#dragon communication is real

[yourlocalangelkin]

bares my teeth at you but i slow blink at the same time so you dont understand what im signalling at all

puffs up at you n flashes my display patches while happyclicking

[hobgobknowsbest]

[cosmothealien358]

No matter if you’re out on the streets or in the closet, know that I’m proud of you for being you. Keep going, and celebrate yourself not just during June, but year-round :)

(Single images below cut)

[evilios]

A prominent issue that comes out of people divorcing Greek mythology from its culture is the explanation given (if any) to different variations of myths concerned with the same narratives.

I think people sometimes forget that mythology (and religion) does not exist in a vacuum. There are myths written with allusions to specific rulers, hymns and divine-aimed odes composed that betray political layers to myth-making. Sometimes particular locations become focuses of religious thought not just because of their traditional value but also because it benefits the ruling power in the region to attract attention to that spot. Sometimes different variations of myths come from people living under different rulers and supporting different ideas.

Politics plays a role in myth-creation; if mythology is a powerful way of talking to the masses, it is a priori a focus of political attention. In the same way "modern" literature is a focus of political control as well.

[ink-asunder]

Furthermore, I think Dragon's Dogma's handling of the cult was actually really mature and ahead of its time. Yes, Elysian is a zealous man who wants power and destruction (you need at least one to form a cult). But it's repeated time and time again that most of Salvation's members are just regular people who sought out the cult in times of hardship, even when they didn't really believe in Elysian's teachings. For community, for comfort, for a purpose and a cause to dedicate yourself to because the world is so hard and so dangerous right now because of Grigori's coming.

It reflects the REAL nature of cults in the real world, which I wouldn't really expect from a low budget unfinished game, let alone media in general. Even movies and games today don't get it right 9 times out of 10.

[artheresy]

An argument over whether or not Dan Heng is Dan Feng seems to have begun getting sparked again in certain parts of the Fandom and it does nothing but hurt my head to no end

Both sides cherrypicking or treating it like a strange situation, making false equivalents. "Yknow governments don't consider people who've lost their memories to be separate people" that's a flawed argument to use in favorite of DH = DF because it's not just he lost his memories. He literally grew up, experienced his own childhood, had a whole identity cultivated based on those experiences and that life and continues to live his own life. To treat the situation like it's just him getting a bit of amnesia is wild to me

But also I hate when people continue to insist he's running from Dan Feng and his past and how he's miserable and shouldn't ever confront the past and deal with it as if his and Blade's whole stories aren't centered around rebirth and karma, paying for your past life's karma. He needed to confront the past to ensure a freer future! He literally has!! And he will continue to do so because he realizes this, DH isn't dumb and he's grown since we first saw him. He understands

But yeah uh I'm so tired

This whole thing feels very Ship of Theseus. What makes the ship what it is, the physical aspects of its planks, its sailing history, or both?

For him, the question is what makes someone who they are? Is it the body that makes them up and any inherent genetic factors (like traits)? Is it their experiences, how they've grown up, and the identity they've developed in that time? Or is it both factors mixed together?

Personally in the case of Dan Heng, I think it's both! Yeah he has a lot of traits from Dan Feng. There's a lot inherently there. But we can't disregard his own experiences and the identity that has formed based on his history and what he's seen.

Again I can't stress this enough... It is a false equivalent to compare him to people who lose their memories or get amnesia, he didn't just lose those memories. He started life from the beginning, a whole different kind of life. And even then, the amnesia topic comes with its own debates. Isn't there a whole other thought experiment regarding someone put to trial who ends up with amnesia and what their verdict should be?

I guess in the end, it's all up to people's own philosophical beliefs after what constitutes a person. My personal belief that DH and DF will always be connect but the separation between them is also meaningful is something based on my own ideas of what consisitutes a person and their individual identity, similar situation with how I see Rukkhadevata and Nahida as connected but still not the same person exactly. At the end of the day again, it's personal beliefs

But what I can't stand and can't stand by, is someone acting all high and mighty like they're perfectly right and everyone else is wrong, especially when they're cherrypicking or not holding all their evidence to the same standard. According to some ppl, apparently it's better in the CN fandom where instead of treating it like "I'm right you're wrong" people have divided themselves into "DF and DH one person" and "DF and DH two people" groups and most importantly of all, they treat both like theories and just keep to their space and tag which they believe when it's relevant. Why can't we just do that? Why can't we follow in their footsteps instead of bringing up this argument every so often with the same tired flaws from both sides?

[requiemforthestars]

I find it so funny how the Dragon Age fandom can be dormant and the very moment we pop back up we go right back to arguments about fantasy oppression? I hate how easily I get caught up in it too. Like what do you mean I just had to suffer through a 4 minute video from an idiot explaining how Qunari philosophy and indoctrination is a good thing actually? Have you ever played the games?

[bookwyrminspiration]

to shape a dragon’s breath is a really good book <- is moments away from commiting murder

[threewaysdivided]

Hobson Heckled into Historical Haute-Couture

Continuing the Dan Jones & Dragons gala parade with Hobson, the Flower Crowns' oft-harried Halfling Warlock (played by the ever-wholesome Dan Floyd). Is he trying to massage away the realisation that letting his literally-half-brained patron choose his gala attire might have been a mistake? Is Valse giving him a headache over something else entirely? Did he use Detect Magic in a room full of powerful items and accidentally flash-bang himself? Yes.

More Flower Crowns Gala Outfits: Morenthal | Gelnek

As always, design talk under the cut:

But before that, a short story: I've been following Dan's content on Youtube for... oh jeez, that sure is almost a decade now, both on his current New Frame Plus/Playframe channels and back when he was the primary founder and narrator for EC. His old games education videos helped me get one of my earliest jobs in project work and introduced me to a bunch of media production concepts (like scope management) that would go on to inform some of my own storytelling analysis posts. It was a startling little moment of artistic ouroboros to realise I was mentally running through key points from Dan's own Pose Design 101 video as I was drawing his DnD character. Never expected things to come full-circle like that, but if you're seeing this, Dan: here's to you 🫡 If you're not Dan and haven't already, do go check out his stuff - it's all super well-produced, informative, funny and he's just an overall stand-up guy.

Now: onto the tiny little nerd and his passé party attire

This was a really fun costuming challenge, with a bunch of interesting curveballs thrown in the mix. Unlike the rest of the Flower Crowns, Hobson didn't choose his own party outfit: it was picked out by his patron after Valse kibbitzed him into giving up and letting a heroism-obsessed Fey call the shots. Dan cited Valse as having the fashion sense of Stede Bonnet-as-depicted-in-OFMD, briefing a vaguely 19th century-style outfit that had frilled sleeves and 'would have looked gaudy even when it was in fashion a century earlier'.

Actually dating his outfit was the first challenge. D&D settings are kind of an anachronistic uchronia, with classic swords-and-sorcery fantasy campaigns potentially pulling inspiration points from anywhere across the Arthurian era up to pre-war modernity. Which leads to the question: how do you make something seem dated in a setting where most everything looks vaguely ye-olde-fantasy? The other challenge was that, IRL, the 19th century (i.e Victorian era) was when menswear started taking on a lot of the shapes that would eventually become modern suit and top-'n'-tails fashion. Since Trilby was already going to be wearing classic top-'n'-tails formalwear, I decided to set Hobson's style earlier in the 1800s-1820s and pull in some 18th century Stede Bonnet flourishes to visually set them apart. This article provided some great reference images, and once I hit on the figured silk waistcoat I knew I had a potential starting point.

Colour-wise, I stuck with the burgundy-and-gold palette the Dans gave Hobson in his official gala stream art, since those looked good together and matched up with Dan J's tendency to draw Hobson wearing greens/earth-tones and Valse in reds/jewel-tones. The combination is a lot more colourful and richly saturated than is typical for this style of Victorian-adjacent clothes, which felt appropriate for Valse's gaudy tastes.

Fabric-wise, I figured a fun way to gaudy things up even further would be to lean into the silks and satins that were fashionable at the time, but make all of his outfit shimmery rather than just a single feature piece. As a bonus, silk and satin clothes tend be hot, inelastic and have horribly itchy seams if worn unlined, which felt like exactly the kind of thing Valse's all-form-no-function sensibilities would inflict upon the small, long-suffering fellow. Both these fabrics also have a habit of behaving hideously and ripping themselves apart when worn wet, which makes this a great outfit to, say, accidentally fight an Aboleth in. Poor Hobson.

Some other details, just for fun: 1. Hobson's sketch layers include a drawing of his un-removable cursed left bracer. He's pulled the frilly, puffy sleeve over it but you might spot hints of the shape and the gem if you squint. 2. The reference waistcoat I used had floral embroidery on it. Had this actually been a Hobson outfit, I would have converted them to his garland flower (Forget-Me-Nots), but since it was a Valse pick I decided to make them Senaliesse chrysanthemums; a flower given out to friends of the Feywild's Summer Court as a sign of protection and favour. (It also adds extra layers to Pocket mistaking Hobson for a denizen of the Fey, which is fun).

Close crop on the details because I'm very happy with how they turned out:

[fluffypotatey]

I was thinking about merthur and shadowpeach, and my brainrots gave me thoughts about shadowpeach in merthur's positions. My first thought was macaque as merlin cause of the devotion to their king, and extreme loyalty. but Emrys is the absolute most powerful person in the universe, kind of like wukong.

But if wukong was in merlin position, no way he wouldnt blow his secret in a week and/or overthow urther (and either place himself as king or macaque)

see, here’s the thing: shadowpeach and merthur are on 2 opposite sides of the devotion spectrum despite both leading to each pairing’s destruction and doom

merthur is devotion in silence and secrets and devotion in sacrifice. both of those idiots have a habit of doing selfless and self-sacrificial acts out of devotion and loyalty. but it was choked by prophecies and generations of harm

shadowpeach is devotion in self-destruction and shared secrets and silent paths made together. they fought together without any needing to hide. their care was open and understood by others. but it was ruined by the hubris of one who wished to conquer the stars just to ensure his loved were protected. the devotion soured into a resentment of their past joys because they didn’t know how to stop themselves from reaching more than they should have

[gt-daboss]

as someone who used to search the gt tag on deviantart and would get flooded with dragon ball gt(the show), the goku image filled me with both joy and a long-dormant rage from back in the day, good job

Nooooo cuz the repressed memories are REAL! I always wondered if the reverse was true and some poor Dragonball GT Fan was scrolling through the tag and happened to stumble upon our creations mwahahahaha

[chialattea]

What will win:

my desire to write DA fics

vs

my seething hatred for medieval stereotypes (“haha they thought bathing was bad!!” “haha their streets were filthy and they threw wastewater out of their windows”)

[tenojan-in-tevinter]

Thinking about how there must be legends about the ghost haunting Skyhold. Strange things happen at that fortress. Servants complain of things going missing, items getting moved on their own, and there's talk of a strange figure occasionally spotted by a select few.

I often think about how the soldiers there probably scare the recruits with wild stories of the pale spirit, still lingering and vengeful after being murdered, or after falling from the battlements, or after drowning in the old well. Some say it used to be a mage, who was possessed and killed everyone who was in the keep prior.

I think about how Cole must hear these things, and know it's him they're talking about. But he cant just not help people. And it's so much easier for everyone if they forget it was him. I think about how he wants friends, but thinks it's not possible for something like him. Not safe. Yet he gets them anyway, in the inquisitor, in their companions, in Solas and Varric. I think about Cole a lot.

[ceaselessbasher]

Oh, boy, a free mobile point and click game with a "jungle adventure" theme, I'm sure it will only include names, symbols and deities of mesoamerican cultures they carefully researched beforehand!

[talentforlying]

9 PEOPLE I'D LIKE TO KNOW BETTER

last song: sunday morning - the velvet underground. favorite color: toss-up between teal and lavender! currently watching: the a-team (1983) episode "the beast from the belly of a boeing". last movie/tv show: the hobbit: an unexpected journey / westworld s1. spicy/savory/sweet: sweet! relationship status: single mwah. last thing i googled: "paddy the baddy pimblett" current obsession: i've got an osteology class this semester that's revived my decades-long forensic anthropology fixation with a vengeance!

tagged by: the lovely @inhericurse! tagging: if you see it, go for it and tag me!!

[hydrasquadd]

What the hell is going on

This is my pride and joy (random bullshit comic ^)

I felt like drawing the most cringe thing I could possibly think up

While simultaneously putting the most effort I've ever put into a comic before

ヽ⁠(⁠｡⁠◕⁠o⁠◕⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ <(me when I draw backgroundn)

I'm so sorry if you're finding this because of the fandom tags

AlsoMe when the emoticons ༼⁠;⁠´⁠༎ຶ⁠ ⁠۝ ⁠༎ຶ⁠༽

(oh fucn oh god)