#ha i can actually use this because it applies to both

[fortune-maiden]

Thinking about Shao Yuanyuan and her wildcard potential and it hit me today... just how much does she know? Does she live in a time loop similar to Lu Guang or does she hop in and out of the past like Cheng Xiaoshi? Does she know that Cheng Xiaoshi also has a death node?

It suddenly occurred to me to that the Shao Yuanyuan we likely saw during the fire in Ep 4, was either a time leaping SYY from the future or at least one who had information from her future self to know to be in Bridon at this point in time and also a Shao Yuanyuan who might have just realized Cheng Xiaoshi had awakened his own powers.

Given her meeting with Cheng Xiaoshi in Ep 6 where she acts like Cheng Xiaoshi should be aware of how this all works, I suspect that it's because the version of Shao Yuanyuan from Ep 4 arranged this meeting because she encountered Cheng Xiaoshi during the fire and thus knew he would show up in Bridon and go searching for them through Wang Qing. She needed to set up that meeting so she could tell Cheng Xiaoshi face to face not to pursue her anymore (and make things more complicated).

I also think that was her second attempt at doing so - the first being to go back years earlier to tell the Qiao family not to let him go to Bridon. But the future refused to change so she found another opportunity to try again.

And based on Lu Guang's comments it sounds like she would have also failed again in the original timeline. It's not clear how her conversation with CXS went last time (if there was one) but at the very least she might not have had time to make CXS promise not to chase after her anymore, and that would have likely sealed his fate. If anything, a sudden interrupted meeting like that might have even encouraged him further.

And this is all coming from a Shao Yuanyuan from an unknown point in the future...

Anyway this is a lot of words to say where in time is Shao Yuanyuan?

And what the heck does the timeline look like from her perspective?

[vexwerewolf]

How would you add depth and complexity to the culture of the Purview?

Right now, the KTB gets way more attention both because of the two supplements dedicated to it and because the competing noble houses each with its different gimmick and political alignment make it so easy to come up with drama and intrigue.

Meanwhile the Purview seems, both in and out of fiction, flat and uniform. I'm sure its leadership would want to see it and have it seen that way, but given how much it keeps expanding, and therefore adding new cultures to itself, it would have to have a lot of diversity under the hood, even if it would like to pretend otherwise.

I definitely think the Purview has a harder time of it than the KTB, but that's largely because we have a Field Guide to the KTB, whereas the Field Guide to Harrison Armory never got published because of Miguel's non-compete.

There's also the problem that the KTB has this... glamour to it, in both the modern and traditional senses of the word. I've noticed this in a lot of sci-fi properties - that applying the veneer of nobility and monarchy to something can make people forget or forgive its transgressions more easily.

When Harrison Armory, the nationalist corprostate, does imperialist expansion, we can point at it and immediately say "that's a fascism" (even when it's actually... not? Imperialist expansion is always bad but it's not always necessarily fascistic). But somehow, when the KTB do the same or sometimes worse things, like using nanite terror weapons on Free Sanjak, I've noticed people are quicker to make excuses? Like, oh, yeah that's obviously bad but their society works different the KTB are a big place and like of course they're shitty traditionalists and that's really only the Hagiographs and at least the Karrakin have Republican elements who want change and reform and yeah it's bad but aren't Knightly Chivalrous Mechs Just So Gosh Darned Cool?!

I think the nuance of the KTB is also helped by the fact that they're explicitly depicted as non-monolithic. There are ten named Major Houses with their own distinct cultures, politics and homeworlds, and great pains are taken to ensure us that there's multifarious cultures and religions even on an individual world. HA suffers because to some extent it would be more monolithic - it's a nationalist corprostate with only 400 years of history, compared to the KTB's hybrid elective-monarchy neofeudal federation with 10,000.

HA is distinctly American in the way that the nation has become a brand, and a good citizen has to remain on-brand, so things would be more homogenized. To add to that, omninet and blinkgate technology has existed for the whole of HA's lifespan. The unique and distinct cultures of the KTB worlds came about largely because they spent millennia separated from one another by light years. HA has never had this issue, and likely never will. They have the option - and, more importantly, are motivated - to keep a homogenous culture across all of the Purview.

Lancer is fundamentally a game about examining and fighting against unjust structures of power that oppress people but also being larger-than-life heroes that have fun doing it, and the KTB has an innate leg up by virtue of the fact that it has what I'd call a really strong "initial sell:" YOU'RE A SPACE KNIGHT! SPACE KNIGHTS ARE COOL! (PLEASE DON'T EXAMINE SPACEE FEUDALISM!)

To make Harrison Armory compelling, you'd need a similarly strong initial sell for them. And I think I know just the thing.

FOR HUMANITY! FOR LIBERTY! FOR HARRISON! (Please don't examine space nationalism!)

If I were to write the Harrison Armory Field Guide (Tom and Miguel HMU - just kidding. Unless...?), I'd make it BIG and LOUD and OVER THE TOP and OBVIOUS PROPAGANDA with insertions of the actual truth from a HORUS hacker on the side. I'd put Harrison Armory's positioning as "liberators of the galaxy" front and center - "we dive feet-first into hell to save people from tyrants and slavers. We do the work even the UDoJ/HR won't do. Please do not examine our imperialism or social credit system."

[itsabouttimex2]

Oh! Can you rank macaque ships too?

69, shadowpuppet ect

Macaque Ship Ratings

(Scores rank from -10 at the lowest, and 10 at the highest)

(Sun Wukong)

Before reading this list, please keep in mind:

1. Not every ship has enough content for me to remark on, and some ships contain dynamics that I find triggering!

2. My social media usage is limited, and I don’t use every site.

3. I have not consumed every piece of artwork and fanfic in the fandom, so I’m just remarking on trends from what I have seen.

Shadowpuppet

Name Rating: 10/10. I’ll admit- this one is good! I like the reference to: Macaque’s powers, the Mayor’s status as a (willing) pawn of the LBD, Macaque’s status as a (sort of willing) pawn of the LBD, Macaque’s actual use of shadow puppetry… it’s a good name!

Canon Rating: -5/10. Look. C’mon. The Mayor and Macaque have literally no positive interactions at all, they have barely any screen time together regardless. Anything the Mayor does to Macaque is immediately harmful and he takes glee in it.

Fanon Rating: -3/10. In general you’ll notice a running trend that Fanon!Macaque in general is your generically rancid and one-note “He never did even a single bad thing ever at all!” that woobified villains tend to get, and Shadowpuppet goes hard on this trend by portraying Macaque purely through the lens of him being a flat and uninspired “eternal victim”- but it only gets a -3 because it is somewhat appropriate when the person in question genuinely is an awful person who has only ever hurt Macaque.

Personal Enjoyment: 0/10. Sorry, y’all. I just don’t see it.

Shadowpeach

Name Rating: 5/10. Basic, but rolls off the tongue. Started the trend of Sun Wukong having extremely basic ship names, unfortunately.

Canon Rating: 0/10. Whatever they had in the past, Macaque simply treats Wukong far too awfully to really justify the two of them ever getting together. Even the attempts at reconciliation feel more like extremely forced ship baiting, given how it goes from one of the two being marginally kinder to the other than usual, then immediately dropping it for more sniping. (Past!Shadowpeach receives 5/10.)

Fanon Rating: -10/10. I've spoken at length about this, but fans love to distort Wukong into a drooling abuser so stupid he can't breath through his nose, usually while turning Macaque into a Possession Sue who only serves to be the author's simpering self-insert who is the most perfect little baby of all time who has never ever done anything wrong at all even once. If there is an attempt to be “nuanced" or "unbiased" it manifests as "Sun Wukong "killed" (re: defended himself against) Macaque so he's worse." It's an awful, extremely pervasive dynamic that rots any fandom enjoyment I could have had for this couple.

Personal Enjoyment: 6/10. Getting to write Macaque as the legitimately awful person that he is takes off the edge of seeing constant “uwu sadboi" Macaque content. Still, I rarely touch anyone else's Shadowpeach content because of how pervasive “Fanon!Macaque” is.

Blackberry

Name Rating: 10/10. Macaque actually gets like… really good ship names. Whoever is coming up with these is putting in more effort than whoever came up with all of Sun Wukong’s ship names, at least. The name references both Change’s association with food, and is a color that both characters share! Also- I have a serious weakness for ship names that reference real things.

Canon Rating: 0/10. There’s not even any indication that the two know that the other exists. Maybe they’ll meet up at some point, but as for right now

Fanon Rating: -5/10. Hey, remember what I said above two times already? That Fanon!Macaque is a big simpering bitch baby who only exists to serve as an eternal victim for the writer to coddle like a saint whose only crime is being too perfect? Same applies to Blackberry, to no surprise! It’s less egregious in that Chang’e is legitimately a sweet and loving lady.

Personal Enjoyment: 3/10. The fanart can be cute, but that’s about all that Blackberry has going for it that appeals to my taste. Maybe I’ll come around to it if they have some interaction in the show proper, but I’m not banking on it.

Inkypages

Name Rating: 7/10. This is a simpler name, but I like it! Again, Macaque’s (and Tang’s, too!) ship names are willing to go beyond trying to confine him to a single aspect of his character and actually utilize several aspects of his personality and being beyond just one food. (Yes I’m still mad about the peach prioritization that Sun Wukong’s ship names have.) Inkypages isn’t bad! I like saying it! It’s a logical thing to say!

Canon Rating: -10/10. Okay. Okay, I know. I talk about this a lot. Macaque in the story doesn’t really have logical growth as a character because the show isn’t willing to center any significant time around his flaws and misdeeds outside of MK being hurt by him and then in turn throwing him second chances like cheap candy, which means that Macaque’s genuinely villainous actions have no weight because even the people hurt the worst by him don’t actually get to have thoughts or feelings on how he’s hurt them, and even at his absolute most rancid all of his wrongdoings are simply forgotten, which means his dynamic with Tang is literally: Be a piece of shit -> degrade him -> violently attack him -> try to manipulate him -> be defended by Tang after releasing the Samadhi Fire -> nothing.

It’s... it’s just not good. I still don’t understand why Macaque was going to be a villain at all if nothing he did reflects back onto him in any way or is hard to grow past. It’s just... their dynamic is bad. Most of Macaque’s dynamics are bad because the majority of his growth happens offscreen and away from the people that he’s hurt, which leaves reduces what could’ve been a genuinely intriguing and complex character arc to nothing.

Fanon Rating: -8/10. Hey, do you guys like seeing Tang be turned into a snarky lid-eyed whore who hates Wukong? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages. Hey, do you guys like seeing Macaque be reduced to a blubbering pants-shitting baby who needs to be coddled past whatever misdeeds the author invented to be mad at Wukong for supposedly committing? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages. Hey, do you guys like blatant character assassination for the sake of babying villainous blorbos and over-angstifying old men? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages.

Personal Enjoyment: 0/10. This is the longest section of this rant for a reason. I just… it’s a lot like Shadowpeach, where to a large degree the fans have kinda turned me away from any portrayal of the ship- except Shadowpeach has an interesting enough dynamic that I like engaging with it anyhow, at least on my own.

End Result

(Scores ranging from -40 to +40)

Shadowpuppet= 2/40

Shadowpeach= 1/40

(Past!Shadowpeach would be around 20)

Blackberry= 8/40

Inkypages= -11/40

[jinxedshapeshifter]

I've probably talked about this before but Kazuma's themes fucking kill me.

Samurai On A Mission and Kazuma Asogi: Nocturne are both in a major key. Samurai on a Mission feels happy. It makes you excited. Nocturne's slower, and it's more bittersweet. But it still fills you with optimism. It still feels good to listen to. It gives you the feeling that even if Kazuma's gone, this isn't the end. There's still stuff Ryunosuke needs to do in Kazuma's place.

Compare them to His Glorious Return and A Prosecutor, Reborn, and it's the complete opposite. The opening to His Glorious Return feels just slightly off. Like I don't think it's in a different key than Samurai on a Mission, but it's different enough to just feel off. I think it might be the instruments honestly. His Glorious Return is closer to Nocturne than Samurai on a Mission (obviously it's the same motif but His Glorious Return is closer to Nocturne than Samurai on a Mission because it's slower).

And THEN you get to A Prosecutor, Reborn. How fucking dare they. At this point in the game, not just is Kazuma prosecuting Barok, but his motive is made clear to be revenge (iirc). A Prosecutor, Reborn is basically just Samurai on a Mission with different instruments and in a minor key. A Prosecutor, Reborn specifically has fairly prominent harpsichord in it. The same also applies to Barok's theme. You get the vibe that something is seriously wrong here.

You can literally understand Kazuma's arc before The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo from his themes alone. That's. impressive. Like just to be clear this isn't the first nor the only time Ace Attorney does this. It was also done with Eustace's themes, Winning Deductions and Winning Independence. But it's so impressive that they gave Kazuma four unique sounding themes using the same motif and made it easy to tell how his story goes just in music. Like just listening to his themes, it goes happiness and positivity > oh actually this is kind of bittersweet. there's still work to be done so we must go on > triumph but also a little bit of "something's off here" > wow what the fuck happened here

It's so impressive to me?? But also the fact that Kazuma has four unique sounding themes that use the same motif is incredibly impressive. All four are basically the same song but different depending on the vibe needed for the part of the game they're featured in. Doing that with anything is hard.

A similar thing is done with the Dance of Deduction tracks. Partners ~ The Game Is Afoot! feels more complete than the initial Joint Reasoning tracks. Listening to the initial Joint Reasoning tracks and then listening to Partners ~ The Game Is Afoot! makes it incredibly obvious to me. In this case, it goes from "this is fun and upbeat!" during Joint Reasoning [TYPE A], then goes to "we're getting a little more intense" during Joint Reasoning [TYPE B], then to "oh now we're getting INTENSE" during Joint Reasoning [TYPE C], then to "shit just got REALLY serious" with Partners ~ The Game Is Afoot! Even the backstage tracks (the ones that play when you either fill in the blanks or correct one of Sholmes's deductions) are like this. It feels more intense and high energy during Sholmes and Mikotoba's Dance of Deduction.

Anyway my point is TGAA is genuinely the best video game soundtrack ever in my opinion and even tops most movie soundtracks for me. I'm almost completely convinced this is because they made the soundtrack sound like music you'd get in Victorian England. I don't think the soundtrack would be nearly as good without the Victorian sound. Anyway back to drawing I go

[chuuyaspinkmotorcycle]

Day 27: Corruption

Fuckkkk, Chuuya won’t miss the last time he has to use Corruption.

…/If/ that ever happens.

The amount of threats that actually need him to use it are far and few between nowadays, especially with the addition of Shin Soukoku’s new attacks that don’t render one of them half-dead like Soukoku’s, but every so often some bad guy sweeps through town strong enough to even have him and Dazai being summoned to the scene together.

Chuuya swallows, trying not to hack up a lung when a blood clot from his earlier bloody nose seeps down his throat. His clothes are beyond ruined at this point and his arms are too tired so he doesn’t even try to cover his mouth. The brick wall he’s been propped against is tilting a little too dangerously – from an earlier attack by someone’s ability – for his comfort, but it’s not like he can do much about it.

If the bricks fall, he’ll stop them. Maybe. Probably.

He just wants to go home and sleep for at least a whole day.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there. I leave Chuuya for two seconds and he’s trying to die on me again,” Dazai placates like he’s some /dog/, jogging the last few steps to him. The brunet is wearing Chuuya’s hat on his head and the fingers of one of the redhead’s black gloves sticks out from his coat pocket. Chuuya wipes the side of his mouth, watching as Dazai pulls a water bottle from his coat’s other pocket and uncaps it before handing it to him. “Don’t drown yourself~”

“Says the mackerel.” His voice comes out raspy, barely audible but the smirk Dazai sends him tells him the brunet heard. He takes a slow sip, breathing out a sigh before chugging as much as his body will let him.. Water has never felt as good as the times after Corruption, when his voice is scratched raw and just breathing is a chore for his windpipe. Clearing his throat to test it, he asks, “How much longer?”

“We’re free to go,” Dazai responds, waiting in front of him with his hands in his pockets. “Mori-san took your coat and has graciously given you a few days off as a reward for being such a loyal dog.”

Also known as ‘Dazai asked therefore Mori approved’ because God forbid Boss says no to ‘the Mafia’s final executive to come.’ As if that’s ever gonna happen.

Dazai’s smirk twists into that one that tells Chuuya he read his mind just then. “Chibi’s cranky.”

The redhead scowls back. “No shit, Sherlock. Hurry up and carry me already.”

“So feisty~ How does the pretty princess want to be carried?” Dazai squats in front of him, leaning within arms’ reach of Chuuya.

“I’m not– honestly, fuck you,” Chuuya grumbles, not even bothering to punch the other. “Do whatever you want, you shitty bastard.”

Of course, Dazai has the audacity to beam at this, already moving to adjust Chuuya into whatever way he wants. He swears he even hears a little giggle from the brunet as he shifts one of Chuuya’s legs.

It’s going to be a long walk back home.

Chuuya hisses as Dazai, still facing him, goes to move one of his arms behind his bandaged neck, the muscle pulling in a way that sears too much to be considered uncomfortable. “Wait–!”

“Where?”

“Bicep, close to delt,” he grits out, forcing himself to breathe as the knot or whatever is wrong with his arm continues to flare. Dazai points at the location given, dead-on in his accuracy. Chuuya manages to nod, watching as nimble fingers find the perfect spot to apply the right amount of pressure in massaging caresses that have shivers running down his spine.

He sucks in a breath when Dazai’s finger moves in just  the right way to alleviate most of the pain in one go. After Chuuya releases a shaky sigh, Dazai looks up. “Better?”

“Yeah.”

Dazai returns to maneuvering him into the right position, wrapping Chuuya’s bloodied arms around his neck and scooping under his thighs. Dazai, right in his face, grins something young and fond. “Just like old times, partner.”

With that, he hoists them both up, Chuuya sinking further into his arms as Dazai steadies them. The pop Chuuya hears from his knee has him grimacing with a squint sent at Dazai, but the man doesn’t even stop to test if his scrawny bones can hold them up, instead marching forward in the direction of Chuuya’s apartment.

Fine. If Dazai wishes to play stubborn, then Chuuya doesn’t care (until Dazai either trips or his legs give out, that is).

With that thought, Chuuya settles in on Dazai’s shoulder, eyelids already drifting downwards.

They miraculously make it back to his apartment without Chuuya waking up, Dazai dropping him, or the both of them going splat on the concrete.

That’s a plus, Chuuya supposes.

If Dazai had tried this when they were around seventeen or eighteen, Chuuya’s sure one of them would have ended the night with a broken bone. The last time they had done this had to have been sometime after Corruption's first use, he realizes.

“Where does the slug wanna go?” Dazai asks as he fumbles with the door’s lock. Chuuya blinks his eyes open enough to do his security system’s retinal scan. There’s a click, a shuffle of clothes and doors, and the sounds of shoes hitting the genkan as Dazai pulls Chuuya’s off before taking off his own.

Chuuya hums. “Bed.”

“You’ll be mad if you wake up in a dirty bed.”

“Mornin’ problem.”

“So my problem,” Dazai huffs with a tsk.

Based on the twists and turns they’re taking, they’re heading towards the bedroom anyway. And just before Dazai can make it to the bed where Chuuya’s long desired rest awaits, the brunet swings to the left, eliciting a low whine from Chuuya as they head towards the attached bathroom.

“I know, I know,” Dazai starts, setting him on the counter to turn the sink’s faucet to hot as he grabs a hand towel. Chuuya continues to lean forward on his shoulder, forcing the man to stay in front of him. As the water heats up, Dazai starts prying the redhead’s bloodied clothes from his body. “We’ll take a bath tomorrow. Just a quick cleanup to get most of the blood off and then you can sleep to your heart’s content.”

Chuuya’s already beginning to doze off when he mumbles back, “With you.”

A pause, the shoulder beneath his head stiffening before it slowly comes to relax again. A bandaged hand comes up to rest at the back of Chuuya’s head as the faucet is shut off. “With me.”

Dazai makes quick work of wiping the dried blood from Chuuya’s face and body, delicate but precise, and afterwards in the bedroom dresses the redhead in his softest pajamas. Chuuya always runs cold after using Corruption so he takes precaution, even if it means there’s potential for Chuuya to wake up annoyed because he got too hot.

After tucking Chuuya in the bed – and far enough in the middle of it to guarantee the slippery slug doesn’t fall off of it with his hazardous sleeping positions – Dazai recleans the bathroom, removing his own bandages and clothes in the process.

He steals a pair of oversized pajamas that Chuuya claims he “accidentally bought and was too lazy to return,” then slips into bed beside the other.

When Chuuya wakes in the morning, it’s to warm arms and the sound of a heartbeat against his ear, beating in tandem with his own.

[arrimorr]

Hello, nice to meet you!! How are you? I'm mesmerized by your art, the way you mix traditional, digital and 3D is fascinating! Also, your OCs and their stories and designs, I'm going through the tag giggling and kicking my feet! I would like to know if you could share your process or how your original characters' stories and designs came to be, the exploration and inspirations for it. I'm utterly fascinated and it made me want to create more and explore my own art!

Hiiiii!!!!!!!! 👋👋👋 Thank you so much, Im really touched by your kind words 😭😭😭

I'm also afraid I won't say anything coherent and useful to your questions, because there are many different directions I can go from with them...If we are talking about mixed media, I'm really into practical effects, that were popular in the old cinema (and can be found nowadays in things like Dhmis and I saw the tv glow), jdkslwlww there is something really uncanny and catchy about the mix of realistic imagery with something way more staged. This similarly applies to making simple and cartoony stuff mixed in with something more detailed and volumetric. Like....my art is FAR from there but this is what currently inspires me

(a trip to the moon 1902)

The funny thing is that I also initially started to play around with clay bc learning 3d was driving me INSANE, tears fell down my face as I went through the stupid donut tutorials, but Im kinda both here and there by the end of it. ANYWAY, if you have any technical questions about clay mixed media or 3d you can always ask me!

And with the characters its just a bunch of things and tropes that are rotating in my head from the media I like (well, in case with the Knight its the opposite actually, I made him out of a bunch of different designs and writing choices that I hate and then got stupidly attached).....My favourite cartoon of all time is Over the Garden wall and I think it shows haha. I also adore how in games like INSCRYPTION, Undertale and Off your main cast consists of "people" that were initially antagonistic to the plot, but, with some time start to feel like friends to the player. I made a bunch of miserable, hateful people that WILL try to kill the main character, but by the end of it, I really want tginf to be about finding human connection in a scenario where everything and everyone is inhuman. I grew up listening to A LOT of horror stories, so thats my comfort media 😔✊

Uhhhh what else...if you like my art I think you will like plastiboo (they have a Tumblr acc!), Im really inspired by what they do. Also lil Cthulhu has absolutely outstanding cryptid designs, and art and ...well..everything...and she has Tumblr acc too!

[deconstructthesoup]

Some various and sundry Aguefort headcanons:

-After Jace gets fired (read: bodied and arrested), everyone kind of has the realization that, oh, hey, not teaching your sorcery students how to use their powers because "sorcery's innate so there's nothing I can teach" is actually hella dangerous and produces sorcerers who can easily lose control over their incredibly volatile powers (there's a reason that there has not been a single Wild Magic sorcerer who's made it to graduation since Jace became the sorcery teacher), and they end up hiring a teacher whose ethos is "you must learn to make yourself the master of your magic, or it will become the master of you." Xir name is Mothwood Khalazza, xe's a drow Aberrant Mind sorcerer, and xe quickly gains a reputation as the most interesting teacher at Aguefort. Mothwood smokes with Eugenia on weekends.

-Since warlocks, sorcerers, and clerics know what their subclass is right from level 1, they are allowed to apply for an MCAT right from the get-go---like, you could enter Aguefort as a level 1 cleric and immediately sign up for fighter classes, that sort of thing. With every other class, you can only apply for an MCAT once you've got your subclass under your belt.

-The debate team is a collection of Eloquence bards, Mastermind rogues, Enchantment wizards, and Knowledge clerics who are encouraged to use their arguments as verbal components of spells, resulting in a debate that is filled with elegantly-delivered spellcraft. Whichever team manages to drop the other team to 0 HP wins the debate.

-Jumping up on that---and inspired by some worldbuilding in my home game, suggested by one of my players---for senior year both at Aguefort and at the several adventuring colleges out there, you have to write a thesis and defend it to your teachers, while you are also engaged in combat with them. The fight ends when one of you is dropped, or when an argument or rebuttal is delivered (followed by a spell or a strike, of course) that the other person can't come up with a response to.

-Druid students and ranger students aren't taught in a classroom, but are instead given lessons entirely in the Far Haven Woods. While druid lessons are way more focused on becoming one with nature, learning how to respect it, and essentially befriending nature in order to work with it, ranger lessons are about surviving in spite of nature, about roughing it in the most dangerous parts of the untouched world, about harnessing beasts to your will. (This is mostly based on my interpretation of the difference between druids and rangers, since it's... very tricky to actually put into words. A new edition's out and rangers still need a serious class update, swear to god.)

-There are actually four bard teachers at Aguefort---Lucilla obviously teaches songwriting and music composition and Terpsichore teaches dance, but there's also a bard teacher who specializes in speech and debate (who heads up the debate team and mock trial, of course), and a bard teacher who specializes in storytelling and gathering knowledge. The speech and debate teacher is, in fact, an actual archfey who used to oversee contracts made between mortals and his kind, met Principal Aguefort, hit it off with him, and decided that teaching sounded way more exciting than endless Feywild bureaucracy. (The storytelling teacher's a human, and they've got a whole goth-academic thing going on.)

-While the theater kids are all very much respected and treasured, it is an unspoken secret that the techies have their own secret society, and every night the actors are performing, the techies not only have to keep the show running, but they have to defeat monsters that are trapped in the auditorium and seek to destroy the beautiful energy that is brought to life during live stage performances. It's universally agreed that being a techie is twice as hard as being an actor, and you have to jump through a lot of hoops before you can become accepted as one of them. (Yes, I did read the Backstagers comics in middle school, what of it?)

[a-french-coconut]

do you have any lore/backstory for Will Solace?

A little bit, yeah !

First of all, he speaks French fluently in my mind : His last name "Solace" has obvious latin roots so he's not a native speaker but he learnt it at home very young and he practices it regularly with Clarisse, whose last name is definitely French (La Rue).

He got claimed by Apollo after saving a girl during Capture the Flag, and his older siblings immediately loved him.

Before the war, Will was super eager to help Lee out in the infirmary, and got frustrated when Lee made him do minimal work. But then, after both wars, he finds himself doing the same with his younger siblings and he understands why Lee did it. He loves the infirmary and helping people, but it's very time consuming and he wants his baby brothers and sisters to do something else.

His plague powers manifest under the form of little girl named Raz, and he recently came to terms with it and made peace with himself, and finally learn to accept his "dark" side. He's not a big fan on using them to attack monsters but he definitely uses them to heal : if a camper has the flu or something, it's less tiring for him to remove it by tapping into his plague powers than doing it with his healing powers.

I also ship him with Travis Stoll (I don't have a story of how they get together but I will soon, I hope...)

Will is an only child, and after losing so much of his siblings during the wars, he's clingy, especially with his boyfriend. Now, his boyfriend is also clingy due to his fair share of trauma I applied on him so they're two clingy boyfriends (:

Concerning his powers, alongside healing and plague, I know he can manipulate light in canon but I rather give him lie-detecting powers.

He doesn't like when people keep secrets from him, but he won't push you to tell him. However, he will indicate strongly that he doesn't like it. He likes to know everything so he can find a way to fix it, if he can.

Now, I don't remember how Will reacts to Silena's being a traitor but I don't see him forgiving her (explanation : in my headcannon, Silena is the one telling Kronos where the Apollo Cabin is at every battle.) since she's part of the reason so much of his siblings are dead. He doesn't outright insult her like Drew does in public, but he agrees with her to a certain degree : just because she did one last good deed does not mean it erases her past mistakes. In addition, he was on friendly terms with her, but just because he was friend with Clarisse.

I am firm believer of Will and Clarisse friendship : actually I am a firm believer of Will, Clarisse and Travis friendship. Will and Clarisse bonded over French and Will healing her wounds. In return, Clarisse teaches him wrestling and fighting, with Travis who inherited enhanced physical abeilles from his father. With that in mind, Will is not an exceptional fighter but he can defend himself against one or two monsters (I'll admit I was a little peeved at his characterisation in The Sun and The Star where he literally useless in combat. I don't ask for Percy-level of fighting but come on, he's been at Camp for years.)

I don't see him with close to Luke, because Will had his own big brothers, like Lee and Micheal, so his betrayal doesn't affect him very much, except for the fact that some of his siblings deserted with him. Same as Silena, he doesn't forgive him just because he sacrificed himself in the end.

All of those head cannons don't intervene in the same stories but overall, that's all I've got for now (:

[fandom-susceptible]

I've had a lot of thoughts of my own on this topic and I've posted about it just a few minutes ago, but yeah, I'll add onto this because I have thoughts specifically about this analysis too.

So, I do have one small disagreement, which is that I don't think Ezran was burying the hurt when he found the shadowhawk arrow. He says he'd bandaged it and let it heal, and I really think they meant it that way, because that's a narrative statement, not in his thoughts or dialogue. Grief never goes away, obviously, and the pain of losing Harrow will never be gone, but the wound can heal, and I think that's all they meant there. It's not raw and open anymore; finding the arrow just scraped at it. I will come back to this in a minute though.

As far as Rayla's perspective goes, I do agree with what you said, but I also think an important part that keeps getting left out of this conversation is that she is not human. I keep seeing people applying human values and human perspectives to her character, and it happens within the show too (Callum calling her prideful for wanting to stay at the Storm Spire in Season 3 is a prime example of this), because she's so sympathetic to the humans that they forget that she isn't one of them. She is coming at this situation from a very different cultural background.

Her culture, for one, does not see death as an end. Harrow has just moved on to the next phase of his spirit's cycle. Death is a more merciful end than what she was granted for helping Ezran, so while she knows Ezran is human and doesn't outright accuse him of betraying their friendship, it does sort of make sense that her instinct would be to feel betrayed. In her culture, standing by her family and her people are more important than life itself. She's already betrayed those values once to save Ezran and Zym, in a way that resulted in her banishment and, according to Chasing Shadows, her death, culturally speaking. Ghosts aren't just banished, literally her identity as a Moonshadow elf is considered to be worse than dead by her own people, even her name is banned, and she's been grappling with that for years. Now, she has the chance to stand by her father, to finally do something that aligns with both her wider world values and her cultural ones, and Ezran has become an obstacle. She's also well-established as being less than careful with her words when she's distressed.

Callum's role in this also rings very true to me. I see the point about how he maybe shouldn't have led with calling his brother a jerkface - but as an older sibling, yeah, that tends to be how you get the little shit's attention if they're being particularly assholish. Heavens know my brothers and I have said far worse. Whether it's the best approach is highly debatable, but as a writing choice, it felt really good to me because it made the brotherly relationship feel very real in that moment, especially since that's a word we've already seen them use.

Overall, I agree with pretty much all of the OP's points about Callum's arc here, but I'd like to point out that he's falling prey to the same thinking as what's left the fandom startled by Ezran this season. He describes Ez as "not himself" and is convinced the anger will cool with time, and I just don't know if it would have. I'll get back to what I think Ezran actually needed in a moment, too. Callum has tried to talk Ezran down and make peace between them at every turn, even promising Rayla he wouldn't drive a wedge between them to help her, and I do think that people who call him a doormat for Rayla are missing that bit. He didn't just betray Ezran, he betrayed Rayla's trust as well, even if it was to help her in the immediate moment.

Callum also explicitly makes sure to tell Ezran, even while he's defending the elves' retreat, that he will always be there for him as a brother. All Ezran has to do is ask. He is leaving because he cannot stand by Ezran's actions as a king, which I think is a really important distinction to make, and I think it's a driving force of what helps Ezran forgive him later. It's one of the bits of evidence that will eventually build into Ezran realizing he's working towards a mutually assured destruction plan rather than one of peace, and I just don't think Callum could have gotten that message across with a less drastic reaction. He's also not abandoning Ezran on his own; Ez is a fully realized king with Soren, Corvus, the Council, Zym (who he also identifies as a brother) and more to support him emotionally.

Speaking of, I do actually want to point that out about this whole situation as well, is Soren's role. He mentions that he wishes he hadn't seen the elves escaping, but his loyalty outweighs his sympathy. I think it's also very important to why Callum was willing to leave; because he and Soren have come a long way, and Callum knows he's leaving his younger brother in very capable hands. Soren is also an older brother, and one who takes a very personal joy in being one and helping Ezran have moments of just being a kid. Callum knows that.

Finally, to circle back around to Ezran, I don't think that he buried his feelings about Harrow's death. That said, I do think that his background including his father's death and taking the throne far too young heavily affects his reaction to having his home destroyed. What happened in Katolis was terrorism, a mass murder and destruction that would shake anyone, and it challenges everything Ezran has been fighting for since Harrow's death. From Ezran's thesis of forgiveness and how all violence spirals, the attack on Katolis is senseless, because there was nothing recent to trigger Sol Regem's revenge - which is why his anger gets turned on Runaan, because Runaan also challenges Ezran's beliefs about violence.

Rayla defends Runaan in the early seasons by saying "It's a job" about assassination, and Runaan himself in Bloodmoon Huntress says "I kill people. I don't judge them." That puts him in a very different category than say, Zubeia, who acted out of grief and rage, or Pyrrah, who retaliated against an attack on her, or Harrow, who acted out of personal grief, or even Avizandum, who acted in defense of his people, or even further back, Viren and Harrow and Sarai and Annika and Neha who acted to save theirs. All of them made choices driven by emotion, by some variation of love, whether it be living love or grief and anger. Runaan isn't like that. Runaan just takes without personal bias, which challenges Ezran's whole worldview and puts him in the same category of senseless violence as Sol Regem.

And that's why I think Runaan's tearful apology and confession in the end actually got through to Ezran, and why I don't think anything less than the breakdown with Callum and that confrontation would have done it. Ezran needed to see that Runaan has values and reasons, even if they're not good ones, and that he's willing to lay them aside to prevent further bloodshed. Rayla knew, of course, but she's been making a point to avoid the topic of their fathers since Season 1, and we've seen no evidence she broke that habit, so Ezran doesn't know Runaan the way we do even through her. I think it was less about Ezran needing Runaan to take accountability (we certainly haven't seen that from Zubeia) and more that he needed to know that Runaan wasn't the exact sort of threat he's supposedly meant to combat. Andromeda, one of the other assassins, explains in Bloodmoon Huntress that sometimes they know, without a shadow of a doubt, that a person brings more pain and violence into the world than they do love, and that's when their death becomes more valuable than their life. Ezran made his peace with that very concept during this season because of Aaravos. He imprisoned Runaan at first due to his own values against murder, but he still didn't understand why Runaan could do what he does. I think the final confrontation with Aaravos, coming after him with the Nova Blade, was Ezran's turning point and why he's able to understand Runaan's choices in the end. I don't think a confrontation earlier than that would have worked out - not with Callum as a mediator. (Soren or Amaya, with their backgrounds a soldiers, might have better luck.)

Also, I want to briefly touch on Runaan's behavior during all this too, because he surrendered himself to this consequence. He took one look at Soren, most likely recognized him, and knew it wasn't a fight he could win, so he didn't bother trying. He also is notably nervous about their escape, but goes along with it because like Rayla, he isn't human, and his cultural values drive him home more strongly than his personal choice to take the punishment he's being given, because he's only just begun the mental deconstruction that continues to drive him throughout the season. His cultural values got challenged by his love for Rayla in Season 1, and seeing the consequences of those actions in Katolis started his whole worldview to crumbling. But that's only just happened at this point, so when given the chance by Rayla, he goes for it, clutching at his dedication to his home and family as a shred of stability in the worldview he's just had broken apart. But he never once defends himself, physically or verbally, against Ezran's accusations or the soldiers, which is pretty telling.

So all in all, I agree that it was a complicated situation, and none of them were wholly right or wholly wrong morally. I do think it was actually pretty well in-character for all of them individually.

Season 7 Conflict between Ezran, Callum, and Rayla: Who’s Right and who’s wrong?

Or perhaps...

I feel like this has been a topic of heavy debate across the fandom and I guess I wanted to share my own perspective on this as well. I wanted to try to dive in and explore each of these characters’ stances on things, since in my opinion, each of them had valid points. Long post ahead!

Starting with Ezran, we’re all mostly used to him being an innocent, kind and sweet cinnamon roll that’s so quick to forgive others who have wronged him. And it’s not just us, but even the characters in the show too, which in some cases can be used against him (which I won’t get to here since this isn’t the point of this post). But I’m mentioning this here because this is major trait of his that we saw being challenged this season.

Well, I would argue maybe even since season 6:

Which not gonna lie, that was both surprising but also very satisfying, especially after all Viren has done in arc 1, especially in season 3, you could argue it was well deserved, and even Viren himself saw that. But getting back on topic, I feel like we start to see a more vengeful side of Ezran this season, especially after the trauma of having his whole kingdom that he’s ruling, his own home, be completely destroyed.

This itself was traumatic enough to change Ezran completely, especially after finding out that it was Sol Regem that destroyed it in a matter of minutes. And not only that, but also seeing Runaan, the very assassin who ‘killed’ his father that same day, lead him to push all the blame onto him. That everything changed since the night Harrow was ‘killed’ by him and Ezran was eventually forced to pick up the burden of being king and live through all of this.

Now I get that there’s alot of people in the fandom pointing out the hypocrisy of “how come he forgave Zubeia, who was the one that sent Runaan to kill Harrow, but he couldn’t forgive Runaan?” Which I would argue narratively, that is the point and it was something called out by Callum. I do personally think that perhaps, if Ezran may have crossed paths with Runaan at some point before the destruction of Katolis, he could have had a different response? Not necessarily saying it would be positive but perhaps, not as vengeful or angry?

I also wanted to point to something interesting in the short story Deep Below, which is set right before season 5 in the storm spire when he went to get the siren stone:

The screenshots above are on Ezran’s reaction to seeing the shadowhawk with the red blood ribbon that confirmed Harrow’s ‘death’ and the emotions he felt. But not only that, it also felt like he chose not to let himself properly deal with that anger and instead bottled it up for the sake of keeping the peace that he fought so hard to keep. But of course all of that came tumbling down after the destruction of Katolis leading up to the immense change in Ezran’s behavior. We see him letting out all of bottled up anger once he saw the assassin who was involved in the direct killing of his father that lead to the complete change of his life.

Now moving onto Rayla, I think it’s important to remember that for over two years, she had no idea what happened to her birth parents or Runaan but only that Viren had something to do with their disappearances. Then by the end of season 4, she received the coins that contained their spirits and since then, it’s become one of her primary goals to free them, even if she had to set that goal aside for the sake of saving the world. Then getting to the end of season 6, she was forced to let go of her birth parents after she finally reunited with them after many years, just so that she would let them be together in the afterlife, while choosing to bring back Runaan so that she can finally reunite him with Ethari.

Now I know that ideally, she shouldn’t have brought Runaan with her to Katolis, but because she made a promise to Callum that she wouldn’t leave without him again and Runaan was still recovering and more desperate than ever to reunite with Ethari, she couldn’t leave him on his own. I also think it wasn’t the best idea to let Runaan walk around freely in Katolis but I’m guessing none of the characters were expecting Ezran react in anger since they were mostly used to him being so forgiving.

Now we get to the next episode where Rayla, who was finally able to bring back one of her parents, has had that parent taken away from her once again. We see Callum trying hard to convince her to be patient and give Ezran some time to process everything that’s happened and that he would eventually forgive Runaan. But then we get to the council meeting where things get especially heated.

While I do think that Rayla didn’t bring it up or address this in the best way, I do think she made some really valid points:

And I know many people in the fandom have been arguing that Rayla was 'unsympathetic' towards Ezran but honestly, I think an argument can also be made that no one was sympathetic towards Rayla wanting to bring her family back together except for Callum, and I will talk more about him in detail later.

I also think another important detail we need to remember is that when it comes to this conflict, there’s a major power imbalance here. While yes, Ezran is a traumatized 12 year old kid dealing with the destruction of his kingdom and seeing the face of his father’s killer, he’s also the king who has the final say in everything. It’s his words and his orders against anyone else’s objections that get followed. He also has the backing and loyalty of the council, crownguard and all of the Katolis guards too, while Rayla only had the support of Callum in this situation.

And because of how things went at the meeting and seeing how Ezran wouldn’t listen to her and forgive Runaan right away, she decided to break Runaan out, despite Callum trying to convince her to be patient and give Ezran more time, to which then she responds:

Which then Callum fully accepts her decision and even offered to help (which again, I’ll talk more about later). But while the ideal thing for Rayla to do was to be more patient give Ezran time to do the right thing, which he eventually did at the end of the season, it’s also understandable why she couldn’t stay patient. Because after years, she finally has the opportunity to reunite what remains of her own family again.

Now I get to my last point, Callum. Despite seeing a lot of hate being directed towards Rayla and Ezran for their different stances, from what I’ve seen, I feel like Callum has been getting savaged a whole lot by different parts of the fandom, despite being caught in between both sides and torn between two people he loves. I feel like more people are willing to look at the complexity of the situation when it comes to Ezran or Rayla, but when it comes to Callum, his stance is more often reduced to: “he’s a terrible brother who betrayed Ezran because he doesn’t sympathize with him” or “he’s a doormat for Rayla who unconditionally worships her even at the expense of others or the greater good” while leaving out so many details, events and aspects of his overall character. Now I’m not saying that Callum handled things perfectly with Ezran and nor am I saying that he wouldn’t do reckless and crazy things for Rayla, but I feel like there’s so much more to him that just gets heavily ignored.

So as I’ve said before, Callum was caught in between rising tensions between Ezran and Rayla. While he did support Rayla and wanted to help her reunite her family, I just think it’s wrong to say he was “unsympathetic” towards Ezran because:

And that to me isn’t what unsympathetic looks like. Not to mention he kept trying to convince Rayla to be patient and give Ezran time, and even when Rayla went to break out Runaan, Callum still went and made an attempt to talk to Ezran. And like I don’t think it was right of him to call his traumatized brother a jerk face when he went to talk to him lol, but we know how Callum can be when he gets frustrated, and he even apologized immediately and changed his tone afterwards. We then see Ezran open up to Callum about how his life completely changed after Harrow was ‘killed’ and he was forced to take up a heavy burden at a young age. While ideally I do think that Callum could’ve verbally expressed more understanding towards what Ezran was feeling and dealing with, I do think he made a valid point when he brought up that Ezran forgave Zubeia despite her being the one who sent Runaan after Harrow. Now getting to my next point, this scene in particular:

What he said here made me think back a lot to arc 1, particularly, some of the stuff Harrow said in his last conversation with Callum:

And some things he told Rayla when she told him about her mission to avenge Avizandum and the dragon egg that was initially believed to be destroyed:

I also thought of some of the things Harrow told Callum in his letter:

And lastly something he said to Rayla in season 3 in their conversation after looking at Avizandum's stoned body:

I think it’s important to remember that yes, even Callum himself is aware of the violent cycle between the humans and Xadia and actually wants to end it. And while yes, Ezran grieving Harrow’s death and feeling so much anger towards Runaan was completely valid, I truly believe that Callum was also motivated in trying to convince Ezran to not take part in this cycle of vengeance. The very cycle that killed their mother, that lead Harrow to kill Avizandum in vengeance, which he himself even regretted and recognized was a mistake that lead to Zubeia sending the moonshadow assassins to kill him. And this was something that he brought up to Callum in both his last conversation and his letter, hoping that Callum and Ezran would break this cycle and not repeat his mistakes. And this was what Callum was attempting to do with Ezran, having even reminded him that this was the cycle of violence he was fighting so hard to end. And it did seem that Callum was getting through to him, and I do think that if their conversation didn’t get interrupted by Soren calling out and maybe in a short amount of time, Callum would’ve succeeded.

Of course next thing we see after Rayla and Soren’s duel along with Corvus’s intervention, was Ezran approaching them with a bunch of guards and he had no hesitation in ordering them to attack an outnumbered Rayla and Runaan. It was only in this situation, when literal violence was about to escalate, that we see Callum fully take Rayla’s side and go against Ezran. Not having succeeded in getting through to his brother and seeing that he was still set on getting his revenge, was when Callum decided to step down as high mage and leave with Rayla and Runaan.

Now I’ve seen a lot of people criticizing Callum for leaving his traumatized brother in this situation, which like, yes it was a betrayal at a bad time and it hurt Ezran a great deal. But I also think it’s important to keep in mind that if Callum were to have stayed behind, he would’ve been arrested and have not been able to do anything or even help Ezran in any way, especially with Ezran later becoming hellbent on building weapons of mass destruction, even with Zym becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and hardly listening to anyone aside from Aanya. In fact, I think this would’ve lead to a far bigger strain on their relationship and less of a likelihood to reconcile and repair the rift created between them.

But anyways, this is my opinion on this whole topic. I personally think there wasn’t one person in this that was entirely right or wrong in this situation, each of them had valid stances that just all came clashing together and lead to this massive fallout. But I’m glad that in the end, they were all able to work it out and be able to reconcile things between them. And I know I made this super long but I guess I just wanted to dump out all my thought here.

Anyways, what do you think? Anything you wanted to add on to this?

[the-fabled-void]

Shoutout to Echo by Gumi, and what it has done for the Undertale fandom

[literaryscribs]

Feeling a bit irky because of physical pain and I'm trying to do research on some stuff. I saw people being ableist about Neve over the past few days, basically calling her disability "ugly" and how she's "not a whole woman". So there's things upcoming about that when I get time between work and setting things up for other job stuff for the year. Today it's about SWTOR and namely, power. Power levels of the protagonist to be precise.

I occasionally browse around the internet since not all swtor update news gets forwarded to me, every now and again I run into topics that annoy me with how short sighted they are (or at times actively racist/sexist/ableist etc). I've got one post planned regarding Koth's character and one for Arcann/Vaylin. But after listening to someone complain about the Traveller from Genshin Impact's power level inconsistencies between what's displayed and what's stuck in a cutscene, it got me thinking to a post I ran into this morning.

Quote:

"I wonder if there is reason why my sith warrior just gets thrown around and gets sh*t thrown at him whilst hes supposed to be on a similar if not higher level of a sith compared to his enemies.

Going through KOTFE/KOTET for the first time and it also happens a bit during the normal campaign but i find it very odd he just keeps dodging these objects thrown at him instead of showing his superiority and blocking it with the force or something a bit more forcey then just dodging.

Im the emperors wrath, i supposedly have no equal as far as i understand it.

Its probably something to do with plotlines etc. but its a bit immersion breaking seeing my chad sith dodge sh*t instead of using the force for a change" Ignoring the 'chad' thing because it's kinda stupid, there's several flaws in the game's design vs player expectation. I haven't played SWTOR since vanilla, I joined during the 4.x period just after Anarchy in Paradise had been released. But I did START in with the vanilla story and progressed until that point and this's where the flaw in the game design comes in. The main issue that the original dev team faced was that the main protagonist grew in political (and to a extent physical) power too quickly. Sith Warrior started on a elevated pedestal to be an apprentice/Lord during the prologue and by the end of the arc in Act 3 they're filling a spot as the Emperor's Wrath which was abandoned by Scourge after he went rogue from the Empire. (Which ironically should have the Empire absolutely buzzing with the news but it's not). Sith Inquisitor starts from either a fallen family if human/sith iirc or is a slave and spends most of the prologue being lucky that their rivals for Zash's apprentice role were picked off long before the main showdown where your brawn and cunning wins over the overseer's favouritism. You go from apprentice to a ambiguous lord and then take over Darth Thanaton's seat by force. Only because it's a kill or be killed situation as you force yourself to be a battery of sorts via ghosts and genetic manipulation. Kinda sorta becoming akin to Vitiate himself but in a different way. Bounty Hunter already has somewhat of a track record, likewise the Agent. However other than optionally becoming a Mandalorian the only 'power gain' so to speak is taking out a Jedi with the help of a companion and either making the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic step down or killing him. The Agent spends most of their story as Cipher Nine until the very end of the third arc and from that point they don't receive any real tangible power. Even if you hand over the black box for freedom from Imperial Intelligence or retain it. Unless power of blackmail is counted. On the other end we have the Jedi Knight who was somewhat of a prodigy. They spent most of the acts being a Knight before being promoted to Master for taking out 'Vitiate' after already being taken over and doing evil acts for a unknown period of time. Jedi Consular is labelled Bar'senthor and a Jedi Master by the end of the first act and is a member of the council at the very end of Act 3. They're gifted and display immense force power pretty often in the cutscenes, particularly during act 1 despite being made 'weaker' as they shield other jedi masters from a force plague.

The trooper is promoted across all acts, including the prologue and makes it to the rank of Major at the start of Act 3 while the smuggler goes from to a privateer to eventually being the Voidwolf themselves. Which doesn't have any impact on things on the story going forward, even if you keep it for yourself. Just stuff regarding Nathema down the line.

The overall level of political or militaristic power gained within 3 years is unusually fast and left the devs in a awkward position going forward. The initial plan WAS to have act 4 continue all class stories separately but it was discovered to be too time consuming and costly to have a whole new line for 8 class stories who were already top of their classes and minimal room for more power gain in their respective spheres. Especially considering the higher up the chain you go the more paperwork, negotiations and being tied to a desk there is. It's not all sunshine and daisies. All 8 class stories had the player character start pretty high in their respective fields either by luck or skill. But in terms of raw power there were very few moments to showcase that within vanilla and even much later. Consular and I think Inquisitor got their little showboat moments but the devs at the time were careful to not display too much otherwise you'd run into a issue where powers in cutscenes didn't match what was being displayed in game. However that hasn't stopped the player base from superimposing their ideas of where the force using characters in particular 'should' be in their power level. So....lets take a number of caveats into account here.

With the exception of certain parts of the prologue chapters, none of the 8 class story characters were ever fighting alone. Even with the original system of companions being locked to certain classes at the time. Vette being dps, Dorne and Quinn being healer etc. There's only been, to my memory, one instance of the player character being 100% alone and that was during chapter 12 of Knights of the Fallen Empire where you have a backpack of healing resources and shields etc.

2. Even if you dismiss your companions to truly fight alone, the game assumes a certain canon in order to follow the story sequence.

3. With flashpoints, gsf, pvp maps, on rails space missions or operations you're fighting with other players on your side or npc crew members. It's still never you on your own.

4. As for choosing dodging instead of showing off power? it's more efficient and means you draw less attention than you would by showboating. A fair whack of KotFE and parts of KotET are supposed to be subterfuge and infiltration, not a full scale battle.

5. Baras and Thanaton were both old and egotistical sith that weren't in the best state of health and WELL past their prime. Vitiate's voice was being hampered by multiple distractions going on despite his threat, Syo as the First Son had to deal with his other consciousness banging at his mental door. Rakton wasn't really geared for a physical fight since he's a tactician and Jun Seros was also getting up there in age as well plus being hampered by emotions and the desire for revenge after the death of his friend at the hands of the Hunter. While Voidwolf was ultimately killed because of his own stupidity and ego. They're not really good measuring sticks to be used for power comparisons, raw or otherwise.

Following from point 5, what needs to be understood is that despite personal head canons, the player character themselves isn't exactly in peak physical condition either as time goes on. This can be from continued service and missions, lingering traumas (JK Rishi story), issues with their own body (Inquisitor story and to an extent Consular) or outside interference (majority of KotFE/ET)

In the case of the Inquisitor story, their body had become so messed up from a combination of genetic manipulation plus sucking up force spirits, that it was literally breaking down around them. The procedure on Belsavis merely stabilized them to enable to further use force walking without consequences, the new power so to speak still has to be actively channeled to be of any use.

It's my theory that whatever time they lost prior to the Mother Machine still remained until Rishi where the Inquisitor was investigating several machines that 'supposedly' extended their life span by one solar cycle each. Using Earth as a rough estimate and a rewatch of the quest, a solar cycle is (roughly) 11 years and Inquisitor gets zapped four times so that's 44 years regained on estimate since I'm not sure if the solar cycle is involving Rishi's sun or some other planet's. But it loosely means those solar cycles regained were simply just the Inquisitor regaining their original lifespan back. Possibly at the cost of some of their power since that's usually the case. Come the Knights arc and onwards the player character's kept on their toes a ton fighting tiring enemies that're all the same and don't suffer the same issues they do. Valkorion's also hollowing them out in the process of helping them (and probably kicked the other force ghosts out for a fresh start). They've got multiple wounds either from a lightsaber or from the repercussions of using force lightning at a extreme intensity that they aren't used to. There's also the fact (even though this's kept off screen) that they're behind a desk more often doing paperwork for the Alliance that they aren't able to actively train or look at expanding their abilities to the extent they normally would, had things been during the first acts. We don't know what Valkorion actually did to them during those 7 years of interference of him being a shoulder gremlin. You're getting kicked around a lot more in story cutscenes because your character is getting older and a certain level of balancing has to be in place to keep things fairly uniform between scenes of force users and tech. This might come to a end if my theory may possibly be correct and thanks to the Nul holocron, all classes open up to one another. Meaning no longer will there be a force/tech wall which may mean more opportunities for new classes depending on how long the story is able to keep going into future arcs besides Hidden Chain and Malgus.

No your character isn't uber powerful, no they aren't god tier. They just essentially got lucky over egotistical, conflicted, old and well out of their prime/element characters. A fancy title doesn't mean you're the most powerful being out there considering the in game canon says you've never fought alone without someone (or multiple people) helping you.

[nonuggetshere]

I need to draw something with PK and Hornet there's not enough of these two together in my art

[laugtherhyena]

Playing Bomb rush cyberfunk has been a crazy experience so far because i feel like I've been enjoying the game just as much as I'm not doing so

[vampire-core]

[id: the first image is a reply by @.demilypyro that reads: That doesnt sound very cis

the second image is a reply by @.homosexualmorelikehomiesexual that reads: respectfully adding to this in agreement with op: i think its true that no, it DOESNT sound very cis, but thats bc according to the very same gender system that sucks so much, anyone who disagrees or complains about it is Other, and i think thats......part of the exact problem op is talking abt..? so yeh idk. speaking as a trans person myself- op youre valid youre right and you should say it i support you go cis boy go

#this is what i call cis+ #youre cis but youve seen the void. the truth. and then you pulled back and went Ok Got It. Keeping My Gender Though #which i think is just as respectable. like amen #consciously opting into your assigned gender when you know you don’t actually have to..... #thats cis plus. cis prime. cis upgraded. you feel? /end]

I’m a cis man sure but i also wanna opt out of the gender binary. None of that shit is my fault or my responsibility and i don’t want any part of it

[cloverkeep]

just spent the past two hours sorting through all my makeup and culling anything i don't like/don't wear... it started with just lip products and spiraled out into nail polish, palettes, and fragrances 😵‍💫😵‍💫

very satisfied however since i've been needing to do this for a while! my good friends, please please PLEASE never let me buy lip gloss with glitter in it ever again...

[uchiha-gaeshi]

Issues with Writing a Self-Insert #1

In case y'all didn't know, I've been going through a reflective period recently, and I've noticed that fear of what others think has held me back in almost every single aspect of my life, and unfortunately fandom is no exception.

I remember when I was like 14 and I tried to write fanfiction for the first time (I don't remember even what fandom I was writing for). Unfortunately, I could barely type a single paragraph without immediately deleting all that I wrote and being overly critical of my lack of writing ability. Even at that age, in the privacy of my dorm room, I couldn't shake off the fear of failure (and I mean howw?? I wasn't the only 14 year old trying to write Wattpad fanfiction). I remember comparing myself to some of my peers who had an amazing talent for writing. For me, I didn't get jealous, but rather I got intimidated, so intimidated that instead of continuing on with something and being imperfect at it, I'd just drop the entire activity altogether.

Because of this habit, I missed out on a lot of potential opportunities for growth during this time. I guess I saw people who were amazing, assumed that they popped out of the womb like that or something, and just....gave up. If I could go back in time, I would tell young me to embrace the cringe, embrace the mess. So what if people laugh or look at you funny or immediately stop whispering to each other once they see you? It sucks, but you will find your people, and you will survive. Trying to be palatable to everyone just means that you stifle yourself.

Years later, I wanted to get back into fanfiction, but this time with very little creative writing experience. What held me back was the fear that someone would read something that I wrote and ridicule it for being something that only an angsty teen would write, except that I am no longer an angsty teen but an unfortunately angsty adult riddled with insecurity, and that reality would just make that hypothetical comment sting even more (that's another thing about me. I create hypothetical ways for people to roast me in order to talk myself out of doing stuff).