#but its important to know that they aren’t either. that they’re not a hero on a quest to save anyone or free anything.

[quietwingsinthesky]

the thing about me is that i will be obsessed with characters who revolve around each other and will forever and ever even if they don’t know it and who tear each other apart but also are the only reason each other exist

[physalian]

Segway Characters (Or when your protagonist knows jack about the story)

This is the protagonist of a sci-fi or fantasy world, generally a nobody who gets dragged in either by circumstance or by being the long-lost-something prophesied to save the realm. They know absolutely nothing about the plot, the other characters, the magic system, or the new world, the audience proxy that asks all the questions on the audience’s behalf.

I call them Segways (read; not segue) because they look dumb and you ride their ass through the narrative.

This is a very, very broad concept for a protagonist, everybody from a superhero origin story to Harry Potter, as opposed to a character like James Bond, an expert in their craft and a *seasoned protagonist*.

Segways usually aren’t a problem… until it becomes rather painfully obvious that they only exist to be the audience proxy to ask those questions, when another character could and should be the protagonist because they’re far more interesting, usually because the protagonist is way less cool and active in the plot than their constituents. Or, they’re a perfectly fine character, but the exposition dumping to them is sloppy and unrefined.

The difference between just a protagonist and a Segway is how smoothly they integrate into that story.

So.

—

Inception

I love this movie. It has inspired so much of my writing.

Ariadne is a poster child of Segway characters. Aside from the villain, Mal, she’s the only woman in the cast, and though Dom (DiCaprio) is the hero, Ariadne is his protege, the audience vector through which all the world mechanics and important backstory stuff is told. Every other character already knows how dream heists work and who Mal is, so explaining redundant information between experts would look weird—enter the Segway, Ariadne.

For what it’s worth, she’s not useless otherwise. She’s the new ‘architect,’ she builds the mazes the rest of the team runs through and is the innocent cinnamon roll dragged into problems that Dom created. Her name could not be a more heavy-handed symbol.

She’s active in the story and her perspective foils against Dom’s well enough, but Inception is a movie with layers and an infamous amount of necessary exposition to understand the story. Someone has to be there to ask all the questions the audience has. Ariadne unfortunately gets the lion’s share, instead of the script figuring out how to weave more of it into the interactions of the other characters. They spent so much time on the complex narrative it’s like they forgot about a layman audience and threw her in too late for a seamless integration.

—

Netflix’s The Old Guard is better than it should be, given its budget. I didn’t read the comic it was based on and have no idea if Nile’s character is the same in the original, but she’s another Segway with only one reason for existing in the plot otherwise: Andy’s got to pass the torch to someone.

Yes she comes to save them in the end and yes, her advantage in the story is being unknown to the villains, but she’s there, in this version of the story, so the other four heroes can info-dump to her about all manner of things from how immortality works to their backstories to the setup for the sequel the movie never got.

I just rewatched it recently and if the script just had two or three passes to tackle the exposition problem, it could have off-loaded some of the burden onto other characters, or better told it through action, and not just info-dumpy monologues. When the movie came out I remember a critic I like commenting that it could have been a more interesting story if it had been told from the sympathetic villain’s perspective (Not Dudley’s). As in, if he was on a mission with all his conspiracy-level research and dedication to track these people down, throwing out his own theories for them to then correct or something.

Like this, the story is just waiting for Nile to ask the right questions. Nothing is volunteered freely without Nile directly asking for it, because it runs into the same problem as Inception: Every other character already knows everything, and they wouldn’t exposit to each other.

—

A lot of isekai anime also do this. I’ve tried getting into older, tentpole shows like Sailor Moon and Bleach and Yu Yu Hakusho and I don’t know what it is about anime pilot episodes, even modern ones but particularly the old ones, the exposition dumping is atrocious. To the point where it feels like they all know it and are like “listen just bear with us and we’ll get this done fast and sloppy and get to the good stuff later”.

I just can’t. I think I made it 15 minutes into Bleach before noping out of there years ago.

—

Obviously all these movies and shows have their fans, but if you’re a writer struggling with exposition or noticed this trend like me, here’s some suggestions to avoid the need to info-dump, assuming you do want to keep your Segway.

Try not to give all the exposition questions to one character, and don’t wait for that character to ask, out-of-character on behalf of the audience, what’s going on in the story. Instead, let it flow more naturally in conversation and let the more experienced characters brainstorm with each other, or let the protagonist uncover some of this information actively on their own through other means, for variety’s sake.

Figure out a reason why these questions are necessary to the story in this moment. Why is the hero asking now, as opposed to any other time? You can also let the hero draw their own conclusions and have the other characters correct their misassumptions, feeding that information in a more natural way.

Give the hero more to do in the story beyond being the exposition vehicle right from the start. I don’t care if they’re the chosen one and the plot just falls into their lap, why are they the chosen one?

Spread out the exposition to come only when it’s necessary. Front-loading it can tarnish the immersion and overwhelm the audience, especially if it’s complex, or if there’s a lot of it. You can pepper it all the way through the story if you want.

If you really want to front-load it, you can go to the extremes and slap in a prologue or meta-narrative dump that’s fun and entertaining from a third person omniscient perspective. First thing that comes to mind is the opening 2D scene from Kung Fu Panda that covers a lot of ground. Go ham.

None of these characters are bad, I just think with a few more rounds of revisions and forethought, they could have been integrated better into their stories.

[professionalranter31]

So I mentioned in a previous post how Overwatch has a lot of factions that aren’t expanded upon a lot, so I’ve got a list of my top five that are currently represented and my top five that I wish got representation

We’ll start with the ones that currently have representation

Number five is Oasis, represented by Moira who is their Minister of Genetics however we do know in lore that there are other ministers so they could be playable in the future or someone else who works within Oasis

In the same vein as Oasis at Number four we got the Atlantic Arcology which is represented by Lifeweaver. It’s a similar place to Oasis where many great minds live in order to try and further research in various fields and I just feel like both of them should have more representation given the significance they most likely have with advancements in the Overwatch Universe

Number Three is Blackwatch, we only know of four of them and one them also doubles as representation for Overwatch. I want to know more about the black ops of Overwatch, like, did they have a tank?

Number two is the MEKA Squad, with what we know of them in lore is surprisingly little and I’m gonna be honest the vibes I’ve gotten from the lore is that D.Va does most of the work and I want to be proven wrong about that. Plus, the Genshin are meant to be this big threat but it’s hard to take it as a threat when we are only able to see the capabilities of one of Korea’s defenders

And at Number One, the Inti Tribe because why the absolute FUCK is Illari labeled as its only defender!? No seriously, she is fucking 18 why is she treated in lore as her tribe’s only defender. If she was their tribe’s only sun warrior that’s a different thing but she’s working with others to defend their tribe but the Sun Warriors made up the bulk of the defenses so at least then it still gives to the tragedy of her explosion while not leaving the literal eighteen year old as the only defender of an entire giant tribe I want an explanation Blizzard!!! I will crawl into your office like a demon possessed and tear through whatever lore books you have in there to find my answers give them to me!!!

On to the factions that don’t have representation within Overwatch that I feel should have it

At Number five we got the Hashimoto. They’re meant to Kiriko’s main enemy and as of the recent Hanzo short story his as well but they just feel like a dime a dozen goons from what we have seen. Like how Null Sector began to feel like more of a threat after Ramattra was added I feel like the Hashimoto would be seen as more dangerous if we actually got a hero to represent them

At Number Four, the Gwishin. Sort of the same story like with the Hashimoto except we do have some idea of what they are capable of, no what I want a hero to represent them for is how they happened in the first place and how they are able to adapt like they do

At Number three the Wastelanders of Australia, they’re the outcasts of the junkers and what Junker Queen used to be when she was exiled. It shows a new perspective on the Australian Wasteland that’s different from the Junkers

At Number two we got the UN. Look, given how big of a deal the UN is in the larger story of Overwatch I just feel like having a hero to represent them would be pretty good in terms of lore and generally either a character who is morally grey or a villain

At Number one we have the God AI. We currently know the names of four God AI, Anubis, Chernobog, Xibalba, and Macaria. Given the massive importance the God AI have in the lore of Overwatch I’m genuinely surprised that not one of them has been made into a playable hero. I’m also kinda impressed that Blizzard hasn’t released a hero that is just them taking a god from mythology and translating that into an FPS. Anyway, given the various purposes the AI had there’s plenty of ways to design their kits around it and there have been hints that some of the God AI achieved some level of Sentience such as Chernobog’s lore. So yeah, I want them represented in game

[featheredenby]

Mother Of The Spores

“Hello to you too, pretty boy,” Cuteguy greets him,”Now tell me what exactly are you doing in woods that are owned by a witch?”

Written by: FeatheredEnby

Word Count: 2,222

Part Four of: Show Your Fangs

A Super Hero AU of Empires SMP/The Life Series/Hermitcraft

She has to be quick as she plants it, if anyone were to see her she would be done for. As the red clad figure makes her way through the forest she gathers the herbs and mushrooms that are needed to set the trap. She shoves them all into a small pouch that sits at her waist and goes over the list in her head, rosemary, belladonna, mandrake, and white lily along with inky cap mushrooms, fly agarics, and shiitakes. Using these she can do what The King has requested, and as she thinks this she reaches the desired location. It's a large cave in one of the forest’s many glades, and just inside she places the items needed for the spell, before beginning to cast. 

“ᓵ𝙹ᒲʖ╎リᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷᓭᒷ ╎ℸ ̣ ᒷᒲᓭ ᔑリ↸ ⊣╎⍊ᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷᒲ ᔑ ꖎ╎⎓ᒷ ᔑᓭ ᔑリ ᒷリℸ ̣ ╎ℸ ̣ || 𝙹⎓ !¡𝙹∴ᒷ∷ ᔑリ↸ ᓵ𝙹リℸ ̣ ∷𝙹ꖎ, ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ ᔑ ᒲ𝙹リℸ ̣ ⍑ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ|| ∴╎ꖎꖎ ℸ ̣ ᔑꖌᒷ 𝙹⍊ᒷ∷ ╎リ ⍑𝙹!¡ᒷᓭ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣  ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ᓭ╎ꖎꖎ|| ꖎ╎ℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ꖎᒷ ⍑ᒷ∷𝙹ᒷᓭ ∴╎ꖎꖎ ᓵ𝙹ᒲᒷ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ╎リ⍊ᒷᓭℸ ̣ ╎⊣ᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ.”, and with that it’s done and she can return to the city.

-

It had been about five in the morning when Scar had gotten the call telling him to report to The GFHA headquarters at seven, and now it’s nine and he’s hiking through the local dark oak forest with Cub, one of The GFHA’s top scientists. As they walk he feels like there’s something watching him but that’s not what’s important at the moment, as according to the briefing there had been rumors of a strange fungus causing odd behavior in the local animal. Cub and him are almost there when a twig snaps behind them and Scar sends an arrow flying to the source of the sound only to find that nothing’s there as Scar goes to collect the arrow something or someone drops down from the trees behind him, Scar turns around to find a smirking Cuteguy in front of him.

“What the… Cuteguy? You almost gave me a heart attack.” Scar exclaims.

“Hello to you too, pretty boy,” Cuteguy greets him,”Now tell me what exactly are you doing in woods that are owned by a witch?”

“I didn’t know that this forest was owned by a witch.” He lies.

“Uh huh… in that case what are you doing here?”

Cub interjects,”That’s classified information.”

“Okay don’t tell me,” Cuteguy retorts,”But I’m still going to follow you.”

-

Grian doesn’t know what exactly possessed him to follow Hotguy into Shelby’s forest but something did and now he’s standing in a glade that’s covered in strange mushrooms and mycelium vines. He can’t see very far in front of him either because of the thick fog that engulfs the clearing and he turns to see Hotguy and the scientist putting on gas masks but he’s Cuteguy and he can’t afford that luxury, however it soon becomes evident that they’re useful as he starts to become dizzy and nauseous. He still tries to clear his head, and as he does he sees a small chicken now that was weird. Maybe he should try to talk to her and ask if it’s okay. “𐎧𐎤𐏀 𐏂𐎧𐎤𐎱𐎤, 𐎠𐎱𐎤 𐏀𐎮𐎸 𐎮𐎪𐎠𐏀”

“Uhm Cuteguy, what are you doing?” Hotguy asks.

Right Grian had forgotten that most people don’t know that he can talk to chickens, “I found a chicken,” he explained, “I can talk to chickens, I’m questioning it.”

“Okay I guess…”

Now the main question is if the chicken would respond as they aren’t the most talkative kind of bird, and it just dashes off which is just plain rude. In any case he could have sworn that there was something off about that chicken anyways. Grian just brushes it off however and continues to walk around dell until he finds a cave, he almost missed it too as most of its mouth is covered in mycelium tendrils and inky caps maybe? He would quite like to get into the cave but the layer of fungal growth is thick and he sadly only has two guns on him which won’t be very useful. Maybe he should try to kick it in, yes that’s a very good idea, much to Grian’s surprise the wall of shrooms breaks easily to reveal a cavern filled with bioluminescent fungi and lichens.

“Hotguy,” he calls,”you might want to see what I found.”

“Okay,” Hotguy calls back,”be there in just a second.”

So Grian waits in the mouth of the cave but it feels like something is calling him into it, so after a few minutes he gets impatient with Hotguy and goes further into it. The cave it turns out is surprisingly large if he had to guess Grian would say that he could fully extend his wings in it, but at the same time it makes him feel surprisingly claustrophobic but that’s probably just because the strange mist that they found outside is getting more heavily concentrated. Additionally as he goes further in the voice gets louder and he starts tripping on mycelium vines that are now about the size of tree roots. As Grian walks he examines the tendrils he’s looking at, a particularly large one as he walks into what he at first mistakes to be the end of the cave only to feel a shower of spores rain down upon him. The spores enter his lungs and he gasps for air while screaming for help before passing out.

-

Scar rifles through the undergrowth at the edge of the glade in an attempt to find a suitable specimen of the mushrooms to bring back to The GFHA’s lab in Hermitopia but based on his luck so far he probably won’t find any as it appears that the local animals have been eating the fungi. He wants to finish this quickly too, so that he can see what Cuteguy found as it sounded important, that’s when he hears a scream.

“What was that?!?” Scar yells.

“I’m not sure,” Cub replies,”but it came from that cave that Cuteguy found.”

“I’m going to go check what happened then,” Scar tells him,”I’ll be right back.”

As Scar walks over to the cave he nocks an arrow in his bow and turns on the dark vision in his glasses before stepping in. The inside walls of the cave, covered in lichen and mycelium, would have been quite interesting had he not known that someone was in danger. Scar’s quite glad that he turned on dark vision as the concentration of fog gets thicker and clouds his vision. He has to be very careful when making his way through the cave as there are thick roots growing out from the rock which could seriously damage his mechanical leg braces.Maybe when this whole thing is over he should ask for more durable ones or a cane or crutches or- Scar trips over the largest root yet and sees standing in front of him none other that Cuteguy except the fact that something is off, his eyes appear glossed over with a purple tint and there are various mushrooms sprouting from his head. Scar’s so focused on what happened to Cuteguy that he barely has time to move before a thread of mycelium can grab his leg, he rolls over hopping up and loosing an arrow from his bow at Cuteguy’s foot only for him to dodge. The next root hurdles at his stomach and Scar deflects it with his bow only to get his leg yanked out from under him.

 As Scar is hung upside down from his leg Cuteguy approaches him, “W̸e̶l̸l̴,̸ ̶w̸e̶l̴l̴,̵ ̷w̵e̷l̴l̸.,”he says in a voice that isn’t his,”̵L̶o̶o̶k̶s̸ ̴l̴i̶k̷e̷ ̴t̷h̴e̴ ̶p̷o̶o̵r̵ ̷f̵a̷e̶ ̸g̶o̷t̴ ̸s̶t̷u̸c̸k̷ ̶i̴n̶ ̷m̵y̸ ̴l̵i̷t̷t̴l̷e̶ ̷t̸r̷a̸p̷.”In fact the voice reminds him of someone who he fought about a month prior, she had joined in a fight with The Dogwarts Duo out of the blue and had summoned ghost wolves to attack Canary Call and him and introduced herself as “The Red Witch”.

“Wait what- You’re the red witch!?!” He exclaims.

“Y̷o̵u̵ ̵c̴o̶u̴l̶d̸ ̷s̴a̷y̷ ̶t̷h̴a̷t̷ ̸b̴u̶t̸ ̴n̵o̷,̴ ̵n̷o̶t̵ ̸q̶u̴i̸t̴e̵,” the thing in Cuteguy replies,”I̶ ̴a̴m̷ ̴m̶e̶r̶e̵l̷y̸ ̷o̶n̵e̴ ̸o̵f̴ ̶h̷e̴r̶ ̸c̶r̷e̸a̷t̴i̴o̴n̵s̸.̵”

“Okay so you aren’t her but what the heck do you want with Cuteguy?”

“O̵h̸.̵.̵.̴ ̶y̴o̴u̴ ̷m̵e̶a̶n̸ ̴m̶y̷ ̶n̸e̸w̴ ̷v̶e̷s̸s̷e̶l̴?̴,” it asks,”I̵ ̵j̴u̶s̷t̴ ̵n̴e̶e̷d̴e̸d̴ ̴h̸i̶m̴ ̵t̴o̶ ̶g̸e̷t̴ ̶t̶o̸ ̴y̴o̴u̶.̷”

“What do you mean to get to me?” Scar inquires.

“T̷h̶a̵t̸'̵s̷ ̴e̵n̴o̴u̶g̵h̸,̸” it snaps before covering his mouth with a vine,”t̴i̸m̷e̵ ̸t̷i̸m̵e̷ ̸t̷o̸ ̷d̶e̷a̶l̶ ̴w̶i̶t̵h̵ ̸t̸h̸a̷t̷ ̸l̵i̵t̷t̶l̵e̶ ̸s̴c̷i̸e̸n̴t̵i̸s̷t̵ ̶o̴f̵ ̴y̵o̸u̸r̶s̴.̵”

With that the thing possessing Cuteguy walks off, if Scar could just find a way down from where he’s hanging he could get out of the cave and find help. All of his arrows fell out of his quiver but he might be able to reach one, however the regular ones won’t be of any help unless he can use one to saw through the vine wrapped around his leg. So Scar reaches down until he feels an arrow in his fingers and as he pulls it up he sees that it has the black shaft that tells him it’s a normal one. He gets to work sawing through the vive with one hand while holding his bow in the other until it drops him when he gathers all of his arrows, not bothering to put them in the right compartments. At this moment the thing returns and Scar feels a slicing pain as a sharp rock hits him in the side, “O̵o̶p̶s̵,̶ ̴d̶i̵d̸ ̶t̴h̸a̵t̷ ̵h̵u̸r̵t̷?̵”

Scar reaches back and frantically grabs an explosive arrow before slowly walking toward Cuteguy, “Cuteguy,” he starts,”I know that you’re in there.”

“H̷a̷!̶ ̸Y̴o̶u̵ ̶s̷h̴o̷u̵l̶d̵ ̶k̷n̷o̷w̵ ̷a̵s̸ ̶g̵o̸o̸d̵ ̸a̸s̶ ̵a̵n̷y̵o̴n̵e̶ ̸t̴h̴a̸t̵ ̷h̶e̸'̷s̸ ̷n̷o̴t̶ ̷h̵e̴r̷e̶ ̷r̴i̷g̴h̵t̸ ̸n̸o̴w̴ ̸a̸-̵,” the thing is cut off,”Get out. Get the fuck 𝙹⚍ℸ ̣  𝙹⎓ ᒲ|| ⍑ᒷᔑ↸!” 

Cuteguy’s eyes glow bright purple as he… casts a spell? Scar didn’t know that he could do that, all of the mushrooms on Cuteguy get pushed away but soon after the mycelium tendrils start attacking him and Scar. 

“Run!” Scar screams at him and the two of them bolt out of the cave but despite their speed the vines are faster and as they reach the mouth Scar turns around loses an arrow from his bow and the cave explodes sending hunks of rock and mushroom flying and he’s knocked out.

-

He can’t believe what he’s done, to be fair Grian had no idea what was going to be in that cave but as he drags an unconscious Hotguy and a bleeding scientist to Shelby’s house the guilt is waying down on him. As he reaches the front door Grian hesitates as to bring them to Shelby means he has to tell her what happened but it’s better than explaining it to authorities so he knocks. A warm glow showers over him as she opens the door but her face can’t hide her shock.

“Oh my gods…” Shelby quietly exclaims,”Grian what happened?”

“It’s a long story, can we come inside?”

-

“⍑ᒷᔑꖎ !¡ꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ, ⎓𝙹∷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ꖎ𝙹⍊ᒷ 𝙹⎓ ⊣𝙹↸ᓭ. リJJリᒷ ╎ᓭ ↸||╎リ⊣ ╎リ ᒲ|| ⍑𝙹⚍ᓭᒷ リ𝙹ℸ ̣  ℸ ̣ 𝙹↸ᔑ||,” Shelby finishes the spell on Hotguy,”okay these two should be fine but do you want to explain what happened?”

“Well there was a cave in this forest with a lot of weird mushrooms in it and it was kind of an entity. I don’t really remember much but it possessed me and I hurt Hotguy and whatshisname over there.” Grian explains.

“Okay and?”

“I managed to get free but the thing started attacking me and Hotguy so we ran but it almost got us so he blew up the cave with an arrow. That of course caused him to get knocked out.”

“Wow. That’s a lot to take in.” Shelby says as she opens a book on possession.

“I just feel so guilty,” he continues,”I might stop being Cuteguy for a little bit at least until this whole mess blows over.”

“If that’s what you want.” She says absentmindedly as she flips through the book.

“I’m just dont- oh no.”

“What?” She asks while turning around,”You good?”

“I’m fine! But Hotguy’s waking up.”

“Okay then. Do you want to do it or should I?”

“Do what?”

“Um… Actually, never mind, I have to go grab something, keep an eye on him.” She says while leaving the room.

Oh no. No. No. No. No. This is not good. He almost killed both Hotguy and the scientist and now he has to be alone in a room with them? It’s fine he just has to act perfectly calm and collected and normal. Grian snaps out of it as he sees Hotguy try to get up only to lay back down on the couch. He turns to look at Grian. Shit.

“Wha- Cuteguy? What happened? The last thing I remember is blowing up that cave and-” Hotguy starts to look confused, and Grian realizes that he’s crying,”Are you okay.”

“I… I have to go.” And with that Grian leaves.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

It’s been nearly a month since I read The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England and I’ve had this post in my head for most of that time, but I finally have leisure to write it down. I may have forgotten or misremembered some stuff.

The book is definitely engaging with a lot of the recent discourse around policing, in some obvious and some less obvious ways. I never fully bought into the protagonist’s temporary characterization of himself as a ‘heroic cop’, and didn’t feel that the book bought into it either - it felt from the start like a story with a deeply flawed protagonist who was going to need to grow beyond his past attitudes and assumptions. I did assume that he’d bought the ‘universe’ he was in rather than hiding in it, so that was a surprise.

The characterization of Ryan and its subversion - the initial presentation of him as an ideal hero, followed by the revelations that he’s both a pretty crappy friend and doesn’t care about the people of the medieval-universe - is the most direct way the book deals with cops, since he’s the one cop character who appears in it, but I don’t think it’s the most important way the book engages with the topic. The most important way doesn’t openly mention cops at all.

Near the climax, John realizes that the way organized crime operates is by making people feel weak, powerless; by saying, ‘you have only the power I give you, and the second I take that away, you are nothing’. The crime boss kept John around as an example for that reason. And then, crucially, with Sefawynn’s story it explicitly connects that to Woden and says: he is behaving in the same way. He is sending the message of, ‘you aren’t obedient enough, unquestioning enough, to deserve my protection,’ and leading people like Sefawynn into deception because deception is the only way they can square their support for him with his actions. And at the climax, Sefawynn rejects both that and Woden. In short, the story turns around and says to the reader: look at the way the organized crime boss is acting. What other authorities, ones with social power and status and legitimacy, are in fact behaving in the same way? Which ones are ruling by force and fear, saying that that they’re the only thing that can protect you and give you security, and justifying their actions by saying any of their victims just weren’t good enough, just weren’t obedient enough, compliant enough?

In additionto this, there’s a thread running through the story of what I’ll call the redemptive power of vulnerability and weakness. John comes into the ‘parallel universe’ with virtually no knowledge and no power, and as a result is reliant on the people he meets. This leads to him getting to know them, to value them, to understand them and become friends with them and see them as equals. Ryan, in contrast, comes into the ‘parallel universe’ with all his knowledge and resources intact and is able to recruit the locals - in fact this means he’s still reliant on them, but it doesn’t feel that way to him: to him they’re not equals much less friends, they’re subordinates or tools. As a result, John values and cares about them and Ryan doesn’t. When you’re trained and conditioned and empowered to regard everyone you work around as enemies, tools, or bystanders, you’re not going to end up treating them as equals. You can only treat them as equals if you’re willing and able to be vulnerable to them. It’s why a lot of things in society - not only policing - won’t work right without a shift away from saving/fixing/protecting people to accompanying them, to letting them say “I need X and I want to do Y about it” and people - social workers, teachers, health professionals, child welfare workers - saying “What can I do to help?” rather than saying “I need you to do X, Y, and Z, and I will give you A, B, and C.” There are limits - medical professionals know more about medicine than laypeople do, and if someone says they need herbs to cure their cancer they can be (literally) dead wrong - but working with people rather than to or for them means you’re treating both themselves and yourself more as people rather than positions. Policing’s a heavier version of a similar thing, because avoid vulnerability at all costs is so deeply embedded in its culture. And that’s the reverse of what should be. Anyone whom society gives a gun to needs to be more, not less, willing to be vulnerable, precisely because the power they’ve been given makes others vulnerable to them.

A final thing that stands out in the books that ties in with similar social themes - very openly! - is the way characters from ‘our’ timeline are encouraged to think about those from ‘parallel universes’. There are a host of ways that could have been used to describe the fact that people from ‘our’ timeline can enter the medieval timelines and not vice versa. The choice of describing it as ‘people from these other timeles are less real’ is very much deliberate! It’s a choice that lets them say ‘these people’s lives don’t matter’ - or at least, don’t matter as much as ours. And that’s the narrative that Ryan buys into, and John rejects. (By the way, the satirical send-up of superficial corporate social responsibility in the Handbook excerpts is A+. Buy a bracelet! Feel virtuous! Don’t think about the fact that yes, this is absolutely imperialism!)

[brianlesshetaliawritings]

HI I LOVE YOU the Allies with a crush hcs you wrote are so cute I adore how you characterize everyone 😭 would you please do the SFW alphabet (from your pinned post) with America? Thank you so much :D

America SFW Alphabet

note: OMG THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!1!!! I LOVE YOU TOO SWEET ANON THANK YOUS O MUCH (i'm sorry this took me so long)

Affection: How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?

He's very openly affectionate with you, completely shameless when he kisses you in public. He compliments anything good he notices about you and always says he loves you, but he also likes hanging out with you at his favorite places.

 Best friend: What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?

Tbh Alfred just saw you and decided to have a conversation with you, this could be anywhere while anything is happening. He's a very playful friend, he really likes playing sports or video games with you.

 Cuddles: Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?

Most definitely he would. He likes if your head lays on his chest while he hold you with one arm, it makes him feel like he can protect you. Also he just seems like the type to rest on his back to me.

 Domestic: Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?

He can make scrambled eggs or toast, but thats the farthest his chef skills stretch. Cleaning isn't for him either since he always ends up breaking something on accident. He wants to wait until he can do those things to settle down, if he does. He's fine either way.

Ending: If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?

He'd wait for a good time then tell you he doesn't think this is working out, he probably didn't think of what exactly to say beforehand so it probably took him a good minute to finally explain his feeling.

 Fiance(e): How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?

Not the wildest about marriage, he'd do it if you want though. You can also do it almost whenever, he doesn't care too much as long as he knows you love eachother. Probably wouldn't marry you like a year into the relationship though.

Gentle: How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?

He's nice and not too rough with you, but he's certainly not gentle either. Expect plently of excited hugs when you two see achother. He does care when you feel bad but he mostly just tries to distract you, unless he can fix it, then he'll gladly be your hero.

 Hugs: Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?

Hugs you a lot, doesn't even think about it either. He's naturally an affectionate partner and love's hugs. He just kinda squeezes you for 7 to 30 seconds and probably gives you a few little kisses too if you're up for that.

 I love you: How fast do they say the L-word?

Depends a bit on how your relationship started, longest it will take is a month into you guys being together.

 Jealousy: How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?

He gets pretty jealous every once in a while. Dislikes when you spend too much time with other people, also doesn’t like it at all when other guys (or girls) talk to you like they’re into you. Definitely a hugger when jealous, if it’s bad enough he’ll mention that you two are together.

Kisses: What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?

Loves to kiss you. He gives lots of excited kisses on the lips and cheek (mostly lips). His kisses aren’t all too rough though even if they’re fast, they’re always sweet.

Little one: How are they around children?

He's... alright. He's not the worst, but good is an overstatement. He likes to play with them until he's accidentally too rough and they start crying. He doesn't handle the moody ones well, but shy ones dont work either. Would not change diapers if its a baby, or do anything important in general. 3.5/10 with kids imo.

Morning: How are mornings spent with them?

Shakes you awake because he doesn't wanna be the only one awake. Thinks mornings are better when he drags you along with him to get IHOP once you two are ready, but at least he pays so thats a plus. Likes to go to the park afterwards so he can walk with you and start a race back to the car when done.

Night: How are nights spent with them?

He watches a movie before bed, won't force you to partake but will beg every time. After that he does the nightly rituals and struggles to choose a position to sleep in for about 20 minutes, then remembers something he wanted to look up and talks to you about it. Falls asleep midway through reading about it. You'd assume this would be annoying, but it grows on you.

Open: When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?

A lot of people assume he's an open person but he does have things he keeps to himself. Doesn't do it all at once, just brings it up every once in awhile or if something reminds him of it. Doesn't linger on it too long, but you do start to learn his life story and whatnot the longer the relationship goes on.

Patience: How easily angered are they?

Not too easily angered. Some things can get to him though after awhile but after being frustrated for about five hours he forgives you. Can be pretty petty every once in awhile though.

Quizzes: How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?

Remembers about 70% of what you say, he tries to listen so he can get an idea of what gifts you'd like or to hear your interests. If he hears your impressed about something you saw, he might try it himself. Doesn't remember everything you say though, especially if you tell it while he's busy. Sometimes you say "hey, remember when i told you- (blah blah blah)?" and he'll lie that he does, then pretend to know all about the subject.

Remember: What is their favorite moment in your relationship?

Definitely something stupid. Either the time he snuck a (live) snake into a glass jar in the kitchen while you were in there or when he got you to come with him to a horror escape room and you two were chased by a man in a clown costume.

Security: How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?

He'd protect you if you're in any danger, without much thought really. He is the hero so it makes sense. He doesn't get protective over too many things that aren't dangerous though, like you having other friends who are guys or anything like that. Doesn't like it if people hit on you though, not like he'll cause a scene or anything but he certainly won't allow it to pass by.

Try: How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?

GIANT show off. Sometimes, though. Sometimes he'll just drive around with you while listening to music, or he'll take you to mcdonalds. Don't be shocked if he takes you on a luxury cruise for your fourth anniversary though. Also a fan of road trips to major spots in the USA with side trips to things like the salt and pepper shaker museum, or the biggest cowboy hat. LOVES day trips even if nothing special is happening though, expect one a week.

Ugly: What would be some bad habits of theirs?

Wore axe body spray at some point. Lasted two days until someone (you don't know who) had a talk with him about it. Depending on your opinion his fast food eating, and eating out very often in general might get annoying. Always pounds himself with cologne, sometimes multiple ones at once so he smells like a walking scent store. Would have a whole closet for 4th of july stuff, and sometimes brings the stuff out even when its not a partiotic holiday. Oh, also he has his flag on his boxers so look forward to seeing that if you look at the laundry.

 Vanity: How concerned are they with their looks?

Pretty shameless. He likes to wear really stupid stuff out and about to get stares since he thinks its funny. Does put some attention to what he wears though, especially if he feels its important. He likes to think he dresses good for the most part though.

Whole: Would they feel incomplete without you?

He does think you're really important, but incomplete isn't what he'd describe. He thinks of you two as not only dating, but also best friends. He does miss you though when you two are apart, but he doesn't think about you all the time either. Never think of it as you not not being valuable to him though.

Xtra: A random headcanon for them.

Cooks barbecue every damn weekend, every other week theres a pool party with it too. Since his house definitely has a pool. People there are a mix of complete strangers and close friends of his you never met before. Be prepared for that.

Yuck: What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?

He's pretty open to various types of people, he doesn't like people who argue a lot though. Doesn't like extremely negative people either, especially if it brings everyone else down too. Of course, people who are sad or not overly positive in general are fine, he actually tries to help them feel better. Doesn't like the idea of someone who dominates his life either, he wants to be able to do things without being dragged down by his partner.

 Zzz: What is a sleep habits of theirs?

Snores, noticeably but not too badly. Sleep talks too. Moves around. Always close to you though, will not ever leave ur side. Even if it means your being pulled with him if he falls off the side of the bed, which has happened before. Was funny to him, but not you.

[driftingballoons]

For the character thing you just reblogged: Grovyle from EoS or Gengar from Red/Blue Rescue Team

I never played Red/Blue Rescue Team, so not too familiar with the gremlin, so Grovyle it is >:)

favorite thing about them

God just. Oh my god. Everything? In all seriousness, I think it’s how kindhearted he is (when he’s not beating the shit out of people anyway). The way he reunites with Hero, just to realize they’re still lost to him, that they’ll ALWAYS be lost to him, even if they weren’t going to disappear at the end of it all. The way he sees how he was unintentionally replaced by Partner, yet still treats them both with the utmost kindness. He doesn’t hold a grudge against Partner, or harbor any hard feelings; his best friend found someone who is always looking out for them, and he’s genuinely happy for them. It just breaks my heart every time. 

least favorite thing about them

I get that he’s on a strict timeline, and that he’s probably running on pure adrenaline, but his attack first ask questions later approach is really…not conducive to the mission. That and beating up children aren’t a good look on him. 

favorite line

Gonna have to go with the ICONIC lines from the cave scene in SE5, where he talks about how what you accomplish in life is more important than how long you get. That speech was honestly life changing.  

brOTP

Hero and Partner. They are all friends. The first thing he did when coming back from not existing was to let them know he and the rest of the future were alive ;0;

OTP

Celebi and Dusknoir. Polycule of all time 

nOTP

I guess anyone other than Celebi/Dusknoir? I don’t really see him shipped with anyone else. He doesn’t really interact with anyone else either, unless he’s beating them up or getting attacked :(

random headcanon

He feels generally unwell in the future because being a grass type in a world of perpetual darkness sucks. The first time he experienced real sunlight in the past is eye-opening, not only for its beauty, but also for how healthy it makes him feel. He never realized he could feel so good. 

unpopular opinion

I’ve heard various ideas of the nature of his relationship to Hero, and my personal take is that he was their pokemon in the traditional trainer-pokemon style. Specifically, I feel like Hero would’ve had him from when they were quite young, but that he’s probably at least a little younger. 

song i associate with them

Entropy by End of Silence has some lyrics that really resonate with him I feel. I can especially imagine it while they’re fighting Primal Dialga in the future. 

favorite picture of them

I always loved this photo of him from the loading screen. The colors, the composition, it’s just perfect <3

[talenlee]

How To Be: Sothe Pathofradiance (In 4e D&D)

In How To Be we’re going to look at a variety of characters from Not D&D and conceptualise how you might go about making a version of that character in the form of D&D that matters on this blog, D&D 4th Edition. Our guidelines are as follows:

This is going to be a brief rundown of ways to make a character that ‘feels’ like the source character

This isn’t meant to be comprehensive or authoritative but as a creative exercise

While not every character can work immediately out of the box, the aim is to make sure they have a character ‘feel’ as soon as possible

The character has to have the ‘feeling’ of the character by at least midway through Heroic

When building characters in 4th Edition it’s worth remembering that there are a lot of different ways to do the same basic thing. This isn’t going to be comprehensive, or even particularly fleshed out, and instead give you some places to start when you want to make something.

Another thing to remember is that 4e characters tend to be more about collected interactions of groups of things – it’s not that you get a build with specific rules about what you have to take, and when, and why, like you’re lockpicking your way through a design in the hopes of getting an overlap eventually. Character building is about packages, not programs, and we’ll talk about some packages and reference them going forwards.

Who are we looking at this month? Well, since this series was started off by Hilda from Three Houses, it seems positively rude on my part to not reach once more to the Fire Emblem well, with its wonderfully varied names and … embarrassingly limited mechanical scope.

Let’s look at a character from a Gamecube game about fighting a dragon, or a god, or the black knight, or something.

Examining Sothe

Setting aside the way he shows up in any other ‘this relates to Fire Emblem’ media like Fire Emblem Heroes, Sothe is present in two games: Fire Emblem: Pool of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. After doing extensive research into the Fire Emblem franchise, and built an extensive understanding of the game’s existing lore and general play fantasy, I have gathered information about the importance of this plot-vital character. As best I can tell, there’s no actual reason to care that much about keeping Sothe around. He’s the second thief you get in a game where you don’t need any thieves. In Path of Radiance, Sothe is there to set up his appearance in the second game, where I understand he’s much cooler. Poor guy got it rough.

Know what is cool though about Fire Emblem? It has a bunch of systemic information about the character. At a glance, I can tell that Sothe has a starting strength of 5, but a skill of 7 and a speed of 11. These are not the same stats as you’d see in D&D but you can interrogate what they’re meant to represent.

Sothe’s strength adds to his physical damage, but his skill and speed improve his critical hit rate. Critical hit rates aren’t something you can do a lot with in 4e D&D, but that’s still a sign that this character might not be the most powerful, aggressive fighter, not someone who can deadlift things, but thanks to his ability to hit things at the right time and the right place, he can do a lot of damage. Sothe doesn’t have any meaningful magical ability, and it doesn’t improve that well.

Also, in terms of what he does badly, he doesn’t have good defense or resistance, and those things don’t improve much either. In Radiant Dawn, he gets to be more or less the same thing, but moreso, with a special skill for dealing more damage to shapeshifting monsters. All of this mechanically indicates pretty much what you’d expect at the idea of a ‘sly thief’.

Alright, then, Sothe is a thief, mobile, able to engage in fights but not an individual who can pick up a horse and throw it. Light armour seems obvious, since that would be good for mobility, and he uses knives. All this stuff is covered pretty conveniently in most of our optional builds, so there’s no concern there.

Sothe’s beast-stalking seems… kind of hard to do anything with. That can be covered in D&D with silvered weapons, which are low priority in my opinion.

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

Light armour, some strength (if you can spare it), good dexterity (so picking a class and heritage that amplify those options), and skills that let you sneak around and steal things.

I mean I’m not going to lie to you, I started thinking ‘this guy is just a thief, right?’ and I’m not wrong. An added challenge for Sothe, though, is the question of how do you add variety to a build for a character who at his heart is a game piece designed to slot into the spot of ‘a thief’?

Idea 1: The Rogue

Well duh.

Idea 2: The Ranger

If you like the idea of being a sneaky damage dealer like Sothe, but for some reason, you dont’ want to be ‘a thief’ – I mean why, how, what is it about Sothe that pulls your attention here, I do not get it – another good option is the Ranger. Rangers can be built with a lot of dexterity, and with attacks that use Dexterity to attack people. The best Ranger attack, Twin Strike, is a good example too, where you can (say) throw a pair of daggers at someone’s face with your knives. The skillset mostly lines up too and you can use themes to pick up more skills that fit your vision of this thiefy character. Amn is a good one – it gives you Streetwise and Thievery, which

I mean

Sothe is a Thief. You probably want Thievery, right?

Idea 3: The Warlord

Alright, now I know I’m pushing towards the edges, but bear with me here.

Sothe does not ‘heal’ people in Forced Femblem. Healing in that game is a very specific mechanic that works a particular way. But there is a build of the Warlord that cares about making opportunities and not making its own attacks.

The idea is a ‘Lazy Warlord.’ Fire Emblem is a game where units sometimes spend turn after turn not attacking and just waiting for things to engage you. You can, in fact, just idle on a map but be there, necessarily, because of some plot reason or another. I’ve watched enough Firey Wirey Emblemy Wemblemy to know that the core of the game is very much often about parking plot-relevant characters where they can’t be accidentally critted to death by randoms and turning the map into a kill box.

For that, I would suggest, a lazy warlord. Sothe is there, but Sothe isn’t there to fight. Sothe is there to enable your fighting, and to take advantage of opportunities.

In just heroic, you can do this with the following powers as you level up:

Commander’s Strike (At Will)

Direct the Strike (At Will)

Overwhelming Force Trap (Encounter)

Powerful Warning (Encounter)

Friendly Fire (Encounter)

Destructive Surprise

Scent of Victory

With this power layout, you literally don’t need to be able to attack on your own at all. You can even take Fey Beast Tamer as your theme, and have a pet that can do your opportunity attacks or granted attacks. This is a build that doesn’t need any magical weapons at all, and that’s pretty wild!

Junk Drawer

Within the limits of a martial, non-magical character type that is lightly armoured, Sothe pretty much taps it out and reaches his goal immediately. Once you’re willing to expand a little bit, the Avenger becomes immediately obvious as an option for a weapon-wielding character that isn’t high strength, and cares about light armour and mobility. If you’re willing to allow some arcane magic into your Sothe’s life, you could also turn to the Skald, wielding a knife and letting people heal themselves while you attack around them.

I’ve talked about it before, but some characters line up obviously in what they do and how they do it. The trick then is to look for the next thing.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[moonstone27ls]

What is CBR’s Problem?

Forgive the minor rant or vent moment? Will delete later.

To those that don’t know CBR, is a comic website. It’ll cover movies/tv shows, etc as well. But just writing this cause lately ... I’m getting kinda miffed at how they’re complaining about Spiderman’s love life.

Before someone gives me  “its their opinion/respect it” crap I get it. But I also have an opinion so I’m just letting it out.

For I wanna say two months. They’ve been kinda dumping on Spidey/MJ’s relationship. And I’m not trying to start a shipping war. Depending on whom, I can be a multishipper. Heck I love reading AUs where Spidey is married to Gwen/or even Black Cat. But since there’s a new storyline (not getting into that, comics are drama lol), where they are split.

That part doesn’t bother me. Its comics, they always find a reason to break up a couple. So that the hero doesn’t seem old to the audience I guess. I mean this isn’t even the first time they’ve been split. So again its not news to me.

Whats been getting on my nerves is that they been dumping on Mary Jane like she was the weakest character to the storyline. One article was basically dumping on her/and writing that Gwen Stacy was the ideal choice. That compared to Gwen, MJ was never good enough. 

Now they wrote an article of how they want them permanently split. Because Spidey is apparently in DESPERATE need of a new girl. 

Again the split isn’t new. It doesn’t even bother me if Peter dates other women, he’s done it before. Whats bothering me is that CBR feels the need to dump on MJ like she’s in the way. I haven’t seen them do this to Scott/Jean Grey. Or even Scott/Emma (that I know offf). This wasn’t done when She Hulk is dating (I dunno who she dates a lot I don’t read that comic). 

And I find it hypocritical that they wrote how Gwen was better. But then I wanna say two weeks before that article they wrote how Gwen/Peter had issues and were apparently a doomed relationship.

Another reason it annoys me is that I feel in minimizes Mary Jane as character. Maybe depending on the writer(or even movie) she’s not handled well. But over the years Marvel has done its best to improve her as a character. She’s just as important as Gwen is (was. I dunno not getting into that either). Just cause she’s not a rocket scientist or whatever, doesn’t mean she’s worthless. I’m not gonna write a big article on her importance. But I have seen other accounts who have done it. And its made me see she’s important.

Not to mention I don’t know why they wanna rush Spidey so much 8B. Why aren’t they rushing Wolverine? Or tons of other heroes. I dunno it annoys me a little. Plus I’ll be honest whats the rush? They probably do have someone planned just take your damn time and wait 8B.

[plugnuts]

Ok, unironialy, could you explain/resume to me the basics of homestuck??? I have NO CLUE what is it even about or even WHAT IT IS and I feel like I should know

Also much love ur like one of my favorite people on tumblr <3 🥺💕💕💗

Dnfnnfs yeah ofc! I’ll try to summarise it as best I can!

And thank you so much!! 🥺 dude I wanna hug you rn much love to you too <3 your presence on my dash is always a delight honestly! <3!!

The short and sweet official summary of it is: A tale of a boy and his friends and a game they play together

But if you would like a more detailed, but still summarised, explanation then look under the cut. But beware for it for it is long.

I haven’t read this webcomic in over a year so bear with me lol (I actually went and read a recap of it and. wow)

! Major Story Spoilers Ahead !

Okay so in as simplest terms I can manage is that four kids play a game that ends their world, but them and their homes are transported inside due to certain conditions that were met. They each get planets and if they die on a certain spot on these planets they become gods (aka ascending to god tier). There’s another race that played this game called trolls that also destroyed their world in order to enter, however only one of them became god tier. The trolls playing the game created the kids’ world (they didn’t do it right tho and that lead to one of the ‘npcs’ doing their own thing and.. ruining the course of the game.)

I forget where it happens but there’s an intermission that is super important. (Although it doesn’t appear to be lol it introduces the big bad and all his associates and whatnot)

A lot of shenanigans. We learn about the trolls, about the game and time shenanigans!! Some of the trolls help the kids, most of the trolls die bc they kill each other (and can’t resurrect bc they aren’t god tier). Key part of the killing is that one of the trolls, Vriska (the one god tier troll), is killed due to almost committing a timeline altering act. She doesn’t resurrect as her death was deemed Just. The only ways you can die permanently when god tier is when it’s deemed either Just (justified) or Heroic (being a hero).

(I’m missing a lot but it’s okay lol)

Anyway as the game is nearing its “end” and due to the trolls fucking up the kids’ session they’re forced to do a hard reset. Using their new god given powers they force this reset and the kids split up to escape their session, one group of two going with the trolls and the other two go off on their own together. This split lasts three years, by the way!

In the mean time due to this reset (or scratch as it’s named) the kids’ universe resets itself and basically…. Is reversed. So, instead of the kids we have their ancestors that are now… kids. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, during the shenanigans earlier one of our kids, John, basically made both him and his friends and his nanna and his friends’ guardians in a lab using shenanigans and sent them back in time so that everything can happen. Yeah. So, in this new session we have a new set of kids which I’ll refer to as the Alpha Kids, whereas our set of kids are the Beta Kids. So, we have the alphas now and we see their journey into the game. It’s to note that these kids can’t become god tier traditionally because of their Dream Selves dying beforehand (a needed self in order to become god tier).

So the alphas enter and are met with a dead game, basically. You could say their game is ‘infertile’ as it doesn’t have the means to create a new universe once it’s done. So it’s unwinnable. There’s nothing the alphas can do but wait. There’s some back and forth, we’re met with a new ‘troll’ and get to know her and her ruthless brother who wants to kill everyone his sister loves and stuff. Fun!

We get to know the betas more on their journey and wow one of them is depressed okay back to the alphas who. are high on sugar. Okay. Through their sugar high they get to their Quest Beds (ones that can grant them godhood without having a dream self but it’s buried deep within their planets (iirc)). So. They die on them and become god tier!

Oh yeah and during this we get to know one of the trolls’ dead ancestors called Meenah who works to build an army of the dead to tackle the big bad (Lord English) in the dream bubbles where those who die (either in this timeline or another) go to as a sort of afterlife.

The three years are up (only 6 months for our alphas) and everyone’s now in the alphas’ game. Jade (one of the betas) brings over everything from the Beta’s game so now the Alpha’s game is fertilised! Yippee! John sleeps and dreams and finds a treasure whilst everyone else uh. Suffers, basically. Once the betas arrived two of the kids (one alpha one beta) get possessed by Betty Crocker (one of the alphas’ mother but she’s an evil troll who can mind control). Jade (beta) and Jane (alpha) are now possessed.

A lot of stuff happens here. Best way I can explain it is that there’s a lot of glitches, death, and bad drawings. John also gains the power to rewrite canon (retcon), if you can believe it. The evil brother plays his game, kills his sis and gains way too much power for his own good. (Remember I might be getting things wrong here). Now, remember Meenah? Well from her group of trolls we have Aranea and she ruins everything. She brings herself back to life using what’s called the life ring and brings everyone to the same planet (except John who’s running from Jade). So. She fucks everything up, gets a lot of people killed (some people dying Justly and Heroically) and basically creates a GAME OVER timeline. Did I mention that when the betas came to the alphas they also brought along their own game’s bad guys? Yeah. Whilst GAME OVER was happening John was out there battling a kid version of the big bad. He teleports back into canon when everything’s already over.

So, now we’re in game over where basically everyone save for some are dead. Terezi, one of the trolls, tells John to fix it bc of his retcon ability. She gives him a list of what to do because of her own game given powers (she’s a Mind player but. yeah I won’t explain that sorry) and John goes and does it, using the keywords she gave him to find those specific points in time to change and fix. This leads to Vriska not dying when she was supposed to. A lot of shenanigans after this, basically everyone who was dead before is okay in this new timeline bc Vriska is here now. Yay? Anyway, they all go through their dramas and stuff, betas mingling with the alphas yada yada they all talk about defeating the bad guys.

Then there’s this whole animation about it!

Anyway that’s Homestuck as best as I can describe it without going into BIG detail. There’s a LOT of stuff I missed, but it’s very overwhelming lol.

TLDR; Kids play game. Time shenanigans. Death and destruction. Godhood. Vriska. Kids play game. Kids play game. Death. Big fight. They create a new universe where they can all live together and whatever have you. :)

I hope that clears SOME things up and if you have any more questions feel free to ask! Or you can read the webcomic but. I wouldn’t read it from the source bc it’s broken. I’ll tell you what to do if you Do want to read it but with over 9000 pages and god knows how many words….. it’s quite the task. But there is games you can play in it! And cool animations!! But some of it.. didn’t age well, let’s say. Anyway if you’re still reading then colour me impressed! I tried to summarise it as best I can but with limited memory and with so much plot it was difficult lol, ik you said the basics but also. Homestuck ain’t basic nfngnrksmnd sorry

[vastly-fixated-devotee-667]

god this one was so long and i again do not feel compelled to lend them notes but if they get to share their opinion i can share my opinion on their opinion 😋 as any mature adult would do /lh

starting off with claims of having “played through it multiple times” so they’re “qualified to say it blows”… and yet — spoiler alert — being clearly ignorant to important parts of canon, including character names. but anyway

it is completely a you problem if you aren’t compelled by the characters. Jesse’s character is molded by how you play them, so their character is dependent on you. Petra is badass and her arc incredibly written, especially in season 2. Lukas is a lovable sweetheart. Ivor is a mysterious-villain-turned-silly-old man. Jack is a tough adventurer with a devastating backstory. Radar is the ingenue who starts out squeamish and blossoms into a brave, selfless hero. the Admins are beautifully written with heartbreaking backstories. and that’s not to mention all of the smaller characters that are so goofy, endearing, or even completely hateable. in any case, if you let them, all of the characters will make you feel something when they intend to.

i think it’s pretty well-established that folks don’t often go out at night. in the first episode, when they have to chase Reuben into the forest, Jesse gets really nervous when night falls. on the other hand, we know that places like Beacontown are probably kept well-lit at night so that mobs won’t spawn and are closed off from the outside boundaries so none of them can come from the outside in. i think even places like EnderCon were arranged as such. as for combat, all of the characters seem to have at least some decent ability to combat monsters. and Jesse never acts like they’ve never seen a creeper before. and it’s never established that nobody but Petra knows how to craft a pickaxe?

it’s actually a very important part of the first episode that Petra did, in fact, provide the Ocelots with a nether star. it isn’t specified how she got it. perhaps she traded somebody else for it. perhaps she did spawn and kill a Wither for it. not every aspect of the game has to be explained and spoonfed to the player. especially this — Petra was supposed to be viewed as cool and mysterious. we weren’t meant to know her methods.

also, i would presume that not everyone is doing what she does because they have different personalities and preferences. similar to how real people play minecraft. some people like to focus on the creative building aspects like Lukas. some people like messing around with redstone like Olivia. and some people do like to go face crazy monsters and explore dangerous places like Petra. and Jesse does express how impressed they are about the life Petra leads!

(what i mentioned before… Ivor was a huge character and if you played the game so many times how could you not remember his name 😭 it’s just very hard to take criticism seriously when it’s clear op might not exactly know what they’re talking about)

the Command Block was found by Soren, not Ivor. it isn’t explained how he found it, nor does it have to be — like i said, not every aspect of everything has to be tied up in a neat little bow. come up with it yourself if you need an explanation lol. Soren misused the Command Block by creating a legacy for the Order of the Stone that didn’t really exist otherwise, and as soon as their legend was sealed, he put its use up for good. he knew it was too dangerous for any one person to have control of. Ivor stole it from him — but Ivor didn’t have bad intentions, either. he only wanted to expose the OotS for what they were: fakes. he didn’t want to become a god. and the Command Block wasn’t just a power source for the Witherstorm; it was sort of like its heart and its brain, yes, but it is what created the Witherstorm. it wouldn’t have been a Witherstorm without it; it would’ve just been a normal Wither.

i just… don’t really know what they’re on about here. when is anybody clueless to how the universe works? Jesse and their friends don’t know everything, of course, but how could they? they haven’t been all around the world and experienced every aspect of the universe. and it was established that only one thing could kill the Witherstorm: Ivor’s specially-crafted enchantment. nothing else made a dent on the Command Block, not even the F-Bomb. i don’t think any of the basic minecraft actions could’ve helped.

the mcsm team was actually comprised mainly of minecraft fans! especially one of the lead writers, Eric Stirpe; he worked hard to keep the game faithful to minecraft. and if the criterion for a “cash grab” is simply a game based off of popular media, then i guess that’s all telltale ever made lol

anyway idc if you don’t like the game but can you STOP maintagging your “criticism” posts. we fans who look for content under those tags don’t want to see people just hating on the things we love

guys i think we are celebrating mcsm a little too close to the sun… people are starting to invade our tags with half-baked criticism…

[babuis]

Bakugo + Todoroki + Midoriya + Sero + Kirishima + Kaminari + Iida and kid headcannons I have because I just do and they're correct because they just are.

Bakugo: Has girls. He just does and he's protective as shit. He wears a pink tutu while wearing a black tank top that shows off his buff ass arms. His hair is in messy pigtails with sparkly hairclips and a crown that his baby put on him. He sits on a tiny chair and plays tea party with his little girl and Mr. Elephant. Does his girl's hair. Calls his baby girl princess and s p o i l s her. He lets his friends’ kids play with his girl but that’s only because they won’t stop pestering him about it. Otherwise, he would lock her up and keep her away from his friends’ icky kids- Kaminari’s kids specifically- he doesn’t want his sweet girl to start playing bad pranks. Always grumbles about the class 1-A’s occasional family get togethers but brings his daughter anyway because he wants her to have friends with parents he knows so he can intimidate them.

Todoroki: Has a twins because I said so. One girl one guy. The guy is quiet and a little awkward just like him. I can see his little boy with a bowl cut in a turtleneck, trying to act like his dad. His little girl is much more outgoing and smiley. His children are opposites just like his quirk. His son tries to tell his twin what to do and makes her cry, only for Todoroki to pat her on the head to comfort her and tell his son it's not nice to make girls cry. Uses their names but name the twins matching/related names. Matching outfits with all 3 of them. He actually wants his kids to be friends with Class 1-A’s kids. However, his kids have inherited his introvert personality and aren’t as interested in making friends. Plus, they think all the other kids are so loud. They go anyway to make their dad happy.

Midoriya: Has girls like Bakugo (thank god, because Bakugo would kill Midoriya if he had a son that tried to put moves on his princess). Raises a little bit of a nerd- her barbie dolls are always either heroes or scientists. Spoils the shit out of his girl. Is a little heartbroken when she tells him All Might isn't her favorite hero- but melts when she tells him that her favorite hero is Deku instead. Gives his baby stuffed animals she can hug when he can't. Calls her sweetheart. Wears matching stickers with his kid :') Of course he wants his baby to be friends with everyone else’s! Because he didn’t have many friends growing up, he thinks its important for them to have many childhood friends. Everything turned ended up okay with him and Bakugo!

Sero: Has girls but kick ass, athletic af girls. They’re always at the park hanging and flipping off the monkey bars to show off. His girls are strong and won’t take shit from any guy- their dad told them that! I’m seeing gymnast and track daughters. He goes to all their games unless it’s a hero emergency. He definitely uses his hero status to endorse their teams and outshine the other team. Another dad that calls his kids matching nicknames. I’m thinking something like Jelly and Bean so whenever he wants both of their attention he calls out ‘Jellybean.’ He’s proud of his girls whenever they kick some rude boy’s ass on the playground. Both he and his kids like going to the Class 1-A family gatherings because there’s always some sort of competition going on and they’re competitive. They have matching bikes and bike/run/skate/blade together.

Kirishima: Has boys. They’re gentleman, they really are- that is when they’re not being roudy. Like Sero’s girls, Kirishima’s sons are super competitive and athletic too. Their dad has their dream physique. I’m seeing soccer and wrestling boys for Kirishima. However, they refuse to ever lay a finger on a girl- until Sero’s girls kick their ass. Then it’s war and they all have a wrestling match on sight. Otherwise, they treat every girl like a queen and defend them because that’s what their dad taught them to do. Use their athleticism to kick the ass of other guys who are being bullies. Gets really mad when people make fun of Sero’s girls for being athletic so they kick their ass. Kirishima loves training with them but love having rest days even more when they all kick back and watch videos of crimson riot or just sports in general. Kirishima definitely lets his boys test their wrestling moves on him. Kirishima likes to meal plan with his boys and go to sports game with them- buying the matching jerseys.

Kaminari: Has a girl who's older and a boy who's younger. The girl has a s t r o n g sense of responsibility and teaches the boy how to treat women. Kaminari loves teasing his little girl either way- pinching her cheeks, making fun of her, messing up her hair my adding electricity to make it stand up. His daugher thinks he’s an idiot and is hotheaded, but she cherishes these moments. His little boy is actually quite mellow compared to his sister and his dad- someone has to be in the family. However, he’s secretly very cunning and sneaky. Puts salt in his dad’s coffee because he thinks its funny. Gives his kids matching nicknames but it’s something stupid like mayo and ketchup. Family prank wars and video game nights all the way. He may act aloof with them most of the time but he’s a very doting and serious father underneath it all. Once, a kid poked fun at the streak in his daughter’s hair and he almost popped a blood vessel. Instead, he roasted the shit out of the 

Iida: Triplets. 2 girls and a guy. His girls are actually quite mischievous and cunning while his son is more mellowed out. His girls like to make fun of his son quite a lot- teasing him about his crushes and asking to dress him up and do his make up like a doll. Iida tries to tell them to knock it off but the girls just don’t listen- that and he finds it a little amusing. He pats his son on his back and tells him to endure it. He’s quite strict on academics and all his kids are overachievers. However- he never makes them feel like they are not enough and compliments their efforts rather than their results. Very proud of all his kids’ achievements. I feel like his triplets definitely play music and are a little trio of a band. One of his daughters plays piano, one plays flute, and his son plays violin. Cries at every recital because Iida is emotional. However, his kids are also very good at running (of course) and they also like being on student government. Iida has knowledge nights where he passes on his wisdom to his kids. They barely listen and end up tackling him and playing heroes and monsters- he’s the monster. Family professional portraits all the way and they have tons of family albums.

[ursie]

I know there is racism within the Dick/Kory relationship as well, but why is Dick/Babs racist towards Dick?

Ok so I’m on mobile so I don’t have like panels ect. But in summary (also this is not against the characters ect) : you cannot remove Babs being a white woman and Dick being a moc especially when their characterization was adapted and changed for the ship.

.(mostly modern) Babs was infantized and often removed of any wrongdoing her and her character can do-this is a bad thing. She’s not an innocent naive white woman constantly wronged by Dick (this is important to her being compared to Kory). She’s not always in the right. She used to be quite mean and cold and that’s ok!! Sometimes women aren’t saints. But recently her character is falling more and more into the girl next door archetype. The writing almost entirely takes away any accountability from Babs. It’s important to stress that in the instances Dick wronged her were ooc and done hand in hand with him being written as a moc-him “cheating”/being a player was not his characterization until that happened-his race cannot be removed from the relationship. Many of his faults are directly ties to the writers bigotry. Todays Babs (who all will argue is ooc and weak compared to bop Babs and I’m not denying that but she is part of the issue of the ship-she exists because of it) is perfect and her perfection hinges on Kory and Dicks failures (both of which have racial undertones). She’s competent when Dicks incompetent (which aside from being like. Objectively bad writing he has a decade of hero work on her-undeniably has misogynistic and ableist tones as well). She’s virtuous where Dick and Korys not, she’s waiting and pining whilst Dick is portrayed as “dabbling” with an “exotic” purely sexual fling but will ultimately return to her (which is bad for multiple reasons). Modern Babs in the ship dynamic hinges on being a white woman in a love triangle with two poc-there is no fault in her in the relationship or character and any and all flaws are because of Dick or Kory-who either wronged her or failed her time and time again. Now there’s no denying how misogyny plays into this, or ableism (but it must be stressed that Dick is a Disabled man as well so her being a disabled woman does not remove any accountability here). At the end of the day she’s a white woman propped up against characters of color (in multiple dynamics from Dick and Kory, to Cass as bg, ect). Now I will say that DC seems to be considering making her Black as she’s being played by a Black woman in the dccu and has been voiced by one for years-her being a woc would remove a lot of the harmful dynamics at play.

Dick in his time being retconned as a moc (which coincides with the ship ect) cannot be removed from its current writing : once he was competent and “virtuous” (very much in love with one and only one person at a time. Not “slutty” *yes I know slutty isn’t a bad thing) now he is quite frankly portrayed as a dumbass incapable of thinking forward five minutes, incapable of settling on one woman, and constantly wronging Babs/being undeserving of her-it needs to be stressed here that his status as a survivor and how dc treated his s/a cannot be divorced from the ship either. Dick does not need a baby sitter. Babs competence and “goodness” should not come at the expense of retconned flaws. Dick is not w/o fault in their relationship and I would never say that-there have been many moments of minor to major ableist “microaggressions” in their dating during bop/now however given the way Babs treats Dick (a brown, lower class, Disabled man as well) I would say they’re about even in terms of biased writing. Dicks competence and character being frankly insulted for white characters is not new-while the case is strongest in Taylor’s current run in regards to Babs and Tim, it pops up often with Bruce and Jason (who yes is atm a canonically white man). His sexualization and the retroactive hypersexualization of his relationship with Kory vs the retroactive well. Canon of his relationship with Babs well. You quite obviously cannot remove race there. (This is not a commentary on the writing of Kory/their relationship which is obv a whole other essay that frankly I’m not the best person for). Where their relationship is “clean and wholesome” Dick and Korys isn’t when quite frankly if I were to compare their iconic runs (bop vs ntt) frankly Dick and Kory come out on top in terms of frankly. Everything. Modern DickBabs represents a lot of regression for the characters from their competence, to their age (Babs used to be much older), to their morals, but what it does the most is portray what is fundamentally a able bodied white woman who is magically better and more virtuous, and most often victimized by her less competent, less moral, harmful, peers that textually are stated to not deserve her. There’s kinda an awkward racial undertone to the whole ship and their writing rn like. You kinda can’t remove it the writing wouldn’t be the same if Dick was white or Babs was a woc-and again that’s barely touching it in the context of how it’s used and portrayed to (wrongly) insult and demean Kory and their relationship (and quite frankly Dicks relationships with multiple other woc like Shawn, Helena, or Beatrice)

This is just like off the top of my head and not written perfectly if anyone has anything to add or clarify ect feel free to in the comments or on the post idc. This is ok to reblog as long as you are normal about it (hate Taylor and that run) and understand I literally love all the characters involved

In summary of the summary

[granny-griffin]

Freddy I’ve been thinking about this all day.

(Major spoilers for both bnha and the httyd books ahead!)

So first off, when I thought about it for five seconds I realized that these two are actually very similar. They’re both the bully character in a story for kids/teenagers with many installments, they both want to be a hero, and they’re both incredibly gifted in a way that the society they were born into applauds. They both use a nickname for the main character that means “useless” and they both keep getting shown up by the main character in situations where by all rights they figure they should have come out on top. Both of them, despite everything, aren’t hated by the main character of their series. Both have a redemption arc, eventually siding with the main character instead of antagonizing him, and both of them die a hero.

But what’s weird to me is that these many similarities caught me totally by surprise. In fact, it almost seemed counter intuitive to me to compare them, because they feel so different in my mind—despite what they have in common, there have a few key differences that really impact their impression on me.

1) I like Bakugou way more than Snotlout. This is less a point in my analysis and more a statement of my bias before I really get going.

2) Bakugou is a deuteragonist, while Snotlout is an antagonist, so their narrative framing is different. To be fair, it looks pretty similar at first, since Bakugou is set up to look like an antagonist. Mostly, this means that Bakugou gets more screentime.

3) Snoutlout is three years older than Hiccup, while Bakugou is only three months older than Midoriya. I think one of the books mentions that Snotlout remembers a world without Hiccup, when everyone looked at him as the heir of the Hooligan tribe, and he misses it. He’s spent the rest of his life trying to get that world back. And when he bullies Hiccup, he has an additional advantage due to his life experience and size. In contrast, Bakugou and Midoriya are the same age. Its unlikely that they remember not knowing the other person.

4) Bakugou and Midoriya share a common goal, while Snotlout and Hiccup don’t. Bakugou and Midoriya both want to be a hero like All Might, while Hiccup explicitly does not want to be a hero—he just keeps getting forced into it. So Midoriya admires Bakugou because he shares qualities with All Might, a person he wants to be like. In contrast, I don’t think Hiccup really cares that Snotlout is a perfect viking hero—he’s annoyed with the very concept of viking heroes. I don’t think he begrudges Snotlout his skill, but he also doesn’t have a reason to want to be friends with him.

5) Bakugou and Midoriya used to be friends, while Snotlout has hated Hiccup ever since he was born. This one kind of follows from the last two points: Bakugou and Midoriya are the same age and have the same interests, so they really hit it off as young children. It wasn’t until later that things soured between them—and even though he spends the first part of the series avoiding Bakugou, it seems like Midoriya wishes he could get that relationship back. (I can’t see Hiccup automatically telling Snotlout a big important secret because he thought Snotlout would be upset by not knowing it the way Midoriya caved and told Bakugou about OFA in season one.)

Snotlout on the other hand sees Hiccup as the person who is keeping his dream of being the heir from him simply by existing. He’s had nothing but hatred for Hiccup since he was born. And Hiccup might not hate Snotlout, but I don’t think he particularly wants to be friends with him either—his best friend is Fishlegs. They don’t have anything in common, and there’s an age gap. Mostly, I think Hiccup wants Snotlout to leave him alone.

6) Snotlout’s environment is constantly reinforcing his behavior. His peers and his teachers tell him that his way of approaching being a hero is correct, and that Hiccup’s is wrong. None of his teachers or classmates really stop him from bullying Hiccup (that I can remember. Thuggary does it at least once, but he’s form another tribe). It’s like he never leaves Aldera.

Bakugou starts out in this kind of situation, but U.A. is totally different. His peers there tell him that his attitude is dumb and that he should be less of a jerk. His teachers reprimand him for letting his anger get in the way of his performance. And Bakugou cares enough about being a hero to listen to them.

7) Bakugou knows Midoriya better than Snotlout knows Hiccup.

Specifically, Snotlout thinks Hiccup is pathetic and could never be a viking hero, while Bakugou thinks that by all rights Midoriya should be pathetic and shouldn’t be able to become a hero. And yet, despite everything that the worldview he’s been taught tells him, Bakugou recognizes qualities of All Might in Midoriya—specifically, qualities that he himself doesn’t (yet) have. That’s why he gets so mad at him after Midoriya tries to help him out of the creek. He saw his own weakness in Midoriya’s strength and didn’t want to acknowledge it. It’s also why he threatens Midoriya in episode one—when everyone else is laughing at Midoriya for attempting to get into U.A., Bakugou tells him that he had better not apply. Why try to keep him from it if he didn’t have a chance of making it in?

In contrast, Snotlout seems completely unaware of most of Hiccup exploits. He doesn’t seem to find any value in the many languages Hiccup speaks, or the way he can talk himself out of a situation or come up with a fiendishly clever plan. He was there when Hiccup saved the tribe in book one, and probably when Hiccup won the swimming race, and maybe some other situations, I’m not totally sure—but none of this seems to change his opinion of Hiccup at all.

8) Snotlout doesn’t care how he achieves his goal, while Bakugou thinks any reward is worthless if he didn’t earn it. I think it’s in book two—Snotlout picks up the stormblade (I think that’s what it was) and holds it over his head and looks really cool, and everyone gets really excited because he looks cool, and Hiccup and Fishlegs are in the background going, “Oh for Pete’s sake, he didn’t even do anything!!”

Bakugou wanted to reject his sports festival medal, even though he won it fairly, because Todoroki threw the final fight.

9) Building off the last point, Snotlout compromised on his dream/his principles in order to make Hiccup’s life worse, while Bakugou gave up on making Midoriya’s life worse in order to follow his dream/principles. When Hiccup is born the heir instead of Snotlout, Snotlout starts doing everything in his power to get rid of Hiccup. When the Witch told Snotlout about Hiccup’s slavemark, he was sure to reveal it in front of everyone. He ended up betraying his own tribe to gain power with Alvin and the Witch—this is what ultimately leads to his breakdown in the scene shown above—Snotlout’s people reject him for his treachery, and he comes to realize too late that he isn’t the viking hero he wanted to be.

In contrast, when Shigaraki offers Bakugou an easier way to gain power, Bakugou rejects him without even thinking about it. When Bakugou finds out that All Might gave his quirk to Midoriya, he concludes that Midoriya must have something that he doesn’t, since All Might wouldn’t make a wrong decision, and he volunteers to keep the secret of OFA.

This is what really interested me—I started imagining the other character’s reaction in the other story. What if Snotlout cared so much about fate and the true viking way that when the Witch told him about the slavemark he went “I don’t see what that has to do with trial by combat” and ignored her. What if he tracked Hiccup down after Hiccup won the sword fighting competition in book nine and challenged him to a duel specifically so that he could see what fate thought was so heroic about Hiccup, and then afterward declared that since fate had chosen him he’d better be a good king. On the other hand, what if Bakugou accepted Shigaraki’s offer and/or told everyone the secret of OFA in an effort to persuade the world that he would be a better wielder of it. The arcs for each character totally change if you flip this one ordering of priorities.

10) Snotlout only reconciles with Hiccup after he’s exhausted literally every other option and can’t think of a reason to go on. Bakugou realizes on his own that trying to make things right with Midoriya is the correct course of action and just does it, without being forced, because he realizes he was wrong.

11) Snotlout dies and stays dead, while Bakugou comes back. This has more to do with the kind of story they’re in than their actual characters, I think. The httyd books have a very OT vibe—they have reoccurring archetypes who bring hope of salvation for the world, but nobody ever quite manages to accomplish it. The series ends sort of hoping that somebody will show up with an answer later.

In contrast, bnha has incredibly strong church age vibes. The characters are fully convinced that they know what the answer is—they just have to learn to embody it. They have to stir each other up in pursuit of that goal.

I’m sure none of this was in the mind of either author, but it fits to me that bnha wouldn’t require death in the path to redemption. Death has already been defeated. Everything sad is coming untrue.

Also, Snotlout belongs to a fading world—the age of viking heroes is over. The age of heroes in bnha doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Anyway, that’s either more than you were asking for or exactly what you wanted.

This part always kills me everytime I read it, just everything about snotlout culminates in this moment, 11 books worth of resentment of corrupting hatred of hiccup and himself god....

(full quote under cut)

[science-lings]

Hero’s Spirit Things

AKA, things that all holders of the Hero’s Spirit have in common because of it.

1. Sleepy: ALL LINK’S ARE INERENTLY SLEEPY, nap time is very important and it’s not their fault, the hero’s spirit is literally just like that. 

2. Sword: the hero’s spirit makes any little guy absolutely frighteningly good with swords. It is canon that in BOTW, Link kicked ass when he was a fuckin baby so it’s not hard to assume that the rest of them just had a natural talent for stabbing. Most of them were kids when their games took place and they could all absolutely kick ass as pre-teens. This is not normal so I’m attributing it to the hero’s spirit. 

3. Stronk: Sure, some of them need items and whatever but as a general baseline, they’re all just a little stronger than they look. They can pick up rocks and statues and weapons that they really shouldn’t be able to. In Wind Waker Link can literally pick up statues and other characters that are about the same size as he is, like this kid is freakishly strong. 

4. Green: Idk they just all like green. it’s not always just a tradition thing, they just like the color an abnormal amount. You know how some people are with certain colors (like purple or black, aka me) that’s how the Link’s are with green. It’s a personality trait gifted to them personally by the hero’s spirit. 

5. Gender: not a single one of these bitches is cis. Every incarnation exudes androgyny, but specific identities differ each time. Some of them are transmasc, some are enbies, some are fluid, the point is that the hero’s spirit strictly prevents them from being cis.  

6. RBF: all of their resting faces are varying degrees of grumpiness. Some look more pissed off than others but they all have the big downturned angular eyebrows and a little bit of a frown when they’re really just chilling.

7. Emotional Constipation: none of them know how to healthily cope with the trauma that comes with saving the world so they just shut all of their feelings in until they die. Some are a bit better at this but all of them have the problem of keeping all their feelings locked up tight so that no one will know that there is anything wrong. This is bad and they all need therapy. This also leads to mutism which each of them has a form of. I’m pretty sure that the only voice lines Link has ever had was in WW when he says ‘COME ON!’ and ‘MEOW’ and that is all. Some have fairies to speak for them or are merely implied to speak but never in cutscenes or important moments. Most of the time it’s mentioned is just that he’s oddly quiet but in botw its stated to be more of an anxiety thing. 

8. Stupid: The hero’s spirit is reckless and heavily prone to solving problems with violence. Bravery often crosses the line into astounding idiocy. This is a good thing. If Link was too smart he would be too powerful. He’s good with little puzzles and battle techniques but he can’t to math. Ganon would win if he made his keys to his big lairs a division problem. However Ganon is also stupid and this is why Link always (not always) wins. 

9. Oblivious: specifically in the ways of romance, I mean this guy can get princesses to fall in love with him over several lifetimes but not once has he recognized this as the case. He has been proposed to by fish princesses on two separate occasions and in two very separate lifetimes and both times he kinda just... went with it. Either that or the Hero’s Spirit is also on the AroAce spectrum which is also very valid and good. I just like the idea that he’s a total heartthrob and is completely unaware of it. So many npcs acknowledge that he is hot but he’s too busy catching bugs and eating dirt. 

10. Nature: Even the incantations of Link that aren’t literally raised by trees or can turn into animals, all of them have a fun little connection to nature. Even HW Link talks to fairy’s and would probably enjoy a nap in the middle of a forest. They see and speak to nature spirits and have a slight eldritch quality to them that give them an air of strange and abnormal, but in like a wild divine way. They’re all a little more in tune with the world of animals and plants and they can command the winds and control lightning and sometimes its so easy to see how they’re more than just human.

feel free to add more 💚💚💚💚💚💚

[worstloki]

Okay, this is gettin’ real screwed up here.

I watch a lot of TV. Probably too much. And I’ve seen characters beaten to their knees before, sometimes even with collars. And yeah, there’s usually someone standing over them, and it’s been a woman sometimes. The kind of scene we got in episode 5 of Loki is not new ground.

But here’s the thing. In EVERY OTHER SCENE I can remember like this, the person kneeling is the hero. They’ve been brought down, fully humbled before the sneering villain, and in a few minutes something will happen to get them back on their feet again. It’s usually a tense moment, a “what if they break?” that makes you want the hero to win. You aren’t rooting for, or even liking in some cases, the person standing. You’re cheering for the person on their knees.

This doesn’t seem to be the case with the Loki show. Yes, the viewers may be rooting for Loki, but there’s no hatred for Sif there. She’s not proved herself to be a cold, heartless villain, ruthlessly pounding the hero until all he can do is kneel at her feet.

Except…she did kind of do that. But it isn’t treated as something bad. It’s treated more as something Loki deserved, in my opinion. The show wants us to feel like he deserved to get repeatedly beaten up and told horrible things, just for cutting off a lock of Sif’s hair. I’ll grant, it’s peanuts compared to what happened to him in the mythology. But it’s still bad. Especially since they had him acknowledge it, repeat her cruel words back. They’re playing it off as if Loki is still the villain by himself, and is only good because of other people- Mobius, mostly, but Sif is part of that.

That’s not the way Loki’s character is. In the comics particularly, his biggest arcs are always about reinventing the labels given to him, changing “villain” into something good, something he can use, and doing it by himself. Yes, there’s outside influence, but ultimately Loki is the one who decided to change.

The show is not letting him do that. The show is portraying him as a stubborn jackass who refuses to change until other people show him the light- either with psychological torture presented as therapy, or with beating him up a bunch of times until he gives in. The show and its characters are forcing Loki to become good- they aren’t showing him doing it by himself. He is not becoming one of the good guys, he’s being essentially enslaved by them, and the show is passing it off as somehow all that good influence finally rubbed off on Loki’s cold, villainous heart. That’s why him betraying Mobius was shown as so bad even though Loki barely knew him and had been psychologically tortured by him- Mobius is written as a character who can choose to be good, and Loki is written as a character who must be forced to be good.

And something about an entire show revolving around an independent character being treated as a villain, literally enslaved by the “good guys” (back when the show still wanted us to think the TVA weren’t shady as all hell), beaten to his knees with a collar around his neck until he accepts that he deserves to be alone because he isn’t “good” like everybody else…that doesn’t go down right for me.

The TVA being presented in not just a neutral but often reliable light is something I thought would change once Loki literally called out their propaganda and Sylvie called them fascists, but, for some reason the authoritarian genocidalists are not being presented as a bad thing and it irks me too.

It's especially weird because of the way what Loki claims to have wanted by making choices for people and what Mobius claims the TVA do ARE THE EXACT SAME THINGS, except Loki, until the show, hadn't done that of his own volition and was being tortured during the invasion and is treated terribly for something he didn't even succeed in doing, while the TVA successfully erase events on a mass scale but are presented as having a higher (or at best, - equal) moral ground.

The exact same thing was done in Ragnarok where Loki's "turning point" from a tricksy villainous scoundrel happened because Thor left him frying on the ground and gave him a pep talk filled with lies and general slander about how he could be better - and people see that as good because Thor is framed as a hero, and it's because instead of accepting Loki is a complex character they take what the narrative tells at face value and that is that Loki fights the protagonist(s) so he's bad.

I personally don't like the narrative pushing a character that is canonically an abuse victim and attempted suicide and was tortured right after as someone who needs fixing because he's lusting for power and needs it to gain a sense of control during a retcon which is occurring for the sake of calling him a complete bad guy who needs to change (probably because no actual original character development could be thought of?) after he was just confirmed as queer and colloquially (i assume) called a narcissist because of twisted love.

That he deserves to be alone was presented neutrally as a joke even as he was repeatedly getting beaten to the ground, and then both people he could call friends were removed from his immediate vicinity right after.

Loki isn't being presented as a character that has done a huge mix of good and bad in the movies, he's being presented as an oft incompetent idiot that deserves what he gets because he shouldn't have run away from captors, or he cut Sif's hair, or he killed his mother, or he dared to think he had any importance or could do something good, because the truth is he's an evil lying scourge.

"But maybe," Mobius says, "Maybe he wants to mix it up. Sometimes you get tired of playing the same part. Is that possible? He can change?" And everyone's already forgotten that moments before the mission Mobius said to Loki's face that the TVA has pruned a lot of Loki variants because he's so nice! look! he has hope in him when no one else does! It's also easy to forget the "and hey, if it doesn't work, I'll delete him myself," right after because the guy was smiling through it and the scene is followed by Loki really badly trying to explain the logic of being a trickster who everyone knows is a trickster.

A lot of people payed more attention in Ragnarok than to the other Thor movies so it's not a new retcon and people seem fine with the extremely strange take that 'loki is bad but he can do good sometimes,' because the character is more animated and acts foolish and that's generally more fun for comedy, which is fair for people to prefer imo, people find different things entertaining.

But I do solidly hope the show doesn't go that way though and takes a side with Loki on the narrative stance eventually because I've seen a lot of people who just. miss that the TVA's concept is bad. And those who think they're "reforming" Loki. As if the guy needs anything but a break at this point lmao he only got away from Thanos like 2 days ago please just let him rest for a bit he's a fail villain and it's cringe to have your supposed 1st open queer character get beaten to a pulp by Sif and then put wack sexualizing shots for it too :/

it's like the show itself is trying to sell the angle of "Loki is a villain" and I'm a clown who is still wanting that to be intentional because if it is? It could be amazing and playing with how different parties are framed would be s p e c t a cu l ar and could encourage people to reassess the hero coding in other movies including ones Loki was previously in - but we're reaching the last two episodes and I don't feel like that'll happen.

I feel like even if Loki does reach the end of the show as a transformed person it'll be done leaving the audience with "perhaps you're not so bad after all, Loki," and then also give credit to Mobius or Sylvie or whoever else was involved, simply because as even of yet Loki hasn't taken on a lead role in the show. I'd argue he hasn't really contributed anything worthwhile to plot either. As you've said, he's being shown as someone who needs to change but isn't really motivated to. Aw man they better not make romantic love the reason he wants to change.