#god I love this series.

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

y'know, something I find very interesting about milgram as a concept is that it actively forces you to dissect what situations and circumstances you are more likely to sympathize with and understand and why that is. Like, taking an example from the first pair of votings that I was entirely here for, Amane and Mikoto in Trial 2. I am a lot more sympathetic towards Amane's situation because I know people with parents as abusive as hers are, as well as people who were traumatized by the gruesome death of a pet or animal. Because of those experiences, plus the fact I am generally more lenient with children in contrast to adults, I am able to empathize and sympathize with why Amane was driven to murder and agree with her Trial 2 verdict of forgiven. For Mikoto on the other hand, most of the people I know closely are in my age range (IE: late teens) so I do not have close experiences with anyone who was severely overworked, especially in the way Mikoto was, and I also do not have that experience myself. So for a long time, though I understood the severity of Mikoto's situation and the mental toll it had on him, it was (and still kind of is) incredibly hard for me to empathize with his murder, especially since he claimed several victims, presumably none of them being the boss that overworked and abused him (which is a presumption, but still). Because of my personal experiences, the people I've met in my life, and their personal experiences, it not only formed my opinion on these characters' actions, but also how the audience responded to their actions. Once again using Amane and Mikoto as an example because they were the first voting pair I was here for entirely, I could not (and still don't) understand how Mikoto so easily sailed to being forgiven with very little push-back, meanwhile Amane was incredibly close to being the first double-unforgiven in the series. It felt unfair to me because I could empathize and understand one of these characters way more than I could the other. Do you have any idea how fucking interesting that is? In giving you all of these differing scenarios, motives, homelives, and perspectives, Milgram is ultimately challenging you to understand people who are Not Like You or anyone you're used to. It forces you to measure your level of understanding of the people around you, who you empathize with and who you don't. And because everyone has different experiences, that means Milgram is a different experience for everyone! That's so cool, do you understand how fucking cool that is?!

[steelsartcorner]

the make-everything-hades fever has spread to lae'zel

all her boons are for sure big huge damage boosters at the expense of your magic meter

others: the dark urge (OC); minthara (bg3), karlach (bg3), shadowheart(bg3), gale (bg3), halsin (bg3), astarion (bg3), wyll (bg3), kotallo (horizon)

[palarien]

sketched this out at jury duty actually

[somewhereincairparavel]

"jason is a knockoff watered down percy" NO hear me out, jason actually parallels annabeth immensely, sharing SO many similarities with her personality, not percy, in this essay I will-

edit: my full analysis is out now! here

[chloeplayz]

“The ringmaster gone mad.”

“For you are the decaying society,

And me, a hare with a tiger’s mask.

So tell me, ringmaster, tell me,

Tell me to control my wrath.”

[ruporas]

your love returns in tragedy (ID in alt)

[cilibi]

The Eclipse will block out The Sun

[chalkrub]

reminiscing about childhood books after that ask - all due respect to cool sleek movie toothless....but to me, he will always be a mean little gremlin

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Trapped in a vicious cycle of pining? Try gay sex! (More things to learn over at Tiger Tiger!)

[mayasaura]

Was thinking about this line because Harrow what the actual fuck are you talking about, and I realised something.

Not only does Harrow really for real not know that Gideon loves her—in the bullshit context of their lives, this is a reasonable misunderstanding for her to have.

What has Harrow known Gideon's life goals to be since they were children? Hint: There are at least two Harrow is fully aware of.

The first is to be wanted. As much as Gideon hates and wants to escape the Ninth, she also paradoxically craves their acceptance. They're the only community she's ever known. Harrow plays on that desire from the very beginning, mostly by kind of .... well, okay, by negging her about it. Ironically appealing to her sense of loyalty and duty to her house when they both know Gideon never even had that bridge to burn. That kind of thing.

Whether or not she's right, Harrow sincerely believes that acceptance to still be important to Gideon. First flower of my house, the greatest cavalier we have ever produced. You are our triumph. The best of all of us. When Harrow has only seconds left to make amends, she not only banks hard into praising Gideon, she frames it to unambiguously offer Gideon the acceptance she's always been conspicuously denied. Assuring her of her value not just as a person or as a cavalier, but as one of their house, one of their people.

The second thing Harrow knows is that Gideon wants to join the Cohort. Easy, everybody knows that. She's only been telling everyone with ears (and then some) since she was eight years old. It's the bait Harrow dangled to entice her into this mess. She wants to be a hero, to do great deeds like in the comic books. She wants to be a soldier.

Against the backdrop of all that context, Gideon's dying declaration "for the Ninth" starts to sound a hell of a lot more like "for Queen and country." Especially when you remember that Harrow is still the sovereign ruler of the Ninth. From Harrow's vantage point, Gideon could easily be playing the heroic underdog in a war movie. The soldier no one believed in until she threw herself on a grenade to save her squad. The knight errant who proved her chivalry by giving her life in service to her king.

From that perspective, Harrow's line to Ortus makes sense. She's following through on her promise of acceptance, defending Gideon's loyalty to the first Ninth face she sees. She's playing out Gideon's war hero fantasy, where Gideon's act of heroism proved them all wrong about her. In which case Ortus's response, "You are the most worthy heroes the Ninth House could muster. I truly believe that," flows very naturally as a reply. He understands what Harrow is trying to say, and affirms it.

It's not a hero's burial in the Anastasian, but it's the closest thing Harrow has the power to give her. And it's a fucking reasonable interpretation of Gideon's actions that doesn't touch on her feelings for Harrow at all. Fuck me.

[mimefish]

ok so did anyone else jump at the lore potential and imagery and symbolism of joel walking down a long narrow corridor to a red door he created to end his series completely of his own volition only for the trap to not work and embarrass him in front of the spectators who were all watching at the time btw. so he just had to go off and kill himself with ender pearl spam. anyone else

[galedekarios]

gale's key art by magdalena katanska for the baldur's gate 3 deluxe edition vinyl

[moonlit-typewriter]

The way that Percy looks at Annabeth when she admits to stealing Hermes keys 🥹

He’s so impressed. Not just because of her skills, but because she stole from one of the gods.

Annabeth is only just starting to break away from the unwavering adherence to the rules of respecting the gods. The first time we saw her do that was talking back to Hephaestus in Episode 5, when Percy was frozen in gold. He’s never seen her willingly do something that could be counted as disrespectful to the gods and he’s so proud of her for it.

[writeitinsharpie]

i have a thought about pjo that i can't quite articulate but it goes along the lines of:

athena gave annabeth as a gift to frederick because she liked his search for knowledge. in athena's eyes, any action of annabeth's reflects herself, which is why annabeth 'embarrassing' her had such strong consequences

poseidon fell in love with impertinent, stubborn sally jackson. percy wasn't a gift to her - he is a cumulation of all of her stubborn, steadfast love.

why wouldn't poseidon still love and aid percy when all of percy's insolence is why he loved sally in the first place?

[wwillywonka]

"A lie?" "An error."

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

[readerconfused]

Yes, your honor, he will see Annabeth Chase when he looks at the goddess of love