#do you agree with me here?

[breadandblankets]

talking with andy, so now im thinking about Bruce lmao, mostly the fact that you have to fanonize characters to a certain extent to basically define what Kind of character youre serving, there are too many differences between canons that it can be Really hard to pin down who youre even talking about.

Im sure my Bruce is irrevocably colored by my love of UTRH, Batgirl(s), and Metal, and that i usually prefer my bruce as part of the batfam and not as part of the wider DC universe

At his core, Bruce is a messy messy character, and thats what makes him so fun tbh, hes got this high stubbornness that bulldozes the line right into ego, where he is convinced that he is right and doesn't need to tell anyone else things, so many stories play out because Bruce is on a Mission and doesn't tell anyone else the important details leading to someone else stumbling into his Mission and things going fubar

he tries to logic and reason his way out of every situation, leading to him not taking people's feeling into account, but then when he gets overly emotional (usually when hes out of his depth and overwhelmed) he lashes out in anger and ends up hurting people (sometimes literally, re baterang)

but i think that after jason's death bruce had a very hard time being a father figure and not a commanding officer and Tim does not make that Any Easier (not that i blame Tim for Bruce's fuck ups, hell no, but Tim does Not want to be parented in Any situation). I think about how long it took Cass to get adopted vs Jason and go ://// I think that difference alone makes it clear just how Bruce was doing after Death in the Family.

even after jason's back he's still mourning his son, and there are some great fics that have talked about that, mourning is not something you can really stop even if the person in question comes back i don't think, the trauma is still there no matter what

In a more meta sense, DC writers doing grimdark made him honestly genuinely unlikable, if you hate grimdark bruce i do Not blame you, making Batman all "grounded" and "gritty" just makes me root for the rogue to put me out of my friggen misery already

I think on some level a lot (if not most) of us are projecting our issues and lack thereof with our fathers onto Bruce, either he reminds you of your father (affectionate) or (derogatory). I know im definitely projecting mine!

That's kinda why i write him as a messy fuck up that does his best and fucks up anyway but ultimately tries to get better. I let his kids forgive him for his mistakes, and he forgives them for theirs, cause thats what i want to see

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hey now, Let her cook!

[starscream-is-my-wife]

Sometimes a day makes you want a Starscream to bite and squeeze

[frosted-woods]

autumn time to be gay and totally fine and not miserable at all

[vaguely-concerned]

This might be due to the fact that on my first playthrough I ended up creating a Rook more emotionally guarded than any of the companions except Minrathous-route Lucanis and perhaps Neve, so I was primed to look for it, but I never got the sense that the companions don’t care for Rook (the thought never even occurred to me until I saw other people post about it) — to me it seems much more like it’s Rook who keeps the last bit of distance, Rook who pulls away when the companions try to extend their care or worry too directly, who keeps themselves slightly apart. (Rook who is so full of grief they cannot know as grief and thus process that there’s no room inside them to let anything else all the way in, perhaps.) They deflect and flinch back when someone gets too close or approaches them too overtly about their feelings — especially when it brushes up against the theme of grief. They can offer care to all the companions who are grieving, come along to any number of funerals as emotional support, but the moment someone turns that towards them they shut that shit down Immediately, like when Taash almost gives the whole game away with ‘Like you’d know? You act like you haven’t lost anyone!’ and Rook just blandly responds ‘We’re talking about you’ and doesn’t engage. But they can also admit that they struggle with accepting compliments, or knowing what to say, or having confidence in themselves without Varric’s help.

Despite all their determination and even in their most stoic no-nonsense incarnation, Rook is awkward, with the struggles that entails. Someone who is eager and happy to be the helper wherever they can, and helplessly unequipped to know how to be the helpee, as it were. It’s not that the companions don’t return Rook’s attachment to them, there’s MUCH more of a ‘okay so what are the ways you will allow me to be good to you??’ desperation of care vibe behind all their invitations to conversations and hangouts together, to my mind. They bring Rook to their favourite places and share the things they love with them, they ask to spend time together (many times just to have their company, not because they have a problem they need help with! Sometimes the problem arises anyway b/c video game quest narrative of course), they bring them out for some direly needed grass touching, they introduce them to their families. Everyone is clearly getting the sense that Rook does Not want to talk about Varric especially (this is in fact what Harding says in banter, if she’s still alive after the reveal :’( ), but they are absolutely SCRAMBLING to find ways to show that they’re there for them even so. AND from the companions’ perspective, with the situation as they have the means to understand it, accepting that Rook isn’t ready to have that conversation and backing off is also a kind thing to do. (tl;dr: To Me Rook is that weirdly socialized friend who is a great hang once they’re actually there but you have to directly invite them or they don’t quite know how to initiate the contact themselves lol) 

Just as a crushing sense of responsibility for their family is a trait that is built into Hawke no matter how you play them or how you make them respond to that, I feel like Rook — however helpful and earnest, warm, charming, jocular, stoic or straightforward they seem at a surface glance — is always someone who struggles deeply with connecting to themselves and other people. (Emotional Intimacy, the Final Frontier.) As, indeed, is the case with all of the Veilguard companions too! It’s clearly a deliberate theme. These are all lonely people struggling with their sense of identity and belonging in some sort of way. AND having, working on and eventually starting to overcome these difficulties also makes Rook a direct foil for Solas, who doesn’t learn that lesson unless you corner him at the end of the world to force feed him his medicine lmao. They don’t manage to break out of the regret prison under their own steam, it’s because even struggling and grieving they have managed to create mutual bonds with other people who show up for them in turn now — and with all the protective walls of denial around what happened to Varric crumbling and making them less of a stranger to themselves, Rook is finally able to let them. An outcome Solas seemingly didn’t even consider to guard against, because he’s become that deeply entrenched in his loneliness, the utter isolation of the self — he can no longer truly imagine an alternative. (It’s not that he can’t form these bonds, obviously, it’s that he resolutely refuses to value them. Whether it’s because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it or out of a need for control or the martyr complex where he must sacrifice everything he loves on the sacrificial pyre of fixing his mistakes, all of the above and more, the result is the same. Mind!Varric, who I think is mostly Solas speaking, even calls this out directly. So yet again a situation where he has some self awareness about it and it doesn’t help At All haha. Solas falls to the temptation of making people into tools again and again and again, no matter how many times it comes back to bite him in the ass and the eternal solitude it traps him in.) 

And that deep deep loneliness… There but for the grace of… well the theological state of thedas being what it is right now, let’s just go with the grace of Something, Presumably go you as well, Rook. The same capacity/tendency to pull away from connection clearly lives in them as well in some form (again, for whatever reason and with whatever motivations and instincts behind it for any individual Rook). Solas and Rook coming together to create a blood magic paper doll of the mind Varric in response to acute loss and loneliness is one of the most deep , deeply fucked up and invasive acts of intimacy I’ve ever contemplated. I don’t think that’s accidental, there’s something There’s Something Wrong With You (there’s something wrong with you that’s also wrong with me (derogatory)) here that resonates no matter how both parties would hate to hear it. (A fitting legacy for Varric and his wild ‘I made my best friend into a story because it’s the only way I know how to love with this desperation of sincerity��� brain to leave in the narrative, methinks. I feel he’d appreciate it on a craft level, if nothing else.)

If you read through all of Rook’s potential backstories, one of the common threads through all of them, along with a certain maverick ‘I’ll do whatever it takes’ streak, is a sense of profound alienation. They did something or have some sort of quality that made it hard for them to fit in with the group they’re from, causing a conflict that cuts them off from parts of their identity as it’s been up until now. All of which also adds to how important Varric is to them — he was clearly able to break/see through some of that and be closer with them, even in the relatively short time they spent together. No matter what else goes to shit, they can trust that a) Varric sees them, b) he genuinely likes them and believes in them not despite who they are, but for it, and c) he’s got their back, we’re in this together kid. And then he is gone, and it takes them the whole game to be able to bring themselves to accept that and know themselves again, be able to let new relationships in fully. The very understandable ‘the last time I let someone in, they got stabbed before my eyes and the world ended’ flinch away, even if they’re not consciously aware that’s what it is. Anyway I love Rook. So much space to play around in here as to WHY they might feel or react like this, even when the framework is more defined.

[novelconcepts]

Sort of feels like the writer’s strike gave the team a lot to ruminate on and a lot of pivots came out of that. Want to be clear: I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It bums me out that we’ve lost characters and actors I adore, but that was always going to be this kind of show. And they’ve proven they were willing to let the narrative breathe from the start: that’s why we had Laura Lee so long, it’s why Adam wasn’t Javi, it’s why Van got to grow up. I love that. I love writers that don’t get so cemented in their initial plan that they can’t evolve.

Where I do get a little finicky is everyone insisting it’s a “trade” for Swank, or that “a background character did this!” Melissa’s been getting fleshed out all season. You think that was an accident? Shauna’s paranoid murder of one lover looked crazy in season one, but now we’re in season three and we find out this is a pattern. Paranoia. Hard-and-fast ill-advised love affairs that turn vicious. Building her own enemy out of an innocent. Adam truly couldn’t see it coming, but Melissa gets decades to dwell. Melissa, who was introduced as someone who thought cannibalism wouldn’t be the worst thing. Melissa, who stood at Shauna’s back until it proved bad for her specifically. Shauna’s always been the heart of the story, the teammate whose eyes we stare through. Of course it’ll all come down to her. And of course she needs someone to go head to head with. She thinks she’s only haunted by Jackie, so obsessed with this ghost that she forgot (well, I guess didn’t realize, due to Faked Suicide) she fully crafted a very-alive haunting of her narrative. You don’t escape the awful shit you’ve done. It will follow you. That’s the whole point of this character. Do I want her instead of Van? Obviously not. But for this story of never forgiving, of carrying your sins home and being eaten alive by them? Yeah, I get it.

[choccy-milky]

I can imagine Clora reading the "Final Problem" where Sherlock "DIES" and being depressed for like a month and sending hate mail to Conan Doyle while Sebastian tries to cheer her up.

THATS SO FUNNY YOU SENT THIS BECAUSE I LITERALLY DECIDED THE SAME THING A WHILE BACK BAHAHA i plan to mention it in my fic too

seb would 1000% find clora crying during their seventh year when "the final problem" is published LMAOO and he'd freak out wondering whats wrong. and when i read about how tons of doyles' fans sent him hate mail and were outraged i was like yup, clora would've been one of them BAHAHA. ["Obituaries for Holmes appeared everywhere. Petitions were signed and “Keep Holmes Alive” clubs were formed."] CLORA WOULD HAVE FORMED ONE OF THOSE CLUBS TOO LMFAOO

all the outrage made doyle resurrect sherlock a decade later, so that also means when they're older + married + have kids, clora's just gonna burst into the room one day and be like "HES ALIIIIVEEE!!!!!!!" BAHAHHAA clora's hate mail to arthur conan doyle is what brought back sherlock, CONFIRMED!!💯💪✨

[happi-dreams]

I watched electric dreams finally !!!!!

It’s so good and odd but ohshdkebdkwbdhmehdh EDGARRR !!! EDGAR I LOVE YOUU !!!!!! ! ! ! ! YOU DESERVE BETTER !!!!!

When I saw the ending I SOBBED what the HELL,,,,,

[bread-wizards]

I actually think Dorian and Orym should fight more.

Remember when their slowly building tension over and entire episode (full of passive aggressive remarks and blame throwing) led to threats? And how after, Orym thanked Dorian for handing over the crown sadly because he knew Dorian would be mad at him? And Dorian couldn't even look at him because he was legitimately hurt, thinking Orym was disappointed in him for doing what he thought was right? That was peak.

The fact they went from that to their current closeness and trust is the best part of their entire dynamic. Their relationship was hard fought and still will be. They will fight for it because they respect and care for one another deeply, and their disagreements don't change that, only improve it.

[ducktracy]

I went to see the day the earth blew up bc of your post and I can't believe Daffy Duck is confirmed transgender

YAAAAAY I'M SO HAPPY TO HEAR THIS!!! that's great!!

i've been loving the influx of trans Daffy posts i've been seeing because of this film... he's been laying eggs since at least 1950! this isn't even anything new! always has been!

okay well this is actually incredibly misleading because that is, in fact, not his egg but he took credit for it anyway BUT. he does lay an actual egg at gunpoint ("that just goes ta show ya! you don't know what you're gonna do 'til ya gotta gun against yer head!") . so the point remains the same

also check out this officially licensed trans Daffy fidget cube? or i guess trans Tweety gay Daffy fidget cube? both? i don't know but it makes me laugh out loud every single time i see it

[danwhobrowses]

Goodness this is like the third episode in a row begetting discourse among the cr fandom. For me this discourse has two perspectives where the division depends on whose perspective you're looking at;

For the armies it was 'We've been sent by the gods and are here to help you stop Predathos as we pla-wait, you're a vessel of Predathos? Isn't that just like Ludinus planned??' which yeah is valid from their perspective

For the Hells it was 'We just came out of 4 back-to-back battles with Ludinus and Predathos itself, we have a solution to save the gods but change the dynamic but we want to discuss it privately with the gods first and now you're trying to kill us!?' which is also valid

What puts me more on BH's side is that we have the context; BH are allowed to be terse when people try to kill them and fail, least of all allies who don't ask for an explanation before asking their god to come down and smite them. They're not villains because they snarked at the person who attempted to sic their god on them, and it's not as if Imogen sic'd Predathos on them in retaliation. Once again they are met with the thankless job and burden that they neither wanted or asked for, but was thrust upon them anyway. With all the times Bells Hells have been criticized for being aimless and indecisive it seems a little strange to criticize them now for being focused and decisive.

Could they have explained from the start? Maybe. Would it have caused a different reaction the moment they said Predathos is in Imogen? Probably not. I can't tell you why they didn't come out of the Cage and immediately explain because I'm not the players; perhaps they wanted to avoid the hysteria and conflict, perhaps they were drained from the fight and wanted to wrap up the episode, or perhaps it was just down to Bell's Hells, as with all CR campaign parties, being infamously bad at communicating, I don't know.

But it's times like these where it's worth reminding that this is a DnD show, nerdy-ass voice actors having fun, it can't always be clean and clear-cut storytelling every second. And sometimes as a fandom we need to take a step back so we don't get ourselves stuck, because we're probably making it deeper than it is and getting annoyed at each other over our interpretation of two groups from the same side getting annoyed at each other. Just, take a breath.

[fiveht]

Some notes on some stuff

An update on creative pursuits:

I can now honestly admit that part of me never thought I'd be able to say this, BUT! Adore part 3 is now completely written. Let me be clear, at no point did I give up on hoping and wanting to finish it, but for a while in the past year it felt like an absolutely insurmountable task that I would never wrap my brain around. I want to give myself some time to sit with it, so it's not getting posted yet, but I will give a tentative, rough estimate of late March or early April for the first chapter. Surprise surprise, it's the longest instalment yet, at over 60k words.

Concerning binding and other transformative works:

I've had a few inquiries about binding Adore verse and I don't think I've answered most of them (sorry!), so I'll just say this:

I give blanket permission for anyone to create a binding, podfic, translation, or artwork of any of my stories. I don't even mind if you don't ask me first, as long as you tell me about it once you share it. In the case of bindings, I'd love to be sent a copy, if at all possible. In the case of any other works shared in online spaces, I'd just like for you to include a link back to the original work on AO3. And for translations, I'd prefer that it be kept on AO3 itself, because I really am not a fan of other fanfic hosting websites. If you have any other questions, feel free to shoot me a DM, and don't be shocked if it takes me several weeks to respond, because that's just how I roll.

[corseque]

[spoilers] I was gonna write this in the tags but didn't wanna spoil anyone since I do have moots I've successfully annoyed them into playing FFXIV - BUT I just wanted to say, I actually found the Elpis reunion scene to be way more romantic than the solavellan ending. Solavellan is my OTP of all time but I can't help but feel like we were done dirty by Bioware with the crumb we did get.

The zoomed in eye contact with Hades/WOL at the Elpis lobby? When Neath Dark Waters plays again in the background?? DEEPLY ROMANTIC.

FFXIV SPOILERS

I was actually asked right before DA4 came out "which is more romantic, Solavellan or whatever Emet-Selch's deal is" and I said "well, obviously Solas because there's kissing" I think because I was hoping it would have a lot of stuff in DA4 so there WOULD be no comparison

but after everything, I actually change my answer. It's weird to say, but kissing is so good, but there are so many more important things in fictional romance than kissing. Like good and complete and consistent character writing. Getting to know characters to their very core and in extreme situations. Like the amount of time the characters get to spend on the screen. Like truly deep and affecting subtlety that catches your breath and makes you want to scream and cry. Like the characters' actions being loving and not just their words. Like everything coming full-circle. Like not switching protagonists 50% of the way through an unfinished love story, and getting to see the entire love story from one unbroken perspective the entire way through from beginning to end. Like, these are just a few of the important things that are different between the games.

I feel like DAI had all of these, especially the subtlety and the character consistency, but then DA4 came, gave them maybe 5 more minutes of content, and made everything extremely inconsistent. Meanwhile, Endwalker came out, gave you two hours more EmetWol content and elaborated the relationship SO much, revealed many more layers to it, kept things subtle and consistent, and allowed the characters to actually perform loving actions for each other, with very beautiful and subtly sadly romantic lines, and with the added helpfulness of Hythlodaeus making everything as explicit as you possibly could be in an MMO... so comparing DA4 to Endwalker is just almost laughable from a romance standpoint. I think that EmetWol has like... 2x the screen time over the entire story? It's actually extremely nutty. I think it also helps that Emet-Selch has the kind of personality where he would absolutely refuse to be overly romantic on screen, so even if you had him in a BioWare game, his romance would be exactly the same as it would be in the MMO, so you feel like you aren't missing anything. He's just Like That. That's his personality. He HAS to have a subtle romance.

I think it helps make Emet's story feel more romantic because you can view Emet's entire story AS a grand love story, whereas at the end of DA4 you're like "ok so Solas was like not actually motivated by romantic love...? And if he was, it was really love to someone else entirely?" Like Emet is just more consistent, AND they were smart enough to make it feel like it was all just you and nobody else, baby. You are the ghost that haunts his past and present, and you don't have to feel like you aren't important. You're it.

[ray935sworld]

Model Luca AU

[lilithofpenandbook]

It makes me SO MAD when people say "there are kind Slytherins 🥺🥺🥺" and show a picture of fucking SLUGHORN

Slughorn? You mean "oh I didn't think a muggleborn would be this talented" Slughorn?

Slughorn as in the Slughorn who told Tom Riddle, a child KNOWN for being a lil twisted, about HORCRUXES just to look good?

Slughorn who didn't even notice a fucking cult being formed in his own house???

People like to blame Dumbledore for the cult, but tell me why it's his fault and not the HEAD. OF. HOUSE? Dumbledore isn't an all powerful all seeing wizard! He's a human who happens to be intelligent and skilled at magic but NOT All Seeing! How is he gonna know Tom Riddle's forming a cult when one) he wasn't even HEADMASTER and two) SLUGHORN was Tom's head of house and should have been aware of it happening UNDER. HIS. NOSE?

Like, even in Snape's time, where the fuck was Horace Slughorn? Where was he when the Mauraders were abusing his own student? Where was he when Lucius and the others were grooming the younger children? Where was he when all of this was happening?

Yes, McGonagall should have disciplined her students. But Slughorn's under a greater responsibility to protect his. Yes, headmaster Dumbledore should have probably intervened in the cult forming. But Slughorn's under a greater responsibility to intervene and inform the headmaster.

For fuck's sake, he wasn't even a good teacher! How did a 16 year old child manage to correct all the incorrect potions in the book and not the FUCKING. TEACHER?!

Horace Slughorn is NOT a "kind Slytherin".

He's the worst one.

[enhanced-operatives-division]

Can you guys believe it's been over a year since I first drew her,,,,