#but i mean???

[literatemisfit]

I'm imagining Sylvester McCoy calling to check on David and share kind words so Georgia passes him her phone bc of course he calls Georgia's phone 😂

[mentalmeles]

OKAY.

Finished my first playthrough a hot minute ago, but got to talking with my roommate about my thoughts and feelings, so now I'm gonna put them down here! Spoilers under the cut obviously--

What I liked:

The fight atop the brain was SO cool. Struggled with it a bit at first, but once I figured out what I had to do, it became a really fun experience! Being able to summon all of my allies was so rewarding too ❤

Orpheus' sacrifice was so utterly sad that I started crying over having to kill him despite not knowing him for too long. He chastised me when I first freed him, sure, but he was a wonderful ally and a true prince to his people. I wish there was a way to save him, but alas...

Going straight from Orpheus into Lae'zel's ending. Honestly the best ending of the origin characters, hands down. The way she earnestly tells you that she'll never forget you, her promise to make sure that none of her people will either, and the sad smile she gives before flying off on Orpheus' dragon and into the Astral Sea--presumably never to be seen again... Gods, it was beautifully bittersweet. I don't even want to imagine what would've happened had I tried to persuade her to stay. It wouldn't have felt right either way. My only complaint is that I would've loved to give her a hug. I'd even settle for a handshake or something, but oh well

Karlach and Wyll going to Avernus together really felt like a 'just married' celebration tbh. Only with more fire and bloodshed, which is honestly way cooler

What I didn't like:

I really wish there was a cinematic after you kill the Emperor during the final fight. After being used and manipulated by him for so long, you'd think there would be SOMETHING. I mean, the game is named after him for crying out loud! But nope! Just a one liner from the character that ended him and that's it

Astarion's ending was like a kick to the stomach. You spend so much time showing this man that love and joy still exists in this world and that he doesn't have to be like his abuser in order to find it and he becomes so, so grateful to you for it...but he ends up like that?? Burning in the sunlight and left running away in agony all alone?? Why didn't Tav or literally anyone else simply cover him up and shield him from the sun?? We all become friends--family, even--and yet we all presumably abandon him to a life of solitude in the darkness?? And don't even get me started how jarring it is to see THAT and then watch everyone immediately run towards Karlach when she starts dying ldkfjs

There's no celebration scene like Gale mentioned. Why couldn't we have had a nice, traditional DnD tavern moment where everyone is drinking and laughing and having a wonderful time together? Hell, we could've even had this little celebration run late into the night and Astarion shows up! It would've been so nice 😭

Lastly, where is my lovely, domestic cinematic of me and Shadowheart living happily together, surrounded by a multitude of animals big and small and colorful flowers?? WHERE IS IT, LARIAN?? WHERE???

All in all, a fantastic game. I just wish Act 3 was as fleshed out as Acts 1 and 2. I heard that we're supposed to consider the character endings as early access but idk if that's true or not.

Does it change my feelings about the endings? Not at all. Will I play the game again anyway?

DAMN STRAIGHT!!!

[ibenology]

the average twitter vs tumblr community experience

[daftpatience]

slow down for your disabled friends. thats like a bare minimum kindness that we shouldnt have to ask for. i love that youre so quirky and walking fast is a cool personality trait to you and all that but i bet you can count your physically disabled friends on less than one hand

[twinliches]

(grabs you by the shoulders) you have to make room for new experiences in your life. you have to go through the unpleasant work of leaving your comfort zone, even if just for a few minutes at a time. because if you don't, your brain will trick you into stagnation. you will start to believe that the world can barely fit you in it. but that's not true. it's the opposite way around. you can fit the whole word inside of you. your task is only this: to welcome it with open arms

[koobiie]

shoutout to everyone who wants to infodump but cant string together coherent thoughts to form sentences and instead just look at you like this

[bookwyrminspiration]

sometimes a theme recurs in your work without your permission. and sometimes it reaches a threshold where you're like. well now i think this is saying something about me against my will. don't know what though

[noodles-07]

to be fair to Cain if nobody had ever died before and I didn't know it was possible I would probably also hit my brother over the head with a rock if he was being really annoying

[omatoxin]

fish song

[mmelete]

i wish ao3 allowed people to give kudos per each chapter. These 100k word NOVELS need more love than 200 tiny digital hearts ☹️

[spitblaze]

[guy who doesnt watch shows voice] yeah ive been meaning to watch that show

[charaznablespeteevee]

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[shadesofmauve]

I want to step away from the art-vs-artist side of the Gaiman issue for a bit, and talk about, well, the rest of it. Because those emotions you're feeling would be the same without the art; the art just adds another layer.

Source: I worked with a guy who turned out to be heavily involved in an international, multi-state sex-slavery/trafficking ring.

He was really nice.

Yeah.

It hits like a dumptruck of shit. You don't feel stable in your world anymore. How could someone you interacted with, liked, also be a truly horrible person? How could your judgement be that bad? How can real people, not stylized cartoon bogeymen, be actually doing this shit?

You have to sit with the fact that you couldn't, or probably couldn't, have known. You should have no guilt as part of this horror — but guilt is almost certainly part of that mess you're feeling, because our brains do this associative thing, and somehow "I liked [the version of] the guy [that I knew]", or his creations, becomes "I made a horrible mistake and should feel guilty."

You didn't, loves, you didn't.

We're human, and we can only go by the information we have. And the information we have is only the smallest glimpse into someone else's life.

I didn't work closely with the guy I knew at work, but we chatted. He wasn't just nice; he was one of the only people outside my tiny department who seemed genuinely nice in a workplace that was rapidly becoming incredibly toxic. He loaned me a bike trainer. Occasionally he'd see me at the bus stop and give me a lift home.

Yup. I was a young woman in my twenties and rode in this guy's car. More than once.

When I tell this story that part usually makes people gasp. "You must feel so scared about what could have happened to you!" "You're so lucky nothing happened!"

No, that's not how it worked. I was never in danger. This guy targeted Korean women with little-to-no English who were coerced and powerless. A white, fluent, US citizen coworker wasn't a potential victim. I got to be a person, not prey.

Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says "Something is off here, watch out"?

Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around.

That's what rattled me the most about this. I liked to think of myself as willing to stand up for people with less power than me. I worked with Japanese exchange students in college and put myself bodily between them and creeps, and I sure as hell got that little alarm when some asian-schoolgirl fetishist schmoozed on them. But we were all there.

I had to learn that the alarm won't go off when the hunter isn't hunting. That it's not the solid indicator I might've thought it was. That sometimes this is what the privilege of not being prey does; it completely masks your ability to detect the horrors that are going on.

A lot of people point out that 'people like that' have amazing charisma and ability to lie and manipulate, and that's true. Anyone who's gotten away with this shit for decades is going to be way smoother than the pathetic little hangers-on I dealt with in university. But it's not just that. I seriously, deeply believe that he saw me as a person, and he did not extend personhood to his victims. We didn't have a fake coworker relationship. We had a real one. And just like I don't know the ins-and-outs of most of my coworkers lives, I had no idea that what he did on his down time was perpetrate horrors.

I know this is getting off the topic, but it's so very important. Especially as a message to cis guys: please understand that you won't recognize a creep the way you might think you will. If you're not the preferred prey, the hind-brain alarm won't go off. You have to listen to victims, not your gut feeling that the person seems perfectly nice and normal. It doesn't mean there's never a false accusation, but face the fact that it's usually real, and you don't have enough information to say otherwise.

So, yeah. It fucking sucks. Writing about this twists my insides into tense knots, and it was almost a decade ago. I was never in danger. No one I knew was hurt!

Just countless, powerless women, horrifically abused by someone who was nice to me.

You don't trust your own judgement quite the same way, after. And as utterly shitty as it is, as twisted up and unstead-in-the-world as I felt the day I found out — I don't actually think that's a bad thing.

I think we all need to question our own judgement. It makes us better people.

I don't see villains around every corner just because I knew one, once. But I do own the fact that I can't know, really know, about anyone except those closest to me. They have their own full lives. They'll go from the pinnacles of kindness to the depths of depravity — and I won't know.

It's not a failing. It's just being human. Something to remember before you slap labels on people, before you condemn them or idolize them. Think about how much you can't know, and how flawed our judgement always is.

Grieve for victims, and the feeling of betrayal. But maybe let yourself off the hook, and be a bit slower to skewer others on it.

[moki-dokie]

i'm like actually legitimately loving that the result of the tiktok ban is decimating decades of propaganda against china in record time. everyone is flocking to the actual chinese-owned version of tiktok called rednote where they are being welcomed so warmly with the silliest jokes like "i'm your assigned chinese spy! i've been waiting for you! welcome!" alskdjgsld. folks are already making attempts to learn some mandarin to better interact with the chinese users. everyone realizing what our own government collects on us is twice as harmful as anything ccp could do with it. everyone waking up to the fact that every fucking facet of the american internet is designed to harvest and sell personal data off of you so what the fuck does it actually matter anyway if one more entity does it. us government managed to speedrun undoing their own fucking brainwashing it's so goddamn funny.