#his character isn't different - it's weirdly more fleshed out

[helpimstuckinafandom]

Next up on a tsats post I read got me thinking: Will Solace again

Because (again) good stuff in tsats got lost in the repetativeness of this book. Someone pointed out that Will's character wasn't changed, people just think he's calm and collected on the outside and in this book we see his pov and see him with someone he's closer/more vulnerable with, and dude is riddled with anxiety that he hides. And like..... yes. Yeah. That's it. That's literally it.

Being calm and collected and bossy in his element and completely petrified outside of it? Real for the medic who's great plan in the Seige on Camp Half-Blood being to run/get chased (and do the demigod art of insultsTM) Feeling like shit to be taken care of and thinking yourself useless because of it? So real for a medic who has previously bemoaned his lesser musical ability and combat abilities, who is now unable to do the one thing he IS good at

Personal bias here but I am called the "chill one" in my family. My dad says it almost constantly (especially in comparison to my siblings) that I'm more relaxed and don't get all anxious and have it under control and just don't sweat it. I'm not as academically smart as my siblings or anything and my relaxed nature is the number one thing that gets noticed about me

But I'm not

I am scared all the time. I feel sick to my literal stomach with anxiety multiple times a month going to bed or waking up because of.... life. Do I let a single person know that? God no. What if they need me? I live a good life all things considered, how could I ever compare the small shit I go through to someone's break up or family trauma or depressive episode?(Got a little bit of the "i'm not diagnosed so I'm invalid" thing going on) How could I ever put my needs on the front burner when I need to help people or spend time with them at their beck and call.

One of the other things I'm called/get compared to is a Therapy Dog. Because people find me comforting to be around - I listen and do my best to help - I am a friendly face.

I have literally told myself some days where life just keeps coming at me that I won't cover it up and I will actually look sad. I repeatedly tell myself to do it, and then the instant - the very second - i'm in front of someone I feel it naturally pack itself into the back of my mind and feel a smile pull at my lips. I literally can't do it. I don't want to worry them, I don't want to disuade them from telling me something because I look sad.

I think about the way my failures will impact everyone else but me. Like right now I think I'm gonna fail a course and it frightens me, but my priority is my mother who is stressed from family issues and my dad who trusted me - how my grades will worsen their lives. I'm like that for everything.

Basically, if I can't make people feel better, what good am I? What good am I TO THEM?

So Will Solace. I've always really liked him and related myself to him - even from Last Olympian, believe it or not. The brief moments with him back then had him be that random background character I latched onto. And then there was HOO (and later TOA) and I loved him even more. Partly because I could see him sharing opinions I do, but they weren't completely unfounded, but still his chill-ish nature and lack of other godly talents other than healing resonated with me. And then in tsats I remember several times going "bro he's literally me somehow". Somehow, being the key word, because even though I didn't think he was too different, since we didn't have much content of him before, I could still recognize a sort of shift. And this post I saw made me realize what it was:

He is the "chill one" - he is the "therapy dog". He knows how to take care of people and he likes nerd shit, and outside of that he is scared. He hates being taken care of because it makes him feel useless. He's worried he's loving/caring wrong and that it will lose him people - lose Nico. And we see it now because we get his thoughts - we see him completely out of his element with someone he's far closer to and can let his walls fall a bit, but still not completely. He's being unravelled by the Underworld and tries to downplay it. He's just like me fr.

[cripplecharacters]

CW for mentions body horror

—

I don’t do body horror much, but for one of my characters I wanted to branch out more and experiment with some. This character has heavy symbolism around bones, so I was thinking of trying out some skeletal themed body horror concepts. However, I’m wary that body horror, especially stuff that revolves around flesh and other human parts, often falls into a lot of disfigureism tropes. Do you know any major things to avoid when going about this?

Hi,

Monsters ≠ people with facial/body differences, if you're not giving them an actual Disability Trait then it just doesn't apply since there is nothing inherently in common these two have.

I've never looked at an actual rotting zombie character and thought "facial difference". That's just two completely separate concepts.

But I have looked at certain ideas of "zombies" in movies or "ghouls" in certain games and thought "oh, a caricature". Because they don't actually look like how people with facial differences look like, they're made grosser, nastier, repulsive. They're supposed to give the idea of how a person with a facial difference looks like and based on some fandoms I can tell that it works. It's pretentious to act like a "monster species" that's clearly meant to invoke the idea of a disabled person isn't ableist because it's not meant to be an actually disabled person. It's like when people get offended when you correctly spot a stereotype. "Do you think group X is actually like that, why would it remind you of them?!" Because I can tell who the author had in mind, that's why.

So, the question is, who or what do you have in mind when creating body horror? If it's a skeleton with skin on it, cool... does it share some suspicious resemblance to how people with skin conditions can look like? Because that's unnecessary and creates the aforementioned caricature. No one looks like these body horror things, but they're clearly based on us and turned up to 1000 with extra grossness put in for good measure.

Again, I don't want to have anyone to walk away from this thinking "people with facial differences are basically like these monsters", because that's not true. Every minority will have absurd, derogatory imagery that has nothing to do with reality and shouldn't be compared to, but again, it's pretentious to pretend that they aren't related to each other. It's not difficult to see the "inspiration" behind a lot of these things.

Simply think about what you do to get the "body horror effect" and ask yourself - what or who are you actually basing it on, and what or who does it resemble in the end? Is your "body horror" someone with teeth coming out of their eyes, ribs growing out of the ribcage through the skin, and meat hanging on bones, or is it someone without a nose, with weirdly textured skin, and empty eye sockets? Be real with yourself on what the inspiration for the "scary traits" is because one of these is body horror and the second one is a guy I know that people are scared of because they play too much shit indie horror games. If the scary trait is just a disabled human's trait, why the fuck is it considered scary in the first place?

Mod Sasza

[scrunglepaws]

Tried to fit all my fic ideas on one page, but I still forgot some because they're like... scrawled on random pieces of paper all over my house/in different notebooks/ect. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I tried!

The little branchy-offy things are prequels/sequels of that particular series. Bleeped out things I thought might be spoiler-y to ongoing series. Things with * are super WIP-y titles because I dunno what to call them.

More ramblings under the cut! (Nothing spoilery for the ongoing series; just vague things!)

No Heroes Zone // - I have a lot more generalized worldbuilding, character notes, ect than actual stories. The story ideas are mostly vague/short... Though, I suppose I could stand to write some super short fics. - The exception is an angsty sonighty fic that's basically done, but I just have to fill in all the inbetween, connecty bits. And decide how sonighty-y I really want to go with it. That ship came outta nowhere, I tell ya. - NHZ is really mostly Tails (and Metal) angst, tho. The other day I was thinking about how he tries to latch onto Shadow and even Metal in the absence of having Sonic and was like "Wow, Tails, clingy much? What are you, Nine???" then I felt really bad. T-T; He just misses his brother...!

Kaleidoscope // - The name of this fic is based on an art piece I've been wanting to do for forever: A kaleidoscope of Tails/Nine/Mangey, looking at each other and seeing them each from their own perspective. Because that's the theme of the whole story, funky scifi weirdness aside. But uh, 1) didn't have a decent digital art program for a bit and 2) I'm not good enough at drawing the subtle differences in their appearances to really make it hit how I wanted. Also 3) Tails looks basically the same to all three of them, lmao. - "Mangey Remembers" is Mangey's backstory and "Loneliness*" is... Less of a backstory for Nine, more of a brief showcase of his character in general. Because we already know Nine's whole deal from canon. Same reason Tails doesn't have a backstory- he's supposed to be canon Tails. - "Starless Sky" and "Ruination*" are both poteeeential sequels, but I'm not set on doing them. Ruination would just be a short, noncanon "what if?" bad ending for the heck of it.

Someplace AU (Aquarius) // - Also halfway calling it Aquarius for now because I ended up continuing the first part of the story under that fic name.

- It was originally more focused on Sails, hence Someplace being a play on No Place. But now it's about equally Kit and Sails. I ended up getting SO MANY effing ideas for these dudes, man. ;w;

- "Hollow Existence*" isn't a specific story, but just a sprinkling of scenes/backstory bits that detail why Kit is the way he is. Mostly his relationship with Surge growing up.

- "Sails' Tales" is likewise a collection of random Sails backstory bits. I have a lot more specific/fleshed out things for him, though. BUDDY, did I have fun with the No Place lore. Also, his relationships with Catfish and Black Rose are so cute... ;A;

- The bits to the right are basically going to be chapters in Aquarius. They're vague enough not to be spoilery (other than the blipped ones...)

- "=D?" is a sequel that I'm very excited about. Probably shouldn't say much beyond that.

Everything Else // - CaveTails is a Journey to the Center of the Earth-esque silly, silly thing. That could maybe become a bit more serious? BAsically, I was thinking "Huh, kind of weird that my main kittails fic is with Sails. That'd be funny if I did ones with Nine and Mangey, too. Just for the lulz. Especially the Mangey one." This is the Mangey one. xD Except he's sort of like... Tails AND Mangey at the same time, character-wise? So? :? Also, potentially some wholesome Sonic+Tails moments because I weirdly haven't written any of those yet.

- "Kids" is just a continuation of that goofy Tails Doll+Cream oneshot. Just small ideas for another chapter or two. Cute friendship, fluff, and lots of comfort to make up for the hurt in the first chapter. :3;;

- "Alien*" is what it says on the tin. I have a couple different ideas for how it could go. One of them boots out Silver entirely and had Metal in his place. xD But I might have enough material to write an alien Silver AND alien Metal fic. We'll see whenever I get around to it. :3

- "Nine's Shadow*" is something I've wanted to write ever since I made that joke oc, Stales the Fox aka Zombie Tails variant from the Grim. Probably just a oneshot (or a few short chapters) fic that mostly focuses on Nine being "all alone" after the ending of Sonic Prime.

- "Why is Babies?*" is the second idea I had for a fic. It's just Shadow being awkward and not knowing how to look after a chunk of the main cast that are suddenly tots for unknown reasons. It's very lighthearted, comedic, and cute. Originally a Shadow+Metal fic until I learned more about Eclipse and just HAD to include him. Dude is literally a struggling single parent in canon, how could I not include him in a story about his brother going through something similar? xD Also, I might call this fic "Rascals" as a reference to that one Star Trek episode with a similar premise. Because! Star Trek. 8D

- "The Fifth Element" ... I have put off posting anything about this fic idea for so long because I'm EMBARRASSED IT'S SO STUPID AND CORNY DON'T LOOK AT ME,,, In case you're totally lost, the 1997 film of the same name is my. Favorite movie. So naturally, this was my first idea for a fic. It's so all-over-the-place tonally, though. Obviously, got a LOT of silly, especially the parts that follow the movie almost exactly. But I also added a lot of original bits that help flesh out the characters' relationships. The protag is Shadow, who is very, very soft and introspective in it. Which, like, how did that happen??? But I love it. Metal is his co-lead and is mostly goofy because he's a fish out of water. Sonic is VERY, VERY goofy like goddamn (he's Ruby Rod- if you know, you know). Then there's just the silliest shit ever like Silver. Silver is Shadow's cat. It's stupid, but it's also fun, and maybe even matters to the plot. You don't know. Blaze is the president. Dr. Starline, Surge, Eggman, and The End are in it. Tails has the smallest part of any of my fics, but I think I cast him well. I need to stop now or I never will. Don't look at me. xDD

~

But yeah, as I said, I forgot a lot of other ideas. A few more (still forgetting some, I'm sure): - "Creature from the Black Lagoon" ft. kittails - Steam Powered Giraffe-vibes 50's thing w/ Tails, Cream, and automatons of Kit, Surge, Metal, Belle, Gemerl, ect - Tails Doll trying to be a Real Boy(tm) - Kittails-focused folklore AU with Kit as a kelpie and Tails as a normal mobian. Bunch of other people as fae creatures and villagers, including Starline as the main villain. - Maybe a whispangle oneshot from the above au (Tangle is a mobian, Whisper is. basically a magic wolf? xD) - Knuckles/Tails role-swap

[gorbalsvampire]

Hey so obviously the clanbooks help flesh out the clans, but which clans do you think benefit the most from their clanbooks? Not necessarily powers, but the flavor. The details.

So this one took me a while, because I had to go back and look at the Revised edition clanbooks and refresh my memory on them. I'm mostly a Revised goblin, although Cappadocians never had a Revised clanbook so I dipped my toes into second there.

Also, for a Clanbook to be good, it has to be helpful in playing the clan, and more interested in that than delivering metaplot. This is why Clanbook Giovanni, though dear to my heart, is Not A Good One, because it's so mired up in shuttering Wraith: the Oblivion and the associated plot events. This is why Clanbook Cappadocian is bad, because it is shot through with "here to go" foreshadowing of the clan's downfall and doesn't do enough on establishing what they did in Cainite society at the height of their power.

Brujah: almost no mechanics, almost all history and perspectives. The Brujah suffer from an identity crisis - rootless between the classical era and the twentieth century, their history really feels like the history of the Anarch tendency, and their customs the heart of the movement as it is tonight. But for sheer detail - giving itself the breathing room to talk about how the Brujah work within their sects and contexts - I think this is one of the good ones despite its lack of substance. Telling that Justin wrote it.

Gangrel: this one locks arms with the Ravnos and walks down history together, embedding two underdeveloped clans in each other. The Gangrel come off better, because they're not starting from "[insert slur here] vampires" as a concept, and because the narrative voice of their book is curious and intelligent and refuses to take anything at face value. The core concept of the Gangrel is "Wolverine with fangs" - I'm being reductive, but "brooding animalistic outsider, bad team player, best there is at snikting all the bubs" - the point is that dragging Gangrel into a coterie with anyone else and making them functional involves dragging them away from what their "clan culture" is all about.

Weirdly, I think this Clanbook does more for the Sabbat Gangrel, simply by running through the Paths and showing how the Gangrel can integrate with them. Bloodlines are mostly stupid, mechanical impact for animal flaws reifies the clan curse in a good way (kinda similar to the contemporary Malkavians). There's a lot here but none of it makes me want to play a Gangrel, for some reason. I suspect it's that the core fantasy isn't really one that interests me, and if I'm going to play that hard against type, I'd rather start from a different base altogether.

Lasombra: the throughline of Lasombra history delivered through a series of in-character lectures is a neat device, foregrounding the contradictions better than usual. Likewise, the detailed depiction of Lasombra Embrace and education protocol and internal factions builds explicitly and confidently on the corebook's limited vision and their role within the Sabbat. The dot by dot breakdown on Obtenebration teaches you how to play one systemically and how to ST around this overtly supernatural Discipline and more of the books need to do that. One of the better suites of premade characters, too (and the Student of the Abyss is a dead ringer for my first girlfriend). It's been a long time but I think this is the book that made me like the Lasombra as a clan rather than a power set and story function.

Also:

Sabbat are not wholly their own masters. No vampire stands altogether free to choose his behavior, thanks to the Beast and the fundamental requirements of vampiric survival. The Sabbat makes matters worse with its beliefs and practices, which repeatedly push participants into acts that erode conscience (and Conscience). When you play a Sabbat vampire, you take on a distinct set of challenges. It’s not necessarily more “adult” or “sophisticated” than any other sort of vampire, nor is it automatically more “juvenile” or “indulgent.” Sabbat exist within tighter boundaries than most independent or Camarilla vampires. Not everything you’d like to have your character do, or that he would plausibly want to do, is actually within reach.

Because some of us really do need telling.

Malkavian: for sheer style, for refuting the kookiness and fae nonsense and artsy layout of the second edition volume, for actually being substantively useful in playing the clan, this one makes the grade. Has one of the best metaplot beats with the antitribu's grand justification for mass Embrace and thinning the blood. New Derangements, better than the ones in the core book if I'm honest, especially the specifically vampiric ones that move away from "playing something straight out of the DSM."

I'm going to mention powers again here though - I wish the Revised devs had caught on to the idea of alternative powers at lower level, as some of this stuff (like Babble) shouldn't have "be seventh generation, i.e. not a starting PC, i.e. probably having done a diablerie to 'level up'" as their prerequisite. Weakest part. Also, I love the Moirai. Favourite brood. Probably sold me on my love of brood coteries.

Nosferatu: I like that a Nosferatu calls out Kindred history on its Eurocentrism! And much like the Gangrel, this book gives you some hooks to hang your clan weakness on - Merits and Flaws that reify aspects of the Nosferatu aesthetic. I don't think these are all necessary, but they are cool. A similar breakdown of Discipline usage to the Lasombra, again showing and telling how to Nosferatu as well as what is Nosferatu. That's the distinction with the good Clanbooks, I think - they remain focused on playability and using these ideas rather than just telling you about cool shit. I want to play a Nosferatu after I've read this book.

Dishonourable mention: Tremere. The Tremere Clanbook doubles down on a central bugaboo with the clan - if their hierarchy is sevens and sevens and sevens all the way down, your city should be crawling with Tremere. To have all these internal agendas and subfactions represented in a meaningful way - same. I'm aware of Grician bias, I hate the 1:100,000 "rule" with the force and fire of a thousand suns, but this book really needed to show you how one or two isolated Tremere work and it fails to deliver.

Tzimisce: I don't like how overcooked this clan is, with its Koldunic Sorcery and its Old Clan and its revenant families and its two different versions of "your signature discipline is a disease" that are both high concept shit far removed from Playing Your Lil' Guy - but that material undeniably exists and if you want to refer to it... well, isn't half of it in the Sabbat guide? I don't know where I stand on this one, but Tzimisce fans generally want as much as possible to chew on and there's More In Here.

Ventrue: Much like the Brujah and the anarchs, a lot of what the Ventrue have going on under the hood can be read "as above, so below" with the Camarilla as a sect. To know one is to half understand the other. The Ventrue codify the unwritten social rules of their sect, or rather their sect unknowingly imitates the code that organises the Ventrue.

The difference, as ever, is that the conservative and hierarchical side of the coin is much easier to detail than "imagine your way out of authoritarianism", and as such Clanbook: Ventrue has a great deal more direct, didactic, actionable material in it than the broad and vague concepts of the Rabble. Titles, organisation, spheres of influence, clear lines through the medieval to the corporate: read this one.

There is more to the Ventrue than you ever imagined - so much that they almost fall into the same hole as the Tremere do, but they don't have the hard number for the brain to latch onto and worry at. Even now, I'm describing this very good and self contained Clanbook by comparison to its peers - that's how the Ventrue get away with it.

I'm not just saying this to blow smoke up @biomechanicaltomato's ass, either. It's genuinely one of the best books; I think only Lasombra and perhaps Gangrel and Nosferatu are on the same level, and in very different ways.

[thatpodcastkid]

Magnus Archives Relisten 5, MAG 5 Thrown Away

Trash apple teeth! Is this anything

Spoilers ahead!

Facts: Statement of Kieran Woodward, regarding items discovered in the refuse of 93 Lancaster Road, Walthamstow. Given February 23rd, 2009.

Statement Notes: There are so many posts out there comparing The Magnus Archives to the Twilight Zone because of Jon's narration and the serial creepy story format, but this episode really stands out in mind as Twilight Zone-esque. Like the Twilight Zone, some Magnus Archive episodes deal with things like childhood guilt and cult-behavior, like MAG 4. But other episodes just kind of say "Damn, isn't that fucked up? Anyway," like this one.

I do love Kieran as a character. He's just so weirdly chill and realistic about everything. There's are some statement givers who are still being tormented by the fears, some who cause fear, some who are reporting on things that happened to people they know, but there's also this interesting category of people who survived because they played the game right. When the audience says "don't go in the basement" or "call the cops," they listen. Woodward gets through this statement unscathed because he moves on from the creepy dolls heads and reports the teeth, then destroys the "gift" left for him and tries to move on. Alan can't let go, Alan doesn't know the rules of the genre, that's why he doesn't make it out.

My two new favorite characters in the series are "Matt, who was raised Catholic and never shut up about it," because he is me, and David who "broke the silence by vomiting loudly into a nearby drain," because he is the most realistic horror character of all time.

Entity Alignment: Whenever I think of this episode, I think of it as the "teeth in a bag" episode. I actually 100% forgot about the metal heart. Now, when you think of those things, it kind of sounds like a Flesh episode.

But, let's all remember our favorite bio majors and their special gift to their professor. The Stranger has a history with teeth. The description of the dolls heads is very "uncanny valley," which is the Stranger's real niche. The thing that really sells me though is Jon's last line in the statement, "All two thousand seven hundred and eighty of them were the exact same tooth." The exact same tooth, apparently from the exact same person, repeated over and over again to the point that the examiner can date them because of their differing stages of decay. You know what that sounds like to me? Someone has been practicing.

The metal heart also says Stranger to me. I know it has a little Flesh energy, but it really reminded me of the hospital episode from season 5. The way the character describes feeling like her body was not her own, that parts of her had been replaced, substituted. The metal heart as the only remanent of Alan feels like that same kind of fear. It's not his, it's not him, but it's all he's got.

Speaking of Alan, does his obsession with watching the house to the point he goes without sleep for days, isolates his friends, and is presumed dead remind you of anyone? He must be influenced by the Eye at least a little bit.

But ignoring entity alignment for a second, Jonny does consistently uses obsessive characters really well. There's a lot of horror media where, in real life, it would make more sense for the characters to give up on their investigations of the supernatural or to ignore it in entirely in the first place. The audience is usually (and rightfully) able to suspend reality for the sake of the story in these situations. But what's so interesting about Jonny's writing is that he explicitly states characters like Alan, like Amy Patel, like Jon, can't stop themselves. It's obsession, it's all consuming, they know it's bad for them, but they just can't stop. It really adds to the audience fear because you're not the only one telling them turn back, their mind is screaming it too, but they still won't listen.

Character Notes: The post-statement in this episode is just 90% Martin hate. Absolutely unhinged behavior. What if you worked at a restaurant at the end of receipts your boss just wrote "This waiter is a goddamn loser and I hate him." Wild man Jonathan Sims everybody.

[two-reflections]

WIP Wednesday ✨

Minis ✨

Managed to mess around for a couple of hours during the Imperium Maledictum game today.

Those space marines still aren't done because I've been procrastinating/too ill, but I've started basing them. Need to get more PVA glue, I'm not convinced what I used is going to hold this dirt in place.

My little blue guy is almost done. I think his face needs more highlights, but I'll probably varnish him after that. I varnished the blue lady today too, but she basically looks the same so I didn't take a picture.

Imperium Maledictum and other updates below

Imperium Maledictum ✨

This week, we met the Inquisitor and received our mission: pretend to be an Admech group writing a report on a particular planet's tech status since the Noctis Aeterna while actually writing a very different report for the Ordo Hereticus and delivering a secret letter.

We also rolled for connections and worked more on our characters. My Magos Biologos heretek overheard our Space Landsknechte ex-guardsman describe having seen something he thought was a kroot that was almost certainty a tzaangor. Two other characters overheard my lil guy make an offhand comment about how parts of xenos could be medically useful in a pinch. Lots of incriminating stuff!

Writing ✨

Kinktober is carrying on. I'm finding writing classic drabbles (100 words exactly) weirdly hard, but it's also good to practice being consice at times, y'know?

It has also given me a chance to try new things, like writing necrons and other characters I feel I don't know well enough to write a longer fic about. So, that's been cool!

I meant to hammer out the rest of Of Steel and Flesh for Finish What You Started 2024, but I've been too ill this month to really get into it. I'm still hoping I manage to finish an ancient Kingdom Hearts fic I've left undone since 2018 and my entries for the Salamanders Discord Server's Halloween Competition. Got a deadline for the latter tonight, actually... I'm not good at writing horror, but I will try to do something for it.

EDIT - Urgh. Writing nurgly things while having a nasty cold does not feel great. This story isn't even that gross, but my stomach is jumping now. But I met my deadline, so... Worth it?

Misc ✨

My 40-week kitbashing/fleshcrafting project continues. I know this isn't really the place to talk about it, but I'm finding the process rather difficult. While the experts I have consulted on the matter have largely been wonderful, one person I talked to last week was so condescending and uninformed about the unusual complexities of my project that she had me questioning the whole thing. I was given advice on the tier of "Well, maybe you should chuck out your wet palette and use one thick coat", and then was actually scolded for explaining that a wet palette is a helpful adaptation for my needs and that using one thick coat of paint hasn't worked for people like me in the past and is no longer recommended as best practice anyway. Bleh.

However, questioning isn't a bad thing. We learn by asking questions, don't we? I'm still not sure what I'm learning from this one because I'm so pissed off, but there must be something there. Maybe how to make an official complaint to the NHS. If I was treated that way, I can't imagine how that person treats patients with rarer or more serious conditions.

[nebulousboops]

Part 2 of my trombone official art! Part 1 is here if you haven't seen it.

Admittedly, I haven't developed this group all that well, but less than a week isn't that long to fully flesh out eight characters so I'll give myself a pass on that one. Anyhoo, enjoy the bios!

Soda Dolce is Kaizyle's childhood friend who was more than excited to hop on the new club she was making with her brother. He's easily excitable in general, though his people skills aren't very refined. He and Kaizyle actually bonded over that when they were younger. He hopes to make everyone's days a little better, but whether or not he succeeds is a different matter entirely.

Trixiebell Nocturne is what I would describe as "goofily calm." She can say the silliest things, but she says them with such tranquility and seriousness, you can't help but take it at face value. She's a calming presence to those around her, especially her closest friend, Appaloosa. Weirdly, she doesn't talk about herself that often, instead trying to help those around her. She's also a really good baker.

Beezerly Scherzo is an energetic prankster with a heart of gold, so much so, some people find her exhausting. She means no harm, she can just take things a bit far sometimes. She has a sort of sitcom rivalry with Kaizyle, given that she's easy to mess with and has the most entertaining reactions. She's also one of the few club members to actually be in shape, being quite sporty.

Meldor Allemande is methodical, serious, and a huge dork. He likes to seem cool and aloof, but anyone who's known him for more than a day knows it's a front. While he played with the club during performances for awhile, he hesitated to actually join, not having the best experience with bigger social circles in the past. Still, he's welcomed with open arms when he does join officially.

[coldslaws]

REAL THO, the amount of found-family potential in that man is insane, he just looks like he radiates warmth and acceptance that eventually bleeds into N, their family dynamic needs to be studied under a microscope

Which is why the Anime version of him pissed me off so bad. Did you know that in the anime he falls asleep during his battle with Ash which completely embarrassed his Bouffalant, and in response to it not listening to him when he wakes up because he embarrassed it he smacks it on it's behind to force it into a head charge???

HE WOULD NEVER. It ends up charging at him instead tho (deserved) his Volcarona is never even featured in the story either! How are you going to have Alder and not show his most iconic Pokemon!? Asinine, I say, asinine!

He also hits on every woman he can get his hands on, like a Unovan Brock. Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, and eventually Cynthia. Him hitting on Cynthia basically sealed his fate as a shit ass character in the eyes of people who only watch the anime. It's sad.

- 💌

AWFULLLL BAD AWFUL. SCORN. HE WOULD NOT. 👎 ive never watched ash's anime outside of when i was like, a microbe. ive been considering it just to see what they do with n (and i hear anthea and concordia are much more present and fleshed out too) but if i have to be subjected to shitass alder i may explode so idk. at least evolutions, short lived as it is, gives alder a decent portrayal. ns reaction to his "he's conned all of us!" always makes me. hrgggrg.hh. you know

its kinda funny because ash's anime isn't even the only medium to totally splice his character for no reason. there's another manga out there where alder is weirdly like. eccentric to put it nicely, unhinged to put it honestly. he throws hilbert in the trash for some reason and attacks him repeatedly. he sides with n, not because he believes in their ideals, but because he wants to be left alive after the world gets scorched. he's just weird and borderline evil. mind you i never read this manga myself directly cuz iirc i couldn't find an english translation but i just read a synopsis and viewed the untranslated pages and was like. pardon? so maybe my understanding isn't totally accurate, idk

the awesome part about pokemon existing in various different mediums at the hands of a ton of different writers is the broadness and nuance in each character portrayal you can find. and the awful part about pokemon existing in various different mediums at the hands of a ton of different writers is the broadness and nuance in each character portrayal you can find. am i right gamers

[ploppythespaceship]

Thoughts on Star Trek: Prodigy (Season 1B)

I already typed up my thoughts on 1A ages ago, not knowing when 1B would come out, so I'm gonna try not to spend too much time on repeat statements. You can read that here if you care.

Honestly, this was one of the strongest first seasons in Star Trek history. This show knew what it wanted to be from the very start and just got better as it went along. My few complaints are largely nitpicky. Seriously, if you have passed on this because it's a kids show or you don't like the new Treks or whatever -- just give it a try.

What I Liked

The characters and their dynamic continue to be the strongest part of the series. Each of them is unique, memorable, and likeable in their own way, and the back half of the season fleshes all of them out even more. We even get a little flashback establishing each of their backstories. I originally thought Dal was the least interesting character, but his arc of leadership and self-discovery was wonderful in the back half of the season. Now I'd probably cite Jankom as the least interesting, but honestly none of them are bad, and they work very well as a group.

Once again, the animation just looks gorgeous. Character designs are wonderful and varied, and some of the locations are just stunning.

This show is made by people who love Star Trek, and it shows. The references and worldbuilding are crafted with such care, with so many little moments making me smile -- like the handful of calls to Jellico, or the little nods to "Threshold" and "Counterpoint," or the appearance of the Defiant in the big finale. But what I appreciate most about these references is that the show doesn't entirely depend on them. It's not just a shameless nostalgia grab like some other recent Trek outings have been -- if you removed the references and fanservice, there would still be a solid show underneath.

This show also has an excellent balance between episodic and serialized storytelling. There's definitely a big story that gets developed over time and builds up to a big finale, but that doesn't completely derail everything else. The characters still have a series of one-off adventures, which places them in new environments and allows them to have varied arcs. Most had good flow between each other as well, with only a few feeling like pointless filler -- and even those weren't bad, just not as strong as the rest.

I also like how this show isn't necessarily committed to maintaining the status quo. The season finale wrapped up so many arcs and set up season 2 to be quite different, and that's really exciting to me! I don't want them to rehash the same ideas over and over, and it looks like they don't plan to.

I really appreciate Prodigy's approach to darker and more nuanced topics. It doesn't shy away from things like the cast being escaped slaves, or the tragedy of what happened to Solum. Nor does it dumb these things down for its young audience. It just makes these topics approachable.

The reveal of Dal being an augment isn't what I expected, but I like it a lot. It introduces some tension due to the possibility of him not being permitted in Starfleet, and it sends him on a really interesting character arc -- going from "I'm just some experiment from a petri dish" to "I'm the captain and if I can't be in Starfleet, I'm going to do what I can to make sure you all do."

What I Didn't Like

Carrying over my biggest complaint from the first half of the season -- the lip sync in this show is weirdly bad. Mouth movements are often wildly mismatched from the voices, and it's genuinely distracting. And generally, there are some animation choices that make me wonder if there were budgetary or timing issues preventing more fluid movements. Characters can feel a little stiff, or like they're not emoting to the same extent as their voice actors. Hopefully the success of season 1 means season 2 will get a bit more attention in that regard.

Additionally, while the character designs of the alien characters are gorgeous, some of the human characters look a bit strange. I think I notice it most on the returning legacy characters, whose appearances I am most familiar with. It's hard to balance keeping the look of a well-known live-action character while also matching the art style, and I couple times I just think they missed the mark. Holo Janeway looks perfectly fine to me, but Admiral Janeway looks like she was stung by several bees.

While I appreciate most of the little cameos from pre-existing Trek characters, I don't think Okona added much to the story. I would have removed that role entirely, because he was definitely just there to be filler.

I don't care for Murf's redesign. I can't really articulate what looks off to me, but I just prefer the weird little blob to the weird little man.

I don't care for Zero's new suit, either. I understand giving them an upgrade, since their old one was literally scrap metal. But their old one also had charm and character to it. The new one looks like a walking Apple store and feels unpleasantly cold. Even making it gray instead of shining white would have helped, I think.

[osifrau]

this is So Good omg ok

So about Daro'Zaste / Quartz Eye of the King, who's the most recent creation and the most fleshed out one! :)) Zaste's my Skyrim character.

1: 'Te (or Tay) is a mage! His specialty is Destruction magic, but his goal is to become knowledgeable at *all* the different sections of the arcane arts. Not one for Restoration though. As he got older, he started preferring Illusion & Conjuration magic.

2: LOVES putting on a show. His excitement gets the best of him and he loses himself in a weird ecstatic frenzy. Usually is all over the place when casting spells; running around whatever place he's in and switching between various spells.

3: Zaste follows a traditional Khajiiti mindset of "each god has something different to offer, so worship them when it suits you." Being a traditionally raised Khajiit though, he does favor Azurah and Baan Daar (or Rajhin he doesn't really care), and doesn't fully follow any of the Imperial/Eight or Nine divines. Later on in life however, he takes a liking to Hermorah (Hermaeus Mora) due to his deep dive into various scriptures and general collections.

4: Unsure!!

5: (plz cut me some slack i've only played Skyrim and ESO) Dark Brotherhood & The Thieves Guild, not the Fighters Guild or The Mages Guild. He would (and does) however join the College of Winterhold & Dawnguard.

6: Grew up poor on his family's farm on Solstheim. Didn't really have a class for a while because he parted from society for years when he fled Helgen and dove into Blackreach. After returning to the surface though, he had enough old jewelry and small treasures to really get him onto his feet again. Gaining more money wasn't difficult due to his skills in combat and survival, so by the time he becomes Quartz Eye of the King and on, he gets pretty insanely rich. (At least i hope so let's see how the playthrough turns out T-T)

7: Yes (very gay and very violent)

8: Zaste will just keep on going and keep on fighting even if it tears him apart. The flight instinct is non existent in this man and if there's even a minuscule chance that he could get out alive, he absolutely will fight until he dies and will do borderline anything to ensure that he kills his enemy. This dude does not stop with literally anything. Older 'Te though really calms down, although he still teaches others to do what he does, so it never leaves him.

9: He's missing an eye. Was just born like that and his family was loving and protective of him. He's probably got a slew of mental things too, plus 'Tay never learned how to properly patch up wounds so he's got some bad ones that healed weirdly so he has difficulty with his hands occasionally. Has had a real bad tremor from repeated nerve damage since his Reaver days back on Solstheim.

10: I mean he is the player so i guess there are just numerous behaviors and details that have influenced him while playing Skyrim. Other things include love of books and libraries, wanting to collect and organize literally everything into perfect little sections and displays. Another big thing is sexuality but most of my player characters are usually gay (m4m) or bi with a larger preference for men.

11: Yes! He's a Khajiit that abides by traditional honorifics. So the evolution goes from Zaste-Ma (childhood) -> Ja'Zaste (Reaver to Helgen) -> Daro'Zaste* (Blackreach to a little bit before Alduin's defeat) -> Quartz Eye of the King

*Daro is the female honorific, to be so honest i forgot this and refuse to change it because it sounds good but for story things Tay just likes the way it sounds as opposed to Dar. Also weird grimy guys with female names are very cool and i enjoy them greatly

12: It lines up with a lot of the Nords opinions around Skyrim; this being that he supports the defeat of the Thalmor (which for a lot of Khajiit isn't good) and was originally going to join the Stormcloaks, but then he learned about the racism and fascism and senseless murder that Ulfric promoted and quickly turned to the Imperials. (Went w/ hadvar when escaping Helgen so that helped him be more comfortable and knowledgeable abt the Imperials.)

13: Zaste enjoys cooking! He picked up a lot of fun recipes in Blackreach* (Stuffed gleamblossoms, deep vale venison shank, deep vale spriggan smoked slayerfish, a lot of mushroom based recipes, chaurus recipes, and many more. he's probably eaten Falmer meat before). He also enjoys cultivating different plants for food and alchemy, so basically gardening. Again, one of the biggest things that he loves to do is once again collecting. Just. Anything really. Mostly sets of things like armor or jewelry, and he also enjoys making jewelry as well with the gems he finds while exploring Skyrim. As he gets a little bit older he takes to playing a lot of music and dancing in his spare time (dude loves a good party, he threw a lot once he became rich and had a big house) searching for unique decorated instruments to play and add to his collection of things.

*The mods that i use for Blackreach are DMT's Paint it Blackreach, The Blackest Reaches, and Blackreach Railroad. This adds things that might not be canon for other people, but incorporating mods into my characters stories are always fun. There are also many other mods in general that I use that add other things to the game. Zaste is far from a base game character.

14: Not anything specific (not yet anyway, i'm still fairly early in his development), though Blackreach flora is suiting for him. Things that might stick out to others to let them know that it's associated with 'Te are a mostly black object or background with glowing blue+pink marks on them.

15: Guy finds cool magic and goes crazy ig. There is probably more tropes that fit him but im not sure atm.

16: Tamrielic (Common? Cyrodyllic? English?), Ta'agra, a little bit of Dunmeris. As he gets older though and starts studying scriptures he learns Draconic (Dragon Tongue), Ancient Nordic (which might be the same as Draconic), and Dwemeris (Dwarven).

17: Zaste prefers dual wielding & the crossbow when he doesn't use magic, as he couldn't fully rely on magic during his Reaver days, and doesn't prefer staves. Usually the way to decide on whether he uses his swords or his magic is whether or not he wants to cause a huge mess or not. Tay likes lightning magic as well as his shouts, so he mostly uses it outside or in large ruins & caves. He found a Dwemer crossbow during his time in Blackreach, and has kept it ever since. His two swords are an enchanted Akaviri blade that he found in the Snow Elf refuge in Blackreach near i think Mzulft, and a scimitar that he picked up from Lucan Valerius while returning to Riverwood after exiting Blackreach. His fighting style is quick and in your face to be as disorienting as possible to the enemy.

18: I'm going to go with either chaotic good but to a pretty big extreme and emphasis on "chaotic". At his very core, he wants to help people. Deeply. He *will* do anything to help those in need, which is why he joined the Reavers in the first place: to help his family. The income he got from being a bandit was far more than selling goods at his family's stall at the Solstheim market plaza, and he gave nearly all of his gold to his family or purchased equipment himself to give to them. Anyone who asks him for support will get an enthusiastic response back. For the "chaotic" part, he does like his septims and doesn't mind taking lives to get it. He joined the Thieves Guild for the money, and joined the Dark Brotherhood to satisfy that feeling of bloodlust and un-questioned intoxicating power that he felt during his prime time in Blackreach. He misses that feeling very deeply.

19: Tay's just kind of a weird dude, but charming in a way. He looks pretty off-putting, but he's really a sweet Khajiit. A hidden talent of his is that he both dances and plays music super well :) he's always been like that, and was super excited to join the Bard's College when he went to Solitude.

20: Plants that he picked on the road, maybe a cool looking bone or stick something, soul gems, mead, some cool rings or necklaces that he found, and some pieces of paper with little notes scribbled on them.

21: With most situations between people he tries to be diplomatic and understand both sides, ex. his opinion on the Stormcloaks. 'Te's selfless, and mostly abides the law when he's actually in cities. He understands that most citizens are just people trying to get by, and so he sorta robin hoods it to only steal from those who can afford it. He doesn't really have anxiety, or if he does he does really well to calm himself down quite quickly. Lastly, Zaste is kind of a mix of both.

22: I am so deeply uneducated on other NPCs :(

23: Speed and Agility! He's a Dagi-Raht, and a pretty tall one at that + his dragonblood, making him the mighty height of 4'11" (~149 cm) while on flat feet. He's a digitigrade quadruped, so that bumps him up to around 5'3" (~160 cm). His boots are pretty thin on the bottom so they don't do much, maybe add a half inch or so. But anyway, his small size and fast nature are the things he relies on the most in many situations.

24: Zaste never thinks he's good enough. He's a perfectionist, and the thing that he puts that on the hardest is himself. It leads to him getting into situations that are incredibly threatening even to him because he feels that he needs to "prove" himself.

TES OC Interview Game!

What class do they fall under? Anything they specialize in? (ex: Mage > Illusionist) Have they changed their class over their lifetime or stayed the same?

When they cast magic, what’s their style? Are they flamboyant or reserved? Do they wave their hands around? Do they like making a show of it? Are they verbal? 

Which Aedra or Daedra do they worship/champion?

Regardless if something happened or not, which Aedra or Daedra would hate them the most, and why?

What guild would they join, regardless of their skill? (Any guild/group from any game and any timeline) Why?

What’s their social class?

Are they a fighter or a lover?

What’s their lowest/weakest skill that could be a fatal flaw? Or what’s their biggest weakness?

Do they have any handicaps or disabilities?

Does this character have anything in common with you?

Do they have any epithets? How about aliases? 

What’s their most controversial opinion(s)?

What’s their hobbies? 

Any motifs or symbolism for this character? Flowers, animals, etc.

Tropes, tropes, tropes! Do any come into mind for this character? Or do they subvert any?

Languages! How many do they speak? Are they literate?

If they can, what’s their fighting style? If they’re a mage, how do they handle being silenced or running out of magicka?

Where do they fit on the morality chart?

Do they have any quirks or hidden talents?

If you took their bag and upended it now, what would you find in it?

Are they: Diplomatic or Violent? Passive or Instigating? Selfish or Selfless? Law abiding or Lawless? Trusting or Apprehensive? Caring or Indifferent?

Ignoring time, what Elder Scrolls NPC would they get along with the most? Or the worst?

What’s their 2 main attributes? (Strength, Endurance, Speed, Agility, Personality, Intelligence, Will Power, or Luck)

What do they believe is their biggest weakness? What do you say is their biggest weakness?

[jprgirl]

S1E3 - God's Gift to Zebras

[I skipped a scene of the goddesses talking about how girls are swooning over Axl in the library and Stacey is pissed she has to keep stalking him.]

Anders complains to Ty that Axl doesn't want to sleep around, "One girl comas out on him and he thinks he has killer god sperm" - to which Ty points out that it was Axl's first time, so he didn't have a lot to compare it to.

Anders checks with Ty that he's never done that to a woman, right? And Ty replies that he's not Odin.

"But you're still a god; I'm still a god. What makes Odin so different?" "He's Odin, we're not."

Anders then gets weirdly annoyed? He tells Ty to be more positive, then asks if he wants to spend the rest of his life hiding away in his cold room. The implication I think being that Anders believes if they ascend they won't have to hide their powers anymore? I don't feel like this was a very fleshed out concept, like, even rewatching it several times I'm confused by what they were trying to really imply or get at here, other than to show that Anders thinks their powers are good and not something to be shamed about. But honestly Ty doesn't seem all that "negative" in the scene, and him saying he's happy with his hobby might be true, but overall his character arc is that he hates being a god, so even that feels awkward on rewatch.

Anders tells Ty that if he likes things the way they are, he should "shift to Alaska - hide there" and Ty gets a good little retort in after he leaves, "YOU shift to fucking Alaska."

This whole scene is a little weird? The jump from talking about Odin to telling Ty to be "more positive" and then getting pissy that he isn't unhappy with how things are - I'm just not sure what Anders was really doing here, and if he accomplished it. Were there more lines originally that ended up getting cut in editing? He seems to lose his patience out of nowhere and then fucks off, which leaves Ty alone to answer his phone (which sets up the rest of the episode).

Since this isn't a place Anders would just happen to be, it feels odd he'd go all the way to Ty's home just to have this short convo and storm off without convincing Ty of anything, or even really asking him to do anything.

In later seasons this would probably have been made a phone call, I think, but this was probably more visually interesting, even if I don't fully grasp Anders's character motivation. I almost want to say they made him get pissy that Odin is like, "special"? But I feel like Anders is more of a hype man to Axl than jealous overall in the series. Especially in the final season, where he openly sides with Axl over Mike.

IDK, this scene left me scratching my head on this rewatch, haha.

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

What happens to Speckletail and perhaps maybe Brick in your rewrite?

brick isn't really like a character i guess, he's just one of tigerstar's rogues so he's just like there, but not really named

SPECKLETAIL on the other hand is weirdly fleshed out for a background character

she has lionheart and goldenflower with sunfall being the one who sired them, they were like sort of friends and speckletail thought she might have a crush on him but she actually finds out through this that she's aroace, she wanted to have kits and for them to be great and powerful warriors but she didn't want them to be treated specially or different for being the kits of the deputy and she didn't want anyone thinking sunfall and her were mates and also treating her differently

they also kind of bonded over having a distaste for stormtail, sunfall never liked how stormtail treated moonflower or their kits and speckletail always hated how he became mates with her adopted sister, especially when he ditched her after their litter of kits died (one died of illness and stormtail killed the other one that was deaf because he hated the idea of his son being deaf and thought he'd never be able to be a strong warrior/wasn't good enough to carry on his legacy)

speckletail and smallear were also best friends, which no one really expected, they were both grumpy cats with attitude and they constantly gave each other shit, but they both would say that the other was one of the only cats in the clan that would deal with their bullshit, cats thought they'd become mates but smallear was gay and as i said before, speckletail was aroace, HOWEVER, when the two were older, smallear retired and speckletail on the verge of retiring, speckletail had always wanted more kits but never had more, and these feelings were amplified after the death of her son, lionheart

smallear had never particularly wanted kits, but he wanted speckletail to be satisfied with what she gave to their clan before she retired, and so he offered to sire a litter of kits for her and she gratefully accepted, once again keeping who her kits' father was a secret (except for the other elders, they all knew) smallear died of old age while snowkit was still a kit

speckletail kept it a secret until the night she died, where she told goldenflower and snowkit who each of their fathers were with her last breaths, she died from smoke inhalation from the fire from protecting and saving snowkit, she died having never retired even when her siblings all had and wanted her to rest with them, she died to keep her son safe

[absolutehomosexuals]

Hey!

First of all, thanks for expressing your points more-or-less politely. English isn't our first language either and you made your point very clear, so no worries.

While I do agree his options are a bit restricted when it comes to female companions, he doesn't really flirt with Gale or Wyll either – not to their faces, at least. He compliments Wyll a lot when speaking to Tav, but iirc, it's not like he's ever made an effort to hit on him one-on-one.

And when it comes to Gale? I've seen people claim Astarion pronounces his name as if it's a slur, and I pretty much agree lmao. The point we were making isn't "his interactions with male companions seem more genuine", because there's no actual flirting between the men of the party (weirdly enough).

In fact, I think it's even more telling that a victim of repeated sexual abuse perpetrated by men, WOULDN'T hit on any men and would instead attempt to hit on women – perhaps the thought of having sex with men again hits a little too close to home, but he's still trying to carry his plan to term with the means he has. He still talks about being into men in the meantime, whether it's in general/referring to past flings or directed at Wyll, so the evidence is still there.

However, this is a very niche interpretation and we're fully aware of that. Doesn't mean it doesn't hold any credibility.

They made every origin character functionally playersexual to (in our opinion) expand their public, so them adding special lines if you romance him as one of the origin ladies sounds reasonable. I wouldn't say I consider it compelling evidence but eh, that's subjective.

Sincerity = clumsiness is very interesting, however I think there's a middle ground there somewhere. We don't see him acting "clumsy" towards Tav in act 3, where he's in the middle of healing from his trauma and learning to break out of his façade, at least as far as I remember.

10 CHA is regular charisma, so I wouldn't say it's in character for him to act clumsy when hitting on someone he genuinely likes, whereas it would be much more likely for an 8 CHA companion.

His "spicy food" line, imo, didn't come off as particulary horny: it was more of a jab at Lae'zel's threat, because we know Astarion is a bit of a menace lmao. Showing fear (aka vulnerability) wouldn't be wise in his opinion, so he resorts to a snarky remark.

And finally, no one said bisexual men cannot partecipate in gay subculture. Though it is called "gay" for a reason: if I see someone speak English, I'm going to assume English is their first language, even though there are plenty of bilingual people in the world.

This is also a fictional character, written by an author that's naturally going to be influenced by biases (as we all are) and the things he knows, we're not talking about a flesh and blood bisexual man.

If that were the case, we obviously wouldn't form any theories about his sexuality, as humans are complex and can express themselves in a million of different ways.

Whenever people claim "[origin characters] show attraction to all genders", they often point to Astarion's party banter.

Which leaves us pretty confused because, if anything, it shows he has no clue what he's doing with women.

He's known to be this skilled seducer – the fantasy equivalent of a prostitute and, canonically, his pimp's favourite – yet his advances towards female companions come off as clumsy.

We've always chalked it up to him being a snarky little shit, with a touch of stereotypical gay man attitude¹, but the implications of it being genuine are terrifying.

As far as we know, Astarion gathered prey for at least two centuries, and he only ever talks about his male victims: Sebastian and the so-called darling boy were his only sincere relationships. 

If you romance him, he justifies his initial manipulation by saying he only ever seduces people he's genuinely attracted to.

Couple that with the fact we never hear about any women, can it really be a coincidence on his writer’s part?

All we’re saying is, he probably didn't pick up his victims by calling them "a pretty flower", which unironically sounds like someone's first attempt at flirting in a lifetime.

We're even more appalled when people claim he flirted with Lae'zel (who he briefly teased and later implied he wasn't actually interested in, when she asked him why he hasn't tried to "bed" her yet) or Karlach (he seems to sympathize with her quite a bit due to their shared slavery trauma, offering to show her the Upper City when she implies she's never been – didn't come off as sexual at all, honestly).

If anything, his comments towards Wyll sound way more sexually-charged, going as far as to say he was the man Astarion dreamed to marry when he was younger.

And we know Wyll is the furthest thing from his current type, given his approval options.

A history of successfully, and famously, hitting on men coupled with overly-friendly, borderline exuberant interactions with women... wonder what subculture that reminds us of!

Hint: it's gay male subculture.

We also tend to forget Astarion's perception  of his own sexuality is extremely screwed, because centuries of repeated sexual abuse will do that to you.

He's canonically riding that post-escape wave of mania and engaging in sexually risky behaviour (e.g the foursome with the drow twins at Sharess' Caress) + putting on an "open minded, experienced lover" façade (e.g justifying the MC upon being cheated on with Mizora and allowing them to sleep with Halsin to make up for the lack of sex in their relationship).

To put it gracefully: he fucks his way in and out of situations, exchanging sex with favours/protection is second nature to him at this point.

He's forcefully trying to reclaim his sexuality, biting off more than he can chew and re-traumatizing himself in the attempt: what's a little flirting with women to make sure his new allies are on his good side, after all? He surely can't be violated more than he already has been.

What's the damage in agreeing to sleep with a heart-broken Lae'zel at the tiefling party, at this point? It's the perfect manipulation, laid out for him on a silver plate. Also, we know from his confession scene that Astarion's first sexual proposal to Tav was indeed a form of manipulation: he admits that the initial reason why he pursued the player was to seek the protection of someone stronger and to make sure that the party won't kick him out. So, in the instance of Tav refusing him (the only option that triggers the scene between him and Lae'zel), it's only logical that he'd run in the arms of the next best thing, which in this case is Lae'zel, a great warrior that's eager to find a partner for the night.

And when she claims he performed flawlessly? That's the same thing the narrator tells you during the Sharess' Caress scene, only to reveal he's dissociated into oblivion.

Of course Larian didn't want to restrict players' options by locking certain romances, but we’re sorry to announce… he's still not beating the allegations.

¹ Being visibly gay = not being perceived as a threat by women, thus taking liberties such as sarcastic "flirting" towards female acquaintances.

Karlach refers to him as "fancy-boy" if she's in your party while recruiting him, so he is perceived that way in canon.

We can also see Gale being uncomfortable around him at first, especially when Astarion tries to strike up a conversation through party banter, for seemingly no reason – which seems like a pretty clear hint to us.

[nitewrighter]

Looking at the Roadmap of hero releases, do you think certain characters would have been better off if things were a little different? For example, Would Pharah as character would be more fleshed out if Ana wasn't the first additional hero or if Baptiste and his story was included much early with the original roster?

Honestly I seriously wonder what happened what the hell happened with Blizzard and Pharah because like... in terms of the fundamentals of her character, you have someone who was kind of poised to be a central figure in Overwatch's lore: She's got a whole "legacy" thing with Ana, she says she's dreamed of joining Overwatch ever since she was a little girl so you know of course she'd be among the first to answer Winston's recall, she sort of represents the law enforcement that filled the gap during Overwatch's absence, so that puts her character in opposition with Jack-as-a-Vigilante and she's kind of the "Lawful good" contrast to Winston and Tracer's "Neutral Good." There were all these threads of potential but Blizzard didn't pick up on any one.

Even when they brought Ana in, everyone was like, "Ah, okay! This is where Pharah's story starts picking up!" But... it didn't. Ana got two comics, all about her and the original strike team. And like... the really painful part of that is that it honestly took away Pharah's centering in that narrative--like, there was so much mystery about Ana and I thought Pharah's whole story would be Pharah solving the mystery of what happened to the old Overwatch while trying to track down her mother, but... no. Pharah is lucky to get mentioned once in any of Ana's media. The in-game interactions and the lore between Ana and Pharah are weirdly conflicting--Pharah reflects warmly on Ana in her 'Mission Statement' comic, but then you have all this complexity and resentment in Pharah with regards to Ana when Ana isn't present on the team, but then once Ana was dropped in it's all "Mum, You're amazing!" And then in the short story's Ana's like, "Yeah Fareeha never answered my letter." So like... what the fuck are we dealing with here, Blizzard?

Okay I got sidetracked with the Pharah thing but... I do think Ana was very much a necessary first addition to the game because she carries so much lore and backstory and complexity with her. Her addition to the game was basically Blizzard being able to yell, "Hey, this isn't just a shoot 'em up Clusterfuck! We are totally going somewhere with this!" And for a while they were! And Ana added a cool amount of complexity to the Reaper/Soldier 76 dynamic! But then Blizzard started putting more effort into bolstering up the Overwatch League and into New Hero releases to keep focus on gameplay--the new hero releases did add to the world's story, but Blizzard also super dropped off on the comics, and like, to an extent that makes sense--there's not a lot of profit in a comic you're providing for free, and they probably looked at time, money, and effort going into the comics and said, "Hey, these comics aren't bringing in new players, let's not bother with them" ("Oh, you mean the comic about FUCKING BASTION AND TORBJÖRN you released didn't bring in new players??? Color me shocked!!") but those comics were basically the most actual canon lore happening so when they dropped off... it felt stagnating. BLizzard course-corrected, started doing the mini-skin events with the short stories, and honestly I think that's a solid approach because it engages you with the plot both in and out of the game, but as far as how hero releases go...

I don't think one can really say if tweaking the hero releases would really affect your intake of the plot or overall interest in the game, because ultimately the new hero releases are more about gameplay than developing the plot. 

Certainly, some hero releases had way stronger impacts on the lore than others, but when new hero releases, in relation to actually developing the overarching story of the world, feels more like a stopgap against stagnation than actual plot advancement, then the focus shouldn't be, "What hero should we release when" it should be, "Okay what areas of the story have we completely dropped the ball on." (All of them. Blizzard has dropped all the balls.)

[mkstrigidae]

APWH ASKS!

Prior to her disappearance what was Lysa’s relationship to Cat like?

Is Sansa Baelish’s birthday the same date as Sansa Starks? (Or did Petyr make the day she was kidnapped her actual birthday)

Did Rhaegar actually love Lyanna or Elia?

Omg I love getting these thank you!!! Also answers after the cut because I accidentally wrote a whole ass essay about why Rhaegar is Like This.

I think Lysa's relationship with Catelyn was one where things were really good when they were kids, but soured as adulthood began to set in, but in a sort of quietly resentful way from Lysa that she didn't necessarily communicate with Cat. I have a bone to pick with Hoster Tully about this, because I really think a lot of it is his fault (both in canon and in APWH), for the different standards he seems to apply to different daughters.

It's definitely going to get fleshed out in the story- Tully drama abounds, because Cat actually isn't on speaking terms, per se, with her father when the story begins, and her relationship with edmure is kind of strained (don't worry, we will get into the Tully family tea). The Blackfish was probably more of a parent to the Tully kids than Hoster was, especially after their mother died, so Cat is really close to Brynden still, but even brynden favored cat over lysa or edmure, so it's a bit complicated.

I mean, what can you expect from a house where 3 successive generations are named after muppets? (Grover, Elmo, Kermit, and Oscar- I mean there's no way GRRM didn't know what he was doing there, right? You don't accidentally name that many characters after muppets... right?)

Oooooh you've hit on a point i was going to bring up in the next few chapters! Sansa thinks her birthday is in late spring/early summer, but Sansa Stark was born sometime in winter! (I haven't set exact dates yet because i'm weirdly lazy about birth dates). It's not exactly the date she was kidnapped, because Petyr knows that might set off a few red flags- he's arrogant, but not quite arrogant enough to be that stupid- but it is in the same month, just a few weeks later. It's definitely going to be an awkward conversation, that much is certain.

As far as Rhaegar... I think he's a bit complicated. I think that he's in love with the idea of love, but not necessarily interested in the things that it actually takes to build a relationship. I think he's very good at romancing people, and I think it's entirely likely that he thought himself in love with both Elia and Lyanna at the beginning of their courtship, but i'm not sure he conceptualizes love the same way as most people do. It's worth noting that he was a pretty solemn and ~*mature*~ kid, which means that adults treated him like an adult, and that his own parents had an extremely dysfunctional relationship. I mean, Rhaella has 100% divorced Aerys by this point, but he was extremely awful to her during their marriage because I think that his own experiences make his emotional reality a fragile place that he cannot handle anyone contradicting, and to him, she had to be punished because she knew him too well, in a way that i think is not uncommon in domestic abusers.

So Rhaegar saw this, and he took from it the idea that domestic abuse is horrible, but he also took away a kind of emotional unavailability, where his emotions are only expressed in very specific ways that are societally acceptable (i.e. courting someone, encouraging his kids to be ambitious, financially providing for a family, etc.) because there was never really room for them and Aerys really was not a 'talk about your feelings' kind of father, and he has no idea how to communicate properly with someone during a disagreement because he's never seen it modeled.

A lot of Rhaegar's motivation in life is Being A Better Man Than Your Father, which is nice in theory, but his idea of a successful marriage is one where you do all the romance at the beginning, and then the guy provides all the necessary financial capital to Take Care Of The Family and leaves the kids and the house and the day to day stuff to his wife. I think because he didn't have anything to model a healthy relationship on, and was a giant nerd baby as a child, a lot of his ideas about romance and love and marriage came from books and movies, and from societal expectations at large. I almost think he expected Elia to be relieved during his affairs, because he saw his own mother relieved during Aerys' affairs, when he wasn't paying attention to her, but also that he has so many of these affairs because he's able to do the things that romance and infatuation require, but isn't really emotionally available beyond that for the hard work of actually having a relationship with someone once the infatuation passes.

I also think Rhaegar's got a a bit of what I think of as 'Henry the eighth syndrome' where he has a specific idea of what a wife is and a specific idea of what a woman he has an affair with is. Elia was an extremely sensible choice in his mind- she was gorgeous, well educated, came from old money that could net him certain advantageous business connections, and reserved and dutiful in his mind, without a wild temperament that could cause problems. I think Rhaegar was very fond of her, and genuinely wanted to make her happy, but that he married her because he was expected to get married and have kids, and she fit the criteria- and like, Rhaegar is extremely charming! He's good at making people love him! Just so long as those people behave in the ways he expects. Lyanna, to him, was something wild and exciting- a girl he could sweep off her feet because they were isolated up north, and she was unfamiliar with his wealthy lifestyle, and had a more wild temperament where she would argue and contradict him in a way that would have been, uh, inconvenient, lets say, in a wife.

She was a bit naive, compared to Elia's worldliness, not the kind of woman he would have brought to a corporate function, but the kind he could have a passionate affair with, but hoooo boy he would never marry her- i mean she's not wife material to him- it would be social suicide! I think he loved the man he could be to Lyanna- someone who could offer to take care of her and sweep her off her feet and absolutely dazzle her, but in a way that very much had an expiration date, because it was an affair for the excitement of the chase, and like, Rhaegar is just genuinely not emotionally available, because he's so involved in his own head and so emotionally stunted by his upbringing that he doesn't know how to be, and solves problems by throwing money at them, and Lyanna wants security and real intimacy and stability more than anything else because of her unstable upbringing, and Elia wants someone who's actually going to be a partner to her and be with her in the trenches doing the hard work of maintaining a relationship and raising a family, and so they complement each other much more nicely and have a lovely home in Winterfell, while Rhaegar gets to kind of slut his way across Westeros and try to Be A Father in the only way he knows how, which is placing high expectations on the kids and providing financial support, which is why all of his kids have been on anti-anxiety meds at some point or another.

JESUS how did I write a whole ass essay about Rhaegar fucking Targaryen this is ridiculous. The moral of the story is that Rhaegar did love both of them, in different ways, and in the only way he was capable of loving someone, and that he's an absolute disaster and kind of a dick, but like, it's not entirely his fault that he's Like This. (Elia has made her peace with this more than Lyanna has, but that's a whole other essay).

Thank you SO much for the ask- these are always so much fun to answer, and I love that so many people are invested in this story the same way that I am!☺️ 💕💕💕

[redheadscribe]

Fate Winx Saga Review

This is the Winx Club

This isn't

Ah Winx Club, I remembering waking up early in the morning to watch it on Saturday, I thought that it was a cool show and my favorite character was Bloom during the first three seasons when it was under 4Kids. I thought that the characters were cool, the setting was pretty awesome as well and overall it was fun. Years later I was pretty shocked that it is still going on though from what I heard it has lost a lot of it’s quality with season eight being a mixed bag and an okay art style. Now Netflix has acquired the rights and there were two separate shows that they produce.

The first being World of Winx, an animated spin off show showing the girls hiding out on earth helping people and dealing with an evil version of Tinkerbell? In all honesty I was a little confused like how was this a spin off? Was it a spin off from season four as Roxy is a supporting character in this universe? That part confused me but overall it was a pretty good show but at this point I don’t think Winx Club fans wouldn’t mind a reboot that got the She-Ra treatment. Needless to say Winx Club is a popular show that was big in Italy and other countries but it is not what it used to be. Especially when we have this show to talk about Fate: A Winx Saga.

When I first saw the trailer I was pretty confused because none of the shots in the trailer reminded me of Winx Club. Also none of the characters were recognizable as they white washed and replaced Flora, and also white washed Musa. The only three characters that were recognizable were Bloom, Stella and Aisha. However there personalities have changed so much that I can’t even say that this is a faithful adaptation. I know in adaptations there has to be certain changes that you have to make because either to budget or they can’t fit it in and some stuff has to be cut. The least the show could do was get the fashion right, I mean the only one who should be wearing red is Musa while Bloom is the one that wears different shades of blue. Then again the fashion overall is a big joke and they really should fire the costume designer as I looked and she has had no experience dressing up teenagers. Rants out of the way lets see how they butchered the characters.

Let’s start with the leading Pyromaniac herself, Bloom. What the hell did they do to my girl? As a fellow redhead myself it is safe to say Bloom was the one I lean towards to the most even though I did see myself in Tecna, and Flora. Bloom is a stuck up bitch in this show and has to make it all about her, which was one of the problems in some of season four and later on. She is also unbelievably gullible and really stupid. She basically believes anything that Beatrix, a psychopath and a known liar about the whole Not Domino city, yeah I don’t care about the name of this said city in other world. She is a problematic Pyromaniac something that cartoon Bloom season 1-3 would be horrified about, and surprisingly bland.

Now, this Bloom could have worked if there were either more episodes or just better writers. Think about it, she is a girl who discovers that she has these unknown powers and when her emotions get the better of her and harm her family she could be a little distant and closed off. She is angry and confused because she doesn’t understand what is happening which can lead her to feeling a lot of emotions. Though I do hate the fact that they ruined Mike and Vanessa but I forgot that this is a teen drama and as a teen drama parents are assholes, it is the law of teen television. There could have been a nice arc of Bloom dealing with the fact that she has been lied to her entire life, feeling angry and betrayed but then going back to the Bloom we love from the first three seasons as she realized that she was the same person, she just now has a place where she can feel at home while also having awesome fire powers. However we got the worst of Bloom that is shown post season five.

Now lets get to Stella, and I will try my best to contain my rage when I am writing this. Did a person who worked on this show really thought that it would be a great idea to change Stella and make her Diaspro? You know we could’ve added Diaspro and Stella in the same show, she and Stella could’ve been friends due to the two girls being royalty, but then both Stella and Sky would realize that she is a toxic person and break away from her. This is not Stella and the cartoon Stella wouldn’t be caught dead in some of the outfits that she was wearing, maybe the last episode outfit but that’s about it. They could’ve done something with her wardrobe, they could have her dress up as a old woman when her mother was around trying to impress her, and then dress up in clothes that the original Stella is known to wear. Stella is a stereotypical mean girl and there is nothing nuanced about her portrayal. This is not Stella this is Diaspro with Stella’s name.

Now let’s get on to Aisha, she is a fine characters but this isn’t Aisha as she has none of Aisha’s personality she is not even a princess of Andros and well she has no story outside of helping her white friend. Aisha was a standout of season two and had one of the best character entrances in the series. She doesn’t get a story of her own and she is relegated to just being the best friend that get’s Bloom out of trouble. The actress Precious Mustapha deserves way better than what they are giving her.

Now it is time for everybody’s favorite white-washed duo Terra/Flora and Musa. There have been videos and posts that are going over how stupid Netflix and Rainbow for doing this. Just to give everybody context, Musa’s appearance is based off of Lucy Liu and Flora is based off of Jennifer Lopez. I think that speaks for itself in how Netflix and Rainbow screwed this up especially when there are plus size Latinix actresses they could have casted. Now let’s get into their character, weirdly enough they are the ones that have the most interesting friendship dynamic, Terra is a fine character but she is not Flora and Musa is a lot more cold hearted and instead of being a fairy of music she is a mind fairy who is an empath. Now music in a way can evoke emotions and connect people on a deep level but her empathic powers are so undefined. Terra is a fine enough character and her family is pretty interesting.

Now lets get into the boys, Sky, Riven, Dane, and Sam. If there is one thing that I could applaud the show is that anyone can be a fairy or a specialist, it’s just a pity that they excluded the witches. Then again the witches do get the short end of the stick even in the cartoon. Sky is bland, and the actor only ever had one expression throughout the whole show. Riven is, well Riven has always been a jerk but cartoon Riven had some more well likable features than TV show Riven. Dane, he’s fine I would have liked him more if he wasn’t taking so many stupid pills when it came to Riven and Beatrix, boy he needs to find a better man to crush on becuase, Riven is not worth it at all, even if I didn’t like his performance I could definitely see him crushing on Sky way more than Riven. Sam is a fun character and I was glad to see a male fairy added to the school but that’s all I can say about him the boys are okay. If there was one thing that I enjoyed about World of Winx is that they didn’t include the boys and there was nothing lost from it, it was just the girls kicking ass and taking names.

There is not much to say about the school staff and Dowling is a fine character that is a lot like Faragonda, only really ever helps Bloom and reassuring her she is special. I wish there was more done with Terra’s father and all but nope any positive family interaction is bad in a teen show. Overall the school staff, I don’t think that we can even call them a school staff they were a joke.

Now let’s get into the villains, if there is one thing that fans of the first four season can agree on is that the villains were always a standout for each season one. That being said the only effective villain is Beatrix, even though they could have just done the Trix. Let me just say this, The Trix were a great villain for the first season and well they went downhill like the whole cartoon show. Also what is the deal with Rosalind and Sky’s father. To be fair Sky’s dad in the cartoon show has always been a jerk but a jerk that raised a psychopath like Beatrix is too much. I am a little nervous about how they will do if they actually introduce The Trix, Lord Darkar, and Valtor or even the Wizard’s of the Black Circle. Needless to say the villains were just bland.

That is if they actually even use the villains from the cartoon show because so far we have the rather bland Rosalind, I just don’t care for her and there is no need for her to be in the show, Daphne does not deserve this. Then there is Sky’s father and I don’t care and Luna and wow does every teen show have to have terrible parents. How is a cartoon show from the early 2000s is more diverse and interesting than this? I just don’t care at all about the villains except for Beatrix.

There is also the fact that the show is only six episodes and that really does hinder the show as the show could’ve used more episodes to flesh things out then maybe just maybe this show would’ve been interesting. I also see that there are some writers and producers from the Vampire Diaries that are attached to this project and well that explains why some aspects of the show seems dated. Overall Fate, is a bland show that definitely does have better writing than Riverdale but that is not saying much. The characters are bad, and the fashion is terrible something that was a main aspect of the show. The world is generic getting rid of the epic sci-fi fantasy world and Rainbow should’ve just rebooted the animated show.