#anyway it is just far more compelling to me that she is lost in the sauce but ultimately we'll intentioned than just like. an idiot.

[caeslxys]

here's the thing. laudna would have stopped it. if she knew delilah was about to fracture the gnarlrock. if she could parse her own feelings from hers.

and here's the thing. imogen has been plagued by nightmares for a decade. and this rock is the first bit of solace outside of her trust in laudna that she has ever had.

and laudna was just involved in shattering it. this tiny bit of solace.

and. here's the thing: laudna would've stopped it.

and. here's the thing. imogen would've stopped it. the only reason imogen didn't go is because she was specifically afraid that she would attempt to intervene and ruin their relationship with the volition before it ever began.

and here's the thing. liliana set out 25+ years ago specifically to spare her daughter. and that seemingly has not ever wavered as her core motivation. but people keep being drawn to the moon. kids keep being drawn towards the moon. and liliana is a mother. she was a mother before she ever knew she was an exaltant.

for 25+ years she has worked to "cure" imogen. the only solace she probably ever received was in at least attempting to console the kids who found themselves lured in by her same pull.

liliana begs imogen not say that they may have to kill each other. she breaks at hearing imogen's resolve. but there's kids, imogen. there's kids here. imogen. she can't leave. she's a mom.

and, here's the thing: imogen's her daughter. the daughter liliana left. or tried to leave. the daughter she only had through dreams. and imogen is working with the volition. and imogen has been her sole drive for 25+ years.

and imogen might have just been involved in shattering the little solace she might have ever had.

and, here's the thing: imogen would've stopped them.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[ir-abelas-vhenan]

Did Someone Say Running Back to Fiction to Cope??

It's probably safe to call this Me Losing My Mind over Veilguard 5/??

One of the things upsetting me the absolute most is no mention from the Inquisitor about Varric's death. Perhaps the most integral storytelling mechanism and all around champion of reluctant heroes has been taken away from us, and one of the people he was closest to doesn't feel even a little compelled to discuss him with his apprentice?

I'm still a little dumbfounded, clearly.

Even if we as fans didn't deserve better, Varric deserved better. I've always believed that the better the character, the better a death they deserve when it's their time to go.

So anyways. In my smooth pea brain, I can't reconcile a world in which Lavellan shows up with her unconditional love blazing without first confronting and resolving the fact that her love has led to the death of one of her closest friends. So it's back to the drawing (writing?) board to soothe my disappointed soul.

I saw a version of Varric's letter to a Solas-mancing Lavellan that was datamined and ran with it.

One: All the Words Unwritten

Charter,

Yes, the trail went cold, but we haven’t entirely lost it. Solas left us a little farewell note. So I’m not giving up just yet. Maybe it’s gullible of me, but I know the Inquisitor feels the same: Solas isn’t too far gone to save. And she’d never forgive me if I didn’t try. But I don’t think I’m wrong here. Solas didn’t have to warn me and Harding off the chase when he could’ve killed us like the others who came after him. I don’t think he wants to do this. So, I’m taking the chance. Tell the Inquisitor…tell her I’ll bring him back.

—Varric

Her first tear spatters onto the parchment. The final sentence becomes an ink-stained massacre, and she throws it far away before she can lose any more of the handwriting she’ll never again see waiting for her above the seal representing his best friend’s house. Her palms bite into the unsanded wood, welcoming the bite of pain as she shoves back from the recovered tree stump she’s been using as a desk.

“Inquisitor.”

Morrigan’s voice doesn’t register, hardly rises over the sound of blood rushing through her ears like an open wound. Gods, wrong comparison . But there it is, playing out against the darkness of her eyelids every time she blinks to try and stem the flow of more tears. The wound in Varric’s chest, gushing with no one to hold pressure over it, to ensure the rise and fall of his sternum until help could arrive, no one to watch his back because the woman who did it best is no longer able to. This too, is her fault, and there has hardly been a conversation in the years that followed where she hasn’t looked into Varric’s quieter, sadder eyes and wanted to beg him for a forgiveness she knows he’d have frowned at her for needing. 

It had been her job to keep him safe now, her promise to Hawke that the choice to become another martyred hero in Ferelden’s bloody history wasn’t in vain. And here was the proof at last that she was every inch the fantasy-addled fool bards wrote about when inspiration ran dry. Here was the proof that her hope was a mantle, weighing down everyone around her until there was nothing left but blurred ink and bloodstained pages in the famed Inquisitor Lavellan’s wake. 

[qqueenofhades]

One of my more "radical" leftist friends admitted after the 2016 election that they voted for Jill Stein. I asked them why and they said, and I quote, "I don't really know."

Anyway, thank you for the thoughtful post about polling. I'm still terrified of another Biden-Trump match up, but I suspect you are right that many of these online leftists yelling about sending a message to "genocide Joe" were not likely voters to begin with.

Well I mean, in Online Leftist world, voting is an essentially meaningless act anyway, so if they do bother to do it, why not make some sort of "protest" against the Corrupt System, even though (as I said) Jill Stein is literally a Manchurian candidate sponsored and funded by Russia precisely in order to dupe gullible leftists who want to Send a Message to the Democrats. She has no platform and no policies. She just exists to hurt Democrats and she is another part of the reason HRC lost in 2016, but hey. That sure showed us, or something.

And the thing is, while I'm not discounting that there could be some slippage of the youth vote, it would be much more effective as a threat (much as I would still deeply disagree with it, since the stakes are far too high with Trumpian fascism to fuck around with this bullshit) if we had literally any shred of evidence that they were planning to vote at all, that they were planning to vote for Biden and this is somehow the one thing that made them decide otherwise, or that their arguments were at all widespread beyond their tiny hermetic internet echo chamber. As I have said, I have not thus far seen compelling evidence that any of this is true, and believe me, I am ALSO keeping a close eye on things because this year will probably kill me before it's over. But when the Online Leftists have already spent three years lying about and trashing everything Biden has actually done, it is difficult to believe that they were in fact intending to vote for him, that they should be priced into any election analysis, or that they are as impactful as they think.

I suspect they're mostly being used to try to convince other people (who may or may not have planned to vote) that it is morally reprehensible to vote for Biden solely because of Gaza, no matter how illogical that is and how many orders of magnitude worse Trump would be on literally everything. And while I'm not denying that they may well peel off a few of the wishy-washy leaners and that's why their rhetoric is dangerous, I deeply doubt that they themselves were ever any kind of electoral or voting participant at all, because they keep telling us loudly that they're not. The media is running hard with this angle because they desperately want more Biden in Trouble stories, but actual election results keep proving them wrong, over and over. For all our sakes, let's hope very much this trend continues.

[lightwise]

Okay, okay. I have thoughts (and feelings) on this latest episode of The Acolyte. (And no, this is not another post on Manny Jacinto’s arms…even though 👀😮‍💨🥵).

This is the first episode since the first one that I can unequivocally (except for one aspect) say that I really liked. Where has this level of dialogue and character insight been the entire show!?

Manny continues to take the starring role in the show as The Stranger. I’m seriously in awe of how compelling his performance is, how effortless he’s making it feel between all the switches of his personality—hungover, drifting bum, to terrifying dark side user with chilling morals, to a calm, quiet, perfectly in control man who knows who he is and what he wants, what he’s capable of, and what the emotions of those around him are.

He and Sol have switched places this episode just as much as Osha and Mae have. Sol is unsettled, anxious, lost in tortuous thoughts of the past. So much so that he doesn’t recognize that Mae has boarded the ship with him instead of Osha for (an agonizingly) long time. He starts to feel more like a villain when he finally figures out that Mae has tricked him, binds her, and then hovers over her menacingly after she wakes up. He’s becoming unhinged and going rogue, even making sure that they leave the planet and that Vernestra cannot track him because he wants to go retrieve Osha alone. Why? What is he hiding??

I’ll go ahead and do my quick gripe with the episode here. I like Amandla’s performance as Osha. I really can’t get into her performance for Mae. Osha feels transparent in her mental state and desires and motivations throughout the show. Mae is very difficult to get a read on, and I don’t mean that that is a bad thing when it comes to storytelling. I mean that it’s not working here. She’s gone back and forth like ten times in the last two episodes alone, wanting to compete her mission, then wanting to abandon it and turn herself into the Jedi so she can be with Osha, then fighting Jecki, then running from Qimir, then seemingly picking up the mission again so she can kill Sol, then not, then reprogramming her sister’s droid in a very callous manner, then somehow knowing enough about ships that she can work with the power systems (which is her sister’s area of expertise, not hers)….it just doesn’t work for me.

I also think that Sol took too long to recognize her. I’ll give him the getting onto the ship and trying to get a message out bc his emotions are a wreck. But he should have noticed after that. I also think Basil is completely unnecessary as a character. Sorry.

Anyway, back to Osha and Qimir. It’s a classic dark side seduction unfolding (I cracked up at the “if you’re not going to join me”), but Manny is oh so convincing about it. We know as the audience that everything he tells Osha is a half truth. It’s interesting to see how both the Jedi and the Sith in this show are kind of dealing with a half truth in how they are using the Force and teaching others. But it’s still very convincing, because he’s really not fueling it with overly grand promises or even his own ulterior motives, though he does have them. He’s simply telling Osha what his version of the truth is. What his experiences have been. And how he thinks they overlap with hers.

The dialogue is wonderful. A great example of how monologuing to give us info we don’t already have can actually work sometimes (looking at you, Ahsoka show). The line “why do you love people who can only go so far” was a standout for me. Again, not the accurate truth, but definitely a “from a certain point of view”. Sol also reiterates that Osha’s main characteristic has been love. So what is going to make her turn away from that? Anger? Feeling abandoned? Feeling guilty? Pinning an objectively hot Sith to a wall with his own lightsaber? SORRY. Sorry. 🤣🤣🤣. Really loved the “when you lose everything, that’s when you’re finally free” too, as well as “it’s just you and the Force. And what you bring with you.”

The fact that Qimir was a Jedi and might be much older than we expect is very interesting. I know very little about the Sith timeline from Legends, other than seeing names float about (Revan, Tenebrous, Plageous, etc). I’m interested to see which named Sith they might slot Qimir in with, or if they’re going to keep him completely separate from the main Sith line. He definitely does want to be a part of it though, given his “power of two” comment. A discarded apprentice who seeks his own apprentice to gain power, not unlike one fandom favorite Maul, perhaps?

I also liked Vernestra in this episode. I got a little better read on her character in a short time and loved seeing her speed in the Force using her light whip. It’s fascinating seeing her padawan be just as uptight and questioning as Jecki and Yord were…almost like this whole generation of padawans will grow up to be the masters who train the masters we see in TPM. What I would still like to understand better is why there seems to be such a split between the generations here. What outside or internal factors are influencing this? All they’ve shown is still is wanting to keep the senate and the council on good terms, but we don’t know why.

(Side note: Her Universe or someone definitely needs to make the open shoulder sweatshirt Osha was wearing.)

If the whole show had been like this I would appreciate it a lot. As is I think I’ll enjoy where they’re taking us but not necessarily how we got there. Hopefully the last two episodes will keep up the momentum.

[clairesvalentine]

Could you do something with fem!reader and Syzoth where he walks into her playing an original song on the guitar?

The songs I’m imagining for this scenario is “Can’t Catch Me Now” by Olivia Rodrigo and “Lost in Silence” by Marcus Skeen…

SYZOTH AND MUSICIAN!READER

🦎 syzoth x fem!reader

PROMPT: syzoth walks in on the reader singing an original song.

I LOVEEEEE THIS SONG!! can’t catch me now was the reason i made the mileena one shot! anyways, i hope you enjoy this one and thank you for requesting again!! I also learned how to make the text a bit smaller so it fits my aesthetic. it's a good day fr 😹🙏🏼

— syzoth had been lurking around the kingdom's village for a while now. after the events that occurred, he was now appointed by mileena as her emissary to the zaterrans. he was honored yet overwhelmed. he wanted to do well for his kind. in their history of hardships, he wouldn't want them to endure any more pain than they already have.

— after being banned from the village for an extended period, he found joy in wandering aimlessly around the village. observing the citizens engage and witnessing their daily routines brought him a sense of comfort. his people were able to live amongst them and that meant the world to him.

— he spent most of his time in the tavern. he enjoyed seeing outworlders getting together to enjoy a drink or two. it bought him some comfort. besides, if he made it at a certain time, he was able to see the performers.

— while making his way to his usual table, he heard an unfamiliar melody. he was accustomed to hearing a plethora of songs, most of them folk tales sung by the people. he had never really encountered anything new—which wasn't a problem for him, but this caught his attention.

— you sat in the backroom, humming softly as you strung your guitar. you had been near and far from outworld, being back home was something so surreal to you. you had lived in this village all your life, adventuring around outworld was not an easy task. though your family had advised you not to, it was something you wanted to do. you sang in many different taverns, near and far yet you never got tired of traveling.

— however, this time you had to come home. your mother was very sick and she needed all of her children there. throughout the day, you would tend to your mother whilst taking care of your childhood home simultaneously. though you loved your mother and wanted her to get better, it was all so mentally draining to you. with the loss of your dad a few years prior, it made things so much harder.

— so, you and your siblings made a compromise. you and your brother would watch your mother during the day, while the others took over at night. this was perfect for you. this was your chance to try new material to the drunkards at the tavern.

— syzoth followed the melody, stopping by the door once he spotted you. you sat on a wooden chair, your music sheet on the stool beside you. he couldn't describe it but the melody you were playing was just something so fresh to him. one he had never heard before.

— "there's blood on the side of the mountain. there’s writing all over the wall. shadows of us are still dancin'. in every room and every hall." you closed your eyes as you sang, almost as if the melody ran right to your core.

— that's what syzoth found most captivating about the song. the way you were able to feel the music as you sang.

— trying not to startle you, syzoth equips his invisibility skill to quietly enter the room. he listened to you sing, admiring how much passion you had. he thoroughly enjoyed the lyrics being sung. he could tell you had so many compelling stories to tell, just from your writing alone.

— once you finished your song, syzoth couldn’t help but applaud. the song was absolutely stunning and your voice was so smooth. syzoth truly admired you. his invisibility wore off, unknowingly.

— you let out a scream, clutching your guitar close to your chest. you thought you were alone! you were supposed to be the only one back here! you swore this was some sort of attack.

— syzoth’s eyes widened once he realized you could see him. “i’m sorry! i did not mean to startle you! i was just—“

— “don’t hurt me! please! i’ll give you anything, just don’t hurt me!” you begged, holding your guitar tighter.

— “no no, you gave it all wrong. i overheard you playing and i wanted to watch you.” syzoth explained. you relaxed a bit, loosening the grip on your guitar.

— “so why were you invisible?” you questioned, still not completely trusting this stranger. you grabbed your song sheet from the stool you were using.

— “i did not want to startle you. you seemed at peace and i did not want to disturb you.” syzoth explained, having a seat on the stool. “this song you were singing, it’s one that hasn’t been sung here before.” he commented.

— you smiled lightly, leaning back in your seat. not a lot of people paid you any mind when it came to your new material. people just liked hearing the same old folk songs they heard before. no one was really interested in anything new.

— “it’s new. i wrote it amidst of the battle between realms.” you explained. “i wasn’t necessarily here when it happened but i felt it’s effects.” you shared. “i am glad you enjoyed my song though. the drunkards here don’t like anything new or fresh.” you half joked.

— you and syzoth spoke for a while, mostly about music. syzoth was just curious about what you did. did you only write music? was this your job? how did one create melodies as ear wormy as yours?

— syzoth listened to you, enthralled with everything you said. composing music was such a complicated yet interesting concept. he learned that wrote many songs that didn’t get played. some because the tavern wouldn’t let you play them, and others because you simply weren’t interested or confident in performing them.

— an idea popped into syzoth’s head. “you can perform for the empress!” he chirped. “empress mileena loves a good performance. perhaps you could sing your songs at one of her big events.” he suggested.

— though intrigued, you weren’t able to wrap your head around this. sing for the empress? that seemed too good of a deal. you weren’t so sure about this man’s offer, though he did seem genuine. he was the only one to actually listen to you as well…

— “sounds too good of a deal. how do i know this isn’t a scam? or a trick for that matter?” you asked, quirking an eyebrow at the zaterran.

— “because i would never leave anyone astray unwillingly.” syzoth replied, gently taking your free hand in his.

— you looked down at your hands, a small blush crawling onto his cheeks. “when should i be ready?” you asked, an playful grin on your face.

— syzoth smiled. everyone was going to hear your music now. he was going to make sure of it.

[inkdemonapologist]

wdym by malice's writing being incoherent

NOTHING IN THIS SCENE MAKES SENSE! Malice sweetie i love u but what r u doin

Why does she have an electric chair party. If her goal is to take apart Audrey on the operating table because she’s A Unique Specimen That Will Finally Make Her Perfect why is she exclusively using death methods guaranteed to damage A Lot of the body when she originally had access to a passed out Audrey?? Why does she want to do a riddle? Why is she angry when you solve the riddle? Like she specifically tells you at the start “yeah, I want to take you apart and use your insides as beauty products, but first we’ll do a little riddle and we can do that other stuff later” so why does she say you’ve “humiliated” her later? You didn’t cheat, she didn’t make the puzzle unsolvable, you just literally did exactly the thing she told you to do.

For the record, Malice is also kinda incoherent in BatIM, but her screaming rage as the elevator falls feels more like her Real Feelings Finally Showing after being mockingly sweet to Henry thus far, while in BatDR she hasn’t really been keeping her cards close to the chest or pretending to be helpful, so it just kind of feels like “and then she loses it and starts screaming, because she’s crazy, of course” logic. Why does Malice have a bunch of loyal lost ones who dutifully repeat their riddle clues with zero additions? Like, this is a tangent, but wouldn’t it be creepier if they were obviously under duress when you speak to them? Why is the logic puzzle not bendy or angel themed in any way, like it was lifted out of a Book O’ Logic Puzzles directly and not even reskinned? WHY ARE THERE BUTTONS THEMED FOR IT, set up in wilson’s retreat????????? how often does Malice run this thing? Malice getting Henry to do her chores at least makes a little sense in that he’s doing things she didn’t particularly want to do herself (tho I agree with Mochi’s suggestion that it would’ve felt less arbitrary if it were made very clear afterwards that you had helped her get everything she needed to do her Boris Experiment), but what does she get out of this? If she’s enjoying making people squirm then there’s a distinct lack of squirming going on!!! Girl go back to unethical experiments that you’re in control of, that’s way more effective!! Her hint of a motive – Audrey is unique, the One That Came Out Right, and might be the key to Malice finally getting the perfection she craves – is ACTUALLY REALLY INTERESTING and works well with the story and plays into everything that’s going on with Audrey discovering her past, and for incomprehensible reasons it’s just kind of not really driving Malice’s actions here?

Anyway, this fun but baffling scene aside, the original reason I felt like Malice was sort of oddly written was the note you find from her:

This is actually pretty compelling. Malice has always seemed Vanity Obsessed and to give her a reason that’s not just “i want to be pretty” but “so many doors are closed to me unless I’m gorgeous, so if I could Just Be Beautiful I could have the things I want most!” is a great insight… into a character who is not in Malice’s situation. You could roll with this – framing it as these feelings being left over from when she was human, and she’s not coherent enough now to logically think through the fact that “doors will open for you if you’re gorgeous” no longer applies to her in Ink Hell. But was that ever Susie’s motivation…? She just wanted to Be Alice. And you could so easily get to her Perfection Obsession through that – I really like the repeated “angels are beautiful” because it gets the closest to that idea, that she’s desperate to fix the dysphoria of Not Really Being Alice Angel, the thing she sacrificed everything for, and she’ll sacrifice and sacrifice until she has it again.

So, this all just feels like….. Like, the way Malice IS is great. She’s great. Her delivery is fun and of course we’re all thrilled about “honey”. But her actions don’t make much sense, and the reasoning and motivation we’re given feels less like “here’s what’s really going on in this character’s head, here’s what’s motivating her” and more like “here’s a motivation that could explain why someone wants to be beautiful so bad”. It’s kind of generic rather than growing out of Malice’s particular feelings and history; it’s just to the left – and overall, this whole thing kinda feels like they did their best to create some scenario to replicate Malice’s vibes from BatIM, rather than really trying to understand her character and what this situation would drive her to do. Unlike BatIM (where she just wanted your buddy), in this game she wants YOU, and it’s a shame they didn’t lean into that more!!

[tobiasdrake]

Well, as long as we're rafting the temporal streams, might as well head back to Dormont. Got some errands to run in the past.

I'm like 98% sure you're trying to flirt with me but you're too nervous to actually go through with it. Would you please just finally ask me out so I can rock your evening?

Look, be glad I was tasteful enough not to go for the other pun.

My guy, what could possibly compel you to think I'm not comfortable with basic human conta--

...you know what, that's fair. I guess I do go out of my way to minimize any and all possible exposure of physical features, don't I?

Anyways, go on and get out of here while I chat with my Lemonfriend.

Oh, I've always liked you. I'm just also creeped out by you. Two things can be true.

...huh. If I can die here in Dormont, then... that does make things easier. I was planning on throwing myself on a Tear once we got into the House since you said I can loop forward as well as back, but dying here in town would save me some time.

Oh shit yes. I'd love the ability to call you and chat about what I'm seeing while the rest of the crew looks at me like I've lost my goddamn mind.

Especially since the ultra-secret fourth sign is making a phone shape out of your fingers and then talking on it. That's hilarious.

This.

This is it.

This is the key to killing myself in Dormont.

...

I should probably wait until I've finished up here.

OH

ISA

I didn't realize you come up here after we're done. I don't have anything else to talk about but it's great seeing you up here.

Didn't accomplish as much here as I expected to. But at least we can take another crack at that desk drawer.

Okay between this and the rock switch, I no longer have any confidence in my own ability to do my job. It's distressing that each setback thus far has been the fault of a bad d20 roll on the primary reason that I'm with this party.

Ha! Rock trap for the Rock key. I get it.

Really? They're frozen in time right now but I am looking for a book. You think they might have set it out for me in advance? That would be awfully nice of them.

Oh shit. There was a person in town who sometimes thinks they have a sister but can't recall where they moved to. That shit got super weird. This has to be related.

No idea how it's related to our current mission. But. It's gotta be related.

Always trust in the puns. The puns are life. The puns are the secret of the universe. Those who do not heed their wisdom face the ultimate punishment.

So the Rock Key was in a room guarded by a huge rock and the Paper Key is in the library. I am. Kind of. Terrified. Of where the inevitable Scissors Key will be found.

And one Star Crest. Well. *heavy sigh* Shit.

Gonna have to temporally save-scum this one.

Can't argue with that. Isa's my brofriend-maybe-more so his vote automatically weighs more than anyone else in this--

................

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

Okay. It's okay. We can work this out mathematically.

Isa, as previously noted, is worth a million points because he's a precious slab of adorableness who flirts with me in the cutest ways imaginable and I'm super feeling it.

Mira, meanwhile, is worth half a million points because she's also awesome and cool and she's our wonderful team leader and I adore her.

Bonnie is worth infinity points because they are a child whose hopes and dreams we are responsible for and I don't want to let them down.

However, Odile is worth zero points because she's mean to me and sometimes makes me want to cry. I still haven't forgotten that crack, Odile. Even though you have because it was in another time loop.

If we add them together, then Team Beauty is worth a million and a half points, but Team Age is worth infinity points.

However my sign is Scissors, and the shape of Scissors forms a multiplication symbol, not a plus symbol. Which means that Team Beauty is actually worth 500,000,000,000 points while Team Age is worth 0 points.

Thus, the objective and entirely unbiased answer is that Team Beauty wins.

I'm sorry, Bonnie! But math never lies. We must go south. It is our destiny to go south.

I know you will. It is my destiny to have a future filled with spuds. I accept my fate, but I do not apologize.

[utilitycaster]

So to answer why I went with Treviso instead of Minrathous: I went in knowing the following.

You must choose to save either Minrathous or Treviso

This will cause either Neve or Lucanis, depending on your choice, to become upset with you and leave the group for a while, and when they return they will be harder to please and will not use their healing abilities anymore.

Romancing Lucanis is permanently blocked if you save Minrathous, but romancing Neve is NOT blocked if you save Treviso, though it’s harder

If you are a Crow or Shadow Dragon and save the other city the faction and the character will be particularly angry.

Lucanis and Neve will, if you don’t romance either of them, enter a relationship with each other, which intrigued me.

I also had read Tevinter Nights (has Neve and Lucanis stories in it) and listened to Vows and Vengeance so I had like, an outline of them as people, and I was aware of Spite as a concept.

Anyway. You see both Minrathous and Treviso before the attack, and at the time I did prefer Treviso (Minrathous city of fucking ladders) though I liked both. Because I knew Lucanis was far more broken up about the loss of Treviso than Neve would be of Dock Town, I had already decided on Treviso. I also do find Lucanis's argument more compelling, ie, Treviso will fall without help whereas Dock Town has people to fight.

I also, despite some things I've said in the past, don't dislike angst provided it comes with real tragedy as well, and so on some level it was very much a situation of "oh, I'm finding Neve EVEN MORE COMPELLING than originally stated, which was very? let me put her through the wringer." Like, again, hardened Neve is much less brittle - she doesn't break like Lucanis apparently does, she just grows colder, and she feels, for a long while, more justified in her cynicism. (I also think that women in fiction are increasingly allowed to explore anger or insecurity or self-loathing- and Harding and Bellara's stories are both very much about those - but rarely are women allowed to be both heroic and bitter. Again, I joke about all those plucky gingers with swords from my childhood and how formative they were, and they were! But a lot of the uglier emotions like bitterness and cynicism are still frequently not granted to heroic female characters, and letting Neve immerse herself fully in that for a while feels very refreshing.

As for specifically why it makes a better story, just to move this from the post where I initially mentioned it, I think it's a much more satisfying story for Neve to initially have her worst fears/beliefs proven (you can only rely on yourself, people will let you down, your work will never matter) and then slowly and patiently disproven. I think her notable softening after you work for her trust again hits better if you had lost it. Whereas for Lucanis it never really comes back (also, I cannot stress enough how good Inner Demons is; I believe the corresponding Neve quest you lose with the choice is The Soul of A City and I can't speak to it but Inner Demons is truly incredible).

I'll also note, as I spent more time in Dock Town post-dragon I fell in love with it. The influences are heavily Black Sea region, which has been a longtime personal interest (architecture and vibe is somewhat Istanbul; Neve mentions a Georgian dish, khachapuri) and it also kind of reminds me through the detective story elements and the broad region of The City and the City by China Mieville, a novel I love dearly which takes place in a fictional pair of overlapping cities that are vaguely Black Sea/Balkans coded. But also it's taken a heavy hit but it's nowhere near as bad, from what I understand, as blighted Treviso - Minrathous takes a heavy hit but the result is Venatori crackdown on the Shadow Dragons and increased hold on the city whereas Treviso just kind of collapses. It's much more interesting to have a devastating setback but not hopelessness, and the vibe of post-dragon Dock Town is fascinating (and, to be honest, kind of a big mood). Also the Viper trying to take down as many Venatori as he can before the Blight gets him is fucking metal and a great Mercer role in a game with three great Mercer roles.

So yeah, hard to compare since I've only seen one option and I'm mid-game, but so far the narrative of saving Treviso in terms of the stories of the cities, factions, and characters involved feels much more satisfying.

[oodlyenough]

aa6-5 turnabout revolution

finished 6-5 over the last couple weeks, which means we've only got the DLC left for soj and the main series of games.

i gotta say ... i liked this finale a lot more than i expected to. i thought it was fun, and in turn that elevated SOJ overall. by far not the best ace attorney game i've played, but definitely not the worst. from the way fandom talks about this game and especially the finale i expected something awful, but i thought it had some fun ideas with mid execution, which is how i would describe ... basically every AA game after the og trilogy lol

anyway. more specifically (spoilers)

the first half of the case -- apollo vs phoenix -- is way up there on the "great idea, mid execution". i was immediately willing to assume phoenix had undisclosed reasons for doing his thing so i was immediately willing to let it slide, lol. "maya is kidnapped again!!!" is not the most compelling angle they could've done, but, whatever. also NPC nick seemed to have a brain in his head unlike player-nick, so that was nice

i also got a huge kick out of phoenix playing (essentially) the role of the prosecution and doing every dirty trick the prosecutors have done to him for 6 games: hiding evidence, leading the witness, manipulating the judge, etc. this prosecuting shit is easy!!! i imagine him making pointed eye contact with edgeworth in the gallery every time. also the idea of edgeworth and phoenix creeping around off screen for the first portion of investigation day 1 was awesome lmfao.

the fey lore was ???????????????? but i guess we can assume paul was lying about most of it lmfao so ... i guess. i WAS very annoyed by the kurain storyline mostly being about dudes and i did spend the whole case certain we were building to a reveal that the crystal of ami fey=the founder's orb bc ami=the founder. but uh. no i guess not. whatever

dhurke is a character i knew to be relatively popular in fandom but i can see why, he really cracked me up. actually his whole return out of the blue and apollo's extremely prickly reception are one of the relatively rare moments of interesting and competent character writing in these later games imo. i thought their relationship was handled pretty well and quite interesting. i mean, i suppose i find it a bit unreasonable that apollo got over 14 years of abandonment in like two days but lots of things in AA happen in hyperspeed

over in khurain i still found that case pretty good and even the trial days kept me pretty engaged, something SOJ had struggled to do to that point.

nahyuta is a bit of a weird one in that i find him overall underwritten and a little dull but i absolutely cannot fathom why fandom hates him so so so much while loving others lol, esp blackquill whose motivation is the same but more inexplicable. is he my favourite prosecutor? not by a long shot, but his circumstances were insane and his motivations were clear by the end and i ultimately just felt kind of bad for him. i liked him much more than blackquill or godot lmao sorry fandom.

but i still cheered when he was not the prosecutor for the last case LMAO bc i LOVED garan and her crazy anime transformation lmao, finally khurain delivers the True Fey ancestor experience: insane sisters who hate each other. chefs kiss. rayfa + garan + the dhurke/amara drama was very interesting imo. i knew that chick couldn't channell!! maya for queen tbqh

rayfa's a good character and i enjoyed her a lot. i was frustrated in the end that they tried to make it seem like her big development/inspiration/etc was apollo ... like ... it should definitely be phoenix, who spent more time with her and investigated with her and started trying to show her other ways of thinking etc. plus she just lost her parents and is clearly searching for guidance and it makes way more sense for her to find that in phoenix than apollo who showed up 2 days ago. i guess they're trying to 1. use the player character 2. push the dhurke connection, but it was stupid when shes obviously more attached to phoenix and/or nahyuta lol

jove "jangly" justice is the funniest name i've read maybe ever and i assume apollo's middle name is jangly. it's so funny how they build to doing his divination seance only to spend almost no time on him fhgkghhklg

anyway in conclusion i liked 6-5 a lot more than i expected. i thought it was pretty fun. i don't really get why fandom is so negative to this game, like even way moreso than DD, when this game is better by any possible margin from gameplay to animation to story coherency imo.

stray other thoughts:

-apollo's backstories are such a meme but i thought his backstory in this game made sense enough with aa4 (where he had no motive/little backstory at all and wasn't much of a player in his own story), and the characters implicated were real characters we got to spend time with and interact with. unlike clay.png

-edgeworth is there for No Reason At All (fanservice) and i find that deeply hilarious. he's nick's +1 and he had to sleep on the floor with a bunch of strangers and crawl through the sewer. hysterical.

-for maya fey's big return game i sure thought maya was going to get to do stuff besides what she always does in a finale, be absent for plot reasons. sigh. oh well at least i got a laugh imagining her and edgeworth spending the rest of the trial arguing about the plumed punisher while nick and apollo are held at gunpoint

-athena cykes sweetie i'm so sorry your role in this game was a fucking embarrassment. so insulting that they turned it all into impressing simon and shit, fuck off man!!! my earlier criticism of this game being sexist even by AA standards remains. even phoenix is like well i can't have you risking your life you're too young (reasonable) and then "simon would kill me" which she acquiesces to???? hfjhgkjg

-nahyuta bamboozling apollo's perceive power by being like "thats the secret... i'm always anxious" was so goddamn funny

[waitineedaname]

tell me about scar fma

You Have Unlocked An Unskippable Cutscene!

he's just. god where do I even begin with this guy. I cannot believe he's a character that exists and is as well written as he is. fma handed me serial killer with religious motivations and had me go "he's got a point though." from the very beginning, I was like "wow, this character is really interesting and complicated and compelling. god I hope he's handled well." and then he WAS. I spent the whole show terrified that they were gonna kill him off at any second because that's what shows do sometimes when they have a morally complex character they don't want to deal with, and not only did that dude SURVIVE, but he also KILLED THE PRESIDENT IN THE PROCESS. legendary.

I just. am so much more compelled by him than any member of the military. sorry. every time I think about scar and ishval, my heart starts aching. he lost so much, his whole family and his home and his culture and so many of his people, and he has to walk around with a physical reminder of that loss attached at his shoulder. to me, he's such a perfect example of the relationship between grief & anger and love & hate. he loved his people so much (I am forever haunted by the manga panel where he says he has nothing left to protect) and he had them violently stolen from him, and that grief and love twisted up in him and turned into a hateful rage against the people who did it to him

and part of that complexity that I love is that he is entirely justified in what he's doing, but he also hates what he's doing and what he's become. he doesn't like killing people, he's not like kimblee. he's just enacting what he sees as justice, even though he knows it makes him a killer too. it's why he doesn't begrudge winry's hatred of him -- if he is allowed his vengeance, then so is she. he also knows he's a hypocrite because he had been so against his brother's alchemy because he knew people would want to use it as a weapon -- and here he is, using his brother's alchemy as a weapon. it's why the reveal at the end about him getting the other set of the tattoos is so satisfying -- he finally accepts both parts of alchemy's potential, the destruction and the creation. so far, he's been destroying out of hatred and vengeance against the nation and people that slaughtered his own nation and people, and now he accepts the other half of the equation, which involves creating a better future for his people. it's not one or the other. that's what the fight against bradley involves, both destruction and creation. he destroys the man who ordered the slaughter of his people, and he creates the opportunity for the country to have a future at all

also I just love him and his kindness. he's not overt about it because he's stern and scowling all the time, but I think there is an incredible well of kindness inside him, and it's best seen with mei. he didn't have to let her tag along, but he did. he didn't have to help her search for xiao mei, but he did. he didn't have to give her envy and urge her to go home to her people, but he did.

this has gotten long. anyway, stan scar forever and ever

[amarimeta]

Maybe a weird question but I can't stop thinking about it after Certified, what do you think Nora and Laurie's relationship was like in the three years between s2 and s3? I lean towards thinking they were mostly awkward and at the periphery of each other's lives, but there's also an immediate intimacy between them in Certified that's incredibly compelling (it makes me incredibly happy that they were in contact all those years)

okay i want to apologize for two things.

this is sooo incredibly late i’m sorry. i was resisting the urge to rewatch every single scene of both of them (which would have led to a full rewatch)

this is barely even talking about your actual question. this is just an excuse for me to yap about laurie and nora.

HERE’S THE THING. i think nora and laurie’s relationship can be categorized into three distinct phases / eras. I ALSO WANT TO SAY. THAT IF AT ANY POINT IT SOUNDS LIKE IM HATING ON EITHER LAURIE OR NORA. I’M NOT.

phase 1 (preshow - s1)

i don’t know about the rest of you but i imagine that laurie and nora hated each other before they knew each other. it wasn’t anything personal. who gives a fuck about kevin? to me its because of the differences in how publicized their losses and grieving processes were, if that makes any sense. nora’s loss is widely known, she’s nora cursed™ and she lost her entire family. but nora’s reaction to this loss, at least publicly, is largely tame. people in mapleton, generally speaking, think she’s normal. jill only becomes disillusioned because she watched nora deliberately knock over a mug and also saw the gun in her purse, but everyone else thinks nora is fine. they think she’s sad sure, but she doesn’t act out. the one moment i can think of where she acts out in mapleton is when she sprays the GR with her hose to get them to leave, which while rude… other people throw rocks at the GR. so i don’t think anyone is judging that too harshly. on the other hand. laurie’s loss is a secret she carries alone. as far as everyone else is concerned, laurie didn’t lose anyone in the departure. and yet laurie is the one who publicly abandons her family and joins a cult. i think nora had to despise laurie for this. in nora’s eyes, being a wife and mother were precious things stolen from her, and laurie chose to deliberately toss them aside, seemingly for no reason. from laurie’s perspective, nora is much more successful when it comes to dealing with her losses. idk if this is something others would agree with, but i personally think that laurie believes that had she experienced nora’s loss, she would have killed herself. NOT HATING.

ANYWAYS so that’s them before you even bring the kevin of it all into the equation. which brings us into phase 2 (s2 finale - time skip / pre australia s3) (you know. that part this question was actually asking about)

i think this is a difficult situation because its the first time both of them see the other as an actual person, and not a character they’ve made up in their heads. to nora, laurie is no longer “my boyfriend’s ex wife who abandoned her family”, she’s my boyfriend’s ex wife who lives next door to us and is married to our neighbor (who tried to kill my boyfriend that one time. but that’s neither here nor there). to laurie, while i think she still doesn’t know the extent of nora’s grief, i imagine she was able to see through the cracks a bit more. clearly this is not a woman perfectly content in her life having lost her entire family.

i think very little of it has to do with kevin himself. i’m more interested in the jill of it all. for all intents and purposes, nora is jill’s favorite. now there’s multiple reasons to this. number one, nora is not jill’s parent. nora’s relationship with jill from season 2 on is easy because nora treats jill like an adult and generally speaking does very little to "parent" her. number two, nora has not traumatized jill to the extent that both laurie and kevin have. again NOT HATING. we simply must acknowledge that jill’s parents bring a ton of baggage. so yea maybe she thinks hanging out and speaking to nora is the easiest option. i don’t think nora ever considered herself jill’s mom nor do i think she intended to replace laurie, and i don’t think jill thought either of those things. HOWEVER. from laurie’s perspective, i think it’s reasonable to assume she felt insecure about jill and nora’s relationship and dynamic. i think about that scene in 3.01 where jill says she doesn’t want to stay the night because if she stays with nora and kevin it will just hurt laurie’s feelings, but if she stays with laurie and john laurie will keep her up all night apologizing. jill and laurie’s relationship will never have the easiness that nora and jill have, and i don’t think thats unfair. the tommy of it all is less of a factor. tommy obviously never bonded with nora to the extent jill did, his relationship with laurie is (with a valid few exceptions) significantly less strained than jill’s. (there’s also the fact that tommy has to (evidently) keep speaking to nora about leaving christine and lily alone). if we DO want to talk about the kevin of it all i think 3.04 is an important piece of the conversation. kevin reaching out to laurie, laurie telling kevin to speak to nora about what he is experiencing, nora getting upset with kevin for it. “you won’t tell me but you’ll tell laurie?” (for the record. again NOT HATING. but kevin kinda ate her ass up like no sweetie he can’t tell you everything. you DID leave him handcuffed to the bed. yes you left a note with the key location but you did still LEAVE. we love you <33).

SO. do i think their relationship in the time skip was strained? yes. i agree that they very much existed in the peripheries of each other’s lives. to the extent that two women who share a family and a lawn can exist in each other’s periphery. i don’t imagine they were ever snide or rude to each other, but i think they both had egregious amounts of baggage associated with the other that they were still unable to let go.

SO WHAT THE HELL GOES ON IN CERTIFIED AND BEYOND??? phase 3 (australia 😁)

there’s multiple parts to this. obviously. lets go that scene in the car in 3.06. laurie choosing to help nora has less to do with nora and more to do with avoiding kevin and all the shit happening there (in my opinion). nora needs to stalk these two lesbian doctors who want to blast her with radiation into space? that falls under laurie’s skillset! AND laurie just found out matthew is dying of cancer again so we might as well throw nora a bone y'know? but anyways. obviously the more involved they get and the more dedicated nora is to crossing over, the more laurie realizes that nora’s facade was just that. nora is not the perfect widow grieving in a healthy and unobtrusive way. she is feeling the same pain laurie feels, and they’ve both been feeling it for the last seven years. nora feels untethered to the point that she would rather get blasted into space for the chance to see her family again than stay here. and then they’re in the car. and now we’re talking about a suicide machine. and then we get the following beautiful exchange:

nora: if i wanted to kill myself i’d go scuba diving :) it’s the perfect method :) especially when you’re scuba diving certified :) laurie: i’m scuba diving certified… nora: i know <33

(side note. do we think nora has every single person’s individualized perfect suicide method categorized in her brain. i love this idea. she is so kind <3)

and you know what i’m gonna sound crazy but i think in this moment laurie and nora make a suicide pact of sorts. they both realize that the other is carrying this pain. and they’re tired. so nora is going to enter the radiation blast suicide machine and laurie is going to go scuba diving and the world will be more elegant. that scene by the beach is crazy to me. when nora asks what laurie plans to tell the others and laurie takes the ciggies to become nora’s therapist and gain client patient confidentiality. that’s part of the suicide pact. when nora jokes “same time next week?” that’s the suicide pact.

and then laurie gets that phone call. and she realizes that she is not as untethered as she thought. the pain she feels and has felt is real, but it doesn’t discount everything else she has. (i also think her telling kevin about it was an important step. she’s been grieving silently for the last seven years, unable to properly heal). and then one day she gets a call from nora. who is back. the suicide pact was effectively voided, but i don’t think either of them mind. nora feels safe talking to laurie once she’s returned, because she knows laurie wont betray her trust. i think there’s a sense of safety they find in each other because of how much they recognize the other.

TLDR: i completely agree with you. there was definitely a lot of awkwardness in the time skip period. weird barbecues you have to spend with someone you don’t really like or know, but they’ve somehow become part of your family. and then in terms of certified and the book of nora, i think the intimacy seen between them is a culmination of their respective arcs and existences as foils to one another.

[sssammich]

🪤

box of super pairings for the ask game? :D

oh crap

wrong box

📦

there it is!

lmaooooo alright alright let me think

as usual, read more because i went overboard

the blanket statement that i will say is that kara is not sg's Little Black Dress for me. that, if you couldn't tell, falls on lena luthor. her character just feels more adaptable without having to, like, manufacture Legitimate Reasons to put people in the same room. also, in a highly biased lens, she's my favorite character so she's the barbie i'd wanna have everyone play with.

back to kara: her pool is small because i think it's specifically because of the fact that kara is actually a rather Particular Character so her pool of candidates for romantic partners is small. can you make it work with any of the others, no matter how far or close they are to her canonically? yeah of course, duh. but for me, it's all about how much more work it takes for me to get there. and the reality is that it takes a lot of work for me to get there, i guess

superguardian (or kara/winn) - NO

i mean i think they fumbled that bag so i don't feel inclined to pick it back. the potential is there, but i think the larger disservice to james' character as a whole means that i now have to work twice as hard to get to where i would want for it. which is to say i don't want much of it in the first place. 2 be frank, het ships have potential and it's not like i automatically hate them but it just doesn't bring me joy im so sorry

i do think the existing friendship though works well enough for me the same way that kara/winn also works well enough for me. for all my feelings about s6, i did like their little s1 crew reunion before the SuperfriendsTM truly became what it was, i guess kara and the boys could have truly been a Unit, and for a time, it was

kara and william - NO

here's my thing

the way that lena doesn't know how friendships work and has slept with her three friends, kara doesn't know how friendships work with male coworkers and should not be dipping in company ink. like why is that your immediate dating pool? i know it's because your life is working 2 jobs, but maybe consider not having your one and only dating pool at work (unless of course you've shared a compelling starcrossed lovers family history, in which case, by all means that shit is delicious)

kara and brainy - NO

let kara be friends with guys who want nothing to do with her romantically and brainy succeeds in this so good job

not just because i want to only ship kara with a woman; if anything, i don't have the same issue about shipping kara with a man as i do with lena lmaooo i think it's because she DOES come across as super straight on the show. my headcanons of course have kara a bit more butch, definitely gayer, but from watching her on the show, she's pretty Heterosexual lol

i'd like to headcanon that brainy is the kind of brother figure that i think kara would have wanted with kal. if kal wasn't so much older than him and didn't reach earth before she did. kara has such intense younger sibling vibes that it would have been interesting to get Order Sister vibes from her

kara and monel - NO

i don't care about mon-el LMAO

but! kara and imra is an interesting enough rarepair im happy 2 play with. here's what i'll say: dolly parton's 'jolene' but the gay reading of it

superrojas - YES, BUT

i think it's possible, if you believe in yourself enough (which i do). but i think the Effort required for it requires jumping through a few hoops. the difference between superguardian is that i'm focusing on the ladies. anyway i think their getting together literally needs lena as a connection point. first of all, they exist as canonical foils to lena; the betrayal, the reconciliation, etc etc. lena's best friends who independently broke her heart. there's solidarity there, there's camaraderie there. while lena is getting her happy ending with sam (lol), i think andrea and kara can find love due to the love they lost. the recognition across the table from each other can be fertile ground on what not to do, how not to hurt or be hurt. and i think it's a relationship that exists outside of what's traditional or typical, which i think the both of them are kind of afraid of. because i think the both of them care for that and their potential relationship would exist outside of that and people might not understand it, but they would understand each other. admittedly, one of the hiccups is the differences in their station in life. as i mentioned in the lena-version of this ask meme, lena and andrea are literally just in the freakin .05% of society and so their class status in life is so different from kara. andrea hosts galas and swanky parties and kara rents dresses. the discrepancy of 'from opposite side of the tracks' would be more apparent, which is funny because kara is decidedly middle class LMAO in any case, i also think it can still happen though, in very particular circumstances, especially if we're to focus on a version without lena. and that is actually if i put on a more serious lens to their work dynamics. i think some power imbalance exists there that feels more reasonable to overcome than kara and cat, at least for me. this is where enemies to lovers could really be something here

kara with sam, kelly, or nia - mmm idk i think it literally has to take A Very Specific Instance

for sam: i just don't believe sam would put up with kara's bullshit at all. she has a child already ya feel me? i do think there are opportunities to make this work before the reveal and rift happens. post-rift, though?god sam just doesn't seem the type to forgive on lena's behalf. so it would feel like such an insurmountable barrier to overcome. if i'm not stuck on canonical events, i do think it can happen just by virtue of their personalities. they hit similar emotional beats and function in the Supportive and Loyal departments

for nia: i'll say never say never, but i think they are better off as friends. i think platonic commitment to being friends and to be calling her out on her bullshit is the name of the game. the mentorship between kara and nia could be extended in a way that really puts her to think about her Role and Leadership seriously, both at work (catco) and at work (superheroing). the mentorship is there, but i need kara to step up a bit more, to go beyond her punch first, think later. what is the cost of being a reporter? of being a superhero? as both at the same time? nia is literally following in her footsteps, so how can she make it better for the person after her?

for kelly: i guess for me, i'd want to know who is kelly outside of kara? i think she'll also call kara out with her bullshit, but i would want the military and vigilante tension and the larger understanding of sacrifice and justice to exist as tension points. let them war about it. but otherwise, i think kara just needs more female role models.

supercorp - YES

obviously, i have established that i do

but for a more thoughtful answer, i think for me the biggest thing here is that i just honestly love how their lives are intertwined already, simply by being collateral to the feud of their male relatives. before they knew each other, the lines have been drawn between them. come to find out that they're trying to cancel out the friction between lex and clark and be better than them? let me gobble that shit up. but also, the chemistry between them is great, even with the betrayal. to be the friend who broke lena luthor to such a degree as to seek revenge on behalf of the world? like, who else is doing it like them? they also just have chemistry and history with each other, the foundation for a relationship that, if nothing else, carve themselves in each other's souls, you know? the truth is this: it's like when one partner cheated on the other partner and they have to crawl back out of the hell they fell into to see if there's still a future with them. kara can be stubborn enough to try and go for it (as i choose to believe despite the wrong lesson she learned of washing her hands of her impact on lena) and lena, like i've established before, needs the kind of painful grit to know she's alive. that's so emo and melodramatic, but there needs to be a challenge or struggle of some sort for lena to exist. smooth sailing through and through would hurt her more than help her.

the point is that there are parallels to their lives that i think are interesting to jump off from, but i also think the dynamic of sinner against sinner, perpetrator and victim, friends to enemies to friends to lovers is so good for them

there are others probably but my brain is mushy now so just send it if you remember it

[altschmerzes]

oh i'm FASCINATED to hear what your thoughts on lost are so far

FAIR WARNING this is probably not going to be very nice to the show so if you're a big lost enjoyer and don't wanna see that this would be the time to keep scrolling. sorry for the delay also. guy who has been typing his thoughts and then getting distracted on a loop for several days.

basically: i don't know why, but i have been deeply compelled to watch the show lost recently. like, i genuinely don't have an explanation. i know i'd seen like, half of season one about a million years ago and have no memory of any of it so this is functionally my first go through it.

in short: i think it has its strengths and its weaknesses. to me, more weaknesses than strengths. i know opinion degraded as time went on but even just where i am now, i do not know why this thing has the like 'one of the best shows of all time' reputation that it has. i really, truly don't. like, it's fine, sometimes it's even good, but like. why do people talk about this like it is the pinnacle of television. it is however like, almost hypnotically watchable, and i keep going through like, handfuls of episodes at once.

more under the cut.

in long: so i'm on the early early episodes of season 2 and i already know that most of this show is mystery boxes inside mystery boxes half of which never really have a payoff that's satisfying and so i'm pre-emptively frustrated by that. it's like.... i would love to be excited by the mysteries that come up, but instead of getting to excitedly wonder 'oh wow i wonder what the explanation for that will be!' i'm instead sitting here thinking 'gee i hope that's one of the ones we get an answer to.' it's not a great feeling, and mostly i'm like. man why do they keep giving jj abrams creative authority over things. he's a good director, why do they keep ruining that by letting him WRITE too.

also there is so much weird racism and misogyny in here lmao. gd.

anyways. moving on to specifics.

i will confess i am a sucker for disaster survival scenarios. it's half the appeal of any apocalyptic thing to me, and this delivers. i'm enjoying the mystery boxes when i can put aside the fact that i might not get to see inside them at all, depending. i think the flashbacks are well structured and sprinkled in with effective timing and degrees of revealed information. i think one of my fave parts is how much of like... the Weird Shit in the flashbacks is just. not clear about whether or not it's related to the island? were the numbers hurley used to win the lottery actually cursed? does disaster and death follow walt around or is his former stepdad just an asshole and it's all a coincidence? what was up with the fucking psychic claire talked to? etc. that's one of the ones where i'd be fully comfortable with that question never being answered. it's satisfying as hell just to wonder.

characters! the extent to which i do not give a single fuck about jack, kate, and sawyer is amazing. like. they're all so resoundingly uninteresting to me. i actively think everyone here would be better off if sawyer was dead, because even for me (noted asshole with a heart of gold enjoyer, I KNOW, I KNOW) he is A Bit Fucking Much. if he does not ease up soon it's gonna be Bad. i mean it's already bad but. lmao. his best moments so far were telling jack about what jack's dad said to him in the bar and saving michael after the raft is destroyed. kate is just... everything about her is so overwrought and i'm just bored and a little embarrassed every time we have something focusing on her. i do like that she's abjectly doing shady shit sometimes, they should lean into that more. gaslight gatekeep girlboss etc. jack is so nothing it's amazing. he is baymax to me. he is not even baymax, baymax had more of a personality. why is he the protagonist of this show, he is such a generic white dude audience insert character.

i really love sun, hurley, charlie, claire, michael, walt, and - when he is not YELLING AT HIS WIFE - jin is okay too. i also really enjoy sayid and i have to say that like. i think they have massively fucked it up with his writing in several points, it's like. stereotypical and almost comically racist at times but i also have to like... idk, i do have a significant degree of legitimate respect for the swing they took with him in the first place, to be honest. it's like. idk. this was a show that aired in 2004, written and filmed before that, and i know his character made a lot of people Big Fucking Mad to have in a show about a plane crash as an unambiguously sympathetic and positively depicted character, missteps in his writing and all. it doesn't excuse the mistakes made with him obviously but the context in which he was written makes me like. idk. appreciate the fact that he exists, and kinda tip my hat to like. you guys Tried saying something here. i gotta respect that.

jin and michael's odd-couple friendship is extremely charming to me. hurley is the sweetie of all time and i really love how he just... is willing to interact with people on a straightforward level no matter who they are or what's going on? locke cracks me the fuck up. like all his magic healing disability and general premonition shit aside, it's extremely funny to me to watch grandpa survivalist finally get to LARP his dreams of being a hardcore jungle man. he is fucking insane gd blass.

i will say um. the less said about shannon and boone the better. eugh. literally why would you do that. like... it throws me so much every time someone finds out about That Whole Mess and literally does not react at all. before somebody screams and whines and cries about how IT'S FINE TO EXPLORE TABOO SUBJECTS IN FICTION STOP BEING A PURITAN YOURE BEING A FAN COP WAAAAAAA i'm not saying you can never write this sort of thing just like. literally why is the entire narrative framing of it a tragic starcrossed lover thing. why is nobody reacting like this is as nasty and weird as it is. lmao.

anyways.

here's some clips from my watching it, mostly based in how fucking funny i think jack's whole Situation is.

[lakesbian]

i need toknow what the fuck is happening in rose's brain (or was before blake got eated rather) i may have to undergo the mortifying ordeal of theoryposting publicly and all. which is why people wanted me to liveblog in the first place. anyway. why the fuck did she hug him. what's wrong with her brain. i'm compelled by the idea of like. upper middle class bitchy cutthroat cishet white girl doing a very good job at Continuing The Cycle--not necessarily lying to herself that the way she's behaving is because she's the only good-hearted one here being slighted by everyone else like some of her relatives might be--but believing that the ends justify the means, or perhaps that performing those means to perpetuate those ends is inevitable and/or inescapable on her behalf. she was born into & raised by The Thorburns and not only can't escape but quite possibly has no Desire to escape the perpetuation of the involved cruelties--task set upon her which she will grimly carry out as her grandmother did before her and etc etc.

the interesting wrench here for her is that part of carrying out those tasks means watching someone who is literally [deep inhale] Herself But If She, Due To Different Life Circumstance, Left Home, Experienced Different Traumas, Attained A Deeply Loving Friend Group, And Formed A Personality Based Largely Around Kindness And Fair + Equal Exchange march like a lamb to the sacrificial altar to buy her time. perhaps nudging his course on the way to the altar at times but largely just watching it because he's a really blundering meandering lamb who doesn't like being told what to do very much. (neither, i imagine, does she.) which, like, that's an inherently fascinating dynamic. not just seeing but Knowing the person she could've been if she had only stepped away from the cycles of family cruelty. blake is doomed, bound to die (obligatory: badly) and drag people down with him with very little awareness of the fact and without making anything tangibly better for the next generation. he's bullheaded, and he doesn't read the fucking books, and he's quite frequently impulsive and bad at compromising and prone to horrendous mistakes which harm far more people than just him.

he's also the type of person who can talk at length about how amazing his friends' art is, how much he loves the tattoos he got from one of them. who will lend his own jacket to an acquaintance even when he's in worse shape. who will take on nigh-suicidal tasks not because he Is suicidal (or at least isn't yet, anyway) but just because they needed doing and no one but him was willing.

how do you, as a bitch of a woman trapped in (& willing to function within the trap of) the horrors of your particular family, meet a You who turned out like that, and not hate him at least a little? find him bumbling and annoying and ignorant, resent him for not being the best sacrificial lamb he could be, for being the type of person who ran away from home instead of getting it into a chokehold. but also, how are you not at least a little fascinated by him? the vestige of what could have been will be gone the second the illusion of blake thorburn inevitably shatters and she takes back her rightful place, but for the brief period of time where that illusion is solid, how could she resist the urge to entertain the idea least a little? the idea of a version of her that will put up with a hug purely to make her feel better despite hating touch, the idea of a version of her that naively believes there's a good way out for both of them.

like i think perhaps she hates his ass because his ass is, from her perspective, a dumb and cringefail miserable little sacrificial lamb who is going to be a BITCH to play along with until whenever he kicks the bucket. and she is fully aware that she is lying her ass off because she has 0 desire to intervene in the process of this alternate-her marching himself to the altar for her. but also she mayhaps. occasionally. just a little. gets lost in the sauce of that game of pretend where she's pretending she actually respects him as an equal or has real investment in him not dying badly. is this anything. are we going anywhere with this. like literally what If you met an alternate version of you and that alternate version of you is dumb and stupid and unsustainable and totally fucked but also nicey. you would totally Strongly Dislike their ass but also Genuinely find yourself compelled to wring a moment of real affection or connection out of them before they explode. anyway blake has next to none of these complexes about her and thus no hypothetical weird psychosexual obsession with her. but rose? yeah you can get a hypothetical weird psychosexual obsession with blake out of rose.

[cherries-charms]

It was only my first day working as an angel

How was I to know that I would fuck it up so badly? They really should have gotten me some more training. My first assignment was to be on prayer-granting duty. Apparently I was just supposed to listen to incoming prayers, categorize them and submit them as a request for some other angels to potentially grant, but I decided to 'cut out the middle man' as they say, and began granting as many prayers as I could.

Everything was all fine and dandy for a while. I made sure a young boy's beloved lost dog found it's way back home. I got a young man to finally call his grandma like she so wished. I even gave a whole bunch of highschoolers that snow day they so desperately wanted!

But then I heard a young woman's prayer, and her desperate pleas to a higher power compelled me to listen. She was so burdened by her rivalry with a 'friend' who's curvy body and outgoing attitude she never seemed to measure up to. She was frantically praying for any deity that could help her to give her something to outshine her rival.

Needless to say that the genuinely sad plight of this young woman tugged on my heartstrings, it hardly took any consideration for me to put my heavenly powers to use. It wasn't even a particularly challenging feat of magic, all things considered. Just some stimulating beams to her body, and before she knew it, her body began to change. Her bra grew tighter and tighter over the course of a week, until one day she noticed that there was more of her breasts hanging out of the cup than there was in there. Her hips would widen, and her ass swelled in size, until she had to reinforce all of her chairs just to be able to sit down.

A month, a few adjustments to her furniture, and a whole new wardrobe later, you would hardly think that this lady had ever been anything but a bodacious babe, with tits that could put a melon to shame, and an ass that she had to squeeze trough many doorways. The rivalry that had caused her to resort to desperate prayer was long forgotten, as she now far outmatched the woman that she used to call her biggest rival.

Such a drastic change and the sheer size of her body could never go unnoticed by the people in her life, and she soon found herself the center of attention wherever she went. People would do anything for a chance to be near this goddess of a woman, and to catch a glimpse of the soft and juicy breasts she hauled around.

It turns out that such a thing also caught the attention of the higher ups, and I was promptly demoted from prayer duty for 'defying the laws of noticability' and 'egregious misuse of powers'. Apparently it's frowned upon to grant these kinds of wishes? And I went way too far above the common size for human assets to be?

Anyway, at least this woman I helped blossomed into her new life, and seems far more happier now, so I guess it isn't all bad.