#he uses people like pawns

[i-dont-exis]

Poll 2: Electric Boogaloo here!! (First one got messed up).

[montyluvsjasper]

Jonsa fans write 1000+ post of all the foreshadowing of Jonsa.

Jon and Sansa are structured in the story as the romantic leads respectively. Even Sansa antis have admitted the extreme parallels between Jon and “Alayne”. Jon Snow literally has dreams about burning people and thinks it's the most vile thing possible. Sansa wished/prayed for a strong knight to kill Janos Slynt, and Jon’s the one to do it. Jon dies trying to save who he thinks is Arya Stark.

No I don't care about your wolf howl, your blue rose or your Targaryen restoration.

[stillprettyunoriginal]

no one talks about Mo^2s dynamic and it’s horribly sad,,,,, like corrupt or evil Morella, who takes no path but her own, who treats others how SHE has been treated, who snaps and hurts and finally uses her blade. Also like. Agh. Angel and DEVIL guys. Guyssss Monty’s spectre has burnt wings how are we not freaking out about this,,,, guyssss,,,,,,, Montrella or whatever you wanna call it is the duo to end LIVES.

[blasphemousclaw]

i think rykard had a tendency to disregard formality except as Ritual or as Political Ambition, like as just a headcanon. the way he marries tanith and deeply adores and confides in her, when a lot of her descriptions emphasize the potential gulf in social power between them (drawing on a lot of tropes heavily associated with the character of Lowborn Sex Worker Consort) and how he held a disregard for the way the Golden Order handles itself (creating a strict orderly hierarchy of power between its peoples and appropriate mannerisms between one class and another (see the pages and how kenneth haight talks)) and how he has a studious scholalry streak from his archeology at mt gelmir and his sorceries, i can see him as being this larger than life figure who takes the formality inherent to ritual worship and power and really pushes that to its limit to get the kost bang for his buck, just going all in, which builds up this idea of a figure out of legend, and then its immediately contrasted by a frank, casual manner of speaking outside of those circumstances, a way where he holds himself as a singularly powerful lord but despite that hes easy to talk to, and he values the opinions and ideas of those who would normally be his "lessers" or "beneath him" and takes them seriously and treats them with respect

a lord who takes counsel from prince and pauper alike, who married a dancer, who speaks bluntly and without shame but encourages others to do so as well, who embraces the blasphemous and heretical such that you never feel you have to hide anything from him, but when he conducts a ceremony for the great serpent its like the whole world stops to bend its ear for the way he channels such power and authority that you cant help but believe that hes truly something different from all of you, and yet despite this you speak freely to him anyways. such a man could inspire ruthless loyalty to the bitter end with ease, throughout the most horrible of wars, all until it hits that critical breaking point of the serpent, and even then some still cant bring themselves to break away from him

ok theres ABSOLUTELY a theme of repudiating the conventions of nobility and class with Rykard… I think his belief system is based on the idea that the gods are no better than mortals, and they have no inherent divine right to rule: “When Rykard turned to heresy, taking by force became the rule. The gods were no different, after all.” The gods “take by force” just like any common mortal tyrant, so why should we accept that they have an inherent authority over us? There’s this theme of seizing one’s own fate and taking power for oneself — like Bernahl calling out to the Greater Will directly that “we refuse to become your pawns” — which I think would be really inspiring to like, a common soldier who’s felt disrespected and taken for granted all their life. Though Rykard is as noble as they come, he too is fighting against a suffocating Order. Tanith explicitly likens the plight of ordinary Tarnished to the Shardbearers… they’re all made to “scurry about, fighting over what miserly scraps they allow us.”

Speaking of Tanith, Rykard making her his consort is such a deliberate political statement? Lords like Kenneth Haight would no doubt look down on her because of her commoner foreigner background, like he even calls Godrick, a demigod, a “country bumpkin!” Marrying Tanith instead of someone from Erdtree nobility shows that Rykard doesn’t care at all about established class structure… why is Tanith any less worthy than an Erdtree noble? I think Tanith is speaking from experience when she says this about Rya: “Besides, no-one should be blamed for their heritage. Think about it. We are resisting the ways of the Erdtree itself. What matters one's lineage in such a crisis.”

basically one of Rykard’s blasphemous beliefs is that the gods are only gods because they are strong enough to stay in power and keep people under their control. he would have a society where every person is the master of their own fate. at least I think that’s what his followers thought before he fed himself to a serpent god and started eating people

[likethexan]

Oenone as a character deserved her own Medea ending, she deserves better than to die for the coward who abandoned her

[spending-life-pretending]

It’s crazy how Armand keeps telling Louis “oh Claudia’s gonna die” “oh you made her too young” “oh she’s doomed to the fire because she can never grow up” when he is the one denying her the chance to grow up; he is the one in charge forcing her to play baby lu every night, and responding to her reasonable request to shift roles by making her live in the costume and character she hates. If he cared about her at all (or about how Louis cares about her) he would get her away from the baby lu role bc of his concerns about her body’s forever-age (not to mention the racism). But instead he restricts her, denies her the chance to graduate from being seen as a little girl, and in doing so condemns her to live forever in the frustrated emotional state he foresees as being her doom. If Madeleine hadn’t come into the picture (a person who literally tells Armand to his face that maybe SHE is what Claudia needs to keep her from the fire) and Claudia had stayed suffocated in the coven for years, I’m sure eventually he would have succeeded at orchestrating that self-fulfilling suicidal prophecy for her. But bc Madeleine does show up, the plan shifts, and the trial happens instead (according to Armand, he started “lying” to Louis the night Madeleine turned). And this is why Assad Zaman was a genius when he so eloquently stated that the true tragedy of it all is that Armand “doesn’t give a fuck about Claudia”, and this is why Claudia’s “never been about ME” speech in her final act isn’t just about Louis and Lestat’s treatment.

[suga-kookiemonster]

i watched the original x-men movies when they first came out, but never bothered to watch the prequel/reboot movies. just randomly decided to watch first class and was reminded what i've always felt my whole life: *whispers* magneto was right

[spock-adoodledoo]

i think one of the things i'll always appreciate abt maomao is that even though she's the protag, it's not really that the world revolves around her or that things always happen to her, it's more that she gets involved in things (usually at the request of other ppl but whatever) that usually don't affect her immediately. idk but it's nice that she's kind of our dispassionate window into palace life instead of the person everything happens to

[virsancte]

good days aren't easy to come by

[petorahs]

can i be toxic for a second i am so tired of people framing sunday and aventurine conflict as "sunday the mean homophobe who hates aventurine for that reason" and i wish that would go away because you can't object to this take without someone going "you're babying sunday too much" because i don't agree with him being given this ugly trait he doesn't have??

its ok anon u can vent in my inbox in good faith

its very frustrating isnt it... i agree. double indemnity trio have all moved on from this conflict the second Penacony arc ended, and yet it's the fandom that perpetuates these false narratives for... what? (i know the answer actually but heh keeping it to myself lest i be crucified). Ratio finds Sunday smart, Sunday finds Ratio pleasant, Aventurine thinks Sunday is handsome and is eager to watch him, Sunday has a crush on finds Aventurine a worthy rival. they're all amiable with eachother. not a single one of them "hold grudges" or "hate eachother" over this, frankly run-of-the-mill for them business trip. CAN WE MOVE ON COLLECTIVELY...!

we cant really change people's perceptions that easily though anon so all we can do are baby steps, one fanart or fic or project at a time :/// (still sucks tho when u just wanna enjoy these sillies in peace)

(PS Sunday is literally the LAST person to be homophobic this man would not be hateful towards any group of people whatsoever.)

[scribefindegil]

Obviously I would have preferred it if Dimple made *zero* sleazy comments about teenage girls, but I was afraid from his pre-Black Vinegar characterization that it was going to be an ongoing aspect of his character and was relieved to discover that instead it was complete spitballing like "dang I don't remember how people work but i have to make this kid like me. what are adolescent boys into? ummm. objectifying women? that's probably it!"

[reliquiaen]

Okay, a few years back I made this graphic to explain the Great Cycle. Now that I've mulled over DD2 for a few days, I'm updating it. Some of the same assumptions as before remain: The Dragonforged fought the dragon, his weapon broke, he tried punching it (lmao), but he did survive without killing the dragon, possibly there was a second Bargain offered in the face of his determination. So you don't have to kill your dragon to survive it. Also still assuming that different classes become different types of drakes because I just like that detail, even though we see nothing to confirm it in DD2 (except maybe for the wyrms in the post-game, I hope that's what those are, just a bit redesigned).

But this time, I'm making some NEW assumptions: A Great Dragon can be manifested directly by the Seneschal's will (I'm guessing this is why our DD2 dragon doesn't have a name, I suspect this dragon was created after Rothais defeated his - he didn't become a dragon OR Seneschal so it had to come from somewhere). The challenge a Seneschal poses to the Arisen can be anything; Savan gave us the opening of the Everfall and unleashed a ton of powerful monsters upon the world; but Pathfinder gave us what the world would look like without a Seneschal to oversee things. My assumption is that the Colossal Dragon that appears out of that final red pillar of light IS the Pathfinder (possibly using his will to force order back upon the world) and when we kill it, our Arisen becomes Seneschal (because Pathfinder says he won't be there to see the new world that's forming). So the challenge can be anything, not just the Everfall. I'm curious what happens to our pawn after that fight, though. And it's a much better Seneschal fight than the one against Savan, sorry Savan.

I'm also assuming that (given we see the Pathfinder rewind time and rewrite the world) the Seneschal can simply will the world into a state of being that suits them. This includes wiping memories of events. Though I like to imagine that our Arisen-turned-Seneschal didn't wipe memories of themselves or of the apocalypse-world. There was an entire plotline going through this game with Rothais and Phaesus where mortals are trying to get rid of the Seneschal and so it makes sense that they need to remember what would happen without the Seneschal's presence.

Anyway, thanks. I'll probably have more thoughts later, but this is the part that gets me most. I like to know how things work so I wanted to sort the Cycle out.

[orcelito]

Shino raising his dead friends and friend's dog from the dead with the power of bugs as one friend's cousin watches [not clickbait]

[in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene]

I do think Withers has a really subtle background character arc in bg3. Because at the start it is really clear he doesn't want to be here and he's being forced to clean up his mess by Helm and probably Ao. He doesn't really care either. Everything ends so nothing really matters, he'd like to go back to his paperwork now please.

Except he's stuck babysitting a bunch of traumatized dumbasses as they stumble into dealing with the most recent bad idea of his three fuck-up disappointments. So he brings them back when they die for a pittance, lets them pay for some vengeful ghosts to come back as flesh and blood to wreak bloody vengeance on the Absolute, and starts to... comment, on what's going on, as he follows them on their adventure.

Next thing you know Withers is like, doing things unprompted. He refuses to bring back Alfira (or Quil) but that's an act of compassion, keeping the poor girl from the Urge and letting her rest, his actual duty as a god of death. He tells Arabella to follow her destiny and does that thing to make her grief go away which honestly freaks me out but seems to be him trying to help her. He shows up at Moonrise and prompts us to consider why the Dead Three would want a bunch of soulless illithids that would give them no power, getting us to think of the big picture.

And by the end (especially if you do a resist!Durge playthrough) Withers is actively interfering and seems genuinely invested! He brings Durge back from the dead, free of their father! He encourages us before the final fight with the Netherbrain! He's real fucking smug that the Dead Three lost when he never seemed to care about the destruction they caused before! He throws a reunion party and many of his lines are genuinely touching or kind! Especially if a companion died permanently! He has tea with Gale's mom and Tara! He's like, socializing and shit! Yes, everything is temporary and we all die, but there's great beauty in fighting for that precious time and living it to the fullest!

Basically Wither's character arc is this meme, all because Helm made him go outside and touch grass.

[fourswords]

y'know just the fact that hylia had to ask link whether he was going to take revenge on the kingdom that held him in contempt or save it from doom was enough of an eye-opening moment as it was (even though hylia already knew what his answer was going to be):

but genuinely if he hadn't already died and could've heard what hylia said about his imprisonment and suffering being "willed by the heavens" because it was "necessary to transform him into the one fit to wield the master sword" i think he might've just been like Actually. Fuck you guys. Revenge it is. because while link DOES stand with his comrades again after his imprisonment and DOES call them his friends even after their betrayal and DOES pray for their happiness above the clouds with all his heart and DID want to take to the sky with them.....the emphasis on the land itself being what link fights for more than the people is absolutely woven into the story here. when he stands above the crowd of people and promises to always defend the land of hylia, he looks out at the mountains, not down at the crowd, and even says:

"Though people's hearts may change with time, this land's beauty, pride and purity never change. If you have need of me... ...then I will forever fight to defend you."

and the amount of times the destruction of the land is emphasized....

"Wicked desire assaulted the world's surface, staining it the color of obsidian... ...and the mountains, the plains, and all that flowed pure on the earth were ruthlessly scoured by fire."

and when the demon king strikes link down and goes on to continue his rampage before hylia eventually seals him away, link doesn't think even once of the people until the red loftwing appears and link asks him if he would show their people to the skies. instead, he thinks this:

"My hometown... The beautiful air... The mountains... The rivers... ...reduced to this. Will this be the last thing I ever see?"

like. he stands with the people even after all they've done to him. he acts as their figurehead. their pawn that they cast aside to torture and rot and only dragged back out because lord dagianis died and they finally decided that a hero was needed again. he fights with them. he calls them his friends despite everything. he hopes for their happiness. but first and foremost, it's the land itself that he fights for, not the people living on it. not really. when he says "people's hearts may change with time" he kind of even acknowledges that—it's a verbal slight against them and all of their fickleness concerning him and his imprisonment and his freedom the instant they were in danger again (same as when he said "It was you—my own people—who said you had no need for a powerful hero. And now that it's convenient for you, you want me to fight?"). and maybe nothing would've changed if he'd heard his suffering was ordained by the gods. maybe his love of the land still would have won over his hatred of the people and the gods doing what they did to him and he still would have fought just the same. but i honestly would not have blamed this dude one bit if he'd just decided to be like "Fuck This. Fuck All Of You." and dipped. he's suffering more than jesus out here

[jitteryjive]

i need to remake my cup bros ref… both cup and human designs… it’s been almost a year(?) and i’ve developed the headcanons and i would like to share with the class!!! (i wrote thirty tags. Please help me)