#by which I mean:

[indecisiveavocado]

Sorry in advance, world.

[nickbutnodick]

pro tip: assume the best in people. it makes you happier.

[intogenshin]

Does Genshin the game really care all that much about the morality of their characters?

Like a story is allowed to pick which elements it draws attention to in order to make the points it needs to make. So Scaramouche is granted an arc revolving around regretting his actions and admitting he’s done wrong, because his character is based on Buddhism and such story explores the concept of karma; while things like traveler committing genocide against the Tanit tribe and wiping out an entire clan in Inazuma is never questioned as the correct course of action, because the story doesn’t see any value in its moral dilemma —universally, this is not an acceptable thing to do, but the story had no points to make about it.

Fontaine so far is the most complicated nation in this aspect, where the story doesn’t bother all that much with the heavily charged morality (or lack there of) of life in the city, even though there’s so much that could be explored. For instance, something I keep complaining about because of the inspirations on Metropolis: the fact there are citizens living in the sewers and how ex convicts stay in the prison after completing their sentences due to the discrimination they face outside. Fontaine is highly unequal, yet the writing is not concerned with giving these aspects any more depth than an acknowledgement.

Perhaps as an audience we’re not meant to dwell on it, the story had other goals that it has achieved. But it also conveniently avoids placing responsibility or blame on the main and playable characters, specifically characters like Neuvillette and Furina who had been ruling the nation together. If we paid too much attention to these issues presented in the city, we’d start wondering why Neuvillette’s infinite compassion doesn’t extend to the children who play in the sewers and the prison. It’s almost like the writing intends us to observe these narratives in two different planes, divorced from the main storyline played by the main characters.

And that’s fine, I don’t personally mind suspending belief over something like this.

So I wonder if Arlecchino’s character will go a different route about the fact the orphanage is a child soldier factory. It seems she inherited it as part of the punishment for killing Cucrabena, and she takes care of the children in making them stronger to survive the harsh life they’ve been handed. It would be hypocritical, like the things I named earlier, to address Arlecchino’s moral dilemma without burning (heh) other main characters.

Because, first, why are there so many orphans in the nation where children are born by wishing at the fountain? In theory, there should not be this many unwanted children. Second, if there are this many orphaned children that the Fatui are taking advantage to fill their ranks with them, why hasn’t the government done something about it? Do they think it’s an appropriate measure, since the kids get a chance to survive and get extra criminal skills? Focalors’ plan relied on the machine accumulating power from the trials, so were the orphaned child soldiers the price to pay? Either by feeding the machine with criminals or by imprisoning their parents so they’d end up orphaned. There’s a lot of crime that goes unpunished in the city, for example, by individuals engaged in child trafficking, to the point characters like Wriothesley in his youth or Arlecchino take justice in their own hands. Nobody batted an eye to Cucrabena’s battle royale orphanage either. And the institute pays little attention to the freak accidents that kill workers.

So, at this point, is it really worth it for the writing to address the moral dilemma of Arlecchino’s orphanage without altering the perception of other characters like Neuvillette? It certainly could, and then just never mention how the entire system allows for it to happen, but me as the audience can’t say that I will care all that much. The writing has gone out of its way to downplay the buildup to her character, even adding new dialogues that exonerate her from what happened in the fortune slip quest in Inazuma, since that was the fault of the previous Knave. And the orphanage itself is a punishment imposed on her by the Fatui.

[doctorwhoisadhd]

NOT saying people should shut up about being gay but sometimes it is just literally not the time to talk about it

[damnesdelamer]

Sure, but may I also submit:

[paintedcrows]

Did anyone tell Ford (bonus doodles: Family Movie Night, 70s Classics)

[bookwyrminspiration]

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

[icewindandboringhorror]

(also feel free in the tags to clarify Why you made the choice you made!! :0c)

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

as an aroace person with limited sexual experience, no interest in watching porn, and poor sex ed as a teen, there IS something simultaneously funny and vaguely tragic about being 28 adult years old and realising how extremely tiny your frame of reference is for genitalia and deciding you should expand this to better understand bodies (yours and others). and then you're just there like "okay so what the fuck do I even google right now, anyway"

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[the-birdgeoisie]

I love when people Kudos my fic, because that means I get to stalk their AO3 profile and steal their bookmarks to read later >:]

[bacchuschucklefuck]

couldnt draw my thang for mid-autumn so treated myself to a calne redesign instead

[noodles-and-tea]

How the gentle wind,

Beckons through the trees,

As autumn colours fall.

[atthecenterofeverything]

in fact there IS a good grade in therapy that is (always) normal to want and (sometimes) possible to achieve in part through being labelled "insightful" and "self-aware" and it is to avoid being stripped of your autonomy and forcibly medicated + incarcerated. but of course the people treating this as laughably irrational - who think of therapy, in essence, as two people voluntarily talking in a room - are often the ones for whom this risk is the lowest

[la-lune-chante]

fellas is it gay for your fight scene to be a metaphor for sex

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

The stewards of the old world are always keen to give you a glimpse of their might... According to legend, the ancients built specialized chambers to seal away false prophets.

The Arcane is waking up.