#but the crit is also never aimed at the right people

[atohii]

I don't wanna take over my moot's post but also like you don't have to engage w media if you don't like it. y'all know that right. if your entire last three pages of your blog is [media] critical you can just....not be involved in that media. you can go play another video game or watch another show or touch grass. you don't gotta flood the tags with how much you hate this media.

and that's not to say you can't dislike things and post about how much you dislike them. but there's no way you're having fun with this, right? majority of the time it's not even that serious. like sometimes you have to go outside and talk to a human person

[crystalelemental]

Pokemon Team Characterization - Zinnia

I’m gonna be honest, my response to ORAS feels very lukewarm.  In truth, I have never been a strong Gen 3 fan, despite my general love of the new Pokemon and strong attachment to some of its gym leaders and Mr. Stone himself.  ORAS didn’t do much to sway that.  But I know a lot of people did get attached to the new girl, Zinnia.  It’s been so long I barely remember her arc.  But, all the more reason to dig into it, right?

Zinnia has a simple team of five, all Dragon types.  We can work a decent amount through this, starting with just...where they came from.

Goodra, Tyrantrum, and Noivern all cannot be found natively within Hoenn.  Zinnia’s worldly, she’s been traveling, most likely to Kalos around the ultimate weapon.  More interestingly, Tyrantrum is a fossil Pokemon.  She must have at least some access to the revival machines, which is an interesting thing to consider.

Another angle is that, by and large, all of her moves are raw offense with very little embellishment.  There are a few 10% chances for secondary effects, and exactly one exception to this rule, but everything about Zinnia is offense.  Zinnia is, by nature, aggressive.  She is in your face, and harsh.  What’s interesting, though, is that almost all her moves are high accuracy.  There are stronger moves these Pokemon could learn, that have a bit less certainty behind them.  The ones that do have lower accuracy, I think, have a bit of significance, but we’ll go over those in turn.

The Lead (Goodra) Goodra’s offensive coverage is really strong.  BoltBeam is notoriously perfect neutral coverage, very little can handle both safely.  More interestingly, the low accuracy move is Muddy Water, a move that can reduce accuracy of the foe.

I think this is interesting, given Zinnia’s mission.  She’s infiltrated Aqua or Magma, and is trying to pull subterfuge.  She’s going under the radar, and aiming for deception.  But given that this attempt to blend in, this attempt to prevent people from targeting her, is manifesting as a lower-accuracy move?  It suggests she’s not great at it.  Suppressing her true nature isn’t something Zinnia’s comfortable with.  Even if she can do it, and do it reasonably well, it’s not a natural effect.  But it’s what she’ll go to first.  The first line of defense is throwing people off in regards to her true intentions, and if that doesn’t work...

Get Lucky (Tyrantrum) Tyrantrum also has excellent neutral coverage, with Earthquake/Rock move covering a ton.  Again, certainty in Dragon Claw over Outrage.  I think the refusal to aim for Outrage in particular suggests Zinnia as someone who likes to be in control of herself and her situation.  She’s someone who doesn’t like to cloud her judgment, or get thrown off her course.  Straight and true, in that sense.

The low-accuracy move here is Stone Edge, a move that has pretty bad rates to hit, but higher rate to crit in response.  Zinnia’s backup plan, failing the subterfuge route, is to just get lucky.  Aim where it hurts, hope something lands.  There’s no point in avoiding taking that risk if you need to.  But the risk has to be calculated.  Zinnia needs to know her opponent, in a manner of speaking.  She has to know where she’s aiming will hurt, and hope it hurts bad enough they back off.  Think about how aggressive her speech can be when she’s frustrated with someone.  She throws straight to what she expects to land, and get them talking or thinking along her terms.

I think it’s also worth noting that there’s a sort of...primal or ancient vibe to Zinnia.  Her people are obviously associated with history, but the way she talks about technology and the proposed solutions to the meteors, it’s a sense of distaste for these modern machines.  She’s referencing a specific calamity, sure, but she doesn’t seem to hold much love for the concept of technology in the first place, and having an ancient Pokemon in her roster does back that.

The Backdown (Noivern) Noivern is the only one with an offensive move that isn’t straight damage, and packs a serious secondary effect.  Noivern aims to flinch, and Super Fang aims to tear down with set damage.  I think it’s interesting this is her second to last.  Before she’s out of cards, Zinnia will become a bit more careful.  Not reserved, god no.  She’s still going aggressive.  But she’ll start to hedge her bets, and take more careful actions.  She’ll be big and bold right up until things start turning sour, which is when she retreats a bit more into safety.  Right up until...

The Ace (Salamence) Mega Salamence.  Naturally, Salamence has the association of wishes.  Bagon wishes one day to fly, and through sheer willpower I guess, evolves into a flying dragon that is still very mad.  Salamence is that seeing through of a great wish.  Flying does have some association, given that Zinnia’s team is 60% flying types as well.  Associations with the sky, the stars, and wishes, all culminate in Salamence.

And it’s all incredibly accurate moves.  Interestingly, nothing that takes advantage of Aerilate either.  I think this is about how Zinnia has a fairly...true nature.  She’s very earnest, in her own way.  She doesn’t know how to be anything other than what she is.  Even as things change, even as she may change, she retains a sense of what she wants, and is driven toward it with a sense of certainty.  When the chips are down, and it’s time to do or die, Zinnia will play cautious.  For all her bluster and showboating, Zinnia’s someone who holds to a sense of what’s familiar.  She can’t bring herself to operate under different conditions.  If things change, she’s out of place, she may not know how to adapt perfectly.  Given the lack of Outrage, we again infer that she doesn’t want to alter her mental state; she clings to that past sense of what she knows, and doesn’t easily change.  While she always has a sense for what she wants, and pushes forward constantly...changing within herself is a challenge.  I think that’s why she speaks of it as imagination.

To draw on Masters a little bit, because I do know her from recent special costume events, I think they hit something interesting in how she supports the former villain team grunts whose Pokemon get stolen.  Zinnia’s ace being Salamence isn’t just the wishing and the sky association.  It’s also an angry Pokemon practically by default.  I think it’s safe to say Zinnia’s frustrated.  Not just with the fact Rayquaza doesn’t come to her when called, but just...broadly, with the whole thing.  She wants to avoid calamity, not just in your world, but other worlds.  She wants to make sure there’s a full solution, a certainty, but that’s not something easily assured, and the risks she has to take are uncomfortable.  Change from what’s known is difficult.  Finding a new way forward is a challenge.  And I think it’s interesting that her path in Masters follows that, into this sense of helping others who are seeking a new way forward.

Summation Zinnia is someone direct and true, fully herself and nothing less.  She’s someone who likes to keep people guessing, and remain in a sense of control at all times.  She’s able to take risks, but only when calculated and confident of success.  She’s someone who places a lot of value in the knowledge of the past, but seeks a way forward, despite not being the most effective at adaptation.  She likes certainty and what’s familiar, but presses ever forward through discomfort to seek a resolution she needs.

If you have an alternate read on her team, I’d love to hear it.  I’ll admit to not always giving Zinnia a fair shake, but recent Masters lore did win me over, so it’s fun to go back and look at her team in a new light.

[literaticat]

There are so many mixed messages out there about hiring freelance editors before querying, and it's so expensive, so I really can't afford to drop thousands on a book that might never sell. I know agents want to see a "polished" manuscript, & I will ofc try as hard as I can to get mine as good as possible before querying, but I know there is a limit to my ability to self-edit, or what I can get from beta readers. In your opinion, how polished is "polished"? How do I know when it's ready?

Let me cut through the noise:

You don't need to hire a freelance editor before querying.

Hiring a freelance editor IS very expensive. If somebody has the money and they really feel like they are going to benefit, by all means go for it -- but nobody should feel like they HAVE to.

Most of my clients, and most authors I know, did not hire freelance editors before querying. (I only know of one client who did, in fact, though I suppose there MIGHT have been others, it's just not a thing that most people do).

If you self-edit and have beta readers -- you're on the right track. I'd also suggest trying to get in with a critique group / critique partners -- particularly if there are published authors in that group who really know how to give and get good feedback.

It MIGHT be worth doing something like an author workshop, a craft-oriented conference or something like that, where you might meet other writers to connect and share with. (Like if you write kids/YA, the Big Sur Writer's Workshop or a Highlights workshop or your local SCBWI chapter might be helpful) -- but if those are also out of reach, that's fine too. It's optional.

How polished is polished? When is it done? I say, it's ready when it is as good as you can make it on your own (which includes with beta readers / crit partners etc). No manuscript will EVER come to me perfect. Obviously you don't want it to be riddled with problems and typos galore, but know that agents are not expecting perfection. Aiming for perfection is ridiculous, in fact -- It literally takes a TEAM of people at publishers to polish a final book, and even then there are sometimes mistakes that slip through the cracks!

[miloucomehome]

disappointment in my program?

Idk if I’m just disappointed or just exhausted. I feel like I haven’t learned any new or better strategies for getting better at my designs this term. Or at least that comments from at least two profs have just been putting the breaks on my motivation to continue. I’m usually fairly good at crit, but so far it’s been...well, I wouldn’t say “Damaging” but certainly it’s been really unhelpful. Especially in one course I had expected to be like it’s title says-- “Culture and Image”.

I followed the course description expecting I think something more academic rather than a catalogue of things that don’t seem to relate to the course title. Or least, the link hasn’t been made very clearly, so maybe I’ve just missed it entirely. Themes on projects are vague, but far too deliberately that they feel too limiting and gets my “But what if I’m going in the wrong direction?” going into overdrive with whatever idea I have. It’s also this course where I half-assed a book project with photos because I really had no idea where to go with the direction of it at all. And one where I suffered badly during crit that I honestly, in that moment, began doubting if graphic design was really for me. I was also told in that crit (which I haven’t handed in the final process book for yet because I want to redo it to whatever her standards are (Idk what they are)) that my work was “too commercial”. I don’t know what that is and the timer ran out before I could ask what she meant. 

Since that crit, my motivation’s taken a hit and I’m just crawling to the finish line (again). My aunt said I’ve been sounding less excited about design that she’s been asking me if it’s the right thing for me -- I nearly yelled at her on the phone while I was in tears quietly hitting the desk I was working at in an empty classroom. I never do that and she backed down. I know she’s concerned but what she doesn’t understand is that this program is not well spread out-- no graphic design/design-adjacent project is. We have so much to do in little time over multiple classes that I feel that our creativity doesn’t get to shine or develop. 

Anyway, I don’t want to be a secretary or administrative assistant for the rest of my life--that’s not why I went to university for. That’s not why I’m here doing my second degree. (I’ve temped as an admin assistant and reception, plus worked as one and a legal assistant in mostly semi-disorganized companies and had odd co-workers, as well as nice ones, or people who treat me as less-than when they see me. I admit, aiming to be a professional is also a way for me to have seniority of some kind and respect going forward in my career. I’ve seen how people treat admins and I’ve seen how admins treat jr admins out of spite. I just don’t want that. I know--and I really do know-- I would be miserable until I retire and wouldn’t enjoy life at all.)

But yeah, I went in expecting for a 3rd/4th year course that it’d at least cover some of the clear theories that have been developed surrounding design and visual communication’s impact on culture and the power of image....but so far? Nothing in the lectures has been like that and I think it’s just simply because of the prof and it makes the whole thing dissappointing and leaves me unmotivated.

I’m actually about to be late for a class and I’m still at home and ready to be “yelled” at by this prof and hear how disappointed she is with my lack of progress. Hopefully next term will be better. 

[mhansenmajortwo2022]

PROCESS THOUGHTS AND PLANNING NEXT

From the feedback from our crit and further investigations and thoughts, I have concluded that 16 mm will be the right medium to move forward with. First, I can make connections to my subject matter but it is also a way to challenge myself and my art direction even further. I am a perfectionist and tend to think a lot before I do something. Therefore, by choosing to work with an analog, I have to change my working methods.  Through my previous works, I have worked with a digital medium and I have produced a lot. This time, I want to turn that around and work with something that requires a different way of attention. First aspect is that I can only see the result once the film goes through the projector / it has been processed and scanned. Therefore I will need to plan my shoot very strictly as I will only have 3 min on the roll. I am going to use Kodak Tri X Black & White 16mm as it gives a much more contrast between the black and white colours on the film. I will also use a service to get it processed and scanned which requires I add extra time for the turn around. 

My aim is to create a much simpler piece of work, compared to my previous works, as it is a great learning experience for me to say; less is more, and focus on mastering using the Bolex camera to create some unique footage and experience with my animations skills in a more practical way as scratching into the film. I was asked, why this subject matters so much to me. One thing is that I have learned through my travels and moving to London being open and talk with people with different backgrounds and point of views than you is key in order to be able to understand each other. Secondly, I do, as small person, understand what it feels like to walk into a room and being met with assumptions based on the way you look. Though, the fact is, white people will never really understand, and this is what we need to accept. Which brings me to say: Of course I have to care about this matter, I am white. Whiteness is the source of the problem. White people has the responsibility to fix it! ____________________________________________________ While working on this book, white people have often asked me, “You’re white. Why are you doing this?” But whiteness is not about skin, and not to make this difference is to concentrate on the way we white people appear physically at the expense of how we think or behave, consciously or unconsciously. Our skin wraps around us, it is biological; whereas our whiteness lies within us, it is a way of being in the world psychologically, behaviourally. We live whiteness because we have been invited to participate unconsciously in certain social structures, and we have grown comfortable in doing so. Daniel C. Blight - The Image of Whiteness “Moreover, the position of speaking as a white person is one that white people now almost never acknowledge and this is part of the condition and power of whiteness: white people claim and achieve authority for what they say by not admitting, indeed not realising, that for much of the time they speak only for whiteness”The impulse behind this book is to come to see that position of white authority in order to help undermine it.” Robert Dyer - White

[butchviking]

while I’m gnc woman myself and heavily so…

while this is definitely splitting straws….

I kinda feel it is worth thinking about if it’s hypocritical to be saying we distrust conforming/not gnc women who are gender crit just on the basis of their own look and not how they talk about conforming vs gnc

Unless I guess you would accept women distrusting anyone who also used transition steps to meet an internal body standard as a gender crit … like distrusting in the same way — not hating or alienating but just wary and suspicious of not really getting it or smthn

Not that it’s the same thing but you yourself compared them when thinking about how it adds up to do cosmetic surgery for your body feelings in the same way yeah ok many feminist women are critical of cosmetic surgery, makeup, heels, diet culture/aiming for certain body look, other feminine performance, performance for men… but may or may not be able to get themselves to stop engaging in it depending. Or if so it may be a process over time, with relapses. And may or may not represent how they act about it to other women.

This was that post https://at.tumblr.com/butchviking/what-was-stopping-you-before-you-made-the-decision/roaovu40ag79

Of course nobody can stop themselves how they feel distrust… I definitely distrust a lot more people than I justify rationally distrusting if that makes sense. One of mine is actually instinctive low level distrust of women really into male figures for any reason actually but I still support you……….. lmao

In a lot of ways I guess it is natural, but maybe limiting, that we most gut level trust people who we see as like ourselves.

hey to be clear i did say i DON'T distrust them! we just clearly have a different outlook on the world. there's nothing wrong w that nd we all make certain concessions to the world in our own ways (im very very aware that my desire for surgery comes off as anti-feminist to many... and i can't rly argue w that!) nd some women have just gone the other way with it to me. i'm not like automatically uncomfortable around them or anything, i get along plenty well with plenty of gender-conforming women, but it's true that there's something in my experience of the world that they'll never quite understand. and i'm sure there's plenty in their experience of the world that i'll never understand. that's why it's kind of lame for me 2 feel pushed out from the other community where i think ppl would understand those things.

i think u misunderstood my point wrt the comparison to makeup/heels/femininity in that post tho... i was saying it a bit the other way round and i did worry that it wouldn't come across quite right but what i was saying is that. hmm. those women do those things that make them uncomfortable in order to be attractive to others, right? well i've often decided to ABSTAIN from surgery because i'm worried that if i DID get it i'd be unattractive to other lesbians. so me NOT getting the surgery would be me making myself uncomfortable to appeal to others. so who am i to criticise other women for sacrificing their comfort to be attractive and then do the very same thing in my own way?

[ladyloveandjustice]

Hey no offense but I did not ask for all that condescending lecturing. I am 33. I’ve been on here since I was 19 and was an active enough media crit blog in able to keep up a small Patreon. I’ve around the social justice arguing block and don’t have any interest in those arguments myself which is why I’m not the one who approached you to argue. You did that to me. I am also a graduate school writing professor so you coming at me assuming I’ve never thought of authors intent and all this other basic stuff is hilarious. Don’t assume people around you are dumb just because you didn’t know how to think about media criticism 101 when you were younger.

I don’t see any indication berry blossom is a teenager yet. He seemed to be the same age as her in the flashback. If that comes up in the manga, it’ll come up in the show and I’ll deal with my disappointment then, but I haven’t gotten there yet and it doesn’t seem like you’ve read the manga.

I don’t care if a villain is a masochist. I would never deny anyone the sacred right of being into a cool girl punching them in the face. I don’t care if he engages in sleazy tricks that are platonic in nature. That’s what a villain does. I just don’t want to watch non con loli shit. I want to see shoujo getting as much attention as what goes to fantasies by dudes aimed at dudes. I only bought up gushing because I had to deal with some fans making annoying arguments including great hits like “if you don’t like pedo stuff you’re racist” . (Some Japanese creators are aware western fans say stuff like that and make fun of it as I discovered reading dead demon destruction the other day). So I have no real desire to engage with the fandom further tbh.

Local cringefail villain and fangirl seventh grader bond over being turned on by a magical girl punching his face in.

Furiously recommending Acro Trip to everyone I can! The premise is a main character is a huge fan of the local magical girl Berry Blossom, but unfortuantely the villain she fights is so pathetic she doesn't get to show her stuff. Said pathetic villain notices she has a lot of good ideas to beat Berry Blossom, and starts trying to recruit her to his villainous organization. She's very torn to not wanting to be Berry Blossom's enemy and salivating at the chance to see her more.

it's such a cute premise (fairly similar to the book I just got an agent for) and it's so nice to finally getting new magical girl shows that are FUN and not some half-assed Madoka rip off (I like Madoka, I do not like its legion of imitators) and this one is a shoujo on top of that. There was such a dearth of non-Precure magical girl shoujo anime for a while.

(It also shows you can hint at a seventh grade girl maybe awakening to a little bit of a lesbian magical girl kink without it being super gross noncon loli shit, ahem. I swear, if Gushing got a second season this better too.)

Come and enjoy a hype magical girls who's kind of a loser and something just clotheslines opponents, pathetic wet cat villain who works retail, and the girl whose fangirlism will likely win out against her commitment to justice.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

Some Divinity-related math I started typing in a reply but it got too long so it gets a post instead:

Assume each player contributes 1 point of damage. 

A fireteam of 6 therefore does 6 x 1 = 6.

Now take one player out, but add 25% to the others: 5 x 1.25 = 6.25, or ~105% of 6.

Change the buff to 15%: 5 x 1.15 = 5.75 ~ 95% of previous damage, a net swing of 10%.

To break exactly even (i.e. same damage with or without Div) the buff would need to be 20% (5 x 1.2 = 6) 

With a 15% buff, not having Div would have to cause each player to lose 5% of their damage to break even.

Whether aim can cause you to lose >5% of your damage depends a lot on *how* you’re doing damage. It depends on the burstiness of your damage, length of damage phase, the usefulness of AoE/DoT damage (remember Breach & Clear Anarchy?) and weirder factors like “are you using weapons that don’t care about crits (Xeno, Wardcliff, etc.)? Are you using weapons that give other advantages for hitting crits (Whisper, Hawkmoon, etc.)? Are you a Golden Gun/Nighthawk Hunter, for whom one missed shot might be 15% or more of your damage? Or are you a Nova Bomb warlock and your damage depends entirely on whether Big Happy Fun Ball goes for the right target?”

All of this math assumes each player does equal amounts of damage. In reality encounter design and player loadouts vary so much that it’s impossible to even say how often this assumption is true. For instance Kingsfall Day 1 a large chunk of our Warpriest boss phase damage was being put down by three Star-Eater/Golden Gun Hunters, so taking someone else off direct damage to run Div and ensure all of those shots hit would be an excellent investment even if Div only gave a 5% buff. By contrast we used Wardcliff for the sisters, which doesn’t even do precision damage; in that case a 15% Div buff, i.e. incurring a net 5% damage decrease, makes Div not worth it.

In conclusion: at a 25% buff, in all situations where Divinity gave a usable crit bubble for five attackers, it gave a net damage increase (i.e. was “worth it”). At a 15% buff, whether it is “worth it” becomes highly situational, dependent on factors like team composition and encounter design.

And now for the opinions section:

Do I like this change? Not really, no. I don’t feel that Divinity was distorting encounter design in a significant way. Oh, they took it into account like they do all meta-relevant weapons, but it certainly wasn’t a back-breaker like Gjally or Whisper. That “usable crit bubble for five attackers” clause cuts out a lot of bosses. In the last two new raids Div has only been useful in a single encounter each. Even in Kingsfall, which followed the old “sack of HP” design philosophy, it’s only useful in two encounters (Warpriest and Oryx). Raiding - okay, “six-player pinnacle activities” - is Div’s only use-case; it’s not like it rules the roost in every situation. The hitboxes of Destiny bosses aren’t known for their consistency, either - ever tried to hit Taniks in the head? Div is also a one-person weapon, not a mandate for an entire fireteam. I just don’t believe it’s a problem that needed addressing. 

Then again, I’m not Bungie. I don’t know how much Divinity has messed with encounter design behind the scenes, or what they have planned that might be disrupted by it. Maybe this is like the Sleeper ricochet nerf where they know it’s going to screw with stuff that hasn’t yet been released.

Anyone implying that hyper-precise aim should be a required skill for Destiny content, even extremely high-level Destiny content, can go play CoD and leave the rest of us the hell alone. Even leaving aside the issue of how aim is a “skill” with hard physical limits that are a lot more common and restrictive than people realize, the fact is: Destiny is not a twitch shooter. It will never be a twitch shooter. It literally can’t be a twitch shooter, because of how its netcode works. Destiny does not have “dedicated servers” the way games like CoD or Battlefront do. Why do you think the PvP players are always bitching about how they totally hit that shot? Its server architecture will always cause a certain level of network latency, and that level is much higher than “pure FPS” games - higher than I think a lot of people who play other online multiplayer games realize. That constrains how fast any player can be expected to act or react. You can’t hit perfect shots if the visual on your screen is literally inaccurate. Yes, I do think it’s reasonable to ask for a certain base level of aim in content like Day 1 raids. But success should never be conditioned on near-perfect aim, if only because Destiny literally doesn’t work like that. Remember the hideous rubberbanding on Atraks damage in DSC Day 1? Remember the year of Whisper, where you were SOL if you couldn’t hit three rapid precision shots on a moving target? 

Do you really want to combine those things?? 

You do not.

[thefirstknife]

If Divinity lost the crit bubble, Vow would suddenly fall off imo. Like. When was the last time you fought Rhulk without Div.

Also given that during a sandbox interview right after the Lightfall reveal, Bungie said Div was a little "out of band" and wanted to reign it in, if a nerf DOES happen to it then I think its clear that Salta wasn't the one who caused it (though he did not do anything to help lmao). I personally think removing the crit bubble is ludicrous and would kill the identity of the weapon. I think reducing the debuff's effect to allow Void to embrace that roll would be a decent tradeoff. A tether or a Warlock with Contraverse can keep that Weaken Effect going for the whole DPS phase if they manage it right. Beyond that, maybe a reduction in reserve ammo.

Bottom line, its a support/utility that doubles as an accessibility tool, it should keep that identity, if Bungie wants to notch it down to allow more breathing room for other support and utility I think that's fine as long as the identity remains, and listening to a fucking 3 times in a row worlds first winner complain about wanting to aim more and blaming the assist weapons when Oryx has a crit spot bigger than the fucking Div bubble makes me eternally thankful I dont use Twitter

Yeah, Rhulk is a really interesting example in that he's a really dynamic boss fight with a lot of movement that discourages standing still in a well and spamming Div at him, but that maneuverability also means that a lot of dps will miss. No matter how good you are, sometimes he will just zip past you and then goodbye dps.

I've personally done plenty of Rhulk without Div, it's not too bad, but it's also very useful for a wiggly target like him. I definitely agree that people would enjoy this boss fight less without Div.

As a void main, I would love for void to have more boss debuff abilities and would love to see some diversity in our options for debuffs and boss damage. I agree that some minor nerf to the debuff % would probably be okay and most people wouldn't even notice. Giving us more tools to choose from would be great. Either putting them on void for the debuff identity or making more weapons like this. Another very much needed option is an overall different approach to raid boss fights. Rhulk proved that a moving target is fine, but there are problems with that as well. It's an ongoing game dev struggle.

This discussion could've been held with much less whining and much less emphasis on the importance of aim in raids, definitely. I genuinely don't even understand that, raids for me are about mechanics and six people working together, not clicking on a boss. It's really not surprising that a lot of people were taken aback by how the discussion was posted as an objective read on the difficulty of raids. "Divinity makes raids too easy" is a take that is simply not relatable to anyone outside of the streamer circle.

And of course, Twitter remains hostile to human habitation, never go there.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

yeah so. gonna talk a little bit abt those posts i just reblogged.

The real-life Edward Teach dealt in slave trade. The real-life Stede Bonnet owned a plantation. I just reblogged a bunch of posts about what that means for the show and what that says about the writers, and I encourage people to look at those if they haven't already (I tagged everything as #ofmd crit and will continue to do so, also if you are viewing this post on my blog you can scroll to the bottom and click the Previous Post button). The people in those posts discuss the issue much better than I can. This post is just about what this means for me, for this blog, and for the fics I have in process.

This is gonna get long so TL;DR: I am going to keep participating in this fandom. I will no longer blindly praise Waititi/Jenkins/etc. Anyone who is unable to enjoy this show or participate in this fandom due to the real-life history is perfectly within their rights to feel this way, and criticism of the show and the fandom is warranted. Criticism of my decision to continue participating in the fandom is also valid and warranted. If anyone wants to discuss this with me feel free, although I would prefer you read this whole post first. Thank you.

Honestly it's embarrassing that I (and so many others) needed to be told about the actual facts behind this show. My perception of pirates has been fully shaped by popular media, and while I had always known that the show's lighthearted tone was glossing over a lot of real-life atrocities, it never occurred to me to connect some very, very obvious dots. I thought of real-life, historical pirates as violent, murderous thieves, something the show routinely confirmed in a lighthearted way—and I was comfortable with the show spinning murder and torture as a joke. In no way was this condoning real murder, and besides, most of the murder and torture jokes were aimed towards the British, which at that point in history were actively invading and colonizing a huge chunk of the world. The show, I thought, didn't even skirt around that part of history! Unlike other shows (Bridgerton comes to mind), Our Flag Means Death acknowledged the atrocities that were occurring at that time, and was very clear with the fact that they were atrocities. I thought that pirates (both in the show and in real-world history) operated in a sort of Robin Hood-esque way, attacking and stealing from ships from European kingdoms and merchants who would trade with said kingdoms, and maybe also attacking each other if they had beef. It didn't even occur to me that, like, pirates would probably want to cash in on the whole slave trade thing going on at the time.

And then there's the part with the real-life Stede Bonnet. I'm genuinely so ashamed that I didn't put two and two together. Stede was a wealthy landowner—what kind of land did I think he owned? He just, like, had some nice gardens and that was it? He just had money from owning land and doing nothing with it? In the first episode, when he had the crew dress up and pretend not to be pirates, when the crew members of color had to pretend to be slaves, I seriously just went, "Oh, Stede has to pretend to be racist to get along with his rich racist peers that he hates," and put zero additional thought into it. That absolute lack of critical thinking was honestly so fucking pathetic and really speaks to how much my white privilege has allowed me to enjoy media uncritically for years. I'm trying to do better, and I will continue to try and do better, but this whole situation has been a lesson in how much farther I need to go.

What's more embarrassing, though, is my initial reaction to learning about the connections that the real Bonnet and Teach had to slavery. This is an ugly confession, but when I saw those posts my first instinct was to pretend I never saw it and just keep blogging about the show. I'd been having so much fun basking in some incredible firsts when it came to representation (a gay romance at the center of a mainstream show, multiple queer romances, a nonbinary character, diverse body types all being portrayed as desirable) and I wanted to keep enjoying that. Literally, in the simplest terms possible: thinking about the show made me feel good, thinking about slavery made me feel bad. I wanted to keep feeling good, and ignore the thing that made me feel bad.

But my ability to enjoy the show in the first place was a privilege. The slavery and colonization and genocide that happened in this era literally built the world I live in now and all the inequalities that I benefit from. There were people who watched this show because they heard all the hype, and ended up disappointed as yet another piece of media being praised for its diversity ended up being steeped in antiblackness. The ones who actually spoke out about this, despite the fact that this show is Tumblrs new favorite thing and that everyone and their mother have been praising Taika Waititi and David Jenkins for weeks, have stepped into the line of fire by literally just pointing out literal historical facts that should've been common knowledge to everyone from the beginning. The fact that this history wasn't common knowledge is proof of how glamorized pirates are in the public conscious, and the creators of the show really did not do enough to dispel this myth—if anything, Our Flag Means Death is just contributing to it. Yes, David Jenkins mentioned some of these truths in this one interview, but the way that soooo many people (me included) were surprised to learn that a rich landowner who lived in a British colony in 1717 owned slaves definitely shows that this one interview really did not do enough to educate people—and as far as I know, that's the only time anyone from the show acknowledged this part of the actual lives of the characters from the show.

And, y'know, maybe the right thing to do is to stop talking about this show altogether. Delete my blog, delete my fanfiction, pretend Our Flag Means Death never existed. I won't lie, a big reason (probably the biggest reason) I don't want to do that is because of my own selfish interests. I like this show. I like talking about this show. I really, really don't want to give it up.

But I also feel like me giving it up wouldn't really... do anything? I have this tiny sideblog and one chapter of a fanfiction posted that has like, some people excited, but pretty much nothing would change for anyone but me if I cut this show out of my life. I'm not going to end racism by boycotting a show. I'm not going to educate the masses about the history of slavery and piracy by deleting my blog. I feel like the only way that me not talking about the show anymore would benefit anyone is I would be able to pat myself on the back for my sacrifice.

So, instead, I'm making this post to pin at the top of my blog (and link to when I post new fics/chapters) Edit 9/25/22: jk lol. The main change is that my attitude towards the showrunners, and the show as a whole, has definitely shifted. I said a lot of things in the tags of a lot of posts that were uncritically praising the creative team behind Our Flag Means Death. I still believe this show was put together by some very talented people, but they are not without fault. I'm not going to go back and find every post I ever made or reblogged where I said I owed David Jenkins my life or whatever, partly because I'm lazy but also because I don't want to hide my past mistakes. I feel like pretending I didn't go through a learning process here would be disingenuous. I'm not going to pretend I didn't mess up, but I'm going to try to do better.

(That being said I do have like, more than 200 posts in my queue. I'm not gonna try and go through all of those to make sure I'm not asking Taika Waititi for his hand in marriage in the tags of each and every post because that would take forever, but as they come out of the queue I will try and pay attention to what I put in the tags back when I first queued it and edit them as needed. This goes for my main blog, too—I think I might have a few posts about Taika Waititi in there, and I'll watch to see what comes out of there.)

So, yeah, this post is both a disclaimer that yes, I know about the main characters owned slaves in real life, and yes, I'm still blogging about this show. Sorry. If you don't like that, that's totally valid, feel free to block me. This post is also a PSA to people who might not know that the main characters owned slaves in real life. If I'm going to keep talking about Our Flag Means Death, the least I can do is be vocal about the historical atrocities that the show is obscuring. If Jenkins et al aren't going to scream it from the rooftops, at the very least I can.

And also maybe this post is a call to action for people who were really bummed to hear about all this and their way of coping was to get really mad at the people who pointed it out: Hey! Maybe Don't Fucking Do That??? Sorry that thinking about racism makes it harder for you to enjoy your gay pirate show, but don't fucking get mad at people who were never able to enjoy the show in the first place? White fans especially, we have no right to tell POC, especially Black people, how to feel about slavery. The people who are frustrated that this show got so popular have every fucking right to feel that way. Just because a show has queer rep doesn't mean it's above criticism.

[akiisame]

Genshin impact guide - how to into artifacts

How to into artifacts and team set.

A guide by me for my kawaii @stupidneko and whoever is in need.

Okay, so, as a word of introduction before well start with this long ass post, I’ve never wrote anything like this so be patient with me.

ALSO ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE SO SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR ANY MISTAKES

In my personal opinion artifacts are more important than the characters themselves, they can turn every 4* into a main dps (yes, even amber). 50% of your DMG will come from items, then the other 50% will come from weapon, talents and the character itself, but this is a story for another post.

First let’s take a look at what kind of artifacts do we have. Each and every character have 5 slots for artifacts:

Flower of life - or just flower, for short

Plume of death - feather

Sand of eon - time watch piece

Goblet of Eonothem - goblet

Circlet of Logos - head piece

Each of the pieces have two types of stats: main stats and sub stats. The first two pieces, flower and feather, always have the same main stat.

For flower it's HP

And for feather it's ATK

Then for the rest of them it can be anything, from good main stats like this:

(The following items have high stats because most of them are on max lvl)

... to less of a good stats, like this:

Goblets also are the only artifacts that has the possibility to have element DMG bonus as the main stats:

While head piece are the only artifacts that can have CRIT DMG and CRIT rate as a main stats:

... but they too can have less of a good stats like healing bonus or DEF.

Now, to the sub stats. They can vary from less appealing stats like HP, DEF and Elemental Mastery:

To a great stats like CRIT DMG, CRIT rate and ATK:

Unfortunately that's where the tricky part comes in. You cannot chose which substats the item will have. They will randomly appear. All that's left is to cry and pray.

But how do you get more stats on your item? That's simple, you need to level it up! We call it 'enhancing'. Depending on the rarity of your item( they vary from 1* (one start) to 5*(five stars) ) there are different max lvl cap. I'll mostly focus here on the 4* and 5* items. Max lvl cap for 4* is lv16 and for 5* is lv20.

Every artifact you'll get is always lv1. To enhance an artifact you'll need mora and another artifacts. The main stats will grow with each level, but the substats will update every 4th level (so for 5* item new substats will appear on 4th, 8th,12th, 16th and 20th level). Let's take this 5* feather: Bard's Arrow Feather

As all feathers it has ATK as a main stats and quite decent substats. You can enhance it by giving it other artifacts. You can also auto add artifacts of given level (1*, 2* or below, 3* or below and 4* or below)

Or you can chose items manually if you click on the gray '+' icon. Once you do it, there will be a list of artifacts you can use for enhancing. Only items that are not given to any characters will appear here.

Let’s enhance it up by one lvl (there’s limit of pic so I can’t show it ksmosjnwk). As I said, the main stats got better, but the substats didn't change because that was only the 1st level. So now let's enhance it to lv4. Once we choose enough artifacts to enhance it to lv4 we’ll see an information that one new substat will appear. (It doesn’t always have to be new substats. Sometimes the substats that the piece already have can get a boost).

Let's see what I'll get:

... Yea, I'm going to cry.

But for real now, that's how the artifacts work. Depending on your luck you can get a great items or a depression.

Usually people always aim for artifacts with ATK and CRIT as a both main and substats, but that all depend on you team composition.

But Akii, how do I chose good artifacts for my characters? How do I build my team?

I'm happy you asked. We can have up to 4 character in the team. Usually people aim for a team consisted of one main DPS, one healer and two supports, but ofc that all depends on your style of the game and your needs.

What is the most important in building your team and deciding on artifacts is the characters talents themselves. You absolutely have to check their talents and passives before giving them any artifacts, cause for some of them items with HP as a main stat could be actually good (like Barbara, since her role is only healing she doesn’t make more than 100 dmg on her normal attack but she heals a TONS).

Let's take my team for example, I’ll explain what their talents do and choose artifacts accordingly:

Razor as my main DPS

Qiqi as my healer

Xingqiu as my support

And Xiao that is none of the above but I just got him so I really wanna use him lmao

Usually I'd have Bennett in my team that would work as both healer and support, but yea, Xiao happen. Anyway, back to the topic

Since Razor is my main DPS I am focusing mostly on the DMG he can do. That's why when choosing artifacts for him I was aiming for the one with ATK/CRIT.

I do believe right now is a good moment to introduce artifacts sets. Each artifact has its own sets. There are plenty of sets to chose from. Now, the question is, does it matter from which set the item comes? Yes, it does.

Every set has all 5 types of artifacts to offer (a flower, feather, time watch piece, goblet and head piece). Depending on how many of the pieces from the same set you'll have you can get different stats. Let's take everyone's favorite Gladiator's Finale set. If you equip 2 pieces of Gladiator your get additional 18% of your base attack. IT'S A LOT!

But if you equip 4 pieces of Gladiator your normal attack (the single mouse tap, not the skills or the hold tap) will be increased by 35% IF your character has a sword, polearm or claymore (so it doesn't work on characters with books and bows, sorry Amber).

As I was saying, since my Razor is my main DPS and his role is to hit, not deal Electro DMG, I gave him 4 pieces of Gladiator's Finale just so he can have these additional 35%. But his head piece belongs to Wandener's Troupe. Why? Since every character can have 5 different artifacts, and the set's bonuses are only up to 4 pieces, the last one can belong to any other set. I chose Wandener's because it have CRIT rate as a main stats, so it's perfect for main DPS character. (The last piece doesn’t have to be the head piece, it can be any of the other 4 pieces).

You can check the character stats and the difference in the artifacts by going to your character menu and then clicking on the ‘details’.

For example here are my Xiao stats calculated with all the artifacts he has right now on him:

And here I have my Xiao without any artifacts and with 1* weapon:

DO YOU SEE THE HUUUGE DIFFERENCE?

Next we have Qiqi, my healer. One would think that, if she's a healer, then it would be good to have a set that is designed for healers on her, right? Wrong.

Let's take a look on Qiqi elemental skill (You can check your character skills by clicking on ‘talents’ in the character menu):

(APPARENTLY TUMBLR WONT ALLOW ME TO POST MORE THAN 10 PICS IN ONE POST SO ILL HAVE TO PASTE THE INFO FROM WIKI, THANKS)

When Qiqi hits a target with her Normal or Charged Attacks, she regenerates HP for all party members and all nearby allied characters. Healing scales based on Qiqi's ATK. Regenerates HP for current character at regular intervals. Follows the character around, dealing Cryo DMG to enemies in its path.

It's says that the heals she gives is based on her overall ATK. Which means the more ATK she has the better her heals are. That's why, in my personal opinion, it's better to focus on raising her ATK and energy recharge. Ofc, there's nothing wrong in having for example 2 pieces of Maiden Beloved (set's name designed for healers, 2-Piece Bonus: Character Healing Effectiveness +15%) on her. If those pieces main stats will be ATK then this will work amazing, but unfortunately I don't have any artifacts like this.

Next are supports, Bennett and Xingqiu. Since their role is not dealing DMG, but more of a supporting you can give them sets of a 2 pieces. Let's take a look at their elemental burst:

Bennett:

if the health of a character in the circle is equal to or falls below 70%, their health will continuously regenerate. Regeneration scales based on Bennett's Max HP. If the health of a character in the circle is higher than 70%, they gain an ATK Bonus that is based on Bennett's Base ATK. Applies the Pyro element to characters within the Field.

Basically you just ult and switch to your DPS (or whoever you want honestly). If the character you switched to (or Bennett himself, his ult works on him too) HP is below 70%, they will receive heals. If their HP is above 70%, the incoming healing with cease and they will get attack bonus based on Bennet BASE ATK (only when you have him c0, so with no constellations. On c1 (his first constellation is unlocked) there is no HP restriction, so his ult buffs the attack no matter of your character current health). So it’s not the same case as Qiqis. Base attack is the base amount the character have with weapon equipped but without any artifacts on, so the only way to rise base ATK is to maximize character level and to give them weapon with high amount of attack. Then we should focus on giving him as much of an energy recharge as we can so he can load his ult faster. Then it’s up to you whether you wanna make is a healer or side DPS. In healer case you should focus on rising his HP amount by giving him artifacts with that stats and substats cause, on the contrary to Qiqi, the heals he gives are based on his own max HP, not his ATK. In side DPS case you can focus on the overall dmg he makes.

Now let's take a look on my Xiao. His role is a dps, just like Razor. So one would think that it would be the best to max physical DMG on Xiao too, right? Wrong.

Let's take a look on Xiao's elemental skill and Elemental burts:

Skill:

Xiao lunges forward, dealing Anemo DMG to opponents in his path.

Burst:

Greatly increases Xiao's jumping ability. Increases his attack AoE and attack DMG. Converts attack DMG into Anemo DMG, which cannot be overriden by any other elemental infusion. In this state, Xiao will continuously lose HP. The effects of this skill end when Xiao leaves the field.

Both of them covert the DMG into Anemo DMG. Which mean that no matter the physical DMG bonus, if he doesn't have any Anemo DMG he won't be as useful as he could be. That why my Xiao has 2 pieces of Gladiator and 2 pieces of Viridescent Venerer that gives him +15% of Anemo DMG bonus. (y’all have no idea how long it took me to write this thing correctly lmao)

As the last piece i used Wandener's head piece again to give him that additional CRIT rate. (yes, his Anemo DMG can be scaled with CRIT rate, too). Ofc my Xiao still lacks a lot of power we can see on some videos on yt.

Okay Akii, I understand how does the artifacts works and what to which to chose when thinking about the character role, but how do I actually get the artifacts?

That's actually the hardest part. You can get them from domains. Each domain have two sets of artifacts at the same time, which means depending on your luck you'll get the artifacts from the set you want or the artifacts you don't want BUT can use for enhancing later on! Gladiator's and Wandener's don't have its own domain, but can be achieved by fighting bosses like cubes or regisvines and from weekly bosses like Dvalin, Andrius and Childe.

Now that you know everything you need to know about artifacts you can go and start doing the domains...

only to waste all of your resins and get tons of shit artifacts with DEF as a main stats and then start crying after your one good artifact with ATK as a main stat and CRIT as a substat gets shits like HP, DEF and more HP after enhancing. Have fun <3

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Sygna Suit Silver

Okay, Silver and Sneasel are happening.  This rules.  Keeping the pre-evolution was the right move. However this also fills me with concern. Like, the egg is his Neo Champion alt right? Please DeNA.

General Overview SS Silver offers a lot.  As an Ice-type Tech whose focus is mostly on damage, his main claim to fame is "Best Ice-type Damage Dealer."  Low bar.  His gimmick is Triple Axel, a move that gets progressively stronger as it lands, but has an unfortunate 90 accuracy.  His Buddy move is the same move, but in this instance, it is his means of capping crit.  Each hit gives +1 crit, but more critically, gives -1 sync cooldown.  Silver is a full turn saved on sync by himself, provided all moves hit.

This leads to a bit of a discussion around Silver, because his Buddy move is bizarre.  On the one hand, that's a lot of utility on that move!  You might want to pop that early!  But on the other, this is his best damage output, if conserved.  Problem: the activation condition is upon entry, but the deactivation condition is "When not at full HP."  In the era of AoE, and especially Gauntlet, this Buddy move will effectively never function as damage.  It is always setup.  And setup is where Silver's oddities start to show.

Tripping Strike 9 into Cakewalk is very respectable.  Buddy move then regular attack caps that.  But he also has Inertia and X Speed+.  So he can set up the speed, but when?  He also has a trainer move that's +3 attack.  Which, again, when?  Silver reminds me vaguely of SS Hilbert and why I skipped him: the desired traits are all there, but they're scattered in such a way that nothing flows nicely.  Whatever tools he may have, he needs allies covering for the ones he doesn't.  If he's debuffing speed (he should), then he needs attack and speed.  If he's buffing speed, he needs Atk/crit.  If he's buffing attack, he needs speed/crit, which I don't think exists.  But most critically, Silver needs accuracy.  And that means he's either gridding Pinpoint Entry 2, which is costly, or he's bringing an ally with accuracy, which is rare.  Real ones know, this means it's time for stonks, but outside of that, his potential partners are fairly limited in scope.

I think it's going to be interesting seeing how Silver shakes out in functional play.  He's got the numbers behind him, and is in a type that desperately needs the help, but I'm really curious how consistency will play.

Move Level and EX? As a damage-focused Tech, 3/5 is fairly demanded.  Silver does almost nothing else of value at 1/5.  There is the use of "is a full fast ramp by himself," but I have a difficult time saying that a sync pair is worthwhile for just -3 cooldown and some speed debuffing.  Aim higher.   And of course, Tech, so without EX the sync isn't always so impressive, so like...man, Silver is demanding.  That said, rare moment of saying “4/5 might legitimately be worth it." Punishing Strike 4 is actually good odds for the debuff, and Evasive Strike 9 is absolutely hysterical if you want to conserve Buddy move.

Team 1: SS Silver, H!Caitlin, Tech Lapras STONKS!  I swear, I will never let go of people calling H!Caitlin niche back on arrival.  The shift in the meta to include grid expansions that let everyone independently cap crit has been a godsend.  Caitlin is Silver's optimal partner, to the point she could be considered his only true partner.  While Silver speed runs first sync, minimizing foe's speed in the process, Caitlin caps Atk and Spd, but also gives accuracy buffs.  Look at that, full power but sync on turn 3.  And the saved grid energy means Heavy Hail 5, so just slap in a random Hail eggmon and you're done.  H!Caitlin is perfect, best sync pair.

Team 2: SS Silver, P!Bea, SS Hau Hau is a very good partner to Silver as well, just because of how he kicks off all known multipliers.  P!Bea adds in Hail, and gives a quick shot of attack for Silver's fast-ramp.

Team 3: SS Silver, Lillie/Aaron/Hop, Masked Royal/Darach Let's talk about some other options.  By support, Lillie and Aaron have offenses and accuracy boosting.  Notably, Aaron's an optimal pick for conserving Silver's buddy move until after first sync, thanks to covering crit.  Hop can do the same, if you want, but lacks accuracy boosting.  In the case where accuracy is covered, Masked Royal is a fair pick.  Speed boosts and potential defense debuffs are very helpful.  But failing that, Darach is the man of the hour.  Darach has Defog, which is free points in CS, but more notably has the combination of Weigh Down and Slo-Mo.  Darach helps spread speed debuffs AoE, something Silver cannot do, and the lowered evasion of the enemy team substitutes for boosts to accuracy, allowing Silver to hit consistently.  Darach is notably great for more defensive teams, thanks to the shift in CS points to Crit Sheld he removes, and the attack debuffs.

Team 4: SS Silver, BP Clemont, Tech Persian/Siebold/Tech Lapras Gauntlet approach.  BP Clemont is a pretty nice partner for Silver in this context, thanks to Spark's paralysis rate, Screech to debuff defense, and X Accuracy All to patch up Triple Axel. Of particular note, when gimmicks like debuffs or status changes (Siebold can confuse with Aggravation) are required, you drop Heavy Hail. This permits picking up Burst In, which can get a guaranteed crit on either first sync (not recommended due to two conditions for speed drops) or Triple Axel (sure crit for damage into +3 crit). You can drop Endurance for Burst In too, but given how Gauntlet is, I'd keep Endurance as a primary concern.

Team 5: SS Silver, Ghetsis, SC Lillie/Support Chansey/Irida Alright, there's one other thing that Silver can do really well, and that's bottom out speed. While generally not exciting, this does set him up for Cakewalk sets. The most notable Cakewalk partner being Ghetsis, who has natural Cakewalk multiplier, and Hunter's Instinct on Glaciate.  Even better, Ghetsis' Double Drop Noble Roar can be used to full debuff the target, easily setting up max power first sync.  For fast-paced stages, SC Lillie gets Ghetsis to capped offenses faster than anything else, and thanks to his Sharp Entry, Silver's fast-ramp the majority of it is achievable in two turns.  For some contexts, Support Chansey may do okay, thanks to the Let's Brainstorm buff complementing Ghetsis' needed offense and low speed.  Leaf is generally better though, due to +2 to all stats on first sync, including accuracy.  But of special note is Irida, who has built-in Vigilance, and can reasonably tank for a team, while supplying special defense drops and Zone.

Final Thoughts SS Silver seems really good. Finally, we have an Ice-type that doesn't have some horrific flaw for no reason. He's just a pure damage dealer and is really, really competent at that job. Triple Axel is legitimately fantastic damage for a two-bar move, all it requires is a little accuracy he can build in himself if needed. And the sync. Finally, a competent sync. SS N got hit with such atrocious multipliers it's almost laughable, but Silver...well, okay, it's still demanding, but it's at least achievable. I hate to say it, because Adaman is ridiculous, but I actually value Silver over him. A competent Ice-type damage dealer is a rare commodity, and Silver's easily the best we've gotten thus far.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #124: Hassan of the Serenity

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the most adorable of the Hassans, Hassan of the Serenity! Lookit her! I just wanna pinch her little cheeks!

But I won’t.

For this build we need poison skin, poison daggers, and the ability to shapeshift into other people which literally never gets brought up. Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Rice is nice, but twice the rice is thrice as nice.

Race and Background

Like a couple characters, you’re really a human, but those idiots don’t get poison skin. Fortunately, WotC came up with a solution! It skirts the edge of officialness, but the Grung do exist in a Wizards of the Coast rulebook, so you can play as them! (Just not in Adventurer’s League games.) Being a grung increases your Dexterity by 2 and Constitution by 1. You gain proficiency in Perception, get a walking and climbing speed of 25 feet, are Amphibious, and get Poisonous Skin. Any creature that directly touches you must make a DC 12 Constitution save or be poisoned for a minute, with additional saves each turn they aren’t touching you. You can also poison your piercing weapons as you attack, forcing another constitution save that deals poison damage on a failure. Finally, your Standing Leap lets you jump 25′ across and 15′ straight up, even without a running start, for those anime-style rooftop battles. All this does come with a drawback, though. Your Water Dependency means if you don’t submerge yourself in water for an hour each day, you suffer exhaustion that can’t be taken away without either magic or another long bath. Good luck dealing with that in the desert!

Like the other Hassans, you’re an Acolyte, giving you proficiency in Insight and Religion. Why rock the boat?

Ability Scores

Like many assassins, you’ll want to focus on Dexterity for this build. Your schtick is more about social manipulation, but being able to duck out when you need to is pretty important too. After that is Charisma, so you can sucker your mark into bed with you. After that is Wisdom- being able to charm a person is good, but you have to be perceptive enough to figure out how to do it in the first place. Your Constitution isn’t that great, but people should be giving you a wide berth anyway. We don’t need Intelligence, but you’re not dumb, so we’re dumping Strength. Straight-up brawls are not your thing.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: We’ll get into your assassin skills in a bit, but I think your poison needs a bit of buffing first. That’ll take a while, but right now you get proficiency in Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as two monk skills- Stealth and Acrobatics will serve you well.

You also get Unarmored Defense, making your AC based on your dexterity and wisdom instead of just the former. That’s good, because you can’t use your Martial Arts in armor. This lets you use dexterity instead of strength for your monk attacks, and you do a minimum of 1d4 damage with unarmed attacks and monk weapons that’ll increase as you level. Finally, you can make an unarmed attack as a bonus action if you make the attack action with monk weapons.

2. Monk 2: Second level monks can use Ki Points to make two attacks, dodge, disengage, or dash as a bonus action. It should be mentioned that doing either of the latter two doubles your already considerable jump distance, in case your DM thinks a 50 foot chasm is enough to stop you. To help with that, your Unarmored Movement helps make up for your reduced speed, adding 10 to your movement speed.

3. Monk 3: As a Way of Mercy monk, your paws get just a bit more poisonous thanks to your Hands of Harm. You can spend a ki point once per turn when you hit a creature with an unarmed attack to deal extra necrotic damage to them. You also get some Hands of Healing that use ki once per turn to heal a creature, but that’s less in character. And also a really bad idea, what with that poisonous skin and all.

You can also deflect missiles, reducing damage from ranged weapons and possibly even spending ki to throw it back as part of the reaction.

4. Monk 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to grab some Squat Nimbleness. This feat increases your movement speed by 5′ to negate being small, gives you +1 Dexterity, proficiency in Athletics, and advantage on your checks to break free from grapples. I feel like that last bit probably won’t be much of an issue for you, but you never know.

You can also Slow Fall as a reaction, to help with the inevitable side effect of all that jumping you can do.

5. Monk 5: Fifth level monks get an Extra Attack, and can spend ki to make a Stunning Strike, forcing a constitution save (DC 8 plus your proficiency plus your wisdom modifier) or they become stunned for a round. You can also use Focused Aim to turn ki points into extra points on your attack roll, to avoid wasting all that poison.

6. Monk 6: Your Ki-Empowered Strikes make your unarmed attacks magical to overcome resistance, and your Physician’s Touch empowers your hands of healing and harming. The former can end one instance of blinding, deafening, paralyzing, poisoning, or being stunned (or I guess replace those with another instance of being poisoned), and the latter makes the target poisoned with no save for a round. Hey, you get what you pay for.

7. Rogue 1: Now that your poison is up to snuff, we can focus on your assassin skills. Multiclassing into rogue nets you a Deception proficiency and the ability to speak Thieves’ Cant. Grungs don’t get common as a racial language, so this might actually help when you try to communicate with the rest of the party. You also get a Sneak Attack for extra damage with finesse weapons. You also get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency with those skills. Your Deception and Insight game are on point now.

8. Rogue 2: Second level rogues can make a Cunning Action on their bonus action. They can use this to dash, disengage, or hide. Hey, that’s most of what monks have to spend stuff to do!

9. Rogue 3: Third level rogues get their subclass, and as your class name would suggest you’re an Assassin! As an assassin, you can Assassinate targets, giving you free advantage on creatures who haven’t taken a turn yet and giving you free critical hits on surprised creatures. Your poisonous skin doesn’t actually kill people in this universe, but a knife to the back can be pretty good too.

10. Bard 1: We need spellcasting for a feat we’re grabbing later, so sorry for the third class. I promise we were trying to make something simple this time. As far as justification goes, you’re the embodiment of a fictional story, the “Poison Damsel”.

You can cast Spells using your Charisma, and you can hand out Bardic Inspiration to your allies (thankfully not by touch), giving them an extra d6 to use on one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. You can inspire people a number of times per long rest equal to your charisma modifier. You also get another skill proficiency. Sleight of Hand is pretty useful, especially when your hands kill people.

For spells, grab Friends and Charm Person to string your enemies along, Longstrider and Feather Fall to make up for all the monk levels we’re missing out on, and Minor Illusion and Disguise Self to perfect your disguises. Not that being a frog isn’t still and issue for you- your size will seriously limit how many people you can pretend to be.

11. Rogue 4: Use this ASI to become a Poisoner, allowing you to ignore resistance to poison damage, apply non-grung poisons to weapons as a bonus action, and create powerful poisons with a poisoner’s kit. More powerful than your skin, at least.

12. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues can use their Uncanny Dodge as a reaction, halving damage from an incoming attack. Smart enemies will be using reach weapons, which tend to hurt a bit. Try not to touch the pointy bits.

13. Rogue 6: You get another round of Expertise, doubling your proficiency for Stealth and Sleight of Hand for the perfect getaway.

14. Rogue 7: Seventh level rogues get the powerful Evasion technique, turning your failed dexterity saves into successes for avoiding damage, and successes negate all damage entirely! Also, your sneak attack grows to 4d6. We’re not going to bring it up every time, just know it grows on odd levels.

15. Rogue 8: Having to rely on spell slots for shapeshifting is for nerds! Use this ASI to become an Eldritch Adept, allowing you to get the invocation Mask of Many Faces, which lets you cast Disguise Self at will! Now you can save all those spell slots for more useful things.

16. Rogue 9: Ninth level Assassins get Infiltration Expertise, allowing you to spend a week making a new identity that lasts until others are given obvious reasons to call you sus. Looking the part can only get you so far- nobody mistrusts paperwork.

17. Rogue 10: Now that we have your feats down, we can finally start boosting your abilities! Use this ASI to round up your Constitution and Wisdom scores for more survivability. 

18. Rogue 11: Eleventh level rogues have Reliable Talent, meaning all your d20s will always roll at least a 10 when making checks you’re proficient in. You’re not bad at the things you’re good at, surprising I know.

19. Rogue 12: Use your last ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger disguises. Wait, we’re done already?

20. Rogue 13: Our capstone level nets you the Imposter ability, allowing you to copy another creature perfectly if you spend three hours studying their speech, handwriting, and mannerisms. You also get advantage on deception checks to maintain the charade. Then it’s just a matter of time before you sink a poisoned sneak attack in their neck and vent out of electric.

Pros:

Rogues with sneak attacks are scary. Rogues with guaranteed crits on their sneak attacks are even scarier. Rogues that can reliably poison their guaranteed critical hit sneak attacks are seriously bad news. You can do some serious damage if you get the drop on someone, is what I’m trying to say here.

Like all Hassans, this build is pretty mobile, with 45 feet of running and climbing speed, ridiculous hops, and a smaller size to squeeze into places other races can’t follow.

When you’re not dealing absurd damage, you can deal plenty of status effects too. Poison, stun, charm, it’s all yours to deal out as you wish!

Cons:

Poisoning things isn’t good. Even ignoring the fact that you’re eating up a bonus action to add some damage to one attack (even rangers get a better deal than that) plenty of creatures in the monster manual are immune to poison anyway. Thankfully you’re not completely defenseless, since your sneak attack doesn’t care what kind of damage it deals. All the coolest poisons are hidden in the dungeon master’s guide anyway.

Grung are a lot of things, but masters of disguise is not one of them. Your size means your ability to use Disguise Self is severely limited, and any nonmagical disguises will have their work cut out for them. Disguising yourself as a different grung won’t help much, they’ll still track you down because you’re probably the only other grung they’ve seen in town.

Just going to come out and say it- your magic isn’t nearly as powerful as it needs to be to be reliably used for disguises. Fortunately very few people bother investing in Investigation, but it can still be a serious issue when your spell save dc is around 14 for most of the game.

[tf2workbench]

Random critical hits

You probably have an opinion on them, no matter what kind of games you like. I sure do. 

With this post, I intend to do more than just say what I think; I want to dive in and figure out how critical hits work with players’ emotions and enjoyment.

To start off, I want to emphasize that critical hits go back to the earliest tabletop RPGs, especially Empire of the Petal Throne. Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (also known as “the forgotten Tolkien” for his extensive worldbuilding and academic credentials) incorporated critical hits as a way to “simulate the ‘lucky hit’ on a vital organ.” In short, it’s a realism thing. 

Mechanics that originated in tabletop games often, as computers became more advanced, spread to the digital world. Critical hits came with them. (Unfortunately, although my training is in history, I’m not an expert on the evolution of video games. I can’t confidently locate the first digital game to have critical hits, but I know it was present as far back as the early ‘90s.)

Are they good? The purest form of crit is simply random. In TF2, most weapons have a chance to crit. The chance increases with damage dealt - up to 12% for ranged weapons, provided you’ve dealt 800+ damage in the last 20 seconds.

This is discussed in the in-game developer commentary, specifically Kelly Thornton’s node on Gravel Pit:

“Critical hits are one of the features that resulted from our focus on pacing. The critical hits system attempts to slightly influence the highs and lows of the game by increasing the chance of a critical hit based upon the player's recent performance. In summary, the better you're doing the more likely you'll continue to do well. This helps create those rare high moments where a single player goes on a rampage and gets three or four kills in rapid succession.”

Here we can see that critical hits are one of the ways that gameplay can temporarily get more exciting, creating what Thornton calls a “high moment.” Let’s break that down in emotional terms.

When a player gets a random critical hit, they experience an unexpected surge in power. For most people, this is quite a rush, almost like adrenaline. Since crits can often turn the tide of a difficult engagement, they may go on to have other successful battles rather than dying in the previous one, creating a series of good feelings for the player. Crits aren’t reliable enough to keep you alive forever, especially against skilled enemies, but they can help.

(Admittedly, I always feel a little guilty when I get a random crit. But only a little.)

On the flip side, when a player gets hit by a random critical, they usually experience a negative feeling. A lot of people have a need for stability and at least a degree of control - although this is mostly important for our physical lives, it also comes into virtual environments. Crits disrupt that sense of (relative) predictability that comes from having stable, roughly-universal game mechanics. Oftentimes, there’s nothing you can do to defend against a random crit, which gives a feeling of helplessness. Because of this, they can cause dismay, fear, and anger to the players on the receiving end. This negative feeling is often proportional to the experience you missed out on by dying - if it interrupted a massive killstreak, for example, it tends to hurt more.

It’s these dueling feelings that come into play when randomness is factored in. Is it better to give one player a powerful high at the cost of another’s low, or is it better to give everyone an experience with no randomness?

That is a very broad philosophical question that I have no idea how to properly evaluate. But I can say what I think about TF2′s unique system.

Weighting crits by previous damage dealt tends to reward certain classes over others. More importantly than that, it tends to reward players who are better at dealing damage. This means it tends to favor those who can aim better, giving them an edge over newbies. I can’t say I like this; it’s better to give less-skilled players a chance to upset the game, since being on the receiving end of a curb-stomp is even less fun than dying to a random crit. The good news is that anyone can crit, providing that opportunity for an upset, but it’s more common for higher-damage (ergo, usually more skilled) players.

But remember that this is based on damage dealt (or healing, in the case of the Medic). This means that players are rewarded for playing aggressively rather than hanging back. It’s small motivation compared to, say, a ticking map timer, but it’s a factor that helps make gameplay much faster and more interesting. So there’s facets to random crits that prevent me from immediately saying yes/no.

Crits done right I can say when critical hits (as a whole, not just random ones) are done well. TF2 actually provides a great illustration of this even while having more debatable random crits.

Critical hits are a great design choice when they’re predictable (on both sides) and in response to a specific condition. This gives that “high” of massively boosted damage, but puts you in control of it. Similarly, the opponents have more control over their experience - they and their team have ways to stop or avoid critical hits. As an example, when you see an Engineer brandishing a glowing red shotgun, you can run. Or you could have worked to destroy that sentry before it got kills. Dying to it hurts, but it doesn’t feel particularly unfair; this means that the “low” is much higher less low.

Similarly, I can also compliment how crits work on melee weapons. The chance is much higher - starting at 15% and scaling up to 60% with damage dealt - which makes melee crits something you can almost plan for. A 12% chance of a crit rocket is hard to properly gamble on; you can’t exactly avoid every Soldier for fear of being splattered. But a 60% chance of an uppercut punch to your face? That you can predict and more easily avoid.

Melee weapons are also a lot easier for the opponent to control. Most classes have good ranged options, meaning that those who choose to walk in with a melee weapon are quite literally bringing a knife (or bat, fist, bonesaw, whatever) to a gunfight. This means you can usually see the attacker coming before they wallop you; it’s never “out of nowhere” unless you made a mistake.

Melee random crits aren’t perfectly done - they’re still an element of randomness in an otherwise pretty uniform-rules game - but they’re much better than ranged random crits. They, alongside guaranteed crits on certain weapons, are a great way to give players powerful positive feedback while not hurting the opponents’ feelings (at least too much).

In short: are random crits good? I can’t say, but I can present my analysis of what they do. Are melee crits good? I’d cautiously say yes, but draw your own conclusions. Are guaranteed crits good? I’d say yes, but you know... draw your own conclusions. Maybe there’s something I didn’t consider!

Finally, I want to give a major thanks to @operaland for suggesting I talk about this - I love getting feedback, and I’m happy to chat with y’all!

[spitblaze]

Hey Your blog fucking slaps can you elaborate on why horrible boat (hazmat motel) is a shitty thing in general, i need another person to rant about this with

Okay so. Let’s start by throwing everything else out the window. No context. Vizie’s past, erased. We could go on about that but frankly I don’t feel like delving into it, and you can look for yourself and decide if her apologies made up for what she did. I’m not going there just bc of how messy it gets.

Where I WILL, go, is frankly the first and most important thing to know: This show is heavily inspired by South Park. Vizie has gone on the record to say as much. It’s not hard to see, considering the ‘offensive for the sake of offensive’ humor thats just played off bc ‘oh they’re assholes and bad people’ nvm the fact that like...so many people still copied Cartman and got their ideas of Judaism FROM him when they didn’t know any Jews themselves, just bc the character is ‘bad’ doesn’t mean that people won’t still see them and relate to them and think the things they say are Smart And Cool, especially if they’re presented as more of an antihero. Also see Rick Sanchez and Bojack Horseman, both of whom had entire episodes to call out the people who saw these two and were like ‘haha thats me, this character i like acting this way is justification for my own bad behavior’.

 Anyway.

I’ll have some legit ‘bro this sucks’ in here and the rest is gonna be subjective crit/dunkage, if you want nuanced and detailed critique you aint gonna find it here.

So, looking at the plot summary from the wiki: “ The series focuses on Charlie, the princess of Hell, and her quest to open a hotel for rehabilitating demons. Hell suffers from overpopulation and Heaven solves the problem by routinely exterminating demons yearly. Charlie, who has grown up in Hell, wants to find an alternate solution to the mass slaughter. She opens the Happy Hotel which aims at teaching demons and sinners to become better people. There is substantial resistance though, and Charlie and her friends must work together to keep the hotel running.”

Not necessarily a bad plot on it’s face, with a thesis that’s perfectly reasonable, ‘everyone is capable of changing for the better’. Fine, great. The problem comes in with who is considered a ‘sinner’. Most notably, fan favorite Ang*l D*st, is gay, a sex worker, and a drug addict who died of overdose. So that’s already ‘sex workers go to hell and so do drug addicts’, and piling on his personality and the brunt of the jokes about his character, which is ‘haha predatory sex-obsessed gay man’ and that’s already...a good amount of ‘oh this sucks’ in ONE CHARACTER. Let us also not forget the lesbian who is named Vaggie. Great. Awesome. Love it. “But Vizie Is Bi-” she’s also cis, that may give her some right to make wlw jokes (provided they were. any good) but it certainly doesn’t give her the right to make ones at the expense of MLM.

But maybe none of this matters to you. Maybe you’re a cautious optimist who’s holding out for these problems to be addressed in the show or before airing. Or maybe none of this matters to you at all, and you never got past your 8th-grade Hot Topic Edgelord phase. Fine. Whatever. Everything past that paragraph above is just gonna be subjective on my part, anyway. This isn’t a hill I care to die on.

That being said CHARACTER DESIGN IS MY PASSION, holy shit Vizie clearly got one good look at The Onceler and decided that was all she ever wanted to draw for the rest of her life, like just LOOK at that asshole, you can pin down the span of YEARS that style would get half of tumblr posting *OVARIES EXPLODING* gifs right next to fuckin Cumberpatch, and where are you supposed to LOOK?? God these character designs are SO busy, there’s no focal point, it’s just a bunch of pom-poms slapped onto popsicle sticks in arts and crafts. Like, christ, even the humor feels like it’s stuck in the late aughts, Vizie might as well live in a hot topic. Angel Dust?? oh real clever. Haha. great. love it. Vaggie, what a hi-larious name for a character. Are we just shouting ‘PENIS’ as our jokes now? Is that the level of writing Miss Vizie has for us? That’s the best she’s got? Jesus.

Anyway god this sucks, they could’ve picked up ANY show for syndication and they chose that...especially in the middle of a whole movement about uplifting black and trans voices, they went with TGP For South Park Fans. God. You love to see it. and by love i mean hate. And oh god, the fandom is gonna get even more unbearable after this. like they’re already refugees from the Onceler Fandom and Humanstuck Bill Cipher, these people’s brains are stuck in like, 2013, at best.

Anyway that’s all I gotta say, I’m positive people are gonna come jump on my ass bc of this and like i said, this is not a hill i care to die on, so unless they’re about to like...pull up 10-year-old reciepts on me or w/e if ur only gonna argue u get a block. peace

[motheatenscarf]

WHO WANT SOME AASHI LORE?

So I’m not 100% sure on this because my DM is a cagey motherfucker who reveals none of their cards (which I love them for but FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF), however, I’m pretty sure Aashi has inherited some sort of necromantic powers and/or curse from her father who VERY LIKELY possessed the Eye of Vecna when she was conceived.

So at the beginning of the campaign, I told Kings, my DM, that the point of Aashi is that she’s a terrible elf who aside from the pointed ears and foresty green eyes is as human as the gruff mercenary mother who raised her. She never knew her father, so Kings had free reign of if/how he would wind up being important. For a long time I actually thought she was gonna wind up being half-Drow since we had 2 Drow in our party (there was an insane theory for a hot minute that our Cleric was potentially her father). The other thing that made her a terrible elf was that she didn’t use a longbow but rather a crossbow, since it fit the bounty hunter aesthetic better, and I justified it by saying she only had one eye and couldn’t aim for shit anymore.

I couldn’t come up with a good story for how she lost the eye, though, so I just connected it to her driving motivation. 

She started out the campaign hunting down a bounty on the wizard who burned down the slums where her family ran their tavern from. The city was corrupt as all hell and no one in power would lift a finger to help the victims get back on their feet, so her uncles along with countless others were forced to go to The Pact, a very evil criminal syndicate. They wound up deep in debt and unable to dig themselves out, so to buy them time, Aashi promised to track down a high paying bounty for The Pact if they’d keep their sharks off her uncles’ backs until she returned. They wanted something of hers as collateral to ensure she came back, though, and despite offering plenty of valuable things, the only thing they accepted was one of her eyes.

I chose this to illustrate just how much Aashi was willing to sacrifice for her family, but after we returned with the bounty on Aashi’s wizard nemesis to pay off the debt, Kings had the tricky motherfuckers give her a magical fake one that she could still see out of and was disguised to look like her real one. The “eye” they returned to her was an aberrant insectoid from hell that did a shitton of psychic damage when MONTHS LATER a series of headaches caused Vas and our wizard friend to discern what it was. 

So that was horrible, and Aashi was down an eye again. She persevered, however, and even had our wizard friend find a way to transfer the enchantment into a new fake eye so her enemies wouldn’t know she was onto them and so she could buy her uncles time to escape their clutches.

At the time we all figured they only kept Aashi’s eye to keep scrying on her, but would later find out some things that made that less certain. In the meanwhile, though Aashi wanted revenge, but that required fetching her mom from where her mercenary band was hired to stop an insurgent rebellion. While we were there, we discovered that the mysterious rebel leader was none other than Aashi’s father, both of them being played against each other’s forces by a manipulative green dragon we wound up uniting them against and killing.

And Aashi’s dad, who we thankfully did not have to kill, turned out to be a sketchy necromancer wizard, because Kings loves that irony shit, and he also only had one eye, the false one being a black void with a GLOWING GREEN LIGHT coming out of it, as his most unique identifying feature which Aashi’s mother told her about and inspired her to offer sacrificing up her eye to The Pact. He also only had one real hand, the other being a mummified replacement he attached with necromancy to replace a lost one. And then, when he mentioned that it was ironic that Aashi would wind up becoming a Hunter, he mentions that he too is a hunter of sorts, and asks if Aashi has ever heard of VECNA. 

🙃

And Aashi, with an Intelligence of 12, is like, “Who dat?” and gets a lore dump on her about how he’s been tasked by his people to go out into the world and be the hands and eyes of the liches who rule his people to look for signs of Vecna’s schemes and put a stop to them.

And all of that is concerning in and of itself, but we’ve grown to trust Kasoreth, Aashi’s dad, against probably our better judgement, and we part on friendly terms with him and promise to be in touch after we’ve removed The Pact from power.

The Pact, however, had fallen on hard times in Aashi’s home town and were forced to pack up and leave after they were caught in the wrath of some roaming paladins. We had to move onto our Barbarian’s story pretty quickly after since it was nothing but dead ends all around and his stuff was time sensitive, but we did discover that a.) The Pact knew we’d be coming after them, despite Aashi’s caution, and b.) they had packed up everything but one artifact which only Aashi caught a glimpse of before their headquarters exploded with us inside them, and it proved that they were connected to an insane conspiracy connecting the drow, memory erasing aberrations that removed people from existence, and quite likely the primordial source of darkness in the world. Which only proved that the Pact were even WORSE than we thought.

So, the facts as they are;

Fact One: The Pact would only accept Aashi’s eye as collateral when it came time to making a deal with them to buy her uncles’ a stay of execution. 

Fact Two: Kasoreth has a mysterious glowing green lich eye and hand and a connection to Vecna. That alone is like, three red flags.

Fact Three: Kasoreth’s good eye is brown, as are, according to him, the eyes of what few family members he knows of, and the same can be said of Aashi’s mother and her side of the family. Aashi’s eyes are green. She always just figured it was an elf thing. It still might be. But it’s a weird coincidence. 

Fact Four: Aashi has a special homebrew feat granted by our DM called (Un)Dead-Eye where she crits on a 19 when fighting Undead. I just thought it was because Undead were one of her favored enemies. It still might be. But it’s a WEIRD coincidence and the phrasing of it alarms me.

Fact Five: Kasoreth FOR SURE has the Finger of Death spell, we’ve seen him use it. He is a necromancer and might just know it in his own right. But he has a mummified hand and a connection to Vecna. It might be a coincidence! ARE YOU NOTICING A PATTERN, THOUGH?

Fact Six: The Pact, who are WAY WORSE than we thought they were, are not just accruing power and wealth for the sake of having power and wealth, but appear to be in service of some ancient evil, wittingly or not, and are orchestrating the means to some nefarious end. And they wanted Aashi’s eye. Specifically her eye. It mighT. Be A COINCIDANCE. HOWEVER....

All of these on their own can be easily dismissed and might be red herrings, but I am very concerned about what is going on with that missing eye of hers that was stolen and what might come of it in the hands of The Pact, who CLEARLY wanted it for some reason, and I don’t think it was just to keep an eye on a two-bit bounty hunter who didn’t pose any real threat to them at the time. 

And every time I ask my DM about it they just send me this gif;

and I send them this one,

and that’s as much as I’ve been able to get out of them on the matter.

But I DID figure out that Kasoreth was Aashi’s father, and I did figure out that the dragon was the one behind the conspiracy in Lasondrand where we met him, and I’m good at figuring out Kings’ narrative beats so far, and I’m like 99% sure I’m right, and I’m AFRAID of what that means for my girl.

Also, after our cleric cast Regeneration to regrow her eye so she could be free of the cursed fake, his player came up with the phrase, “Infinite Eye Economy” which is The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Heard, but also makes me wonder... if that’s maybe going to factor in somehow.... oh god...