#and was picking names out of a hat

[yuridovewing]

Imagine if in 2007 or so, some Pokemon Anime writer was answering a bunch of shotfire questions on twitter or facebook or whatever. And they get asked “Hey, who’s related to who in the Pokemon anime? Anyone we don’t know about yet?” And this writer has not revisited the original saga in years, they’re tired and do not care at all, and they just write “Eh Ash’s Mom and Misty’s Mom are sisters and everyone in the show knows this” on a whim. Completely ignoring how that makes absolutely no sense in the OS canon, Ash and Misty don’t know each other and the show actively shipped them, and this take is so stupid that the writer basically immediately takes it back and it’s never implied in any official source, nevermind the actual show, that they were related. But for some reason, the fandom COMPLETELY accepted this take as cold hard canon. A writer had said it, so now it’s gospel. People are arguing over the ship now. If you point out that this is complete and utter bullshit in the actual canon, you are now an incest apologist. Despite this having clearly been a mistake and subsequently ignored for years, everyone is adamant that this has to be the case. That would be stupid, right?

That’s what a lot of WC discourse feels like to me

[stellarwaffles]

Yay yippee yay Astrid :D

Images:

1) Astrid + Logan after they got her new hourglass

2) waking world Astrid

3) Blue drew the others in highschool so um I drew Astrid in highschool :)

4 + 5) Logan + his moms visit germany so Logan + Astrid can hang out irl

[ratatatastic]

the things ekky has done or said that i cant stop thinking about. the 4 minute cut.

[essektheylyss]

This was entirely tangential to this post from @utilitycaster which is why this is its own post, but the tags made me think about what feels most compelling about Liliana to me, and it's really because there's such an interesting approach to redemption in terms of the sunk cost fallacy to be had there.

There have been plenty of comparisons between Liliana and Essek, but I don't think they're really situations that can be compared. Essek had done one horrible thing (that was of relevence to the story; it is implied that he's taken other actions that he feels were wrong, but we don't know what those entail nor do the Nein care enough to ask, so per narrative convention, they do not matter for analysis) and was only still involved in it to the extent that he couldn't take it back, so to survive he had to continue covering his tracks. But he was also incentivized to otherwise act in alignment with the group that was not those on behalf of whom he had made terrible choices, because he was still living in the Dynasty, and as such wasn't actively perpetuating those actions beyond the cover up.

Liliana on the other hand is acting with the Vanguard and has been furthering if not personally committing atrocities on their behalf for a number of years, continuing to the present. Like Essek, she believes her involvement in the cause to be a difficult choice that was made for noble reasons, and now can't see a way out. But she is also relieved to be told to stay, though at the point that they discuss her leaving, she is alone and outside the immediate range of contact or oversight from the Vanguard. It seems reasonable that she could disappear with a decent headstart, and perhaps become untraceable quickly enough to be safe from anyone following. With this context, returning to the Vanguard with the intention of feeding information to the opposition feels like the riskier choice, but crucially it is the devil she knows.

I actually liken this more to Cassandra de Rolo than Essek. Cassandra was manipulated against her brother by the Briarwoods, but this was also spurred by having watched Percy seemingly leave her for dead. There are legitimate reasons why the Briarwoods, as the people who rescued her and then kept her alive for many years, are the easier option in which to place her trust. She knows what she's getting from that vantage point and how to handle it. She doesn't inherently have faith that someone she only knew as a young and helpless child, who ran from the hardships she's faced, would have the strength or willingness to do what she has found necessary for survival.

I think that Liliana's actions are more willful, not least because she was not a child nor in mortal peril when she joined the Vanguard, but she sees herself as having made difficult choices when only faced with difficult options, and I do think they have been difficult. She didn't want to leave her family; she doesn't want to hurt the young Ruidusborn under her care; she is probably genuinely sorry that innocent people were considered a necessary sacrifice for what she sees as the greater good. It is psychologically taxing to feel as though one is always picking between bad options, which is a significant contributing factor for why people buy into a sunk cost for so long. And over time, those hard decisions become easier, because you know what to expect from the outcome. Though Liliana is well aware that she might be killed for a misstep among the Vanguard, she already knows how to act to maintain their favor, but how she might be received on Exandria by those fighting the Vanguard, even with the Hells vouching for her, is anyone's guess.

This is a very real reason why people remain in cults and struggle to push back against this kind of conditioning: because the decision to leave feels more immediately perilous than the decision to stay. (On a certain level making these kinds of choices and actions habitual is a fundamental basis behind a lot of military conditioning.) And if you are acting in the interests of your own survival, but that survival comes at the cost of that of countless others who have not, in fact, made any threat or harm against you to begin with, then is the nature of your survival morally defensible?

This analysis isn't a question of whether Liliana will commit to her role as double agent and turn fully against the Vanguard, or even which one of these is a "better" story; this is about what the story might say if she doesn't. Yes, she might commit to a different path than the one she's on and make an effort to redeem herself, but it is also a perfectly coherent and interesting story if she doesn't.

[deakyjoe]

How do we think they chose which ghoul got to speak in Rite Here Rite Now?

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

YALL HOLY SHIT ITS HER. SHE'S IN MY HOUSE MY HANDS MY HEART

[callibones]

okay while people are reading my blase posts i am so far behind on player lore. somebody tell the story of their favorite player so i can cheer or cry a lot or reblog it 10,000 times and hype them up to all my friends

[sysig]

Time Loops are they/them culture (Patreon)

Bonus of my little guy in ISaT style:

[abyssal-ilk]

Vivienne/Zevran

Thoughts?

this has to be the most out-there ships i've gotten so far for vivienne?? anon. anon, i need to know your thought process on this one. please return to me and elaborate, inquiring minds need to know.

[tethrras]

why is no one talking about this btw

[i-eat-cubes]

[pipskippy]

i finished an illustration i’ve wanted to complete for a long time \(*_*

[pierregaslays]

why do you always only hate on mclaren

i have never once limited myself to just hating on mclaren

[6point5crows]

Goddamnit

Rose (Doctor Who) x Inej (Six of Crows)

[bitegore]

every day i get closer and closer to the precipice*

*the precipice is "doing a bit where i post incorrect and completely inane 'headcanons' about a character that make no goddamn sense but are vaguely cutesy or whatever just to see how many people are dumb enough to reblog them. and then blocking everyon in the notes"

[galdrgobrrr]

I do love how for 3.8 kokomi is just there. Like here’s a bunch of knights of Favonius and a girl with strong ties to Mondstadt and then there’s kokomi for some reason.