#how the hell do i spoiler tag this

[skrunksthatwunk]

TO WHOM⁉️⁉️⁉️

[torchstelechos]

[Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations.]

[iknowicanbutwhy]

Hello, do-not-make-Mirabelle-angry gang, I present to you @ksenya-and-the-artistic-cucumber being really funny with scattered context

[pocketgalaxies]

fjord being like "jester please don't introduce yourself as a pirate, this woman is a princess and a professor" while laudna is going "fearne did you just add a princess to your–since when are you a princess????"

[mayasaura]

Kabru is always my favorite tho bc I fucking love characters who are both ruthless and genuinely kind. Who have noble goals and strong ideals and will make compromises in order to reach them, especially when they aren't punished for it by the narrative. Kabru will straight up commit vigilante murder because he's done the math and judged it to be the action with the most harm reduction, and he's good at math.

Kabru is the only person in the series both on-scene and thinking about the larger implications of the actions being taken, and I love him for it.

[glitchisbroken]

I'M SORRY!? THAT FOREHEAD KISS, I 𝘊𝘈𝘙𝘌 ABOUT YOU!?

Ashrym is thriving what a feast, I love their comfort UGH!!

(Old art old art!!)

[flickering-nightfall]

[cheaploafs]

no fights are ever won without sacrifice

[beedreamscape]

This has to be the last thing I say on C3 finale because otherwise, I will not stop, it simply baffles me in its mediocrity. And obviously, this will be negative, if you loved it, good for you, this is my takeaway as someone who loved this campaign and was severely let down.

This finale changes everything that came before and not for good, better yet, it emphasizes all the faults in the structure of what c3 tried to be, it made most of the campaign feel like a true exercise in futility — How far can we go in a campaign that is meandering and unsatisfying? How long can we have the same discussion over and over and over again despite everyone knowing how this will end? How long can we drag out characters that don't change without anyone noticing? (spoiler everyone noticed)

Can't say I was emotionally invested in the finale because I tapped out back in the 70s, came back for Aeor/Downfall shenanigans, and left again. But in experiencing the finale something became clear to me:

THIS STORY NEEDED TO BE SHORTER.

WITH ANOTHER PARTY AT THE HELM.

If the objective from the very conception of C3 was to wipe out the gods, that had to be clear from the very start. And it wasn't clear, at all — not in the characters, not in the starting city, not in theme. This was a completely different campaign at the start! That clarity was what made Calamity so great, it was short and precise, and every pc SERVICED THE THEME, filled with hubris and contempt, not to mention the setting.

Even Ludinus went in circles for convenience of the campaign length and became a weaker opponent for it, more of a nuisance than a villain. The threat he posed at episode 50 was much stronger than now at 120 something. The battle against Otohan was more nail-biting and emotionally engaging than fighting Ludinus and Predathos, a god eater!!!!

This campaign would've benefited from three to four acts instead of one overarching objective like the past campaigns because urgency is the name of the game and we can't carry urgency for 70 episodes straight (and they didn't).

The constant inclusion of the other parties made it clear how easy it was to detach BH from the story, how easy and fun it was for them to tell it through another party's eyes (one of the main reasons why I walked away back when I did, but that's more of a personal preference).

Which is not to say Bells Hell's didn't deserve a long story! They could very well have existed in a more intimate campaign which these characters were clearly built for! Their premises begged for closer looks in slow moments, something tragicomical, exploration of the inner world while developing MARQUET and its microcosm of injustice and politics which was left in the dust mid-campaign (pun intended).

And I'm not suggesting this just for our enjoyment, I know it's them playing and their enjoyment comes first blah blah, though this is a multi-million company therefore their jobs but this would contribute to their enjoyment! You could see several moments in the campaign how tapped out they felt and acted. I doubt it was "fun" discussing the gods situation ad naseaum, trudging through landscapes they barely cared about, with empty arcs.

I could nitpick every fault I see in the finale but it would be pointless, these issues have been dragged from ages ago and poor character matching, and now this is a culmination of everything and it barely fazes me anymore.

(And yeah it's their game and it's "free", but that doesn't undermine its weight as a story, stories were made be analyzed, and it was a poorly structured one no matter how much I still like and admire them as people.)

WHICH is not to say I had no fun at all ever, I did! several times! and that's what makes me upset, it could've been great instead is just meh.

[caeslxys]

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere but it feels relevant again in light of the most recent episode. Something that’s really fascinating to me about Orym’s grief in comparison to the rest of the hells’ grief is that his is the youngest/most fresh and because of that tends to be the most volatile when it is triggered (aside from FCG, who was two and obviously The Most volatile when triggered.)

As in: prior to the attack on Zephrah, Orym was leading a normal, happy, casual life! with family who loved him and still do! Grief was something that was inflicted upon him via Ludinus’ machinations, whereas with characters like Imogen or Ashton, grief has been the background tapestry of their entire lives. And I think that shows in how the rest of them are largely able to, if not see past completely (Imogen/Laudna/Chetney) then at least temper/direct their vitriol or grief (Ashton/Fearne/Chetney again) to where it is most effective. (There is a glaring reason, for example, that Imogen scolded Orym for the way he reacted to Liliana and not Ashton. Because Ashton’s anger was directed in a way that was ultimately protective of Imogen—most effective—and Orym’s was founded solely in his personal grief.)

He wants Imogen to have her mom and he wants Lilliana to be salvageable for Imogen because he loves Imogen. But his love for the people in his present actively and consistently tend to conflict with the love he has for the people in his past. They are in a constant battle and Orym—he cannot fathom losing either of them.

(Or, to that point, recognize that allowing empathy to take root in him for the enemy isn't losing one of them.)

It is deeply poignant, then, that Orym’s grief is symbolized by both a sword and shield. It is something he wields as a blade when he feels his philosophy being threatened by certain conversational threads (as he believes it is one of the only things he has left of Will and Derrig, and is therefore desperately clinging onto with both bloody hands even if it makes him, occasionally, a hypocrite), but also something he can use in defense of the people he presently loves—if that provocative, blade-grief side of him does not push them—or himself—away first.

(it won’t—he is as loved by the hells as he loves them. he just needs to—as laudna so beautifully said—say and hear it more often.)

[shameless-and-delirious]

i do not play with ghost trick kitty

i just dont know which should be keychains which should be phone charms or both or neither.... Man

[emil1863]

I'm working on getting into the gif making business

[overdressedcarp]

Dual Destinies spoilers, read at your own risk

Realistically I know that hindsight should make Bobby Fulbright's early-case appearances sadder or more sinister, but whenever I go back and watch those scenes it's so much funnier knowing that this overenthusiastic goober is a trained spy living under the looming threat of imprisonment or assassination if they don't fully commit to the bit.

Do we mourn the loss of OG Bobby? Yes, always. But seeing the Phantom put their whole (debatably unfeeling) chest into becoming a himbo is peak comedy to me. Life-or-death performance of their career, and the role is an overly earnest, easily distracted goofball who literally goes 👉👈 when people are mean to him.

They're onstage, under the spotlights, dancing for their survival, and the guy they're impersonating isn't even cool. Even if he is more of a person than they've ever had the chance to be, before.

It's even funnier in light of the fact that, for all the gravitas and imposing threat Blackquill ascribes to them, the Phantom is honestly kind of a mess in their own right, at least from HAT-1 onward? They have been trying for seven years to get rid of the evidence that they were stabbed in the hand by an eleven-year-old and that they have a flat affect in phone calls, and they've killed multiple people and blown up multiple buildings about it, and they just keep making more problems for themself. They are a failwife cosplaying a malewife while they desperately try to manipulate-mansplain-manslaughter their way out of impending death. 10/10, no notes.

[cake-emu]

seen ppl on Twitter all "Carla doesn't cook but here she is chopping veggies for Lisa" and I will not be hearing this, no no no, Carla does cook, she's just frequently bad at it, and what I find so mind-bendingly endearing about that is that she doesn't let that stop her. she always keeps trying at it (except on Christmas Day), and sod what anyone says about it

[glitchisbroken]

I don't want to lose anyone, not again...

[claudiarose]

still mourning the sex jayvik could've had if Viktor didnt ascend to godhood