#i kept forgetting to post about this

[katyahina]

About the chalice next to Lady Maria

Hey guys, remember how I said that it appears to be really low-res Pthumeru Chalice?

So when I brought that up, Mico revealed to me that there was a figure of Lady Maria by Prime 1 Studio that I didn't know about (actually I never know about any merch, don't judge me..), which features the table too ( x ). He also found some rather good photos that got published on nsfw website of all things for some weird reason ( ( x ), don't worry the photos are... just photos of this figure? nothing weird)

And here is also a video that goes in detail aboit everything:

(From 10:41 it goes about the Chalice and shows it well, too)

To be honest, the details are not exact, yet at the same time the shape and logic in patterns is so eerly similar that it is not THAT different either? I'd say it MUST be this chalice, because it is as detailed as a figure physically could get with repeating such complex pattern, full of tiny details! And it just does make a lot of sense that the thing next to Maria in a place that functions like Hell should be something significant, and not just a random goblet.

The Chalice that Gehrman is point us towards is this one, Pthumeru Chalice... Perhaps, the implication of it being next to Maria all the time (and covered in blood, too, implying having been used in a ritual) is that it is something that haunts her! I am really sure at this rate that she used to raid the tombs with Gehrman too; Gehrman's dialogue and a summon such as Vitus imply that Old Hunters were going in the Chalice Dungeons too, perhaps even before Tomb Prospectors became a thing.

And the picture that is 99% the one from Old Hunters Workshop is probably not a good sign, either; it is just extension of Maria being tormented by her past as part of Gehrman's hunters. Hell is supposed to make you feel bad! Maybe she was the one to smash that picture, even.

[dandeleon]

it mcgucket monday (da WHOLE family here‼️)

[cocksley-and-catapult]

c&c issue but its rectangular and vertical like a normal comic with multiple panels

ISSUE 1128: four panel cap

10 october 2024

[kanejbr3kker]

Just thinking about the parallels of Genya in Ruin and Rising terrifying the king by whispering "I am not ruined. I am ruination" in his ear and then Inej in Crooked Kingdom terrifying Van Eck by whispering "You will see me once more, but only once" in his ear.

[shantechni]

Not me thinking about Donnie putting on a brave face for Splinter to hide how upset he still was over losing the retro-mutagen

[aroaceleovaldez]

What is the PR disaster in question that made Rick announce TSATS? I wasn’t active in the online fandom at that point

Of course! This was awhile ago so it figures people don't remember it/aren't familiar:

Basically a couple years back (2020) the fandom had some posts circulate discussing the ways different characters in the Riordanverse were written poorly or offensively. There was a masterpost that went around tumblr but the two major points people were particularly focusing on were Piper and Samirah (particularly because Piper had featured prominently again in Trials of Apollo recently and the third MCGA book had further emphasized and discussed Samirah being Muslim, since it was supposed to take place during Ramadan). Basically each had multiple posts breaking down the ways they were depicted incorrectly or offensively. The entire fandom for a little bit was VERY intensely discussing this (and it's around this time the "RR crit" tag got very popularized on tumblr - it did exist before, but suddenly was being used VERY frequently - cause it was that wide-spread - though the discussion took over basically every side of Riordaverse social media on different platforms). People really wanted Rick to respond to these criticisms, so he did!

He made two blog posts, one about Piper and one about Samirah. He has since deleted both so the links are to archived versions. The short version: he essentially tried to justify his poor research and double-down that he hadn't written them offensively, actually, people were just being mean to him. The fandom, of course, reacted poorly to this.

[Further elaborated events under the cut since this got a bit lengthy]

(Fun fact, this all happened within a month or so of the time i posted an open letter on aphobic tropes in the Riordanverse that Rick replied to, and then he immediately followed with announcing that Reyna was intended to be ace-coded [which cause a LOT of fandom debate] before Rick dipped for a couple of weeks, and then came back to post the blog posts in response to Piper and Sam stuff. So I like to jokingly refer to this as "The time I imploded the fandom/drove Rick off of twitter." Twas I that set the house ablaze.)

Rick fully left social media after this and the LT Musical social media manager became Rick's social media manager for the time being.

So this all happened June/July of 2020. Tower of Nero would end up being published in October of 2020 and a few months after that Rick would state that he was done with the series and wouldn't be writing any more series installments involving Percy, and also that he wouldn't be writing a Nico quest following Tower of Nero as it "wasn't his place to" and encouraged the community to write their own versions of Nico's story.

The community continued to circulate the tumblr posts and discuss the topics of Rick's offensive character depictions, and this is also where we see the dramatic shift in how the fandom depicts Piper in fanwork (though in most cases it is admittedly not an improvement 😬) because of all this discussion. This is also around the time when the fandom brought Viria under scrutiny claiming that she was whitewashing Piper as part of the same discussions, through the justification that she was drawing Annabeth as having tan skin (which she does canonically), and if Annabeth has tanner skin then Piper then that's whitewashing Piper? Except they were using completely separate images of not fully rendered Piper art versus Annabeth in dramatic lighting, so it's all very awkward and poor logic, and did actually get kind of racist. A lot of people were calling it "Tannabeth Blackchase" (yeah, i know) or similar and a common sentiment you'd see repeated is "Don't draw Annabeth as having darker skin than Piper, because that's offensive/racist/whitewashing." (Note: it was not phrased "don't draw Piper as having lighter skin than Annabeth" - we also won't get into certain offensive depictions of Native Americans, but I digress). But yeah, the Annabeth stuff in all that did not age well at all.

Anyways, in October of 2021 however Rick would announce that he was co-writing The Sun And The Star - with a lot of heavy emphasis on how Mark Oshiro works as a sensitivity reader, and some false advertising from the official social media that Mark Oshiro was the first time a non-Riordan author would be collaborating on the series (disregarding the ghostwriters completely). One of the big criticisms in the breaking down of issues in Rick's writing was his lack of ever seeking a sensitivity reader, and fans claiming that a sensitivity reader could solve a lot of the problems. This was basically Rick's "look! I totally listened!!!!" (though it did little to actually improve things, based on the book) and in TSATS as well Piper gets a large cameo at the end where the text very directly addresses a lot of points made in criticism of Rick's writing of her.

We also then of course got the CoTG trilogy later, explicitly stated to be for advertising purposes for the show.

So basically, short version: Rick came under scrutiny for a lot of offensive writing within the span of two months, made some bad blog posts doubling down about it, left social media. TOA ends. Rick says he wasn't going to continue the series/write what would become TSATS. Community celebrates the end of of the franchise but also continues to discuss Rick's poor writing and the blog posts at length. Rick suddenly announces TSATS and Mark Oshiro's involvement. Everybody gets distracted from being mad. Show announcement stuff also happens and the discussions peter out.

[mossy-paws]

I miss clementine. I miss vinestaff's adopted creature. Could we see some new clementine. I just want to give the cuty a second hug.

(Bias towards the past? what's that :) )

funny enough! Guess what I’ve been forgetting to post for quite some time now :)

[snoozzee]

Hotarubi’s captain my beloved 🪻💜

[crt8ball]

I bet you'll never guess who my favorite icebound character is

[shannonsketches]

Anyway here's more of Vegeta's character arc continuing to be one of the best there ever was

[curse-of-dming-strahd]

hey, guys? why is no one talking about the part where Rahadin swallows an entire toad

[trickstersaint]

decomposition (dysphoria) // june 2023

[blacksailssource]

In celebration for the upcoming 10th anniversary of Black Sails, we would like to invite all of you to celebrate with us! The celebration will partake on January 21st through January 27th. Everyone can participate during this week, whether it's making gifs, art, fics, etc! The prompts for each day will be as follows:

DAY ONE: Favorite Quote(s)/Scene

DAY TWO: Favorite Dynamic(s)

DAY THREE: Favorite Character(s)

DAY FOUR: Favorite Story Arc

DAY FIVE: Favorite Location(s)

DAY SIX: Favorite Season/Episode(s)

DAY SEVEN: Free Choice

Also, please use #bsanniversary during this week so we'll be able to easily track all your edits for this! If anyone has any questions in regards to the celebration, please feel free to ask so that we can answer!

Credit for the header goes to @sonyarebecchi! Thanks again!

[wonder-worker]

I've been thinking about the tragedy of Elizabeth Woodville living to see the end of her family name.

I don't mean her family with her husband, which lived on through her daughter and grandson. I mean her own.

Her sisters died, one by one, many of them after 1485. When Elizabeth died, only Katherine was left, and she would die before the turn of the century as well.

All her brothers died, too. Lewis died in childhood. John was executed. Anthony was murdered. Lionel died suddenly in the peak of Richard's reign, unable to see his niece become queen. Edward perished at war. Richard died in grieving peace. For all the violence and judgement the family endured, it was "an accident of biology" that ended their line: none of the brothers left heirs, and the Woodville name was extinguished. We know the family was aware of this. We know they mourned it, too:

“Buy a bell to be a tenor at Grafton to the bells now there, for a remembrance of the last of my blood.”

Elizabeth lived through the deposition and death of her young sons, and lived to see the end of her own family name. It must have been such a haunting loss, on both sides.

[transformers-earthspark]

Season 2 update!

I know I'm super late to post this, sorry about that.

From executive producer Ant Ward: "Season 2 starts with a bang! The heroes are in the middle of an extremely important mission. They have new skills for the job, but many obstacles and foes stand in their way. Amidst the chaos, new relationships develop, new and familiar characters enter the story, and big secrets are exposed. It’s a wild ride from start to finish!"

Most notable is the mention of "new and familiar characters"; which could be referring to potentially new Terrans and/or legacy characters that haven't yet been seen in Earthspark. The new skills mentioned are most likely just referring to the cyber-sleeve skills that Mo and Robby acquired back in S1.

What are your guesses on the new characters? 👀

[bhaalrespawn]

i think a lot of the takes people have about astarion "secretly not actually being okay with being in a poly relationship with halsin" forget that he will literally turn down being in a poly relationship with literally any other character. he doesn't just "feel like he needs to go along with it". his responses to both asking about karlach and shadowheart both allude to the fact he is open to being in poly relationships, it's depending on the context:

i think the bit about "if shadowheart had more experience in these affairs" is the most telling, because that is what he highlights with why he's okay with halsin:

astarion is fully willing and able to turn tav down and set boundaries if he's truly uncomfortable with an arrangement.

the devnotes also do directly state that he's genuine when he tells you to go on with halsin so there's that.

(and before anyone brings it up: him asking if it's because you haven't had sex in a while is an instance of healthy communication. he's openly addressing a concern he has, and that's a good thing!)