#because you have to have a good handle on WHY characters do the things they do in canon

[smollsmule]

Ok my queue spit this out after I saved it for later, so let me add some nuance here. Because this is a very importand issue, actually.

Of course nobody is prohibited from readin the books they enjoy. Hell, I like me some easily digestible fluff too! Some of my favourite book series are ya (and genuinely great books despite being “easy to read”).

There is something to be said however about limiting yourself to only engaging with that level of difficulty in reading. And before you come at me, I know that many people don't read at all and to many others reading is simply a hobby to unwind after a long day, where they just wanna turn their brain off and have some fun. Which is a totally fair reason to read. BUT. Reading (or more broadly, literacy) will never be just that. You live in an age of (mis)information and you WILL be confronted with texts (speeches, video clips, what have you) that are hard to dissect. Especially the ones that don't seem like it at first glance.

Media literacy is not only about how quickly you can summarise a paragraph or being able to pull quotes to show how maybe a character could be read as queer (although both of those things are a very good indicator of having advanced literacy). It's the VITAL skill of filtering and assesing information presented to you before so you can make an informed choice to internalise or discard it. It's being able to understand the information in the first place by grasping a complex thought presented to you in writing or in a speech because the simple truth is that not all truths are simple.

Media literacy gives you the ability of identifying that someone is trying to make you believe something and parsing why they're doing it by identifying the tools they are using. Which means you also need to know the tools they have at their disposal. It also means being able to connect points brought up before in the same or different texts to see if there is inconstencies or leaps in logic or if the argument someone is making only looks good because they use big words and a sentence structure that “feels” smart, but actually falls apart as soon as you poke at it a little.

Forgive me sounding alarmist, but if you can't read at that level people who have these tools WILL have power over you and you won't even have the tools to notice that they do. Even if people are not actively trying to harm or manipulate you, if you're unable to engage with their ideas you will get left behind in certain vital discussions and that not only feels like shit because everybody gets it but you, but it also again makes you incredibly vulnerable to those who do have bad intentions!

Now does that mean you only get to read Proust from now on? Of course not! I still do believe that a piece of literature can directly and fundamentally change your life. I know it has for me. However, that is a personal opinion and it doesn't mean I can force anyone to engage with deep philosophical manifestos on what it isto be human in this world. And even less that I want to do that, despite me thinking that literally ANYONE could benefit from reading that kind of thing. But you NEED to be able to read complex texts outside of your comfort zone for honest to god survival. I am so fucking serious.

And, hey! The good news is that this is not some secret mystical power you either get blessed with or not. It is a skill you can train, by reading challenging material. Books with more complex sentence structures, more nuanced ideas or arguments. Books that force you to think about them. I hate to say it but the only way to get better at reading is to read. It doesn't have to be fiction but i will be very real with you, I doubt that - if you're putting down a book because it's unreadable to you based on the chosen perspective - you'll be the type to pick up scientific essays or anything like that.

Don't cut yourself off from vital skills by locking your mind in a box. You are capable to handle those more complex texts, and I'd wager you'll even enjoy it once you find your niche (yes! you still get to have preferences!). You just need to give yourself a chance to learn.

[missingininaction]

alright, friends, i might say something you don't like but i think it's important. not just to defend a character, but because i think this is literally making people's experience and relationship with this game worse.

give jimmy like two seconds to exist.

by hating jimmy so much you refuse to even say his name, and judge real, living people for liking him, you are cheapening your experience by boiling down the main character to the most ~yuckiest~ moments. and, by not making a seperate space for hating on him, you are drowning out the voices of people who actually have nuanced things to say about his character. you know, the skilled writers and artists that feed the fandom? limitation is what kills fandoms, you have to know that.

is jimmy a good person? no. is he a good captain/companion/worker? Absolutely Not! he crumbles like dust under any pressure and he immediately shifts blame off of himself, he is an actively harmful individual and it's right to be upset by his actions. i literally had to stop myself from saying "man FUCK jimmy." multiple times because i didn't want to spoil how terrible he got to my friends when i showed the game to them.

but you have to understand; people are more than their actions. thats part of the entire point of the game. thats why its so abstract. you are meant to think about the nuances of their situation.

we can agree that anya was way more as a woman than what happened to her and what she did as a result of it, right? that despite her best efforts, she was a victim of circumstance, and she deserves to be understood and analyzed fully?

then why, seeing a fictional man who has done immoral things, are you so disgusted you won't even draw, write or discuss him outside of hate? what is that doing for you, to ignore literally the main character of the game because of his actions?

now, this is not to say people can't hate jimmy. i understand it! as someone who has been a victim of s/a and abuse, i understand if you hate him and are even triggered by him to the point of avoiding mention of him. (but...why are you in this fandom? ((not aggressive im genuinely asking)))

you can feel however you want about any character, my goal is not to control people. but i thought it was common knowledge to not hatepost about someone in their tag? over actual insight into his character and, you know, the main themes of the game?

jimmy is a man who has struggled his whole life. both him and curly confirm that in the game. he's unable to control his emotional outbursts, and he likely had no idea what to expect from being in fucking SPACE for over a year with people he probably didn't even know before that trip. and pony express and their corporate safety corner cutting certainly didnt help, did it?

for one reason or another, he most likely was never actually taught how to manage his emotions. that's just how it is sometimes, growing up as a man. and it would make sense if he was forced to deal with everything himself, no? he always complains, but he still says he'll handle it. because that's what he's always had to do. and this is just the start of what i could say about what made him the way that he is.

he's a victim too, not only of his own actions.

surprise surprise, people who do awful things can also be victims.

honestly, this entire situation baffles me. how are you going to avoid one of the main characters of the game, let alone the one you play as ninety percent of the time? mind you, curly is also guilty, and i am happy to see at least some people giving him space for nuance. because he is also a victim!!! why is it so impossible to see jimmy as nuanced, when literally every other character also has incredible depth to them??

you're tarnishing and spitting on the beautiful writing of this game just because one character is too icky for you to feel comfortable thinking about for too long. it's horror, you absolute morons. it's supposed to make you uncomfortable.

if you hate jimmy, i dont blame you. but please, please, make your own space for it. be kind to people who want to explore jimmy and the darker themes, and like him for what his character represents. this is a video game fandom, not a witch hunt. and please, learn some fandom etiquette while you're at it, okay? okay. thank you

also just say his name. its not a slur youre not gonna go to hell if you say jimmy. like this isn't as important but still it just feels like a microcosm of this whole thing.

[gunpowder-gemini]

Hi I have many many thoughts on Dandadan and where specific characters are going in the story, so incoming ramble posts lol. I've got thoughts on Okarun, Turbo Granny and Kinta specifically.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA THROUGH CH. 175

First up: Okarun!

So obviously he's lost his turbo granny powers bc he's a good boy who keeps promises, but him having yokai curse powers is like, half the concept of the manga right? (The other half being Momo getting powers due to alien abduction). So clearly, he's gonna get them back because we can't just have one of our two main characters permanently sidelined. The question is just HOW.

I'm pretty sure Turbo Granny is gonna come back, she's a major supporting character and she had a whole little montage panel of Reasons To Stay despite her saying she has none but I'll get into that in a different post lol. HOWEVER! I don't think she's gonna give Okarun her powers again. I mean, they're HERS. And she just spent all that time getting them back why would she give them away again? So Okarun can fight? She can use her powers way better than he can, so if they're needed SHE'LL use them.

I think Okarun is gonna develop his own spiritual powers like Momo's.

In the recent chapters it's gone out of the way to highlight how ridiculously fit Okarun is now. Like, SUPER fit. Most obviously in the fitness tests, where he blew everyone out of the water:

But also in the fight against the pygmies he easily kept up with Aira, who was in her yokai form at the time.

Which I mean, it makes sense that he got fit - he's been fighting for his life as an after-school hobby lol. Obviously continually training to handle Turbo Granny's powers AND fighting things would result in him getting incredibly fit. But they've like REALLY emphasized it these past few chapters. It feels like they're really calling attention to it, you know?

But that in and of itself isn't the real reason I suspect he's got his own spiritual powers. It's actually because he can enter Empty Space.

So per the Serpoians, Empty Space is something aliens create that only pulls in humans with high spiritual power so the aliens can capture and study them. It's why once Aira got her acro silky powers she could enter Empty Space.

Okarun's high spiritual power wasn't his, it was Turbo Granny's. He was able to enter Empty Space because he had her power, but without it he's just a normal kid. So once he gave it back he should be unable to enter Empty Space. And yet:

He's gets pulled into Empty Space to fight the pygmies. He himself calls that out as strange! He shouldn't be able to! He doesn't have Granny's power! But there he is! So he must still have high spiritual power!

I think he spent such a long time with Turbo Granny's full power inside him, utilizing it so frequently, that it changed him. Either it awakened latent spiritual power within him or left behind an imprint of itself, I'm not sure lol. But I think he's developed his own version of Turbo Granny's power. I think it'll be a bit different from her, but still similar (I don't think they're gonna give him a completely different power ya know?). I suspect it'll come with a cool form change to his yokai form, like a costume upgrade lmao.

Furthermore, I think this happened because of the Danmanra arc. During that arc, in the final fight against the Fairy-Tale card, Okarun went all out three times.

He's never been able to do that - it's been kinda implied it would kill him. But through the ~power of love~ he managed to pull it off, and I think it is going to have an effect/consequences. I think this moment here changed him in some way, and it might be the catalyst for him developing his own version of Turbo Granny's powers.

Further to that point is Count Saint-Germain. He cornered Okarun, got him to yield and clearly intended to take his powers, but didn't.

I suspect it's because he wanted Turbo Granny's powers, but Okarun no longer has them. I think he either doesn't know Okarun has his own powers, or he does know and is waiting for Okarun to properly awaken them before he takes them. I'm like 90% sure the Empty Space in the pygmy fight was caused by him. Empty Space is pretty clearly outlined to be an Alien Thing and while the pygmies are spirits/yokai/whatever, Count Saint-Germain is probably an alien given his affiliation with the Kur. AND he was the one who gave Keiko the knife and the mission to steal Momo's power. Since Okarun got pulled into that Empty Space, if pretty boy here didn't know Okarun has some hidden spiritual power, he sure does now.

Either way, Okarun yielding to him here is definitely a Chekov's gun that's gotta fire at some point, and I've got theories on that but I'm gonna save them for my post on Turbo Granny lol.

Anyway TLDR; I think Okarun has his own superpowers like Momo now and we're gonna see them awaken in this arc.

Thanks for reading!

[cosmicjoke]

How the Shattered Teacup Represents Total Loss:

I can't believe there are people that actually say this moment, with Levi crying, was awkward or out of character. Takes like that are just so bereft of any nuanced thinking and, honestly, I find it insulting to Levi as a character and the seriousness of what he's just gone through in this story.

They're talking about a ten year old boy who's just had to kill for the first time, who was nearly beaten to death and threatened with being sold into sexual slavery, and who's only solace in a life of absolute hell is this single, good memory of him and his mother drinking tea together. A memory that's already vague in his mind, already insubstantial.

I think it's absolutely purposeful how Isayama shows only a portion of Kuchel's face in Levi's memory of her, slightly out of focus and cast in quite literally an idyllic light. It's meant to indicate that he doesn't remember her clearly. And Levi says as much, when he says the only thing he remembers clearly is her elegance. All he's left with is an impression of her, then. An outline of who she was. That we don't really see her eyes, but only her smile, leaving her in Levi's mind an unknowable enigma, a woman of beauty, stood out in his mind for how sharply that beauty contrasted with the filth and decay of the rest of his world, but not much else. No doubt the memory of her is fading further under the deluge of suffering and horror that makes up the rest of his life.

These same people who say things like Levi crying here is out of character also seem to think that the reason Levi is crying is literally because the cup broke, that the cup breaking represents nothing deeper or more meaningful, and that's why they think it's weird. I can't think of a more simple-minded way of reading this scene, written by an author known for his nuance and use of subtext.

The cup shattering is a metaphor for Levi experiencing total loss. The loss of his innocence, the loss of his connection to his mother, to the warmth of that memory of her, to any sense of comfort or goodness, all to be replaced with the bleak reality of his existence in the Underground, a world of merciless cruelty and violence and a reminder of his own loneliness. He's crying because it's the last vestiges of his hope shattering and, as I've spoken about before in my original analysis of this scene, I think Levi's tears are also rooted in this sense of fear that he's somehow sullied his mother's memory by killing those men. That's such a tragic thought, because Levi didn't sully her memory at all, even as her memory has indeed been sullied, which I'll talk about in a moment. But it's not Levi who sullied it. He was just doing what he had to to survive. He killed purely in self-defense. It wasn't wrong of him to do so. But that also exposes the insidious nature and the cruelty of what the man in the glasses said to Levi, planting this thought in his head that his mother would be disappointed or disgusted in him for killing.

When you think about the fact that the only good thing Levi has in his life is this memory of his mother, this single memory of her elegance that he regards with so much importance precisely because it's the only good experience he can ever recall having, and then you realize that memory and experience has now been so horribly, irrevocably tainted by what he's just gone through, the trauma of killing for the first time, it really puts into perspective the weight of this loss for Levi.

It makes perfect sense, then, why he bursts into tears. It also makes clear why we see Levi's trauma manifesting as an adult, in his habit of holding his cups by the rim instead of the handle. It isn't a fear of his cups breaking that makes Levi do this, it's because his mother's teacup shattering is representative in his mind of losing her for good and he plainly doesn't want to live through the pain of that again.

The only good thing he had to cling to in a life of suffering, the only thing of purity left in his life, has now been destroyed by the very environment and world that took his mother from him to begin with. Again, it wasn't Levi who sullied his mother's memory, but those men who attacked him, and the nature of the world Levi is living in itself.

This is the moment where we see Levi finally lose everything. He has nothing left after this. Like he said, his power awoke, Kenny disappeared, and the only thing that hadn't disappeared were the memories of his mother. But those memories have, from this moment on, forever been spoiled by the trauma of what those men did to him and forced him to do in turn. Levi won't ever again be able to find the same solace or comfort in the memory of his mother that he once did. The cup shattering, and Levi crying, is meant to represent the completeness of that loss. It's like he's lost his mother all over again, but this time, for good. He no longer even has that memory of her to retreat into as an escape from his horrible life, because it's been dirtied by what he's just gone through. He'll now forever associate the memory of his mother with the trauma of having to kill to survive.

It's so messed up and I don't think people have really given enough thought to just how tragic this moment is. And once again, I think it only serves to reiterate what a miracle it is, that through this total loss of anything good in his life, even something as basic and insubstantial as a faded impression of his mother's beauty, Levi was still able to be a genuinely good person. The kind of strength that would take, mentally and emotionally, is something truly special. Faced with such absolute cruelty and loss, instead of becoming cruel himself and wanting to rob others of their comfort, instead of becoming bitter and consumed by hatred, Levi instead became someone who always leads with compassion and kindness, who is always willing go give up his own comfort to ease the suffering of others.

[journalofimprobablethings]

I think the thing about your first response that is provoking knee-jerk reactions (at least, it did for me) is that it implies that character death's only purpose in fiction is to "maximize pain" for the readers, and that any other purpose it might serve can be found through other means. And I don't think that's true at all.

To a certain extent I agree with the OP commenter that it's not necessary to kill a character simply for 'emotional impact' or 'realism'. If an author's main goal with a character death is just to "inflict maximum pain" on the reader, then that's probably not very good writing, and not "necessary". The death needs to do more than just hurt the reader; it should affect the story in some way, either in how other characters react to the death, or how events change because of it.

But I also agree with friskdaferret's argument that some character deaths are necessary for the story that the author is trying to tell. That's the key. Could they choose to write it a different way? Sure. They're the author, it's their story, it's all made up. But then it would be a different story.

I know that you consider the Holes argument to be a bit of a tangent, but for the sake of using an example that's already been brought up, Sam's death in Holes serves a particular purpose in the story. It reflects real-world racism in a very direct way: black men being lynched for having a relationship with a white woman (or after being accused of assaulting/touching a white woman, whether they did or not) is a real fact of American history. It's an ugly fact, and it's something that Louis Sacher decided was important to include in the story. For some kids reading that book, it may even have been their first exposure to that sort of racism. Having Sam leave Kate for other reasons, as you suggest, would change the story, and would make a different point. It's not the story Louis Sacher was trying to tell.

Your argument, if I understand correctly, is that sometimes, the potential pain inflicted on a reader who is very attached to the character might outweigh an author wanting to make a particular point or tell a particular story. How then, do we handle telling stories that are inherently about painful topics? What is the "utilitarian calculus" as it relates to a story like Orpheus and Eurydice which is about grief; or tragedies like Hamlet?

I also think that if you're going to make that argument, you have to consider the other side - that is, what benefit do those deaths, as written, bring to readers? Why has the author included it in the story? What do people get out of it? That answer is going to be different for different readers and stories, but there is a reason that death has been such a prominent trope in human storytelling since forever. Death and grief are inherent, immutable facts of life, and so storytellers are going to find ways to engage with and examine it.

Two examples that came to mind while I was thinking about this post were The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Babel by R.F. Kuang. Both of those books contain absolutely devastating moments of loss in connection with characters we have become very close to as readers. I don't think I've ever cried as hard at a story as I cried at those two books in particular.

Both of those stories would not be what they are, or say what they wanted to say, if those deaths didn't happen. They are a book about cancer and a book about imperialism and the violence it engenders, respectively. Both those topics are impossible to handle without at least talking about death.

Now, would I give people a warning before I recommend those books to them? Absolutely, because it's the sort of thing you probably want to be in the right headspace for. But do I think that those books should have been written differently, just because the stories were painful? Absolutely not.

I don't know that I agree with any sort of utilitarian argument about the potential effect of a character death on readers vs its function in the story, in part because that sort of thing is impossible to quantify. How would you ever possibly judge what was "too much"? It's entirely subjective, and in the end, authors do not have control over what a reader's reactions to their story will be.

I also think that to a certain extent, readers are responsible for their own reading experience. If a person does not want to encounter painful moments in their reading, that is their responsibility to tailor their reading accordingly. If they as a reader know they are prone to making deep connections with characters such that it might genuinely hurt them if that character then dies, they can take steps to avoid those sorts of stories, or to use sites like doesthedogdie.com to check whether a story has something that they don't want to/can't engage with. But it's not an author's responsibility to tailor their story so that it doesn't make anyone sad. That's not the point of fiction.

Fiction is a reflection of life, and a way for us as humans to examine and process all aspects of it, including the aspects that hurt, that are awful, the parts that don't make sense. It's perfectly valid for someone to not want to engage with challenging fiction, but to say that authors shouldn't be writing it at all because it might somewhere cause someone grief? I can't agree with that.

im starting to think you guys dont like it when stories make you feel things

[pastel-peach-writes]

Okay I saw your korrasami x Reader fic and I loved it so much can’t wait for the next part. Whenever you have time would you be able to do a lil fic where Korrasami gets jealous/irritated the reader is being hit on? Maybe relationship isn’t established yet but the situation prompts them to confess 👀 have a good one!

Hi Anon! Thank you so much for the love! Second part of KorrAsami x Reader is out btw! (This post came out wayyy later than envisioned).

The Green-Eyed and Blue-Eyed Monsters | KorrAsami x Reader

╰┈➤ PLOT: Korra and Asami don't take it lightly when their shared crush gets hit on and when one thing leads to another, a confession ensures. ╰┈➤ WARNINGS: Jealousy, No Y/n, Not Proofread, Jealous Korra, Somehow Even More Jealous Asami, Oblivious Reader, Impromptu Confessions

⍣ ೋ Enjoy!⍣ ೋ

There was something in the summer air. Maybe it was the smell of the blooming flowers and fruits or the bustling sound of merchants advertising their fresh and homemade treats. Whichever or whatever it was, Korra and Asami weren't here for it.

People of all genders, shapes, and sizes kept complimenting you and making small talk. It was cute at first. The pair thought it was about time you were complimented for how you dress, how your skin glows under the sun's rays and your bright smile. But once the compliments became flirtier, they decided they had enough.

See, there's something Korra and Asami keep to themselves. Something that no one else, not even Team Avatar, knew about. And that was the pathetic crush they had on you.

They can't pinpoint when or how the crush developed, they just knew they had one on you and wanted you to be a part of their relationship.

You didn't notice the crush they had on you. They didn't act weird or out of character, and the compliments they gave you seemed normal. Something someone who's "just-a-friend," tells someone else who is also "just-a-friend".

Maybe your lack of understanding of flirtatious compliments is why you couldn't tell what these attractive strangers were doing. You thought they were being friendly!

"Asami, I'm reaching my limit," Korra said out the side of her mouth. The three of you were standing by a merchant booth. You wore clothes in that color that made Asami and Korra both crumble to their knees while the couple wore their typical summer gear. Turned out this Earthbender also liked that color on you, since she was flirting shamelessly with you in front of Korra and Asami.

"It's okay, Korra," Asami whispered to her girlfriend. "They deserve to be flirted with. They're cute and they're glowing a little more than usual today. It only makes sense that people saw it too."

"Yeah, but we're supposed to be the ones flirting with them!" whispered-exclaimed Korra, slamming her fists onto the merchant's counter. The elderly man scolded Korra and demanded she pay for the dent she made in the wood. "It was already there before, old man!"

The man raised a fist, scolding her more. Asami pulled Korra away from the booth, an apologetic smile on her face as she did so. "Korra," Asami spoke once they were distanced away from the elderly merchant. "We both agreed not to flirt with them until we got a signal that they liked us back."

Korra shrugged Asami's hands off her shoulders with her lips twisted in a scowl. "Well, I'm beginning to regret that agreement. It's stupid. How would they know we like them if we don't flirt?"

Asami shrugged. "I don't know. You're the one that made up the rule." She then snickered at Korra's incoherent grumbles and mumbles. "Look, just because you can't handle when people flirt with you, Kor, doesn't mean others can't either." Your voice is what saved Asami from an angry, yet flustered Avatar exclaiming protests.

"Hey, guys!" You greeted, the apples of your cheeks bright from how hard you were cheesing. "Why are we over there?"

Asami laughed, wrapping her arm around Korra's waist. "Because Korra was going to get into it with that older gentleman." You dramatically gasped, jaw slacked down to your chest.

"Please!" Korra protested with a laugh. "I didn't do anything. He was yelling at me about some dent that was already in his counter. He just wanted to con me into paying so he could get a new counter."

"Whatever the motive was," laughed Asami, "we moved over here to not cause a scene. Plus, it looked like you were getting all flirty with that girl anyway," the engineer teased.

You laughed. "Nah, she was just saying she loved my outfit and how it brought out the color in my eyes."

Korra's brows knitted together, arms crossed under her chest. "Yeah... that's flirting."

You only snicker as a rebuttal but Korra's face didn't change. You faced Asami but she wore the same expression. Was that girl really flirting? She kept spewing compliments and her eyes, well, they were super focused on you. Maybe even too focused? Her body was facing you and if you knew anything about body language, that meant she was interested in you or the conversation at least.

"Hey, excuse me?" A voice from behind you took you out of your thoughts. You turned on your heels to find a girl wearing an obnoxiously large jade necklace that she paired with her all-purple outfit. Even though the outfit was quite extreme, her tan skin made her glow and somehow, the different shades of purple just worked.

"Oh, hi!" You beamed a bright smile as you faced her. The same smile Korra and Asami worked tirelessly to see on your face day after day. The same smile Korra and Asami spoke about deep into the night when they finally succeeded in their attempts.

The couple loved your smile, how you showed off your teeth and gums, and how when it showed on your face, it was genuine and came from affection... So, why the heck was this smile on your face for this random girl?

Oh, jealousy. What an interesting and sometimes ugly feeling.

Asami's eyebrows knitted together, hands skeptically placed on her hips as she watched Jade Girl pull out a small basket of fruits from behind her back. They were bright, signaling how perfectly ripe they were, and there was an assortment of fruits, all the way from the Southern Water Tribe to where the Northern Air Temple once was.

"You don't have to accept this if you don't want to, but I saw you from the entrance of the market and knew I had to give you something. You're so pretty and deserved the fruits,"—her own laugh interrupted her sentence. Korra and Asami rolled their eyes—"of my labor!"

Somehow your smile brightened. The warmth of the sun sinking into your skin and now traveling up your body filled you with a buzz. What did you do to owe the pleasure? The people here sure were friendly. "Aw, thank you!" Your voice was a peculiar high pitch as you graciously accepted the basket, her purple manicured nails and slender fingers brushing against your fingers.

You would be lying if you said it didn't make you giddy.

"This is so sweet. Oh, wow. You even have jackfruit!" You showed the basket to Asami and Korra and the girls momentarily put on a smile as your attention was on them but then dropped when your attention returned to the beautiful stranger.

"Yes," giggled the woman with her hands clasped. "My family and I are, as some may say, wizards or magicians in the fruit department. It all started from my great-great-great-great grandfather, I think I missed a few greats, and his connection with Hei-Ran, Avatar Kuruk's firebending teacher. Y'know," she stepped closer to you and took a hold of your hands on the basket's handle.

Asami stepped forward protectively, hands in fists but Korra pulled her back by her shoulder with the shake of her head. Even if she was enjoying Asami's experience with the jealousy she's been feeling all day, stopping this interaction and maybe getting in trouble because of it, wasn't worth it.

Korra frowned at herself in disgust. Ew... Has she turned into Tenzin?

"I could take you for a tour of my family's orchard," continued the Jade-Fruit-Tan-Pretty Girl—Korra and Asami couldn't keep up with the adjectives they had for this extremely forward, go-getter type of woman—continuing to hold your hands and bounced on her heels as she spoke. "Maybe even as a date? If you're into that?"

The Avatar and engineer gave curious glances in your direction. Were you into that? A pretty girl shamelessly flirting with you, giving you gifts, and offering to give you a tour of her family's orchard that's been around since before you were even alive? Since before the great Aang was alive?

You gave the woman a flattered chuckle but pulled your hands away from hers. "Oh, wow, um." Suddenly, the heat and buzz the sun was giving you was too much, almost overwhelming and unnecessary as it scratched the back of your throat and made your cheeks glow in embarrassment. "Thank you but I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no. You're gorgeous and trust me, if this was any other circumstance i would say yes but I'm not really-- I don't--"

"Oh, my Spirits! Are you not into women? I'm so sorr--"

"No, no!" You waved your hands so fast in defense that you forgot you were holding the basket of delicate fruits. Korra used her airbending through muffled snickers and giggles to float the basket in her direction and placed it neatly at her feet. "I'm into women," you claimed a little too loudly. A few bystanders shot curious expressions your way but otherwise went about their day. "Trust me. I. Am. In. To. Women."

Watching you stumble over your words in an attempt to clear up the situation to the Jade Girl was amusing to watch, even Asami thought so. "At least one thing's clear," her green eyes met Korra's blue and without many words, they knew exactly what to say.

"They're into women," the two said simultaneously, finally letting their laughter and giggles break through their words. Your cheeks only warmed up more as you heard them in the background.

If you were trying to shoot your shot with this woman, you would have failed thanks to your fumbling and lack of charisma but luckily, you weren't. And double luckily, Asami's and Korra's laughter drowned out the real reason why you had to turn Jade Girl down and she left understandingly.

"Are you done?" you grumbled to the girls, picking your favorite fruit from the basket and inspecting it before taking a bite. You stood in front of them with your arms crossed and cheeks puffed out like an angry bunny.

Korra laughed, shoulders bobbing up and down as she wrapped her arms around her midriff. "I dunno," the Avatar's tone was heard through her laughs, "are you sure you're into girls?"

"Oh, shut up!" You threw a navel orange to her arm but she dodged it when she hurled over in laughter.

"We're sorry," Asami said in a horrible attempt of stifling her laughter. "It's too funny. If no one was sure of your sexuality before, they are now."

Korra cackled from her hunched-over position, collapsing onto her knees as she wheezed and wheezed. Watching her face turn from brown to a reddish-brown would be a sight to see if her maniacal laughter wasn't so alarming.

You thought with how hard she was laughing that she would forget to breathe but the opposite was true. She was breathing just fine, she was just dramatic, and watching you try to defend yourself was better than watching Bolin crash and burn in front of Opal. Sorry, Bolin.

Embarrassed yet pleased with how this situation seemed to make the two of them smile, you ate more of your fruit with a slight huff. "Yeah, yeah. Don't rub it in."

"Man." Korra finally pulled herself up from the ground with chuckles still coming out of her. Tears of laughter rolled down her cheeks and there were slight stains from them and the ground on her pants, but she didn't seem to care if she noticed. "That was great." She rested an arm on Asami's shoulder, still chuckling to herself as she brought her attention to you. "So, if your sexuality wasn't a problem, why did you turn that girl down?"

Huh. You quickly found out that you preferred her cracking a lung out on the street than her asking questions you didn't want to answer.

"Uhh," you grabbed your basket with a shy lipbite, "don't even worry about it."

"Uh, no?" Korra snorted. "I'm nosy and I want to know."

"Korra," Asami's warning tone fell upon deaf ears as the darker-skinned girl continued.

"Come on," whined Korra. "I'm the Avatar and you're a part of my team. I wanna know what's going on in my team's lives including their love lives."

Asami rose a brow at her statement. Korra never cared about anyone else's love life unless it somehow involved her.

...

Oh!

So, they were flirting with you now. Asami crossed her arms as smug as the smile that appeared on her lips. She could see the gears turning in your head and saw that you were so close to figuring Korra, and herself, out but weren't exactly there yet.

"She just wasn't my type," you admitted. You resumed your walk down the market, not expecting anyone to follow but given Asami's and Korra's reputation with persistence, you knew they would.

"And so what girl is your type then?" Asami prompted, she and Korra just a few steps behind you as you mindlessly swung your fruit basket.

Was this really how this was going to go down? You've envisioned this scene many times before and never have they gone down this way. This was supposed to be romantic, a moment to remember forever once you were sure you weren't going to freak them out with this.

"Because that Earthbender girl was pretty cute too," resumed Asami. "But you turned her down as well."

"To be fair, babe," Korra chimed in, "they didn't know she was flirting. They probably didn't know Jade-Necklace-'You're-So-Pretty' Girl was flirting either until she asked them out."

With her snort, you turned around swift on your heels and pointed at her. "Y'know, for someone in a relationship, you're weirdly obsessed with the people who may or may not be flirting with me."

Korra only gave you a nonchalant shrug. "So?"

"So, your girlfriend is right there!" You gestured to Asami who looked indifferent to the whole situation. She was interested in your love life too, for personal reasons just as much as Korra's, but she kept it under wraps better than her girlfriend. "Asami, aren't you at least upset by this?"

Asami mimicked the shrug Korra gave you seconds ago. "No."

"'No'?!"

"Yeah, 'no'," she snickered. "I'm just as curious as Korra and I don't see any harm in getting to know why you turned down every person that flirted with you today. They have eyes. They see the beauty I see in you every day."

"Okay, calm down," you awkwardly laughed. "Your girlfriend is right there."

"Oh, I know." Asami adjusted her crossed arms, her smugness still apparent in her body language. She even quipped a teasing, almost knowing brow. "She sees it too."

The confused, puzzled, and shocked noise that came out of your body made Korra chuckle as your eyes flickered to hers. She didn't know it was confession time until Asami blatantly flirted with you right in front of her, but she wasn't opposed. "Yeah. I think you're pretty cute."

"Excuse me?!" your voice was reaching the same volume and pitch you used when you tried to explain your sexuality to the jade girl but you couldn't help it. The people you were crushing on, who were in a relationship with each other mind you, were calling you beautiful and cute and not in the way friends do.

You may not pick up on flirting often, but you could pick up on the tones and vibes the couple was trying so hard for you to pick up on. How long were they trying to get you to notice? With how seamlessly Korra joined Asami on the compliment train, this couldn't be a first-time offense.

Asami took your questioning silence as a sign to keep going. "Honestly, today was kind of hard for us." The woman took an apple from the basket and rubbed it on the chest of her shirt. She took a bite, as if she wasn't about to share world-altering information with you. "Korra and I had to keep seeing and listening to these people flirt with you and compliment you--"

"Oh, I'm sorry--"

"Aht," Korra held up a finger, interrupting your interruption. "People with flirting with you should never be something you have to apologize for. Even if it upsets someone. You're attractive, it's about time people, even if they aren't us, act upon it."

You weren't given time to process what Korra said before Asami spoke again, after her bite of apple.

"Anyway, I was getting real tired of seeing these people flirt with you and all I could do was sit back and take it. Why? Because I, we, weren't sure how you felt about it. We didn't know if you didn't respond to our flirts because you were oblivious or uncomfortable and after today, it's clear you were oblivious.

"And so after Fruit Basket Girl, I've had enough. Korra and I spoke about this countless of times, night after night, but we still couldn't figure out a perfect way to tell you this." Asami wrapped her arms around her girlfriend who did the same to her.

Anticipation filled your body and soared through your veins. Asami ate more of her apple and basically left you hanging on a really thin thread, urging her to continue and aching for the rest of her answer.

The crushing weight of the anticipation was so large that even Korra nudged Asami to continue. "What?" the raven whispered down to her girlfriend. Korra shot a pointed look in your direction and Asami could only chuckle. "No, it's your turn. I've done my job."

Flushed cheeks and breath of heat, Korra huffed before standing straighter with a fist proudly resting on her hip. "Asami and I have a crush on you. A pretty big one. I guess this one couldn't take the jealousy anymore and impulsively wanted to confess to you right here, right now, in front of this poor woman's pickled goods stand."

The three of you drifted your gaze to a woman in her late 50s, huddled over on her wooden stool with an assortment of jars surrounding her counter, shelves, and even the back of her stall eyeing the three of you with green-framed glasses. "Oh," she waved you three off, smiling fondly. "Don't let my presence stop you. I got teenagers and they're never this open with me about their love life. This is entertainment."

Korra's jaw slacked in bewilderment before she protectively reached out to grab your arm to lead you and Asami out of the market and around the corner where no one but a stray dog drinking out of a water bowl was.

"Okay," Korra addressed the two of you. "Now that we have no other intruders, I guess that just leaves you to talk. Asami and I have a crush on you and we know this is coming out of nowhere but what do you think about that? Did we freak you out?"

If a future version of yourself were to tell you that all it took to get the ladies of your dreams was a market, a cute stranger, and a fruit basket, you wouldn't have believed them and yet, here you are. Standing in front of two smart, fierce women who fought and preserved to get whatever they put their minds to.

Who would've thought they wanted you in the way you wanted them?

Korra's and Asami's stomachs churned and stirred in nauseating anticipation, the feeling alone making their knees wobble like jelly and their minds dizzy.

Simultaneously, they had no thoughts and every thought known to man swirling around their head.

Their waiting for your answer made their mind go quiet yet their worrying over ruining their relationship with you made them think about anything and everything.

What if you didn't want to see them anymore? What if they read the situation wrong entirely and you never saw them in that light?

The two of them conversed about the stolen glances you would take at them, thinking they didn't catch you but they did each and every time you would look at them. They would see the way you would smile at the other when she was wrapped up in her own world and how you would get lost in one's eyes as they spoke in group settings.

They were sure they read every situation as what it was: you crushing back on them. But as you stood in front of them with an unreadable expression on your face, light brown basket playing at the tips of your fingers, doubts clouded their minds.

You finally blinked into reality when a stray piece of wood poked at your pointer thumb. "Whoa, sorry. Uh, I guess I'm just shocked. I never thought this day would come." Asami's and Korra's lips upturned into a smile as they saw yours do the same. "Yeah, I like you two goobers back. I didn't think it would take jealousy to get us here," you gave them a laugh. "If I would've known that, I would've gotten you jealous a long time ago."

The couple gave you dry laughs, wrapping their arms around your shoulders.

"Absolutely not," said Asami.

"You do that and you will go back to being girlfriend-less," said Korra.

You snickered as you were happily held between them as you made your way back home. "Wow. Tough crowd-- Hey!"

The stray dog came crashing into your fruit basket, making the woven item crash onto the ground and get stomped on as the dog pounced on it to feast on the fruit the basket possessed.

"My fruit." You frowned. Every single piece of fruit, if not squashed or ate by the seemingly perfectly-weight dog, was dirtied. Some fruit juice grew to make a stain in the beige-colored gravel.

"Good doggy," Asami cooed at it. Korra, though agreeing with her statement, swatted at her arm with a laugh. "What?" She glanced between the two of you. "That dog is eating what that girl left behind. We're together now, we don't need that jade girl's basket." She held her chin up high as if she was the queen but a playful smile hinted at the corner of her lips.

You and Korra shared a laugh before continuing your trek back home. The fruit was probably better off with the dog anyway. You probably weren't going to eat much of it when you got home, not if Asami's and Korra's jealousy had anything to do with it.

WC: 3,752

[vethbrenatto]

Curious what your thoughts are on critical role season 3/campaign 3 continuing to bring back previously main characters from 1&2?

Idk I’m having a hard time with this campaign and the way the party seems to have badly analysis paralysis and it seems so dragged out with the characters not wanting to make decisions.

So when I see that they keep bringing pre established characters in for the story instead of focusing on things NOW, I’m a bit exasperated lol. I’m glad they’re having fun and it does make for some good moments! But I’m just feeling bleh overall atm

i actually stopped watching c3 somewhere in the 90s so i can't really comment-

what i can say is that this is not a storytelling device i particularly enjoy; it particularly bugged me early in c3 with the intervention of vex and keyleth and even pike (my girl, my love, my light) as these sort of god-like deus ex machina figures. i have a lot of old posts detailing why i didn't like it then, but a lot of it is sort of a stakes thing, right? vox machina and m9 have saved and saved the world... what the fuck is bells hells even qualified for in comparison? why not just let the professionals handle it (story, that's why)?

and then we get this sort of culmination that i've heard about recently where the cast has been swapping between parties and conceptually that's really cool, even if it doesn't appeal to me.

what it comes down to is that this is matt's vision for the world- an interconnecting web of events and people. in my ideal version, the world is an expansive place and these are 3 equally important but unconnected stories. set in the same place but never directly connecting- just some little overlap to remind you it's all in the same place (i.e. the allura cameo in the m9 campaign). but, quite simply, that isn't what matt or the cast want.

i am interested to see if this will be the last campaign for the main cast, or the last exandria campaign overall because the plot does seem so dramatic and "it all connects/comes together" that i have no clue where they could go from here.

c3 overall was hard for me to connect to since the mid campaign (i also think watching CR live is probably my least favorite way of consuming it- i do think the content works better on a binge) but maybe ill catch up at some point.

TLDR; i am not currently watching but agree that the return of past characters doesn't appeal to me specifically, though i know the fandom and the cast probably have the opposite opinion about the returns.

[lemotmo]

I can't believe this is an actual discourse, well actually I can, but if you would like to choose your fighter, I'm curious where you stand on the issue as well. For what it's worth this makes sense to me. I'm good with this. And the Buck girlie thing feels accurate.

Q. Do you believe Eddie is gay? And where do you stand on his relationship with Shannon?

A. So I will start by saying the fact that you all think this needs to be an actual sticking point is asinine to me. He's demi sexual. If you want to headcanon him as gay, knock yourself out. But the show isn't going to be that deep about it. As far as the show is concerned Eddie is going to have been in love with Shannon and now he'll be in love with Buck. That's it. And it's fine. But I believe he's demi. The first thing he always tells people is that Shannon was his best friend. Eddie needs an emotional connection to someone. The emotional connection is what allows him to feel everything else. But the show is not going to spend multiple episodes having Eddie realize he's gay and then declare he never really loved Shannon. That's not what's going to happen, and I don't know why you all believe it would or should happen. There's nothing wrong with him having genuinely been in love with Shannon. And even if he does end up being gay he can still have genuinely loved her. Him being gay does not erase Shannon. And she doesn't need to be erased for him to be in love with Buck. I say this as a Buck girlie, but this entire discourse feels like a set up to declare that Eddie isn't worthy of Buck if he ever loved anyone else. And we're not doing that. These are men in their 30's. They both have a past, and they have both loved other people. That's life. Eddie loving Shannon won't make his love for Buck less than. I'm not saying the show won't or can't have Eddie say that he loved her differently than he loves Buck but they don't need to do that. Eddie is allowed to love them both. You're asking a show that can't be bothered to know the age of their characters to be nuanced enough to tell a full-fledged sexuality storyline and that's not this show. Buck apparently doesn't even know he's bisexual yet. Eddie loved Shannon and he will love Buck. That will be how the show handles it. And that's fine. As long as it ends with Buck and Eddie together the labels should not matter. I understand that representation matters but that's not what this discourse is about and we all know that. But as far as I personally am concerned, Eddie is demi. Ryan is not going to do any Cameo videos encouraging one headcanon over the other so if you want to headcanon him as gay that's your right. I just don't think anyone should be demanding the show give him a hard stop label. Because I don't see them doing that.

Thank you Nonny!

For me the answer is pretty simple. I've ALWAYS believed Eddie is demisexual. All the signs are there.

He loved Shannon after he was her friend for a while. They made a connection first and then he fell in love. He went straight into dating Ana and Marisol, didn't make that connection of friendship first and, while he liked them, he never loved them.

And now he loves Buck. He was his friend first, they made that connection and then he fell in love. Only this time I don't think he realises he's in love. I think his love for Buck will hit him like a sledgehammer somewhere in 8b and I'm so here for it. 😋

I agree with Ali that they probably won't label him. They haven't really labeled Buck either and I don't see them doing it with Eddie. He'll just realise, maybe struggle for a while and finally accept that Buck is the one.

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[hetrosjistin]

No you know what, I thought I was done, but I'm not.

The problem with this shit is that it misses the point of having shit like the crows in Thedas at all.

You can't sanetize stuff and have it have the same impact, it's not just the hollowness, it literally reduces the conflict to a nothing burger.

You know why Dorian is, perhaps, one of my FAVORITE goddamn characters in the entire DA game series?

BECAUSE HE LITERALLY HAS TO GO THROUGH DEPROGRAMMING HIMSELF OF HIS RACIST SLAVER CULTURE! It's not enough that he wants to oppose the Venatori and all that nonsense. It's not enough that in inquistion, he literally went to the part of the world where he's taught they ENSLAVE people like him and burn out their brains if they're not good little obedient pet mages.

He goes there because it's right and that doesn't make him magically a perfect and good person. He's STILL flawed, he STILL has the baggage of his culture, and ADDRESSING IT is a constant fucking undercurrent of his dialogue and interactions throughout the game. How he is both proud of everything his civilization, the oldest extant civilization in the world, and horrified by the excesses of it's bad actors, and as time goes on his REALIZATION of how horrific each and every element of it is.

Like, when the Venatori take over minrathos. It's depicted as something ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE but frankly? That implies things were pretty okay before that!

What would ahve been SO MUCH MORE INSIDEOUS, would have been to show how LITTLE things had changed. Oh, have the burned out ruin of the hide out, have a few ventatori guards standing here and there, but now show how ABANDONED AND CALLOUS they all are. They don't -need- to set up a fucking police state, Tevinter already HAS IT IN PLACE. You don't NEED fucktons of venatori guards around docktown.

But by doing it the way they did they robbed so much of the substance of Tevinter from the game.

Like I'm actually on board with some of the changes. The Broodmother thing about the darkspawn was handled just about as well as it was ever going to be handled in Origins, so them all but abandoning them from the lore as time went on is a smart move IMO. Making significant changes to the dark spawn with the blight is a big deal, and a smart move.

But the draining of life from all the rest is unpardonable.

Have the Lord of Fortune -not give a shit- about other people's culture. It's pretty, it's bling, if it was so important why wasn't it better guarded? Why was it so stealable? Have that be a FLAW in their goddamn thing as FUCKING PIRATES.

Have the found family elements of the Crows, have them have a whole blood debt and true contract society thing. Have us confront the fact that if someone fails a contract their life is FUCKING FORFEIT. Play up the whole idea that found family can be JUST as toxic. Play up the idea that these orphans and street kids taken in by a fucking -assassin cult- effectively are molded to SERVE the interests of the nation as members of the 'family'.

I was -so- incredibly happy with inquisition where they CONTRASTED Blackwall so hard with the order at large. The Grey Wardens are a -death cult- created to fight the APOCALYPSE through wrote tradition and absolutely seething loyalty to the idea that they are the thin line against the darkness.

Play that up, show how god awful the anderfels are scoured of life by the blight and still infested with dark spawn. GIVE THE FIRST WARDEN A NAME AND WHY THE FUCK IS THIS GUY IN FUCKING MINRATHOS?! Play up the ENTIRE IDEA of what's wrong with them and contrast it with -our- experience of wardens from, basically, wardens who never actually underwent the indoctrination process.

Someone else on this hellsite said that the longer you think on veilgaurd instead of playing it, the worse it gets and goddamn is that the truth.

Problematic fiction is good because it coaches us through stories on how to fucking DEAL with actual bad things.

By sanitizing your fiction you rob it of it's ability to -teach- the audience any lessons beyond 'bad people bad'.

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.

About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.

How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.

So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.

But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.

We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.

None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.

The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.

Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.

Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.

Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.

And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.

Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.

This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.

Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.

And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.

I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.

[eirakairos]

Rendezvous Chapter 3

Chapter summary: The girl hears her mother cry many times because of this man who is supposed to be his father. She doesn’t have much information, she just hears a lot that she looks like him. She heard stories of the ships belonging to a bad man, so she thinks her father is bad. But why would her Mama go to a man like him? Why didn't he search for them? Did he forget about them?

A/N: Apologies for the late update, I had a hectic week lol

I was thinking the child would be similar to Anya from SpyxFam in terms of being a bit mature at her age

Words: 3,334

Tags: Hurt/comfort, character death implied!, MC and Sylus' child, don't worry this is angst but with happy ending, Sylus is a girl dad hands down

You are so thankful to the wisdom of the mothers and the healers in the tribe in raising a baby girl. She is now five years old and is a rambunctious child. You are amused sometimes as she looks like a little Sylus running around and playing with other kids. But it is also a reminder that she is Sylus and your child. For five years, you didn’t hear any news about him. You had accepted that he probably moved on to his ambitions, or maybe to another woman. It hurts you deeply, but you can’t bring chaos to your life anymore, especially such violence and desolation, to your daughter’s life.

“Maybe it's a good time for you and your daughter if it is still in your consideration to return, dear,” the old woman said. “But rest assured that if you do intend to stay longer, it is alright as well,”

“Thank you,” you said. “I have heard news from the warriors that the nearby cities in the far end had been seeing large ships similar to the one you arrived in,” she said. Your eyes widened. Why is Onychinus in the far cities other than in the N109 Zone? “The warriors heard terrible stories about those ships, so we are planning to move to a farther place,” she said. “So this is the right time to decide, so the journey back won’t be much further,” Your mind is swirling in thoughts if Sylus is still the leader of Onychinus or if there is a new management. “They heard stories of the ship conquering city by city, making them do allegiance to their favor,” You know Onychinus, everything it touches will go to chaos, intentional or not. You can’t bring such things to the tribe.

“Mama, can I go with the warriors please?” her daughter approached her. You sighed, your little girl has the rebellious and mischievous trait from her father. She wanted to be a fighter and often hung out around and amazed at the trained men in the tribe. She wanted to go with them and watch them hunt food. “They are hunting and going farther today, so I can’t allow you,” you reasoned out. Your daughter pouted in response. “And no usage of Evol, you promised,” you followed. This is the dangerous part of handling her, she retaliates by using it in any form, especially when she gets hurt. Both of you discovered it when she was being teased for having a different hair color. Next thing you knew, the kid was crying because she broke his toy in a dark red mist. ‘Ugh, I carried her for nine months after a literal explosion and deserted in a field, squeezed her out of my body and looked like a spitting image of her father,’ you thought whenever you remember it.

You sat down beside her. Despite her age, your daughter has the trait of being mature and understanding, again, just like Sylus. “I want to ask you something, dear,” you said. The girl looked up to you. “Do you want to go to another place? It is much better there,” you asked. “We going now?” she asked back. As young as she is, you did tell her the general situation of things, but her appearance made her realize that she is different from the tribe. “Yes, sadly. They are going further for safety,” you said. “We would be much safer and have more access to the city,” The daughter hummed and looked at the fields, probably thinking about what to decide. “It’s okay, I’ll give you more time-” you stopped when she hugged your waist. “Okay, Mama,” she answered. You were surprised at how fast she responded and you are always grateful for having a good daughter as you hugged her in return.

“I heard the city people while trading goods… Someone important arrived in the city,” the warrior said. Your daughter is hearing their conversations as she is huddled in a basket attached to a horse. Before the warriors depart for a hunt, she sneaks in the basket while you are sleeping. “There is one ship that landed near our hunting spot, but it looked harmless. There is only one camp there but there is not much activity around it… There it is,” Your daughter peeked and saw a huge ship. It only has one illuminated bonfire beside it.

The warriors did make a camp to rest. The girl remained inside the basket, hearing the conversations. “That ship… I only saw one man going out there,” one of the warriors said. “He has the same color as hers… White-haired and has red eyes,”

“Do you think they are from the same place?” one asked. “We did find her in the same type of ship.” The little girl’s eyes widened as she knew it was her mother. Despite being very young, she was hearing a lot of things from adults that she knew she wasn’t supposed to hear.

The warriors are sleeping when she is able to get out of the basket, put her hood on her cloak on and went to the direction of the ship. The little girl is curious about the stories she has been hearing, but it all started when she accidentally eavesdropped on you and the healer talking.

“I assumed that your daughter looked more like her father,” the old woman said. You chuckled. “Yes, she is so much like her father,” you answered. “We saw a ship that looked like when you arrived here but it was going towards the city,” You were surprised by this information. “The warriors said they didn’t see any white-haired man with red eyes,” You were saddened, it's been many years but you are still longing for Sylus. “I feel you are missing him,” she said. “Oh dear, we can arrange your travel if you decide to go back,”

“I am aware of that but… She is still young,” you said. “I’m just making sure she is well for the journey,” The old woman chuckled. “Well, she has been going with the warriors a lot, so I think she would be one,” You chuckled as well in response. “Don’t underestimate children, my dear. They have huge potential despite their innocence in the world,” the old woman said.

“I just thought that… He would find us sooner or later,” you said, opening up your long-time anxieties.

“Dear, even if it takes long if he indeed loves you, he will search for you till the end of the world. Though I understand your longing,” she said. “The tribe is in a remote place, yet I’m still hoping you three would meet again,”

The girl hears her mother cry many times because of this man who is supposed to be his father. She pouted remembering it again. She doesn’t have much information, she just hears a lot that she looks like him. She heard stories of the ships belonging to a bad man, so she thinks her father is bad. But why would her Mama go to a man like him? He didn’t search for them, she heard he didn’t even know her Mama had a baby, who was her. Her mother got into the tribe because she was taken away by a ship that looked in front of her at that moment.

Why didn't he search for them? Did he forget about them?

As she hides from the distance, she can see a man being illuminated by the bonfire. She was wondering why the man was alone. Upon looking closer, the man is looking at a small item but it was too far for her to see. The man is tall, wears a cloak, has… White hair and red eyes.

In reaction, she accidentally sat down in shock, making the leaves rustle. Before she could go elsewhere, a force enveloped her, and was dragged from her hiding to the bonfire area.

Red eyes stared at her. She was enveloped in fear more. Whoever his man is, he looks mean. “Someone was being sneaky,” he said in a deep voice. Black and red mists enveloped her more, his right eye turning red. “Stop!” she yelled, mists appearing around her. The mists from the man quickly disappeared, making her fall down and instinctively scooting away from him. The man looked shocked and looked at his hand for a second before going back at her. He tried it one more time and the mist could grab her arm. She yelled and glared at him, her eyes emitting a red glow from the covered hood, black and red mists swirling around her, disabling his hold on her. Her eyes gazed at the man intently, suddenly she was hearing something while gazing into his eyes. She is hearing a familiar name and the desire to see her and their child again. Both are shocked as her powers reach the limit and quickly dissipate, stopping the voice and the mists. The man halts his either, being surprised that she can do that.

Sylus was not surprised that the mysterious little girl in front of him had the same Evol as his, he was surprised that she was fast and strong enough to use her Evol against him at her age. Sylus took reigns and used his Evol to grab her, as she seemed to have reached her limit already. “Let me go, you’re the mean man!” she exclaimed. “You are a kid sneaking up in a vast field in the middle of the night. I’m assuming you have business with me,” he spoke. “I would be the mean man if you continue to thrash… Like a hissing kitten,” he followed. Calling this kid like a kitten reminded him of you, especially when you first met him.

The girl quickly stopped but crossed her arms while being levitated. “This ship scares my tribe! Leave us alone!” she said. His eyebrow was raised before he hummed as he gently set her down. “I guess our business aligns then. Why don’t we have a deal?” Sylus said. The hooded girl looked at him. “I’m looking for someone,” he continued. “If you help me find that person I was looking for, I will leave your tribe alone, even offer protection, if you fancy,”

“No, you will just double-cross me or something, we don’t need you to protect, you bad man,” she answered. Well, smart little girl, Sylus thought. “I uphold my deals, sweetie,” Sylus said. “I might be a bad man, but I do the end of my bargain, don’t worry,”

The girl squints her eyes as if she is thinking hard. She doesn’t have much leverage in this matter. “Okay, but you have to tell me who are you looking for,” Sylus looked in the distance, he held the small item he was holding earlier. The crow brooch. “A woman,” he said. “She was in a ship that crashed here many years ago,” he then proceeded to describe that woman. Her eyes widened when he mentioned the crash but covered because of the hood. The girl thought the description he said, there is a certain longing to that and is very similar to what you look like. She snapped her thoughts as she thought she would protect you. “I might know someone,” she answered. Sylus glared. “‘Might’ is not a good retort,” he said. “I am not here to waste time,” he said as the sound of flapping wings and cawing was heard. A black bird landed on his shoulder. It cawed softly beside him and Sylus listened as if he understood him.

“Mephisto is telling me that there is a group of warriors nearby,” he said. “They are the warriors from my tribe,” the little girl said. “Okay, we will leave them be,” Sylus said. The girl was relieved somewhat to hear that. He looked at her slyly. “Let me guess, you sneaked in by them?” The little girl was surprised and looked away, making him chuckle. “They will leave in the dawn but if we follow them, they will notice,” she followed. Sylus hummed. “Don’t worry, he will fly again to see where we will be heading,” Sylus said. “Okay, but I do know how to navigate back,” the little girl said. “I’ll help to find that person you want. The elders might know that crash,” Sylus glared at her but let her be.

“So his name is Mephisto?” she asked, looking at the bird preening beside him. “Yes, I made him,” he replied. The girl was confused and looked closer, he was indeed mechanical. “Whoa… I thought he was a real bird,” Sylus smirked, basking in the compliment. He lets Mephisto roam the skies again as he flies in his order. “The winds will get stronger tonight, he shouldn't roam long,” the little girl said. Sylus looked above and felt the wind, thinking she did have a sense of survival skills. “You better rest, we have a long day of travel back. It’s not that far,” she followed and lay down, her head resting on the log. Out of nowhere, a bag was thrown at her. “What-” she said, realizing it was a sleeping bag. She looked at Sylus, who was already lying down from a distance. Her eyes squinted, making her wonder how her mother fell in love with such a man. It wasn’t long before she fell asleep from the long travel and anxious thoughts.

Sylus wakes up early and looks at the girl, who is still sleeping in the sleeping bag. He has a hunch of why she sneaked up on him last night, far deeper reasons than the tribe. As he packed up his things, he looked at the small trinket attached to his bag, it was the pouch you gave him when you were stuck with him in the grasslands. He always remembered you wherever he went, bringing something that reminded him of you. He wanted to get to the tribe fast to learn if his intel was true. He stood up and reached out to the little girl to wake up. She gasped before doing so and used her Evol to stop his hand.

The girl looked at him angrily. “Sweetie, it is only me,” he said. “I… Okay,” the girl releases his hand. “Please don’t do that. I don’t like people sneaking up on me,” she said. She doesn’t want her hood to be lowered down. “Oh, but you sneaking up on me last night was alright?” he crossed his arms but smirked. She blushed in embarrassment. “I was going to talk to you! I just don’t know the timing!” she defended. “It’s just… I don’t like someone pulling my hood down. My hair is weird,” she said. “How so?” Sylus said. “Other kids tease me of how weird it looks, so I often wear a hood,” she replied, making a half lie. She does get teased but she doesn’t care, she retaliates even. She doesn’t want him to give other ideas as they look alike. “Hmm, don’t listen to them, as far as I’m concerned, you can confront and defend yourself,” he said as he brought his bag. His statement has a hint of truth, she often does it as she wants to show them she isn’t backing down but something stops her thoughts. “That’s…” she trailed off. Sylus stopped as she pointed at the pouch. “Did… Did the person you’re looking for give that to you?” The little girl asked. Sylus didn’t respond, but the girl knew the answer. “I… I’m familiar with that pouch,” she said. “... My tribe does that,” Sylus responded with a hum. “Well, adds more reason to visit your tribe then,”

Despite the windy weather in the grasslands, Sylus and the little girl continued to travel. The two had been walking for a while now and all they could see was seemingly endless grass. The little girl looked at Sylus while they were staying for a break. He was looking a bit uncomfortable, probably due to the heat. “I didn’t know you had encountered my tribe before, they often are remote,” she said. “It was… An accidental event,” he answered. “And that person you were looking for, she gave that pouch, right?” she said. “You said it was many years ago… Do you think she is still-” she stopped as she felt the intense glare from the man. “She is important to me, far more than you imagined,” he said with a rough, pained voice as he returned his gaze to the food he was cooking. “What if somehow you meet her again?” the little girl asked, anticipating his answer. “Then, the world will be much better again,” She felt the yearning in his answer. “I will make sure she will be mine this time and… Not lose her and our child again,” he continued. The little girl internally gasped, she was surprised but masked it quickly. She felt his gaze again. “I believed they survived. It was… A challenge to find her this time,” he spoke. She felt the pain in his voice as if he had been searching for that long.

There were a lot of thoughts in the little girl’s head, especially him saying “Our child”. “You know, I was curious what the city looks like,” the little girl said. “I’ve been hearing stories, I heard it was scary,” she followed. “A bad man was going around, no one knows him but many people are scared of him,” Sylus didn’t answer but listened to her. “My mother was considering visiting and maybe staying there for good,” she said. “Maybe if you hold your end of the bargain, I can show you and your mother around,” Sylus said. “Why only your mother? Where is your father?” he casually asked. The little girl looked sad in response. “I don’t know, he probably had left us. My mother is still waiting for him to return,” He remained silent, remembering luck was not on his side since, he was still searching for the love of his life and his little one.

They continued to walk as the winds were getting stronger. The little girl looked up and saw Mephisto struggling to fly. “He should be getting down, the winds are howling but it would be temporary!” She yelled as the winds were noisy. “He would be fine, I would just repair him,” he said. She sees Sylus started to struggle in walking. The girl looked above again and saw Mephisto losing control to fly and was thrown back and falling. She ran while looking at the trajectory where the mechanical bird might fall. Sylus was surprised that she would still run for the bird. Despite struggling, she jumped to catch Mephisto, bracing for the rough fall on the grass. She opened her eyes and saw herself floating, with an energy holding around her. Looking back, she sees Sylus with his hand out, using his Evol while holding onto the grass. Mephisto cawed weakly on her hold, she fixed herself, making sure she was still hooded as Sylus brought them back to him.

They continued walking when the winds calmed down. She held Mephisto, who had his wing broken. Despite being mechanical, the little girl is still worried. “I told you, I can fix him later. He is fine,” Sylus reassured. Mephisto cawed in response and was calm under the girl’s hold as if he were grateful for catching him.

Sylus looked at the girl again, remembering the time she was running towards the bird. Her hair was white, and her eyes were red, just like his. But she looks so much like you. Her face, her powers, her personality, her past… He remembered his dreams of holding his little girl. He had the intense urge to protect her in realization, using his Evol to make sure she was safe.

“Look!” she yelled as she pointed at the distance, seeing huts and goats roaming. “We have arrived!”

[proudchildlesscatlady]

I have some "unpopular" Legendborn opinions I want to share. We can agree to disagree because I love to hear your own opinions.

There will be spoilers from Legendborn and Bloodmarked so read this post at your own risk.

1. I ship Bree with Nick. You can say I am Team Nick as much as I like the idea of Bree and Sel being end game. Nick has always been good to Bree since the very beginning unlike Selwyn. Yes I know Sel redeemed himself by saving Bree during the many times she was in danger but I still want Bree and Nick to be endgame (unless he is killed off which will make me sad 😢).

2. On the topic of shipping, I do not agree with the idea of breeselnick being a thing. I'm not against polyamorous relationships and I see valid reasons why the three of them should be together. My reasons why I'm against this ship is because:

- Bree is far too young for this. She just turned 17 towards the end of Bloodmarked. I believe a polyamorous relationship is too much for a teenage girl like her to deal with.

- Bree has a lot of trauma she needs to heal from before she even thinks of forming a complicated relationship such as a polyamorous one.

- Jealousy and competition will eventually happen. I can definitely see Sel and Nick competiting for the affections of Bree.

3. I hate Sar (Sarah) as much as I hate her girlfriend Tor. I know Sar is a kind character who has always defended Bree and treated her well unlike most. I can't get over how could someone stay in a relationship with someone as racist and horrible as Tor. I understand that love can sometimes make you see someone through rose-colored glasses and ignore every red flag. I don't know about you but racism and any form of bigotry is a huge turn off for me. Sar continuing to date Tor after everything makes Sar just as complicit. What's worst is that Sar is half Latina and dealt with racism in the past. She should know better and I say this as someone who is also Latina (fully not half).

4. As much as the romance in the Legendborn series is both cute and fun, it is not the main reason why I enjoy this series. I enjoy reading Bree's journey and her story. Learning about her ancestry and her connection to Rootcraft was one of the best aspects to the series. I love how Tracy handles uncomfortable topics such as racism, slavery, etc in a way that is informative and fits her story. It is also amazing to have a Black/WOC protagonist in a fantasy story.

[tiredassmage]

veilguard thoughts!

rook + solas parallels edition

spoilery ofc because my head's not full of cotton balls today and i haven't stopped chewing on it all since i finished the game! so! this is a little endgame heavy; you've been warned for what's below the cut <3

the final first playthrough counter has come in just over 67 hours and i am all but physically holding myself back from launching right into another one with another rook because i had a blast. i'll concede it was a bit heavy on the exposition in the first several hours, but what followed has certainly won my heart, and i think the game is visually beautiful.

but i'm not even looking to do a full review here, but i think one of the most fascinating things this game did was set up rook and solas. so, two parts of preface then: one, i was a little determined to love this game and hoped it would at least perform decent. that's my spite about it, lol, but that's not the point, so we're not here about that. two, one of my admitted concerns when they had first announced this game having its own protagonist was... that i wasn't sure there was another person to finish solas's story other than the inquisitor, and this isn't a solavellan thing for me, though my beloved canon inquisitor is a lavellan. solas's friendship wasn't the biggest hitch in inquisition for me, but it was important to my inquisitor. he wanted to prove his friend wrong.

i don't believe hallaren had a plan at the time for how to achieve that. he wasn't sure it was actually possible to convince solas the dalish were not as lost a cause as he seemed to believe, but he had to try.

and when i started veilguard, i wouldn't say i'd have anticipated the parallels of solas and rook, nor how well they ended up working for me. i admit: they got me. i didn't see that twist coming. and the hindsight of losing varric from the beginning makes a lot hurt (i say that as a compliment). i think it's easy enough to explain why i didn't see it, why (my, at least) rook didn't puzzle it out, but i also readily admit i'm historically bad at seeing these kinds of things, so you're free to be amused on your own time, lol.

anyway. regret. not becoming what you hate, what you claim to fight against. not being beholden to what you were or what you've lost. the game hits these beats several times, and i think its a real beautiful repeating thing they've done if you hammer all the companion's stories with the main deal, and i did the memories of the dread wolf as well. rook and the inquisitor have a conversation about it that about touches on all of it way more eloquently than i could summarize.

and, of course, part of the reveal is solas did dabble with blood magic on the matter of varric's death, did set rook up for the level of regret and grief they must settle with to trap them in the fade - a prison fit for gods, a prison fit for a god's regrets.

and this is where i transition into blorbo-specific thoughts. because i think part of what fascinates and delights me so much about the rook and solas, potentially two sides of the same coin deal is how tyr's relationship with solas starts and then develops.

tyr does not trust solas from the outset. which i think is where a very interesting presentation of similar (at their roots) choices begins, as varric says: in a bar, as all good stories. one of the first story notifications we get is how rook chooses to handle the bar owner: charm your way out, or a more direct approach, and we're told varric takes note of this.

varric's own plan is an appeal to solas's nature. to talk his way out. as is varric's way.

normally, i'd call tyr the kind of character (having played with him as an oc in various medias for oh... going on 2 years, is it? maybe 3? time's fake, different post) to also prefer talking his way out. but he doesn't believe solas will listen. so he rebukes varric's plan of just waltzing up and charming him with his babygirl eyes.

then at d'meta's crossing, he spares the mayor. not because he doesn't hear the concern that the greedy bastard will fall to said greed again, and not out of an entirely conscious mandate for live with the consequences of your actions, but... in hindsight with other choices, i'd argue it's... from at least a little of that kind of place.

he tries and fails to reason with the first warden. several times. in the heat of weisshaupt, and with the recent conversation with solas about whatever it takes on his mind, he ends up decking the man. the stakes are too high for risking the first warden staying on his high horse again if another attempt at reason fails, is the driver of the decision.

i'd chewed for a while on how that would seem to make tyr's commitment to "talking things through" indicated by that first choice in the bar inconsistent. it all seems justifiable at the time, and he didn't get to the place with the first warden he was out of intentional malice, but he still wound up there.

much of that is natural by the circumstances he was presented. by making calls with the information and under the conditions that were present at the time, as anyone, not just rook, would have to do under such circumstances, if they traded places. sure, some of it is also by solas's engineering of his conversations with rook. by setting them up to be a leader asked to make those hard calls. maybe even for arguably goading them a bit into a situation where whatever it takes was their only feasible option. which neve has a great comment on:

this is, i think, most directly about varric's death, but also, personally, i have to say is applicable for solas's intervention during blood of arlathan.

so, back to blorbo for a moment. tyr begins from a place that mistrusts solas's motives. the I'm quoting you here, "lies, treachery, and rebellion" kind of mistrust. and then, as things progress, as the team unveils more about solas's past in the crossroads and through the murals, it circles back to what I think motivated much of his comment to varric that talking with solas wouldn't work: that even if solas has any regret for what's happened, he's too stubborn to concede, too trapped by the mistakes of that past to ever admit fault, to hear himself sound like the 'gods' he claims to despise. tyr continues to take solas's advice into consideration the whole time, true, because it's... hard to discount the only potentially close to the problem kind of advice and knowledge they don't... exactly otherwise have themselves. he's not sure what the other shoe dropping in that equation is going to look like, but he's more convinced it'll happen than he is entirely happy with the situation.

the murals create... a hunch. or develop it. that rather than just being too prideful about the harm he'll cause by tearing down the veil, that solas is trapped in this plan by his regrets and guilt for actions of the past. at that point, tyr... has a better understanding about how they got to this point, but it kind of only solidifies his reservations that solas might actually be reasoned with.

the one moment this is changed, then, is during blood of arlathan. because frankly i think that was one of the worst experiences tyr has in the entire game. elgar'nan's influence in their minds, and an incident where they're trapped with no conceivable way out and potentially facing down an archdemon again, not so long after weisshaupt that the losses have stopped aching.

whatever his reasons or motivations and whatever else happens, solas saves their lives. tyr can't find a way around that one, and he's not even certain he wants to. because it's one of the definitive moments where he didn't have a plan, and he was terrified the tables had finally turned against them, and they'd fail.

it's not... trust. but tyr's also spent all this time working with his team on this concept that change shouldn't exactly be beyond anyone if there's a little effort put in. and whatever his own feelings are, varric wanted to believe in his old friend, and so does the inquisitor - both people he respects greatly, and he's constantly calculating their desire for a better outcome into the rubix cube that is trying to figure out how to stop the gods.

the problem then, is that solas all but instantly takes advantage of this... lapse. this faint relaxation of tyr's guard against his manipulations. that whole little incident with the fade after ghilan'nain's fall is all but immediately after, and its a betrayal nearly thrice or so over in rapid succession: that varric's been dead this whole time, that solas has manipulated him and how he feels responsibility for the team and the regrets that arise out of having to make hard choices, especially in times like these, and then on the other side of the fade, that solas has gone to minrathous, solas is playing "hero" about it all in tyr's and the shadow dragons' backyard. and to add salt to the wound, in minrathous, it's been blood magic all along.

and, y'know. solas says sorry, says he won't tear down the veil by his own hand, but hands rook the weapon to do it for him. sets them up again. so maybe that's more like... four or five times, depending on your count and categorization of it all.

and rook has a choice about all of this to make, a certain level of peace they have to make with it all to even get out of the fade. and how much to follow varric's advice about don't become what you hate - what you were fighting all along, or trapped by what you lost.

here's tyr's opinion that solas has more than likely been beyond reason because he's too far gone on his own path to even see that he's done exactly that: that he talks like elgar'nan's control, he's just dressing it up in a different way. that he's trapped by what he's lost and sacrificed and admitting that will be too much.

and here's tyr's inescapable bitterness of having been betrayed, of having spent so long trying to be careful with the god of trickery only to have danced right to his tune the whole time. a fiery emotional response for a threat to his home, to minrathous that he's tried very hard to protect and leave a smidgen better than he found it in this whole fight.

by circumstance... and by a little of solas's own design then, rook and solas confront the same trouble of what sacrifice being a leader demands. what cost is too high? how much is too much?

i had the pieces at that point for the ending with mythal, but now i had tyr bitter and a bit more resentful about solas - in a kind of pain about betrayal that was still asking why? about it rather than worried about if regret was present or meaningful. which is where this came from in my head akdfnas;dfnsadf

you're both thinking it. and the endings directly focus on whether or not solas succeeds in tearing down the veil, but the thematic part of it, to me, was... do rook and solas recognize where they might be held back? does tyr act on the pain and resentment of betrayal and swing blindly at solas as repayment? or is it bigger than both of them? is it about posing the question to solas about regret? how much is it like what drove solas to this point to act on that resentment? is it just retaliation? or did either of them learn anything from that prison in the fade?

and that's what makes the parallel, and it's what sets them apart.

and that's how, still, in the end, i have tyr who is willing to choose trying to reason one last time. for the sake of the advice of an old friend. for the people that brought them this far, the ones who chose to believe against the odds. and maybe, even, a little bit for himself. a choice against letting regret and resentment rule.

for the sake of it and because i couldn't get this game out of my head, i checked out the other endings, just to see, and i... think i like sticking with convincing him the best for both of them.

the trick with the dagger swap i think is the only other fitting course of action tyr might've taken from that point, and i think some of its elements reflect similar beats here about... learning from the past, if you will.

the accusation of likeness to the gods is still there. the banter about wits. i am a fool who finally met his match. one might argue that's for underestimating rook, which... fair enough, but i think... it also falls in line with solas's regrets, the appeal to be made to his nature, the... want, in the end, to be proven wrong. to find a 'better' way, as once he suggested to the inquisitor, and as mythal's release from debt and rook and the inquisitor's forgiveness, if you will, finally allows.

and that is... very satisfying to have said between them, when it's been on tyr's mind the whole time. and... they can both be proven wrong this way: for tyr, that solas wasn't beyond listening, and for solas, that there was another way.

for both of them that they could move on from what these trials have made of them, what they have done, and what they endured.

and man... man that was good. and so, so satisfying. it worked, veilguard. you sold me on these two as parallels to each other.

and that's just... one of many things in this game that gave me a lot of emotions, but this has already been. a helluva ramble, so if you've made it this far, congratulations and i salute you, lol.

i'm sure i'll do it all over again and have even more thoughts about even more rooks to throw around and chew on with this and what it'll reflect about each of them and that's. MMM. that's delicious. i loved this game. if my brain and time cooperates, i'm sure i'll have more thoughts and maybe even some writings for it in the future, we'll see where the blorbos take me. xD

[burstbubbbles]

SEASON 3

- okay the camping trip + camino arc is like 3 naruto arcs in one (kota hating heroes and getting saved by deku = that kid from the land of the mist hating heroes and getting saved by naruto, a troop of some bad guys taking bakugo, the deuteragonist, because they want him to join their league = orochimaru's lackeys taking sasuke away, the fact that they had a competition and some exams in order to be able to go to the camping trip = the different parts of the chuunin exams).

- here's the thing i've noticed, before anyone says im comparing bnha to naruto too much: i think horikoshi uses a lot of popular shonnen tropes and pays a bunch of homages to other shonnen manga on purpose. what purpose? the subversion of expectations. here's the thing, if you're a new watcher who has already watched a bunch of different shonnen animes (like me with naruto), when you see bakugo being taken by the league, even if you don't immediately think of sasuke, you still might guess that now bakugo is going to turn evil, because that's how the story usually goes. instead, horikoshi reminds us bakugo isn't sasuke or your average shonnen deuteragonist, and reestablishes the core values of this character. the reason i draw so many parallels to naruto is because it's the shonnen anime im most familiar with, but im sure a one-piece/hxh/bleach/dgbz/etc fan could do the exact same thing.

- tl;dr: what im trying to say is that the ways in which horikoshi draws inspiration from other shonnen anime isn't lazy; it's not that he doesn't have ideas so he copies. i think he's actually very clever in the way he handles all those influences. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

- anyway back to plot

- i can't believe deku's mom gets hate for literally being a good parent. of course she's not going to want her son at UA after everything she's seen. not all anime single mothers can be mito-san (hxh), and they don't need to be.

- deku's arms are like. about to die. and im not saying that this is never brought up again, but i feel like in the later seasons he didn't exactly hold back. although he's literally trying to come up with a technique so that he can use them again, so idk. iida's hand injury hasn't really been brought up yet either.

- i forgot to mention this before, but shigaraki uses a lot of videogame analogies (he calls big heroes "final bosses", for example) in the same way that deku uses a lot of comic book analogies (if this was a comic book, he would be the protagonist" said by deku about todoroki).

- but it's interesting because, in shigaraki, i think this is used to showcase his immaturity: we associate videogames to kids, and so by using these sort of analogies the author reinforces the childish characterization of the antagonist.

- deku, on the other hand, uses comic book analogies for the sake of meta jokes with the audience (saying todoroki would be the protagonist when he's actually the protagonist of his comic book), which goes back to all the different homages and references horikoshi does to other shonnen manga and anime. i think bnha doesn't get enough credit for how meta it is.

- i like how you can tell bakugo is changing during the provisional license exam, not just in regards to his relationship with deku but also with other classmates. like when he's about to be turned into a weird meat-like thing (some guy's quirk) he tosses his weapon to kaminari because he's confident that kaminari will know how to use it.

- lmao deku vs. kacchan pt 2 is really bakugo going "hey btw im traumatized due to recent events but mostly i've always been severely insecure and that's why i bullied you so why did you always follow me?" and deku replying "bitch bffr i hate you but you're like the coolest guy i know"

- i know i've said it a lot but i really love the foil-like relationship of bkdk and how it's written.

- something idk if i have mentioned at this point or not is that i love uraraka and tsuyu. they're my favorite classmate-characters. but honestly, i appreciate much more the effort that the author put into writing each individual character and making them consistent in their personalities, at least up until the end of the third season.

things im noticing as i rewatch bnha, an ongoing thread:

SEASON 1

- deku really was such a nerd lmao he's just like me fr (like i KNEW but i didn't remember how much i could relate to it. oops.)

- it's also interesting that he always fights back against bakugo and calls him an idiot a lot. idk why (probably because of fandom characterization) i remembered early-seasons deku as a lot more innocent and scared of bakugo. like, here's the thing, deku is scared of pretty much everything at the start because he's shy/anxious. he gets nervous talking to most of his classmates (especially, but not only, girls) when he first meets them and starts trembling when he gets elected as class president before handing the role to iida. so basically, his anxiety isn't reserved to bakugo like i remembered – if anything, he seems to get over his fear of getting bullied by him pretty quickly once he realizes he can fight back.

- kaminari tried to ask uraraka out in their first or second day of school and she was like "uhhh i like to eat... uhh... WAIT DEKU CAME BACK FROM THE NURSE'S OFFICE" lol i really didn't remember that

- bakugo's insecurity was always there. as you're reading this you might be thinking i first watched mha with my eyes closed or sth, and you're not very far from the truth. here's the thing, i first watched it when i was like 14-15, so all i knew back then was that bakugo was insufferable and i didn't think further than that. of course, he ended up becoming one of my favorite bnha characters after reading all of the manga, but it's cool to realize his character arc was foreshadowed from the beginning and didn't just magically start around season 3.

- but yeah, anyway, bakugo's insecurity and his envy over deku's natural noble nature was always there, since season 1. also, deku's real admiration over bakugo was also there. like, going back to my other point, deku wasn't just Not Overly Scared of bakugo, he actually looked up to him despite knowing he was deeply flawed. tbh they were always a bit crazy about each other.

- uraraka is so funny i love her.

- all of class 1A was so chaotic good coded

- like they collectively made fun of bakugo on the bus to USJ for being rude lol. they really bonded over their shared dislike for the guy.

- bakugo gets fucking HUMBLED all of s1. i would also be irrationally angry ngl.

- the dialogues in the first season sometimes are so unnatural for the sake of exposition, like all might telling recovery girl: "do you mind not talking so loudly ab OFA? only you, a close friend, the principal, and midoriya know about OFA. but most professors and some pro heroes also know about my condition and not being able to fight for more than 3 hours a day" like WHO TALKS LIKE THAT ??!1?1?

- deku had to go to recovery girl's office a total of 4 times (if i counted correctly) for broken limbs of fingers in HIS FIRST WEEK of school. which is funnier considering no one else from class 1A had to go even once.

- damn shigaraki was a skinny legend before he got OP

- aizawa did not react at all when he first saw kurogiri (about the shirakumo thing). that was surprising.

- also. AIZAWA IS SO BADASS?? like yes i knew he was badass from the later seasons, but i genuinely didn't remember his first fighting sequence at USJ where he single-handedly fights like at least 20 villains.

- i had also forgotten that shigaraki calls eraserhead "really cool" so early on in the anime, i thought it was a later-seasons thing.

- this is really obvious but i had forgotten the all might theme's resemblance to superman's theme. it's such a cool little detail tho!

- uraraka and deku definitely were crushing on each other when they first met, but i think it's nice that they ended up developing a really strong friendship instead of getting together after hori didn't consistently develop them romantically. it also makes a lot more sense narratively, like why would we care who deku ends up with at the end of his first year of UA when the story actually ends 8 years after that, and it's very unlikely that you marry the same person you started dating when you were 15. idk, i liked that. i like that you can have two characters who maybe have a crush on each other but can't focus on that due to Circumstances and eventually move on and become good friends. it's a win for the platonic department!

- the animation was kinda bad in the first season 😭 but it's understandable and i had fun watching it regardless.

okay im done with s1 tune in for s2 !!

[alongtidesoflight]

so here's my honest thoughts on dragon age: the veilguard, after ~40 hours of playing. i finished the main quest after having finished all companion quests and major faction quests. just to clear up what content i saw, i played as an elven transmasc rook who is a member of the lords of fortune. he romanced lucanis (although after finishing the game i'm now leaning towards taash). i don't know what's happening in playthroughs that have a different race, gender identity, romance or faction going on.

full spoilers ahead, i mean it. don't read further if you want to avoid them. i don't want complaining about it in my asks.

oh and also, if you're worried because of a few negative reviews online i can comfort you by saying don't give a fuck about a certain big name youtuber who is very much tied to bethesda franchises giving this a negative review. i'll explain why.

i'm starting off with the things i liked

the game looks really pretty. i was worried it wouldn't feel like thedas anymore (with them trying to "focus on northern thedas only" i thought they'd make a clear cut in environmental design. they do and they don't. it's complicated. i'll elaborate on it when talking about the negative stuff). anyway it does. minrathous feels like kirkwall. treviso enchanted me like the winter palace did. the hossberg wetlands reminded me of the hinterlands and a couple other inquisition maps. arlathan looked like... arlathan. the crossroads were different, but familiar. overall i like the way it looks and feels. it's thedas, with a twist. it's a good one, and gives everything a solid but unique feel.

combat is top tier. if you're a hardcore dragon age player you WILL miss the tactical aspect of it for a bit, but i promise you, once you're used to the way the combat works, you will be lapping that shit up. and once you get to ability combos you'll mourn the control you used to have over your companions in battle a bit less

the MAIN quest and its story. i expected worse, way worse. and for a while the game even had me tricked (harr harr you'll get it in a second) it is Really That Much Worse. but holy shit was it good. i walked away satisfied ngl.

your choices have SOLID weight. there's consequences, good AND bad. i got minrathous blighted, ruled over by venatori, and the leader of the shadow dragons ultimately died because of my decisions. i made those at the beginning and throughout the game. he died at the end. DAVRIN died because i didn't expect what i was saying to have that much weight. i thought i was in the clear. he had hero status. well turns out, your choices can still get your companions killed even if you do everything right. i fucking love him. he shouldn't have made that sacrifice just because i told him to do everything it takes once.

the inquisitor, morrigan and dorian being there, surprisingly. there's also negatives to this though, see below.

speaking of companions dying and the inquisitor playing a bigger role: the final quest feels like me2's suicide mission. i was blown away by it and the fact that i got to see the results of all my efforts playing out in front of me.

bioware are NOT trying to redeem solas. they love him as a character yes, but i wasn't forced to see any good in him. he betrays you. he fucked my rook over twice. he fucked him over right back, for good this time (the veil wasn't torn down, i anchored it by binding him to it, he's doomed to uphold it). but solas really lives up to his name as the trickster elven god. rip to all the people who grew really attached to him over the years.

varric died. if you like him that's probably as hard reading it as it was watching it. varric died and the game lies about it until the very end. when the realisation hits, it hurts. but in the very best way.

the amount of care they put into gender expression and trans identities this time around. (i'll add onto this with negative points as well too).

rook feels very much ingrained in the world of thedas. he doesn't ask questions that expose the player to lore through dialogue as if he's stepped foot into thedas for the first time. those conversations feel very solid and good. i hope other faction players got as much joy out of this as i did.

and the things i didn't like and boy there's a lot unfortunately

the music. let's just get that out of the way holy shit. it doesn't feel like it belongs in this universe. it gets so incredibly sci-fi-y at times you'd think it's taken straight from mass effect andromeda. there's not a single song unique to veilguard that i really enjoyed. it broke my immersion, real bad. hearing a busker play the tavern songs from inquisition on a lute right after i killed some venatori with wobbly bass songs playing in the background is just odd. weird tonal shift. don't like it. it's made for people who like flashy light-weight cinema.

tevinter nights is required reading. the podcasts are required listening exercises. the game is so fast paced, especially at the start, that there's no time to introduce you to characters and how much weight their names carry in-game. i would not have known who half these people are if i hadn't skimmed over tevinter nights. i'd care even less about them than i already did. there is no time to get properly attached to them. people will act as if you're talking to a legend personified and you'll be thinking man goddamn which chapter of tevinter night were they in again and what did they do???

there's a weird mismatch with the animations. you'll have beautifully fluid ones, like emmrich casting spells. and then you'll have rook's face animating in the most unnatural manner that's sorta reminiscent of mass effect andromeda's "my face is tired" addison, when their emotions SHOULD be landing with the player rn instead.

i'm not vibing with the art style. sometimes it works. most of the time it doesn't. at points i felt like i was watching tangled.

that also brings me to some of the dialogue. same issue. i am watching frozen. i am watching tangled. someone on the writer's team really likes the adorkable trope. bellara is its victim.

for all the talk about identity, bioware sure doesn't like theirs. the grey warden armor got a redesign again and it just makes them look like a generic army. i hate it lol

in general, i don't like the armor design. the wardrobe/appearances system is fine, but it's just not helping if all the armors are just... kinda bland or downight bad looking? and don't get me started on the lords of fortune armor. that is orientalism personified.

the world states should have been carried over, full stop. i know they said they didn't because they want to separate what happens in the north from what happens in the south, which... i could have lived with that. but the inquisitor sends you letters that keep you up to date on... the south of thedas. you learn that there's a blight again, that people are standing strong but it's difficult, denerim's fallen, the rulers are taking care of it, orlais is fighting and they're successful for a while, etc etc. what's good bioware. i thought we don't care about the south this time around. why are you feeding me so much boring generic information. if you're not gonna show any of it and just write letters, then carrying the world state over should not have been an issue. i have a game dev background. those few lines of code would not have broken your budget or pushed your engine's limits. fuck right off.

this gripe of mine carries over to all the cameos. as a lord of fortune you have to deal with isabela a lot. it's fun. i missed her. you get to go drinking with her and taash and bellara! also my hawke romanced her. she's not mentioned once. they had the opportunity to put a sentence or two about her in there with not a lot of effort, trust me.

when varric dies, all she has is a single line about it. for gold, for fortune, for varric. she only says it if you interact with her on your way to the final push. that's not mandatory.

morrigan is there. kieran isn't. the old god soul that mythal and then solas absorbed? who cares at this point, the gods are dead now and solas is locked away for eternity. i suppose? why is morrigan there. she feels unneeded. i wish they'd just left her down south, at least that way i wouldn't have had to witness her god awful redesign.

dorian at least feels as if he belongs in this story. the shadow dragons are a crucial part to protecting minrathous. he's also weirdly underutilised. isabela and morrigan had more lines than him in my playthrough.

on the topic of romance: bro that was underwhelming. no, genuinely. you know when romance picked up a bit? after the point of no return. i heard maybe two lines of companion banter about it before that. maybe i missed something which i honestly doubt, but romance did not play much of a role in lucanis's storyline. i saved his grandmother as he wished me to (and if you read tevinter nights you know she was rather abusive and their relationship not the healthiest) and told him to focus on his family. a reunified family my rook wasn't even introduced to as a partner at the end of all that.

really, do not buy this game if you're only in it for the romances. others might be better, lucanis's basically gave me nothing. except for an outing (the second coffee date i had with him, it was getting repetitive) all of it played out once i committed to the final quest. the sex scene was a fade to black. annoyingly right after davrin died. if you're looking for well paced and good spice, pick up something else. the sweet talk and the final goodbye were nice though.

for all the good the ever-presence of gender identity does, it is brought up in such a disruptive manner too. it doesn't even play out naturally if you CHOOSE the lines that are meant to be said. hearing the words trans and non-binary in this setting doesn't feel right, and i'm saying this as a trans guy. i think it could have been handled more gracefully. the amount of times my rook went "i'm a MAN" as if he's about to start drumming on his chest and roaring any second now got super nerve-grating. "i'm so glad you're into me... the me who is trans. remember?" just. tell me one trans person who'd talk like that to a person they've grown close with and are trying to romance. this game doesn't handle sexuality well, so all this hey my body might not look like the way you're expecting it to look talk amounts to nothing anyway. i feel about this the way i feel about krem: this is partial exposition to trans experiences... packaged up for cis consumption. the ONLY exception to that is interacting with taash. holy shit was all of that heartwarming and bro did it feel good and natural to talk to them about theirs and rook's gender.

rivain and nevarra are new locations added by veilguard. they're also incredibly underwhelming, small and constricted maps. rivain is a coastline with a few ruins. the hall of valor is a partial ruin nestled into a cave on a beach, with a fighting pit. isabela is there in her skimpy outfit commentating your pit fights. that's it. i'm sorry if you were looking for a bustling pirate cove or whatever. you're not gonna get it. the nevarran crypts btw are a long ass dungeon crawl. that's it.

speaking of maps. i thought people were being dramatic when they said you're gonna be fighting the same enemies on them again and again. i thought they were figure of speeching it. they're not. you WILL fight the same amount of enemies. in the same spot. every time you reload the map. best to stay on a map and clear out the enemies and do as much questing on that map as you can before leaving, because you WILL have to do it all over again once you return.

the three choices i made for my inquisitor didn't matter lol she didn't have to face solas and therefore couldn't stop him at any cost as she had sworn (maybe because my rook tricked solas into binding himself to the veil, there was also an option to fight him. would she have stepped in? who knows). blackwall wasn't mentioned. and either her using a small amount of her forces in the final fight was the reason the civilians of minrathous fared so well..... or it just didn't matter. ultimately i think she had very little impact on anything

[seventeendeer]

just watched the barbie movie everyone was discoursing about last year and I can't help but feel like a lot of the problems in its execution could have been avoided if the kid character's arc had been about learning to embrace girly stuff as an act of rebellion against the adultification of teen girls while barbie went full butch transmasc

[turtlespancake]

me when i write a character who is prone to dooming themself and then they run off and doom themself. core traits are stubbornness and a willingness to disregard their own humanity gET BACK HERE IM NOT DONE WITH YOU