfully with watery eyes. Hongjoong releases his hand from San’s mouth, the younger immediately backing away from Hongjoong and pouting as he looks at Wooyoung who is clearly much more interested in what's going on than San’s pain.

“ah, same here, [Name] won't shut up about you guys he's been a fan since like debut” Ryujins words are met with a loud cackle from Beomgyu about the fact that his friend just got outed, and a grumble from [Name who simply hides his face in Mingi's shoulder as the idol gives him a curious look.

“So I guess we're like… members in law” Changbin tries to joke, earning a loud laugh from Wooyoung, the sound immediately making him brighten up. “I'm gonna take Flower so me and him can talk someplace private” [Name] speaks before directing his attention to Ateez, “really it is nice meeting you all and it would be an honor to talk more, but flower is more important to me” he tells them as he drags Mingi out of the room, pausing for a moment to look back at Hongjoong, “for what it's worth Captain, you were my bias wrecker” he says with a cheeky grin before closing the door, Hongjoong sitting still for a moment before letting out a strangled cry that's muffled by the door.

“flower?“ is the first thing Mingi asks when he and [Name] enter a room alone. [Name] only nods, “mhm, do you not like it?” he looks at Mingi with a hint of nervousness Mingi hasn't seen on him before, it was kind of endearing. “NO! no no I mean Uhm I like it but it's just… I don't know, didn't think you would have remembered me, especially named me after something so important” Mingi mumbles.

“I know it may seem like a shocker but I do actually like you, I mean I didn't exactly learn korean for nothing” [Name] huffs out a puff of laughter, but his words hit Mingi, he learnt a language for Mingi. “I- I never called you” is all Mingi could reply with, [Name] only nods in response, “yeah.. “ he bites the inside of his cheek.

“It's not that I didn't want to- god I wanted to, it's just- I lost your number- well not lost more so as spill water-” Mingi starts to panic but is cut off by the feeling of [Name’s] lips connecting to his own once again. He's silenced, feeling the tallers hand rest on his neck to hold him in place. The kiss is broken as their foreheads are rested against one another. “My Flower, I could honestly care less” [Name] breathes out, “Whatever happened, you still decided to show up, and you have yet to reject me, so I could honestly care less on why you didn't contact me” He removes his head from Mingi's as he looks down at him. “I don't want to think about the year I spent without you when you're in my arms now” he says, and Mingi responds by kissing him again, a smile on his own lips.

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notes: chat this is not proofread and im sick so please lmk if you find any mistakes

copyright | 2024 | @asherthehimbo

[esmeriandreamer]

Okay, this post made me think a lot about characterisation in Epic, so I hope you don't mind me putting in my two cents and rambling a bit.

First thing I feel like a lot of people in the fandom forget; these characters are all flawed, they each have their good sides and bad sides, and that is GOOD writing.

Examples;

Eurylochus is strongminded, but also very prone to skepticism, to the point that he loses trust in his captain and dooms them all in 'Mutiny'.

Polites is an optimist, but prone to being too trusting, which nearly makes him and Ody eat lotus fruit, and also makes his final thought before being crushed by a cyclops be "Greet the world with open arms".

Circe is a caring and powerful queen, but past trauma is clearly making her see all men the same way and making rash choices like turning the crew into pigs, to avoid the possiblity that her nymphs and her would be killed/violated by them.

Poseidon has his reasons to hate Odysseus, he blinded his son and basically gave him the middle finger after all, but this god waited near Ithica's coast doing practically nothing for YEARS because he had beef with one (1) mortal.

And of course, Odysseus is a clever man, but he is driven by emotions (or lack thereof), and he'd destroy anything and anyone in his path to his goal, no matter the terrible cost.

Calypso is very much the same, at least in this version of the story. What she did isn't right of course, but like she says in NSFLY, she has been alone for a hundred/hundreds of years, so of course she'd practically imprint on the first person she's seen in so many years. Doesn't make her actions right, it just explains them. She is flawed, like any other character in this musical.

But I think there is one key reason why so many people are hating her so intensely. The fanworks. Now, I am not saying that fanfic authors are to blame, but if you look at it objectively, there are clear differences between Calypso in Epic and Calypso in Epic fanfic.

Calypso in the musical is a clingy and overbearing goddess, but the worst she canonically does is:

Claim Odysseus is now hers

Emotionally manipulating him by a; using phrases from his loved ones while he's having a mental breakdown, and b; saying that while she probably came on too strong, she's not sorry for loving him.

That's.. basically all that she does in the songs. Even the whole "you can't leave" thing is because there's a spell/magic keeping them BOTH stuck in paradise, making the island stay unknown. Of course, things are implied, but it's never explicitly stated that she does anything worse than basically love-bomb Ody for 7 years.

Now, fanartists have of course taken these implications and ran wild with them. Which is exactly what fanfiction is about, I fully support taking a thread of story and weaving a new one with it. But it has introduced some concepts that just.. aren't canon to Jay's story.

In the Epic canon, it's never stated that Calypso rapes Odysseus. It's never stated that she does any weird magic things to have her way with him, or keep him from leaving her. That is only a thing in the fanfictions I've seen, and something I've included in my own private writing too.

Calypso is manipulative, yes, but she isn't the same evil temptress from Homer's story. She's just a wellwritten antagonist character. A character the audience is expected to dislike, as she keeps the protaganist from going home, and yet, she still manages to tug at your heartstrings.

And that is a GOOD THING in storytelling. Flawed heroes, sympathetic villians, unreliable narrators, those make stories compelling. You're technically not supposed to look at any character and either love them unconditionally or hate them with all your being. Nuance is so, SO important while interacting with stories.

Calypso, Nuance and Misogyny

Whoop-dee-scoop I'm mad at people on TikTok again. Yippee.

I love Not Sorry For Loving You. It does so much for Calypso's characterization in this musical. And I'm tired of seeing people blatantly ignoring that.

"This is emotional manipulation!!" "She's a narcissist!" "She's not actually apologizing to Ody!"

Y'all are fucking insufferable (/lh). Yes, what Calypso did to Odysseus is bad. I am not going to say it isn't. Forcing a man to be with you is bad. But a character doing bad things doesn't mean that you can brush off everything she says under "bad woman bad".

Here's the second verse of NSFLY (via LyricFind on Google)

Let me speak I spent my whole life here Was cast away when I was young Alone for a hundred years I had no friends but the sky and sun So when you washed ashore I thought for sure that you were my dream come true I thought I knew

This contextualizes her actions. Not excuses, but explains why she did what she did.

Calypso was banished to her island because she's Atlas' daughter and not much else from what I've gathered. And she's telling the audience that she's spent more or less her entire life completely alone. Of-fucking-course she's gonna be overly/unhealthily attached to the first other person she's seen in the last hundred years or so. She finally has someone to talk to. And ignoring that nuance is not fair to her character.

There's also the simple truth that Homer didn't write EPIC. He wrote The Odyssey, which EPIC is based on, but Jorge's the one that actually wrote EPIC, meaning that this is Jorge's version of Calypso, which is clearly more humanized/sympathetic than Homer's.

Speaking of the original Odyssey, if you've gotten this far you might be wondering why I put misogyny in the title. The answer's simple:

Homer was a misogynist. So were most all men in Ancient Greece.

As I'm sure a good chunk of people in this fandom know, Ancient Greece… wasn't kind to their women. When one of the healthiest marriages in the mythos starts with the woman being kidnapped, it's hard to argue anything else. And surprise to no one, this also affected the written versions of the myths, including Homer's works.

The original Calypso is no exception. She's an evil temptress who's only motive for being evil is being rejected sexually. There was nothing else to her character. In fact, every woman in Greco-Roman mythology is either "evil typically temptress mwah-ha-ha" or "I have absolutely no agency whatsoever"

On the flip-side, the version of Calypso that Jorge's written is more three-dimensional than that (well, as much as she can be with only two songs). So effectively, in brushing off the context given to her character because "well she's evil so…" is in my humble opinion, reinforcing the misogyny that was woven into her that modern retellings are trying to remove from her character.

Anyway, it's almost midnight. I'm tired. Thanks for reading to the end, and goodnight.