#i love me big beef dragons

[todayisafridaynight]

Idk why ryuji bein all like ‘i dont mind The Dragon part [of dragon of kansai]’ is cute to me

[titaswrld]

gryffindor characters modern! AU

according to me….

description: silly modern! AU head canons of the main gryffindor characters :)

pairing: harry, ron, fred, george, ginny and hermione x reader

contains: mentions of substances, alcohol and weed. mentions sexual acts (i think…)

|an: bored and decided i’d made something a little silly. literally just my thoughts lolll don’t take this too seriously

modern AU! harry potter who…

— definitely has a flip phone and refuses to be on any form of social media bc he thinks it��s awful for you

— i think being around his friends who do have social media would give him the spiel on most things tho

— oh he loveeesss house of dragon omg

— only listens to 70s 80s 90s music and some jazz tbh

— i feel like he’s just very old fashioned and he’s happy that way

— such a loving and caring bf since he’s hardly ever even touched the internet he’s pure lol

— def a lil goofball he’d say a little slang term the twins taught him and repeat it back to you…”harry who taught you that…”

— don’t ask him to do no substances i think he’d be kinda against them..not a smoker…occasional drinker.

modern AU! ron weasley who…

— is a stoner! thru and thru. i think he’s a bong rip typa fellow but a blunt or a joint would do it too. doesn’t strike me as a cart of eddie guy.

— big female rap supporter imo…def into latto and maybe dabbles into some meg that’s his girlll lol

— definitely a twea/seltzer guy oml cannot take shots is my hc

— heavy on the lowk himbo boyfriend

— not stupid at all but not super street smart i fear, more of a book smart type of guy.

— super cute and adorable bf overall, he’s a big boy. for sure.

—armmmmssss…. gymrat imo he loves to blow off steam at the gym

—i feel like isn’t a social media person as well…has an insta but doesn’t post on it nor have a lot of followers..no tiktok maybe twitter

—luv him but he was def on drakes side of the beef…definitely a champagne papi

—kinda a video game nerd imo but he’s definitely into the sports ones like FIFA

— buys you n him the crumbl cookie lineup every week and you review them tg in the car pretending to be those tiktok crumbl reviewers😭🫶 (he’s so cute)

modern AU! hermione granger who…

— is 100% on booktok

— do not ask her about the summer i turned pretty or bridgerton unless you wanna listen to her talk for hours.

— don’t play with her and noah kahan…

—or taylor swift

— or chappell roan..

—she’ll have a cute little mixed drink or perhaps a seltzer but do not give this girl no shots she don’t want none!

— her and colleen hoover….

— brings her digital camera everywhere and is most def the camera girl friend….”hermione pls send me the pics from last night”

modern AU! ginny weasley who...

— does not play about female wnba players at all.

— don’t even mention paige bueckers…that’s her girl.

— is a party animal just like her brother.

— loves her chappell roan too.

— always on social media u cannot get this girl off her phone. she’s like an ipad kid u couldn’t rip it out of her cold head hands.

— such a good girlfriend, definitely so protective over her s/o, especially on social media.

— “ginny why’d you respond to every comment under my post complimenting me with ‘& she/he mine..so’…”

modern AU! fred weasley who…

— definitely asks u “english or spanish?”

—definitely goes to too many parties…like at a function every weekend he loves the party scene.

—treats his girl RIGHTT i would compare the relationship to don toliver and kali uchis, flowers all the time, handsy. posting/supporting his girl allll the time

—“i❤️mygf” typa fellow, all his posts on socials are her! all his stories, his highlights and his posts.

— also a weed demon, doesn’t strike me as a beer or seltzer guy but ooooo that liqah….

— dress to impress demon. his gf definitely got him to play it and he got hooked and now he’s a fashion maven.

modern AU! george weasley who…

— is every girls dream man…im talking flowers, boo baskets, burr baskets, easter baskets, omg you say the word and he’s massaging your feet and feeding you grapes.

— always posting his girl just like his brother she’s on his absolutely everything and he has a highlight for her.

— type of guy to post those tiktoks of his girl on his account appreciating her all the time and the comments are like “omg on his account too!” and it’s so cute and adorable.

—isn’t much of a party guy like his brother…will go to a few but i feel like it’s not his thing at all and he’d rather be hanging out with friends instead of at a big function with strangers.

—literally the ken to your barbie and yes he took you to see the movie and yes he got into costume with you. and he did it happily.

— always hanging out with his girlfriend and wouldn’t want it any other way.

[joudama]

And that’s that for Veilguard. Got all the achievements and got the four main possible endings (didn’t bother with the bad ending where you do none of the side quests, everyone dies, and you end up trapped in the Fade forever with Solas).

My four Rooks:

Female Shadow Dragon elf mage - saved Minrathous - romanced Harding - punched Solas in the face

Female Antivan Crow human rogue - saved Treviso - romanced Lucanis - tricked Solas into using the fake dagger

Male Grey Warden dwarf warrior (this was originally going be a Qunari, but I couldn’t get over the yassified look of all the qunari I tried to make and I gave up) - saved Treviso - romanced Davrin (meant to romance Bellara and lol welp, that didn’t happen) - big softie who sent Solas into the Fade with the Inquisitor

Male Mourn Watch elf mage - saved Minrathous - romanced Emmrich (meant to romance Bellara or Neve and lol welp, that didn’t happen) - told the Inquisitor she could do better and made Solas go off into the Fade alone.

My Mourn Watch one is probably going to be my “canon” run, since I liked it the best (that’s not saying much) of my runs. I went with a life leeching run for him, including using the unique items that made health potions/companion heals not work, and beefed up leeching. Literally the only time I died was when my controller ran out of juice in the middle of a dragon fight. The Elgar’nan fight was over so fast I was like, “Wait, is that it?” It was like the curb stomp fight in Inquisition with Corypheus before they let you have enemies scale up with you.

And now for my thoughts. And oh boy, do I have a lot of them. Hoo.

I have…so many issues with this game. It is a very good…whatever the gaming equivalent of a popcorn flick is. It’s great if you go in with your brain turned off and enjoy all the shiny. But that’s not what I want in a Dragon Age game. I’ve been replaying DA2 - the game that DATV is basically trying to channel - while playing these, and the difference in writing quality and intricacy of plot and world building could not be more sharp. The first time I played DATV, I thought it was fine. Almost aggressively fine. I had fun with streaming the game and seeing where it went. I loved the reveals with the wolf statues. I had some major issues with the writing being as subtle as a brick to the face at times (more on my thoughts about the dialogue LATER, because oh boy), but it was serviceable. And I genuinely thought Veilguard had been robbed by not being nominated for Art Direction at the Game Awards, because say what you will, the areas are fucking gorgeous. But, even then, I was like, “Yeah, this would not have deserved a GOTY nomination had it gotten one,” and placed it at a 7 or 8 out of 10. A good enough, enjoyable game that ran well, but was not by any means GOTY material.

Then I made the mistake of playing it again, and the cracks began to show. By the time I hit the middle of Act 2 of my third run, I was just so done. I hated every time certain companions had anything to say at all. I hated that you couldn’t call people out for being a jerk but had to be the supportive nursery school teacher at all times to them. And for the first time playing any BioWare game at all, I found myself wishing I could either not recruit certain people or kick them out of camp. The cracks were beyond showing at that point, and I no longer thought the writing was even “serviceable.” Things that hadn’t seemed so bad on that first popcorn flick run suddenly became a problem - not being able to actually talk to your companions to get to know them went from “it feels more natural to have them saying this stuff while out in the field” to “what is even the point of going around the Lighthouse if all it gets me is a line spoken at me or overhearing bits of them having ACTUAL conversations?” It legitimately hurt replayability. I missed being able to actually talk to my companions, and I realized I cared more about Manfred and Assan than most of my companions because Manfred and Assan actually seemed to like interacting with me. I will take Manfred’s rock-paper-scissors game over a “hey Rook” and dead-eyed stare.

By the time I hit late act 2, I couldn’t wait for it to be over so I could delete the damn game off my hard drive…only for the last achievement I had yet to get to NOT pop when I finished the game. I looked it up and discovered it wasn’t set by triggering a certain end state, but was tied to picking some flowers in Act 2, and wanted to cry. I don’t usually 100% games, especially if I feel like some of the achievements are bullshit I don’t want to do (‘sup, MELE needing you to do some Armax Arena Spectre-level fight - I would sooner chew off my own arm than do that, as anyone who watched me stream Veilguard would have guessed watching me kvetching the whole time I was doing that Hall of Valor shit), but that was just frustrating. I decided to try to get it on a fresh run as a Mourn Watcher, since I’d heard that was one of the surprisingly good faction backgrounds, and that was a good choice. Mourn Watch became my favorite faction, when it had been Shadow Dragons until then. It added so much to a lot more conversations than I would have thought, and made it so I actually enjoyed the sadly few times you get to actually have conversations instead of eavesdropping/being talked at. I’m glad I decided to slog through one more time for that achievement, because if I’d ended it on that third run, I know I would have never played it again. It turned back into a popcorn movie again, aided by me knowing when to put on a YouTube video and watch or scroll through Bluesky instead of listening to a certain character be the fucking worst. If I ever play again, it’ll be a Mourn Watcher (I already know the Veil Jumpers and Lords of Fortune are considered, shall we say, lackluster background factions.)

Which brings me to some of the big, fundamental problems this game had.

This is not a CRPG. It’s just not. It’s an action RPG now, with the focus on “action” not “RPG.” It’s part of the whole Mass Effect-ification of Dragon Age. And I say this as a huge Mass Effect fan:

Dragon Age should not be like Mass Effect. And vice versa.

When Andromeda came out, they decided to ditch the Paragon/Renegade system, and instead went for DAI-style emotion-based options. Which seems great! More speech choices to make a more nuanced Ryder instead of picking up or down! Great! Only no! A lot of people hated it because it didn’t feel like Mass Effect. They had taken away something that had seemed like a major part of how you roll played in the series, and replaced it something very different. It was the first time they took a mechanic from one game and ported it into another, and it didn’t really go over well with a lot of ME fans because it didn’t feel like a Mass Effect mechanic.

And now with Veilguard, they basically made a Mass Effect game with a Dragon Age skin on it. And it just doesn’t work.

Combat: They copied the combat wheel from Mass Effect, but did it kind of badly. I honestly hated it because I tried to play like I do in Mass Effect - pull it up, use it to look around and get a handle on my environment, then pick an enemy or a safe space to bolt to - and the camera snapping the enemies meant I couldn’t. It drove me crazy because it was like the Mass Effect wheel but fundamentally not, and the camera drove me mad because I’d pull it up trying to find where the nearest blight boil was, and it would snap on enemies instead of just letting me look. It’s like they wanted to get rid of every little bit of tactical game play and replace with smashy smashy bang bang instead. Don’t think, don’t plan, just attack…which fits in with the popcorn flick-ness of DATV. Don’t think, just do. Turn your brain off and look at the particle effects.

Another Mass Effect-ification with regards to combat is dropping from taking 3 companions to 2. Which you need to do to have that Mass Effect style combat wheel, and the Mass Effect 3/Andromeda style primer/detonation style interaction of companion powers. Detonations were very satisfying, but not very Dragon Age-y, and requires throwing out some of that DA lore to make it work, because now everyone uses magic-based abilities even if they aren’t mages. Assan attacks deal fire damage. You can spec a warrior who calls up a giant lightning hammer to twirl around, and…how? That’s not enchantment, that’s plain ol’ magic, and how?! Warriors didn’t deal magic-based attacks unless their weapons where enchanted before, but now, everyone is just tossing magic attacks at everything. That’s not how the world of Thedas has worked until now, but you can’t have those flashy explosions or particle effects otherwise, so shhh, turn off your brain and don’t think, shhh. Look at the screen light up and the pretty lights. It worked in Mass Effect because they had already set up tech and biotic attacks, but there’s no way to make hitting something hard with a sword cause it to blow up and damage all the other baddies around them, so now everyone has magic. OK.

As an aside, it was also a really bad idea of get rid of how aggro worked. Dragon Age had always worked by warriors drawing aggro because they had the heavier armor (or could use taunt on enemies targeting squishy mages or rogues). Rogues had lower aggro because they had lighter armor, and could sneak. Mages had even lower aggro because they had the lightest armor and were distance fighters. DATV threw that out the window, and Rook draws all aggro because they are the only ones with a health bar. Your squad is immortal in fights, which means there’s no reason for enemies to ever target them. Which means god help you early game when mages and rogues have no real skills yet. Enjoy dodging while your companions hit the enemies with what seems like attacks as powerful as spitballs. It also means that there are times what the game tells you and the fight you just did are completely at odds. Remember that fight with the Wrath of the Stone in Harding’s companion quest? That thing is on your ass the entire time, but then at the end of it, Rook says something along the lines of “It really hates Harding,” and…are you gaslighting me, game? That thing ignored Harding the whole damn time in favor of trying to stomp me like a cockroach. Harding did not exist to it during my fight. It had a hate boner for Rook and Rook alone, no matter what the game tried to insist on after.

Now, imagine how that would have felt if Harding actually could have been killed/knocked out during the fight, and it was only going after her? What if you couldn’t damage it if it took her down, so you had to make sure she stayed alive? Imagine how different that fight would have hit then? But no, that would mean the devs have to think about how to rez characters and how healing would work, and would mean players have to be tactical, and shh, no, no more of that, no thinking, just dodge and hit things and look at the particle effects. Shh. Have some more popcorn.

Story: DATV wants so badly to be ME2. It wants to recall the companion loyalty quests and the big suicide mission where you have to have everyone ready or you’ll all die. But you can’t copy what you did before and get the same flowers and results. You just can’t. You can try, and all you’ll get is diminishing returns. They tried to do the big cosmic horror of ME1, complete with a Virmire choice, then have the big final stakes of ME2, and no. You can’t follow a template and get the same greatness. That’s not how it works.

And speaking of following templates…

Romances: The romances in Veilguard are just dismal. And I think it’s because they decided to follow the Mass Effect pacing formula instead of the Dragon Age one.

Dragon Age: You start flirting in Act 1. You usually flirt with everyone because hey, why not? Some time in Act 2, things start getting serious, and you have to settle on who you want to go for. Things start to get serious, you get together, and then you get happy fun adult time with your new LI. You get the option to break it off or commit to them fully. By Act 3, you’re in a committed relationship. People comment about it. You can go to them and spend time with them - nothing major, maybe just a kiss. There might also be a special scene that’s just with them and unique to the romance. And by the end, after the lengthy amount of time that’s passed, you are Together.

Mass Effect: You start flirting in Act 1. You usually flirt with everyone because hey, why not? In Act 2, you keep on flirting with everyone. By the end, you might have to make a choice if you’re flirting too hard with everyone and the two LI options tell you to pick someone already, but you’re just picking who you’re interested in. Early in Act 3, there might be an almost kiss, but it’s mostly just the occasional anticipation of eventually boning and nothing really happens until right before the final big fight, when your LI shows up to your cabin for “oh shit, we might die in a few hours, so let’s go out with a high note” happy fun adult time. The only time you get that “committed relationship” vibes is in ME3 if you’re romanced the same character for at least one other game, and you choose to continue the relationship.

The Mass Effect pacing works in the Mass Effect trilogy because each game is only 20-40 hours long. Veilguard is a good 80 hours long. That means using that same amount of romance you use in ME is going to mean you’ve got too little butter to spread over too much bread. It’s why you have a good start for the romances in Act 1, then act 2 is a such a desert of nothing after you commit that I genuinely wondered if I’d hit the wrong option at said no at several points during the very long third act. There’s not just enough content for that long of an Act 2. Near the end everyone starts commenting on you being with them, but it’s not actually happening in the game. There’s no flirting, there are no extra scenes, and even the scene when you commit to them is based on a scene that happens with everyone, just with a romance option tacked on. The only person (of the ones I romanced, so I can’t speak to the others) who really get unique scenes was Emmerich. He actually takes you out on a unique date. It helped a lot to make Emmerich’s romance feel more fleshed out than the others. And Davrin had so many little jaunts out in the woods that those turned into romantic trips out, which added a lot to his. But Lucanis’ and Hardings? With both of them, like I said before, I genuinely wondered if I had accidentally opted out. Their romances most used the Mass Effect format, and it just doesn’t work for a game this long. BioWare knew that once, long ago, because Andromeda did not use the ME trilogy format for romances and was closer to one they used in DA. But DATV is trying to be ME2, so they used ME2’s very thin romances as a guide.

And we can all see how well that turned out.

The Executors: Fuck me, they feel like Cerberus reskinned, and I absolutely hated when Mass Effect shifted from sci-fi/Lovecraftian horror to space opera with Cerberus as the main bad guys you have to fight with the Reapers functionally falling to the background. The Executors are a secret, shadowy organization pulling strings from behind the scenes like the Shadow Broker codexes in ME2 retconned Cerberus into having been doing in ME. Ugh.

The Andromeda-ification of dialogue: Remember Peebee? Remember how she talked? Give her long hair and pointy ears, and she’s Bellara. Down even to the techno-babble. It’s like they’re trying to change magic to just “sufficiently advanced technology.” Everyone speaks in that modern, quippy style that was annoying in a game set hundreds of years in the future because it felt dated by the time the game came out (Ryder makes a Frozen joke, y’all). And it feels completely out of place in a game set in an early modern setting (I don’t think DA is medieval, honestly - it’s more a pre-industrialization/early scientific revoltution setting, so more 1500-1700s, and I’m gonna stop now). It was jarring. You can only let one quirky character break the rules about how people talk (Alistair in DAO, Varric in DA2, Cole in DAI) but when everyone does, it’s jarring. You can be anachronistic, but you have to know what you’re doing and how to do it when you do, and I’m sorry, but the current crop of BioWare writers don’t. They wrote the dialogue like it was a modern day YA novel, not a Dragon Age game. It would have been fine for a modern day urban fantasy game. It was not fine for a DA game set in the same time period as people using the four humours for “modern” medicine (remember the surgeon in DAI? Talked about the four humours? Yeah.)

OK, I did not intend to go on for this long, and I haven’t even gotten to what the game did to how religion is handled or the sociopolitical aspects of Thedas, and how they threw out so much that made Dragon Age unique in their urge to do a soft reboot, so I’m just going to end it here. I wanted to love this game, and I can only do that if I turn my brain off, and that’s not what Dragon Age should be.

[base0h]

Hello,

Heard you’re looking for ideas so…

Here’s a crack one: The Straw hats working in a department store

Would they become employee of the month? Would they be fired immediately?

a/n - IM WHEEZING AT THIS— you are GENIUS bro holy crap 😭🫶 dude luffy would get fired so fast it’s insane— and imma just add everyone bc why not 😂

Warnings ⚠️ - MAJOR crack, multiple characters, I’m kinda dumb and might’ve forgotten people

they didn’t even make it past the interview 💀

.✩ kidd (tried killing the interviewer for asking him why he wanted to work there “I really am passionate about restocking— MF IM BROKE.”), buggy, bonney, paulie (did the same thing as kidd plus he parked in the manager’s parking spot)

literally within the first few seconds of the interview they’re hired | “My name is—“ “Can you start within the next few seconds?”

.✩ jimbei, koby, sabo, koala, izou, kaku, vivi

got fired the same day they started

.✩ luffy (ate the entire produce section and then asked the manager “is there more stuff in the back?”), corazon (he accidentally burnt the place down 😀), sanji (confessed his love and asked several female customers to marry him at his cash register), brook (asked for some poor random woman’s underwear 💀)

employee of the month every single month

.✩ jimbei, koby (old people always say how sweet he is to the manager bc he always helps them get the things they can’t reach 😭🫶), tashigi (kids hate her bc she catches them and scolds them if they take an extra candy/sticker from the cashier jar), vivi (accidentally gave herself this title when she’s the manager 💀)

the manager of the store

.✩ nami (steals money from the safe sometimes), aokiji (he literally never shows up to work on time and doesn’t give a shit what the employees do), akainu, fujitora, shanks (bro also does not care and comes to work hungover), dragon (has not shown up once since the interview), sengoku, garp, dadan, vivi, magellan

the sale sign flipper guy

.✩ zoro (if he manages to actually find his way to the store), bepo, ace, shachi, penguin, queen (you legit can’t miss him as you’re driving by 💀), yamato, oden, cat viper, bon clay, ivankov

they work solely in the back to avoid human interaction as much as possible

.✩ mihawk, law, smoker (he’s the guy that mans the big crane machine that moves huge boxes), hawkins, king, katakuri, smoker, lucci

they’re the CEOs of companies that are partners with the store and provide goods for the store to sell

.✩ crocodile (provides gut/immune supporting, healthy, all organic animal/pet food), doflamingo, kaido, big mom, whitebeard, moria (sells and produces copious amounts of Halloween costumes and other decorations)

actually decent employees

.✩ usopp, benn, x drake, robin, nojiko, baby 5, monet, vergo, franky, icebarg, bellamy (SHADOW FROM SK8 PLS TELL ME YALL SEE IT), hachi, killer

they start tweaking because they asked a customer how they were and they ignored them

.✩ shirahoshi (sobbing), bepo, sanji (asked a girl who had her headphones on), Uta (will get so pressed that they ignored her when in reality they just had headphones on)

they’re the reason why the store’s still in business | they’re basically the mascot

.✩ chopper, bepo, carrot, cat viper, dog storm

the dude everyone goes to for questions/help | “Idk go ask ___”

.✩ franky (has beef with cash register 4 bc it stops working for no reason only during his lunch break and never when he’s not doing anything), icebarg, kaku, usopp, lucci, jack, king, robin, jimbei

they’re the reason why no one likes to shop there | they have several weird allegations or felonies of some sort

.✩ trebol, caesar, diamante, dellinger, pica (he drives this mini car and always somehow fits inside it and takes up two spots in the parking lot), absalom, hogback (people have gone missing in the parking lot it’s scary), moria (would you wanna shop if you saw bro? Ik I wouldn’t 😭)

jobless for life ✌️

.✩ rayleigh (he slays idc), roger, yasopp

a/n - I think i forgot people but eh 💀 the one piece brainrot is so back 🙏

[anneapocalypse]

I realize I already haven't been posting a lot of DA stuff relative to how much FFXIV is on here these days, and that is probably going to be the case for the next couple months, until I've had time to play the new game at my own pace.

While I have found the barrage of promo material a bit overwhelming and have mostly chosen for myself not to worry about keeping up with it all, I'm not especially worried about spoilers ruining the game for me. For one thing, spoilers don't ruin a story for me, and for another, Bioware loves to do fake-outs in promo material where they show you something out of context that look like a massive spoiler and in some sense is but they don't give the context and it usually turns out to be something very different than the impression it gave us (showing In Hushed Whispers Leliana without revealing the time travel thing, for example, or showing Shepard's death like it was a potential ending for ME2 and not the prologue to the game). So like, whatever wild shit they've already shown or will get talked about after previewers get to play a scant few hours of the game, I'm pretty confident that there's going to be plenty of big moments and story context that very deliberately will not be shown before release. I'm going to beef up my blacklist, but I'm also not worried about it, personally.

Mostly, I am probably just not going to be engaging in a lot of meta discussion for a bit, because this just isn't my favorite time to be doing that. I was around for the hype train for DAI and also for the game's initial reception and I'll just say it was not the most pleasant time to be in DA fandom. And please don't misunderstand me--I'm not saying that none of the criticism was warranted or that nobody should complain when they play a new game and don't like something.

I'm just saying that a big new story with lots of new characters and lore and locations and details takes time to absorb. It takes more than a couple of weeks to fully process and analyze a complex story sometimes. And in my experience, the meta and lore discussions get better and more nuanced and interesting with a bit of distance from the initial release. And personally, that's where I start to really enjoy it. I had a lot more fun talking with people about DAI--its strengths and its faults--once the initial hype and backlash had died down. I expect it will probably be that way with DATV too. Again, I want to stress that I don't think there's anything wrong with sharing and discussing first impressions, including negative ones, just that I will probably enjoy the discussions more once things settle a bit.

So if I'm not talking about Dragon Age much here for a while, it's not from lack of interest, I just might chill for a bit and enjoy it on my own before jumping back in.

[wearethewinx]

I SAID I wanted to talk about Aisha:

It's been theorized that Aisha doesn't want to be a princess. I strongly disagree. She takes her role as the princess of Andros extremely seriously, and imo she clearly WANTS to be a good ruler. Yes, she snuck out to dance sometimes and refused her arranged marriage, but that NEVER stopped her from doing her Princess Duties, and she doesn't have baggage around the decorum of her station. She deploys it effortlessly when beneficial and takes it off just as easily. She drops everything at a moment's notice to return to Andros at the slightest sign of trouble to Be Their Princess

She is DEVOTED and LOYAL. Like, maybe the most of all the winx? She knew Flora for like, a week, and that was enough friendship currency for her to BREAK INTO HELIA'S ROOM AND PAW THROUGH HIS SHIT. Yeah Stella committed identity fraud for Bloom on day 1, but that's Stella. Aisha is responsible! Considers her actions carefully! EXCEPT when a friend needs a favor

That devotion includes her parents. Aisha's respect for her mother is paramount, even after the betrothal fiasco, and that's not just a passive thing. She proudly says "source: my mother told me and she's NEVER wrong" in class. I really wish we got to see more of Aisha's relationship with her parents

She knows a lot about poetry and speaks many languages. Again, I just wish we saw more of this

Basically homeschooled

Her royal education doesn't seem to include magic? Which is SUPER interesting to me. Every other princess we meet except Diaspro is canonically some kind of magic student, but Aisha seems self-taught. While every other princess in the magic dimension is learning to be a fairy or sorceress, the princess of Andros is learning diplomacy, fencing, languages, poetry, dancing, etiquette. That says a lot about Androssi royalty!

She's gentle

GENUINELY KIND OF A MAN HATER

I feel like Aisha is often flattened as 'the strong one' (and I do have personal beef w/ how people incorporate that into her design- she's sporty, not a bodybuilder. Dancing, motorcycling, and surfing are not activities that lend themselves to big bulky biceps!!) and I really think that's a boring disservice to her. IMO she's the sort of person who would really appreciate and treasure little friendship tokens, and spend a lot of time just. Trying to do nice things for the winx, and solve their problems. She treasures quiet time spent together.

Helia loving her (despite Aisha thinking he's a loser) because she knows a lot of philosophy and has a good command over her Vibes. Her and Brandon Doing Sports together bc the other Winx aren't interested and the other specialists annoy her too much, and them becoming catty frenemies. Aisha knowing about the history of Domino and the legend of the Dragon Fire, and bonding with Bloom over it. Bloom drawing a picture of the Winx together and Aisha keeping it forever. Aisha still being scared of the dark and Stella giving her a magical light. Musa helping Aisha plan something special to celebrate the Day of the Rose. Tecna Musa and Aisha bonding over the difficulty they have being openly emotional. Flora and Aisha fretting over eachother's well-being and bonding over their shared sense of responsibility to their families

[lowkey-loki245]

So i saw your post and reblog about the time god au and i was thinking that maybe it was a way for vaugardian to rationalize the king take over?

The idea that Time itself sent one of its saint (loop) to guide the savior of Vaugarde throught the house and to fight the king. And that when that wasnt enough time froze the king itself in time to punish it for tampering with its flow

It would also means that Siffrin has access to more time craft like « slow » from Odile « pretty moving cure » from Mirabelle and create tears like the king

Im guessing it would also be an oportunity for Loop to gain more information about wish craft and time craft since even before the king shenanigans they look to be mostly associated with culture outside of Vaugarde (siffrin, the king getting access to time craft with a wish and odile brute forcing craft by research)

also question do you accept fanart of this au?

First, I'm absolutely accepting fanart, I'd love to see what you draw!

Second, absolutely love this idea. People seeing Loop leading the saviors of Vaugarde would definitely be a big deal. It would probably lead to people connecting the Time God to stars. (Thank to this person ( @misty-is-a-dragon ) who gave me this idea.)

Siffrin would definitely want to correct people on who froze the King, but Mirabelle probably wouldn't mind since she already had so much pressure on her before Vaugarde was saved, people knowing she was the one to freeze the King would probably put a lot more pressure on her.

As for the Time Craft stuff. Sif would have unlimited control over Time Craft, but he'd have to ease into his powers first. He'd probably practice on basic enemies (do Sadnesses still exist after the King got frozen, or are they all gone?) or on random objects. (Btw, when I say unlimited Time Craft, I mean he can be as creative as he wants. Too much Craft in a short amount of time will still hurt him. I feel like too much Craft hurts because of the mental strain, not just physical strain.)

Now I'm wondering how different Sif would look in this AU? I think most of the time, he'd look normal (aka, his "mortal" form), but something similar to his big form would be his god form. Just a little less mentally unwell, lol. But if anyone thinks of something cooler, run with it, I wanna see what cool ideas you guys have!

I think it'd be funny if Sif had some one-sided beef with the Change God in this AU. Considering that conversation in the House, I feel like it'd be understandable for Sif to not like the Change God that much. Too bad for him, the Change God is the only one giving him advice on how to be a god.

Also, how do you guys think this whole god situation will affect Siffrin's and Isabeau's relationship? Sif would probably be so scared that being a god now will ruin their relationship, while Isa's just like "my boyfriend's a god, he's so cool :3."

Odile and Mira would not know what to do at first. Should they treat Sif like the god he is, or like the friend he's been? They decide on the 2nd one because Sif is already going through a lot, they don't want to make things worse (though Odile will occasionally joke about treating Sif like a god. I feel like that's her sense of humor).

As for Bonnie, Bonnie would just be hyped about having a super powerful friend. Plus, Siffrin's Time Craft could speed up cooking if they need it. No more waiting a whole day for beef to marinate!

Also, as Siffrin's saint, Loop would probably have really strong Time Craft. It's not unlimited like Sif, but it's still super strong. They'd totally brag and joke about being Sif's saint, too. Sometimes, when Mira or Odile wanna talk to him about something, Loop will be like, "You may now speak to the Time God" as they reveal Sif to them like he's royalty. As you can tell, Loop got their humor from Odile.

Honestly, I'm loving the ideas you guys have been sharing for the AU, this is fun.

[earl-grey-teacake]

Dragon Rider AU- Hertwood

AO3 is down so I am coping. This is a really quick snippet I wrote before bed.

Inspired off of my F1 dragon rider AU- I bring you Indycar.

********

Colton watched as Kyle applied ointment onto the pink scales of his dragon, Kunzite. A tall pink dragons with scales, horns, and leather wings and a white underbelly, Kunzite was quite pretty but also surprisingly clumsy when not racing. The poor thing was being given a bath when it slipped and hit its chin on the tub, which explained why Kyle had Kunzite's head on his lap as he tired to sooth the violent bruise forming.

"Oh, it's okay. I know it hurts but it'll go away soon." Kyle brushed his hand along the scales.

"Murrr" The dragon complained like an annoyed house cat.

"You'll just have to be careful next time." Kyle placed gauze and bandage on it so Kunzite wouldn't lick the ointment off before stepping away to rearrange the contents of the stall. Soft blankets, pillows, large plushies imported from Japan because apparently the Kunzite did not care for American-made stuffed animals- everything to make the poor injured, clumsy dragon as comfortable as possible.

There was a kindness, a love in the way Kyle doted on his dragon. Kunzite didn't enjoy rough-housing like some other dragon's did with their drivers, instead, it was perfectly content being spoiled and treated like a child. Colton has seen Kyle make a 1-hour trip to get the perfect cut of meat for dinner because the dragon was just that picky and wake up in the middle of the night like a worried, first time parent, to see if the thunderstorm had woken the creature up despite being in his pajamas.

Colton felt a nudge as he leaned against the stable walls. His own dragon has decided to poke his head out and see why his owner had not immediately returned to the motorhome and gone to bed. Following his owner's line of sight, the dragon had a mischievous glint in its eyes before nudging him again with its curved horns.

"Go to bed." Colton playfully glared. "You made such a fuss about wanting to go to bed so go to sleep already."

The dragon grinned before throwing its head dramatically against the pillow, causing Colton to roll his eyes.

"Good night, Kunzite," Kyle sang as his gave the dragon a hug and closed the stable gates.

Turning around, he made his way to Colton, still a beam of sunshine despite the scare earlier. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, was waiting on you." Colton stood up and was ready to walk out before-

"Oh, were you not sleeping Arietis?" Colton's dragon had gently nipped at Kyle's jacket preventing him to leave. The all-black dragon had veins of gold running across the scales and two pairs on horn, one curved like a ram and the standard ones that traveled back across the head.

"Arietis, I put you to bed already. Go to bed." Colton scolded. The dragon had made such a big deal about not going to bed 2 hours ago and now it was preventing Colton from going to bed.

"Aww, do you not want to go to bed?" Kyle cooed and rubbed its forehead.

"He wanted to go to bed earlier. He's just being a brat right now." Colton complained.

"Murrr…" Arietis pulled at Kyle's jacket.

"He's just sad you're leaving. That's all." Colton's annoyed expression morphed into a glare as his dragon revealed as mischievous smirk when Kyle hugged the its head and gave little scratches behind the horns.

You wished this was you, don't you.

Colton's expression back sent the message "Keep this up and no beef for breakfast"

"Come on now, off to bed" Kyle coaxed as the dragon drew back and laid its head on the soft pillows. "Good night, Arietis."

The dragon responded with a soft purr and the two drivers quickly rushed out.

"Sorry I took so long, you know how Kunzite is."

"No, I should be apologizing for Arietis's behavior."

"Oh, it's no problem. He's a cutie." Kyle laughed. "Thank you for letting me stay at your motorhome again."

"Of course, anytime." Colton smiled.

"Are you sure you don't find it annoying? You don't have a separate bed so we have to share one. I don't want to ruin your sleep."

"I sleep perfectly fine." Colton was thankful that the night hid the blush creeping on his face.

********

Let me know what you think🥰

Kunzite- a pink or violet gemstone, it was discovered in Pala, CA. Which is about an hour and a half away from Long Beach.

Arietis- latin word for "ram" and refers to the constellation Aries. The dragon is black and gold like trails of stars in the night sky. The constellation is associate with the golden fleece of Greek mythology and Ra in Egyptian mythology. This is mainly influenced by my belief that Colton had a mythology phase as a kid and ran with it when he got his dragon.

[phoenix-manga]

Yuu No. 83 Birthday Vignette

"A party? For me...? Oh, how nice of you. Oh, but make sure Shin and Ghidorah don't fight over the cake, okay?" - Yuu No. 83

NRC School Newspaper A Birthday Interview with Yuu No. 83

Grimm: First off, henchman. I, the Great Grimm, would like to wish you a happy birthday!

Yuu No. 83: Thanks, Grimm.

Grimm: Now, onto the questions! Firstly, I would like to know how you found something like Shin and Ghidorah, and why do they look so weird?

Yuu No. 83: Ah... They're a special kind of organism. Something ancient, yet new. Like an endangered species, yeah? Doesn't this world have all sorts of magical beasts?

Grimm: Is that so? Sounds fishy...

Yuu No. 83: *nervous chuckle* I'm sure you're much more iconic than any magical best, Grimm.

Grimm: Fufu~! Yeah, I am! Not even a dragon can be more popular than the Great Grimm!

Yuu No. 83: But Shin beats you in being the cutest *smirk*

Grimm: Wha-! Hey! I'm much cuter than that chihuahua thing anyday! You just have a bad eye for cuteness...

===

Grimm: Next, what is up with your name, Yuu? And why is your last name 83? It sounds very weird to have a number for a last name...

Yuu No. 83: Oh, you probably didn't know...

But "Yuu" is the nickname everyone in NRC decided to give me because they couldn't remember my number ID.

Grimm: How hard could it be to remember 83?

Yuu No. 83: It's actually 083-116...

Grimm: Funya!? That's it?! No real name or anything!?

Yuu No. 83: Let's just say... I grew up somewhere militaristic. There were a lot of "kids" in that facility- I mean, "boarding house".

They couldn't give all of us names so they used numbers to be more orderly... But I do agree that it seems out of place.

Grimm: How many were you all living in that place?

Yuu No. 83: Umm... about a thousand.

Grimm: Aren't you cramped in there?!

Yuu No. 83: It was a really big "boarding house", okay? So, can we drop the subject and move onto the next question... please.

===

Grimm: What's your favorite food?

Yuu No. 83: Noodles! I love the broth, the toppings and I love the variety. I am a huge fan of beef noodles!

It's so good to eat on a cold day or when you get sick.

Grimm: Noodles aren't that full of meat though, if it were me, I would want a big juicy steak!

Wait... now that I think about it what do Shin and Ghidorah eat?

Yuu No. 83: Well... Shin eats mostly anything, sweets, meat, and fruits. But he likes raw meat the most. It's quite hard to stock up, especially when I'm not that good at hunting...

And I don't want to impose on Rook even if he was offering to help.

As for Ghidorah... he eats minerals. He doesn't eat anything else other than that. I tried but they all end up being thrown away... or at me. *scowls at Ghidorah*

Grimm: I can understand, rocks taste good too if you pick the right ones!

Yuu No. 83: ...

===

Grimm: By the way... what's with that pink little box that you always carry in your pocket?

Yuu No. 83: It's my taser.

Grimm: What's it for?

Yuu No. 83: It's for self defense. Just a press of the button and... ZAP! They get stunned long enough for me to counterattack or run away. Useful, isn't it?

Grimm: You must be paranoid or something... Do you really need something that severe?

Yuu No. 83: This thing is the only thing keeping us away from being squeezed by Floyd.

Grimm: Good point...

===

Grimm: Look at all the gifts! Which ones do you like best, Yuu?

Yuu No. 83: Professor Crewel gave me these custom harnesses to carry Shin and Ghidorah around. It doesn't lessen the weight, but at least I have both my hands unoccupied!

Though, Shin is the only one I bring around campus. Ghidorah is too heavy to carry on my side. I have to hold him in the front.

His weight makes my back sore...

Grimm: He is bigger than Shin.

Yuu No. 83: Then Vil gave me this ring that was modeld after his crown. I don't wear much jewelry, but I like the simple yet elegant design of the ring.

Grimm: I bet it's worth a lot of madols!

Yuu No. 83: It probably is... And I feel so scared to acidentally scratch it.

Grimm: What's this one?

Yuu No. 83: Oh, that's the last of my favorites. Deuce actually took me to a place where we can spin gacha machines.

I spent a good chunk of my savings to get a bunch of cute and tiny figurines, hehe!

Grimm: You seem oddly fixated on those things. You don't even use them for anything.

Yuu No. 83: Hey, it's just a hoard, okay? I don't judge you for stuffing mountains of tuna cans under the bed.

Grimm: Urk! Anyway... happy birthday once again, Yuu. This concludes the interview from yours truly, the Great Grimm!

[dailycupofcreativitea]

AHHHHH you're playing kingdom hearts? Please report back with your thoughts when you feel up to it it's my special interest 👀

Okay here are some thoughts I've spammed to my friends in the last few days! (BTW I read the manga already for the first game so I basically spoiled it but I was still equally as shocked when these things happened in the game lol)

By the way, spoilers below for anyone who hasn't played!

General thoughts:

SORA IS SOOOOOOOOOO CUTE 🥺 The voice actor voiced him PERFECTLY, he's exactly the perfect combination of hopeful, friendship, little kid, strong heart, over confident at times, stubborn, sweet. 😭💖

Told a friend I love Sora in a different way than I love Gohan, here were my thoughts: Gohan is more quiet, sweet, gentle, burdened with a lot of power that he seems hesitant to use and slowly builds his confidence throughout the show, I relate to Gohan a lot, sweet cinnamon roll that must be protecc, but forced to protecc others, etc etc Sora is sweet and gentle but loud, has a HUGE heart and he uses it to protect his friends with 100% confidence (he's more like Goku in that way), his heart is just unwavering and he doesn't seem to doubt himself often (at least in KH1), funny and goofy and his stubbornness can get him into trouble sometimes but his bonds with his friends give him strength, I don't relate to him but I would love to draw inspiration from him

"Shonen protagonist done by Disney" vibes (as put aptly by @genisflyingkites)

Riku is so insanely jealous of Sora it's hilarious, he's overall kind of a jerk and even Kairi said she wanted to leave the island without him, but also Riku is 15 and hormonal and Maleficent got to him so I don't really blame him for it

Donald and Goofy are way less annoying than I assumed they would be, I like that they seem refreshingly mature?? Donald is stubborn and beefs with Sora a lot and Goofy seems like he has a good head on his shoulders and is a deep thinker

Also I keep seeing memes of Donald constantly getting knocked out in game and being useless but for me Donald ALWAYS comes in clutch with the elixirs and ethers

That scene where Maleficent tells Riku that Sora replaced him and Kairi with Donald and Goofy was sad in both the manga and the game but what REALLY made my jaw drop was that SORA LOWKEY FELT THE SAME:

(Yes he was fighting with Donald at the time too but LOOK AT HIS FACE!!! 😭🙏)

If Riku talked to Sora for more than 10 seconds at a time literally all of this would be resolved XD LIKE!! Sora is literally trying to find them! Riku please!

This scene had my sister and I's JAWS ON THE FLOOR:

It was low blow after low blow! I read this in the manga too but somehow it hit harder in the game!

Hollow Bastion is a great OST and I've been listening to it on repeat. The map is also pretty nice but I wish I could explore more without heartless appearing every 5 seconds

Actually I also liked the OST "A Day in Agrabah"

I beat Riku's ass in 10 seconds and it was glorious (Ansem is a whole other story...still working on it)

DID I MENTION SORA HAS SUCH A KIND AND SWEET AND STRONG HEART!?

Every single cutscene had the words "light" "darkness" "friendship" "heart" "memories" repeated over and over again to form a cutscene (I saw this in a Youtube video and thought it was incredibly accurate XD)

My sister and I were CRACKING UP during this cutscene because it made NO SENSE

It just kept getting more and more non-sensical XD

I think Aladdin was my favourite world so far but tbh they were all pretty cool (Sora's Halloween Town fit was so cute! Also I loved flying around by Big Ben, and then getting the glide feature)

The Maleficent Dragon boss was really hard, cool, and fun; Tinker Bell really came in clutch

Also I gotta say this game is really hard to play because the control are so annoying, the jump function is annoying (I keep falling off and misjudging his jump), it keep glitching cause it's connected to the cloud or something, the directions are too vague so I have to follow a walkthrough while playing, and I have to keep stopping between plays because I get motion sickness from the wildly spinning camera really easily -- despite all that I am indeed having a blast

I think that's all my thoughts for now :3

[jo-gakky]

ONE PIECE AU LORE! (or smth) (I know no-one asked for this but ANYWAY! i wanna do a little silly and expand on my little one piece AU :) ) ((Also note : Any designs depicted here are just examples, and are not what the characters exactly look like in this au)) Hi there! just here to expand upon my one piece "god" AU (which is more like a sun and moon au but regardless-) basically in this universe, different one piece characters are assigned a sun, moon or star (not a specific star, just a star-) and basically are the "incarnations" of their assigned aspect. For example : Buggy is assigned the earths moon, specifically (not all character have specific assigned suns/moons, at least for now. Only Buggy and the Reader have an assigned sun and moon) (oh yeah in case the tags weren't clear on the first post, this is an self indulgent au i made so ofc there's a reader insert- if that's not your thing, that's alright, just letting you know-) and all of Buggy's crew are assigned to the starts surrounding the earth (i am no astrologist, my brain is too small for that, so dont be surprised if this is all very basic and/or wrong-) To name some characters that are sun gods in this au : -Luffy -Shanks -Eustass Kidd -Doflamingo -Garp -Ace -Roger to name a few- As for some moon gods in this au : -Law -Corazon -Big mom -Dragon -Rayleigh -Hawkins to name a few (if you wanna know what a specific character would be assigned, feel free to ask!) Also! in situations, a star can become a sun! To name an example of characters that are on that path in this au are: -Coby -Sabo This can also happen but instead the star becomes a moon! Some characters going though this in this au are : -Katakuri -Yamato ((Comets will also become a thing that characters can be, but i need to settle the lore for that first-)) All gods have a more,,, monstrous?? humanoid?? cooler??! form? idk how to explain it- Also, all sun gods have white hair, HOWEVER! the inside or their hair can be a different color! like for example with Shanks :

His hair is mainly white, but has a under-layer?? that is red- Moon gods can just have whatever hair they want- Tho for moon gods, a body part always becomes blue or gets a blue gradient (Fx Buggy's nose became blue. Something like that-) Stars usually have a white streak if they work with a sun god :

And stars working with a moon god have inversed eyes :

Also there is no beef between suns and moons specifically. If two characters have beef its just bc they hate each others guts or whatever- All moons/suns/stars have personal meeting spaces and rooms, but they are not exclusive and anyone can go anywhere- I'll world build a bit as i go, but here is a little bit of what i have so far. ((also if you have any questions, i'd love to hear them! it'll make me very silly <33))

[1-up-chump]

I love your MK headcanons. They're so inspiring for my own writing.

Would you be able to give me some for marrying/ wedding ceremony/ wedding night with some of the MK baddies please? Kano/ Shang Tsung/ shao kahn/ mileena? Thank you.

Aaaa thank you! I don't consider myself all that inspiring but im glad someone does!

Mortal kombat villains in marriage

Kano:

Kano never thought himself the "marrying type" but when he met you? He swears he heard wedding bells.

Despite his dignity and manners being "dubious" to say the least, he is a man who knows how to separate business and pleasure. He wouldn't get far in the black dragon if he didn't.

So he keeps the ceremonies small and simple, who he invites is who he personally trusts to behave which is only a few. The rest would probably be on your side, whether they know what you really do or not is how things play out.

Kano makes sure to present himself in a less shady manner to your friends and family if you kept being a member of the black dragon secret. Surprisingly the man cleans up nicely.

Regardless, kano can't wait to get to the "honeymoon" part.

Shang tsung:

Despite being arrogant he's extremely cautious, so if he decides to marry it means it's truly for love. And he trusts to be with someone for all eternity (even if it means if his beloved wont accept immortality he can always attach their soul to his wedding ring to keep them forever)

As prideful a man shang tsung is, he wants the ceremony small and private. Maybe a little traditional but he's willing to compromise for your traditions as well if you have any.

The reception however. Is going to be big, so extravagant that he's waving a big sign to the elder gods that says "haha you may have cursed me but im still a happy bastard!" And of course shang tsung has beefed security on his island so he can show off everyone what a precious jewel his spouse is.

And after all that shang tsung gives you a very rare gift for the honeymoon, his submission in bed. Savor it but don't take it for granted.

Shao kahn:

Makes sure this wedding is the envy of all realms, like shang tsung the reception is going to be bigger than the actual ceremony. However unlike shang tsung, shao kahn is more lax.

All the attention is directed at you and shao, so even if that makes you a bit uncomfortable, he holds you close to him or gets the attention off of you (its very easy because this man thrives off of the attention.) Also expect tons of gifts from "the peasants".

And of course the reception would be a mortal kombat tournament. It's not shao kahn without some kind of brutal kombat time. He wants to show off as much as possible, his display of love is violently tearing opponents apart.

Of course all that battle is really just him "warming up" for the honeymoon. You will be sore for days.

Mileena:

Mileena will not feel comfortable marrying you until after she is kahn. Once that is all settled, you two will marry promptly.

The ceremony is a bizzare mixture of edenian and tarkatan cultures. Shockingly the combination inspires others to view the tarkatan in a different light. Thusly, your marriage is also a boost in political influence.

But that was never mileena's intentions, she loves you too much to use you like that. For the first time her whole being is bared to someone, who wants to stay forever.

Mileena cries at her own wedding, she didn't think about such things before. But when experiencing the ceremony, being in a beautiful dress, exchanging vows, partaking in a shared carcass of meat, her heart is filled with joy.

Your honeymoon will be filled with the most sentimental and wildest of "activities" including new things that either one of you may or may not enjoy in the future

[arcandoria]

I need to know your overall thoughts on DAV. I just finished my first playthrough of 110 hours and I honestly really loved the game. I thought the team did a great job bringing in the lore and explaining how the blight was created, what happened with the Titans, etc. Some romance dialogue was a little cringe for me lol but other than that I truly loved the game and may have even cried (no I cried like a little bitch). I just constantly see people shitting on it and it makes me truly wonder if we played the same game at all. Thanks in advance for reading this and humoring me 🤣

Overall? I loved the game, and it's easily my new favorite Dragon Age game. It's not perfect, but it delivered where it could, with the limitations it had.

Important to note here: I don't quantify a favorite game just by story. If a game is cool story-wise but doesn't encourage me to replay often, then I don't put it on a top favorite. Veilguard has a decent story and a cool gameplay, so I'm genuinely excited to go back to it (which I did, I'm on my second playthrough). My favorite DAge game strictly for story delivery and narrative is Origins, but I can't stand the combat.

I got it easier, I guess? I'm mostly satisfied with what I got lore-wise from the parts that were more relevant to me, those being the Blight, Grey Wardens, and Solas' storyline. They could be better, but they're not terrible.

My biggest beef is that the franchise had its teeth pulled. There's no denying this. I feel like they were getting ready for a generation that just can't take the gnarly, uncomfortable sincerity of the other games that many of us loved and appreciated it for, so they had to chew the hard parts away to make it a little more tasteful.

There's a lot of things happening onscreen that are still plenty jarring, but most of the time, you don't see it. You just know it's there (and I assume, you gotta know the rest of the franchise to know it's there).

I also have a MASSIVELY BIG displeasure with the Well of Sorrows not being mentioned aside from joke banter. That's the one thing that sincerely and truly pissed me off. But I'll get over it eventually I guess.

The more I replay and analyze things, I accept some of my then criticisms better. I also can say I didn't get attached to the characters as much I did with previous games, but again the more I replay, the better I appreciate them.

Overall I love Veilguard. I sincerely do. The more I talk about it and think about the implications and connect things to the previous game, the more I love it.

I know how much more potential it had if the writers and devs didn't have to fight an uphill battle for this game to be what it is, but I also can't bring myself to dislike the game based on "what-ifs" exactly because of how many employees got screwed over during development and how many fights the current ones fought but lost. Fuck EA!

[moghedien]

I am considering reading the books but I've seen it said that Rand is the protagonist of the book series and that characters like Moiraine and Egwene who are basically my favourites have significantly less to do in the books, with Moiraine being absent for chapters and chapters at times. I'm also not a big Rand fan (i love a disaster man and Mat is right there, come on) so I'm wondering would you reccomend the series to me? What are the big differences between it and the adaptation?

so #1 advice for anyone regardless of where they're at with wanting to read the books: If you're already watching the show, don't start reading the books until after this season is over. There's a lot of rearranging and changing of stuff in the books and I think that can get confusing if you're trying to consume the show and the books at the same time.

Ok so regarding Rand, yes, he's the main character and is the vast majority of the POVs in the first book. Its extremely obvious who the dragon reborn is in the book and its never really presented as a mystery. As the books go on, it becomes much much more of an ensemble type story and Rand will be almost entirely absent for long periods of time, but he's still largely the main character. but there are 148 different POV characters in the books, so its far from a Rand-only story

Regarding Moiraine and Egwene, while I wouldn't really say that Egwene has a significantly lesser role in the books (at least after the first book), Moiraine's role is definitely beefed up for the show. We don't get her POV until a few books in (well there is a very brief POV in book 1), and she's largely missing from book 2. She is a much more (emotionally) distant figure and definitely the sort of Gandalf/mentor role in the books rather than the main character. But if you like Egwene, there is plenty of Egwene content for you in the books, do not worry.

As for differences, the main difference between the books and the show is the first book is not the first season. There are definitely elements there, but the first book is best viewed as an homage to the fantasy genre that Robert Jordan had to make a certain way to get it through publishing. Its not *bad* but its definitely a Lord of the Rings-y story that follows that kind of formula. The show made sure there was a lot more worldbuilding and future plot threads established in season 1 than there was present in book 1. It doesn't start becoming truly its own thing until book 2, imo, and it's a common sentiment where books 4 and 5 are really where it starts becoming the Wheel of Time and holding its own ground. Like as much as some people do complain about it and as much as I do like the Eye of the World, it would have made a terrible on screen experience if it were told entirely faithful to the book

So I wouldn't say absolutely to read it or not. obviously I do want people to read and enjoy the books, but its also a commitment, and if you're coming to them off of the show, its best to be aware that's its going to be different going in. You're not going to see some of the things that happened in season 1 at all, but you're going to get a much more detailed account of the story and it might give you better context for some of the things going on in the show, even if its not how it happened in the books.

So if you're ok with the fact that its different, I say try it once the season is over. If you don't want to finish it or continue on with the series, then there's no harm in trying and you can always keep watching the show even if the books aren't for you

[podcastenthusiast]

Okay I'm gonna say it. People comparing Gale to Anders dragon age 2 are incorrect. His vibes are closer to a different DA character.

Way back in the day (2014) I fell hard for an egg man and he left me with a missing arm and a broken heart. As a result I assumed Gale was lying to me for like half of Act 1.

Gale and Solas:

Autism rizz

Always use 100 words when 10 would do

Poetic af. I could listen to both of them talk for hours.

Really into some esoteric magical shit and wants to share everything they know with you

Big fuckin' nerd.

Loves books/stories (or Fade memories in Solas' case)

Only friend is some kind of spirit being

Plays chess

Guilt and trauma

Little bit arrogant/condescending, but in like a cute way

Heel turn/surprise questionable plan [tbf Anders also does this. At least Gale tells you.)

Is/wants to be a god and make decisions that would affect the entire world/reshape magic as we know it because of said guilt and arrogance

Has personal beef with the gods and possibly still loves one of them

Willing to at least consider giving up their whole important plans because you're special and they love you

I haven't played Gale's romance yet but I've seen clips and like it's just the vibe I get.

[silvandar]

BG3 Durge run: casualty list, sunmary etc. Durge spoilers.

I absolutely loved this run. Durge is like playing a completely different game! The plot is fantastic, and the dialogues are hilarious and very clever.

My Durge looks almost exactly like this! Love this tattoo design.

Party: Durge fighter, Astarion, Shart, random hireling sorcerer. Picking Duergar was a Choice, their movement is dogshit and they keep getting stuck on jumps 😭

Act 1

Gale: maimed, presumed dead. Unless Mystra took pity on him.

The Grove: bloodbath. Stole everything that wasn't nailed down.

Wyll: dead

Goblin leaders: dead. Minthara tried to shiv me when i picked Astarion over her, should have rerolled just to see her romance scene but it was late and I was tired.

Karlach: dead. Attacked me on sight yelling about the Grove massacre, which was weird but cool. How did she knowwwwww.

Laezel: dead, because she tried to shiv me when i was sick. Otherwise we were besties 😭

Act 2

Oliver: squished

He Who Was: openly likes me, headcanon dating.

Last Light Inn: bloodbath

Jahira: dead

Isobel: dead

Yurgir: freed from contract because i couldn’t trick him into yeeting himself

Nightsong: dead

Shart: Dark Justiciar mode.

Durge plot: think I'm figuring it out. Orin is getting slapped later.

Daddy Thorm: dead. Surprisingly easy to kill when everyone has misty step and range.

Githyanki plot: pretty much ignored.

Romances: dating Astarion, flirting with Shart.

Durge has slayer form which everyone else in the camp thinks is gross, but Durge absolutely loves it.

Act 3

Picking and choosing quests is fun! I'm already level 8 so can easily ignore stuff that feels too "good" to be of interest.

Somehow my general terribleness has made me Chronically Single. So I had to bang drow beef without the offer of a foursome. Sigh. Choosing the "kinky" options was hilarious.

Kissed and made up with Gortash. He's a good guy really, very swauve. Looking forward to killing him later.

Ascended Astarion. Went at level 10, fight was surprisingly easy now I know the mechanics of the power boosts. Also having Turn Undead is big and clever. Watching Cazador scuttle like a cockroach was very cathartic.

Murder tribunal: Met Saravok, he was fun! Chatted about the old days, killed an elephant, bathed in some blood. Good times.

Nightsong redux: Robbed Lorroakan while he sulked about the Nightsong being dead. Astarion can now summon Ghouls. (Genuinely, just hopped on downstairs and cleaned out the vault. Not a single combat reaction from anyone. Bugged? Or just wizarding hubris? Didn't try to take anything from the main tower tho as I didn't need the robes or staff.)

House of Grief: Shart turned about 1/4 of the adds to our side, so it was a surprisingly easy fight. Shart is now God's Extra Special Princess.

Orin: died in 3 turns, just went Slayer on her and ripped her apart. Fun! Astarion has a new sword.

Saravok redux: Durge has a nice new sword and hat. Although he did one-shot me at one point. Don't know why I expected anything other than a fight, honestly.

Gortash: roasted by the Netherbrain. Saves me killing him I guess. Bit annoyed that I couldn't loot him.

Ignored Raphael and Orpheus completely. Gave the Emperor the Netherstones. Pretty much zero Githyanki plot on this run, as it seemed pointless with Laezel dead.

Netherbrain: much harder with only 2 sets of allies! Blinding the dragon helped, and for some reason the mage got stuck and glitched, so I consider the fight Cheesed By Accident.

Ending: murdered the Emperor, dominated the Netherbrain, turned my party into thralls, ruled the world as Bhaal's Chosen. Epic end scene, absolutely brilliant. IN BHAAL'S NAME!