#i genuinely don't know how these ghouls can live with themselves

[captain-starskull]

Now I know how to better portray the news media in an evil empire.

[roach-works]

for all its (apparently many?) flaws, i really enjoyed the fallout show, and i'm ride or die for maximus, obviously. but one of the things i enjoyed about lucy's arc isn't that she wasn't necessarily proved RIGHT or WRONG about her own moral code, she didn't learn that either kindness is its own reward or that niceness is suicidal in a fight for survival.

what she learned, i am pretty sure, is that context matters. you can't actually help people if you don't know anything about them. you can't enact justice if you don't know what the case on trial is. you can't come in out of nowhere and make snap decisions and be anything more than one more complication in a situation that was fucked up long before you were born.

that's what we see over and over: she comes in out of nowhere, she makes an attempt to help based on her immediate assumption of what's going on, and then everything continues to be dangerous and complicated and fucked up. she doesn't let the stoners explain that some ghouls will genuinely try to eat you the minute they get the chance, and she pays for it. she jumps to the wrong conclusion in vault 4 because not everyone who looks like a monster IS a monster, and she pays for it. yeah a lot of the time cooper is abusing her for his own satisfaction, but when she's a free agent she's a loose canon and it's not because the show is punishing her for TRYING to do the right thing. it's because the show is punishing her for jumping to conclusions.

this show gets a lot of laughs from Fish Out Of Water situations, but i think that even though cooper explicitly says "you'll change up here and not for the better, you'll become corrupted and selfish just to survive" that's not the real message. what lucy learns is how important it is to hear people out, meet them where they're at, and get the full story.

that's why the final confrontation with her father is so important. she hears everyone out. she gets the full story. she listens to all of it. and then she acts with full knowledge of situation. that's what the wasteland taught her: not to be cruel, not to be selfish, but that taking the time to understand what's actually going on really matters.

this is a show that's incredibly concerned with truth and lies. everyone is lying to each other and themselves. scenes change over and over as they're recontextualized. love and hate and grief and hope are just motives in a million interconnected shell games, not redeeming justifications. maximus's many compounded falsehoods are approved of by his own superior, who finds a corrupt pawn more useful than an honorable one. cooper finds out his wife has her own private agenda and this betrayal keeps him going for centuries. lucy's entire society is artificial and from the moment they find out they're not safe and maybe never have been, all the vault dwellers are scrambling to deal with that.

ANYWAY. i just think it's neat. sci fi is a lens to analyze our present through a hypothetical future, and i think it's pretty significant for this current age we live in, where we're all grappling with misinformation, conspiracy theories, propaganda, and deepfakes, there's a huge anxiety over how hard it can be to find the truth out about anything. i think the show suggests that it's always worth the work to try.

[dirthamen-enjoyer]

me just rambling about dragon age lore. spoilers for veilguard under the keep reading line.

i wish they had gone down the route of solas not telling the full truth of the evanuris. "they're tyrants and slave owners!" (paraphrase) but in actuality when they get released (ALL OF THEM BC I WANT TO SEE ALL OF THEM) it reveals that there are factions within. those who were actually awful tyrants, those who were lesser evils who never truly helped either side, those that were either secretly or openly helping solas in his rebellion. like imagine the idea of the evanuris that helped him willingly sacrificing themselves to create a stronger seal on the prison. or like the idea that they were genuinely betrayed and have a conflicting relationship with solas after being locked away for so long. i don't like that all the gods are just "tyrants and slave owners." give us variety. not everything should be so cut and dry. and yeah, i don't like that they're just all spirits :/ keep them mysterious immortal beings while solas is the spirit that is used and turned towards the conflict and war.

i also think taking the gods of a diaspora, especially one with clear influences, and making them all evil with no real moral ambiguity wasn't really the best way to go... i understand gods not being morally perfect because many gods within our religions aren't, but there are few that are just "evil" with nothing else to them.

i was going to talk about the reveal that elves are originally spirits that used the titans to become physical and the resulting war, but i got carried away and i think it might be it's own post lol. (it was more about the titans than elves)

i personally don't really like that idea that much because i don't think we need to be given explanations on how races are created. we don't fully know how dwarves came to be, only that dwarves lived with titans. we don't know the full story of qunari, we don't know the full story of humans. so why do we need to know the full story of elves?

i also don't like how the blight changed. i get why, because it can be used by ghilan'nain and elgar'nan, but it also just feels like a copout so they can use it more as a mechanic within the game. popping boils and making puzzles from the blight. taking away how it completely destroys land and taints every single being that comes into prolonged contact with it was not a good change in my opinion. the blight as it was and the taint adds pressure and consequences. they kind of did it with d'meta's crossing, but after that it "changed" more. show us ghouls, show us land actually dying. i loved walking around the western approach, seeing how the blight completely changed the land. i loved finding the silent plains concept art recently.

and to be honest, i don't know how i would have connected creation of the blight to a specific event so i'm not going to really talk about it.

oh and the old gods of tevinter. lame reveal that the dragons were just thralls of the evanuris. taking all these religions and connecting them to one group of people doesn't bring me joy. it makes the world smaller and it takes away the fun of fantasy. as an avid "let the gods being mysterious gods" person, i think the old gods of tevinter should be their own thing. have them be another enemy of the evanuris. you talked about multiple wars? there. another war. maybe it could even be the final wars that started while solas had his rebellion? and the forgotten ones are the old gods, locked away in the abyss (deep underground), while the evanuris are locked away in the sky (the black city / fade).

"how would the tevinter people worship them if they are locked away before humans are said to come to thedas?" easy. retcon. they already love doing that with little things. and honestly i feel like this would be a retcon that most people would not mind as much as other retcons. or, you know, expand on what yavana said in the silent grove about a time before the veil and high dragons in the sky.

was gonna say more but i don't know how to word it well so okie dokie i'm done rambling.

[kafkaoftherubble]

Dear Lyndis,

Here are some suggestions for playing this ask game: https://www.tumblr.com/kafkaoftherubble/753608772078977024/ask-game-for-someones-ocs

❤️ - Ada, F, Emily

🥊 - B, C, D (if they have distinct personalities)

✂️ - Emily

💚 - Ada

🍎 - All (do they have parents? How about their "creators?")

🧠 - F

Signed,

— A Mysterious Stranger

Mysterious个毛。

Look. 2015 Lyn(s) left the most barebone stuff. It has so little meat that if a meat-lover calls it their diet, they are legally required to declare themselves a vegetarian.

I'm basically gonna weave whatever shit this brain can think of using whatever data 2015 versions of Lyn left. And then pretend that this is so totally part of the canon now. It's not like I plan to write it as a real story, right, Future Lyns?

---

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

They love to be alive. They hate to be dead.

Okay, see. You already know how A, B, C, D, E, and F are created, but maybe Future Lyns need this recap (I ain't gonna be like 2015 Lyn who did not even leave a long-lasting record):

Six tubes, each with ten genetically modified embryos, are involved in Project Ghoul/Gu.

In the first phase, every embryo has to fight the other nine embryos for survival. The embryos have only two means: fight their rivals to the death or forcefully absorb the latter. The fittest, most powerful embryo—the last one standing—will stay in the tube for incubation.

Sounds familiar? That's because this technique is based on traditional Chinese +/ Japanese folk magic called 蛊毒。 The Wikipedia page linked has a detailed process of how "the strongest venomous magic" can be cultivated according to Gudu. It's also a method to cultivate antibiotics! Neat.

The leader of the project has a Chinese background (or whatever made-up culture inspired by the Chinese culture. Really, kinda don't have much thought about it yet). That background is in the undertone of the project, including the name: the "Gu" in Project Gu is from the word "蛊"。

(The actual Chinese name should be 人蛊计划, "Human Gu Project")

Project Ghoul is its "internationally known" name; the surviving embryo is called a Ghoul. Because puns are funny!... But also because the experiment subjects echo a creature from pre-Islamic Arabic folklore, "Ghul." Researchers see a Ghoul as a flesh-eating human because their first "diet" was the other embryos they shared in the tubes.

Like the most famous ghul in Arabic folklore, the Ghouls are on the female end of the sex spectrum. Except for one, anyway.

Unfortunately, Tube B, C, and D were a failure. The struggle between embryos was lethal, and the survivors of B, C, and D died shortly after. Hence, they never have anything they love or hate to do. They simply never got to live enough to have that.

--------

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Ada is mediocre at her core. There is nothing particularly exciting about her appearance or traits, especially if compared to the other two surviving Ghouls... and even other humans.

Ada is female. She's an inept straight.

By "inept," I mean she doesn't seem to charm anyone that way (per her admission), doesn't know how to socialize with other genders that well, and doesn't know if she has charisma or how to improve her charisma. She just doesn't possess rizz (per her admission). You can say she's Asa without Yoru.

It's frustrating for Ada to find out she isn't aromantic. A kind blind boy had befriended her that one time; it was hard to determine if it was a youth's idea of a joke, a genuine relationship, something done out of pity, or a "we can try to get along and see if actual love sparked" situation à la arranged marriage—but they dated for a while.

Ada had felt genuine romantic feelings for the boy and had grieved when he died slipping off a banana peel and tumbling down the stairs leading to a busy road. Even if the stairs didn't kill him, the oncoming truck certainly sealed the deal. A new construction began shortly after, and rails and walls were installed in that town. Thanks to this new infrastructure, only Blind Boy was ever transported to another world to become an all-seeing seer by being able to read the script of a story, therefore never falling victim to banana peels again.

The point is, Ada simply isn't aromantic. Above all else, she yearns to be loved and for a person to belong to, which is why her inept straight-ness hurts. She believes the only person who could even love and accept her is someone who's passionately, romantically in love with her. She often fantasizes about the dead boy secretly wanting to be with her for the rest of his life if not for that fucking banana peel, but the Others have waaaaay less faith in that.

Hey, at least she's asexual. Dodge the femcel bullet!

-------

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like? (do they have parents? How about their "creators?")

Every researcher on Project Gu is technically their caretaker, but the Lead Researcher (LR) is considered the "real" parent.

(1) Ada

Ada has no relation with LR because, before F goes missing, LR has no fucking idea "A" survived.

Prior to their lab being destroyed by anti-Ghoul activists/terrorists, A was constantly near death after her Pyrrhic victory against other embryos, so most people didn't really think much about her. The team hastily salvaged E (a fetus) and F (still an embryo) and left for safety; nobody really thought A would live.

A (fetus) survived long enough until a pair of disillusioned ex-researchers discovered it while scavenging for documents after the coast was clear. They brought A home and incubated it further out of curiosity, and to their surprise, A grew up. These people were her first adopted parents.

They were pretty good teachers and parent figures, but they never planned to keep her for long—they believed they were not equipped to train and raise a human weapon and feared being found out by their old research team and LR. When A was 5, they gave her away to a foster home.

To win emotional appeals from voters, an aspiring politician and his wife made a big show of visiting the foster home and choosing one child to adopt. He picked A—his aide had told him that the child was given away by researchers who used to be involved in Project Gu, and the politician thought she might be politically useful someday. Just like that, this politician and his wife became A's second adoptive parents. They named her "Arete" when she told them her name was "A."

Arete's new parents were decent toward her—and she liked them enough—until the wife gave birth to a pair of twins. Arete became sidelined very quickly and showed up less and less with the family. Then two things happened: Arete was found talking to herself all the time. She also sees ghosts and macabre creatures when there aren't any. It was the subject of tabloids and rumors before culminating in an incident that left her parents humiliated at a state dinner.

Her relationship with her parents deteriorated. They started to call her "A" again, distancing themselves from her and giving her just the bare minimum of care. When she was 18, they got her to be emancipated but told her to remove any connection she had with the family, including changing her name. So, A just grabbed a name she found on a book or something and forgo a last name altogether.

(2) Emily

Emily enjoys an affectionate relationship with LR and the rest of the team. Everyone coddles her because she's the success story of Project Gu and is genuinely as impressive and competent as the Ghouls were supposed to be. In public, Project Gu was stated to have only one success, "E." That success brought a ton of research funding and a sterling reputation to the researchers who participated, which made them love her even more.

Without F in the picture, Emily is the princess. LR tolerates her spoiled brat's attitude and usually allows her everything she desires, including acknowledging the human name she had given herself despite insisting they had already given her "a name."

(3) F

F is LR's true golden child. He's the secret 6th Ghoul that not even Emily and many on the research team know. LR treats him as their greatest success and legacy. Nonetheless, they're very guarded about his existence. They're controlling of him and do all they can to make sure F obeys them, as F is a psychic and the most powerful Ghoul. He's their trump card.

F doesn't return LR's fervor. He respects them and treats them well, but he's rather distant. He also treats other researchers in the know about him similarly. F had tried training himself to dampen his psychic empathy however ways he can to avoid being overwhelmed and pained by conflicting emotional states, but that caused him to be aloof to his "parent."

Nonetheless, until he went missing, he defers to LR's commands. He is also the only one who responds to the name LR gave him.

Subfolder: Extra Name Lore Related to LR:

LR believes themself to be the parent of all 6 Ghouls, so they gave them names displaying their well wishes. Unfortunately, they see the Ghouls as weapons and not people, so their wishes are... well.

A: 碍(ài) "hinder, obstruct"

B: 别(bié) "split, break apart"

C: 袭(xí) "sneak attack"

D: 毒(dú) "poison"

E: 扼(è) "chokehold, control"

F: 伏(fú) "subjugate, rule"

Ada had no idea she had such a name. Emily hates it. F is the only one who will respond to it even after they run away.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2.I RAMBLED TOO MUCH. I COMPLAINED ABOUT NO MEAT, BUT IT NOW HAS TOO MUCH MEAT.

[scar0tissue]

Something I want to talk about: Scooby Doo!

I can not express enough how much I love this franchise. I grew up with it and I still get giddy when the theme song comes on, for me it is a amazing package of my childhood sent right back to me whenether I see the gang. But what I want to focus on with the new movie out are exactly that, the movies. I love these movies. But I will say that some of them are less than worth a watch: so as a self proclaimed Scooby Doo enthusiast I will give short (and bad) reviews based on my memory of them and tell you whether I think they're worth a watch. By the way , this is in no particular order. And this will also probably not contain every movie, just the ones I have memory of.

NOTE: these are my opinions, these are based on my experience and what they are like to me.

1. Zombie Island: (I know I said in no particular order, but I had to put in my top 3).what a place to start, a fantastic movie that captures the feeling a Scooby Doo movie should have. Unlike most Scooby Doo movies this one is actually on the scarier side of things, there is a real sense that things may go wrong for the gang and it is a good spice up of the regular formula Scooby Doo has. I say that this movie is well worth a watch.

2. The Witches Ghost: I don't actually know if this followed the zombie Island chronologically or by release, but for me it always felt like the next movie to watch. The opening sequence to this movie always takes me back to when I was a child and would by at my grandmother's house and we would watch this. The movie is very interesting with more plot twists than your average Scooby Doo episode. It is in my opinion on par with zombie Island. Once again I say this movie is well worth a watch.

3. Pirates Ahoy!: Oh the memories with this. If you ever want a pure example of a great Scooby Doo movie, look no further than this pirate themed adventure. It has everything zombies, pirates , and Scooby and shaggy dancing like chickens. It also has one of my favourite side characters in the form of the scientist that comes aboard. I don't want to spoil any of this movie as I would put this near top spot. If you want to watch any Scooby Doo movie , watch this and get to scrubbing the deck ya sea dogs.

The Loch Ness Monster: this movie ,while not my absolute favourite, holds a special place in my heart as it is the closest I beleive a Scooby Doo movie has ever been to where I live. It takes the classic legend of the loch Ness, and manages to make a mystery movie that can only be described as amazing. Definetly a good watch.

Where's my Mummy: it knows what it is , it has asthetic (did I spell it right?) It has pyramids, sand , mummy's , Pharos, and more. Worth a watch and honestly a cut above the rest.

Aloha, Scooby Doo: I would once again say the same as with the previous review. It knows what it is , the dancing, the volcanos and the surfing. A regular old mystery with that extra volcano god/demon mixed in. worth a watch.

The samurai sword: Robo ghost samurais, do I need say any more? Watch it.

Alien Invaders: Ok, this is a very interesting movie. The design of the aliens as well as the whole setting makes for a great movie. It has good pacing and also a better love story than twilight. Worth a watch.

Monster of Mexico: watch this, it may be old, but watch it. It is an absolutely fantastic price of media that encapsulates what Scooby Doo is at its core. The gang going somewhere nice just to find themselves slap bang in the middle of a regular old mystery. Worth a watch.

Chill Out Scooby Doo: do you know what surprised me , is the amount of winter/snow based movies in the Scooby Doo franchise. But I will say this one stands out. It is interesting and good to watch. I would say it's worth a watch.

Goblin King: goblins , ghouls and whatever creepy will pop up in this movie , creepy and fun, definetly a good watch. Especially the end.

Abracadabra Doo: this is what I think was the high point of Scooby Doo was in the 2010's before mystery incorporated came out. This was a good movie which mixed magic, mythology, and mystery together well. A really good watch, but I can see how some may not like it.

Legend of the Phantasaur: Dino's and bikers , all against shaggy. Who will win, great movie, worth a watch if your devoted enough, but may be a bore for some people.

Cyber Chase: cyber Chase is more like a fan fiction than anything else, it is fan service. You see some fan favourite monsters, the gang teams up with a parallel version of themselves and it comes to a climax. It is a good watch for nostalgia, but I would say it may not look the best to people that don't have all that many memories of Scooby Doo.

Camp Scare: this , for me, perfectly embodies the old tradition of a summer camp, at least idealised. The end is an amazing watch and it has a pretty good feel for most of it. Especially Fred with his never ending optimism. Worth a watch. But like me, may not be the best if you have bad memories of summer camp.

Too be completely honest, most movies past this point in the animated section are boring or downright bad. But there may be hope with a Scooby Doo movie with king Arthur coming out this year.

Honourable Mentions for animated movies:

Music of the vampire.

Legend of the vampire.

Big top.

Stage Fright.

Wrestlmania mystery.

In this list I have put the ones on dvd I remember, but I do remember also some VHS ones that I don't know If you can or can't get them today. But all of them are worth watching, these are: Boo Brothers , ghoul school, the reluctant werewolf, and Arabian Nights.

Now live action.

These movies I would say are more comedy's than anything else. While they do have touching moments , you'll probably find yourself laughing more than anything else. So here we go:

Scooby Doo: an island with weird monster people and bad CGI? Sign me up. A good watch but as I mentioned earlier, more so for the comedy.

Scooby Doo 2, Monsters Unleashed: actually a good movie, good villains and genuinely good moments. The effects I would say are better than the first one and the characters it introduces are pretty good. Also Daphne sasses everyone. Definitely worth a watch.

Scooby Doo! The Mystery begins + Curse of the lake monster: I have grouped these both into one because I just think they're bad, I watched them for free on Amazon and I still think I need money back. They are nothing compared to the original live action. Also , Fred is a brunette , how did nobody seem to realise this while making this. Not worth watching.

Once again, post 2015 nothing was really worth watching, but I can't speak for the live action Daphne and Velma movie, I don't even know if this can be classified as a Scooby Doo movie because I dont beleive he's in it. But I have not watched it and therefore cant give a proper review for it. So for the sake of simplicity, I will say it's worth a watch.

I think this wraps this up. I am in no way a professional reviewer, I am just someone who likes Scooby Doo , a lot. I don't own any of the images in this post.

Stay home and stay safe, much love my friends.

Best wishes.