#gotta keep up the narrative!

[cementcornfield]

why aren't they talking about the 'late hit' call if they're gonna talk about everything else????

[sparring-spirals]

Still emotional about Fy'ra Rai and Opal, actually. Thought dump time bc i. dont have the energy to cut this down effectively.

Because at that point in the episode, Opal is doomed. Not in the fun little "oh things are getting worse ;)" kind of way we'd been experiencing leading up to the fight, or even IN the fight. At that point in the fight, Cyrus is dead. Dorian and Dariax have their minds twisted, bodies clambering away from the fight. Morrighan has felt, firsthand, just how far gone Opal is, holes in her mind, her friend broken. The heartbreaking sentence of. "You can always come back." understands that she is gone already. She's lost already. Opal has forgotten Ted. Opal has forgotten herself.

So at that point in the fight, we know Opal is doomed. Us as the audience, the cast, the characters. Aabria is running through each of the other crownkeepers and it is more of a goodbye than a round of combat. Defying the Spider Queen invites death, with zero hesitation- Cyrus's body as physical evidence of that. The terms were very clearly set: You leave Opal, you let her be lost. Or you die. (Leaving Opal anyway).

and Fy'ra Rai then. Grasps the crown, understands intimately that she can break it off and it will kill Opal. (I will free you, if you want me to. We would lose you but you would not be taken). And asks, what do you want me to do. What do you want.

and Opal says, I want you to leave. (I want you to live.) and Fy'ra Rai functionally says. No. Sorry. That's not one of the options.

If you wanted to go. I will do that (your blood on my hands). If you want me to stay, I will. But I'm not going to leave you.

There was the point where Fy'ra Rai broke into the communication and I felt my insides sink because. Look. Lets be real, Aabria had already demonstrated the stakes here. The gesture would not be rewarded for the gesture alone. The Spider Queen's terms were: You leave Opal. Or you die.

And Fy'ra Rai said: no.

I don't think I'm overstepping to assume that if Fy'ra Rai had failed the intimidation check, she would have died. This entire thing hits me so hard because I think Anjali knew that too. I think Fy'ra Rai knew that too. Yes, Fy'ra Rai convinced a Betrayer God to negotiate. She carved a third option out of a non-negotiable situation. She knew what would happen if she failed and did it anyway, with no fear, no regret, no waver in her resolve. She had lost enough sisters. She wasn't going to lose anymore, no matter the personal cost. That's part of why it succeeded, I'm sure, but.

Just. Fuck me. The amount of resolve. The amount of love. The amount of conviction. "I am. A protector." You know your friend- your sister- is doomed. So no more negotiating away from that. You step to her side and you grasp her hand and say- doom me with her.

And in some, sideways way, this saves you both, at least for a little while.

Because this story is a tragedy. This ending is a sad one. We know this already. But think about- Opal, under Lolth's bidding, alone in the dark. Think about Fy'ra Rai, alive, intimately aware that she had failed to protect yet another sister.

And think about what we got, instead: the two of them, in deep darkness, danger encroaching- holding hands. Someone they love at their side. A champion. And her champion.

This is still a sad story. But it's not the same one. Fy'ra Rai stared down a Betrayer God and made her change her mind. She stared down a Betrayer God, and her love and conviction changed the nature of the story. It shouldn't have been able to. But she did.

Fy'ra Rai chose to doom 2 people instead of one, and the sheer strength of her love and will managed to save them both, at least for a little while. Isn't it funny how that works? Isn't it devastating? Isn't it. fucking incredible?

[spacedlexi]

maybe if i just put these screenshots together youll understand why i think their relationship just Works so well as it pertains to the characters and themes of S4 in general

neither of them know what theyre doing, but theyre figuring it out Together. the old ways are dead. and together theyll build a new future thats worth fighting for

[tempestmothstorm]

Ok since Monika still has her admin powers in the side stories you think she could just discover them accidentally or use them without realizing

Anyways au where Monika and friends discover her admin powers but dont know about the wider context of what it means. So they just go around thinking Monika has magic and try practicing with a bunch of silly fun shenanigans because they figure it’s some chosen one bloodline stuff and not like. A product of their reality being a constricted digital science experiment.

This au will not end well

[thedemonscrawler]

What this fic claims to be: Two characters forced to face their mental demons and take the first steps towards understand themselves and each other

What this fic will actually be: A series of character analysis essays thinly disguised as a story

[vaguely-concerned]

I was going to have rye maaaybe start to buy into solas' whole johnny silverhand deal a little bit more in the post-weisshaupt talk -- to Progress the Arc tm/set up the beginning softening in that relationship and heighten the effect when it eventually goes. quite another way entirely -- but the sheer spectacular cruelty in hindsight of 'at least you still have varric to talk to' is such that considering where I'm intending to end up with this narratively, the stoic 'not here to make friends you fucker gimme your intel' option is simply irresistible. gotta have that echo rattling around rye's head forever when he decides that you know what? I have had enough of being nice, actually. I do want to go ape shit. someone hold my coat for me please I have some work to do and I don't want to stain it. guess for now the ol' watcher training & instincts are still kicking in enough for them to treat solas like a tricky spirit you should treat with respect and good intentions, but also shouldn't be out there offering little fingers to unless you have a whole arm lying around to spare haha

[emile-hides]

So if there’s anything to take away from Bowser’s Inside Story it’s the lesson that the size disparity we see between different iterations of Bowser are caused by Near Death Experiences, and the following adrenaline rush

This can be seen directly in Super Mario Bros Wii, where after dunking Bowser into the lava in typical Mario Bros fashion, he comes back a solid 5 times his size. Not the biggest we’ve seen him, but still.

This then implies before games like Mario Galaxy and Bowser’s Fury something aside from Mario nearly killed Bowser, sending him into these adrenaline filled, power hungry rages.

This has the biggest implications, to me personally, for Mario Sunshine, the first game Bowser Jr makes his appearance, and the only time we see Bowser in his massive form not in a state of all out attack. He’s actually rather calm, and has his most iconic show of emotion to date. 

Am I going somewhere with all of this? No not really, I’m just thinking about it and wanna share where my brain is currently.

[cinnabeat]

im having emotions abt vanitas again

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

thinkinggg about. race in adventure time

[snekdood]

Quite honestly, i think people just dont like to acknowledge how many times i have been victimized bc it doesnt work for their narrative of the Scary Bad Trans Guy With No Regard For Others And Likes To Kick Puppies And Doesnt Know Real Pain Or Trauma

[legionofpotatoes]

there is a. fundamental flaw in horizon's combat design that I can't quite put a finger on, but I definitely feel it reaching a breaking point in burning shores. the jank was palpable

[missingn000]

[orcelito]

I have also realized that I need a partner that has two things: likes spending time out in nature, and likes watching anime (or at least doesn't mind it)

If they're unable to properly engage with me with those things, it just ain't gonna work

[theha1r]

@sarcaasmic liked for a starter!

steve is trying to ignore the anxiety clawing at his chest as he stands on the porch to max's trailer, trying not to freak out that no one is answering the door as he knocks and knocks, trying not to worry about the fact that she's not here even though she's supposed to be. but despite all his efforts, he is worrying, so he really can't stop himself as he shouts out to the blonde he sees walking across the trailer park. "hey! uh, sorry to bother you, it's just ..." he jogs down the steps and over to her. "have you seen a little redhead girl lately? she lives there -" he points with his thumb at the trailer he was just at. "she's about ye big, always has headphones on, always looks super pissed at the world?"

[juney-blues]

Clearing up something that no person on this planet has given a shit about since approximately 2012:

G.U.N isn't mistaking Sonic for Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2, they're fucking framing him.

like it's a subtle bit of storytelling, it's not explicit stated as far as i remember. But it's there.

for some reason everyone just takes sonic's word for it when he says this, and then they get really confused because sonic and shadow barely look alike.

But if you think about it for like 5 seconds, sonic is the least qualified person in the story to make this assessment, he doesn't know shit about project S.H.A.D.O.W, he doesn't know who shadow is or anything like that.

the military knows literally of this though, they know EXACTLY what shadow is because they've been keeping him a secret, frozen in their basement for 50 fucking years.

Then suddenly he breaks out and does so many crimes it's insane, and if word got out about this top secret government project they killed an entire space colony full of people to get their hands on, they'd be fucked, they don't want that to happen, so they throw their hands up and go "uhh it's probably this blue fucker who runs fast and does ecoterrorism. it's that guy who did all those crimes and we need to arrest him and kill him probably, please for the love of god don't look up what happened on the ark"

basically sonic's wrong as shit and sometimes in stories characters say things that aren't true because they don't know better

if you'll allow me to be a weirdo who gives far more weight to the narrative element of these children's video games where funny cartoon animals jump around, sometimes you gotta read between the lines

[idontknowiknow]

I think something else I might have preferred is if god in hdm was still god as expected. Having him be some angel on a throne of lies kind of muddies the waters imo on why killing him is a good thing to do? Like asriel was clearly anti god as the creator and still wanted to kill him before it turned out god wasn't actually the creator. I guess it's something about orthodoxy and religious powers just setting themselves up as the source of goodness and truth and everything without ever actually being that for real, but it makes me wonder what would have happened if they WERE that for real and God genuinely made everything but was still saying consciousness is something to be controlled and feared and asriel still wanted to kill him about it. What if the world had an inherent moral schema baked in but you still disagreed and wanted revolution. I just want it all, basically!!