#casting down

[tom4jc]

October 1, 2024 Verse Of The Day

[precariouswizardry]

[bixels]

Scary Sunset.

I'm concepting things way outta order in this story, but I'm sure you can piece things together. Context is for a storybeat where, after defeating and capturing Adagio (thus having all three sirens in her possession), Sunset enacts her revenge plot to release the sirens on Canterlot as Thea discovers she's been manipulated. In a confrontation, the two scuffle and fight over the siren orbs while Sunset struggles with her conflicting wants and emotions.

[drewbaylor13]

PETER JACKSON PLEASE GIVE US THIS SCENE. WE NEED IT 😭

[bluecrocss]

Adult PJO fans: "I can't relate to her if she doesn't look like me" "this is disrespectful to book!Annabeth" "I can't see her as the same character if she's black" "blonde, white women are soooo underrepresented in media. No one else can understand 😫"

Meanwhile, the actual demographic the show and books are for:

(@/walkersriptide_ on TikTok)

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Caveats in the tags.

[bunnygibson]

can we talk about the real star of the behind the scenes photos... the happy smiler

[chloesimaginationthings]

Why is he kinda...

These two asks were right next to each other, and I think that’s beautiful

[fruitface]

"I really value when people use violence and raise their voices for me. It's actually one of my love languages."

Havana Rose Liu as ISABEL in Bottoms (2023)

[booasaur]

Renegade Nell (2024) - 1x06

[varpusvaras]

All Caste Jason AU where he completes his training but still goes back to Gotham with a little less of murderous tendencies but still fully intending to kill the Joker, but when he steps his foot into the city for the first time while being magical, he instantly full-body recoils like "Jesus Christ this place is fucking rancid, what the fuck-"

So now he's just hanging around, trying to magically cleanse the city because this is just too much. It's too much. He can feel his aura take negative points the longer he stays there. Jason always prided himself in being a true Gothamite and having the lungs of an ox because he grew up breathing the grime, but now he has to periodically leave to get some fresh air. Has he gotten too used to the mountain air, why is the air so thick-

[andi-o-geyser]

local gang of dnd players intimidate and viciously bully game show host sam reich, threatening to push his ass down the stairs like he's a 90-year-old grandma in a retirement home. more at 8

[yrsonpurpose]

"How is a man to get anything done knowing Alex Claremont-Diaz is out there on the loose? I am driven to distraction."

[guardian-angle22]

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN. Actor and Tea Connoisseur.

[phddyke]

Do you know what I love about Hazbin Hotel though?

That the angels are clearly sinners too.

Not only the fact that Adam curses all the time and talks about casual sex (which, he’s possibly even cheating on his wife then??) but also, the angels kill demons and Adam even admits they enjoy doing so. He calls it entertainment.

And Vivienne’s making an excellent point: when you do something bad to a group of people who are considered beneath them, minorities, everything else…

What you do to them suddenly isn’t bad. It’s okay now, it’s righteous, because you’ve dehumanized these people.

And then when they try to fight back? Like the single slain angel exterminator? Well then magically it’s a problem.

When Lute said that “the only reason [Charlie’s] still around” is that Lucifer gave her and all the hell-borns some kind of pardon or protection from being killed in these exterminations, I was like ok, that makes sense. I was starting to wonder/assume that the extermination was something that only applied to sinners because it didn’t seem to affect any of our Helluva Boss cast.

But then I was like, wait, why would they want to kill hell-borns anyway? For sinners you could argue that they “earned” it through their bad deeds, but hell-born have no choice but to be born there? And they seem to have a functioning society, just one that’s “edgier” than human society. Also, plenty of the hell-born are good people?

But THEN, I remembered that is a fundamentalist Christian belief: that you can already be born bad, and that the same deeds can be good or bad depending on who’s doing them. Lute taunts Charlie that her life doesn’t matter…that’s a sin, right? Except no it isn’t, because of who’s doing it and to whom.

I love queer people’s takes on Heaven and Hell, they’re always great.

[sergle]

I GOT SOME CATS TO HOCK (ohio edition)

are you in/around Ohio? do you want two of the most perfect kittens in the world? do you want to do me a solid? my friend has these two kitties that she's trying to rehome, and since I've done a few Kitten Rehomings on tumblr, I would like to do it again!! INFO: - green eyes kitten's name is Emmit, blue eyes is July! (you can rename them obv though) - they're both very fluffy and in excellent health - they are extremely, extremely socialized, and they don't want to do anything except be on your face and/or body. they are bottomless pits of love and affection, motivated purely by their need to snuggle. - they love eachother, and need to be rehomed as a pair! which is a pro, not a con, imo, bc they can keep eachother company when you aren't there. if you're interested at all, or you have specific questions, you can hit me up in tumblr IMs! or if you prefer email, use my commission email: serglecommissions@gmail.com

reblogs are appreciated! :3

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.