#but no it is Her Important Quest TM and not only does she not get with him if you dont do the quest

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

forever mad about how dirty they did aveline from act 2 onward

[b00m-b0mb]

helloooo bomb,,, could you mayhaps elaborate on joe & sk in your au,,, only if you want to n have time and energy!!!!! loving your ideas so far aaaaaa

Hello!! THANK YOUG!!

I've been thinking a lot, it's just hard to use my words 😔👊💥

So for a little bit of world context:

Heaven World favors Space over Earth, but due to disharmony, Harmony is considering closing everything off all together.

Playa is a idol who sprouted amongst the Space Soccer planet, and has actually had multiple tries at the rhythm trials to flourish, but had failed everytime. (Disharmony is effecting Everything, even Heaven World btw.. Harmony. Herself. Is- yeah you get it.)

Anyway Joe, does NOT get multiple chances and Barista had to argue for him to even GET ONE. (Which is why he's the one who fetches Joe, much to Harmony's annoyance.)

Joe and Playa interact a little bit when Joe is getting used to Heaven World (needing to sniff around and figure out how to deal with his situation, and find Barista again) and well, Playa offers to give Joe a tour, which he didn't want.

"Well, I dunno, I think you need me! Do you even know where the Cafe is?"

"What? What Cafe? In the sky?"

"You just walked out of a castle."

"Why does the Cafe matter?"

"Uh, the dog you're looking for owns it? Duh?"

"... What?"

You know just a bit of tagalong quest before he's more important later; when their deadlines are both put on the line at the same time because Tibby fell from Heaven World (uh oh!)

And then Playa finds Joe and tries to soften the blow Harmony had made because, he knows her, he's had chances. Even if they're over now. He, understands, she is going through something. But, yk Joe doesn't exactly care right now.

He now has to "flourish", whatever that is, and now find a baby, and the flow meter, and probably fix everyone's problems along the way- AND NOW he suddenly feels guilty because they had helped him earlier, and he's being snappy. He probably does need their help, and well, Playa was going to be really insistent anyway.

(^ also somewhere inbetween this Samurai has been following Joe at a distance and later on Playa is going to notice it too lol)

ANYWAY it's basically like, they both try to be positive as they go along, but Joe is closed off, and kind of finds Playa annoying for trying to be friendly. < guess who has better rhythm out of the two of them

But it's okay.. it grows on him, and Playa gets to humble Joe repeatedly lol. The :-] weow. Look at what being nice and sillay did for me <3 and Joe's just >:^( I get it.. <- don't blame him for being a bit of a butt, reminder his sister is also missing and he can't get to earth, also where that baby he has to find is, UGH. (At least they were, conveniently, together when they find them.)

As they get to talk, and kind of reflect on the situation more as they help people in a chain of sidequests trying to get to earth. They kind of get to reside in one another of randomly having their half of the world tossed onto their shoulders, and, becoming an idol is overwhelming, and kind of scary because of the Crisis TM. IDK, guys going through a situation together but it takes them FOREVER to address it and then it's Ah. Man. Okay let's push that. Back again!!

They're becoming friends though! And Samurai is there too!!! Whatcha!!!!! CAUGHT YOU!!! And he's just "Ah......... Nice to meet you." AND wow added fun to our field trip.. and dynamic,, but I'll leave that for laterg///

Really it's like Joe has to loosen up from Playa, and Playa learns to shape up from Joe(+Samurai), especially bc later on in the AU they REALLY start to crack under the pressure, more than Joe had. I wuvg them,,,

ALSO funny. Maccie has beef with Playa because she's already mad at Barista for "stealing" Joe. So yk. Lol.

DW she'll turn around. She, Yuka, and Barista kind of wingman them (+Samurai) bc its a musical adventure in my mind and imagine the sillayyy

UHHH I can't think very much more right now! I hope this is good for the moment,,, I probably didn't words this a lot of good but! Yargggh they r so sillay to meeee,,,

[purgemarchlockdown]

Sorry for the intrusion but now that we're further in i just wanted to guess what was "up" with everyone. I AM guessing 'he' is Jackalope since like. it's Jackalope(I am interested in why in Es Quest he chose these 10) but it might not be! But anyways, here's my guesses for why everyone popped up on the loops they did! (or if they didn't where they would show up)

Haruka - I'm writing this right after Es' crisis of not being real, because I'm pretty sure he might show up next if anyone does. My guess for his appearance is a fish, and that he would've appeared on loops where we had been abandoned in some way- not the same as betrayed, I'll get to that later, but left behind. I'm not sure how Amane WOULD leave us behind, but that's my guess.

Yuno - I suppose she's the reason Es is describing hugs as warmth. My guess for her appearance is either a cat or a bunny. I think she would've appeared on loops where we went againist our word, 'lied' in a sense?

Fuuta - I think Fuuta appearing first not only was part of the fact he is meant to be a 'hero,' but as well as us still having some sort of hope that we were able to change the situation. I miss Es Quest Fuuta he was silly.

Muu - Here's the part I mentioned in Haruka's post! I believe that Muu showed up because she represented the betrayal of Amane attacking us in the second loop. Since like. Her themes and stuff.

Shidou - I think Shidou represented some sort of pity? While we were 'betrayed' in the second loop, hence leading to Muu appearing, we still had plenty of sympathy for Amane's situation and attempted to extract her from it.

Mahiru - We were basicalllyyy guranteed to get Mahiru I think, as from what I understand she's a lot like Smitten, and people have been rather kind to Amane on the blog so far.

Kazui - I don't think he or below would've ever appeared in any loops. I think Kazui would've stayed as someone who dropped the facade of any of this being real and left. As he does- if he DID appear in loops though, I think it would have been something about honesty? Sorry Yuno stole the liar stuff

Mikoto - I think his part in Es was just to provide denial. As he does. Anyways.

Kotoko - Had we been more ruthless and killed Amane directly at any point, I think she would've shown up? My guess is that she would've been a wolf...

As for Amane herself, she is both a constant and not. She's a sacrificial cat who believes herself a lamb.

Ohohoohoho Im so glad to see something like this in my ask box! Most of this I can't directly talk about but there's some stuff I can actually talk about a bit: You're really spot on with Shidou and Muu, there arcs got Aborted because people started Depression Arc TM early and that bit of Es Quest basically overrides everything in importance. Shidou and Muu were a split path, if you guys showed more suspicion towards Amane then Muu would have gone down instead of him.

I miss Fuuta too....he was so funny! I miss him so much.

Kazui and Mikoto both represent stages of Es giving up. So yeah you're pretty right there as well.

For everyone else: :)))))

(Also you forgot a few people....uh.... :)))))) )

[queenaeducan]

Thora Cadash Companion Questions: Blackwall: Did their treatment of Blackwall change after discovering who he was? If yes, how so? Solas: If your inquisitor was told they were “unlike others of their race” by Solas, how did they respond? Were they angry or grateful? Sera: How did your Inquisitor respond to the truth of Sera’s childhood (the cookie scene), if they received it? Did they empathize? Cole: What did your Inquisitor think of Cole’s ability to see into people’s thoughts?  IB: Was your Inquisitor wary of Bull upon learning he was a spy? Vivienne: Did your Inquisitor share Vivienne’s views on the circle of magi or disagree and why? Varric: Did your Inquisitor approve of Varric’s stories? Did they read any of his books? Dorian: Did your Inquisitor attempt to have Dorian speak to his father or not? Does your Inquisitor relate to Dorian in terms of struggles with family or sexuality? Cassandra: What was Cassandra’s role in the Inquisition to your Inquisitor? Was she a crucial friend/ally or an unnecessary soldier? 

Blackwall: Did their treatment of Blackwall change after discovering who he was? If yes, how so?

Initially, yes. Thora had sort of clued into the fact that he was a criminal, not only do Wardens famously accept criminals into their ranks, but as a former Carta member trying to do better herself the vibes he gives off are immediately recognisable to her. However, she fully bought into the fact that he was a Warden, and she didn’t anticipate the full horrors of what Rainier did.

She is immediately ready to get him out of jail and spare him the noose, and pretty quickly decides it’s best to let him continue the road of redemption he’d walked with the Inquisition. The trust she had was eroded, however, and she doesn’t initially return his offer to get back together. She says she needs time and she can be kind of cold when they travel together in the weeks after his quest, brushing off friendly gestures as she tries to make sense of his feelings and her own. Even when they’re back together, it takes a while to build up trust. Good-byes in particular are important for her going forward.

Solas: If your inquisitor was told they were “unlike others of their race” by Solas, how did they respond? Were they angry or grateful?

Disappointed is probably the best word for it. Solas is the companion she grows closest to the fastest, being there from the beginning and (from Thora’s POV) having fewer class barriers between them than most of the beginning companions/advisors. Casual dismissal of dwarves is something she’s accustomed to from strangers, but from Solas it hits her where it hurts.

However, I tend to approach Solas’s ignorance by mirroring it with Thora’s. What he dismisses and misunderstands about dwarves, she does the same with spirits, and part of their growing friendship is unlearning those things. So in the moment she refuses the compliment and advocates for dwarves, instead. A few years ago I actually wrote about how their version of the scene might go, you can read it here.

Sera: How did your Inquisitor respond to the truth of Sera’s childhood (the cookie scene), if they received it? Did they empathize?

It explained a lot about Sera, for her. Their relationship is often one of confusion as Thora struggles to connect with The Youth (tm) as it were, being at least ten years Sera’s senior. Their dynamic often reminds me of mine with my teenage co-workers, tbh, which cracks me up when I think about it. Thora can definitely empathise with Sera’s feelings, being an outcast from her own culture as a Surfacer, it makes her reflect on how often she blamed herself versus Sera projecting her frustration and alienation onto others. After the cookie scene they definitely start to understand each other more, the Sera-Thora friendship I think only truly begins near Inquisition’s end.

Cole: What did your Inquisitor think of Cole’s ability to see into people’s thoughts?

It made her uncomfortable, but she comes to appreciate the ability as one that can help in ways no one else she’s ever met could. While there are times Cole makes mistakes, there’s no question that he’s trying to help, and she comes to admire him and his abilities.

IB: Was your Inquisitor wary of Bull upon learning he was a spy?

Ajlksjdf Thora... threatens him with Leliana, so yes. She has a learned suspicion of qunari and the Qun specifically from her time in Kirkwall and purposefully keeps Bull at arm’s length for a lot of Inquisition (more or less until his personal quest). Not helping his chances is that he and her cousin, Cadri (another of my spouse’s ocs) start sleeping together and while it starts casual it quickly gets more serious. So you have a side of “if I’m right my family will be hurt” that keeps the wariness alive.

Like with Sera, their relationship improves in between Corypheus’s defeat and Trespasser.

Vivienne: Did your Inquisitor share Vivienne’s views on the circle of magi or disagree and why?

In my last playthrough I discovered that one (1) line of dialogue was all that was keeping Thora from Vivienne’s disapproval scene, and almost all of Thora’s disapproval is garnered from her anti-Circle views. She... vehemently disagrees with her to say the least. If Inquisition had happened when Thora was like twenty, they might be on a similar page, but her experience in Kirkwall and with former Circle mages has too great an effect on her for her to fall in line with Vivienne’s views. A younger Thora who is perhaps best described as mage-neutral (wants to improve their conditions if they’re bad, has less knowledge of the system and why it’s bad) would instead find Vivienne’s perspective quite attractive.

Varric: Did your Inquisitor approve of Varric’s stories? Did they read any of his books?

Yes, but she didn’t think much of Hard in Hightown. His writing is a little pulpy for her tastes, which err towards more classic lit and poetry, and she’s fond of the dwarven literature that Varric disparages in banter with Solas. She likes his storytelling better when it’s not in a book.

Dorian: Did your Inquisitor attempt to have Dorian speak to his father or not? Does your Inquisitor relate to Dorian in terms of struggles with family or sexuality?

Thora encourages him to speak with his father. Not because she thinks he deserves forgiveness or Dorian’s company, necessarily, but she thinks that Dorian will regret it more if they don’t speak. She’s struggled with her own father’s expectations, and while their relationship never degraded to the point of Dorian’s and Halward’s (and is much-improved), she does use that as a basis for why a conversation may be in Dorian’s best interest. Either some reconciliation happens, or Dorian is able to decide once and for all that he wants his father out of his life forever.

Cassandra: What was Cassandra’s role in the Inquisition to your Inquisitor? Was she a crucial friend/ally or an unnecessary soldier?

Her support was critical in the early game and her approval later on means a lot to Thora. Her ability to back Thora even when Thora makes choices Cassandra wouldn’t (supporting the mages), standing beside her despite that is important to granting Thora legitimacy. Their friendship never runs as deep as some of the Inquisiton’s other members, but they do make for good allies. The one thing I’ve yet to figure out with these two is what Thora encourages Cass to do when she discourages her to disband the Seekers.

[pricemarshfield]

3, 5, 14, 18, 24, and 28 for Tav :)

hi fox thanks for letting me be insane about my girl <3 below the cut bc i am simply incapable of shutting up about her

3. What would their character quest be titled? Why? (companion au)

okay i originally would have said the holy knight and it would have been a fun little subversion thing given her god's awful and she also can potentially ditch your party for The Literal Devil if you piss her off enough but. i think it would be the tempest. because she really does view herself as her domain's moreso than she does view herself as her god's, even if she IS loyal to talos. BUT also the holy knight questline name sticking even as she drops the mask is also soooo crunchy. hm. no i'm still saying tempest just bc [insert entire text of a tour of tempest here]. plus it would incentivize players to click on a tour of tempest which could doom them if they haven't gotten her approval high enough

5. Describe their idle animations! (companion au)

i have such a vivid mental image of her with a reading animation but only if she's near gale's tent because she refuses to let him think he's the only smart one even if she is not absorbing literally any of the contents of the book. also that one if you give her the necromancy of thay regardless of where she is. i do think she would also have idle animations of looking at the other people in camp because she's nosy and probably also writing something, little would-be bard that she is. one where she's sorting through her bag as a little nod to player character!tav picking up literally everything that isn't nailed down. one where she's practicing tying knots and you can ask her about it and if you try to flirt with low approval, she goes "do you think every thing people do is because they want to have sex with you? i'm a sailor, idiot. i'd only tie you up to throw you overboard. though i suppose off a cliff would do." with high approval she flirts back ofc

14. Where are they from? What was home like?

baldur's gate forever babyyyy. she was young enough when her parents died that she doesn't really remember the house all that well but when she moved in with her aunt/uncle, it was a small but cozy place closer to the docks. they worried she'd be traumatized, having to smell the ocean all day after losing her parents at sea. but of course she is Disturbed and thus was delighted.

i don't picture her dynamic with them being especially affectionate or demonstrative. she's not the type of person to request or openly seek affection, as hungry as she is for attention of all kinds, and i think they were probably busy people who didn't really factor adopting a strange, off-putting child into their life plans and only really changed those to provide the bare minimum of care for her. i think they'd say they love her, and probably even mean it, and i don't think she holds them any ill will, but like. she would only feel a vague disappointment if they died, at most. they offered her shelter as a moral obligation and she's fine with that; she was mostly occupied with her like. religious awakening and deep-seated urge to become a Legend(tm). family ties were nothinggg compared to that.

18. Where/with whom do they feel safest?

okay so i think it's important to note that tav gets deeply and profoundly uncomfortable with Safety. she throws herself into life-or-death situations because she is more comfortable and content with that than she is with actual stability and comfort, even in her good end/post-character arc. her first life-threatening experience killed her whole family and she still went back to that god and to the sea over and over and over again.

BUT. i think by the epilogue, she has people she can be herself with without pretense (namely the party), and that's worth more to her than some illusion of safety. she's thrilled by her new life in the underdark being home without being safe.

also, bad end her obviously is never safe and never feels safe for a second of her life, given the doomed cause and devil she's tied herself to. she even more explicitly than in normal end prefers it that way, and views her previous reaching out to people as a weakness, even if she's not willing to let go of the few people willing to stick with her from then.

24. What does your Tav consider to be their own biggest character flaw?

not to immediately point at her stats, but her lack of intelligence. tav is very charismatic and very wise and very, very good at making people think she belongs in spaces she has no business being in, but she wants SO badly to be able to be in said spaces by virtue of her intelligence. it's not to say she hates herself for that lack, she's far too comfortable in her own skin for that, but she views it as a flaw for SURE.

bad end tav views the lingering remnant of her moral code like it's dirt on her shoe she can't quite kick off. but still probably intelligence, her conscience is embarrassing, but the intelligence is a Flaw

28. Describe a smell that reminds your Tav of childhood.

the docks in baldur's gate, sea salt and unwashed masses and all. she's baldurian to her fucking core. i think she'd also view the smell of the sea actually OUT at sea as a smell she associates with her youth, even if she continued going on ill-fated sailings up until/past the events of the game

[findingtheperfectcharacter]

Hm… Thinking about Penny from Dr. HORRIBLE’S Sing Along Blog- and the video The Problem With Penny… And The Post about how male characters are viewed in a Darwinian way (given more depth by the people who view a work then given in the text) and woman are viewed in a Watsonian way (the text is all there is and their inner life is never thought about.) and the Homeless part of the plot.

The tl;dr is Penny is distinct and important as a character by the way she interacts with things outside of this ego driven love triangle and has pretty fair motives about dating Hammer actually

Penny’s quest to help the Homeless is her Primary motivation, it’s the first thing we see her do that isn’t part of a memory or Billy’s fantasy. Caring Hands is her I Want song. And Billy’s interaction with this part of her life is… Not to give a shit. No literally, he’s so busy trying to get the Wonderflonium that he spends most of the conversation ignoring her trying to have an actual conversation with him about the subject, and in the short bit where he is listening he talks down to her, ‘you’re trying to help the homeless? Well that doesn’t matter because they’re a symptom of the disease that is Society (tm).’ And she’s like. ‘Cool cool, I’m all for revolution. Can you sign anyway? Oh cool, thanks. You seem distracted :/. bye.’

She pretty much admits in the laundromat scene that she didn’t actually insta fall in love with Captain Hammer, just thought he was hot In and went on a first date…

To a Soup Kitchen. Where the two of them interacted with the homeless, and that’s when she discovered his ‘hidden depths’ ‘he seemed kind of cheesy at first, but then I found out he was sweet.’ She likes him- not because he’s a big fuckable alpha male- because he’s nice enough to her and at least pretends to care about the thing she does.

Speaking of which- the next thing he does. He gives her the one thing she’s wanted this entire goddamn movie: That building to be turned into a Homeless shelter.He’s a guy who’s nice to her, pretends to share her interests and helps her achieve her goals… As an audience we know that Hammer’s a douchebag, but from her perspective at this point it makes total sense to like him.

We don’t get a full backstory for Penny yeah, but Penny’s song actually does give us a why. ‘Grief replaced with Pity/for a city barely coping/dreams are easy to achieve/if hope is all I’m hoping to be/anytime you hurt there’s one who has it worse around.’ While going through her shit and believing that the world was cruel and she’d never find love or happiness, she looked around and noticed that there were people deeply suffering and realized- even if things are bad for her- she could still be a source of happiness and a beacon of hope for others in the world who are suffering.

Meanwhile the plot continues to show these two jackasses using the suffering of others as a way to get laid. Like Hammer doesn’t give a shit about the homeless, but is willing to help them to get in Penny’s pants and spite Billy. Billy doesn’t give a shit, he stops the ceremony to give them the shelter to do some selfish vengeance ‘ohhh look Hammer’s disguise as a nice guy is slipping. Look at your hero now’ he says while shooting his death ray gun around. And like… This was a thing Penny cared about. And he ruined it for his ego. Despite his lofty claims of revolution he has no actual goal beyond having the biggest dick in the room.

I’d actually argue that Penny is an extremely important character in this story, because she was the only person who actually gave a shit about the world around her. The only person who sought to create actual change. And was killed by a man who screamed revolution while holding no philosophy.

[limerancy-fics]

If you did the newest archon quest and go to the fortune teller in sumeru, and ask for the love prospect. She tells you how so many people have fallen for the traveller and it kinda drives her mental. I'm kinda sick of mihoyo catering to the traveller harem agenda. Because side relationships have so much potential. Mihoyo has such a habit of erasing playable characters from other characters stories. Such as venti in xiaos. They keep detouring and making it all about traveller. It's just a bit of an ick to me, especially considering I'm somebody who believes that they are Canon in the sense that they know eachother, and they r just dancing around right now figuring things out.

I'm really hoping their meeting does them justice. And mihoyo doesn't yet again make it all about traveller. Like the scene xiao dances In the field of flowers could super easily be made all about aether and xiao with venti on the side.

goddddd yeah i chose that option bc i had seen the answer for the health option on twit n was like "why not i might be able to use it for the albether canonverse fic i swear i'll finish one day" and then she. said that. and i was like "okay are we done. like can we be done now. im over this. just stop."

FR so tired of characters getting erased from each other's stories and suddenly the traveler is the most important person to them like stop!!! this is some stranger that 90% of them have only met a few times for Not Very Long! how the hell can they suddenly be more important than their literal savior, their most trusted right hand they've been working with for years, their family, or the estranged friends trying their hardest to help the person they love? this isnt even just about xiao, it's about literally everyone the traveler comes across--kokomi? ayaka? ei? these characters who should be strong individuals with trusted friends and family who are leading rebellions and an entire nation respectively? suddenly they're all over the traveler and the traveler is the most important person and makes them feel so much better yada yada i got so tired during kokomi's quest bc like..........why. i get that traveler is the person she doesn't have to be the Rebellion Leader in front of bc they dont rely on her but like....that could've easily been a more compelling storyline if she was able to learn to let her walls down around someone like gorou or smthn and he was able to see her as more than just their unflappable leader. not even as a ship, just as two people relying on each other during hardship

ugh this turned into a rant but yeah like. i would much prefer to see playable charas as individuals with compelling lives and relationships outside the traveler. its such a disservice to them to make their lives and stories revolve around the traveler and im sure that's not what the traveler wants either

anyways yeah i think xv are either Married (TM) already or they've been dancing around each other for the past several centuries and we're gonna see smthn abt them Finally Getting There

[atherix0]

FERAL MUMBO MY BELOVED. MY ANGEL. MWAHHHHHHHHH. Shattering glass in his hand because Blondie fed on Scar, not caring about the GLASS in his HAND because BLONDIE fed on SCAR AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH god him caring more about protecting than vengenace is S U C H a good use of that trope though, what a genius way to snap him out of it oh my GOD. I loves him. My precious.

Also though you are doing some absolutely genius things with your magic system and they are absolutely SENDING me. I have an english degree so as you can guess, picking this stuff apart in your askbox is my JAM. The dichotomy of vampire and scar's magic [since its not quite fae or sorcerer] where vampires seem to use their magic much still, and gain magic through a 'still' action [drinking blood], and Scar has to move in order to cast which - So I've read through everything twice and going back and reading the chapter where Scar is casting illusions of Boatem for Grian to understand the history and looking at how he sways and moves through the very illusions he's casting like a gentle breeze, compared to the SPINNING and SLAMMING of him casting magic while he fights for his life is EVERYTHING to me.

Giving Grian the main POV of the story is also genius, because [well, given the 'not a watchr yet' tag, as of right now - ] it means the POV character is learning the magic as we go along, but Mumbo and Scar ALSO have to learn EACH OTHERs magic and livelihood, which means we STILL get that in other POVs. It's such a smart way to handle your worldbuilding and I'm actually doing something similar in a novel I'm writing rn [wherein the MC is a museum director being drug along on a quest by an Immortal, All Powerful Wizard] so I'm sitting here just taking notes about how you handle all the worldbuilding without infodumping it on us because I've never written fantasy before so im like 👀👀

Also I know she's NOT Pearl since you don't wanna make any of the lifers or hermits the bad guys, understandable, but I can really feeling the Pearl-in-Double-Life vibes being channeled through Blondie and what a genius way to handle that as well - Having an OC in a story that FEELS like another character makes it a lot easier to accept that they're there in the fanfiction and helps to avoid any self insert vibes. It's genius. She's scary but also. I love her. In a villian way.

Mumbo might be going feral but the safety and needs of his Coven friends is the most important thing and even Seeing Red he knows this <3 I just knew that I want Mumbo to be capable of going Feral(TM) but even if/when he does he still has enough sense to prioritize <3 ALSO because this chapter kind'a establishes that Mumbo has that Lord feel that he said you would "know when you [saw]" so it was important for me to draw a clear and stark line between Mumbo and the "bad Lords" (the ones who act like masters over servants rather than protectors of a family/pack) so <3

AAAA THANK YOU I love exploring magic systems and making them as unique as possible <3 Ooo that is delightful, I love seeing your analyses <3 YES YES YES YOU NOTICED Elves are always in motion when using magic (not just Scar, but Scar is the only Elf who uses a staff and unlike Sorcerers who require a staff to focus and direct magic he also needs to move his staff to properly channel his magic and just gjfdjds) and Vampires don't need to move at all (and in fact their most typical magic, which is magic absorption/Turning, requires being STILL to safely perform <3) I am so happy someone picked up on that hhfgdhjgfdjhshj YESSS it's a very gentle vs rough movement which gives the magic its different oomphs and I greatly enjoy the imagery of "graceful dance with the wind" and "dangerous dance in a hurricane" jhfgdskj, some parts you can definitely see him leaning more on Fae magic or Sorcery (spinning/twirling his staff and creating an ethereal wind and weaving spells on the spot and gentle movements vs heavy use of pre-set glyphs activated with a wave of his staff and charging the staff with raw magic but no actual spell etc etc) and one is much more suited for fighting than the other so <3

(thank you for remembering that tag because it's gonna get important again soon <3) I love love LOVE limited POVs bc it means I get to choose the character who knows the LEAST about a particular situation <3 Yessss originally the Midnight Series was written completely from Grian's POV, and the biggest reason I decided to split it up like this is because so much of the story gets lost BECAUSE Scar and Mumbo have to learn about each other hjfdskj and it's super important for me (as a poly person) that Mumbo and Scar develop a relationship both WITH Grian and WITHOUT Grian <3 Oooo I love that, that sounds so cool 👀👀 Fantasy is so much fun to write, fantasy and sci-fi are probably my favorite genres because what's sci-fi if not just technofantasy <3 I wish you luck, I believe in you!! And when it's published one day I will find it and be like <3 Anon <3

HAHA YES I really liked Unhinged Pearl but Pearl cannot be a villain in this series for multiple reasons I cannot explain cuz of Spoilers(TM) so I decided to channel her unhinged energy into this OC, it's fun and familiar but not a copy-paste so <3 Especially since she ended up being such a huge character in the story, turning out to be a bit of a main antagonist at this point jhfdsjk so yeah haha I love her and she's an irredeemable POS <3 I am so wary about using OCs but my wariness about OCs was less than my Not Wanting to Make Canon Characters Villains, I'd much rather let them be townsfolk and other magical creatures that befriend the main cast somewhere in the background than make them a character that the narrative is setting up to die <3 Haha-

Thank you so much this was wonderful to wake up to <3 <3 And now I'm back to writing <3

[itsclydebitches]

Controversial take, but vol. 6 is the worst season bc its built entirely around fan service. Qrow's letter (IQ was popular), Ruby's proactivity, backstory at last, Ozpin's awful treatment, Bees, killing Adam, adults suck(tm), even Penny's return... just saving throws to keep RWBY alive. So everything failed in 7/8 bc fans thought they had been shown beats that mattered, but CRWBY never added those into their actual plan. Since vol. 6 began its all been misdirect, no one knows what to look at.

Putting aside my own very personal desire to not treat Ozpin and Oscar like that (because that’s where the bulk of my criticism stems from), I think Volume 6 is only a bad season retroactively. The concept of fan service isn’t inherently a problem, especially if the desire for certain things stems from the fans recognizing why that would be good for the show. People tend to reduce fan service to a purely negative thing, produced to appease the “rabid” fanbase, but fans aren’t pulling things they want out of a hat. They’re recognizing what things the story has lost (can our main character make decisions again?), what the story has intentionally or even unintentionally set up (these characters have great chemistry!), and what things might keep the story feeling fresh moving forward (maybe we need new combat ideas, like semblance upgrades). And that’s largely what Volume 6 is made up of, following the highly criticized Volume 5: a whole bunch of changes that were meant to both reintroduce what made RWBY great before and breathe some new life into a six year show. 

Our title protagonist should have agency again, so Ruby starts making decisions. We really should know more about this world and the quest they’re on, so we get an entire episode devoted to lore. We need to make the grimm a threat again, so we introduce the Apathy. Penny, as an android, always had a good chance of coming back, so let’s do that in Volume 7, originally meant to appear in Volume 6. It’s not fans’ love of a character demanding that the story sacrifice something (like logic) to meet that desire, it’s fans picking up on the internal logic of the story (androids can be rebuilt) and extrapolating possibilities. Now, we’re seeing the same work going into Volume 9. The frustration that Jaune fell into the void in part stems from recognizing that our main team hasn’t had much development lately and has been separated a lot since Volume 3/sharing time with JNOR, resulting in few Team RWBY moments. A desire to make Sun a significant part of the Vacuo arc stems from the knowledge that he’s there, he was formerly an important character, he’s friends with our other characters, and it would overall make sense to incorporate him into this part of the story. Hoping that Qrow and Robyn get their own adventure stems from a desire to keep the story internally consistent (please don’t have them arrive in Vacuo within a day when the Atlas citizens supposedly couldn’t just fly off to safety) while the hope that they’ll be set aside entirely until Volume 10 comes from recognizing that our cast is bloated and we need to pare things down. 

So much in Volume 6--giving us lore, introducing a SEW mentor, even acknowledging their headmaster’s mistakes to try and forward the protagonists’ growth--wasn’t bad on its own, but the execution failed horribly for some parts during the volume (Ozpin) and, more importantly, everything else petered out. As you say, the fans, myself included, had all assumed that this was going somewhere, but across two volumes we realized that RT didn’t actually know what to do with these plot points, they just threw them out and then... nothing. Things were either dropped or changed because they never had a real chance to begin with. How many times were we reassured that the group was going to reconsider their position with Ozpin and there would be a whole arc of growth, ending in heartfelt apologies on both sides? Just wait! Two years later, there was no development, no mention of it, and only one, quick apology to scoot that plot point off screen. How many times were we reassured that Penny was coming into her own and that resurrecting her/making her the Maiden was the beginning of a long, fulfilling journey? Just wait! Two years later, she had the powers for two days in-world, had her android identity stripped away, and then died again. The concept of new grimm didn’t have an impact because our group wasn’t fighting them in the Battle of Atlas/they killed the Hound in an episode, Maria as a mentor means nothing because she’s forgotten by the group and then literally forgotten by the story, Qrow’s relationship with Ironwood is tossed out for a kill threat that was then also tossed out for him to fight Harriet instead. It doesn’t feel like they planned any of this. The vast majority of what’s introduced in Volume 6 has no meaning or payoff. In reality, most things are actively contradicted by what comes next. What’s the point of establishing the horror of keeping the Salem secret if Ruby’s just going to turn around and keep it herself? What’s the point of establishing that the Lamp attracts grimm if that’s not going to impact Oscar carrying it around? What’s the point of spending a whole volume with Ironwood trusting them only to make him a cartoon villain at the start of the next? What’s the point of spending a volume emphasizing how much Nora cares for Mantle only for her to go start up Amity instead? What’s the point of Ren questioning their choices and supporting Ironwood if he’s just going to reverse course once his semblance upgrades? And on and on and on. Ideas don’t just disappear, the cast frequently does the opposite of what they should if those ideas had ever mattered. 

The worst part is, I’m still seeing so many fans pushing the “You just have to wait” argument. The conversation surrounding Emerald is nearly beat for beat the conversation surrounding Ozpin. Sure, things were pretty rushed and the emotion of the scenes was all one note… but that won’t last! Just wait until next season when Emerald’s redemption takes center stage. And then if that doesn’t happen there will be lots of excuses—this was the spirit world volume, we’re not supposed to be focusing on Vacuo yet—with further confidence that it will all come to a head in Volume 10. And then when Emerald either dies or is left behind by the plot, those fans will realize across Volumes 8-10 that RT isn’t writing a planned, cohesive story, the same way we realized that across Volumes 6-8. The fan service itself isn’t the problem, it’s that RT introduced a ton of ideas—ideas the fans obviously wanted—and then didn’t have any idea what to do with them. 

[autistic-council-spectre]

i think the Ziir timeline is p much

Wakes up newly formed as a Hero in a cell due to a dragon break

Dicks around for a few weeks in the arena mostly to just. get the bearings of how the fuck her body works +get some money

The main Oblivion quest line i think canonically is supposed to only be a few months but lbr it's closer to 2-3 years

An in that time she falls in love w Martin, tries to worship the divines but it feels Weird tm, gets some weird prophecy like dreams (probably from Mara or Kynareth trying to help a lil) Martin dies like in canon an she goes off the deep end a lil, attacking and murdering idk a blades member probably/someone important in a dispute

Lucien shows up an does his >:3 spiel

She goes fuck it yeah why not an joins up, idk how long that time period is supposed to be but we're gonna put it at around 10 yrs including the purification (but that lasts only the last 6ish months, it's just a shit show of constant Ziir suffering)

Somewhere around this time she gets drawn to worship Hircine, it works well bc he views what she's doing as a Hunt

Plenty of time to get attached to everyone basically. Falls in love w Lucien an Vicente (personal hc that he shows up a lot more than we see him in canon) gets turned about 5yrs in? Has a tiny crisis over that bc eyyy dying is traumatic. Does lots of murders, is probably semi known at this point

And at the same time this is happening she happens upon the thieves guild by accident is like "hey what are y'all doing?" cue screaming bc a vampire just popped her head out of nowhere

She doesn't officially officially join the thieves guild but she helps out a lot and in return they help her out. Usually it's letting her know when they guards are around/where x mark is hiding out at

Purification happens an then the Lucien shit happens an she's :) suffering

Spends about a year or so just laying face first in the floor of a thieves guild hide out while the other members pat her head like "there there"

Then she hears about the weird door an is like Haha Fuck This Noise an bounces

Time is very fucky over there so on Nirn she was only gone about 50ish years (she thinks??) but to her it felt like Much Much Much longer like few hundred years longer

Long enough for her to mantle the madgod, be a very fucked up person for a good while (Steven universe fusion....but bad) before going feral and basically ripping out the mortal part of them and throwing it back to Nirn

This leaves Sheogorath looking more khajiit like an slightly more morose than what were used to and Ziir having a few weird quirks namely her glamor being fucky and ppl with issues low-key flocking to her

So the mortal Ziir is left with all her baggage from years ago bc it feels like all the time has passed and none of the time has passed at the same time so she spends a lil laying face down in the forest

Before finally grabbing all her shit and fucking off to a crypt in the middle of the woods and taking a nap for 100 ish years

Then she wakes up, spends a few years wandering around b4 ending up in Skyrim and going FUCK bc the gods have cursed her. literally. they realized she was awake and bestowed upon her the title of dragonborn an all it's abilities so they wouldn't have to find a random person to do it

an that's where current canon starts

[janiedean]

What do you think about all those dudebros talking about how BRieNNe ARc Is NoW COmPlEte and she can rest in peace? Please, send help. =__=

well.

*deep breath*

first thing to be entirely truthful I would like to broaden that statement to ‘people in general who say that’ because from what I’m seeing it’s hardly a dudebro exclusive and it’s been a pseudo anti-brienne argument for ages around here (ie the SHE’S A KNIGHT SHE CAN ONLY BE A KNIGHT THE MOMENT SHE’S ONE HER ARC IS OVER) so like.... I wish it was just one category X°D

second thing: nope.

nooowwww, here goes the rant.

I would like to start by pointing out that this episode was named a knight of the seven kingdoms. and what’s the point, you will say. well:

now: who is the protagonist of AKOTSK?

and what’s the point, you will tell me?

well, half of it is that he’s most likely brienne’s great-grandfather:

which is not just because of that but also because he’s basically genderswapped brienne:

or better, he’s genderswapped brienne except that he’s Hot For Regular Standards but like if you read those novels he’s so much like her it hurts and actually... THICK AS A CASTLE WALL?

The wench has built a fortress inside herself. They will rape her soon enough, but behind her walls they cannot touch her. But Jaime's walls were gone. (asos, jaime iv)

"Do you mock me?"That pricked him back to anger. "Are you as thick as a castle wall? That was an apology. I am tired of fighting with you. What say we make a truce?""Truces are built on trust. Would you have me trust—" (asos, jaime v)

I’m not gonna go into how the most important romance dunk has in those novels is with a great-great-aunt of jaime’s and how those two have actual jb imagery in their novel because that’s not the point of this rant, but my point is: while obviously this is book canon, in the show they called her the way her ancestor is called in the collection of novels about his adventures and both brienne and duncan are 100% what you’d want in real knights, like dunk is 100% True Knight TM material if jaime had run into him instead of arthur dayne he’d have gotten an even worse mancrush.

now, dunk starts the novels as already knighted (even if no one gives him much credit for it), but what happens to dunk is that before going into the kingsguard he has a very long time of going around westeros with egg doing good deeds and establishing his name to the point that when he goes into egg’s kg everyone recognizes him as a paragon.

now: brienne has strived all her life for that validation of being knighted and recognized as such and she’s spent all her life dreaming of not only being a knight but to be seen as one and respected as one, she gets her wish with the man she’s in love with (because she is) and that she respects and whose worth and honor and bravery she sees to the point that she’s willing to put her own reputation on the line for him in front of people who might not take her seriously actually knighting her, in an episode titled after her ancestor who’s a true paragon of knighthood and who’s known for having been a knight for years and for his quests, and I’m supposed to think that the coronation of her arc is that.......... she dies not even twelve hours after that? it’d be cheap, it’d make no sense and it completely would kill the importance of the moment. if she’s been recognized as one after years of efforts and eating shit for it, it means that now she a) gets to prove it, b) gets to go around and say well fuck you I’ve earned that title, c) gets to come into herself fully and she can be whoever and whatever she wanted to and if she dies that gesture and that moment are worth shit because what was it that for? the last hurrah so she can die happy? fuck that, brienne worked her entire life for it, she got it and now she’ll damn well make use of it, and sorry but if gwendoline is going around talking about how this season she takes her decisions, she goes beyond serving others and does finally things for herself that include embracing her womanly side which she denied until now there is really no way that this is it. this is the premise brienne needs to get the push to actually see herself as not just someone whose worth is tied to her being in service of someone else, and the fact that jaime basically pledged his service to her even before knighting her should say everything about where the priorities lay here.

brienne’s arc isn’t complete for shit. brienne’s arc has just started and it’ll be complete when she’s lived a long fulfilling life in which she’s been a knight, saved people, held up that paragon of virtue thing she has going for her, didn’t do it sacrificing her own wants and needs but along with that and doing it with people who finally see her for the amazing person she is. and like.... ‘okay but grrm is evil’ and ‘okay but people die on got’ aren’t Actual Objections because grrm is hardly as bad as everyone thinks he is and he actually does like a good love story himself and he said he wants the bittersweet ending like lotr, not a bloodbath, and I would like to remind everyone that lotr ends with sam gamgee going back home to his wife and children and living a happy life before going off to join frodo in valinor, not with middle earth being razed to the ground by sauron.

also: the fact that she’s directly paralleled with dunk doesn’t mean that she’s ending up in a kings or queensguard whatsoever. the point is that *dunk* being in the kg was something he’d never even dream of and his coronation of his journey, brienne being paralleled with him means that she most likely has to get what *she* wants full package after being denied it for all her life and I’d like to remind everyone that brienne of tarth actually never said she never wanted a husband or a family case in:

Brienne had been betrothed at seven, to a boy three years her senior, Lord Caron's younger son, a shy boy with a mole above his lip. They had only met the once, on the occasion of their betrothal. Two years later he was dead, carried off by the same chill that took Lord and Lady Caron and their daughters. Had he lived, they would have been wed within a year of her first flowering, and her whole life would have been different. She would not be here now, dressed in man's mail and carrying a sword, hunting for a dead woman's child. More like she'd be at Nightsong, swaddling a child of her own and nursing another. It was not a new thought for Brienne. It always made her feel a little sad, but a little relieved as well. (affc, brienne iii)

never mind that she is attracted to men and she does suffers knowing it’s Not For Her To Be In Love With Guys Who Respect Her.

well, guess what, she has one now riiiight there who has just knighted her. *shrug* and okay, you’ll say, that’s book canon and not show canon, but ffs since this season it seems like they remembered proper characterization and the endgame should be roughly the books’s....... well. my money is that she gets to have the cake and eat it after all the metaphorical (and not) shit she had to wade through for years to get it and that’s my two cents.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

So i’ve been looking around for footage of demo players looking at/attacking the purple rocks/crystals/eridium(?) we see around in the gameplay demos. I’m aware of the 2 in the beginning area, one in the area you reclaim with lorelei (the base with rhys’s hologram pad), and the one right before gigamind. trying to find more in case there’s more ~fancy shit~ inside them like the ones on Eden-6.

So far, rn, I have pictures of the e3 eden-6 Moze gameplay and the zane coop Joltzdude gameplay one (the one by gigamind). i'm trying to find a connection between all these things and literally all i’ve got is different colored (??) glowy purple rocks

so not really much to go on.

green

red

Also we get a special tool later on to break said glowy rocks that appears to be a melee override only for that interaction.

if the tool is by a corporation or alien in origin, i don’t know for certain. i like to think it’s atlas because of the color scheme and the triangle shapes, but that might just be because i like atlas (also, anyone else realize it’s possible this may be the one melee weapon the devs said would be in the game? ... aw man...)

It could just be alien in origin though, i don’t know for certain. i could be missing inscriptions or smth since my monitor is bad tm. Given what we know about Eridian weapons though im inclined to say it isn’t... mostly bc the holoblades we see guardians use in bl1 are strictly blue/purplish and the weapons we see them use in tps are always solid (AFAIK).

mmm im also considering zer0′s sword tech as an option, like the whole bit where they’re like ‘monomolecular edge’ and are able to cut straight thru a maliwan wall/shield. that seems a bit too... quick?? like we go thru all this trouble for a single sword upgrade, give it to zer0, then we’re done with it all after gigamind?

like... from a writing perspective we probably could’ve just knocked down the wall to gigamind using a cyclone or explosives or whatever. walked in through the front entrance. i mean we’re Vault Hunters for crying out loud, death and destruction is almost literally our middle names. that’s practically chekov’s monomolecular edge upgrade.... you get the point. the tech could (and should) totally come back into play. 

And i mean we’re probably not actually using Zer0′s sword itself, since that’d be weird for zer0, but the idea that Rhys helps us use that new tech to build a gauntlet to break those rocks? yeah i could get behind that. we know we talk to rhys in person about a vault at one point and we know Zer0 is present when we do. and yeah it could’ve just been a set up to talk to/introduce katagawa, but i don’t see why they can’t do both at once.

and i am wondering if the stuff embedded in the crystals themselves is eridian tech? shards? or something. hear me out, like maybe the color (green, red) is based off planet origin, given eden-6 has the glowing green and promethea has the glowing red. or it could be elementally-based, given what we know about sirens/Vault Monsters. Mostly think they’re eridian because of the rocks/walls we’ve seen in ruins with glowing inscriptions in 1 and 2, and TPS w/ tycho’s ribs/eleseer and the sentinel and even the traveler in tales. Like the sentinel changes color based on element and the traveler changes colors when it goes to teleport.

tycho’s ribs. you can see more crystals here as well.

eleseer and the giant crystal you walk into to enter the Vault.

sentinel changing color based on element

the traveler. tho they’re more crystally than the others, maybe the traveler is more ancient? it seems more sentient, like... it laughs and emotes and stuff so maybe the older Vault Monsters were built off sentient beings (like the Warrior) while the ‘newer’ ones (the Sentinel) are mostly tech? idk, just spitballing here lol

it does lowkey make me wonder if Sirens are meant to be Vault Guardians and that’s why we’ve seen a disproportionate number of them throughout the games. i mean that’d tie into the theory that Siren powers and Vault Monster powers are intertwined, although the only example I have of this is Lilith and the Traveler so... the better theory is the Sirens and the Lost Legion Eternal are intertwined bc that actually makes sense...

anyway magic rocks. we see some of them in tycho’s ribs and a huge one we move thru in eleseer, but the way they vaporize on contact with the new melee weapon in bl3 makes me wonder if it actually is Eridium Eridium or some weird Eridium (not-Eridium?) that isn’t the kind we see on Pandora. Maybe it’s not activated or something, i don’t know. it’s clear somehow refined eridium is still relevant in bl3 despite hyperion not refining it anymore (and the absence of slag) since it’s literally everywhere whenever you kill an enemy, so take that as you will. 

also, it could simply be the tool we use making it vaporize and shit instead of it inherently being like that. tho i don’t understand the reasoning behind vaporizing this very precious material. but im mostly curious why eridium is now suddenly appearing across the planets/galaxy. open first vault on pandora, eridium appears on pandora. open second vault on pandora eridium appears... everywhere else? and we know it was present on elpis before the opening of the warrior vault on pandora, but if that is because of it’s connection to pandora or other reasons, like it’s vault being weird, im not sure. 

furthermore, there could be eridium on promethea because the first vault has been opened. damn you tales for making me uncertain if this was atlas’s doing or Typhon’s! and we see one of typhon’s logs on eden-6, though we’re not allowed to hear what it says yet in the demo, so it’s possible he’s also opened the Vault on eden-6. if it’s him doing the vault openings, anyway. im so curious what the difference is between pandora’s eridium and the purple crystals on the other planets. how come theirs sprouted with cool shit inside and ours didn’t? fuck that maaaaan.

overall, im just very curious as to what’s inside the crystals. there is 100% something there, we’re not breaking them into purple powder for nothing. Moze even says something like “im breaking you out!” when attacking the rock during the gameplay demo so... she must’ve been talking about whatever [the green thing] is inside. we neeeeed it and it’s apparently more important than raw eridium. which is a doozy considering it is (was?) a fairly precious commodity

it would be neat if we were going around collecting the distributed pieces and reassembling them to create a big boy Vault Defender to stop the twins. but i highly doubt it. hear me out. it’s gotta be something important right? so im betting it’s some kind of gear or upgrade for our characters. maybe even some lore. but nothing huge. my reasoning is that it doesn’t appear to be a main quest objective. if anything, it seems like a crew challenge. i thought maybe it could be tannis’s but i thought hers would be the eridian logs (then i realized this is just glorified ECHO logs, so prob not) , or the Typhon Deleon logs. but it’s possible she has more than one.

and imagine someone ignores all the purple crystals throughout their playthrough. i really doubt right before the last mission of the game, they’d be like alright kids, go back and break every single crystal with these glorified brass knuckles for fun times!! because that sounds miserable. odds are they’re introduced in some way, and we get the gauntlet, and then we gotta break a few for a quest or two, then the rest are optional for unique gear/skins or upgrades or lore or smth.

[otdderamin]

Analysis: Caduceus and Caleb build their relationship – CR C2 Ep47 2:40:07

REVISED: The original article was written before Talks Machina 2019-01-15 where Taliesin clarified that Caduceus' feeling for Caleb are platonic. This article was written on that assumption anyway. It's been lightly revised to include that certainty and include the Talks Machina Transcript.

The two flattering exchanges between Caduceus and Caleb caught my ear as much as anyone. There's clearly some stronger, closer relationship forming there. Maybe it will come to something else one day, but on review, I was not reading it as romantic overtures so much as two socially awkward people trying to communicate kindness, which Taliesin confirmed on Talks Machina 2019-01-15 (0:39:18). Taliesin: "I will say he doesn't feel that way [about Caleb], though, but yeah. Yeah, he don't- he doesn't have a thing going on in that direction, but he's definitely like, 'Yeah, you're cool.'" I really like the idea of an ace/aro Caduceus who basically doesn't understand the concept of flirting. He just thinks you should be kind and supportive to all living things and ease their insecurities, but other people reserve that for ulterior motives.

Caduceus' comment that Caleb smells nice (3:23:42) came directly after Jester was projecting all her insecurities & making Cad feel insecure himself before she tried to correct (3:22:56). Caduceus could see that the joke about Caleb being stinky was really bothering & hurting Caleb in the same way. So, Caduceus was partly trying to reassure Caleb that wasn't the case and passive-aggressively put an end to the joke with the others. And doing that with his disarmingly frank honesty and supportive personality. Taliesin said on Talks, "I think that it's more the teasing that he smells bad." (0:38:03)

Caduceus is flattering to plants and animals he wants to reassure and persuade to be kind to them in exactly the same tone. And Caleb was irritated enough to be withholding magic from them until they apologized (3:23:46), so there's a similar motive here.

Also, this is Taliesin. He tried to flatter sentient grass with Percy and it came off as flirting (CRC1 Ep060 2:21:56). He's expressed before (on Gather Your Party, I think) that he sees flirting as a way of making people feel good about themselves without necessarily expecting it to be reciprocated.

Caleb offering Caduceus the book I've a harder time reading, as did Caduceus. He's clearly stumbling his way through trying to build a positive relationship of some kind. Caleb's been socially isolating himself for such a long time that any attempt to peak out of his shell is a bit startling. Caleb saw Caduceus being very kind to him when his best friend was being an asshole, and he had something he could offer in return. He was trying to practice returning kindness that wasn't so transactional, which he is very, very rusty at and unsure about.

Caleb was also unsure what value it would have to Caduceus. Caduceus is as backwoods as you can get, and clearly not that bright. Caleb was probably unsure if books were something that would ever interest him or be of any use to him. Remember that Molly was barely literate, so I can see why he wouldn't want to make assumptions. Also, this is Caleb making himself even more vulnerable by trying to share his dearest passion with someone else he feared would reject it.

There's clearly some form of attraction there from both of them, but let's look at a multi-layered attraction model view of it. It could be romantic or sexual from Caleb, but those seem to be tied up in a lot of old baggage. Taliesin explicitly said Caduceus isn't sexually or romantically attracted to Caleb (0:39:18), and Caduceus has frankly never expressed having either attraction at all.

We're clearly seeing emotional attraction, the desire to get to know someone better as a result of their personality. Both Caleb & Caduceus have been isolated and struggle expressing this in general. Caleb by withdrawing and not getting close, Caduceus by being overly friendly.

Caleb seems to have been testing intellectual attraction by offering the book. Caduceus is wise in ways Caleb is not; Caleb is smart in ways Caduceus is not. They complement each other. Intellectual attraction is the desire to explore how someone thinks and know them that way.

Caduceus obviously shows high sensual attraction to everyone. The desire to tactilely interact with people in a non-sexual way like hugging and cuddling (frankly, this is also just Taliesin). Caleb shies away from a lot of physical contact with people.

The UNC-Chapel Hill LGBT Center has a great article on multilayered attraction called "Asexuality, Attraction, and Romantic Orientation." It's linked on the Critical Role Campaign 2 Index, but Tumblr punishes external links. It's something developed in ace/aro discourse that applies to everyone and everyone should be aware of to better understand themselves and others. People can be attracted to certain genders more than others in any of these ways, and they might not line up. Gay ace and aro people exist and are just as valid, even if there's strict limits on the sort of relationship or physicality they want.

In examining character interrelationships, I think it's important to examine the context they've already given for their preferences. I've written an analysis of Caduceus already. He not only expressed no interest (or experience) in sex, he's tried to firmly avoid the subject every time it comes up and seems completely mystified that anyone thinks he should engage that way. Even in this conversation with Jester, he's lost for how to respond when she asks, "So, like, if you think something dirty, [Melora] knows?" (3:22:56)

Given that he's been clear, be it celibacy or asexuality, it makes me extremely uncomfortable when other people decide he should want sex (even as a joke) because that's a microaggression against ace and celibate people that happens CONSTANTLY. It's rape culture and gross.

Caduceus has also not particularly expressed any romantic attraction to anyone past or present, and he doesn't feel that way for Caleb. He was perfectly content on his own. He seems to just want friends. He hasn't expressed being against the idea, so this is uncertain.

Caleb, I don't have a clear read on, but he shows many signs of feeling too damaged for relationships at the moment. He has his hands full with friendships he's still scared of. It's possible he doesn't know what he's feeling at this point.

So, this is not to step on anyone's ship, but there are other equally interesting motivations & desires that could be at play here, which frankly line up with more evidence, & which have MUCH less representation. It'd be nice to not see those possibilities drowned out, especially given that we have a canonical answer.

The character growth here is significant, whatever the subtext. Caduceus reached out to comfort Caleb when everyone else was giving him a hard time. Caleb reached out as the very first person to offer Caduceus help on the quest he left home for. No one else has cared.

Some stronger bond was formed here between them. Some greater trust. Caduceus is getting through like Beau has, and it's built on a base of greater comfort, healing, and respect for goals. However it plays out will be fascinating.

3:38:57 Caleb: "I'm glad you are traveling with us." Caduceus: "Me too, I'm... I've never felt so helpful." It's brief, but Caleb actually warmly smiles.

Transcripts

Scenes run:

1. CR C2 Ep47 Jester asks what Melora knows, Caleb smells nice:  3:22:50 to 3:24:16

2. CR C2 Ep47 Caleb gives Caduceus to book: 3:38:12 to 3:39:09

3. TM 2019-01-15 How Caleb smells to Caduceus and attraction: 0:38:09 to 0:39:57

1. CR C2 Ep47 Jester asks what Melora knows, Caleb smells nice

3:22:50 Jester to Caduceus: "Do you think the Wildmother can hear your thoughts?"

Caduceus: "Well, I know the Wildmother can- knows everything."

3:22:56 Jester: "So, like, if you think something dirty, she knows?"

GIF: Caduceus looks confused.

Jester: "What if, like, you're thinking like, 'Oh mom, I've really got to poop?'"

Caduceus: "That's- I don't- I mean… Sure?"

Jester: "What if you're thinking, 'Oh man, you know, I think I smell a little bit today,"

Caduceus: "I've never really thought that."

Jester: "but what-I've got a booger in my nose…"

Caduceus, more anxiously: "Now I'm thinking about that. Oh man, I've got a booger in my nose." He curls in to one side rubbing the side of his nose."

Jester: "What if you think like, 'Ah, does my breath smell bad?' Do you think she thinks-"

Caduceus, alarmed: "No, does it?"

Jester: "Do you think- No, your breath smells fine, but I'm just won-"

Caduceus: "You're sure?"

Jester: "No, you smell pretty good."

Caduceus: "Oh, that's nice." He rubs the bridge of his nose again. "Ah, think about this."

3:23:31 Nott: "Speaking of stinky, Caleb, what'd we get? What's our stuff?"

3:23:37 Caleb, incredulous and perplexed: "I have been in the ocean for days, and days, and days, and days."

Travis: "He's the most sterile he's ever been."

3:23:42 Caduceus: "I think he smells great."

Jester, excitedly: "What did we get; what did we get; what did we get!"

3:23:46 Caleb: "Well, first I want you to admit that I have been washed from top to bottom for a month."

3:23:51 Caduceus, firmly: "I think you smell fantastic."

Jester: "Yeah, if anything you smell briny now."

Caleb, pointedly to Caduceus: "Well you're- You are a nice fellow."

3:23:57 Caduceus: "Thank you. But no, really, I do actually think you smell very nice."

3:24:03 Caleb, satisfied: "You see?"

Jester: "Yeah. I didn't say you were stinky. Nott said you were stinky, Caleb. I think you smell like salt and fresh air."

Nott: "Like a douche."

Caleb: "Revved up."

3:24:16

2. CR C2 Ep47 Caleb gives Caduceus to book

3:38:12 Taliesin: "I'm going to gather some of my stuff and go to the crow's nest."

Matt: "Okay."

Taliesin: "Big everybody good-"

Caleb: "Oh, uh…"

Caduceus: "Yeah?"

Caleb: "You're going up?"

Caduceus: "Yeah."

3:38:21 Caleb: "Do you like a good book?"

3:38:23 Caduceus: "I- I'm not going to be reading up there, but…"

3:38:25 Caleb: "I don't mean for tonight, in general."

3:38:27 Caduceus: "I- I'll admit I'm not the best reader, but… I've read a couple books."

3:38:33 Caleb: "But you have? Um… One of the books that we found in that… ball-o-fun is about the corruption of plants."

3:38:45 Caduceus: "I would be curious."

3:38:47 Caleb: "I thought you might be."

3:38:49 Caduceus: "I'll… If you could leave it in my- my quarters, that would be most agreeable."

3:38:54 Caleb: "Surely."

3:38:56 Caduceus: "Thank you."

3:38:57 Caleb: "Mmhm. I'm glad you are traveling with us."

3:39:00 Caduceus: "Me too. I'm uh… I've uh… never felt so helpful." He gives a half bow.

3:39:09

3. TM 2019-01-15 How Caleb smells to Caduceus and attraction

0:38:09 Brian: "[@asahi_azumane] Caduceus has mentioned in a couple of episodes that he likes how Caleb smells, is this just to refute the teasing from the others or does he find something comforting in Caleb's smell like Nila […] with her smell bag?"

0:38:36 Taliesin: "I'll actually, I've often just assumed that Caleb smells a little bit like peat moss."

Brian: "Oh, really?"

Taliesin: "Or just peaty and dirty…"

Travis: "Oh! Not manure, or fertilizer but…"

Taliesin: "Not manure…"

Brian: "No no, Pete Moss, the tennis player."

Taliesin: "but like peat moss, earthy. Just from, from… Yeah, Pete Moss."

Travis: "Yean he has the soil in his hands, and…"

0:38:03 Taliesin: "Yeah, well, 'cause he's got a pocket full of weird things that he uses and they're all kind of like interest- I don't- I think that it's more the teasing that he smells bad, I don't think he actually does."

Travis: "It's not a sandalwood fragrance?"

0:39:03 Taliesin: "I wish. That would be amazing! But, like, I actually think it's legitimately from a, 'No, I think he smells pretty good. I dunno.'"

Travis: "Yeah, earthy fellow. Alright."

Dani: "I appreciate Liam hitting his breaking point with that last episode, and be like, 'You HAVE to admit that I smell fine now!'"

0:39:18 Taliesin: "Yeah, no and, like, I think Clay is always… And it's not like a sexy thing, like, 'Woo, hey!' But like, you know, 'No, you smell great.'"

Travis: "You can compliment I fellow on his…"

0:39:27 Taliesin, firmly: "I will say he doesn't feel that way, though, but yeah. Yeah, he don't- he doesn't have a thing going on in that direction, but he's definitely like, 'Yeah, you're cool.'"

Travis: "Try telling Tumblr that."

Taliesin: "Tumblr is welcome to their own opinion, and I'm not going to disagree with them."

Travis: "Boy, I tell you."

Taliesin: "I am not going to stop anybody from having a good time with their…"

Dani: "Everyone can ship whatever they want to ship."

Taliesin: "Yep. Nope."

Brian: "Except female presenting nipples."

Dani: "Yep. No, Tumblr has a really bad problem…"

Travis: "Or lithium batteries. Most couriers have a problem with."

Brian: "They cracked down on that."

0:39:57

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[gocatboygo]

1-50 for Rosa

I’m Love You.

1) What is your OC’s favorite color?

maybe red? could also be brown, but like probably red

2) Does your OC collect anything? What do they collect?

bad christian romance novels from pre-war. cass gives her most of them. twilight is included in this but its by no means her favorite like she thought it was just ok

3) What kind of things is your OC allergic to?

nothing comes to mind

4) What kind of clothing does your OC wear?

in public she almost always wears a mask, usually either the legion recruit mask or the ncr ranger mask. also construction gloves. spends most of the beginning of the game in a sherrif’s duster & then from there she just wears whatever covers most of her and supports her gear, if it’s really hot out she’ll wear the wasteland surgeon armor

5) What is your OC’s first memory?

she still has her memories from before the bullet so probably something from her childhood

6) What’s your OC’s favorite animal? Least favorite?

she really fucking loves horses. like she’s a Horse Girl TM. least favorite is like,, djfdsfjs cazadores idfk

7) What element would your OC be?

definitely earth!

8) What is your OC’s theme song? 

probably a mitski song lmfao. either that or everybody wants to rule the world by tears for fears

8) Do you have a faceclaim/voiceclaim for your OC?

bold of you to assume i have anything for this oc / i just realized i fucked up the numbering here so enjoy that sdkfjdsk

9) What deadly sin would best represent your OC?

after she gets pretty deep into the game, maybe after the sierra madre? greed. i can see her going a little out of control after she has to give all that gold up (even though she could bring 1 bar back bc She Big) and just kind of. taking everything

10) What are your OC’s hobbies?

she’s a courier at heart so delivering packages dsjkflsjdw. farming, solitaire, reading those bad novels i previously mentioned, knitting, gecko hunting… watching holotape movies on her pipboy… getting terminally bored and taking med-x ksdjfkds

11) How patient is your OC? How hot-headed are they?

she’s fairly patient, the only time she really gets hot-headed is at fortification hill when she goes to meet with lanius (caesar dies of his cancer p early in her canon). also probably at the tops, she doesnt like bein in there

12) What is your OC’s gender / sexuality / race / species / etc.?

cis woman / bi / mexican / human / etc.

13) What foods does your OC like to eat? What are their least favorite foods?

uhh she learned how to cook from home-grown ingredients and in lasting bulk so she mostly eats stew and potatoes. every time she goes to freeside she gets that “mystery meat” from the stand in front of the gate despite the fact that its transparently radroach meat. she doesnt like the meat from the ultraluxe (even before she finds out it might be people, its fancy and garnished and she dont trust like that) but she loves their brahmin cheesecakes so she like, settles kdsjfksd

14) If your OC could have any pet, what would they choose? Why?

rex. rex. rex. rex. r (she also has like 2 brahmin at some point ksdjfksdf)

15) What does your OC smell like? 

that’s ! a wildin question huh! probably gunpowder and old leather 

16) How do they make a living? What kind of job do they want / not want? What is their dream job? What do they think of their current job?

she works for house, owns a small farm (after a while, in spring of 2282), and does various quests around the mojave for money. she was a courier for 8-9 years and she loved it, so id say thats her ideal job, but she’s past it. she’s very happy with where she is in all 3 of those jobs !

17) What are your OC’s greatest fears? Weaknesses? Strengths?

her biggest fears would probably be claustrophobia and getting buried alive (because benny). she has nightmares abt it, like 2 the point where every so often she wakes up and just Has A Good Sob. she has very low charisma (1) and very high endurance (9), her strength is also pretty good

18) What kind of music do they listen to? Do they have a favorite song?

she thinks truly madly deeply by cascada is the best love song ever written. she also listens to radio new vegas & a holotape cass gave her that’s mostly feminist anthems from the 20th century and 2 instances of mad about the boy

19) If they came from their world to ours (if not already in our’s) how would they react? What would they do?

oh god she would fucking hate the pre-war world. she would probably just go find a horse tbh sdfjsdkf what else is there to do! 

20) What personal problems/issues do they have? Pet peeves?

she has brain damage from the bullet. it didnt affect her intelligence or (for the most part) her memory, but she does have, like. chronic headaches, brain fog, dizzy spells, things like that. like i said before, she also has nightmares & claustrophobia from the same incident. as for pet peeves, she hates people who talk a lot without saying anything or try to sound smart for no reason. she has no problem with talkers as long as they like,, Say Something dsfdksfj

21) What kind of student were they/would they be in high school?

she grew up in a very small (very catholic) village, so im not sure if she exactly went to high school?? but she did attend school. she was sort of a loner, she had a single mother w no siblings & shes like 6 feet tall so both of those things made her a little bit outcast ksdjfksd. i mean she. She Was A Horse Girl what else do i have to say

22) What is a random fact about your OC? 

god i dont know!! uh… oh omg she thinks astrology is something vulpes made up and when she hears arcade talking about it she out of bodies

23) What is their outlook on life? What is their philosophy / what do they think in general about living?

rosa’s a very simple person, she mostly just wants a good life for herself. stable work and a stable life make her happy. a lot of her philosophy throughout the game is based on the fact that she’ll do (almost) whatever her employer asks her to, thus her being a house courier. most of her relationships are based almost entirely on trust, which is another major philosophy of hers 

24) What inspired you to create them / how did you create them? Were they originally a fancharacter? What was their personality / design like when you first made them?

honestly??? i read so many fics (especially f!courier/vulpes) where the courier was a Relateable Pretty Girl TM that i probably just wanted to make a female courier who had actual substance and weight. rosa is married to (ex-legion) vulpes so she rlly does largely serve to subvert the genre in fnv fic

25) Who is the most important person in their life? Why? Who is the least important to them (that still has an impact and why?

i mean. her husband probably skdfjkdfs. she’s been travelling with vulpes for a long time and she’s had to put her life in his hands a lot of times because of that, so he’s grown to be very important to her. mr house is a close runner up. i hate to say this but arcade is probably her least Impactful TM companion skjfdkds she barely travels w him 

26) What kind of childhood did your character have?

i say some of this in the other questions but like heres all of her backstory in one i guess kdsjfsd. rosa was raised in small catholic village somewhere outside nevada, i havent decided on what state its in bc im fucking dumb as hell. her family (like great grandmother type shit not her personally) & a few others came up from mexico years ago to get away from raiders, made a village and Kabaam. her mother had her, and then a second baby who was stillborn, and her father disappeared a few months after this happened. her mother raised her there until she was 20 and she signed on with the mojave express as a courier in an attempt to get out of her village and find Something To Do With Herself TM. she was a little outcast growing up, not totally isolated but certainly not very popular, and it caused her to be a very independent person later in life.

27) What kind of nervous habits do they have? Do they stim? Do they have any kinds of addictions?

she fidgets sometimes but i wouldn’t say she stims. clenches her fists when she’s nervous. she likes to smoke and chew tobacco (especially when she’s stressed out) but it’s only a minor addiction

28) If they could choose their epitaph for their grave, what would they choose?

honestly?? “Forgive Me Mama” bc that’s what it says on her helmet sfjdsfhd

29) Do they want to get married? Why or why not? Would they ever want kids? Do they have kids? Why?

apparently bc she fuckin did! she wants stability and someone to take care of her, and she likes the idea of being a unit with someone a lot more than she likes the idea of just dating them, so i guess thats how vulpes Happened ™. she actually can’t have kids bc she got irradiated pretty bad while she was looting searchlight :/ but she doesn’t want kids because 1) she’s travelling a lot for her work and 2) she doesn’t want to have to shape her life around a child. god knows vulpes cant interact w children, but he still wants them in theory because he wants a legacy

30) What is their most traumatic memory/experience? What is their favorite memory?

ring-a-ding-ding! it’s getting shot. her favorite memory is probably either like, easter when she was a child, or some time she swam in a river with vulpes, she’s fuckin basic

31) If they could have one thing in the world, what would it be?

a horse. i wanted to answer this differently but it really is just a horse

32) Would they ever kill someone? What would someone have to do to push them to kill someone? If they would kill someone, why? 

she’s killed! if she’s provoked or if her employer asks her to, she will absolutely kill someone. destroying the bos bunker was hard for her though :/ i like to pretend she didnt do it even though shes house ksdjfklsdhg

33) What social groups and activities does your character attend? What role do they like to play? What role do they actually play, usually?

maybe its just the fact that its 2am and i have poor reading comprehension but i have no fucking clue what this means

34) How is your character’s imagination? Daydreaming a lot? Worried most of the time? Living in memories?

her imagination is pretty good! i wouldnt call it excellent but it’s pretty good. she usually only daydreams before she falls asleep or gets up in the morning (or if she’s just like rlly chilled out skdfjds). she doesn’t worry much.

35) What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?

i have no idea how to answer this one, which is a tragedy. maybe ill come back and answer it someday lmao

36) What’s something that your character does, that other people don’t normally do?

The House Always Wins I-VIII

37) What would your character do with a million dollars? 

in all seriousness she’d probably just stop having any financial restraint and start buying whatever she wants whenever it comes to mind. also she’d buy vulpes like 100,000 gambling chips from gomorrah and tell him to lose his mind skdfhjldksg

38) What is in your characters refrigerator right now? On their bedroom floor? Nightstand? Garbage can?

fridge at her farmhouse: vegetables, gecko meat, some seasonings, leftovers, beans, cram / fridge at the 38: An Entire Pot Of Stew ™, leftover tops restaurant takeout, a cheesecake, crispy squirrel bits, a post-it note from veronica saying they’re out of shampoo / bedroom floor: ;) / garbage can: empty cans, vulpes, plastic wrappers

39) Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where are they going? What do they wear? Who will they be with?

first thing that came to mind was to gomorrah, in her Fancy Riot Gear and ranger’s helmet, with raul. no idea why but like have a fun night bb sdkfjdslkf

40) What does your character do when they’re angry? Why?

depends on why she’s angry, but usually she’ll either start ranting at whoever she’s mad at (which never lasts long) or just go silent and tense up. she’ll also grumble. i mentioned this before but fortification hill was probably the only time she was so mad she was just yelling at everyone skfjkdsf

41) Does your character have any scars? Where did they get them from? 

she has a lot of scars! the most visible one is a cobweb-shaped scar on her forehead from when benny shot her. she also has another less prominent scar on the side of her face from Some Shit. various scars on her torso and arms from various sources, another bullet scar on her arm from raiders, maybe more. there’s a particularly bad scar across her ribs from being slashed w a knife (raiders again)

42) What was the most offensive thing your character had ever said?

she hates the irish

43) How does your character react/ accept criticism?

i dont know if she really cares? shes still a little bitter abt some insults she took as a kid but like arent we all. it makes her more angry than insecure

44) If your character was given a slice of pineapple pizza and they HAD to eat it (or something bad would happen), how would they react? Do they even LIKE pineapple pizza?

under normal circumstances, she’d throw it in the fucking trash. if she HAD to eat it she’d be fine skjfsd she just wouldnt like it

45) Your character is given a voodoo doll of themself. What do they do with it? Do they see if it actually works?

yeah, she probably puts a needle in its shoulder or something to see if it works. shes so used to being end 9 she doesnt consider the fact that She Will Lose Her Shoulder

46) Can your character draw? What do they like to draw? Do they doodle?

she can’t draw slkdfjsd. she probably has like… some warrior cats type drawings from when she was a kid and thats it

47) What were their parents like? How has that affected how they are as an adult?

her father dipped when she was maybe 1-2 years old, a few months after her brother was stillborn.

48) Does your character like candy? Do they get sugar rushes? What are they like when they get a rush?

she likes a little bit of candy, mostly lollipops. i cant see her getting a sugar rush

(i know i fucked up the numbering) 50) If your character was presented with imminent and unavoidable death/fatality, how would they react? Would they try to avoid death anyways? Would they try to make their last days count?

this,, could actually very easily happen because of her brain damage, ive explored that concept before. she would probably spend a lot of time alone or with the people she’s closest to reflecting on her life and trying to die in peace. if she had enough time she’d go see her mother again, but it’s still unlikely

————

jesus fucking christ thats long, rip mobile users. tysm for sending me this!! i didnt realize how much 50 questions was dksjfkds. yall can keep sending me these (like 1-10 at a time skdfjdg) for other couriers if you want but like i understand if ur tired of hearing me Fucking Talk after this

[brydeswhale]

Points at which Elfquest wasted my damn time, in no particular order.

Tyleet’s entire fucking childhood was a waste of screen time. To be more clear, I don’t hate Tyleet. In Shards, where she actually plays a role of importance, I loved her. But really KOTBW should have been focusing on Venka, her history, her motivations, and especially her relationship with Cutter, who was later said to be a father figure in her life. Venka is a mystery that didn’t have to be because the writers were focusing on the wrong elf.

Speaking of KOTBW, the series itself makes no sense. SATBM did not establish a good sense for why Rayek goes from being a bit of a jerk but an all around not terrible person to suddenly wanting to commit genocide, and KOTBW just furthered the character assassination. I’m not going as far as Wingthing and her Ayn Rand worshipping followers would and saying Rayek is an angel, but he’s no hitler, either. WaRP has a bad tendency to ignore character in favour of plot and the veneer of believable character motivation wore transparently thin at this point.

Everything post Shards has been a shit show for Shuna. Her white saviour, “brown people are bad and scary except the ones that worship the elves and me” arc has been terrible from start to finish and do not get me started on what she did to Kimo. Despite her storyline supposedly being “subverted” in SATS, it played out a lot of “nicetm guys are better than handsome guys”, “all girls who don’t worship the main character are mean girls”, and other nineties white feminist tm tropes that most of us have moved beyond. Solidly annoying and stupid.

Except Aroree DOES understand. She’s been up close and personal to Wolfriders when one of their kids has been kidnaped, she knows Wolfrider culture better than anyone in Blue Mountain, she’s probably the one LEAST likely to do something this dumb. Again, WaRP ignores previous characterization (and character design, the new Aroree looks NOTHING like the original Aroree) in favour of plot.

Everything about Final Quest was bullshit. I would say I can’t believe the number of “fans” who call it brilliant, groundbreaking, breathtaking, and epic, but then I have been in this fandom for over a decade and known enough people who walk around with the stink of Wendy Pini’s ass on their breath to never dismiss the number of people who will eat shit and call it ice cream. Final Quest was an insult to everyone who suffered through KOTBW, Wolfrider(which would have had a place on this list, except that the only real complaint I had was the artwork), rayek’s revolving door of ethics, Winnowill’s inexplicable survival rate, and all the racism, sexism and homophobia on offer. It was a waste of my damn time and should have been consigned to the bucket of crap it apparently crawled out of.

[jaybug-jabbers]

Bug Run 5: A Clean Victory

There was something I needed to do before going any further in this game.

I made a little visit to the Name Rater.

Truth is, I was never satisfied with the nickname I gave my Galvantula OR my Crustle. For Galvantula, it was just such a plain and common name, and she deserved better. For Crustle, her name was alright, but a little too long and awkward to say outloud, you know?

After christening the new names, we were prepared to tackle anything!

However, the moment I took a step toward my next destination, I ran into my rival. The encounter was a tad unnerving, which is the only reason I bother to mention it here. Tonka took care of my rival’s bird with Rollout just fine, so that wasn’t so bad. (Yes, I know. I still had Rollout. What can I say? It takes a while for Scoliopede to earn its better moves, and in the meantime, a rock move really is darn useful.)

It was Emboar that worried me. This was the first time I was facing it fully evolved, and the thing is damn intimidating even for a very balanced team, let alone a mono-bug one. My newly-named Crustle, Gaia, went toe-to-toe with the massive swine, dishing out Rock Slides. Emboar decided to use Rollout and start powering the move up on me. So that was a pretty scary moment. Thankfully, Gaia did not miss any of her Rock Slides, and the pig went down.The last foe, that water monkey, was trivial when I had a Leavanny with Leaf Blade.

The next gym we faced was the dragon-themed gym with Drayden. I noticed there was a big of a level jump with that gym, though, with just the gym trainers outlevelling my team. So I decided to do a little grinding beforehand. In our travels I taught Volcarona Psychic, because at this point, the poor moth’s moveset is still quite terrible. (It still had String Shot and Whirlwind, for pete’s sake.) I also taught my Galvantula Thunder and … well, Flash. I didn’t want to teach it Flash, but I was wandering around a cave attempting to reach some TMs. Sadly, a roadblock prevented me from ultimately getting the TM, but we’ll talk more about that later.

After a little training, the fight with Drayden wasn’t too bad. Ra took out Druddigon with Psychic, Green Bean got a 2HKO on Flygon with Leaf Blade– after a lucky miss with Flygon’s Rock Slide– and Tonka took on the big boy Haxorous with a combination of Toxic and Venoshocks.

After finishing off the dragon gym, we’re treating to another piece of the plot with Team Plasma. Some giant steampunky ship shoots ice cannons at the city, there’s a lot of running around and shouting over some “DNA Splicers,” and lots of grinding on Plasma grunts. The usual.

I MUST take important note of one event that took place in the midst of all this, though. As I was running back and forth between Pokecenters and the Plasma ship, I ran into a random trainer with just a Crustle. And it wiped out my entire team.

The problem had been it got off two Shell Smashes and I hadn’t been paying it close attention and was fooling about. So, naturally, it outsped everything and destroyed us with rocks. Also, I was super dumb and forgot my Galvantula had Sucker Punch. (Look, it was really late at night and I was tired and being stoop.)

Wounded by this experience, I took a lengthy side-quest to grind for Blue Shards by losing many times at the World Tournament (they give shards as consolation prizes) so I could visit the Move Tutor and give my Scolipede Superpower. This is actually only neutral on Crustle and in the end I still needed to use my own Crustle v. Crustle to take care of the foe cleanly, but. Still. Superpower would end up proving very important on my Scoliopede. I suspected as much, as it was excellent coverage for a team largely lacking coverage.

Anyway. I finally reached the Colress fight.

This was a fun one. I had to actually think very carefully about his team. Colress opens with a Magnemite that loves to thunder wave and then Volt Switch. I eventually decided to try equipping Green Bean with a Cheri Berry and getting up a Swords Dance. Then he just stubbornly hacked away with his Leaf Blade. This is a very difficult approach, but it was important for someone to take out the ‘easy’ pokemon so I could save my other pokes for the tougher ones. Colress used a Full Restore once on Magnemite, so after that, I did the same for Green Bean. Then continue with the Leaf Blades. Green Bean somehow barely takes two Flash Cannons to the face and finishes Magnemite off, in red health and paralyzed, but alive. He did a very good job.

Next, Magnezone came out. This one was for Tonka. Superpower brought it to the low yellow, and then Magnezone thunder waves. I have to take a big hit, but a second Superpower takes Magnezone out.

Beheeyem is the easiest for my team to cope with, being pure Psychic with low defense. It does Calm Mind, which can be scary, but I can easily take it out before it does anything awful; Gaia just X-Scissors it to death.

Metang, on the other hand, is not easy. Zen Headbutt messes with Tonka, Meteor Mash cuts through Gaia and gives scary boosts, and the thing has ROCK SLIDE to add insult to injury; plus Agility. With a Steel typing, it resisted a lot of crap, too.The trick, as it turns out, was fucking it up fast and hard with F-Zero’s Thunder before it could do much damage. Thunder brought it to the low yellow and luckily paralyzed it; Signal Beam finished it off.

The ace was Klinklang. I find it odd this pokemon is pure steel when it has so many electric moves, but okay. F-Zero uses Thunder, which brings it into the yellow and paralyzes again (whoo!). Klinklang Shift Gears. I know it resists bug so I need to Thunder again; unfortunately I get the miss. However, the foe gets paralyzed. I Thunder again and finish things off.

It was a good battle, but Team Plasma wasn’t finished quite yet. We run into the true man behind the scenes, the foul abusive-parent Ghetsis, and chase him off his ship and into some backwater cave somewhere.

Then N shows up, there’s some drama with legendery dragons, and Ghetsis is very cranky about the whole thing. Without giving us a chance to even save or anything, he launches right into attacking us.

Not gonna lie, this last fight is exciting and the music is damn good. It feels high-stakes.

Ra was first out, since I’d just used him to take care of Kyurem. He was able to take care of Confagrigis with some Psychics– although we had to get toxiced and put up with a full restore, but held on long enough to take it out. A special defense drop did help us.

Next out was Hydreigon; Green Bean used X-Scissor. After that was Eelektross, and I was fearing the Flamethrower, so I sent out Gaia. It’s a bit rough, with thunderbolts and acrobatics, but it never actually pulls out the flamethrower and I finish it off. After that is Seismetoad; that’s easy as pie with a grass move.

Drapion is out next, and I really want to use Psychic on it, but Ra is pretty weak from his long fight with Confagrigis. I try it out, but he’s outsped, as I suspected. Dang. I send out Green Bean next, and take it out with three X-Scissors.

Toxicroak is handled cleanly with Thunder. And then that’s it!

In retrospect, the battle didn’t give me any trouble. But somehow they still made it feel exciting. Possibly it’s just because I remember the fight vs. Ghetsis from original Black/White, which really left an impression on me.

(Lord N was there to talk to me after the battle. Still love him so much.)

After the Plasma plot wraps up, we move on to Victory Road. And that’s when I run into some trouble.

See, the plan all along had been to add my sixth and final teammember at Victory Road. That is where Durant, a super-late-game bug, hangs out. The problem is, I was playing Pokemon White 2, and apparently they tweaked it so that you can’t even reach Durant until post-game.

That really stinks! I have no idea why they did that, but I decided I wasn’t going to let a technicality like that slow me down. Like previous game runs I’ve done, if a particular version I was playing didn’t technically have full access to the species I needed for a bug run, I … bent the rules slightly.

So we snuck into Clay Tunnel. This trip was only for one thing: capture a Durant. We grabbed the first one we saw. She was lovely, and we named her Kolibri. She didn’t have Hustle, and honestly? I think I’m ok with that. Missing is pretty darn annoying.

Once we had our final team member, it was all about going through Victory Road and doing a little grinding. We met our rival one last time along the way. His Emboar was tough enough by now that it could shrug off Gaia’s Rock Slides. So I went with a new tactic, using Volcarona’s Psychic. The rest was easy enough to deal with. Then it was on to the Elites!

(MIGHTY BUG POWER DETECTED!)

Unfortunately, I made a mistake when I was grinding before facing the Elites. I thought they would be around level 60, so I brought my team all to level 60. As it turns out, no. They were all in the high 50s. So I was ever-so-slightly overlevelled.

Not a huge deal, but it is a shame. I really prefer to never be over-levelled, even by a little bit. Unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do about it.

The Elites were not too hard. Shauntal’s fight was kind of fun. Ra took on Confagrigis with Heat Waves, but got a Spec. Def drop with a Shadow Ball, so I had to switch out when Chandelure came in. I decided to bring Tonka in. As cruel as it sounds, Tonka was kind of expendable against this particular team. I got a Toxic off before going down, though. Ra came back in to blast with Psychics for neutral damage, but unfortunately the darn thing was hitting all its Fire Blasts and it got a crit, so Ra went down. Luckily it was injured enough that F-Zero could finish things off. Golurk was easy pickings for a Leaf Blade, and Drifblim went down to a Thunder.

Marshal fight had Tonka doing some work on the opening Throh. I feared Guts on Conkeldurr, and sent out Kolibri; however, it did not fare well against those Hammer Arms. Thankfully those moves dropped Conk’s speed, though, so I felt safe bringing Ra in, even against the inevitable Full Restore, and I could just Psychic. (See, at the time, I didn’t realize that thing is actually slow as dirt anyway.) The rest of the team was an easy clean-up, especially when Meinshao misses its High-Jump Kick and I put a Rock Wrecker in its face.

It may not be very effective, but nobody’s surviving a boulder to the face at half health.

Since the other two Elites are Psychic and Dark type, I don’t think I even need to bother mentioning their fights. With a full team of Bug types, it was pretty trivial to get through.

The Champion battle was decently difficult, so I was glad it wasn’t too anti-climactic. Tonka used X-Scissor on Hydreigon and managed to tank a Flamethrower��� in the very low yellow health, after Leftovers. He finished the dragon off and Druddigon was out next. I honestly forget what I did with that fellah. I probably used F-Zero against him. Aggron was out next, so I went with my special attacker Ra. Heat Wave did a respectable chunk, but Rock Slide was, of course, a death sentence for Volcarona. Knowing that the Full Restore was incoming, I sent Tonka out and potioned up too. Then I used Superpower, which ALMOST killed. Tonka goes down and I clean up with F-Zero.

Archeops is next; one Rock Wrecker is all it takes, after Gaia survives the Rock Slide. Very happy Gaia hit all of her Rock Wreckers when she needed to.

Lapras was a bit of a troll. I sent out F-Zero, confidant in one-shotting the beast with Thunder, but it didn’t quite kill and it used freaking Hypnosis on me. Urgh. Swapped over to Kolibri and took a Surf very badly but finished Lapras off.

Finally, the ace, Haxorous. I sent out Green Bean. It was a tough choice, knowing this thing was probably going to Dragon Dance, and that was pretty scary. She could have easily gotten her late-game sweep if I let things get out of hand; my team was already weakened a bunch. I decided to get a Reflect up. I think that ultimately saved my butt. It did use Dragon Dance as predicted, and Green Bean used one X-Scissor before going down to an X-Scissor of Haxorous’ own. Then I sent the low-health Gaia in. He managed to survive the Earthquake thanks to Reflect and finished Haxorous off with an X-Scissor. (Yes, that’s an awful lot of X-Scissors going ‘round, but to be fair, this *is* a mono bug team)

And that’s it for Pokemon White 2! It was a fun little romp, but I admit it was very easy. I did expect that, though. Oh well! Maybe next time, if I’m hunting for a challenge, I can do that all-Vivillon run of X/Y I keep considering. :P

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Feb 25, 2019.