#did everything else after

[bluedeedeedoop]

Barrissoka Human AU Aquarium date!! @eleventhsister helped me a lot with this piece and actually gave me the idea to do it so thank you sm!!! I'll provide the concept art i made for it under the cut! Im actually really happy with how it turned out and im glad for the background painting practice! (click for better quality i think?)

[m4g0hun]

lost child

[lazylittledragon]

ok so i'm like. overwhelmed

i'm having one of the shittiest weeks of my life and i was really worried my store was going to be a complete flop (honestly i expected my friends to order some stuff and maybe a few other people and that was it)

and then half the things sold out in 2 hours so i'm!!!!! in shock

also the best part: the fundraiser stickers sold out completely!!

[assorted-aesthetics]

like i want to write a fic where england executes eleanor and her ghost claws it's way back to nassau but someone already made that and it's called black sails seasons 3 & 4.

[halfusek]

what's wrong? dig in! ^o^

collab with @rinkopatateneko <3

[shanklin]

Stanford never became friends with Fiddleford.

Instead he got himself a different small friend group who cares a lot about him. At least about the Ford he pretended to be in college.

A kind, soft spoken formerly bullied genius who researches very dull stuff in Oregon and definitely not anything weird. Their Ford would never break any rules or ignore safety measures [unlike that other student they heard about during their college years.]

And then Ford stops answering their calls and loses his grant. 

It’s time for an intervention and they start pestering Ford with letters and calls until he finally agrees to meet them at a science convention, but he’ll take his brother with him.

They’re relieved! Ford is with Shermie! They like Shermie! It's a good thing that Ford still has one brother who isn't a good for nothing selfish criminal who destroyed his entire future!

If they ever get their hands on Ford’s evil twin they’ll make sure he’ll regret ever messing with their friend. Ford is too nice for revenge. They aren’t.

Meanwhile at the not-yet Mystery Shack, the Stans freshly survived their own angsty canon divergent tale of two stans AU and locked Bill out of Ford's mind like a week ago.

Stan: I don’t know how long Ford will keep me around but this will be good for him. He needs some friends to take care of him after I inevitably get kicked out again!

Ford: I only agreed to this because Stan insisted and I still haven’t found a way to thank him and apologize. I hope all my “friends” die in a fire.

[crowlhoard]

So, about everything that is wrong with Veilguard have already been expressed, but I have one more issue I have barely seen mentioned anywhere, and my annoyance with it is buzzing in my skull like an angry hornet's nest, so I want to let it out.

The issue's name is Assan. And I loath him.

Specifically, I can't stand his archetype of a cute mascot, replacing an animal companion. I'm used to this archetype oversaturating kids cartoons, but I definitely didn't expect Dragon Age of all things to fall victim to it.

First - a mini tangent about dragons. Some posts here already mentioned how DAV dropped out a chunk of dragon lore, equating them to simple animals (although the change started already in DAI), instead of "The blood of the dragons is the blood of the world". Dragons, massive superpredators, living in a world with no comparable size of prey animal (maybe elephants or whales, at best), somehow find enough prey to diverge into whole different species with specific adaptations to certain habitats, kind of locking them in their territories. Unlike a more reasonable DAO approach, where there was one species of dragons, periodically going onto massive hunts, devouring whole regions to feed their brood and being comparable to a natural disaster. Which made their rarity also very reasonable, given the absolute swaths of territories they would need to sustain themselves. DAV did make an attempt at thinking environmentally about such creatures by mentioning that one beach dragon species that eats marine life.

Now - back to griffons. That one dragon is where environmental thinking ends. Griffons, supposed half-lions, half-eagles. The mixture of two HYPERCARNIVORES that somehow created a facultative omnivore, like a dog. That needs carrots and truffles in their diet. When the majority of their fiber and vitamins needs should be covered by stomach contents of their prey. Like, say... I dunno.... nugs? But Maker forbid some kid sees an animal eating another animal.

The species, with such an obvious hybrid look, but conveniently NOT created by the evil Elven Goddess, that is known for creating the whole new species for her people. Mother of the Halla and all that. They also conveniently hate everything Blight related, behave like an absolutely domesticated animal and not a tamed one, so they have no hunting behaviors and just wanna feed sick animals and protect the forest! While acting like a cutesy pug!

Mabari in the first and second game were fascinating. A breed, magically created to potentially have a human comparable intelligence, and an ability to pass their own judgment to pick a side. We are informed straight away that they are allies, companions, not some lap-warming pets.

While mounts in Inquisition are props, their codex descriptions are still fascinating. Proud Hallas, having little tolerance for stupid riders. Vicious dracolisks, ready to snap away your extremities at the slightest show of weakness.

But griffons? Nah. It's a baby to the single dad Davrin and a convenient pet to snuggle with. Not a look at an ancient species of valiant flying hunters, ferocious enough to challenge an Archdemon with their riders. Not a mysterious species, with their own unique behaviors and adaptations and abilities.

Assan is a Disney cartoon mascot and nothing more.

P.S. The commentors from the community in which this was posted first, brought up another important detail to my attention: those griffons are 10 years old! For them to be this small, they'd have to be a second generation. And Wardens are keeping them in cages for some reason? I guess it's for easier kidnapping... This game seems to intensely hate the Wardens.

[mrmeepsmadmind]

Metalhawk: bro stop calling my people NAILS

Starscream: if you tase me im gonna make u my dead wife istg

Wheeljack: why do your optics turn separate directions whenever i mention the word 'plan'.

Ratchet: yeah i have arthritis so idc if i die tbh :/

rodimus: im buying an rv and me and all these strangers (who like me more than u, not that it matters ) (im hot) are gonna * EXPLODES EVERYONE *

wheeljack, in the middle of discussing a very elaborate pain-staking plan:... ... something just exploded & i wasn't the cause 😢...

prowl: WHERE IS YOUR RAGE

needlenose: i sure love my big dumb evil husband. sure hope a disgruntled little popcorn kernel doesn't detonate a bomb in his head

Wheeljack: fuck my life

Starscream: i love lying, so, naturally-- im gonna become a politician.

ironhide: i saw the hat man

the intelligent Bumble (bee):

[gonchillunchis]

ancient josuyasu doodle (circa 536 a.d)

[vikt0ren]

Just saw someone comment that there is no one who would mourn Viktor and I am ILL

[chirpsythismorning]

El being *12 hours earlier* than the Cali timeline when she arrives at Nina. Will saying ‘it’s been 9 hrs’ in the scene following his monologue in the van.

We know that at some point their timelines merged when they arrived to save her…

But we don’t know when exactly those alignments took place when they were still apart… which just makes you wonder…

[andi-o-geyser]

Is it a little sacrilegious that they're killing the slow burn right before the gut punch of true love's nat 20? Yes. Did I love seeing the 'I open up the door completely naked' scene come to life even though it was (WAY) earlier then I expected? Also yes. I'm trying to go with the flow and am holding out hope that they're doing things differently, and they obviously have less time to work with (which is the most critical thing to understand), but will still pull it off. It's hard because from an analysis perspective there is something so crucially important about Vex's repressed feelings only coming out under extreme duress and still not admitting she loved Percy until they talked later and even then finding their footing in a very different way than we're seeing here?? Like it's kinda throwing me for both Vex and Percy to be so open and upfront about their desire to get together? It's certainly a different take on it that does have an interesting dynamic to explore. At this point I'm trying to trust the process and just enjoy what we're given and acknowledge they're not creating the exact same story as the original.

Eventhoughi'mgoingtobegoingbacktowatchthecampaignafterthistofixthelossofthelongestjuiciestslowburnihaveeverexperiencedbutthatsfine woahhhhhh who said that

[beedreamscape]

This has to be the last thing I say on C3 finale because otherwise, I will not stop, it simply baffles me in its mediocrity. And obviously, this will be negative, if you loved it, good for you, this is my takeaway as someone who loved this campaign and was severely let down.

This finale changes everything that came before and not for good, better yet, it emphasizes all the faults in the structure of what c3 tried to be, it made most of the campaign feel like a true exercise in futility — How far can we go in a campaign that is meandering and unsatisfying? How long can we have the same discussion over and over and over again despite everyone knowing how this will end? How long can we drag out characters that don't change without anyone noticing? (spoiler everyone noticed)

Can't say I was emotionally invested in the finale because I tapped out back in the 70s, came back for Aeor/Downfall shenanigans, and left again. But in experiencing the finale something became clear to me:

THIS STORY NEEDED TO BE SHORTER.

WITH ANOTHER PARTY AT THE HELM.

If the objective from the very conception of C3 was to wipe out the gods, that had to be clear from the very start. And it wasn't clear, at all — not in the characters, not in the starting city, not in theme. This was a completely different campaign at the start! That clarity was what made Calamity so great, it was short and precise, and every pc SERVICED THE THEME, filled with hubris and contempt, not to mention the setting.

Even Ludinus went in circles for convenience of the campaign length and became a weaker opponent for it, more of a nuisance than a villain. The threat he posed at episode 50 was much stronger than now at 120 something. The battle against Otohan was more nail-biting and emotionally engaging than fighting Ludinus and Predathos, a god eater!!!!

This campaign would've benefited from three to four acts instead of one overarching objective like the past campaigns because urgency is the name of the game and we can't carry urgency for 70 episodes straight (and they didn't).

The constant inclusion of the other parties made it clear how easy it was to detach BH from the story, how easy and fun it was for them to tell it through another party's eyes (one of the main reasons why I walked away back when I did, but that's more of a personal preference).

Which is not to say Bells Hell's didn't deserve a long story! They could very well have existed in a more intimate campaign which these characters were clearly built for! Their premises begged for closer looks in slow moments, something tragicomical, exploration of the inner world while developing MARQUET and its microcosm of injustice and politics which was left in the dust mid-campaign (pun intended).

And I'm not suggesting this just for our enjoyment, I know it's them playing and their enjoyment comes first blah blah, though this is a multi-million company therefore their jobs but this would contribute to their enjoyment! You could see several moments in the campaign how tapped out they felt and acted. I doubt it was "fun" discussing the gods situation ad naseaum, trudging through landscapes they barely cared about, with empty arcs.

I could nitpick every fault I see in the finale but it would be pointless, these issues have been dragged from ages ago and poor character matching, and now this is a culmination of everything and it barely fazes me anymore.

(And yeah it's their game and it's "free", but that doesn't undermine its weight as a story, stories were made be analyzed, and it was a poorly structured one no matter how much I still like and admire them as people.)

WHICH is not to say I had no fun at all ever, I did! several times! and that's what makes me upset, it could've been great instead is just meh.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Sorry, but can I just stress something about Louis that drives me insane? 

In his route where you've saved him, he kills Dorian. Louis directly kills another person. He shot her with a crossbow through the mouth.

It’s unavoidable. 

Sure, it’s considered an accident, and even so, it was also self-defense—Dorian sure wasn’t there for a friendly chat, after all. 

But here's the thing... of the Ericson crew, we know that Clementine, AJ, and Marlon have killed someone. And Minerva if you want to count her, too, since she once was part of the group . But the others? Maybe they have killed before and we just don’t know about it, whether it be out of mercy or self-defense.

Violet in her route had the chance to kill Minerva, but understandably, she didn’t. She opted to shoot her in the shoulder instead… but we never see her kill anyone herself. 

Maybe you could count indirect kills because of the bag of bricks/log that kills Yonatan, and maybe you could consider Mitch’s death as indirectly Tenn’s fault… Speaking of Mitch, he tried to kill Lilly, but we all saw how that turned out, didn't we? 

…but Louis? He killed Dorian. That was his first kill. His first. 

And he feels awful about it! He apologizes to the body as it lays warm at his feet! He’s shaking and can barely speak!! It feels like bile! He doesn't even have time to process it because uh oh, the boat's going to explode!

But he’s also been so hardened over the season by everything that’s happened to him that he comes out of it glad that he has it in him to kill because if that’s what it takes to protect Clementine, AJ, and his family and home, then he’ll do it even if he doesn’t want to.

How does that not drive anyone else utterly mad?

Fandom considers him the funny guy! He's cute and silly! He makes Clementine laugh!

He's also done murder! He's taken a life! Just like Clementine and AJ have! Just like Marlon did!

And honestly, I think this also leads to him forgiving AJ for killing Tenn because at this point, he understands. He hates it, and he wishes it didn’t have to be this way, but he gets that AJ saw something that he didn’t. Louis knows that AJ’s hurting just as much as he is, he even says as much if Clementine says anything other than “AJ saved your life” on the bridge. 

He relived Marlon’s death when Tenn died, but it’s not like his hands are clean, either… and neither were Marlon’s. Clementine’s hands definitely aren’t clean. 

It drives me crazy that best friends Louis and Marlon have each killed someone in TFS but Marlon killed Brody in a moment of panic because he’s a coward who wanted hide what he did while Louis killed Dorian in a moment of panic because he was trying to save Clementine from Minerva and she came up behind him like… hhhhnnnnggggggggg, y’know?

Oh, and don't even get me started on the clouis aspect of this because I'll lose it. He talks to her about it because he knows she'll understand, just like how she's always understood him. How he goes out of his way to tell her that having a home means protecting it and he's going to protect it [that home being her, AJ, and Ericson] no matter what because he wants to build this new life with her aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I've lost it—

[ferrouskyra]

woe haphazardly thrown together character sheet be upon ye

[optimistic-autistic]

nothing so aggravating as seeing people claim what Hades did was just a misunderstanding because he ''loved Persephone too much''. like i don't know about you, but it's pretty hard for that to turn into building a town based on slavery and later getting a girl and assaulting her (even if it's just implied, he still at least had to pretend to do something like it, because his goal was to make Persephone mad).