#even for completionists sake

[espytalks]

i kinda wish there was a way to gift away digitally purchased games when i'm done with them. i have a handful of games on steam that are one and done experiences, or are games i just didn't like much, and i'm not gonna play them anymore.

like, i'd gladly give away my license to use the game to someone else, like a friend of mine, if i could. You can let people borrow physical copies of games, so why not digitals?

[perenlop]

Might change when I replay the game since it's been a while since last time, but found this tiermaker and thought it'd be fun ^^

[relicsongmel]

The irony of both Reshiram AND Meloetta being catchable in this game and the fact that Denise will be the one catching them even though they both end up as SYLVIA'S Pokemon in my canon is not at all lost on me

[ticktokrobotsnot]

Hurricane Relief

This is part 2.

You can read part 1 here.

Pairing: Carmen Berzatto x fem!reader

Summary: The aftermath of a disaster and how we learn to cope, move on, and grow.

Word Count: 4k

Notes: 1) This is based off of s1e8, but we are going to pretend that Syd did the tablet thing correctly and Carmen doesn't lose his shit in ep7.

2) I am a completionist at heart so I felt an obligation to finish this because I know that if I was reading something and I didn't get a confession at the end I would riot and I aim to please.

__

“Where did you get the money for bail?”

“Used our two week parachute.” 

Y/n, barely conscious felt something pushed up against her chest. She peeked her eyes open and saw that she was sitting in the backseat of Carmen’s car already buckled in. She shifted over to her left so she could rest her elbow on the armrest against the door and balance her head. Carmen glanced through the rear view mirror to confirm that she was still asleep, he locked the car door so she wouldn’t fall out. 

Richie looked back before uttering a small, “Thank you, cousin.” It was strangely vulnerable to thank someone and even more vulnerable to do it with an audience, even if they were asleep. 

“All good.” 

After a few more beats of silence, y/n assumed that their bro moment had reached its conclusion and that she could finally pretend that she had just woken up. Then she heard a sniffle, at first she thought that her mind was playing tricks on her but she heard it again, and then a few more times. Maybe now was not the best time to announce her presence. 

“You okay?” Although she couldn’t see Carmen’s face she was hearing concern and a bit of apprehension. She could tell he wasn’t comfortable with consoling Richie. 

A small but broken, “Yeah…I’m okay” escaped Richie’s mouth. 

Unable to resist, she stole a quick glance at the rearview mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of Carmen's eyes. They appeared slightly glassy, yet the softness in the corners revealed a simmering sense of relief. Though he was clearly upset, she reassured herself that he would ultimately be alright. Once they returned to the restaurant, she planned to check in on him, but without pressuring him. Recognizing his need for rest, space, and comfort, she understood that he often neglected these needs for the sake of others but she was determined to ensure he received the care he truly deserved.

Carmen took one last look back before pulling out of the parking spot and driving them back to the restaurant. Y/n was wide awake now but she knew that both Carmen and Richie needed some time and space to process what had happened. None of that would work if she was visibly awake, she had a feeling that they would pretend to be all tough by pushing their problems aside because they didn’t want a girl to see them being “sensitive”. So she planned to keep her head down and wait till they were near the restaurant to “wake up.”

The ride back was slow and smooth, Carmen didn’t drive over a single pothole, he stopped softly, and didn’t honk once, which was rare in Chicago. He wanted to drive her home and put her to bed but he had a feeling that she would be pissed if he dropped her off home while they went back to the restaurant. 

They were 45 minutes away from the restaurant but he was wondering if he should wake her up when they got there, or if he should let her sleep in his car. If he left her in the car she would be able to sleep in but it wasn’t safe, what if someone broke a window? At the same time, if he brought her to the restaurant, there was nowhere for her to rest. He was driving on auto-pilot while he was trying to figure out the best way to approach the dilemma, because if there was one thing that Carmen was good at it was overthinking. 

On top of worrying about y/n, Carmen had to steal a few quick glances at Richie to make sure that he was ok, it was hard to tell because he was looking out the window but the reflection showed Richie’s eyebrows were furrowed, he was thinking about something, or someone. Thinking was better than being depressed. 

A small selfish part of Carmen wondered if anyone would ever dissect every small aspect of him to make sure that he was also ok, like he did for others. 

The car ride was peaceful and quiet until a neighboring vehicle suddenly honked near y/n’s window, causing her to jolt and accidentally slam her forehead against the glass.

“Jesus, fuck.” Y/n hissed while putting her cold hand on her forehead to calm the bruise that would inevitably form. Her cover was blown.

Carmen’s head whipped back, “Are you ok?” 

“I'm good, it's just a small bump.” She tried to rub the forehead to quell the pain but it was too tender. “Pay attention to the road, I don’t want to see another police officer for the rest of my life.” Carmen involuntarily flicked his eyes to y/n’s forehead through the rear view mirror. 

Y/n couldn’t tell what Richie’s status was and he hadn’t made a single peep the entire car ride, even when she was “asleep”, so she couldn’t gauge whether or not she should talk to him. 

“We’re glad to have you back, Richie '' She left it open and didn’t expect any response in return. He didn’t respond but he moved his eyes from the passenger window to the windshield and sat up straight. Y/n felt a bit of uneasiness, this was the longest Richie was quiet and she kind of wanted him to make fun of Carmen or at least laugh, something to show that he wasn’t hurting. 

The rest of the car ride was quiet, they eventually pulled up to the restaurant and they walked in. Y/n and Carmen had left the restaurant as it was and even though they knew it was a mess, it was a different beast in daylight. Both y/n and Carmen walked to their lockers to grab their emergency toothbrush and other hygiene products in an effort to look less dead. 

Once they freshen up they went their separate ways. Y/n walked behind the counter and pushed some styrofoam cups aside to start the coffee machine. She waited for the coffee to finish brewing before pouring a cup for the three of them. Richie took one of the cups off the counter and disappeared. 

She walked over to Carmen who was throwing away half eaten food from the tables. 

“Here.” she handed a cup over to him and once again their fingers brushed each other but this time she forced herself to ignore the electricity. Whatever she was feeling would be an additional burden to Carmen, one more thing for him to worry about. Carmen didn’t need this right now, he needed some calm and space. 

She heard a soft thanks, and even though she was supposed to give him space she couldn’t suppress the urge to check on him one more time. His eyes were no longer glassy but the dark circles told her everything she needed to know. He glanced up at her face, finally getting his first good look at her since they left the station. He walked over to the kitchen door and signaled y/n to join him right before he disappeared. She heard some shuffling and she walked over to the kitchen after taking one more look at Richie who looked like he was doing better. 

Y/n went to the kitchen and was pleasantly surprised that it was not as bad as the front, it wasn’t great but still miles better. The kitchen was empty but Carmen’s office door was wide open, she peered inside to see him holding a ziplock filled with a bit of ice and water. 

He shut the door and pulled out a chair indicating that she was supposed to sit. She sat and looked up at Carmen before feeling the ice on her forehead. She groaned in discomfort, “You didn’t have to.” Carmen moved the bag around so the cold didn’t hurt. Y/n felt like she wasn’t doing enough, she was supposed to take care of him and here he was taking care of her. That wouldn’t do.

“How are you feeling?” Y/n asked while avoiding his eyes. She couldn’t look at them without getting distracted and she needed to focus on Carmen. 

“I'm good.” Soft but left no room for elaboration. Y/n knew she couldn’t crack a few jokes to make him feel better, that was wholly inappropriate. She also couldn’t probe for answers either because that would just stress him out, any form of pressure would probably make him feel like a caged animal being cornered. Saying nothing felt like they were ignoring the very obvious elephant in the room. It was like all roads lead to nothing unless Carmen opened up a bit more, which didn’t seem like was going to happen so y/n settled for a distraction.

“Is it bad?” Y/n said while touching the bag of ice barley missing his fingers. She ignored Carmen’s body heat that was radiating onto her side and she also pretended not to notice the way that his lips parted in concentration.

“I'm going to need you to be honest with me, don’t worry I can take it. If I look like shit you’ve gotta tell me so I can get some impromptu bangs or something.”

“You don’t look like shit.” Carmen mumbled.

“I bet I don’t look good,” Y/n swiveled around towards Carmen’s desk for some scissors, “bangs it is.”she exclaimed. Y/n was only joking but she needed a bit of a breather before she broke her own rule about giving Carmen some space. 

Carmen grabbed the chair’s armrest and swung it swiftly so she was facing him again. Her heart leaped out. “You look like how you always do.” He was too much of a wimp to call her breathtaking, the word felt foreign in his head; he could only imagine how disturbing it would be to hear it from his lips. He gently grabbed her chin before putting the ice on her forehead again. Y/n couldn’t escape this time. 

The silence was killing her and she thought she should at least talk about her own experience to let him know that they could talk to each other about stuff like this. 

“I was really scared...” Carmen looked into her eyes and they softened a bit. 

“I was scared that Richie was going to be in jail for basically forever…and …and,” Y/n hesitated, was what she was about to say to Carmen considered cornering him?

“I was scared for you.” Carmen’s hand stalled midair, still holding the bag of ice. He didn’t move for a few moments, “I was worried that this would..” She couldn’t think of what to say next. She could feel the gears in her head working overtime to churn out something that would summarize what she was feeling. “..break you and you wouldn’t let me help you.” She felt her eyes start to burn and a lump form in her throat that was choking her. She wouldn’t cry, he couldn’t deal with his own problems while consoling her. 

“I would have been okay.”

Y/n waited till the lump in her throat stopped burning. “You always are Carmen, but sometimes it’s nice to be better than okay…” She couldn’t do anything about her voice cracking but she might as well finish before she became a mess, “You deserve it.” 

Y/n said her piece and they both simmered in the quiet. A sigh reverberated through the walls and Carmen looked into y/n’s eyes. His lips parted and closed a few times as he tried to formulate a response but nothing he could think off would sound as well-put together as y/n’s thoughts. He felt like he was seven again, a stuttering pathetic idiot who couldn’t say something as simple as a thanks. 

Y/n knew that they were done for now, she had exhausted him so she was finally ready to give him that space that he desperately needed. She slowly got up and slipped the bag of ice out of his hand and walked towards the door. Carmen didn’t look at her as she left but as soon as the door closed, he sank to the floor and sat there for a very long time. 

He finally leaves the office to help with the clean up and is greeted by the crew. Y/n was at the very end scrubbing her countertop which was covered in glitter. As he walks past the crew to survey the damage to the front, he gets a pair of gemstone covered stringy underwear swung towards his face. 

“This is not respect.” Ebra continues to wave the underwear at Carmen’s face.

“No, chef. That is not respect.”

Carmen walked to the front and felt another weight lifted off his shoulder to see that the majority of the mess had been cleaned up. It felt like he was finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. His chest felt a bit lighter and he knew it was thanks to the people around him. 

He walked to the kitchen and started slicing some onions, he would be in charge of family dinner. As he was making the sauce, he couldn’t help but notice that he had yet to hear or see y/n, not that she wasn’t in the restaurant but it was like she was doing her very best not to be noticed. She was quietly peeling garlic and even though Carmen hadn’t responded to her, he could tell that they would be alright. He just knew in his bones that they would come back together, he was going to make sure of it. 

As he opened the tomato can and dumped it in, he noticed a bit of green. Mold? Killing the heat, he swiped the sauce away and picked it up to remove the plastic to reveal a wad of money.

Y/n heard Carmen yell for Richie but she didn’t think much of it before she started hearing, “Shit…Fuck..”

A few minutes later the whole crew were opening cans of tomato sauce to dig out the money that was hidden within. Once all the money was out, Richie cleaned it up and sorted it, the crew cleaned up the sauce and Carmen finished up the pasta. 

They sat down for dinner, but y/n had no appetite. However, she couldn't afford to leave her plate unfinished without drawing attention. She discreetly observed Carmen, piece by piece, just to make sure that he was okay, actually more than okay. His hands were relaxed, she took a bite. His shoulders were at ease, another bite. His jaw was unclenched, yet another bite. And finally, the most crucial part, she stole a fleeting glance into his eyes. As she raised her head slightly to check, to her surprise, their eyes met. Against her instincts, y/n held his gaze. It left her breathless. For the first time, y/n saw a serenity in Carmen's eyes that she had never witnessed before. 

With this newfound contentment, it became evident that Carmen had discovered a new version of stability. If maintaining their current relationship, or lack thereof, could grant him such ease and relaxation, y/n was willing to patiently wait for him to embrace a future together, even if it meant waiting for years or even decades. She didn’t want him to relish in the calm but expect it, expect that life was also fun and full of love. Her wish was for him to experience a life of unwavering stability, so that even if unexpected challenges arose as he always anticipated, he would know he was not alone and that he would always prevail. 

Y/n was proud of him, which is a strange thing to say considering the fact that he was a tax paying adult, but she couldn’t help but give him a small smile that said I see you and I’m so fucking in love with you. 

Carmen wasn’t a poet by any means but he finally understood why people write poems about other people. A picture of y/n would have captured her beauty but a poem would have explained it. It was just a smile and he didn’t know why but it was burned into his memory. Y/n looked away to ask Sydney something but if Carmen closed his eyes she was still smiling at him. Y/n had given him many smiles but he knew at this very moment that he couldn’t last another day without her being his. It wasn’t just a smile, it was the weight behind it, the pressure that it put on his chest when she looked away from him, the gleaming aura that wouldn’t let him look away…

It was everything, it was his everything, you were his everything.

Dinner concluded, everything was cleaned up, and Carmen was no longer in his fantasy land where y/n was being lit by the sunlight or party lights and making him yearn, he had never yearned before. Carmen assumed that seeing her in the shitty kitchen lighting and in her messy apron would bring him back to reality but he was sorely mistaken. The pinnacle of his admiration wasn't confined to the previous night or that particular meal; it persisted, unyielding. It didn’t die down when she spilled a bit of oil on the counter, or when she flipped of Richie for god knows what, or when she sampled Sydney's experimental dish and tactfully suggested it needed something more, or when she stepped over to the side to redo her hair, or when she shook her foot because her legs were aching. He could never get tired of her. He could watch her stirring for days on end, each rotation captivating him anew. He could witness her redoing her hair for centuries, and boredom would remain a foreign concept. He could watch her smiling till the sun exploded billions of years in the future, and still, an insatiable craving for more would persist within him.

Time flew by and before she knew it the clock struck 10:30pm and y/n looked up from her stovetop and realized that she was the only person left in the kitchen. It was a bit strange to be alone in the kitchen without Carmen, it felt like a regular room. It lacked the mystic that Carmen brought into any room. She wandered into Carmen’s office but it was empty. The front was empty as well and y/n was getting a bit worried. She grabbed her cardigan from her locker, turned on her phone flashlight and just went to the back of the restaurant and sure enough she found Carmen lighting a cigarette. The phone light was the only source of light other than a very dim street light at the very end of the block, and the small fire lit on the end of the cigarette. She saw that he was surrounded by quite a few cigarettes, five plus the one he was smoking now. 

Carmen looked like a deer caught in headlights. Y/n leaned on the wall so she could see what was compelling him to stay here for what must have been an hour but it was just a brick wall. Carmen shrugged off his jacket and handed it to her. 

She waved her hand, “I’ve got a sweater and it's not that cold today.” She was getting deja vu. 

“The bricks are rough.” 

Y/n leaned forward to avoid scraping her favorite cardigan but he took this as an opportunity to stand in front of her and slip the jacket through her arms. He straightened the jacket near the neck line. His hand glided down the open panels. Although he didn't physically touch her, she could sense his warmth emanating through the narrow gap. 

Y/n said she could wait but what she wouldn’t give for him to grab the collar and kiss her. His lips were wet from licking them and she didn’t notice that he was staring at her lips too. 

Carmen snubbed his cigarette on the wall near y/n’s waist, and then dropped the cigarette but leaving his hand still there. “Y/n.”

A soft hum escaped her barely parted lips as she finally lifted her gaze to meet his eyes. It was as if she had entered a trance while staring at his lips, and even when he attempted to snap her out of it, she effortlessly slipped back into another spellbound state, captivated by the depths of his eyes.

“I have to kiss you.” 

He searched her eyes for a sign of hesitation but y/n wrapped her arms behind his neck and leaned forward. Carmen closed the gap and at that moment he knew that he was never going to be able to get enough of her. He slipped a hand behind her head and another on her hip. He pushed her deeper against the wall and he was having a hard time thinking, his head was spinning and it was making it difficult to imprint this sensation into his memory. It felt like trying to remember an ocean’s wave or a ripple in the sand. 

His lungs were burning and even though he knew that he couldn’t stay conscious for longer, he couldn’t pull himself away. 

After a few moments, y/n withdrew slightly, locking eyes with him, her beautiful gaze penetrating his soul. Unable to resist the magnetic pull between them, he instinctively leaned in, their foreheads touching. The kiss left him breathless, yet he yearned to prolong the contact, craving more of her touch.

Their breath mixed with each other before y/n tightened her grip around him and leaned forward to kiss him one more time, this time with a deliberate slowness that amplified the intimacy between them. He made a conscious effort to imprint the sensations in his memory, but they tantalizingly lingered before elusively slipping away, beckoning him to kiss her once more for a more vivid recollection. It felt new even after the first, second, third, and fourth kiss, as if each one unveiled a new layer of their connection. Carmen could die here and people would be able to honestly say that he died a happy man. He smirked against her lips, unable to help himself.

 They pulled away for one last time before Carmen slid his hands down her body and eventually they had lost contact. 

Y/n grabbed his hand and led him back to the restaurant and in the bright lights, y/n looked down at their interlocked hands trying to finally remember the sensation that she had missed a few days prior but was pulled out of it when she noticed that his hands were covered in cuts and scrapes. 

“What the hell happened to your hand?” Carmen's head felt like it was swimming.

He mumbled out a soft, “I think it was the bricks,” and then added, “I told you they were rough.”

“You should have moved them as soon as they started to hurt.” Y/n grabbed for the first aid kit so she could tend to his wounds. 

Carmen didn’t care that his hand was scraped up because he didn’t want any part of y/n digging into the rough brick, and a scuffed hand was a small price to pay.

“Better me than you.”

“You’re literally so annoying, I can't even look at you right now. Take me home, Berzatto.” Y/n humorously rolled her eyes and finished wrapping him up. 

And with that, Carmen finally found himself standing on solid ground, a place of stability and certainty. In the embrace of y/n's love, he discovered a resolute foundation upon which he could build a future with her. He no longer felt adrift, but rather firmly anchored in a love that provided solace.

[thiccsys]

I genuinely hate farm merge valley so much. And I'm not even talking about those ugly baby cow models. I played it for a week and it is such a dogshit game so you can't get on my ass for not trying it. It is inhumanely boring and every time i play it i feel like i have actively gotten dumber and lose the ability to speak coherently for up to an hour after the fact. The UI is unpolished and bad janky and they need to fire their graphic designer because it is needlessly unorganized and the font choice and interface looks like it was made for a middle schoolers scratch coding project. The rewards system is complete and utter dogshit and does not naturally motivate the player to continue playing, the only reason that people still play it is because some people are completionist and only play for the sake of feeling like they have to, bringing in the well-known economic principle of the sunk cost fallacy, which is one of my favorite corporate sinkhole video game tactics. There is no saught for end goals and nothing about that game that excited me towards the willingness to progress farther because its just basically reskins of the same horseshit merge system and unlocking a new food making piece of ass and its just doing the same thing over and over again with each thing being unlocked fewer and farther between. It is a game of endless grinding with basically no reward. Also the discord platform has made the fps janky as fuck and the need to fully exit and reload the game in order to see if anyone's visited you is badly implemented and there should be an automatic refresh rate built in to prevent that. tldr this is a fucking stupid game and i will bomb their headquarters

- @onlyplatonicirl

[lorbanery]

Also listen

Don't be the person who's like, "THEY'RE USING 'FLUID SEXUALITY' TO AVOID USING BI/PAN/WHATEVER"

First of all, "fluid sexuality" isn't a replacement for polysexual labels, it's just a phrase that refers to how someone's sexuality can change over time

Second of all

Guys

We're talking about Aqualad. You know, that superhero who lives under the sea and has water manipulation powers?

It's a fucking pun.

Oh god I'm VIBRATING

I knew making Tim Drake bi would open the rainbow road up for other established characters to also get to be queer

I did not expect ANY of the first gen sidekicks to part of that

But they're doing it, they're making an OG Titan queer T0T

I've checked this on multiple sites, on sites that I recognize to make sure this isn't just some AI, click-harvesting bullshit

But according to the DC October Solicitations, Garth aka Aqualad, my dear sweet angry little fishboy, is going to "open up about his fluid sexuality" in issue #4 of World's Finest: Teen Titans.

I genuinely never thought it would happen for any of the OG Titans

I never thought it would happen for Garth, arguably the one on the team besides Donna that it would make the most sense for and, frankly, is my favorite non-Robin Titan

And it ... kind of makes me hopeful that I might get to see a queer Dick Grayson in my lifetime

[archduchessofnowhere]

The tropification of Elisabeth of Austria and the perils of historical dramas without history: A review of Die Kaiserin season 1

Back in 2022 Netflix long awaited (by me at least) new historical drama about Empress Elisabeth of Austria premiered. And to my great disappointment, the series had little to nothing to do with history. Now, two years later, we are on the eve of the premiere of the series’ second season. Since I’d forgotten most of the story, I decided to do a rewatch of season 1, despite my deep dislike of it back in the day. I usually don’t do this, I truly believe that (unless you’re a paid reviewer and it’s your literal job) the only reason for watching a series should be that you like it. If it wasn’t because of my completionist drive to finish every piece of media relating to Elisabeth and analyze the hell out of it, I would’ve dropped it two episodes in. But I promised a review in 2022, and I still feel bad for not finishing writing it then. So at last, here is my review of Die Kaiserin.

Revisiting Die Kaiserin was an interesting experience, if just as frustrating as my first watch was. The character assassination of literally every real person depicted in this series is still infuriating, the costumes and hairstyles are dreadful, and the portrayal of the few historical events is so bad it makes any person with some knowledge of the time period roll their eyes and wish the series had gotten canceled in pre-production. And yet, looking at it from the outside, trying to watch it as if I were an spectator who doesn’t know nor cares about the time period and only wants to kill time with Netflix’s shine new period drama series, Die Kaiserin reveals itself exactly for what it is: a mediocre soap opera set in a half-assed court setting. Upon this rewatch I realized that the biggest crime of this series isn’t that it’s inaccurate, but how boringly predictable it truly is. It’s not that the characters are nothing like their historical counterparts, it’s that they are not characters at all. They are stereotypes, walking tropes crashed against each other like dolls in the hands of a child. And the entire plot of this series is built around serving these tropes.

Although we are not given a clear year at any point on-screen, the story begins in 1853 as it always does when it comes to Sisi media: with a young and rebellious Elisabeth learning that her elder sister Helene is going to be the emperor of Austria’s future bride. The first episode proceeds to re-imagine the fated encounter of the Duchesses in Bavaria with Franz Josef and his family, finishing with the climatic moment in which the emperor reveals that he will marry the younger Elisabeth instead of her sister, shocking everyone present (in fiction, for in real life the entire family realized right away that he had fallen in love with his cousin at first sight).

So far, the typical beginning of every piece of media about young Elisabeth under the sun. But then the series makes the bizarre choice of setting the entire season in an atemporal space in which nothing of note happens. The episodes usually take place during a brief period of time (from a couple of hours to a single day at most), yet it is uncertain how much time passes between them: days? months? Who even knows. The timeline is fuzzy, bending to the whims of the script.

You now may wonder: why does that matter? Plenty of good series don’t have clear timelines. And I agree, there are indeed good series which don’t need a clear timeline. I just don’t believe historical series about real people whose lives are well documented are one of them. Why am I tuning in the history based series and finding no history at all? Why can’t I even guess in which month are we supposed to be in?

In the later years there has been a boom of period dramas which are historical satires, historical fantasies and/or alternative history. These series take history and throw it out of the window for the sake of their plot (whether it’s romance or comedy or both). And I don’t hate them, in fact I thoroughly enjoyed plenty of them. But Die Kaiserin doesn’t belong to this genre. Die Kaiserin is supposed to be a serious historical drama. I still remember that before the series premiered the screenwriters talked about how they wanted to follow the steps of The Crown. Yet the quality of the script is far more reminiscent of the alternative history teen drama Reign. If Reign thought it was The Crown.

What is the point of taking these real people, ignoring the entire context in which they lived, and throwing them into completely fictional settings, while still claiming you’re adapting their lives? If Die Kaiserin had owned what it was, if it had not pretended to be a serious historical drama, I don’t think I would’ve been as upset as I was when the series was released. 

I realize this is a personal frustration since I know and care for the real history, and that someone who doesn’t probably didn’t notice the dozens of inaccuracies that plague this series. That’s okay. But I can’t help but feeling a deep disappointment in the fact that I’m not the target audience of a series about one of my favorite women from history. Which also makes me wonder: if not us, the people with a genuine interest in history, then who is the audience for this series?

I don’t have an answer. Not only “the general public” is as vague as it gets, time and time again “the general public” has shown they can and will love historical dramas more grounded in fact. I wholly disagree on this notion that you must “dumb down” history in order to make it more palatable. Again, audiences have shown they can enjoy complex writing - a memo I wish the screenwriters of Die Kaiserin had received. 

Because even putting the inaccuracies aside, I ultimately just don’t think the writing of this series is good. Going back to the beginning of the review, upon my rewatch I realized something: this series is almost entirely made up of well defined but poorly developed tropes. This series feels written as if it was one of those viral Tiktok books whose entire plot is just a list of popular tropes. “Love triangle with a villain”, “fierce FMC”, “betrayal”, “falls first/falls harder”; and I could go on. Any complexity is simplified in order to create an easy to watch story, every character is made into a one-dimensional caricature. It is also ironic that, despite the screenwriters’ clear attempts to distance their series from every previous portrayal of the empress - to the point of having Elisabeth disdain her nickname “Sisi”, which is never be used after the first episode - they fall into almost every already existing stereotype on Sisi media anyways. Elisabeth as a humble country girl deemed the “troublemaker” of the family? Check. Sophie as an evil mother-in-law who manipulates her son and daughter-in-law? Check. The empress reconciling the discontent masses of the empire with her kindness alone? Check check check. 

I highly doubt I’ll ever watch this season again. I simply do not like it, and I know it may not seem like it given how much I’ve been talking about this series lately, but I don’t enjoy being a hater. It’s just that I’ve been following this series since the project was first announced years ago, and I’m still mad about how much it missed the mark. Will there ever be an Elisabeth - or just 19th century Habsburg/Wittelsbach - historical series with actual history in it? As of now, sadly, it still feels like an impossible dream.

[raayllum]

Thinking about how Callum typically handles / responds to Rayla being in pain and

1x06 / 1x07

3x03

3x04

3x08

TTM

4x06

in which his repeated tendencies are to comfort, yes, but also to Fix the situation as much as he can. Whether that means coming up with a possible solution, an alternative to her catastrophizing (and subsequent self blame), or by well, looking for the Truth of whatever’s ailing her. 

Jack De Sena, pre-S4: Yeah, I think that—that is a key aspect of Callum that will be tested is he, he has such a—there’s, it’s such a positive aspect to him via intense search for knowledge, but also like the flipside is yeah, he’s a completionist, he wants to learn everything, he wants to figure out all of this magic stuff, he wants to just discover each of these arcanums and will he, you know, be tempted to keep—to learn a little bit more about dark magic, which we’ve already seen him—never want to touch again, but can he resist just knowledge for knowledge’s sake?

Protecting his loved ones - perhaps believing the Key of Aaravos could be a powerful weapon of its own, or keeping Rayla from having to free her parents (and it’s been said in interviews that only dark magic could undo the spell - but we’ll see if that belief holds out) - pre or post Aaravos’ release would be one hell of a motivation. But no matter what happens, I think Callum will try to help free the moon fam now (even if he doesn’t succeed) because well, Rayla’s in pain over it, and he can’t have that

[mythalism]

after reading that post about what we will be seeing on the 19th, i fired up inquisition as a point of comparison for how much of the game 4 (7 total minus 3 still under embargo) hours is and...

at the comparable 5 hour mark, i was still in the hinterlands LMFAO.

granted, veilguard is confirmed to be more linear, but i am simply not a completionist at all. i haul ass through the hinterlands with the goal of leaving as fast as possible and basically do the bare minimum. i dont even collect shards lol

so i do think this could be comparable. considering an inquisition playthrough (not including DLC) is around 50-90 hours, and ill assume that veilguard is super short for the sake of the worst case scenario, 4-5 hours of a 50 hour game is still only 8-10% of the total game.

i understand if people just dont want to be spoiled at all, and i do anticipate that the lore/story spoilers in those first 5 hours are going to be far more significant than anything that happens in the hinterlands (lmao), but i know people have been worried so i hope this can help a bit <3

[nothingenoughao3]

I must be getting too old to watch really bad movies for the sake of Completionist Arcs because I turned off Beyond Reanimator before Combs even got a chance to charm me into continuing.

What the fuck was Yuzna thinking. What the everliving fuck was anybody thinking. Did a single thought occur. Were thoughts destroyed in the making of this film. Is this why Bush was reelected

[heyclickadee]

Tech’s Alive, Part 7: Potential Visual Symbolism (cw warning for more discussions of character death)

Okay, so, several things before I start off. One, this isn’t really anything new. This is just about the blaster hole in the train car window and the “wings” that seem to appear in the clouds as Tech falls. Pretty much everyone’s pointed out the second of those things already (including me, in a post I wrote a couple of days after “Plan 99″ aired, when I really was still in denial and grasping at anything I could to prove to myself that Tech was alive), and I’m pretty sure I saw someone post about the first one, too, but I haven’t been able to find it. But these two things do a kind of neat thing if you take them together, so I figured I may as well write another one of these.

Second, I actually really want to write a post about foreshadowing and all the times Tech was connected to survival or got into a deadly situation and inexplicably got out of it alive this season, but I sort of want to do a full season two watch-through before writing it. Unfortunately, I’m kind of a filthy completionist and can’t just start with season two, and I just barely restarted season one, so it’s going to be a hot minute before I get to it.

And three, I guess--this is kind of me going back to standing in front of a conspiracy board and gesturing at it with a tin foil hat in hand. 

But! Anyway! 

In the moment where Tech falls, we get not one, but two little pieces of potential visual symbolism which may indicate Tech’s survival. The first of these is, of course, the part in the clouds on either side of Tech, which resembles nothing so much as a pair of black wings jutting out from his shoulders. 

Now, this is a visual motif connected to making life out of death, survival, and freedom that was introduced back in “The Outpost” with the ice vulture and Crosshair, but I’m not sure it doesn’t apply to Tech, too. Tech, like Crosshair, is repeatedly connected to the idea of survival over the course of the season. I’ve been mulling over a whole post about this, but this season sees the two of them undergo parallel (still ongoing) arcs in which they have to reevaluate their own self-image as soldiers, and both of them, in the moments they’re each linked to the ice vulture imagery, ends up making a definitive, sacrificial choice very likely to get them killed, for the sake of someone else. For Crosshair, that’s the choice to refuse to go along with the Empire and kill Nolan as vengeance for Mayday; for Tech, that’s shooting the connection on the rail car and allowing himself to fall so that the others could get away. Neither of them completely expects to walk away from those choices. The difference in the end result (so far) is that we’ve already seen that Crosshair survived, even if surviving is brutal at the moment. We’re sort of just waiting to see that with Tech. 

Furthermore, even though Crosshair is definitely THE ice vulture--I’m not going to argue that point--I’m going to come back to Mayday’s use of the plural when he talks about them: “Vicious creatures, but you have to admire ‘em. They find a way to survive.”  

Mayday’s use of the plural here is actually kind of striking, because I think we only ever see one ice vulture over the course of that entire episode. It’s a large, solitary creature, covering a wide territory, and it could be the same one Mayday’s seen the entire time he was stationed at Barton-5. But the use of the plural (and the way that things work) means that there are others elsewhere, so that even though Crosshair is the character most clearly connected to them and especially to the one we actually see on screen, Tech could potentially be another one. 

Because here’s the other thing; Crosshair and Tech don’t just have parallel arcs. They’re actually a lot alike, in a lot of ways. They’re both brilliant, calculating, ruthless in the sense that they can both see the most direct way to get something done, whether it’s moral (usually Crosshair) or safe (usually Tech); they can both come across to people who don’t know them well as standoffish or even cold, but they both love very deeply and affectionately, in their own ways, and would give anything for the people they love, whatever the cost to themselves; they’re both incredibly sarcastic and refuse to sugarcoat things; and they both deal with everything very privately. They’re not exactly the same, of course. Tech is a chatterbox (a lot of the time) while Crosshair hardly ever speaks, and Crosshair spends every second on screen EMOTING EVERYWHERE ALL the TIME, while Tech’s facial expressions are much subtler. Everything Crosshair knows has made him cynical and bitter, while everything Tech knows has made him curious and kind. And, of course, Crosshair is incredibly pragmatic and usually not thinking about the morality of any given situation; Tech is pragmatic as well, but usually refuses to set morality aside. (And that’s all honestly way oversimplifying it BUT this is getting a little long.) But they are enough alike that I think the ice vulture connection can apply to Tech, too(1), and that the apparent visual connection in this moment in “Plan 99″ isn’t totally off base. Meaning that the, “They find a way to survive,” bit could and probably does apply to him(2). 

The second bit of visual symbolism in this scene is actually the blaster hole that Tech himself put through the window of the train car when he shot the connection hinge. If, say, the S&P department told the Bad Batch production team that they absolutely couldn’t show Tech’s body on screen or use any equivalents, like a crushed helmet or a body bag, or if the production team really did just want to use the goggles instead of anything more definitive, a really clean visual way they could have solidified Tech’s death would have been to have that blaster hole pass over Tech, either over his head or his chest, and then stay centered on him as he fell. It would be a sort of visual shorthand saying that Tech’s shot--the shot that cut the connection hinge--would also ultimately be the shot that killed him, or lead to his death at the very least. And we do actually see the blaster hole in the shot where Tech falls. It comes fairly close to him, but 

it just barely grazes his left hand. Not over his head, not centered over his chest as he’s falling, just momentarily passing the end of a limb(3).  (Aaaaaand the tin foil hat really starts to come out).

Now, not every single thing we see on screen is deliberate. Sometimes there are animation mistakes, and there are certainly concessions to budget. But the animation mistakes we tend to see are usually of a certain kind. Take, for example, Echo’s kama randomly appearing and disappearing from shot to shot in “Cornered,” or Hunter’s scarf doing the same during either “Pabu” or “Tipping Point.” Usually what’s happened there is either someone keying or turning the visibility of that piece of geometry off while they’re animating the character, and then forgetting to turn it back on again, and no one catching it until after the shot gets back from render. And there are rendering and compositing errors; I think there’s one shot from season one where you can actually see Tech’s goggles through his head, which was probably either a problem with render layers in maya or later on in compositing. And errors like that are usually not enough of a reason to re-render a scene. Rendering is expensive in terms of computer power and takes a good long while, especially if you’re rendering using arnold (which I think Lucasfilm Animation does--they don’t use redshift, as far as I know, but I could be totally wrong). 

Stuff like this, however--where Tech is in this shot in relation to everything else--is usually more about staging and layout, something that’s usually decided back in the storyboard phase and solidified during animatics. And given just how much happens in the background of this show, the staging on The Bad Batch is usually pretty deliberate. It doesn’t mean that the blaster hole missing Tech is 100% on purpose, but it does make it far more likely that it is. Same goes for the black wings in the clouds. 

Now, of course, even if the staging is deliberate, which I think it is, that doesn’t necessarily mean that either of these visual cues are meant to symbolize anything. I’m mostly just saying that they could and that that’s a possible way to read the scene. Taken together, these two visual cues could potentially be signaling that Tech will ultimately find a way to survive (like the ice vulture), so even though he might come very close to death, and may even brush it for a moment, it's going to pass him by (like the blaster hole).

1: Okay, you know what? It’s all of them. Crosshair’s THE ice vulture, but the “Vicious creatures, but you have to admire ‘em,” is all of them. After seeing what they can do when they’re not holding back in “The Summit,” “vicious creatures” absolutely applies to all of them, as far as I’m concerned.  

2: Also, I’m sorry, but the silhouette of the ice vulture looks like the Marauder and when I think of the Marauder, I think of the whole batch, sure, but I especially think of Tech.  

3: More fodder for the “Tech comes back, but definitely not unscathed” theories? Maybe. 

[ghostinthegallery]

⭐️another day, another star! if you don't have more to talk about with The Silence and The Storm, dealer's choice!

Heh, I always have more to talk about with TSATS XD

One aspect I know I've talked a little bit about, but am happy to ramble about more is Anrakyr. I seriously considered not including him at all when I started. I think when I read the Devourer novella he suffered from "Default Asshole Necron" syndrome. I see in a lot of GW stuff I've read where necrons are the antagonists. The lordly arrogance, the "grr I sure hate organics! I'm so much better than them!", and not much personality deeper than that. It's the same flavor of asshole for all the overlords, and Anrakyr had a little bit of that going on imho. I hate it. It is boring. His character concept is fantastic, his design slaps, and I love his three praetorians who follow him around. But on the page, he didn't work for me.

Then my completionist brain kicked in and I knew I'd go nuts if I didn't include him. He has a model, I owed him a POV. I could fix him, right?

Gentle reader, I had no idea how to fix him. I didn't know what his plotline was besides being generally antagonistic, but he just doesn't have the resources (or skill, sorry) to meaningfully be an obstacle to either the Silent King or the Stormlord.

Throwing Zultanekh at him was an early hail Mary (Zultanekh makes everything better!) And then I added a devil on the shoulder in the form of Setekh. Okay, at least Anrakyr had something to do, plus he wound up being the perfect way to bring the flayer kingdom into the story. But I don't think I really settled on his arc until around Chapter 13. Late in the game!

I did get a little meta with it. Anrakyr also realizes he has no idea what he's doing! What is the point of all this? Him and me kind of figured out his story together, and I think it came down to going back to the core question of the character. Why would an overlord abandon his world for the sake of others? What was his goal then and is he really accomplishing it now? How can he get back to it? This is what I love about discovery writing, even in the context of a fic where I am posting a chapter at a time and can't go back to edit/change things. There's a sense of building something organically, and sometimes my past self leaves me threads to work with that I didn't initially realize were there. It is tricky but a lot of fun.

Again Zultanekh is a life saver, throw him at all your angry, confused wanderers. I'm incredibly happy with where Anrakyr is at now story-wise. Plus I get to bring Anrakyr/Thaszar to the world, and if I add nothing else to this fandom besides that ship I will be happy.

He's gonna get a backstory soon, I promise. Imotekh and Szarekh aren't the only ones getting their flashbacks!

[taintandviolent]

long rambling rant about AHS delicate below the cut (contains spoilers!!)

listen, I had my qualms with this show from the get-go because it was filmed during the strike, and the circumstances surrounding said filming (after speaking with someone who shall remain nameless) were beyond shitty. but, not wanting to be a groundless naysayer, I gave it a good college try anyway. I went in with as little bias as I possibly could, truly.

Overall, the season felt very disjointed and haphazard for me. while it didn't lack the classic AHS stylization, the plotline didn't feel like a season of AHS at all. I'm not sure what it felt like, but it wasn't the show I know and love. albeit, i'm not a fan of pregnancy storylines and this was entirely that, at its core and even during its reveal, but i gave it a shot anyway, for the sake of it being AHS. I'm not sure why or what motivated RM to go with a story based off Delicate Condition, like what was the driving force where he read it and went NEEDS TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH AMERICAN HORROR STORY STAT???? don't understand that all. i guess it stays true to his recent obsession with focusing on real issues as opposed to ghosts and ghouls and fun shit, but I digress.

the lesser, supporting roles were all played wonderfully. everyone who was a 'background' character for lack of a better term did a great job. which usually isn't how it goes for AHS.... everyone does a great job and it's this amazing cohesive success, regardless of if you have a starring or a supporting role. didn't feel that way with Delicate. also having absolute monster talented actors like Billie Lourd and Leslie Grossman but making them some superficial PR specialists? weird. weird choices all around.

Emma Roberts didn't exactly shine in this role, but she wasn't playing the stereotypical bitchy girl that she usually plays so I can at least give her that?? i guess?? kudos for uhhh brancing out or something? it was a very lacklustre performance, in my opinion. as are most of her performances, but that's a conversation for a different day. i'll say that it was the most.... *grits teeth* invested I've been in her. all her other characters are just preppy bitches. anna at least had some emotional substance.

Kim K was.... well, not great, but she was better than I thought she'd be. I'll say that. I'm not convinced that she wasn't just being herself.... but yknow. she knows how to "play" a mean, scary upper elite type bitch in charge kind of role, I guess. sounds like I'm just describing her... well, anyway.

the finale felt extremely rushed. I felt like none of anna's hallucinations were explained, what was real, what wasn't real. what were they?? the sisterhood of what? why were they still alive after decades and centuries?? what was the baby? what was the fucking spider thing about??? why were spiders so prevalent in the promo stuff? and the - ugh lord have mercy, the "battle", if you can call it that?? a simple chant being what defeated Siobhan?? c'mon, be so for real with that. that was like they had NO idea what they were doing and they just decided last minute to be like "a magical whispered spell hooray!! the evil is defeated!!!" afjhdeskjsd. what.

is it worth a watch...??? uhhhhhhh I guess so?? if you're a completionist and wanna try? I truly don't know how to answer that man. like if this was my first introduction to AHS I probably wouldn't watch another episode of any season.

anyway, tldr AHS: Delicate was very weird and I rate it like a 3/10. Maybe 4 because of the supporting roles being acted well. I don’t know man.

[errantgoat]

Astarion playthrough thoughts so far (finished Act 2)

The original content is there (mostly in Act 1), but I'm not sure if it warrants doing an origin run, considering what you lose when Astarion's not in the companion role. Basically you get a Tav with Astarion reskin, pretty much.

One thing that made it a little worth for me so far is that with all the small comments he makes, it did make me notice how eloquent and proper his speech patterns are...there's definitely some old- timey english slang in there as well. It's adorable.

but other than that

Someone summed it up better than I could.... Without Tav being there to give a damn, Astarion's playthrough feels super lonely. There's no reactivity with his questline when it comes to companions, they make no comments or even acknowledge any 'milestones' of his personal quest. (And they DO SO when he's a companion, seems like a real oversight.) Everything is handled so very privately, scars on his back are an inner dialogue starring the narrator in Act 2 for ef sake. At this point I'm not sure why he should choose the redemption route when nobody seems to care about anything concerning him at all, the LI included. :( It just makes me feel like he pretends to be a better person that he is, which in turn feels super sleazy, because he doesn't even try to canonically do that as a companion. :P

I'm planning on finishing Act 3 because my completionist soul wouldn't let me stop. BUT at this point I'm just doing it to be free of this game. XD This is it. The end. Next playthrough in 1-2 years time I SWEAR to GODS.

[alien-enjoyer]

thank you!!!

i’m watching dr who from the start of new who for pretty much the first time, when do you watch torchwood?

[aroace-poly-show]

This is the fic i was reading: defining love by tinkonka. have i finished it? no. apologies if it takes a weird turn. however, i present two pieces of YEHFDKSKJKLFJSDLKFS: 1. implied arospec rui and 2. the most BASED emurui takes ive seen in my whole entire life.

and for completionist's sake, here's a few more fics i have bookmarked, in no particular order!!

poor communication kills by HakaiEve: THE og aroace wxs fic. also recommend their other wxs works too because they get them. (also i think they have a tumblr with some aroace wxs art, if you haven't seen it yet!)

ikanaide by Gummysaur: maybe im just a sucker for sick fics and poetic language but. they all just care about their idiot troupe leader so much.... there's another one by them with the reverse plot of tsukasa taking care of emuruinene too that i remember relating to quite a bit!

the study of the sky, the sun, the star, and the moon by JadeMeraki: MY FAVORITE SERIES OF ALL TIME THE LANGUAGE THE HEADCANONS THE ABSOLUTELY UNFILTERED RAW TAKES i love this characterization and have accepted every word into my personal canon. i love this.

and by the same author, with hope: rui writing letters to his future self. im genuinely not ok reading this fic. the crossed out lines. the language. the despair and the hope that defines rui's core. this fic inspired me to write my own journal.

polysho nails by nonchalantatall: to be perfectly honest i do not remember this fic but 1. miracle paint reference 2. acey's favorite band reference (ajr) and 3. i must have saved it for a reason so now you will figure that out

How to Be Free by SkylerHyrule: VBS FANTASY AU (featuring the one and only tenma tsukasa and co). looooooove the way this is written and also this author understands vbs so well. really fun akian interactions too, a rarity in the field. If you like vbs i would also recommend their Misadventures of VBS's Clothes!

Infinity Spectrum by kjcoded: mizuki focused fic! the way this author describes gender stares directly into your soul and gives feelings you didn't even know you had a voice. i think about some of the lines in this daily.

Disparate Threads by MiyoatThePineapple: a little tsukasa-focused poem on creation and loving your friends a whole great deal :) (i am a sucker for poetic language)

if you're ever tired of being known for who you know (you know, you'll always know me) by dizzi_dizzy: like it says on the tin, tsukasa through ichika's eyes. it has been a while since i read it but again. bookmarked it for a reason. i think it had some great language on the passage of time?

july 27th, 2015 by anonymous: i left a comment here about dragonfly symbolism and characterization. i think that's all i need to say about it actually. yeah. loved it.

that was... a lot more than i thought i had. lol. anyways. book club!

ourgh saving all of these to my marked later thank you so much acey i will have so much to read. if i remember some bookmarked fics in particular that i really liked i will recommend them to you as well. book club!!!!!!! :3