#and will offer her a choice

[personinthepalace]

"I didn't think you and Gilbert Blythe were such good friends that you'd stand for half an hour at the gate talking to him," said Marilla with a dry smile. "We haven't been—we've been good enemies. But we have decided that it will be much more sensible to be good friends in the future. Were we really there half an hour? It seemed just a few minutes. But, you see, we have five years' lost conversations to catch up with, Marilla."

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

[divorcedwife]

it's not even like i want RPGs to offer a billion different choices, most of the games i like are pretty linear and set up a very clear past for the main character. like the exile in kotor 2, the watcher's past in pillars, the dark urge in bg3, the warden has many origins but they all restrict your ability to write your character's past somewhat. and that's fine because they're very cool pasts and also all these games give you a lot of room to react to events and express thoughts about them naturally, and that's how my warden amell can be so different from someone else's, even though we start out at the same point

all of that is really what made me feel disengaged from datv the most. sure, they leave your character's past pretty vague so you can write whatever you want, but i can already do that in my head for free. and if i could at least develop my character in interactions with the world, that would be nice, but the dialogue wheel when talking to companions is pretty much always three different ways of saying the same thing, so no. if i could just choose from at least three actual different options like in da2, it would already be way better

[revoevokukil]

This emerged in the middle of writing up thoughts on Ciri and Avallac'h based on the books alone.

---

The Witcher’s theme of choice and destiny is complicated by psychological barriers – one must be emotionally ready to accept the way the dice can fall.

Interestingly, Avallac’h’s rejection mirrors how Lara rejected the plans for her destiny. His rejection of Ciri's offer ironically puts him in the position of resisting destiny – the very 'crime' he condemned Lara for committing.

Elves had plans for Lara – to stay and have special children. She rejected this. Elven goals were upended.

For Ciri, Avallac’h has orchestrated a destiny, but when Ciri gets sick of the official programme not working out and offers herself to him directly – effectively suggesting getting the goal they want faster – she gets rebuked. She’s creating an unexpected path to achieving the elves’ goals; one where she shows agency in choosing the father.

In poetic justice, Avallac’h is mirroring Lara’s rejection of the elves’ plans: the man who spent centuries judging Lara for prioritizing personal choice over racial destiny ends up making essentially the same choice, but from the opposite side of the equation. In rejecting Ciri's offer at that point, he implicitly asserts that the manner in which destiny unfolds matters, not just the outcome.

Avallac’h, however, seems blind to this parallel between himself and Lara.

This suggests though, that perhaps Avallac'h's centuries of resentment toward Lara concealed a deeper, unacknowledged understanding of her choice – one that surfaces in his own moment of revelation. You cannot force it if you are not ready for it, but avoiding it will bring consequences. The sword of destiny is double-edged.

Sapkowski often structures his narrative so as to force characters to confront their own contradictions, often without them fully recognizing the pattern they’re repeating or inverting.

[rocker-socks]

I see your Bruce adopts Billy au and raise you Diana adopts Billy while Bruce hovers on the sidelines playing godfather who has the adoption papers ready if something bad happens. Jon also gets this treatment.

[wavebiders]

The thing that really gets me about Wyll and Karlach is just how their bond is allowed to have the importance in their narratives that it has

I mean, in games like these the cast is always going to be centered around the pc. Sure, the relationships between other companions can be developed through party banter, commentary, or even cinematics, but at the end of the day everyone's most significant relationship is always going to be the player. That's the person who most affects them and where their story is going

With these two, it's not even that Tav isn't vitally important to them both, but it's meeting Karlach that changes Wyll's life one way or another. It's Wyll that's the first person to stick out his neck for Karlach, and sends her reeling. Their bond alone is enough to convince Karlach to go to Avernus and stay alive

It's a very bold choice to risk limiting the player's importance in order to drive home the connection between two characters, and I really appreciate Larian for going there

[novelconcepts]

Do you ever just lay awake at night, turning over in your head the stark difference in delivery between Hewson's Van saying--steadily, unshakably--"it's just something that's happening to you...happening to us" and Cypress' Taissa saying--imploringly, whiningly--"this was not just my dream, this was our dream"?

Do you ever just turn it over and over, how often Tai tried to scare Van away, and how it only made Van set her feet more firmly? How Taissa's first love was this person who saw a problem fall into Taissa's lap, a problem that was quite literally trapped inside Taissa's body, and decided unflinchingly: No, that's an us problem now? How she refused point-blank to walk away even with blood in her mouth, how she flatly informed Tai "I'm never gonna be scared of you", and promptly turned a moment of pain into a declaration of love? And how this would etch itself into Taissa for the rest of her life? How she'd take these things that worked with Van--with the person Van was, with the bond they shared--and try so hard to run through an identical script with Simone?

Except Simone is her own person. A completely different kind of person. A person who hasn't been offered any of the context, any of the realities going on inside Taissa. So: naturally she doesn't respond the way Van did at eighteen--and will go on to do all over again in her forties. Naturally, she hears our dream as the excuse it is, not as a plea for connection. Naturally, she is scared away when Taissa pushes, and shouts, and begs. Because there isn't blood in her mouth, not yet, but there will be. And they have a son to worry about. And she isn't eighteen and a special kind of immortal, a special kind of romanticized. She's a grown woman with responsibilities, with priorities, with an understanding that you can't fix someone just because you love them. And Tai can't just perform a revival of the play she and Van had memorized twenty-five years later with a whole new performer in the works, and expect it to shake out the same.

Of course it doesn't work. But look at Taissa trying it. Look at Taissa trying to reframe her first love through a new lens. Trying to recast it. Trying to play it through again. Van taught her love was sticking out the blood, shaking off the pain, making a you problem into an us problem. Does it ever just eat at you, how tragic it is, watching Taissa try to shape her marriage around a woman who isn't even wearing a ring?

[idrawfunkythings]

demeter my love they could never make me hate you. a mother grieving a daughter is a tale as old as time. a mother's love made men wither and die and destroyed villages and she's the bad guy? persephone's mother by zeus, her brother, did she even want this daughter? even if persephone left willingly it is only natural demeter would fear for her. a goddess of spring being trapped in the underworld. do you get what im saying.

[hieropedia]

something thats always been on my mind about the eah destiny system is that a lot of the time i dont think the book actually needs to play a factor ... especially w regards to briar — sure she can opt out, can say No Thank you to the curse but i dont see how that stops anything ? the original sleeping beauty didnt consent to be cursed to sleep , we know the stories change and just have to keep the essense of the fairytale ? so whats actually stopping faybelle cursing her anyway . . . just trust ? hope ??

[magpie-trove]

It’s not nature or nurture it’s what you make of what you’re given that is what defines good and evil!!

[waywardsoul-s]

I watched the remedial chaos theory episode of community for the first time and I'll never get over abeds and annies friendship.

[prontaentrega]

Can I confess something. i dont get the point of weed

[sometinybees]

I'm going to scream at some arcane season 2 takes I've seen on TikTok the purity mindset is a curse

Like NO ONE is a morally perfect/good person in this show!!!!! They've all made awful decisions that have hurt people!!!!! That's the point!!! And it's okay and so very normal to like a character even if they've done some really bad shit. The amount of "man they want me to like THAT person after what they did?" Type takes are making me want to pull my hair out like YES! BECAUSE THEY ARE INTERESTING AND NUANCED CHARACTERS YOU CAN BOTH ENJOY WATCHING THEM AND ALSO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING IS FUCKED!!!!!! WHY IS THIS SO HARD

[lemedstudent2021]

what’s wrong with aoc? Could you explain it to me please?

i dont fw just about everyone in power and politics in the west esp since the past 2 years have exposed and displayed everyones true colours, some vibrant others more subtle, which imo therein lies the real horror; they all parade in different shades of the same deeply disturbed and bigoted mindset. a few links:

outwardly she may seem better than most of her peers in congress (a low bar indeed) but the dems in general have shown themselves no less disgusting and hypocritical than their opposition, the stark difference lies in how they present and advertise themselves.

no real or tangible effort has been made by literally anyone at any point for a ceasefire of any degree, harris and biden greenlit and continued to staunchly sponsor and justify the ongoing genocide and its accompanying war crimes. they can hide behind claims of diversity and acceptance all they want theyre just as guilty in regards to deportations, all of this and more is made even more heinous by the hypocrisy on full display.

to me nothing is more insulting nor an instant depletor of any respect i may hold for anyone than dishonesty. politics is dirty work and rarely does anyone get anywhere by being a saint, of that much im aware but all i ask is consistency. do not smile at me or preach of your virtue as you twist the knife. fuck that

ur ask i assume comes after the post i reblogged this morning, i dont believe in anyone (in political power esp) should be idolised or placed on a pedestal, were all humans and flawed, but its so happens that some peoples fuck ups lie on a much bigger and devastating scale that often translates into bombing civilians half the globe away and no one cares because folks accept that we dont matter.

and in that regard there are significantly better figures to be looking up to who arent morally bankrupt or worse; morally bankrupt and cosplaying as anything but. thems my two cents on the matter ig.

[kithj]

noel's route is done... two down, two to go

[yanderethorne]

having an overly controlling childhood best friend radicalised me

[lala-blahblah]

I will never make this because it would be for an audience of one (me) but ever since reading "If we Were Villains" (story about serious drama kids in college who perform shakespeare and deal with a murder) I have been entertaining the thought of a crack fic crossover with High School Musical The Musical The Series where the staff decides they will no longer put on shakespeare after the tragic accident that happened at Thanksgiving, because Shakespeare plays would only increase the tension and drama. So they hire Ms. Jen who decides their spring play will actually be High School Musical (which exists in the 90s in this universe) and it ruins the vibe so much that everyone gives up on being dark and mysterious because they're universally pissed at Ms Jen for making them learn choreoraphed basketball dancing.