#future decisions

[annabelle--cane]

man. the fact that after the big mag 199 argument the final reason jon gives for not wanting to go with the plan of passing on the fears is "I cannot ever do something that has the potential to make someone else feel the way I do now."

[stil-lindigo]

you wonder why I'm bitter?

[hinamie]

these 3 and their weird catty love triangle have bewitched me body and soul

[momochanners]

So much respect to Larian for ending BG3 and charting their next course on their own terms, but I’d be lying if I said that I’m not a little heartbroken that we have to say goodbye to the wonderful world and cast of characters they cultivated ;w;

[dukeofthomas]

I find the fact that the confrontation at the end of UTRH is often summarized as Jason asking Bruce to kill the Joker for him fascinating.

Because that's not what happened.

Jason holds a gun up to Joker's head, gives Bruce another, and tells him that if Bruce doesn't do something (shoot Jason), he will kill Joker.

Jason doesn't give the gun to Bruce so that he would shoot Joker. He isn't expecting Bruce to pull the trigger on the clown. He's asking Bruce to do nothing. To be inactive. Because that will still be a choice, and despite having done nothing, everybody clearly agrees that Bruce would still, at least in part, be responsible for Joker's death.

...And to me, this moment is a kind of- microcosm, of the rest of Jason's point. Because after being captured and carted off to Arkham, the villain will escape again, and will kill more people. The only way to truly prevent that from happening would be to kill them; Bruce refuses to do so, and I respect his right to choose such a thing for himself, but it is still a choice, and if we agree that Bruce's inaction during the confrontation would leave him at least partly responsible for the Joker's death, then we must also agree that his inaction in permanently preventing the Rogues from killing more people means he is also, partly, responsible for all of those deaths.

[pasta-pardner]

attack dogs shouldn't bite the hands that feed them

[demaparbat-hp]

In your Spitfire AU, since Zuko is looking after Lu Ten II, what happened to Ursa?

Zuko is slightly older in the Spitfire AU. He was banished at fifteen, his head a little clearer and denial a little weaker than in canon. After his first look through the Air Temples, Zuko decides that if he can't find a myth, he might as well search for the next best thing.

Finding Ursa isn't easy, but in time he makes it to a secluded house in a near-forgotten part of the world. His mom is there, older and stronger and alive.

But she isn't alone.

And Zuko, as it turns out, didn't keep the best company during his search.

When Ursa is discovered and her secrets are laid bare for assassins (for Ozai) to find, she begs Zuko to take his little brother and run. She'll do anything it takes to protect her children, even if that means leaving them behind to keep a target off their back. Ursa diverts attention from them and allows Lu Ten's ancestry to be kept a secret. She orders Zuko not to follow her again, and disappears.

Zuko is left with a little three-year-old brother to raise and a mother he cannot hold onto.

[fiannans]

If it was a choice between actually getting to know our companions better and developing their relationships with Rook as the player's avatar through classic, Bioware-style investigative conversations or having companions appear in random locations every time you return to the Lighthouse to listen to them spout banter that I could have just heard in the field instead, I know which I would have preferred.

[demigods-posts]

while the stables scene is a great example of percabeth's growth as a couple, particularly regarding their switch of roles in who plans for their future. an even better example is when they first told the other they loved them. annabeth, who is a well-respected strategist due to how well she can plan for the future, tells him as quickly as possible before something or someone could take him away from her again. she seized the first opportunity she had free of plan. percy, on the other hand, who is known for his impulsiveness and reckless planning, tells her two books later. not because he wasn't head over heels the entire hoo series. but because he was planning for the right moment. he wanted to wait until he could give her permanence and stability on a silver platter because he knows how much it means to her.

[cto10121]

Maybe I just feel this way because I have mixed feelings about musical Gelphie as a ship, but it seems to me that the way the musical fandom ships Gelphie reflects the ways that the musical is "the Glinda show." Personally, I can believe that Glinda might really be in love with Elphaba and not Fiyero, but I just don't see the same being true for Elphaba; her love for Fiyero and the trauma of losing him are too essential to her arc. Yet the fans insist that Fiyero is just comphet for both ladies.

*looks around nervously for the Gelphies* You said it, not me.

Seriously, you took the words out of my mouth. I’ve re-read Wicked countless times during the years, even adapted it into a movie script, so I close read it pretty carefully. Romance-wise, Elphaba’s true love was definitely Fiyero. And no, it wasn’t comp het, either in Elphaba’s character or authorial (also, accusing Gregory Maguire of out-of-character comp het is just hilarious).

Let’s put aside the fact that Elphaba went into a trauma coma when she lost him, gave birth to his son during said coma, went to the Vinkus to ask forgiveness from his wife, lived there, worked tirelessly to find out what happened to Fiyero’s whole-ass family after they were captured by the Wizard’s guards, and ran his family estate for years. Let’s put all of that aside.

Fiyero was the only one in the whole damn book even to come close to matching Elphaba intellectually and philosophically. He even manages to challenge her on some points (and honestly, imo, he did gag her at some points). He even reached a level of empathy for the Animals on his own, witnessing an act of violence. And he risked his own life to protect Elphaba, even following her in her assassination attempt to Madame Morrible. And it was thanks to his influence that Elphaba ultimately refused to hurt others in order to kill Morrible (they literally had a whole conversation about collateral damage, with Elphaba prepared to accept it and Fiyero firmly against it). When he died, it was as if a key part of Elphaba had died as well. It was in that section that she truly became the Witch.

With Glinda, Elphaba would essentially be replicating her dynamic with Nessarose as glorified handmaiden, and this at best. Also, Glinda was never that great an influence on Elphaba in the books to begin with; the whole point of that section was Elphaba’s influence on Glinda. And Glinda did not go with her after their meeting with the Wizard, and Elphaba did not offer.

Even in the musical-verse, Fiyero actively chooses Elphaba and her cause. His support is ultimately why Elphaba chooses him. With Glinda, she would have to live in her world, work with the Wizard, and turn a blind eye over the injustices of Oz. And that is something Elphaba can’t or will not compromise, as she knows it would lead her into certain danger.

[sotiredmostnights]

i know everyone likes to put tharja in the "yandere goth girl" category but tbh i feel like pigeonholing her into one specific archetype does a huge disservice to her character. is she obsessed with curses and robin? yes. is she constantly shoved into a fanservice role by intsys? absolutely.

but i think a lot of people forget just how impactful a lot of her supports are...there's something about tharja that makes nearly everyone who interacts with her divulge their deepest secrets and points of anxiety with her. we see this with libra, who tells her of the abandonment he endured at the hands of his parents. we see it with nowi, whose cheerful demeanor slips off as she tells tharja of her missing parents. and although tharja is not the only one lon'qu confides in regarding ke'ri, their support is notably the only one in which lon'qu divulges that there was romantic involvement between he and his childhood friend.

and despite her antisocial exterior, she always listens mindfully and offers to help! she even goes out of her way to discreetly help the shepherds (getting virion to do odd jobs that benefit civilians, interrogating henry to make sure he bears no ill will towards ylisse, etc).

a big thing about tharja is that she IS kind. she IS considerate. she just also has a reputation to uphold as a dark mage and that (paired with her overall awkwardness ofc) makes her true nature hard to see at first glance

[notbecauseofvictories]

it is interesting and terrifying to talk to my mother about aging.

she, my uncle, and my father all help take care of my grandparents, and during our call she flat-out told me that, at some point, my siblings and I will likely need to move my parents out of their house into continuing/graduated care. That step would have been so beneficial for my grandparents---for the aging parents of many of my mother's friends---but that generation seems so resistant, so stubborn; they want to age in their homes even if said homes have stairs, sharp corners, haven't been properly cleaned in years. "I am going to try and be more open to change," my mother said with a slightly-embarrassed laugh; we as her children just might need to remind her sometimes.

meanwhile I---a thirty-year-old woman who previously would have described her overall posture on aging as "that's a future problem!!!"---am quietly freaking out.

[switch]

this horse can fit so much horse on it

[mars-rnr]

I think it always spelt disaster that Kit put a lot of his self-worth and sense of self on the opinions and beliefs of a 16-year-old who has trust issues, anxiety issues, other issues that could make even a Therapist worry.

Kit, put his entire self after years of never letting himself define it, for a girl whose entire being was damned by others who lied to her and used her! After the shit Jentry went through the entire show, if she actually saw a Therapist, she will also develop trust issues on them.

[hyakunana]

"Were you even listening? How many reports, Ikora? How many times did I tell you what I saw?"

[hoofpeet]

The "what career/college should I pursue" thought process is really hard to lock in for right now because it keeps inevitably circling back around to "where would I be most likely to make friends". Which I feel like can't really be a factor in what college I'm going to potentially stake my life on... So I try to keep operating on the assumption that I'll still be pretty isolated as an adult and think about what's most PRACTICAL. But then the issue is that. That seems to be the only desire that motivates anything, and when I take the prospect of making friends off the table, nothing really sounds desirable anymore... which makes it hard to determine how comfortable I would be in any given career. etc etc . So I end up deadlocked & just going around in circles about everything