#but I like him all in all

[phoenix-flamed]

I've been contemplating the last few days doing a complete overhaul of my muse, but ultimately have decided against it for a multitude of reasons -- and one of them is this headcanon.

My Elwin is an incredibly flawed man. He makes mistakes. In fact, he fucks up -- a lot. He fucks up as a father, and as a husband, and as a ruler. He even fucks up as a friend.

I know the game itself has this weird tendency to sort of almost paint him as this altruistic paragon of virtue by the way that the people of Rosaria talk about him, but not only is their opinion of him understandably biased, it's also not something I see as being the case at all, even canonically.

The approach I always try to take with my muse is that he tries to be these things. He tries to be selfless; he will give everything for his people. He will do anything for his people. He will sacrifice anything for his people, including the safety and immediate well-being of his own ill child; he sacrifices his relationships with his family, especially his sons, and he sets himself on fire again and again for the good of his people.

But this is not selflessness, in my opinion. This is selfishness while trying to be selfless. These sacrifices that he chooses to make for the good of his people do not just impact him, they negatively impact other people like his family as well. They don't just mean that he's giving up the bond he could have with his children, they also mean that he's robbing his boys of their father. It's things like that, if that makes sense?

He chooses to, overall, disregard the fact that he and Anabella do not agree on so many significant matters, and that the High Houses are very much against him and his agenda. He chooses to stand against them and push onward, because he believes it is right, and he believes it is just, and that it is for the greater good of everyone, including his family. But what he doesn't take into account is the fact that these choices, these decisions do not just impact him, again; they impact everyone around him as well, everyone that is close to him, including his own family.

He convinces himself that the choices he makes, the sacrifices he makes, the awful things he does, the blood that he spills -- all of these things are what needs to be done for the sake of his people. And this is not true. This is just a way for him to assuage some of the guilt he feels for making decisions that he doesn't want to make, yet goes ahead and does anyway, because in his eyes it's what's best for his people.

My favorite example of this is the situation with the Northern Territories, and his choice to bring Jill to Rosaria.

It's always, always what he believes is best for his people. Key word there is "believes". Just because you believe something is justified or "right" does not mean that it is justified or "right"; it doesn't work that way, nor do good intentions automatically mean that the outcome will be good or positive. You can have all of the best intentions in the world, but in the face of cause and effect and of consequences to one's actions, intentions mean absolutely nothing.

I could go on and on about my thoughts and views of this man, and how I strive to portray him, and the complexities of what he chooses to do and how he thinks, and how they translate into and impact his family and his people, but I'll sum it all up with this:

He's human. He is flawed. He is imperfect on all levels. He does good things, he does bad things. He can be kindhearted and compassionate and gentle and happy, and he can be ruthless and cruel and angry and emotional. He can be loving and devoted, and he can be narrow-minded and selfish. He's more than just this positive force of good and benevolence -- he is human, and he is messy and complex, and contradictory, and he is morally grey.

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[kavaleyre]

• The Hanged Man •

“Compared to what Falin went through? This is nothing.”

[archi-pelago]

maybe never forgive. but things are different now. so we'll use maybe.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Everyone loves FNAF music man.. even Michael

[hinamie]

mentor

[mintaikk]

Most underrated part of the Deadpool & Wolverine movie is when Deadpool mentions that his girlfriend left him, and Wolverine's first response was to say, "You had a girlfriend???" because he genuinely can not fathom that this man is into women

[bbbbbbbbatman]

Bruce keeping a tighter and tighter lid on his identity around the Justice League because with each new person to reveal their identity he realizes that he has fucked far too high a percentage of his co workers as Bruce Wayne and he has to take this secret to his grave

[stickyvoidpaper]

Dick : Jasons been more, relaxed lately. It's unsettling.

Tim : Yeah, I've started spiking his water with mood stabilizers.

Dick : What

Tim : I've been thinking of doing it to the wider gotham water supply. Think about the crime rates.

[aristoteliancomplacency]

Guys.

Y’all.

I…

I just. I just… i have discovered something. And I have laughed too much. I have laughed every time I have tried to explain it to someone. I cannot get through this.

Look. Okay.

There are two things you need to know, here.

First: There’s a style of Greek pottery that was popular during the Hellenic period, for which most of the surviving examples are from southern Italy. We call them ‘fish plates’ because, well, they’re plates, and they’re decorated with fish (and other marine life).

Like this one, currently in the Met:

Or this one, currently in the Cleveland Museum of Art:

They’re very cool. We’re not 100% sure what they were for, because most of the surviving ones were found as grave goods, but that’s a different post.

The second thing you need to know is that when we (Classics/archaeology/whatever as a discipline) have a collection of artefacts, like vases, sculptures, paintings, etc. and we do not know the name of the artist, but we’re pretty sure one artist made X, Y and Z artefacts, we come up with a name for that artist. There are a whole bunch of things that could be the source for the name, e.g. where we found most of their work (The Dipylon Master) or the potter with whom they worked (the Amasis Painter), a favourite theme (The Athena Painter), the Museum that ended up with the most famous thing they did (The Berlin Painter) or a notable aspect of their style. Like, say, The Eyebrow Painter.

Guess what kind of pottery the Eyebrow Painter made?

[ochiody]

give odysseus loser hair please. thanks supergiant

[taohs]

nanami protecting the kids

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

Macaque spent the whole season Big-Damn-Hero-ing and was NOT happy about it xD

[lemongogo]

life of regret

[bastardlybonkers]

i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

ok yknow what Edit: i shouldve made it even more explicit at the end of this post, i hadnt thought i would need to since i started the post with this, but i think a few too many people are missing my point so i just wanna clarify. i shouldnt have said 'really clashed' and left it at that because yeah they did, but it wasnt just their opposite methods of communication, it is also very much that toshiro was experiencing microaggressions via laios. it may have been unintentional on laios's part, but it still happened and wore him down, made it harder for him to communicate on top of both the more subtle social cues that he was raised with and his own communication difficulties. i also want to say that the fandom reaction to toshiro and the complete ignorance of this point is also racist tbh or at the very least ignorant. i understand that the anime did not cover this panel, and neither did the manga, as this was an omake, but im gonna be real with you guys. there are enough context clues within the story to clue you into this. if you didnt pick up on it thats ok, but i think this is a good lesson in picking up subtext in the stories that youre watching and/or reading. kui shouldnt have to explicitly say 'by the way laios was racist to toshiro' for this point to be understood, and at the very least, when the author portrays a character in a sympathetic light (as kui clearly does) it should make you question Why they are doing so and what makes them sympathetic, rather than youre immediate and only reaction to be 'well i hated what this guy did/said so i hate them and they suck'. idk exactly how to finish this, just. idk. question your biases and gut reactions to things you see in media and stories, and think about whether or not theres subtext that youre missing.

[chloesimaginationthings]

“Cassidy, stop doing the FNAF golden Freddy pose”