#i am not here for the plot reasons just for the characters

[he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle]

I am enjoying how the tighter script in the Japanese version is making it even more obvious that Payu/Arashi really did have every reason to believe Rain/Rei was coming onto him.

It felt obvious to me in the Thai version, but there was so much filler dialog that it was easy to get lost in the weeds. In the Japanese version, we see Rei blurt out to Arashi that he is handsome, then cut directly to him gushing about how handsome he is to Kai. Then we get Kai reminding Rei (and us) that his admiration of Hot Motorcycle Guy doesn't sound very hetero, and then we see Rei defending Hot Motorcycle Guy's hotness against the rumors of Arashi's hotness only to be floored when he discovers they're the same person. And then he really DOES look like he's attracted to Arashi that night, everything from staring at him at the dinner to initiating touch to agreeing to go home with him to sitting on his bed when invited to SAYING YES when Arashi asks if he can do more. Arashi is pretty blameless in this scenario, and immediately backed off when he realized Rei wasn't meaning to offer sex (just mutual attraction). And after finding Rei in his bed in the middle of the night, is it any wonder he continued to flirt in the morning? Rei hasn't said he's not attracted to Arashi, only that he wasn't trying to seduce him that night.

It's just such a clear, direct thread between point A and point B. I made essentially the same mental journey in the Thai version, but the filler scenes and dialog made it a less obvious path to traverse. It felt like Rain wasn't consciously aware of his attraction, so Payu's advances felt both surprising and unwanted (but I could still see how Payu could have sincerely misread the situation). Yet in the Japanese version, it seems everyone is aware of Rei's attraction (from Kai to Arashi to Rei himself) because they're all spending the whole episode talking about it. It's talked about in basically every scene other than the 30 second montage of his failed attempts at flirting with Rinka.

All this to say, tightening the script in this Japanese version is proving really, really helpful for character and plot development, and I am here for it.

[layanomaly]

i know we're all entitled to our opinions about the finale and i do respect that really

but if youre someone who says that it was "lazy writing".....you can respectfully get tf out- literally- THERES THE DOOR BITCH😭👉🏻🚪

jkjk ahaha....

but fr tho i honestly think the finale was less of a "lazy writing" and more of a "OMG THERES SO MUCH TO WRITE AND WE DK WHAT TO INCLUDE" mess up-

i hope you guys get what im trying to sayy???

cuz even in that one wrap interview with jac.....she did say they discussed about the agathario flashbacks- “They met over corpses”??? “Then the room took it in a direction that then they lived in a cottage”???? “We talked at length about it, to the point of, is Rio Nicky’s father?”??? so its not like they didnt......but it was in a way important for the plot (and ill tell you how) for them to give more preference to nicky/agathas story it was to show why agatha did what she did for billy (AND NO SHE DIDNT KISS RIO FOR BILLY SHE KISSED RIO FOR HERSELF BECAUSE THAT HOW SHE WANTED TO LEAVE THIS WORLD.....TO BE IN THE EMBRACE OF SOMEONE SHE LOVES-......SHE DIDNT NEED TO KISS HER TO SIPHON HER POWERS BUT SHE STILL DID SO DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT OMG) ......and yes it wasnt a "sacrifice"....more of a "calculated risk" but we all know agatha did care about billy the key factor tho here was to show WHY she cared for him which was cuz of nicky so before any of you say "UGH THE WHOLE POINT OF AAA WAS TO ELEVATE BILLYS CHARACTER" dont- and also did we watch the same show??? i get being upset about being robbed of agathario....believe me i am too but if you try to look at it from a "positive" aspect.......that is in a way how marvel works.......we got introduced to billy the same way agatha and monica were introduced to us in wandavision albeit billy did get more screen time- and if youve read the comics youd know how important his character goes on to become so ig i do feel like the screen time was well deserved???.....although i still do think we needed more context on agathas story but hey like i said there was so much they wanted to include in the story but not enough time..... and im not a huge fan of his character so this isnt even me defending billy....rather its just me trying to be reasonable

plus i do think theyve left a good amount of loose threads to hopefully work with for a season 2 or a lady death spin off????

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

On Mahabharat and the Agency of Women in the epic

If you saw me post the actual reply to this, no, you didn't. I'm so sorry, anon. I accidentally posted the unfinished draft. I will correct my mistake here. I am prefacing all the following words with: That's Just My Opinion, You're Allowed To Have Your Own Opinions.

There's a short answer and a long answer to this ask.

The short answer is: in my opinion, women didn't have a lot of agency. But they were still significant, in the sense that they are so central to the plot that the epic would not exist without the roles they play. If you take any one of them away, the story would be changed inexorably.

The long answer depends on what you would consider as "agency" and what version specifically you are thinking of.

I can talk about Sanskrit text that we have access to and is generally considered as the Original and True version(I don't agree with this and can go on a great big rant about this. In a different post, maybe.)

To lay the groundwork for my explanation, you have to remember how the current Sanskrit text came into being. Originally, the Mahabharat was part of the oral stories told by suta bards(who used to accompany kings into battles as their charioteers and after the battles, would recount the battle and tell glorified and embellished stories about it). It was only written down MUCH later(multiple centuries later) by some brahmins roughly around the time the Yajur Veda were being composed. The oral versions were only one quarter of the length of the written version. So during the writing portion we can assume they added a lot more stuff (which tracks because when you read it, you can clearly see the difference between the story plot beats and the brahminical morality propaganda bits) This context is important. Please keep this in mind.

The mahabharat is a historical document but not in the sense some people would have you believe. It's a document of SOCIAL history at the time it was composed.  It reflects the norms, laws and morality of the culture that they were composed and codified in.

As such, you have a story that is conflicted about how it feels about certain topics. Polyandry being one of them. It was probably a more common occurrence back in the ye old oral storytelling years. We see a lot of instances of women having multiple partners. And these instances are so intrinsically linked to the essence of the story that it's hard to get rid of them. Now we move forward to the time when it was being written down, where polyandry is frowned upon, if not outright forbidden, but you have the issue of Draupadi having five husbands being integral to the story. Hence, you have MULTIPLE attempts to reason it away. The incarnation reason, the five blessings reasons, the regenerating "virginity" etc. Those guys(the aforementioned Brahmin writers) were struggling to present her as a unique situation and make sure that we know that polyandry is NOT acceptable but in this one case, because of Special Divine Reasons, we have to let it slide.

Now we come to the "agency" part. That's a little more difficult because everyone has different mileage of what they consider to be as an active character.

What I can tell you is that we barely get any internality from the female characters in the Sanskrit text. There are a few scenes thrown in sporadically but they have an extreme case of "the writer doesn't view women as actual people". There's also the Stree Parva which, on paper, is all about the women and their grief after the war but even that sort of focuses all the attention on the men, both dead and alive(including their unborn male fetuses).

What matters when it comes to women, according to the epic, are their bodies. Both in the sexual and reproductive contexts. Women are always described by their external appearance(mostly their hips and thighs) and by extensions, their sexuality. (I've lost count of how many times a mysterious wind will strip a woman completely naked so that a bunch of men can stare at her or worse, EJACULATE upon seeing her. They even did that shit to Ganga and she's GANGA. Divine river goddesses are not immune to this shit trope.) Women will often be abducted for marriage and it's just considered as a kshatriya norm of the time. There are multiple instances of being compared to empty containers(bags or fields) for a man's seed(semen). And ironically, they consider the children as copies of the father alone and that there is nothing of the mother in the said children. (This obviously reflects how society at the time was obsessed with the patrilineal lines of succession to maintain patriarchy and control over land and wealth.)

Most of the rare instances of women having some power and agency in the epic come from these two contexts, i.e. having some control over the sexual access of men over their bodies OR having control over their children.

Women didn't typically have rights to succession to the land, wealth and property of their family. In fact, in Chitrangada's case, who does succeed the kingdom after her father this is considered a rare and unique case worthy of note.

This is not to say that the female characters of the Mahabharat aren't interesting or strong. I'm merely telling you how the Sanskrit text narrative treats these characters because of the writers' own biases and viewpoints.

Beyond the Sanskrit text, you have many other versions who will often expand upon the roles of the women. Some regional Mahabharats delete or add scenes according to their own norma. A lot of folk stories breathe life and dimensionality to these women by giving them more to say. Multiple famous plays over the year have given a more gentle and kind touch to the female characters of the cast of this epic.

In the modern contemporary context, everyone is obsessed with writing a feminist retelling(the success of just how feminist said retellings are is a different matter entirely).

If you do find any fault in how active the characters are, the blame often lies at the hand of the storyteller rather than the character themselves.

(P.S. Before anyone gets furious and starts typing an angry anon about how women were "considered goddesses and therefore it means that they had a lot of power", I want to remind everyone that deification often reduces the figure into an inhuman entity and isn't as far from objectification as you would like to think.)

-Mod S

[katyspersonal]

What is a piece of soulsborne lore that just utterly drives you mad?

Not going to lie, it is a hard question.. I just like or at least accept everything in these games? There ARE some "would have been more fun/deep/interesting" moments on my end, but canon decision is never BAD in my eyes! But my mind is legit blank in terms of "getting mad"! (Unless you meant mad as in, madness and not as in, anger?)

The closest to being angry I've gotten was the thing about Radahn as Miquella's consort! And, no, it is not about hassle of some Malenia-hating Redditors "getting validated 😥" or #shouldhavebeengodwyn thing! The story is NOT concerned by petty fandom infighting and its perception should not be dependent on it! And Godwyn was ALREADY in love with Fortissax! When he wasn't, he was getting so gay with his Knights that they straight up rebranded into Death Knights instead of complaining about something-something against the order! He was TAKEN!!! Cope and SEATH! xD /hs

It is... hard to explain, but it felt like a wasted concept! I realized that I'd prefer Miquella of all characters to not have a pair in canon. The God that wants to embrace everyone and love everyone should not pick a favourite. He is not ALLOWED to pick a favourite! Conceptually! It appears that Greater Will set up a standard for anyone who wants to shape the laws of nature to have a pair, right? Placidusax was a partner of previous Elden Ring's owner, Marika had two consorts and Two Fingers sent you to be the third... Looks like the rule is unbreakable, right? Except for one character...

Ranni was set on walking her "dark path" to Godhood alone, and we had to do a bit of insisting to join her! So, all in all, Miquella needed a consort because he wanted a consort! Divinity is scary, and it must be even scarier in solitude, so, I understand! Like, I sure can't even tell the guy to "grow up" for AT LEAST two reasons hfhfjdjg

But, I think he should have forsaken the biases. To love everyone or no one, to be omnipresent... Heck, keep the whole plot about a vow and clinging to Radahn, just with the plot twist of him getting "enlightnment" that he should not embrace one above everyone else! I know that he discarded his love, not his promise. Well? Discard it NOW, then? He should not at least because Radahn would be his weapon? But he wants a world WITHOUT war and battles! I don't know, I just feel a strange type of jealousy I can't explain well... Having a fav doesn't fit his concept of divinity for me. In fact, it strains the vibe of being "embraced" by him because there is always this Third Guy just standing there (menacingly). What, he will force everyone to not just be friends, but also polyamorous now? I mean he might as welllol hfhggvfj Argh. Him not being able to overcome some weakness, fear, clinginess and bias in spite of all is not a BAD story, but it could have been better? Yet I still wonder whether I am right or my preferred idea is a boring cliché and I misunderstood Miyazaki's genius of subverting it! Nor I know why what I am feeling is def a type of jealousy. Oh nooo, has he charmed ME? LITTLE PRICK!!!

Here are a few other things that I am not as happy with, but nothing critical:

Fanart sabotage: Like not making it clear enough that the guy from Scholar of the First Sin cover that holds the crown is Aldia, not Vendrick! He misses Vendrick's trademark braids (that were present even in his youth, mind you!) and has wizardy aesthetic instead of Vendrick's warrior one! Or making the idea of the statue behind Memory Altar in Bloodborne being Caryll easily skippable because this asset is also used literally everywhere in Chalice Dungeons! Or not placing Gold Pendant on the bearded guy's statue in Research Hall, so one has to admit Laurence had a beautiful beard gfhhfj Little things like this, that guaranteed absence of some cool fanart rooted in the source material! Not lore but Fromsoft's way to present things, but still!

Skipping what Demigods Vyke and Bernahl fought: I love, love, LOVE the way Miyazaki deliberately removes some pieces of the puzzle from the story that IS full in his head, to imitate his childhood experience of reading foreign books but not knowing many words! It is an interesting approach, allowing people to fill the gaps with their own imagination! But in THIS case particularly, I didn't like it. 🤔 This is a bit TOO important to miss out on. Like, bro... there were 4 deceased Shardbearers nothing and no one ever mentioned! The whole lore acts as if they never existed! They erased this part of lore so hard it ripped a HOLE in the page!

Creighton reappearing in DS3: I do not dislike what the writers ended up doing to him, but.. at the DS2 time, there was a room to speculate that Creighton was not the unhinged murderer he appeared as! But instead, a trope of a guy who just has negative charisma and SPEAKS like a serial killer! And that maybe Pate actually framed him or something like that! Creighton's lore was kind of vague in DS2! Creighton doesn't even have Mirrah accent, ffs! You know who does though? Pate! Buuuuuut, in DS3, they just straight up confirmed that yeah, he just likes killing. There is no mystery or complexity to him now, he is JUST like that. Sure, why not, but also why? ;-;

Gnarrl being patched out: Keeping the concept of Dragonic Sentinel to a unique character was a way cooler idea! Even if they just could not come up with a better boss to gatekeep Leyendell/Death, at least keep his name as someone who started the trend and others followed!

Put him back. NOW.

Characters disappearing: Again, not really a lore thing, but a presentation thing! But I am talking things like, missing out that the "female archer" in the woods in Dark Souls 1 IS Pharis herself, or that there is a stated female character Knight Amerix amongst the Forest covenant! Why people need to look through Japanese guide to know this info? Or missing the fact that Queen of Lothric is not Gwynevere? (Granted, this is a fault of English localization...) I'll dig out every single obscure gremlin from under the ground!!! Don't fuck with me!!!!!

Priscilla being discarded at birth: I can't criticize this idea at all, it works for the story and as a perfect reflection of how society of Light worked! But I can FEEL mad about it! Gwyn spared a baby dragon (Midir) on condition of having them be of help, Gwyndolin is here, Yorshka is here despite also being half-dragon and also having connection with Lifehunt ability, so tell me why-

Tell me why ONE baby of Seath just straight up got abandoned? Based on what feature others never got? This is needlessly cruel! Like, yes, it works for what it does, but I still will strangle all of the characters involved in this decision! Granted, I gave it a bandaid of saying Seath and Caitha had Yorshka after Gwyn's death now that they were left together in grief, but it doesn't exempt Seath from Priscilla being ditched! Shira I think is also his daughter ("daughter of the duke", also has white hair in concept art and Sam hair as Yorshka in game) but she is doing fine! So, he just dislikes children who remind him of his mortality? What about Yorshka, then? Is she here because she formed as a dragon "differently"? Full disrespect to this cringe looser 🤦‍♂️

Hilde being dead: They've ruined perfect Moonrithyll x Hilde yuri is what they did. Literally the only Fire Knight to be dead and it had to be her. Why could not we have just fought her as a unique mob? :pensive:

_______________

Okaaaay I think this should be it! If you wanted me to finally say something besides devout praise to Soulsborne, I hope that was enough? xD

[yohankang]

read first 9 jjk volumes again and now i'm sad 😔

[rox-of-iu]

bought "immortal life" as a gift for myself and I'm immediately obsessed

it's stardew valley style farm sim but xianxia (said by someone who never played stardew or farm sims this is guesswork lol)

anyway it's early access now but it will come out as a full game in Jan 2024! and I guess there is a possibility that the price will go up once it's a full game cuz that happens sometimes so if ur interested now is your chance hah (its on sale rn for 11,19€)

[qoldenskies]

what's your separated au about? :0

WHERE WE WENT WRONG ASK SPOTTED [LOCKS IN]

okay essentially without going into spoiler territory (it all seems kind of typical but there's a lot of twists and turns i have planned!!! trust me)

VERY basic premise, with leo/donnie with draxum and raph/mikey with splinter. i'm going to keep leo and donnie's names as they are for simplicity's sake and say that at one point they just decided to use the names their bio father gave them when they asked draxum for like... Actual names, they were probably just numbered before. they both have kind of messy complicated relationships with him

^^^ draxum is a pretty shit parent but im not going to make him super abusive (its fine when people do, im just going for the more nuanced approach!!). he's very goal-oriented and for a long time he's struggled to see the weapons he created as people, although he never outright Abused them. he was pretty emotionally neglectful and hard on them when it came to training/pushing them into their roles, and over the course of the story he's going to grapple both with humanizing them and also descending into a spiral of paranoia as things go on (all im gonna say about what's going on with him right now)

personality alterations are more subtle in some places and more obvious in others. raph is a lot more serious and overprotective, mikey's very similar to his canon characterization but he's a lot more rebellious and determined to prove his own independence, and donnie's actually very blunt and deadpan to counteract leo being UHHHHHHHHHH. hmmmmm. an insane person!! (lmao raph/mikey are dog-coded in the way that mikey is an excitable puppy and raph is an old sad sheepdog, and leo/donnie are cat-coded in the way that donnie is a cat that stays in high up places and glares at you, and leo is the type of cat that rolls on its back and looks cute and then ATTACKS when you try to pet it. thats the best way i can summarize them)

donnie was very much the family stickler on his side of the equation and leo was unruly and untameable, but that kind of... switches after some things happen. leo becomes complacent out of fear (he is so complicated and fucked up god bless) and donnie changes his priorities after he meets mikey.

because essentially the core of the story is that donnie and mikey being the youngest of their families, with overprotective older brothers who are actually kind of more reliant on them than the other way around, want to connect and actually be a family (as well as stop the conflict going on) but raph and leo REALLY DO NOT WANT THEM TO.

and i mean REALLY. really really. raph distrusts donnie and hates leo and leo DESPISES both raph and mikey (disaster twins are really codependent and its gonna shine through), so there's really just opposition on every side of the equation. things turn out alright in the end, but it's.... a long, long process. there's a point in the story where they have to do the unlocking ninpo thing and it takes so much longer and it is so much worse and its such a fucking mess LMAO

wow i love my sep au (one man's junk but with more crying and blood in it)

if things go according to plan it'll start after i finish canary continuity, i already have it all outlined. its just beginning stories that is kind of a struggle for me so the first few chapters are gonna be hard. even though i KNOW what im doing bleckgh.

[jeremiahthefroge]

Every appearance of the red-haired menace that is early Laurence forces me to sit here and stew upon how I will fix his introduction in the rewrite. As a coping mechanism. Unfortunately since I can't remember the parts where his character isn't just harassment so I can't cook with the themes the way I'd like to. Like the way he calls Aph "my love" after she very explicitly in the text of the game tells him not to do that... bad vibes. I think I could rock with his character if he'd done the same sort of approach in hitting on Aphmau as heavily, but the moment she lays down an actual boundary, he backs way the hell off. I could even fuck with her trying to be subtle about the boundary and him not getting it and continuing to make her uncomfortable before she snaps at him and he apologizes, saying that he truly didn't mean anything by it, and he respects the boundary she lays like his life depends on it from then on out. It would create some immediate complexity in his need for explicit communication, and backs up the sort of deeper character hinting they seem to try to do when he's talking about Castor and Cadenza, this idea that he deeply cares, if being a bit pushy on accident. It would also make a good detail fueling the conflicts later on with the love triangle that can sort of prevent Laurence from looking like TOO much of a dickhead (him being unaware or misinterpreting situations, and the delicate nature of it making him uncomfortable asking questions, is a compelling reason to see somebody hurting his friends' feelings, and makes him significantly more sympathetic, opening him up for feelings of remorse and guilt).

[amelikos]

I really wonder about Spinel's motivations and the reason he stole Rakurium. He was making his own move and acting independently from Gibeon's orders, since Zir and Conia were spying on him on Amethio's orders. Amethio also suspects him of plotting something.

I wonder if he is working for a third party, which is not the Explorers, though I doubt it because it'd make things a bit too crowded. And from what we've seen of him so far, I don't really see Spinel as someone who'd be involved in a grander scheme (good or bad). He prefers to be alone most of the time and avoids people usually, and he seems to have his own agenda.

Given how the Rakurium is also called "eternal blessing" and that Gibeon mentioned needing more of it for "eminent prosperity", I wonder if it has some healing properties or if it's capable of improving someone's quality of life (which would be the reason why Gibeon wants it)? I wonder if Spinel is doing all of this for someone else's sake, or if there is someone he is willing to do anything for. We know he is capable of love, since Blacky is a friendship evolution, and they are both loyal to each other and love each other. I think it'd be interesting if Spinel was willing to cross some lines and hurt others for a goal that could be considered altruistic.. At the very least, we know that Spinel probably joined the Explorers for his own interests and goals and that he is currently not acting for Gibeon.

[staraxiaa]

chromatic (kirishima fic) update

how it started, chromatic v1:

how it’s (maybe) going, subject to change:

ive just started part III btw

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

ah yes, she's concerned about the aggressor and attacker who was invading them six months ago. something is wrong with the empire right now, poor edelgard; whatever could've happened to her? :(

like... what. why do you care about what's going on with her specifically when she's the person who made the decision to invade leicester? does the whole war just mean nothing to marianne? it's just totally fine that all those people died in a war edelgard started? poor edelgard, something happened to her after she started her attack? you're concerned about the leader who gave the order to attack your home?

hopes has stupid lines but this one is top tier of the top tier and just an excuse for more edelgardjerking from the writers.

[scattered-winter]

every day i kick a rock and bash my head into the wall because i'll never get to go on a big space adventure and become tightly close-knit with my new found family up there <//3

[owlf45]

Sorry for being shippy but… does dabi like, like-like hawks in imaginary? Or is it a “i pity you moderately good looking bird” situation?

ill be fr, i've never gotten to the part in the anime/manga where dabi and hawks interact. i might joke around with them and if i ever catch up on the series, we'll see how it goes from there

[crystalleoi]

oc stuff ^^

their names in order of images are Aero(+ their beloved wife Mackenzie), Venus, and Zettabyte

additional doodles underground

mostly aero because their design hasn't changed very much at all... i've drawn plenty of the others but a lot of it is of their older designs :/

[bluefox4]

Ok, so I'm just thinking about Young Justice (cartoon) and how season two would have been improved if there hadn't been the time skip. There is a lot about the time skip that lost people but the emotional impact that certain things could have had was just gone.

I re-watched it recently and there was a scene in the first episode that would have been so impactful if it had happen several seasons in with knowledge of these characters. It happens between Nightwing and Robin when Nightwing is assigning missions.

Nightwing: Tim, you'll be running Gamma. Robin: Me? Dick, I've never led a squad before. Nightwing: Making this a good opportunity to get your feet wet as a field leader. Robin: Because it's Gamma and you're not expecting trouble, or because we're stretched thin and you have no choice? Nightwing looks away before sighing and turning back to face Robin. Nightwing: Just don't die, ok? Robin's eyes widen as he stiffens slightly. Nightwing: And no unnecessary risks to the squad. That's an order. Robin nods.

The reason that this would have been impactful emotionally speaking is because of the death of Jason Todd. If this had happened a few seasons in we could have met Jason Todd, the second Robin. In Young Justice no one was sure if he had been a character until a hologram of him was shown in the grotto of fallen heroes.

As is, it just seems like Nightwing has been a bit protective of Tim. There's no reason for this scene to stand out. But on a re-watch my only thought was 'Oh this would have been impactful if I had actually known Jason. If there had been a arc of Tim trying to prove that he could watch out for himself and he didn't need Dick protecting him. Just don't die would have been really impactful if the death of the second Robin was known.' Which um, isn't what you want a person thinking when watching your show. It shouldn't be here is this missed chance. It should have been that emotional gut punch.

And I feel like that is part of the problem that parts of season 2 had. It expects that audience to come in with some knowledge already. I know of Jason Todd from cultural osmosis but that isn't enough to make me care about him in the context of the show that I watched. Batman the Animated Series didn't have him so he can be left out of Batman related material. My jump from 'Just don't die' isn't going to be 'oh Jason Todd must of died in this universe' its Nightwing seems a bit protective of Robin but that's probably because Robin doesn't have that much experience crime fighting either in general or in a group. Maybe he's been reckless? Maybe he's like Nightwing was when he was younger and isn't good at letting the group know the plan? But it isn't the second Robin died.

The fact that Robin doesn't really have many parts focused on him after that makes it feel like that should be a conclusion to an arc. A point where he steps out from being one of the focus characters and makes room for Blue Beetle to take over as one of the focus characters.

[obessivedork]

TBH as a writer appreciating the set-up of a character I ADORE Vivienne but her lack of proper character arc & the inability to argue with her more is as infuriating as with most of your companions in DAI, if not more when you play a Mage because you CAN’T grab her by the shoulders and shake her and say Ma’am if you’d had worse luck and wound up literally anywhere other than the Circle you did wind up at you would be a fundamentally different person please for Maker’s sake admit out loud that you only like the Circles because you managed to etch yourself some limited social power out of the broken and corrupt system you might not otherwise have been able to get for yourself and therefore you have not suffered the true effects of it!!!!