#because it actually engaged me

[allegedly-human-uwu]

Existing on tumblr the past few weeks

[kingofattolia]

Usually finding out you have something in common with a new acquaintance is a positive thing, but sometimes it's extremely dangerous. If I meet someone who's also into writing, that's like an even 50/50 on whether we should be best friends OR whether every time they open their mouth I will be manfully restraining myself from fistfighting them on the sidewalk outside this bougie downtown brunch spot.

[morganbritton132]

Eddie during a Q&A where he specially asked his fans to ask him questions about his marriage: Oh, just saw the question who proposed to who and-

Steve, loudly off-camera: I proposed to him and he said no!

Eddie: …first of all, you couldn’t even get gay married at the time. And second, I said no because I-

Steve: He said no because he wanted to propose to me and then DIDN’T

Eddie: I did!

Steve: A year later.

Eddie: I had to plan! I had to prep! I wasn’t going to halfass our gay fake wedding!

Eddie: And, just for your information, internet! He’s complaining and he’s making me look bad but do you know what he did? Do you know what he did the next day? I put together this beautiful ceremony with all our friends and family and you know what he did the very next day?

Eddie: He went to the courthouse and married a woman!

Steve: …Well that was for tax benefits

[vaguely-concerned]

I really really like that lucanis reaches the 'there must be some way through this' realization 'off camera', so to speak, while presumably looking at rook explaining the situation to spite. it just. hits right. he gets that moment to himself after 'this place is a nightmare, why would I want to stay here' to come back into focus, to gather himself and think it through in peace, outside of the demands of anyone’s gaze (including the player’s!), while rook takes care of spite’s confusion and urgency and distress as he can’t himself in this shattered state. they're inside his soul, but he still gets that moment of privacy, with rook and spite there and supporting but not intruding. idk there's just something so good and right-feeling about it. rook's presence in lucanis' mind at its most vulnerable and frozen could have felt SO invasive if the quest wasn't written as skillfully as it is, and I get skeeved out by that kind of thing incredibly easily so it's a testament to how well it's done that it always feels safe and supportive. lucanis has had both his bodily and psychological (slash spiritual/existential) integrity and autonomy violated so brutally and repeatedly, and having even the way the camera perceives him here grant him the dignity and respect and privacy of soul he hasn’t experienced in a long time… it’s a whole thing huh. No wonder it’s taken me a while to put it into words lol 

(also what a contrast to what solas and rook have got going on, and what a sly way to slide the point of comparison in there to build to the thematic whole. the solas version of this IS of course wildly invasive and skeeves me out but in the intended delighted horror movie way. solas, too, was let into someone’s soul through the cracks in the wake of a traumatic event, and he IMMEDIATELY sought to turn it to his own benefit and use that trauma as a weapon against them fhdsja I’m sorry but it’s just such a character-revealing instinct for him to act on without hesitation and I love how terrible he is, it’s all so unforgivably premeditated and consistent.

rook acting out of the desire to make sure lucanis is ok vs. solas going ‘well. When life gives you oops killed my friend, make dead friend poisoned lemonade and make his loved ones drink it. this sunk cost fallacy isn’t going to perpetuate itself’ is such a neat contrast and it’s not in your face about it but it’s still there, deep and solid down in the thematic narrative. rook doesn’t do anything to or in lucanis’ mind, really — they negotiate their way through the layers of defense and are let through, and they help him make the whole thing more explicable, but they never exert any force or go rooting around for anything that doesn’t present itself to them first. solas goes about gathering ammo for when he's going to nothing personel kid this person from like the first moment fhdskh doesn't waste a second before he's on that gaslight gatekeep girlboss grind. the fact that the game goes out of its way to show there IS a respectful, non-selfish and kind version of this process makes what solas is doing even more deliciously awful (glee) and rook and lucanis’ relationship (platonic, romantic, whatever it might be in any given playthrough) all the more moving to me)

[aroaceleovaldez]

not to complain about the show again but genuinely I think people should be WAY more pissed off that s2 cast an abled actor as a character with Down syndrome - particularly a character whose entire arc and narrative presence is focused on the fact that he has Down syndrome and how Percy has internalized ableism and how Percy unravels that (and also chewing out Annabeth for her ableism).

Like. Tyson has down syndrome. This is a very core part of his character, because like I've said before: the entirety of the first series is centered around and hinges on disabled stories and themes. If you are having an abled actor cast as Tyson you have already failed step one. Cause either you are actively erasing Tyson having Down syndrome or you are having an abled actor try to portray Down syndrome and neither of those things are okay.

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but the irony of Nico calling Max unprofessional is sending me so bad like sir there's an entire garage full of people, who were literally in the trenches trying to survive the Brocedes fallout while just doing their jobs, who might have a few things to say about your (& Lewis') level of professionalism at that time 😭✋️

[hyohaehyuk]

iwtv_updates: Jacob felt pressure adding lines to the Reunion scene, as Sam told him these would become canon for his Lestat. Rolin approached Jacob with the idea first, knowing Sam would dislike it. Jacob agreed, enjoying the opportunity to wind Sam up.

Video: INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE star Jacob Anderson unpacks the gothic horror of Season 2 | TV Insider

[raycatz]

*peaks into the LU tag* oh drama?

*tries to find a source* ah them again.

Make what you want forever! LU is an AU and does not adhere strictly to loz canon. LU fanon does not adhere strictly to LU or to loz canon, and how things are written vary between person both within the LU fandom and LOZ.

I agree that the purity "you can't do this" "oh they're siblings" "oh but they're mirror counterparts" shit needs to stop. Creators in the LU fandom struggle with people trying to police this as well. I'm sorry those purity gatekeeping whatever folks tend to come from the LU fandom. It pisses me off too. It's something creators on both sides are fighting!

LU is one comic and headcanons/background in that comic and in the fandom do not apply across the board to other linksmeets. However, LU is going to be what many people are coming from and I can understand that that's frustrating.

I also agree that there's a lot of game knowledge not used or known in LU fandom stuff. Everyone is coming from different places of access to the games or time to watch let's plays. Doing homework and research should not be a requirement to engage with fandom. It should be something someone wants to do for fun. If you don't like their interpretation, block and move on.

and I'm sure guilt tripping and insulting people is a great method to get them to do what you want /sarcasm

The LU fandom was once a lot better / gave a lot more focus to researching and comparing and contrasting the games. A lot of the initial character building in the earlier fandom days was from dissecting the games and it was SO MUCH FUN. I think that part of the fandom has kind of died down and it's unfortunate. More prevalence is given to the existing fanon instead of understanding where or why that fanon came about, or looking to the games. (whenever I see people asking for if there's a fandom consensus on something I have to resist the urge to tell them that There Is None. There are more frequent uses, but no One Right Way to do something, and that's how it should be. Write what you think is most interesting without worrying about what others may expect. The beauty in the LU fandom for a while was how varied the fandom made the designs, or hcs. It was almost as though each portrayal was it's own slightly different LinksMeet and we were just sharing the cast and building them up together, and that has pretty much come to a slow and steady halt.) (There are youtube videos about the LU characters even which fail to differentiate between LU comic canon, LOZ canon, Jojo's Q&As, and fanon, and it's frustrating!) However, it is what it is? Imo we, (I?-) Should be doing what we can to disambiguate the information instead of picking fights.

I should not be giving time to loz-LU drama rn. However, if people want resources on game info or character analysis hit me up!

There's a good number of LU posts that explore the characters from a game perspective (granted that they're from the LU fandom 2020~2022). If you want to know where a fandom hc came from there are explanations. There are a number of websites for accurate loz game info, and I have playthroughs I could recommend.

[ajastu]

god okay. sorry for yet another text post. but i'm just still thinking about the argument that veilguard is bad because the only option re: morality of your player character that it gives is kindness.

Now, to preface. I understand where this criticism comes from. Veilguard IS a departure from the general scheme of the previous games, in several aspects. And i understand how people would be upset at not having quite the same kind of options/ways to influence the world. It took me some getting used to, also.

What i do disagree with, however, is using that to claim that the game is bad, irredeemable, and also meaningless n soft or whatever.

Because it's really not. It's just different, with a different narrative focus. I've played the previous games several times, and as i said before, origins is in first place for me. Veilguard is a very close second. And i'm not more right or wrong in this opinion than someone who thinks datv is the worst game in the series.

You can still make choices that will influence the world in wildly different ways, they're just not... ''genocide or no genocide'' kinds of choices. Which i can see how some people would not consider the difference significant enough to be interesting for them personally. Which is whatever, im not their dad, i dont really care.

However. I think it's kind of weird to say that ''the game made me resent being a nice person'' or that "kindness you dont have the choice not to offer isnt worth a lot"

Like, game criticism aside. That is just an objectively weird thing to say.

There are ways to phrase that particular dissatisfaction in a way that will not make most people side-eye you. This is not one of those ways.

The thing is, it was a deliberate choice in characterization. Since game development at AAA scale is. an incredibly complex beast, i suspect there were many different reasons for it, and not all of them purely narrative. It is also not 2009 anymore. We are not getting another Origins, like, probably ever.

But. Rook is established in the very second cutscene to care about other people. It makes sense narratively, too, with Varric being the one to recruit them. Their backstory also shows that they gravitate towards the 'moral' choices. It's not bad writing. It's deliberate.

That does not mean that everyone has to like it. And i don't think the people who are upset about the change in this gameplay aspect are stupid or wrong.

We are all different people with different preferences, and i really am sorry if the game ended up being a disappointment for you. I know how it feels, and it does suck.

But i also do think it might be worth to examine the way people choose to phrase this complaining. The claim that kindness is somehow diminished in value if you aren't offered the choice to be cruel alongside it. I just think that, like. misses the point of what kindness is?

I know what those people mean when they say it, i just...fundamentally disagree with the sentiment. And i think phrasing it in this way is incredibly weird. sorry 🤷‍♂️

There is a better way to talk about this particular complaint. I just never actually SEE that being done. and i do think a lot of it comes from not actually engaging with the source material people are trying to criticize. Like, the person i sort of quoted earlier explicitly said they have not finished the game. If you never give something a chance in the first place, if all the information you have is second-hand, then i do not find your criticism valuable in any way. There is no substance to it, no backing. You are not proving a point, you're just chasing your own tail at that point. There isnt even a bone to chew. You've only heard of the bone. you havent actually experienced it.

Another part is people being too twisted up in the emotion of disappointment to actually see that they're not making compelling arguments, necessarily, and that they're actually being a tar pit.

I know not everyone thinks as much about the push towards dismissing the value of kindness for kindness' sake as i do. But like. It really is very weird to see this insistence that game bad bcs it didnt have the option to do a murder to an innocent person, or something. While also dismissing the horrible things we Are shown as 'not in your face enough'.

And honestly, personally? I dont love origins or any of the other ones specifically for the ability to choose the evil options. It's never even been a choice for me, because you can very well play the games without having to make the bad choices. theres always a workaround. And that workaround doesnt even harm u in any significant way. there isnt an actual like. terrible complexity here. I enjoy the dwarf politics quest a lot but ultimately, knowing the outcome? its EASY to choose Bhelen. Unless you're playing a dwarf noble origin, i guess. Rip Harrowmont 🙏 you would have made a terrible king.

And again, my personal opinion is not more right or wrong than that of someone who adored the prev dragon age games exactly because they allow you to make some terrible terrible moral choices.

At the end of the day. why are people still so pissed about a game that came out almost 6 months ago that many of them havent even played in the first place? Relax. take a walk if you can. Maybe move a snail out of the road if you find one. There tends to be a lot of them after it rains. Think about the ones that didn't make it. Try to find compassion for lives so easily dismissed. Maybe that will make you think about whether or not kindness on its own really is so lacking in value.

[bartyliciousss]

Evan "loves teeth and anything bodily/macabre" Rosier getting proposed to with a silver ring, custom made from his boyfriend's, Barty "so obsessed he wants to become one with and let his bf take pieces of him" Crouch Jr's, own wisdom tooth; so that Evan would always have a piece of Barty with him, and Barty would know Evan belongs to him body and soul

[uncanny-tranny]

Some more advice for fellow adults: set your ego aside and let younger people (even kids!) educate and teach you. There is no shame in looking to a younger person for education and knowledge. It is, actually, a big facet of humanity that we teach each other - why, then, does that teacher need to be the Right Age in order for you to be willing to learn from them?

[son-of-avraham]

Some people at my shul are studying lashon hara so it's very funny to hear them talk and stop themselves by saying, "that's lashon hara 😦" and they'll literally just stop talking 😭😭😭

[invinciblerodent]

i don't know about you but i've been up since 2 am so this is hilarious to me

[qoldenskies]

im so wound up that im actually tempted to start infodumping about my ocs on my TURTLE BLOG unprompted

[thatswhatsushesaid]

well here's a new take on the wwx-wlj-wc sexual violence sequence at the wen supervisory office that i haven't encountered before: apparently some people over on the mdzs subreddit genuinely think it wasn't even wlj who [redacted because yikes] to wc. because we clearly can't use context clues, or our brains, to make the connection between "his woman" and the only named woman character who spends any amount of time with him in the text. aka wlj.

also apparently even if he did do the thing to wlj and made her [do the other thing] to wc, she had it coming, so we shouldn't care about anything that wwx does to her, or forces her to do.

anyway this fandom is the tar pit.

[panthermouthh]

if you struggle to sit and read classic novels because the words are quite archaic and the text is dense, I HIGHLY recommend listening to an audiobook, either along with the text or by itself. It's so much easier to enjoy if there is an engaging narrator to convey meaning and rhythm

This is my preferred way to read books in general now, as someone who struggles to sit still if my hands aren't engaged in some craft or another. Audiobooks aren't "cheating" and I'll die on this hill