#i originally thought she was going to be neutral evil but no she's definitely chaos incarnate

[bardandbear]

would I were a devil, To live and burn in everlasting fire, So I might have your company in hell, But to torment you with my bitter tongue!

[ceejaykayess]

SMTV:V Vengeance Route Minor Late Game Spoilers (and some minor Creation True Neutral spoilers)

I've been playing SMTV:V for the last month and finally got to put it down yesterday finishing all six routes after initially only wanting to do the True Neutral ending then grab both (or just one depending on how satisfied I felt) Vengeance endings. I liked it enough that I'm honestly kinda sick of it.

But a certain series of conversations in Taito with a certain character pushed me to make a post to push out a message to the sea of souls.

To start, let's bring up the original release of SMTV in 2021. Now, while plenty of people praised the gameplay, the game's story was near universally reviled, or at best ignored. The biggest symptom of this was the lacking, if not outright shitty, characterisation of our cast. The player was, ultimately, left with no real reason to care about any of these chumps on a personal basis outside of maybe Tao and Aogami (and Ichiro, but his shit went wack super hard so it kinda evened out), and could only really care about them in terms of what they think the game wanted from them. Comparatively, the demons in the game got much more of a spotlight, being almost entirely who you got sidequests from, as well as who you interact with the most, not even in a gameplay sense but in a cutscene one too. Bumping into Fionn over the course of the story was cool, and him eventually accepting you as his king was a nice conclusion. Amanozako, annoying she may be, turned out to, at least conceptually, be pretty interesting in her relationship to the protagonist. Plenty of the demons you met had strong personalities that, when combined with their gameplay styles, left a strong impression on the player, and made them more important to (You) as a person than the "main characters".

So, along comes the True Neutral ending of the game, the closest to a "definitive" ending in terms of gameplay experience, with the secret final boss showing off his chops as probably the hardest non-superboss. And in this ending, you... create a world for humanity alone. Which means you... get rid of all of the gods and demons plaguing your world, made more or less certain by absorbing the secret final boss' Knowledge. The gods and demons you've spent upwards of 50 hours running around for, fighting with, fusing, studying, refining, even just watching.

Even your partner, Aogami, who's the only reason you're still alive.

And people were... not exactly hot on it. Generally people thought all the endings weren't great, and none of them actually felt like they fit their supposed alignment, with Neutral and Chaos seeming mixed in their placement and Law being the most tame it's ever been since the franchise's inception, if the wiki didn't lie to me. Made for great angsty fanfiction at least, but... not exactly a lot to go around.

Now, this brings me to the alignment rep for Neutrality, Shohei Yakumo, and his Life, Nuwa. Nuwa herself wasn't too much of a character, as much as she was a couple pretty good lines and an attempted line of communication between you and Yakumo. Yakumo is the real star of the show here, and... what a star he was.

I don't think anybody liked this guy. Hell, I'm not sure anyone likes this guy even after Vengeance's addendums. He shows up, starts shit, accomplished nothing we actually see or that actually matters, then dies. In the Neutral routes, he dies to fucking Ichiro and Abdiel, like fuck off. His plan, with Nuwa, is to destroy the Throne of Creation, which will make it impossible for a new God to remake the world or rule over humanity (in this way at least, allegedly, but no secret final boss so maybe actually). When we attempt it, we get the Neutral ending, generally accepted as the worst ending, and even to me actively read like the bad ending to the story. The protagonist even has the same evil little smile on his face as when he uses Profaned Land.

Of course, when you fulfill certain conditions (read: have certain fusion recipes visibly unlocked in the World of Shadows) Nuwa will stroll up to you at some point and tell you that the original plan was to make a world for humanity alone, but that they didn't go with it for... some reason. That's the True Neutral ending. Out of universe, a boggling decision to make, and in-universe, one that actively tears at out protagonist's heart.

This leads me to the point of the post: In Vengeance route, we are given, implicitly, the reason why Yakumo and Nuwa did not approach the Throne with the idea of using it to make a world just for humans. It is because, in spite of Yakumo being the victims of demons, his parents slaughtered by a man whose will was weak enough to be possessed by them and resenting demons, as a teenager demons were the only friends he really had. Between him and a fellow in Jouin that tells us about his files, we know he often spoke with things nobody else saw and called them his friends, said that he was never really alone. He is described actively as a contradiction. Demons took everything from him. Demons were all he had. He hates demons. He loves demons. He wants to create a world without demons. He can't bring himself to follow through on that ideal and settles for a much shittier compromise: ultimately keeping the status quo and making sure nobody can really change it. Neutral is the bad end; it's the White Ending of SMTV.

But, don't you think all of that sounds a little familiar? Lost things precious to him because of demons, yet in a sense has demons as his closest companions. Wanting to make a world for humanity alone, yet crushed by the weight of erasing those he holds dear. A contradictory person, when you look at him all up.

Hey wait, that's just our protagonist.

That's right, I think they accidentally made Yakumo a strong mirror to the protagonist, as reflected metatextually by the True Neutral route. It is in this way, then, that I find it striking that the Vengeance route, the one praised for making the characters actual characters, and where you can actually say the MC became friends with his classmates and alignment reps, is the route where you can't choose to abandon demons. (Saying that, I have seen some people compare Vengeance Law to True Neutral in removing all demons, I'm not sure about that actually but I dunno) Instead, it's in the Creation route, where you don't make particularly deep bonds at all with your fellow humans, where demons are those most important, most interesting to you, that you can choose to destroy them.

And all of that made me think of Yakumo as incredibly interesting, actually. Nuwa said, in the diverging cutscene between Neutral and True Neutral, that maybe we could do what they (Nuwa and Yakumo) couldn't. In 2021, that would be read as finishing the fight they lost. But now, it reads like this: "You and Yakumo are incredibly similar people. But Yakumo can't pull the trigger on his ideals. I know you can, though. You won't betray yourself." Which is wild to say to a 17 year old God who probably has a history of flip-flopping on who he thinks is right at any given moment, but hey.

[scarlet--wiccan]

It seems like chaos magic is becoming more widespread. I can’t remember Agatha using it much historically and recently Nico was stated to have an aptitude for it. Honestly I didn’t even really consider Billy a chaos magic user so much as a reality warper until the unlimited comic. Is there any consensus on Natalya’s magic?

I feel like it’s going from “unique way to class Wanda’s powers and certain elements of her mythos” to “dark and scary magic that may or may not be used for evil contrasting standard marvel magic”

Do you have any thoughts on this?

You know, originally, chaos magic was pretty much how you describe it-- just generally dark and scary. Chthon and the Darkhold are often cited as the sources of most evil or malevolent magic in the Marvel world, including things like demons, lycanthropy and vampirism. That's their primary role in the Elder Gods mythology, and that's the version you'll see most often, up until the late 90s, especially in horror comics, such as Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins. Even in the 70s Nights of Wundagore story, when it's first introduced as part of Wanda's origin, chaos magic doesn't have any of the characteristic elements we think of today.

The specific elements of chaos magic, as we understand it now, were first established in the Busiek run of Avengers. Throughout the early arc of this series, Wanda learns a lot more about the unique abilities that chaos magic affords her. Writers have continued to refer to this loose definition of chaos magic-- a volatile, primordial power that twists probability and transcends the boundaries of ordinary magic-- ever since, for both Wanda and Billy.

Unfortunately, that does tend to be distorted by Disassembled and HoM, which contradict basically everything about Wanda's powers. The past two decades have been a real mixed bag, but you already knew that. Fortunately, between Darkhold and Trial, the understanding of chaos magic was definitely brought back in line with Busiek's definition, while also giving Wanda more agency and control over the situation. But then again, unfortunately, giving Wanda total control over the Darkhold neutralizes a major power in the Marvel world. You can't take big bads off the board forever, it just creates narrative dead ends. So, I'm not really surprised that they're trying to bring it back in some capacity, but I am suprised that it's happening so soon. And like I said, I'm worried that Contest of Chaos will dilute Wanda's trajectory and Chthon's significance if other characters can just write their own Darkholds or whatever.

Natalya was a witch, and her magic was witchcraft. Robinson's Scarlet Witch spent a lot of time expanding witchcraft and its role in the Marvel Universe, with a particular focus on establishing witch lineages that are passed down, typically, from parent to child, and are represented by particular colors and symbols. All of this was done in service of setting up Wanda's new backstory. That was kind of, like, the point of the whole book.

I assume that the Maximoff family, and the other witch lineages introduced in Scarlet Witch (2016) exhist in the same space as Agatha and the various covens she's affiliated with, such as New Salem, or the Coven from Midnight Suns. I'm hoping that, as Agatha's role continues to expand, these two histories will be woven together more cohesively. Ideally, I would use this renewed focus on "witchcraft" to bring folk magic and other cultural practices into Marvel's worldbuilding in a more inclusive, authentic way.

As for Billy, his powers have always been magic. I don't think that was ever really a question until New Avengers (2015). A lot of what Ewing did with Billy in that series contradicted canon, and he's walked most of that back in the time since. Billy is pretty explicitly magical throughout Empyre, GoTG, and Last Annihilation, even if his approach to magic is frustratingly stagnant. It was clear that Billy and Wanda were operating with the same powers in Heinberg's YA and Children's Crusade. Gillen uses chaos magic and reality-warping interchangeably in his run of Young Avengers, but there's no doubt that it is magic.

I've said it before, but I think that defining Billy's powers differently from Wanda's would just be silly, and it would undermine the significance of their connection. The fact that he inherited those powers from his mother is major part of the story, so I don't want to distort that. I think the question we should be asking is how Billy is able to wield chaos magic, and not just regular witchcraft, without being marked by Chthon. The easy answer would be that chaos magic is so thoroughly integrated into Wanda's being that she can just pass it on to her children herself-- that's what we're supposed to assume, at least in in YA and CC. I also think there could be a way to conflate Billy and Tommy's resurrection via the Life Force with Earth's Demiurge, which could help tie up several loose ends and would give Billy a direct line primordial chaos magic without having to deal with the Darkhold and all that.

[blighted-elf]

Had some time to finish Wrath of the Righteous in between clients and thought I’d give my Opinions, like I did for Kingmaker, but this time, with much kinder things to say!

May as well start off with the bad because there are so few:

- I preferred the map travel in the first game. They shortened the time it takes to get exhausted for no good reason omg. - The character backgrounds are quite literally useless as far as dialogue goes. Didn’t get to talk about being an Acolyte once, and only got to talk about being a Pharasma worshiper three times (incidentally, NOT when you actually meet her?). Such a wasted opportunity. Games like PoE incorporate backgrounds much more successfully imo.

Now for the good/great:

- Finally a game that lets you play as Anything-But-Lawful-Good successfully? A fantasy game that doesn’t try to force you to be the hero? Fuck yes. I had a great time being Chaotic Neutral - Chaotic Evil. There’s so many games where doing that will result in all your companions leaving you, being locked out of quests and any decent endings. But not this one!

- The story and antagonists were truly great. Getting banished to the Abyss the second you get some footing? Stressful but fun. The overall pacing was much better than in Kingmaker too. Areelu was so similar to my Commander (power hungry knowledge seeking creatures of chaos, let’s go), despite me not researching anything about her prior to the character creation. I almost considered saving her, but when she spoke about defying Pharasma, I had to stay in character. So, my commander sacrificed her but only out of duty, not necessarily out of personal want.

- The Mythic paths made the Commander feel very personalised. Trickster was a bit memey at some points, but generally a bit of fun. Like, I turned a powerful demon lord into a mirror instead of fighting her. Then slept with Socothbenoth, after pledging allegiance to his enemy... in front of all my companions and a bunch of other demon lords. Also, I still have each member of the council’s soul in a cauldron because I didn’t use it then skipped town, which may be the biggest prank of all. - The companions. Good god, I fell in love with so many of them. Woljif, my beloved rogue tiefling template. Arueshalae, the literal succubus, who just... stops being a demon as soon as Desna/the Commander shows her love and support (or you can make her evil again). Opposingly, Camellia, my “irredeemably evil” bestie, gets even worse when you show her love and support and I genuinely loved that because it’s such a rarity in this genre. And just... the entire Daeran romance. The hold that this fictional man currently has over me 😭 Like, I originally wanted to go for Arue but Count Sass started flirting while insulting me and my Commander was like ohh I’m going to ruin his life in the best way. Confession time part 1... Accidentally got the bad ending for Sosiel, but he married some guy and lived happily ever after still? He was just mourning his brother? Sorry to a fellow cleric. I’ll do better next playthrough and pay closer attention. Confession time part 2... I loved Wenduag but killed her in her last quest because In Character, and regretted it for the rest of the game. Definitely going to keep her alive next time. Soz Wendy.

But yeah, I highly recommend this game and desperately need multiple story DLCs to come out soon!

[hiccanna-tidbits]

The RotBTD+ Gang Plays DnD! (Feat. my ships, sorry not sorry XD)

So highkey I’ve actually been wanting to do a “The Gang Plays DnD” type post for AGES now, but then I saw @hobie-brown and @ohlooksheswriting-wips do DnD AU posts for RotBTD, and then I was like “Ah shit, I really should finish mine, eh?” So thank you to both of you for inspiring me to get off my ass and actually write the post!!!

Hiccup DMs. He comes up with this super complex plot revolving around dragons (because of course) where the party has to dismantle this society ruled by evil knights who want to genocide all of the dragons. Imagine his chagrin when the party wants to do nothing but fuck around in towns and aggravate NPCs 90% of the time.

They usually end up playing at Jack’s apartment, mainly because Hiccup’s dad doesn’t really want a bunch of loud nerds yelling about 20-sided dice in his household while he’s trying to work, if he can at all help it. Jack’s sister regularly barges into their living room and roasts the fuck out of Jack and his friends for being such damn nerds and eats all of their DnD snacks they’ve set out. If they’re in the middle of a combat session, she always gleefully proclaims that they’re all going to die. While Jack is annoyed by this, the rest of the party finds it deeply hilarious.

Jack Overland plays the absolute mayhem warlock Jack Frost, who got his powers through making a deal with the archfey Prince of Frost and has absolutely no qualms about being an evil god’s mortal Sower of Chaos. He spends the vast majority of the campaign doing such useful things as creating ice slicks under annoying NPCs and freezing people’s drinks. He also plays a Tiefling because absolutely no one can talk this boy out of playing the creepy demon race.

Rapunzel plays a woodland nymph druid who is also the party healer (because of course she is). Her name is probably Sunlily or something else suitably hippie-esque. Whenever there’s downtime (or whenever the rest of the party is also dicking around, and she can get away with it), Rapunzel likes to go into the nearest forest and pick the best berries and nuts for the rest of the party. She also loves baking fruit pies and cooking the best nymph food for her companions when given the chance. Definitely the party Cinnamon Roll (every party has one!). She often will turn into cute animals to distract the guards while the party infiltrates a building.

Merida’s character is the party archer and general ranged weapon master, as well as a raging lesbian. Hiccup learns very quickly that any male NPC who tries to flirt with her will very quickly get impaled with an arrow. She can’t ever decide if she wants to be a ranger or a rogue, so she multiclasses in both for flare. She also plays a Tiefling, and continually insists that her character is both scarier and sexier than Jack’s. In combat, she either Leeroy Jenkins her way in with a sword and just starts slashing every which way, or just shoots 90% of the enemies with arrows before the fight even starts. There’s really no in between. She can get away with this because she’s highkey one of the party tanks, and consistently deals a shitton of damage.

Anna plays a human bard, basically having read over the class options and going “Wait, in this one I get to make stylish medieval music??? And wear dramatic and garish outfits and a dumb hat??? And cast wacky illusion spells??? And do silly little magic tricks??? And INSPIRE EVERYONE??? Hell yeah, I’m in!!!” She mostly uses magic attacks in combat (definitely favors Tasha’s Hideous Laughter), but occasionally when she’s out of spell slots she’ll just take to slamming enemies in the face with her lute. She also has WAY too much fun with Vicious Mockery, let’s be real.

Elsa, upon hearing Jack’s character concept, rolls her eyes so far up in her head she can see her damn brain, and vows to play his concept, but serious–solely out of spite. She rolls up a super OP elf Chaos Sorcerer, filled with lots of brooding angst about how uncontrollable her winter powers can get if she isn’t careful. She combines it a bit with Storm Sorcerer so she can create literal blizzards, and Hiccup ends up allowing it just because he thinks it’s cool. Although Elsa’s character is undoubtedly aggravated by the rest of the party’s antics, she starts becoming grudgingly protective of these idiots and can deal some pretty crazy damage when her companions are threatened. She also contains one of the party’s only brain cells.

Eugene of course plays dashing rogue master thief Flynn Rider. Although his high deception and lockpicking skills certainly come in handy, he’s the most chaotic neutral fucker you’ve ever met and will take any excuse to rob NPCs blind or cheat them out of every cent they have in a tavern card game. It’s nigh impossible to get him to cooperate with the rest of the party much of the time, and often Elsa’s character has to either bribe him with some of her family’s gold or threaten to freeze him to stop him backstabbing one or more party members. Eugene’s character forces Hiccup to add in many more heist plotlines than he originally intended. This delights Eugene immensely, and sometimes he goes a bit crazy planning elaborate heists.

Moana plays a sorcerer water genasi. She can control any body of water, but she has a special affinity for controlling saltwater (i.e. the ocean lol). She also requests an animal handling bonus, but only with marine animals, solely because she thought it would be funny. She’s also an ex-pirate who robbed a lot of wealthy merchant ships and freed their slaves back in the day, which Merida thinks is incredibly badass. Moana tends to get bored and unengaged when there are no bodies of water to play around with, so Hiccup ends up having to add a lot more lakes, rivers, and oceans to the campaign than he originally planned on. Moana also takes a sailing skill, and thus the party often ends up traveling by boat. Typically Eugene and Rapunzel will infiltrate and hijack it, and Moana will sail it. Moana probably contains the party’s only other brain cell.

Astrid plays a gigantic berserker orc barbarian who is never without his trusty axe. Astrid is hands down the party’s top tank, and unquestionably deals the most damage every combat session. Much like Merida’s character, Astrid’s character is absolutely a shameless power fantasy. Hiccup pretty easily picks up on this, but is too polite to say anything about it. Jack also picks up on this, but is hardly as courteous as their DM, and teases Astrid mercilessly. Astrid is not amused.

Rapunzel requests that her weapon of choice be a frying pan, her justification being that her character found a discarded one at the edge of a human village outside her woods and mistaked it for a highly-dangerous human weapon. Hiccup is like “…you know what? Fuck it” and rolls up stats for a goddamn frying pan. Jack has nigh-endless admiration for Rapunzel for choosing such a goddamn memey, absurd, yet oddly effective weapon and it definitely makes the poor boy even more smitten with her than he already is.

Eugene and Merida have a bet going on who can sleep with more sexy barmaids. Merida is currently winning, much to Eugene’s chagrin. She’s not even inherently better at seducing NPCs, she and Eugene have the same charisma stat–she just consistently rolls better than Eugene. Eugene is incredibly salty about this.

Anna and Elsa want to be sisters in-game as well, but neither want to change their race–so Anna decides her character was adopted. Hiccup and the rest of the party go along with it, mainly because there’s something deeply hilarious about a regular human bard being adopted and raised by a family of high-powered elf ice mages.

Astrid is absolutely the sort of player who tends to get bored and restless outside of fights, and tends to fidget and twiddle her thumbs waiting for the next combat session. Jack picks up on this, and purposely does more roleplay for longer just to piss her off. He’s also just a very dramatic fucker and highkey loves roleplay.

When she’s not causing mayhem around the town or sleeping with hot women, Merida tries to entertain Astrid between combat sessions by offering to spar with her. Unfortunately, this does not usually end well for poor Merida, as even the most hardcore and badass of tieflings is prone to getting dumpstered by an 8-foot-tall barbarian orc with an axe. Astrid is, nonetheless, grateful to have someone to fight.

Rapunzel, Elsa, and Moana will humor Hiccup and attempt to actually play the main plot. Meanwhile, Jack, Merida, and Eugene are a DM’s worst nightmare. They constantly derail the damn campaign to fuck around, cause mayhem, and do inane shenanigans in every. Damn. Town. They go to. Anna is kind of a wildcard–she’ll typically go with whatever group looks like they’re going to be doing something more interesting. Astrid will go along with whichever group is more likely to get into a fight–which, often as not, is Jack and his posse of terrible Chaotic Neutrals (who have definitely pissed off a number of NPCs into attacking them).

As the campaign goes on, Elsa and Eugene become the beleaguered Party Mom and Dad. Both are quite aggravated by this–especially poor Eugene, who just wanted to play a morally-gray charming rogue who stole everything and got away with it and then accidentally ended up caring about these idiots he got stuck with.

Anna initially joins the campaign because she has a planet-size crush on Hiccup, and inevitably is the one who dragged Elsa into it too. Being the hopeless romantic that she is, Anna writes a love interest into her backstory. Hiccup eventually has the party run into said love interest, and Anna is overjoyed. He starts flirting with her as the love interest, and it’s easily the best 30 minutes of Anna’s life.

Moana and Elsa also give Hiccup pretty detailed backstories, and he works in little subplots for them. Moana gets to bring water back to a dying part of the jungle in the middle of a draught, while Elsa gets to go on a whole sidequest to explore her family history and how they came to be sorcerers.

Jack, Merida, and Eugene also give Hiccup fairly elaborate backstories, but Jack’s and Merida’s are like 99% memes and Dumb Shit. Hiccup tries to give all of them backstory-related plot hooks, but inevitably any hooks he provides are either stabbed, robbed, or frozen. Honestly any plot hook offered to these 3 will be all but spat in the face of and tossed off a cliff.

The one relevant part of Eugene’s backstory is that he and Rapunzel decide they used to be partners in crime before the campaign started. Rapunzel would infiltrate and scout out places he wanted to rob as small, unobtrusive animals (her preferred Wild Shape is a chameleon) and later distract the guards as a bunny or kitten while he went in and took every gold coin in sight. In return, Flynn Rider would bribe builders to not develop into Sunlily’s forest. Rapunzel and Eugene partly came up with this For Funsies, but also it was Rapunzel’s sneaky way of tricking Eugene into having prior connections in the party so he’d be less likely to betray them. It works pretty well–although the entire party is protective of Cinnamon Roll Sunlily, Flynn is certainly especially protective of her.

Astrid does the absolute bare minimum as far as backstories go. She is literally just here to smash stuff, slice people, and beat some fuckers up.

Rapunzel has a backstory, but she’s typically so invested in the main plot and the other party members that Hiccup rarely needs to bring it in to keep her engaged. She’s highkey the party emotional rock, and probably the only one keeping them all together.

On that note, Rapunzel’s character is the ONLY one who can get Jack’s character to take the plot even REMOTELY seriously. Like he’ll be dicking around in the nearest tavern challenging the nearest orc to a drinking game, and Rapunzel will come in and ask him to help them on a Main Plot Quest. And he’ll be like “come onnnnn I’m having funnn” and she’ll be like “Jack pleeeeeease?” and you just. Can’t resist Sunlily’s puppy dog eyes. At all. Also, whenever Sunlily is genuinely threatened, any silliness immediately goes out the window and Jack Frost is OUT FOR BLOOD.

For better or for worse, Rapunzel is not immune to being looped into Jack’s shenanigans. Occasionally if either Merida or Eugene have a particularly hare-brained scheme she’ll go along with it, but by and large Jack is the most successful in convincing her to temporarily abandon the plot and cause mild mischief with him. They once wasted half a session creating an elaborate “ice theme park” for some squirrels in the forest.

Hiccup tries to get Merida to play the main plot by eventually having there be no more sexy female NPCs to seduce in the towns they go to. Unfortunately, this backfires–Merida just hooks up with Moana’s character instead. When asked to roll for how good the lay is, Merida gets a nat 20–and thus her character and Moana’s character end up hooking up regularly throughout the rest of the campaign.

Hiccup introduces a few Wise Old Mentor-type NPCs to guide the party throughout the campaign. While Rapunzel, Elsa, Moana, and Anna actually try to listen to them and take their advice, Merida, Jack, and Eugene absolutely refuse to take them seriously and mercilessly play pranks on them.

At one point, Hiccup gives the party the option to attempt to tame a group of wild dragons and use them as mounts. They all have to make animal handling checks. Anna, Rapunzel, Elsa, and Moana pass. The rest of the party fails, with Jack and Eugene crit-failing. Hilarity ensues.

Hiccup ends up bringing back Anna’s backstory love interest as an NPC regular. Anna thinks he’s just being a good friend and a good DM and trying to incorporate her backstory as much as he can, but really, he just wants an excuse to regularly flirt with her. He hardly has the balls to out-of-game.

Merida comes out as gay toward the end of the campaign. Everyone in the group is extremely supportive, of course, but everyone is also like “Merida…with the amount of barmaids you’ve banged…and the amount of times you and Moana’s character hooked up…this isn’t exactly surprising.”

Hiccup actually finds a way to use Jack and Elsa’s same-concept-opposite-execution characters to the plot’s advantage. He decides one of the main villains will have a prophecy saying he’ll be taken down by a powerful ice mage. The party manages to fool this guy into thinking this ice mage is Jack, and sends Jack to fight him. As soon as the villain sees Jack, he’s like “WHAT??? THIS clown???” (word has absolutely spread throughout the land of Jack not using his ice powers for anything besides mildly annoying trolling). Naturally, the bad guy lets his guard down after thinking he’s going to fight this literal joke, and then Elsa crashes in from the side and absolutely dumpsters him.

Jack tries to defeat the final boss by just annoying him so much that he leaves. Unfortunately, he just annoys him so much that he attacks Rapunzel’s character. Jack’s just like “oh HELL no” and attacks with absolutely nothing held back. Turns out he’s pretty terrifying when he’s not using his magic for Dumb Antics.

During the final boss of the campaign, the Big Bad tries to one-shot Moana’s character, and Merida’s character super theatrically jumps in front of her to take the blow instead. Rapunzel just barely manages to heal Merida’s character, but it’s a really close call. During all this, Merida is like “ah shit...maybe I’m NOT just in this to get fantasy-laid.” After the fight’s over, her and Moana’s characters have a big dramatic love confession and share a Big Damn Kiss in front of everyone. It’s pretty epic.

After the final session of the campaign, Merida drags Moana outside Jack’s apartment and sputters and trips over her words for a solid minute before she finally gets out that through all this nonsense...well...maybe it’s not just in the game that she thinks Moana is hot. Moana just gets this HUGE grin on her face and says “c’mere, Leeroy Jenkins” and just pulls Merida in and kisses her. Cue the rest of the party barging in on them. Merida and Moana freeze, and there’s a moment of terrified silence...and then the entire party starts cheering them on like “took you long enough!”

The entire rest of the party could detect the sexual tension. Literally all of them.

But Eugene is like “HA, THIS MEANS IF WE DO A SEQUEL CAMPAIGN I’M WINNING THAT BET! BECAUSE YOU’RE GONNA BE DATING MO’S CHAR AND THUS NOT ABLE TO SLEEP WITH ANY MORE BARMAIDS!”

By the epilogue session, Jack and Rapunzel are dating. Merida and Moana are also dating. Hiccup and Anna STILL haven’t figured out why they’re so prone to spending half the session flirting when Anna’s love interest shows up, and Hiccup STILL hasn’t figured out why he likes to have Anna’s love interest show up so often. Bless their souls. Maybe they’ll figure it out next campaign...?

Damn I actually really like this...maybe if people like it I’ll do some incorrect quotes or a drabble or something??? Or maybe some HCs from next campaign???

[darkdisrepair]

Chicago PD Alignment Chart

so i’m bored and have always thought this would be interesting to do. here follows the chart i came up with, along with an explanation of why i put the characters where they are. unfortunately there were only 9 squares, so vanessa wasn’t on this. 

analysis below, descriptions in italics taken from http://easydamus.com/alignment.html. pronouns may not be correct :)

GOOD:

the three i chose for “good” are the ones who have always worked to be better, to do better. they fight for the city (and in jay’s case the country) to make it better. they have always been very clear in their dedication to the truth. 

lawful good (kim):  

“A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished.”

i think this describes kim well. sometimes she is so set in the law that it can get her in trouble, like with her first CI, but it is all with good intentions. she does have flaws because she might not know when to stretch the rules, but she’s learning.

neutral good (jay):

“A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them.”

this is especially accurate for jay. he’s just trying to do his best and help those he can. he has a bit of a savior thing going on, but sometimes he struggles to follow through, as exemplified with camilla. overall, though, he always has good intentions.

chaotic good (kevin): 

“A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society.”

after the season 7 finale, i think this alignment is very appropriate to kevin. he wants the best for everyone but isn’t afraid to question the rules in order to bring about questions of racism within the chicago police department. some may see this as a weakness (the site actually listed it as such) but i think it’s one of the most powerful things about him.

NEUTRAL:

as we go down the list, the edgier people get :)

lawful neutral (antonio):

“A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs [him]. Order and organization are paramount to [him]. [He] may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or she may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government.”

antonio definitely firmly believes in the code of law. he was almost always the voice of reason within the group and always reminded them of the lines. this got him in trouble with voight but he always stayed true to that... until the end. which is partially why he isn’t “lawful good”, because he did let his morals slip toward the end of his time on the show.

true neutral (hailey):

“A neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. She doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil-after all, she would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, she's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way.”

originally i had hailey in the “good” category, but the more i thought about it, the more i realized that she doesn’t actually fall as solidly good as some of the others, especially post-season seven. her choices toward the end show that she has not committed fully to executing justice as a lawful or good person would- she’s willing to toe the line. 

chaotic neutral (erin):  

“A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn't strive to protect others' freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer).”

erin is motivated by good (seen by the fact that she is a cop) but she is often driven by her own motivations, or even the motivations of others, like voight or her mother. she doesn’t strive to create chaos, but it tends to revolve around her anyway.

“EVIL”:

i say evil in the most relative way. none of these characters are evil- they’re police officers who work to improve the world. these descriptions require editing because i think all of these characters come from a place that isn’t quite evil, but a willingness to tread the line.

lawful evil (adam):

“A lawful evil villain methodically takes what he wants within the limits of his code of conduct without regard for whom it hurts. He cares about tradition, loyalty, and order but not about freedom, dignity, or life. (...) He is comfortable in a hierarchy and would like to rule, but is willing to serve. He condemns others not according to their actions but according to race, religion, homeland, or social rank. He is loath to break laws or promises.

(...) Some lawful evil villains have particular taboos, such as not killing in cold blood (but having underlings do it) or not letting children come to harm (if it can be helped). They imagine that these compunctions put them above unprincipled villains.”

adam cares about the law, but he is willing to break from his morals if it means he will protect someone he cares about (as shown by how he puts his career on the line for antonio). he is a little bit of a bad boy, but one who prefers to follow the rules whenever possible.

neutral evil (olinksy):

“A neutral evil villain does whatever she can get away with. She is out for herself, pure and simple. She sheds no tears for those she kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. She has no love of order and holds no illusion that following laws, traditions, or codes would make her any better or more noble. On the other hand, she doesn't have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has.

Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies.”

olinsky understands the police department. he knows what will work and what doesn’t. he’s willing to break these rules when he knows that following them won’t get him anywhere. the “secret socities” could be considered his relationship with voight, along with his shared knowledge of who killed bingham. he doesn’t seek to break the rules, but will.

chaotic evil (voight):

“A chaotic evil character does whatever his greed, hatred, and lust for destruction drive him to do. He is hot-tempered, vicious, arbitrarily violent, and unpredictable. If he is simply out for whatever he can get, he is ruthless and brutal. If he is committed to the spread of evil and chaos, he is even worse. Thankfully, his plans are haphazard, and any groups he joins or forms are poorly organized. Typically, chaotic evil people can be made to work together only by force, and their leader lasts only as long as he can thwart attempts to topple or assassinate him.”

if voight were not a police officer, he would be extremely dangerous. but since he is a sergeant, he is not quite as dangerous. yes, he is hotheaded when it comes to defending the people/cases he cares about. he knows how to get what he needs and will do it, whatever the cost. like many chaotic evil figures, he is pursued by people who seek to overthrow him (the ivory tower).

~

what do you think? i’d love to discuss!

[ftchloes]

           well  ...  🤡  .  leave  me  to  be  very  ill - prepared  and  very  late  to  post  my  intro  ,  but  here  it  is  !  this  is  my  very  on  love  chloe  moon  ,  and  i’m  super  excited  to  be  here  to  plot  with  everyone  !  oop  ,  haven’t  introduced  myself  ,  but  i’m  kris  !  please  feel  free  to  call  me  momager  (  i’m  kidding  lmao  )  ,  i  prefer  either  she  /  her  or  they  /  them  pronouns  ,  and  i  hail  from  the  east  coast  !  i’m  not  gonna  lie  to  ya’ll  ,  i  tend  to  write  way  too  much  for  my  own  good  ,  but  i  want  to  answer  questions  ya’ll  might  have  without  having  to  ask  !  that  being  said  ,  here’s  everything  to  know  about  chloe  !

            *  𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐠𝐨𝐬  here  and  do  i  have  the  tea  for  you  .  𝐜𝐡𝐥𝐨𝐞  is  back  in  bridgehampton  for  the  summer  ,  living  off  the  𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧  family  $𝟒𝟖𝐛  net  worth  .  must  be  nice  to  come  back  home  to  the  hamptons  ,  i  wonder  what  her  fellow  class  of  2017  grads  think  of  her  return  .  you  know  ,  she  was  known  around  town  as  the  𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧  𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫  𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲  and  for  bhs  senior  superlatives  she  was  crowned  as  𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭  𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲  𝐭𝐨  𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞  𝐚  𝐦𝐚𝐧  𝐜𝐫𝐲  .  i  wonder  if  that  still  holds  true  today  ,  a  lot  can  change  when  you  go  off  to  𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐥   𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲  and  study  𝐦𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥  𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠  .  either  way  ,  i  bet  she  is  still  very  𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐝  ,  𝐝𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬  ,  𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐭  and  𝐭𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 - 𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝  .  hopefully  this  time  next  year  the  plans  to  𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡  𝐚  𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲  𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝  𝐢𝐧  𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬  𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠  𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫  𝐡𝐞𝐫  𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲'𝐬  𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞  come  true  .  in  the  meantime  ,  i  look  forward  to  seeing  her  blast  𝐦𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐢  -  𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐲  𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬 at  every  hamptons  function  .  it’s  going  to  be  a  wild  summer  home  ,  welcome  back  .

trigger  warning(s)  :  bullying  .

𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞  :  chloe  moon  .

𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬  :  chlo  ,  coco  ,  loey  .

𝐚𝐠𝐞  +  𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞  𝐨𝐟  𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡  :  21  +   november  10th  ,  1999  .

𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥  𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧  :  scorpio  ,  sagittarius  moon  and  scorpio  sun  .

𝐦𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 - 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐬  𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲  𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞  :  istp  ;  a  virtuoso  .

𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥  𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭  :  neutral  evil  .  

𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦  𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞  :  the  challenger  .

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫  +  𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬  :  cis  female  +  she  /  her  .

𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞  𝐨𝐟  𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡  :  sydney  ,  new  south  wales  ,  australia  .

𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞  𝐨𝐟  𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞  :  bridgehampton  ,  new  york  .

𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐚𝐥  𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  :  bisexual  .

𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜  𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  :  biromantic  .  

𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  :  social  media  influencer  ,  heiress  ,  and  student  .

𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲  :  korean - australian  .

𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲  :  australian  .  

𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬  𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧  :  english  ,  korean  ,  japanese  ,  and  mandarin  .

i.  prosopography  .

            chloe’s  life  story  begins  with  the  accidental  meeting  of  her  parents  ,  moon  dae - hyun  and  kim  eun - ha  .  during  that  time  ,  the  two  were  living  in  seoul  ,  south  korea  and  their  names  were  known  throughout  the  social  scene  of  seoul  .  eun -ha  is  the  son  of  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  in  south  korea  ,  kim  han - bin  .  kim  han - bin  is  the  son  of  the  man  who  started  moon  industries  ,  a  real  estate  and  construction  conglomerate  that  was  founded  in  the  1940s  .  the  company  was  founded  in  seoul  ,  and  originally  started  out  by  purchasing  and  renovating  the  beautiful  homes  and  condominiums  within  the  city  .  after  about  thirty  years  in  the  business  ,  han - bin’s  father  was  one  of  the  first  in  south  korea  to  reach  the  status  of  billionaire  .  

            eun - ha  grew  up  in  a  life  of  privilege  ,  whereas  dae - hyun  grew  up  in  a  world  where  he  had  to  work  for  everything  he  wanted  .  that  didn’t  stop  him  from  pursuing  a  degree  at  seoul  national  university  .  where  he  obtained  a  degree  in  architecture  .  so  ,  when  they  bumped  into  one  another  on  the  prestigious  school’s  campus  ,  it  was  love  at�� first  sight  .  they  were  so  in  love  ,  in  fact  ,  that  the  couple  married  a  year  of  knowing  each  other  .  dae - hyun  accepted  a  job  designing  buildings  and  homes  under  kim  han - bin  ,  and  the  two  welcomed  their  first  daughters  into  the  world  .  natalie  and  nicole  were  welcomed  into  the  world  ,  and  the  family  lived  comfortably  in  their  not - so  modest  condo  in  seoul  .  

            within  three  years  ,  the  young  family  was  relocating  to  sydney  ,  australia  as  the  family  business  continued  to  expand  .  little  did  the  couple  know  ,  they  were  pregnant  with  their  next  daughter  .  six  months  after  moving  to  sydney  ,  and  completely  unexpected  as  she  wasn’t  due  for  another  three  days  ,  their  baby  girl  chloe  decided  that  she  was  ready  to  come  into  the  world  in  the  bath  tub  .  they  called  for  an  ambulance  ,  but  chloe  wasn’t  one  to  wait  ,  so  she  was  soon  being  born  into  her  father’s  shaking  hands  only  five  minutes  after  her  mother’s  water  broke  .  chloe  was  a  beautiful  bundle  of  joy  and  was  a  fun  baby  to  be  around  .

            chloe  spent  her  formative  years  in  australia  ,  attending  one  of  the  best  schools  in  sydney  .  during  those  years  ,  chloe  picked  up  on  various  talents  ,  most  notably  playing  the  cello  and  developing  her  skills  in  ballet  .  after  about  six  years  in  sydney  ,  the  family  decided  that  they  were  going  to  leave  the  down  under  and  head  to  the  states  ,  where  the  family  was  most  interested  in  expanding  the  company  .  originally  ,  they  settled  in  atlanta  ,  georgia  and  after  two  years  (  along  with  the  birth  of  chloe’s  younger  sister  kai  )  ,  but  they  moved  to  bridgehampton  at  the  start  of  chloe’s  seventh  grade  year  .

            she  easily  made  friends  due  to  her  extroverted  nature  ,  but  she  also  faced  unexpected  bullying  .  upon  moving  to  the  hamptons  ,  her  parents  were  already  known  because  of  their  purchasing  of  many  of  the  homes  on  the  island  .   the  family  home  was  one  of  the  largest  and  most  expensive  on  the  island  ,  alongside  an  equestrian  facility  .  the  family  was  already  different  from  those  around  them  ,  and  thus  when  chloe  started  school  ,  she  was  treated  poorly  .  while  everyone  around  them  had  money  ,  it  was  no  secret  that  the  moon  family  lived  a  life  of  luxury  .  chloe  was  dropped  off  by  chauffeured  cars  and  only  wore  the  best  of  the  best  ,  and  it  didn’t  help  that  she  was  whip  smart  .

            chloe  was  a  target  of  bullying  because  everyone  assumed  she  thought  she  was  better  than  them  because  of  her  family’s  wealth  and  her  grades  ,  but  every  time  she  tried  to  defend  herself  ,  she  was  only  mocked  because  of  her  australian  accent  .  her  spellings  was  different  alongside  her  wording  and  phrases  ,  and  chloe  didn’t  know  how  to  handle  the  constant  ridicule  .  eventually  ,  while  still  in  middle  school  ,  she  kept  to  herself  and  kept  up  her  good  grades  as  it  was  expected  by  her  parents  .  she  constantly  studied  hard  and  began  fighting  back  against  the  teachers  who  marked  down  her  assignments  because  she  was  allegedly  spelling  wrong  to  get  the  grades  she  deserved  .  chloe  endured  the  bullying  until  the  focus  was  set  on  someone  else  ,  and  over  the  summer  before  the  start  of  high  school  ,  chloe  returned  to  school  almost  as  a  brand  new  person  .

            high  school  aged  chloe  was  no  longer  afraid  to  defend  herself  in  fear  that  she  was  going  to  be  mocked  because  of  her  accent  .  she  pursued  her  passions  ,  joining  various  clubs  and  organizations  that  interested  her  :  tsa  ,  national  honor  society  ,  student  government  (  as  president  )  ,  and  orchestra  ,  where  she  played  first  chair  cello  for  all  four  years  .  the  shy  and  sweet  chloe  that  people  knew  before  was  no  longer  ,  as  she  took  refused  to  roll  over  since  that  was  not  how  her  parents  raised  her  to  be  .  upon  her  graduation  from  high  school  ,  chloe  graduated  as  first  in  their  class  ,  and  after  being  accepted  into  the  schools  she  applied  to  (  cornell  university  ,  the  university  of  pennsylvania  ,  and  brown  university  )  ,  chloe  announced  that  she  was  going  to  cornell  for  mechanical  engineering  .

ii.  temperament  .

due  to  the  bullying  she  faced  as  a  pre - teen  ,  chloe  has  become  someone  who  doesn’t  hold  her  tongue  anymore  .  she’s  very  blunt  and  is  openly  against  those  who  really  are  being  bitchy  for  no  given  reason  .  she’s  not  mean  outright  ,  but  definitely  responds  to  that  kind  of  energy  whenever  it’s  dished  out  .

through  the  years  ,  she  began  to  notice  how  much  her  family  was  really  worth  ,  and  that  developed  a  true  superiority  complex  .  while  she  doesn’t  verbally  brag  all  the  time  ,  it’s  not  unheard  of  for  her  to  drop  subtle  jabs  here  or  there  while  mentioning  what  she  has  or  laughing  at  what  someone  else  may  lack  .  she  does  not  like  those  who  are  overly  nice  ,  and  a  better  way  to  put  it  is  that  chloe’s  the  mean  friend  .

she’s  not  stone  cold  ,  though  because  she  doesn’t  pretend  as  though  she  doesn’t  have  emotions  or  is  incapable  of  sympathy  /  compassion  .  she’s  nice  to  those  who  don’t  start  mess  ,  but  if  you’re  that  type  then  chances  are  she’ll  return  that  same  energy  .  she  likes  a  challenge  and  she  naturally  tends  to  create  chaos  for  the  sake  of  doing  it  (  insert  cheryl  blossom’s  iconic  ,  ‘  i’m  in  the  mood  for  chaos  ,  ’  quote  here  .  )

iii.  headcanons  .

being  a  part  of  cornell’s  engineering  program  comes  with  a  lot  of  being  annoyed  every  day  .  it’s  filled  with  a  lot  of  m*n  who  looked  down  on  her  because  she’s  a  woman  (  gross  )  and  even  made  the  jokes  wondering  if  she  was  in  the  right  class  .  it  mostly  stems  from  the  fact  that  chloe  went  to  class  in  looks  and  not  looking  like  she  rolled  out  of  bed  every  day  .  she  never  snapped  back  at  them  ,  but  she  remains  as  the  number  one  student  and  those  same  m*n  fight  for  her  to  be  on  their  teams  .

although  majoring  in  mechanical  engineering  because  her  family  works  in  construction  and  real  estate  ,  she  focuses  in  sports  engineering  because  she  wants  to  develop  sports  for  the  better  .  she  wants  to  create  state  of  the  art  sports  facilities  ,  design  sports  equipment  ,  develop  performance  and  safety  standards  ,  as  well  as  coaching  and  training  tools  .  

chloe  will  100%  stir  the  pot  so  don’t  tell  her  your  deepest  secrets  or  she’ll  find  a  way  to  make  it  known  .  whether  that’s  via  being  shady  or  toting  the  news  to  her  friends  ,  she’ll  spill  your  tea  and  own  the  fact  that  she  did  .

while  she  loves  her  designer  clothes  and  accessories  ,  chloe  is  most  comfortable  when  her  contacts  are  replaced  with  her  glasses  and  she’s  wearing  loungewear  .  i  envision  her  as  having  jennie’s  iconic  long  hair  ,  so  she’s  definitely  developed  a  habit  of  constantly  brushing  her  hair  out  of  her  face  or  pulling  it  up  into  a  bun  only  to  continue  messing  with  it  .

she  doesn’t  drive  her  own  car  because  she  finds  it  to  be  dumb  !  just  kidding  ,  she  doesn’t  really  like  driving  but  she  was  never  given  her  own  car  because  she  simply  didn’t  want  one  .  that  being  said  ,  though  ,  she  can  usually  be  seen  riding  around  in  her  dad’s  bentley  bentayga  .

[npc-guy]

Elf Inquisitor

People change over time, and with them change their cultures. Governments must adapt or be replaced, academia is constantly evolving with new thoughts and discoveries, technology always moves forward, and beliefs and ideals shift and grow. But these things take time, and for a while it may seem like things are certain and cemented. For some, that may even mean that anything that threatens these static states needs to be destroyed. Religions across the world have had to face change, but also they have had to face those that disagree with them from the outset. And what better defender both within or without than one trained to hunt and fight against those who disagree, who try to change the long-held beliefs of the faithful, and who would be enemies of one’s eternal deity? Today’s post is on another multi-centennial religious warrior, the Elf Inquisitor.

Now, I’m sure many of you will know immediately where I’m going with this: the age thing. Yes, you’re right, that is definitely a part of it. And I’m going to draw immediate comparisons to the elf cavalier that I wrote about previously. An elf inquisitor, like their cavalier counterparts, can live long enough to see their organization or their entire religion change over time. But, unlike the cavalier, the inquisitor has a more direct connection to their deity. I mean, they literally draw magic from this entity every day. As an inquisitor, these elves are charged with protecting their faith from all enemies. But what about change? For example, the war god Gorum in Pathfinder is Chaotic Neutral. This means that his followers can be Chaotic Neutral, Good, or Evil plus True Neutral. That’s four different alignments which mean four different ways to view one god. In simple terms, Gorum only cares about fighting and conflict. He doesn’t care about defending civilization and will happily watch cities crumble if it means it’s a good war, even though he is not evil. Conversely, he doesn’t necessarily advocate for wanton slaughter or torture because they aren’t truly war either. If your enemy can’t fight back, it’s not really victory and there is no glory.

Okay, so the reason I’m going into this whole thing about Gorum and the different viewpoints his followers can have is that this is a dilemma for any god in Pathfinder or any other RPG. Gods represent varying, and sometimes not entirely cohesive concepts. One of my favorite campaign journals, Tales of Wyre, deals with the problem of a paladin’s religion spiraling into a civil war because he questions whether a demon can be redeemed. The dogma said no, but a moment of doubt made him question dogma and eventually tear down hundreds of years of orthodoxy. This is what can happen, in my mind, with an elf inquisitor to some extent. If an inquisitor of Gorum is taught their whole life from a Chaotic Evil view of the Lord in Iron then they will see Chaotic Good followers of their god as heretics. But, the proof is as easy to see as a CG cleric of Gorum. That reality, though, can be hard to accept. And if this person has lived for multiple centuries, they may have seen what happens when a religion changes too much. Sure, it starts with a little more of one direction on the alignment chart, but then you have schismatic preachers pulling followers away from the established faith and towards new ideas. Some of them may advocate changing to a new god altogether. Before you know it, the temples are empty and YOU are the heretic.

Of course, that doesn’t need to happen. This is all hypothetical stuff and there’s no reason you have to have the religion(s) in your fantasy table-top RPG be complicated or anything close to real life. And this applies to the elf inquisitor, too, and this is where I can see another way to compare them to the elf cavaliers. They can be an example that can last through several generations of other races. The elf inquisitor can be there at the founding of the first temple, or have actually met the holy figure that was the original head of the faith. They could even be the author of religious texts and a clarifier in regards to what the people at the time actually meant in their writings. “For the last time, that passage is a METAPHOR. WHY in the WORLD would our goddess of peace actually advocate for setting people on FIRE?!” Most applicable to their chosen profession, though, are the more combat-oriented duties of both defense and attack (both metaphorical and literal). An elf inquisitor’s lifespan can give them a definite edge in regards to foresight and insight. They could be able to predict when a schismatic faction is most likely to turn violent or make an exodus away from the religion’s centers of power. Perhaps they have used their many years developing contacts, giving them eyes and ears to warn of any dangerous folk or creatures. They could also study their quarry, learning the details of how their enemies operate.

In conclusion, the elf inquisitor is an excellent option for a more zealous religious character in your Pathfinder campaign. It also allows for some grey area actions when dealing with religions, as the inquisitor can (like the cleric) be a step-removed from their deity’s alignment. They can be a character for excellent lore drops/bombs, having witnessed centuries of the existence of a particular faith and possibly having fought many more foes than an PC. And don’t forget they can be quite dangerous to their enemies. So if you need a character who literally saw the first stones of the ancient temples laid, fought in that famous battle centuries ago, or is mentioned in the passages of your fantasy world’s holy books, consider the elf inquisitor.

Lachlan Moray [Domain: Water]

The flame of the elven civilization burns brightly, but that is exactly the problem. So reliant have they become on the power of fire that they have forgotten that water is the source of life. Lachlan is one of the few who still understands this, and seeks to correct the imbalance. He acts as his holy element would, with ebbs and flows to erode the overwhelming might of the fire temples. One year he will be plan and plot, allowing the sycophants of heat and light to let down their guard. The next year he will slowly flood the public consciousness with the pollution that rivers, lakes, and even the seas are suffering. Always, Lachlan knows his limits and the limits of his fellow faithful, and knows not to push too hard or fast lest he be forced to defend himself and others. But he is an elf with the patience of deepest waters, and it will take many dousings to reduce the raging inferno.

Fortunist Aysel [Domain: Luck]

In the great multiverse you might eventually find yourself in a curious demiplane called Tornach which seems to be a single enormous casino. Within can be found every game of chance ever conceived, for this is the personal plane of a demigoddess of fortune. But do not attempt to cheat unless you would bring down upon you the Fortunists: mortal servants of the demigoddess who will immediately attempt your capture should they suspect any attempt at duplicity. Chief among these is Aysel, an elf who has lived longer than most games have on the material plane. In this world-sized casino she is the greatest deducer and keenest of eye, and also is one of the few who is trained to hunt against interlopers of strangling order or intolerable chaos. Aysel knows well that her lady represents a balance of fate and skill, control and its absence. So, she has watched, judged, and punished with luck on her side to keep this place of balance from being upended.

Nergüi of the Long Game [Domain: War]

The Lords of the Pit have plans laid throughout the world to bring glory to themselves and their Infernal Emperor. The Lord of Wrath has many mortal followers who serve his ends in the material plane, but Nergüi is an unusual case. While many others are simply soldiers or trained killers, Nergüi faithfully seeks to encourage the titular aspect of their lord. By hunting peacemakers, encouraging feuds, and sowing seeds of discontent and hatred, Nergüi gives their lord greater power and influence in the mortal world. Of course, they are more than capable of relishing in a true conflict, and in fact have both been responsible for and actively participated in multiple wars over the past few centuries.

[alexicacvs-a-blog]

🔥

This is going to be really salty. Though it’s not RP related but more so based on my experiences going into multiple Pagan communities over the years. This will be under a read more.

Anyway a post I saw reignited a massive pain in my ass and that’s the whole White Witchcraft movement that’s been a thing since the 1950′s. This is going to delve into the history and why it’s such a pain in the ass and also go into my reasons for hating Silver Ravenfuck. I mean Silver Ravenwolf.

So before I begin let me just say that White Witchcraft isn’t a thing that solely white people. It was never a thing that solely white people did. In fact it’s whole start was during McCarthyism. We all know about McCarthyism right? For those who don’t, McCarthyism was a period in the 50′s where McCarthy would round up people who were perceived as being Commie scum, typically those who were athiests and Jewish. Believing good American citizens to be god fearing Christians, anyone else is a commie scum. Thus why 90% of Jewish Filmmakers were blacklisted and spent time doing trials in the 50′s.

Also to note that Wica or commonly known as Wicca or British Traditional Wicca (Due to Scott Cunningham writing Wicca: A Guide to the Solitary Practioner and it being a hit in the US and Canada and distingtion needed to be made. However everywhere else in the the world BTW is simply Wicca.) came about in 1954, created by Gerald Gardner and helmed by Doreen Valiente (until I think either the 60′s or 70′s then she helped out Robert Cochrane with his 1734 tradition.). Now Doreen and several other high profile witches were trying to not get caught into the web of McCarthy, and did the one that that Christians have perfected for centuries: Throw people under the bus.

Now mind you this group of witches weren’t all white people. According to Amber and Jet, Desi Arnaz was one of the witches involved in this new movement. Desi was a Cuban immigrant who practiced Santeria. Santeria is an indigenous form of witchcraft that combines witchcraft with Christianity, it’s what Issac Bonewits would describe as a idiosyncratic form of witchcraft. And there were probably several others. Again when you have McCarthy breathing down your back the only thing left to do is to throw people under the bus.

Now the terms for black magic or white magic weren’t chosen because of racial attitudes. In the west and in the east colors have meaning, this is known as symbology. We know that white means pure in the West and black means evil. If you played Final Fantasy, White Mages do healing. Black Mages hurt and poison.

Now in modern times there should be no classification for a color for witchcraft. Your classification should be the type and intent of witchcraft that you do. If you’re a Storm Witch, you work with storms. Water Witch, you work with water. Want to heal people? Then you’re a healer. What to harm people then you’re a Hex Witch. Like Chaos well you’re a Chaote/Chaos Magician.

Even Anton LaVey, leader and founder of the Church of Satan said something similiar in his book The Satanic Witch in his first chapter “Are You A Witch?”. Now mind you this book is more so focused on the notion that only girls are witches and boys are warlocks, also given that the cover is pink it’s possible that he was gearing this book more so towards women and having them embrace their femininity.. Never mind the fact that the word warlock means oathbreaker in Scottish Gaelic. But whatever. I’ll amend it so bear with me.

Aside from the tricks of the movie or TV witch, usually accomplished with special camera techniques, there is no reason why any girl who puts her mind to it and learns the proper methods cannot become a full-fledged witch in accord with the popular conception. Only those who either do not know the means or are too stubborn to use them, once having been told, will persist in defining themelves as witches by using the sanctimonious definitions of so-called “white witches” working for “the benefit of mankind.” There will always be those who, furitvely desiring personal power but unable to do anything about gaining it, will devise their own definitions of what a which should be like, seeing to it, of course, that their definition fits them.

The “white witch” is the by-product of an emergence in England of an above ground witchcraft interest at a time when witchcraft was still technically illegal. In order to pursue the “craft” without harassment and prosecution, the spokesmen for witchcraft attempted to legitimize and justify what they were doing by proclaiming the existence of “white” witchcraft. (The footer note states that the term was first used by William Seabrook in his book, Witchcraft, its Power in the World Today. Which was written in 1940. So it hasn’t been a term that’s been used long. ) “White” Witchcraft, it was simply a belief in the religion of the old wise ones or “Wicca.” (This is based more on Scott Cunningham than Gardner. Also Margret Murray incorrectly stated that and was debunked. Several times.) The use of herbs, charms,  and healing spells was only employed for beneficial purposes.

It was believed that the kind of witches that were dangerous to have around were “black” witches. These were supposedly evil in their pursuits and worshipped Satan. The fact that the “good” or “white” witches employed a hormed god in their ceremonies was justified because it “doesn’t represent the Devil.”

Of course, no one admitted to practicing witchcraft ceremonies of any kind. Anything that was associated with witchcraft was pursued in the name of “study” or “research.” This was the climate in England between 1936 and 1951.

With the repeal of English witchcraft laws in 195, all of the underground witches started creeping to the surface and as their eyes became accustomed to the light of sudden legality, they ventured forth. Unused to such freedom and heavy with the stigma of illegality, they went about shouting “white witchcraft” even louder than ever, as if expecting at any moment to be snared by a heretic hook.

About this time, interest in the occult was becoming popular in the US, so naturally attention was focused on the British Isles with its rich heritage in all matters ghostly and fanciful. As might have been expected, newly emerged English witches saw the US as a fertile stamping ground for safe recognition of their “witchiness”. Concurrent with the first post-war writings out of England came the first diplomats of witchdom, and America was more than curious. Having no other literature but Margaret Murray, Montague Summers and Dennis Wheatly to read it, it was assumed the new revelations by Gerald Gardner and his followers were the straightest stuff available.

“White witch” became a definitive term, and thousands who wouldn’t touch the practice of witchcraft with a ten-foot broomstick found a conscience-redeeming opportunity to follow the “art” by using the new rules of the game. Regardless of what these people would like to believe, the image of the witch had been stigmatized for centuries. All witches were considered to be agents of the Devil, antagonistic to scriptural teachings, and a direct part of the dark side of nature. As there is always a relative outlook as to what is good and what is evil, once witchcraft emerged from its “all evil” state into neutral territory, a differentiation was bound to occur. The righteous, of course, will always wear the mantle of “good”, white light”, “spiritual” and varying shades of holiness.

An analogy might be made concerning “white” and “black” witches.  Let us assume that warfare had, for centuries, been called wholesale murder and the men who fought called “murderers”. One day it was decided that there was something quite noble and dignified about this old activity of wholesale murder. All the murders, basking in the light of new-found legitimacy, began calling themselves “good murderers”. The enemy’s troops, of course, were the “bad murderers.” The stigma of the word “murderer”, still remained, but at least the good murderers felt more at ease. Now, maybe these murderers always had a fairly legitimate reason  for going into battle. Maybe they succeeded in saving their homeland from that which threatened it. They might have even had a scholar among them who had traced the origin of the word “murder” to an ancient word that meant “murder”. But the fact remained, “murder” was still a negative term in the public’s mind. So instead of simlply revelling in their subsequent acceptance by the public, necessitated their placing of the word “good” in front of “murderer” as sort of a self-reassurance that they doing the right thing!

Basically to gather from this that in England there was a witchcraft law. It lasted for about 100 years or so and only was repealed in 1951, because a psychic during WW2 was helping naval officers find a ship or something, seeing that she was a psychic threw her in jail. Parliament thought it was a stupid law and abolished it.

Now while Seabrook does place Voodou to be under black magic it’s less that it’s apart of the African Diaspora and more that involves a level of harm. Silver Ravenwolf says the same thing in her 1992 book To Ride A Silver Broomstick and several of her books (along with the Llwellyn Crew) along with curses, hexes, and other means that does harm. That’s the whole crux of the matter. If it does harm then it’s bad. And this new crew of white witches all follow the Wiccan Rede as law. (Which is ironic cause the word rede means advice.). “An it harm none, do what ye will.”

For this new group if you harm. You’re doing evil and worship Satan. Doesn’t matter if it’s a practice passed down for generations. If you harm others, you are evil. Are you reconnecting with your roots? Don’t care if you harm you’re evil. And that’s not just for those that practice Voodou, Hoodou, Santeria, or other practices among the African Disapora but also for those witches who are White. For those who are Satanist. Who are Chaos Magicians or Thelemites. If you harm you are evil. It’s a black or white morality when it comes to White Witches.

Especially when those whose first book into witchcraft is Silver Ravenwolf. No matter who you are the first time you get interested in witchcraft is as a young teen is always going to be Silver Ravenwolf. That’s what you see in a bookstore or at your library, that’s what you’re going to read. That’s what your friends read.

TL; DR: Magic is based on intent. Basing one’s intent on a color is stupid. The terms black witchcraft or black magic or white witchcraft was boiled down into good or bad. Voodou got lumped in cause it dealt harm. That’s the only reason why it got lumped into black magic.

[bemused-writer]

Title: Slithering Through History - Chapter 1

Rating: T

Pairings: Aziraphale & Crowley, Aziraphale/Crowley

Summary: Crowley was all too happy to get out of Hell and cause a little trouble up in Eden. What he didn't realize is how much more wrapped up in humanity and a very particular angel he was about to become.A look at what Aziraphale and Crowley might have gotten up to throughout the biblical text and after Armageddon.

-x-

Falling entailed a great many things and poets had done a fairly decent job of capturing the horror and the chaos thereof. What they’d never quite been able to capture was what came after. Yes, hellfire, brimstone, pain, suffering, all staples of Hell but no one ever really let on just how crowded it actually was down there or just how corporate. Crowley thought it was probably due to how much more real and depressing that would have been and probably because the concept of a corporate entity wouldn’t truly exist until the 20th century.

It wasn’t so bad in the early days before human souls were being damned left and right. No, in the early days it had only been fallen angels and they’d been frightened and confused, desperately trying to sort out what they were supposed to do now they were no longer part of the Heavenly Host.

It had taken awhile for it to sink in but their punishment was to inflict pain and suffering—Satan had given them a long lecture about it in the tone of voice of a man who really didn’t care anymore and wasn’t it marvelous he had his own throne? Afterwards he’d put Beezlebub in charge whose eyes had widened comically before accepting. Crowley had had to restrain himself from giving a sibilant chuckle at the whole absurd affair.

Still, Crowley had often wondered how much of a punishment it really was if so many of them enjoyed it. Oh, they’d been reluctant at first. They’d been angels and they didn’t know much about pain, not really. It took several meetings and presentations before the seven sins were sorted out and everyone felt like they had at least some idea of what their jobs entailed.

In fairness, Crowley could admit a good number of them didn’t derive any real pleasure out of torture but they weren’t all that hung up about it either. “It’s just a job,” they would say. “Nothing personal.”

Crowley desperately tried to convince himself he felt the same. He was a demon and he would do his duty. He wouldn’t fail, not like Before.

Still, he knew the truth of it and it was he hated it down there. The second Satan said, idly, “Would you like to see the Earth, darling?” after one of his presentations on wrath he jumped on the chance as swiftly as possible.

He broke through the warm soil and felt as if he’d been reborn. He turned his head left and right and slithered about. Most snakes had legs but he thought there was something delightfully off-putting going about on his belly, no legs in sight, draping himself about trees; he was the very picture of sloth, which was, in turn, positively sinful and if sinning was to be his eternal gig he was going to indulge.

The garden was, he reluctantly admitted, utterly stunning insofar as his limited senses could tell. He supposed that was Heaven for you; always caring about presentation more than anything else.

While his eyesight was utterly shot compared to what it had been as an angel he could tell there were infinitely more colors here than there ever had been up there or down there. Heaven was very … stringent when it came to looks. He wasn’t sure he’d seen anything other than opulent whites, rivers that gleamed like the finest opals, and gossamer robes made to match when he’d been there. Every now and then there’d been a gold pillar or some such. As for Hell, they couldn’t be bothered to decorate. Some idiot had licked the wall once and died on the spot. They’d spray painted a warning on the wall and called it good and that was about as close to design as they came.

But this felt … very earthy for lack of a better word. He could feel the vibrations of footsteps of all manner of creatures. He couldn’t make out much sound though. There were some serious downsides to being a snake, he decided. The garden was nice and warm though, which was good. He didn’t think he was made for the cold.

Now, what kind of trouble should he cause?

He circumnavigated the garden and used his tongue to detect all the heavy flavors in the air, hoping to spot God’s latest creatures, the humans. He could taste something divine to the east, light as a cloud and sharp as judgment. An angel.

He’d have to steer clear of that for a while, at least until his work was done. It had been ages since he’d seen one of his previous brothers-in-arms. He’d certainly never tasted one before. He thought about that for a moment. Something about the sentiment seemed … appropriately demon-like but it wasn’t a joke that would make much sense until he understood humans more and their penchant for lewd humor.

At long last he spotted a woman named Eve. He also spotted the two trees that were off limits: The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad.

He considered the three for a moment. The Tree of Life was certainly handy but that would almost definitely qualify as a “good deed,” no doubt about it. Knowledge of good and evil on the other hand…. Well, it wasn’t “bad” exactly but it definitely wasn’t “good” either. In other words, it was just wicked enough to keep his bosses happy without being so wicked he felt bad about it.

Perfect.

Apparently, God found it a good deal more wicked than Crowley had. Eve and her husband, Adam, were banished from the garden lest they also eat from the Tree of Life and become a little too god-like themselves.

Also, punishments were dished out like candy. Apparently, there would be enmity between him and women, there would be birthing pangs, and men would till the earth.

I rather liked that woman, he thought glumly.

Most annoying of all was that all snakes were slithering about on their bellies. So much for originality. Needless to say, the other snakes weren’t thrilled. He avoided them for a century after. It was utterly ridiculous; they were animals and he was a demon—he was more than capable of winning any confrontation—but he couldn’t quite make himself look them in the eye all the same. He was sort of their demonic representative and, well, now they didn’t have legs.

Even small creatures would bear a grudge over that for a while.

Regardless, Adam and Eve suffered a lot more for his sin than he did. Maybe that was why he sought out the angel gazing after them longingly atop the gate. He wouldn’t readily admit it but he felt a little guilty about the whole thing and his curiosity was piqued. The angel looked utterly miserable, far more than him, which made no sense whatsoever. He wondered if they’d ever known each other in Heaven.

As he slowly transformed into a more human guise his senses changed along with him. He could hear loads better now for a start but his eyesight was still iffy albeit a little sharper than before. He could sense movement well, make out shapes, see color although not like he had a as an angel. The color was … splotchy. He supposed he was seeing the heat radiating off of things or something similar. He may have been a snake but he was hardly an expert. Thankfully, he could still taste everything on the air and that gave him enough information to get by.

He was a little disappointed he couldn’t make the angel’s features out all that well though. Still, he was the brightest object in the surrounding area by far, so he was easy to spot.

The angel jolted a little bit when he saw him. Understandable. He could just make out the pinched expression on the angel’s face; it was hilarious but he kept that to himself.

He hadn’t expected much by way of conversation. Honestly, he’d known there was a pretty high chance the angel would try to smite him but instead they had a decent enough exchange. Apparently, he’d given away his fiery sword. It was the first time Crowley had felt awe in … ages. His heart gave a little tug in his chest that he refused to name.

As they stood in the rain with Crowley safely sheltered beneath an angelic wing, Aziraphale, said, “You know, I was supposed to be the one to guard The Tree of Life for the rest of time.”

“Sounds boring,” Crowley said without hesitation. All the world to explore and he was going to be stuck guarding a gate? But then he realized, “Wait, what do you mean ‘supposed to be?’”

Aziraphale let out a put upon sigh. “Well, to quote, ‘He drove the man out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.’”

“Er, what exactly are you quoting?”

“A book that hasn’t been written yet,” the angel said miserably. “But the main point is I’m supposed to be guarding this gate and I’m supposed to do it with a fiery sword. Well, you see what the problem is.”

“You gave up the sword.”

“Precisely.”

“So, the humans could become immortal at any point?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I think they understand they’re banned from this place but what about their descendents? Oh, I probably did do the wrong thing. No, I know the sword bit was wrong but the rest…”

“No offense but if God wants to hide this garden I’m sure She can do just that. If you were going to be punished it would have happened already.”

The angel shifted uncomfortably, his eyes refusing to make contact with Crowley’s own. Crowley eyed him with suspicion.

After a bit more hemming and hawing Aziraphale finally whispered, “I’m not a cherubim anymore. God didn’t say anything but… I could feel it. The demotion, that is.”

“What are you now?” Crowley said with careful neutrality.

“A principality,” he sighed. “All the way down to the third sphere.”

“Not so bad. You could have gone down a lot further.”

Aziraphale paled considerably and his eyes widened in shock. It was like he was seeing him for the first time and only now understood what he was. Crowley tried not to look too uncomfortable under the scrutiny.

“I suppose you make a good point,” he finally said, turning away.

“I usually do.”

Privately, he wondered why Aziraphale hadn’t Fallen. It left an ache in his chest when he remembered his own Fall and how pointless it had seemed.

“So, what will you do now?” Aziraphale said just as the storm finally passed. He looked up with a pleased little smile. Crowley couldn’t help but feel his burden lift a bit at the sight. It was nice to have someone who wouldn’t push him away even if his status as angel was utterly bewildering.

“Oh, you know, tempt people, I suppose. I’m to be stationed on Earth.”

“I suppose that is what you’d be doing,” Aziraphale sighed. “I suppose I’d best keep an eye on this gate for now.”

“No offense but there’s no way I’m staying in this garden.” Although part of him desperately liked the idea of hanging about the angel. All before him was an expanse of desert and only two humans to occupy it. Crowley didn’t want to admit it but it sounded rather lonely.

Aziraphale let out a quiet chuckle. “No, I didn’t suspect you would.”

“Would be a shame if demons were the only ones trying to make a difference,” Crowley said lightly with just the barest hint of the temptation he was trying to accomplish.

“Someone needs to inspire some good in this world,” Aziraphale said consideringly.

“I’ll see you around, angel,” he said with a gentleness that surprised him. He could have pushed harder but … it just didn’t seem right.

“You know, you just might.”

When Crowley departed he decided not to resume his snake form just yet. He kind of liked appearing human. It reminded him of being an angel and, better yet, was just a little bit blasphemous because of it. The other demons had gone to quite a bit more trouble to look wicked but Crowley decided he wanted to have a bit of style. It would be a lot easier to tempt humans if he looked like them as well not that there were any new ones to try it out on yet. It was a big world though and he hadn’t yet explored most of it.

His mind made up he headed back for Hell. He’d get his report in, take a look at what God had created, see what Eve got up to, and maybe, if he was lucky, see more of Aziraphale if he was ever free to explore.

[seyaryminamoto]

What do you think are the alignments of each important ATLA character, and why? (I'm eager to know your thoughts on this one :)

Uh… again, I’m not particularly good at this. But okay… I’ll be using this site as a reference.

Aang: Neutral Good. While we’d think he’s a Lawful Good because he would never hurt a fly intentionally… he did lie when necessary. He did mess around and did ridiculous, seemingly unnecessary things, for the fun of it. He defied authority even when he was in the Air Temples. According to the site I’m looking at: “Someone who is neutral with respect to law and chaos has a normal respect for authority and feels neither a compulsion to obey nor a compulsion to rebel. He is honest but can be tempted into lying or deceiving others.” While Aang is a very nice kid, and he really has good morals in general… he’s also guilty of a few deceptions. So I don’t think he’d be lawful. He’s not that uptight.Therefore, he gets Neutral Good. He’s a good person, but he’s not obsessed with following laws nor does he disregard them entirely.

Sokka: Neutral Good. :’D is everyone going to be neutral good? Maybe! Okay, no, they won’t xD but Sokka is definitely neutral good as far as I can tell. He has a mild rebellious streak, but at the same time respects authority figures (just look at how he behaves with Piandao). Also, and anyone can fight me on this, he’s up there with Aang in the contest for best moral compass in this show. “A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them.Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order.” So, he’s definitely Neutral Good.

Katara: Chaotic Good. “Chaotic characters follow their consciences, resent being told what to do, favor new ideas over tradition, and do what they promise if they feel like it.” Just… Pakku, anyone? Katara follows her impulses, her conscience, acts on her feelings, doesn’t hold back. Just how many times did we have episodes where Katara did what she thought was right, regardless of whether it was or wasn’t? In one episode she’s fighting injustice and cruelty, helping people out as best as she can, in the next one she’s freezing a pair of disrespectful kids against walls and smiling enigmatically when asked what she was doing. She’s out to kill Yon Rha and doesn’t care about the morality of the matter, she just wanted to kill him and took off to do it recklessly. “A chaotic good character acts as her conscience directs her with little regard for what others expect of her.” She… acts. She has a decent moral compass more often than not but has slip ups anyways. Still, she does try to be good, and always wants to help others. So… Chaotic Good it is.

Toph: hahahahaha Toph is one of the easiest. “A neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. She doesn’t feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil-after all, she would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, she’s not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way.” The ultimate True Neutral over here. Toph didn’t join the war because she wanted to do right by everyone, she did it to get out of her house and be free. She’s never really been invested in the war other than because her friends are fighting in it (the good neighbors :’D). “Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships”, need I say more?

Zuko: Zuko is actually one of the reasons why this alignment chart is tricky. Not only because of how he changes throughout the show but… this guy is kind of trying to be Lawful but ends up being Chaotic? He’s… a mess. I’ve always said he’s one, but really, he is. He starts out Evil, no one’s going to change my mind about that. “"Evil" implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others.” Zuko, the firebending supremacist from the start of Book, 1 never gave a damn about who he was hurting or oppressing, yet resented everyone who hurt or oppressed him, remember? In the unaired pilot he actually did kill the Serpent from Serpent’s Pass, so the original concept of Zuko wasn’t that of a guy who wouldn’t kill.So, Zuko starts Good and shifts into Neutral by the end of the show (frankly… people can tell me he’s Good all they want, but: “"Good" implies altruism, respect for life, and a concern for the dignity of sentient beings.”? Is Mr. “KILL MY DAD, DON’T EVEN TRY TO FIND ANOTHER WAY TO END THE WAR!” good when you use that concept as a frame of reference? Sorry, but no. He went from Evil to Neutral, and I’m not changing my mind about that). When it comes to Chaos and Lawfulness… he really has a messy relationship with it all. He WANTS to be lawful, and heck, you’d think maybe when he “regains his honor” by the end of the show he really becomes lawful (though I think the comics killed that concept entirely). Zuko really… is Chaotic. As far as I can tell, he’s Chaotic. For further explanation: “A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn’t strive to protect others’ freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions.” I find it an undeniable truth that Zuko was not only whimsical, but mostly selfish and out for himself, and that’s true to him at every point in the show. Just look at his run as the Blue Spirit: every single time he picked up that mask he was doing something FOR HIMSELF, and anyone who thinks he was playing the vigilante needs to brush up on what vigilantes are supposed to stand for. Zuko was getting what he wanted, and he discards the mask when he sets Appa free because the mask was an enabler that allowed him to do whatever he wanted without facing direct consequences. Getting rid of that mask meant his time as a renegade out to do whatever he pleased was OVER. He never took up that mask for anyone’s sake but his own.So, he’s goal oriented. He doesn’t bat an eyelash about how much it bothers Aang to have to kill someone, because why does the spiritual purity of this kid matter at all? What matters is for Ozai to be gone so someone else (Zuko or Iroh) can rule in his stead. That’s it. That’s the way Zuko’s brain works at the end of the show.Now, for the tricky part: “A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer).” A lot of people would say Zuko was absolutely motivated by good to liberate his people, or the rest of the world, from Ozai… but that’s not what I saw. What I saw, in Book 3, was a guy who decided to fight against his father, to join Aang, because yes, he saw the wrong in his father’s ways… but first off? He wanted to make good by Iroh again. Not in vain does he mention Iroh first of all when he’s telling Ozai what he’s going to do. Zuko’s true motivation, as far as I could see? It was Iroh. It wasn’t an innate desire to fix the Fire Nation, or else he would have been seen fighting to help his own people during Book 3 (ironic how the Gaang minus Zuko helped the Fire Nation more than he did during the start of this season, when it was the perfect opportunity for Zuko to see how his father’s rule was damaging his people just as much as it was damaging the rest of the world, and for him to decide to do something about it, for the Fire Nation’s sake as well as everyone else’s…). Zuko’s true motivation was the belief that Iroh had been right all along and that Zuko himself had been wrong. And to regain his Uncle’s love, he had to do what Iroh the Good would want him to do.Feel free to disagree, but I don’t think I’ll be changing my mind about this anytime soon. Book 1 Zuko is Neutral Evil, and Book 3 Zuko is Chaotic Neutral.

Suki: curiously… Lawful Good. “A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished.” I really don’t see any definitions that suit Suki better. She’s honorable, she’s loyal, she’s practically the epitome of a good person. I can’t remember her doing anything… bad. Or even remotely questionable. She’s pretty much Lawful Good, as far as I can see.

Azula: maaaaaan this is going to be a mess…First off, basic definitions: “"Evil" implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others. Some evil creatures simply have no compassion for others and kill without qualms if doing so is convenient. Others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or out of duty to some evil deity or master.” Of all this, the ONLY parts that I think MIGHT suit Azula is the one I bolded. As we’ve debated endlessly, Azula never killed for sport, she doesn’t relish in murder. She only did what was necessary, and curiously didn’t try to murder anyone unless there was no other apparent choice, as was the case in the Crossroads of Destiny (and even then, she failed to kill the person she was targeting). Now, is Azula devoid of compassion? Yeah… I think the Beach proves otherwise. The expression on her face when Ty Lee is lashing out, she seems pretty worried that her laughter caused her friend’s outburst. The apology earlier, when she hurt Ty Lee’s feelings? Her attempt to help unravel why Mai’s represses her feelings so much… it wasn’t even an attempt to make fun of her, just to understand her better. And finally, how concerned she was, how willing she was to help Zuko discover what he was mad at? Ah, and this paired with her warning Zuko not to visit Iroh because he might end up in trouble for it (and he never stops, never faces consequences for this, ergo, Azula didn’t tell anyone, she merely wanted her brother to not risk falling out of their father’s good graces all over again). No doubt Azula isn’t the most compassionate human being ever, but I don’t think she’s entirely devoid of compassion. She’s just muffled it, suffocated it, and tries her best to be as ruthless as her father.Sure, she hurts people with comments, that’s something she’ll do. She has a sharp tongue and doesn’t hold back from teasing people however she pleases. But is that really enough to make her entirely evil? The real reason I consider Book 1 Zuko Evil is because he harmed both enemies and friends alike, knowingly and carelessly, including his own uncle, and because, unlike Azula, he was characterized, BY NICK’S OFFICIAL SITE, as a firebending supremacist during Book 1. Azula wasn’t portrayed that way, not by the show, not by that site. She was pleased to work with Dai Li agents, after all. She discarded a procession of firebending guards and chose to work with two non-benders instead. If she believes firebenders are the greatest thing ever, there’s quite a strong disconnect between her words and actions. She believes in the system she was born into, but I don’t think she believes only firebenders are worthwhile or else she wouldn’t have worked with the Dai Li, or Mai and Ty Lee, or learned from non-benders, Lo and Li. Sure, she did hurt/scare her friends, and she also hurt her brother and uncle (particularly when they were her enemies). But again… I think hurting others through sass isn’t really an act of evil. Else Toph would be evil too, wouldn’t she?But of course, haha, Azula doesn’t suit the Good alignment AT ALL. Like… I’m not even going to break that one down. No thanks. So, she’s Neutral for me, leaning more towards Evil than Good, but still more Neutral than Evil.As for Law vs. Chaos? Again… she’s just so damn tricky at this? Azula is Lawful when it comes to following the Fire Nation’s laws, I think. She’s loyal to her faction, she fights for her father, she shows no defiance of authority EXCEPT… when she lied to her dad. Turns out she has a mix of chaotic and lawful traits! :’D So… does that make her Neutral again? “Someone who is neutral with respect to law and chaos has a normal respect for authority and feels neither a compulsion to obey nor a compulsion to rebel. She is honest but can be tempted into lying or deceiving others.” … oh. So, um… I guess she’s either a True Neutral like Toph… or she’s too complicated for this chart! :’D But I guess she really fluctuates throughout the Neutral axis. Because… “A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs her. Order and organization are paramount to her. She may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or she may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government.” It doesn’t sound all that wrong, does it? But Azula is also not unlikely to lie and deceive people… So she’s probably fluctuating between True Neutral and Lawful Neutral? Guh. I’m really a mess at this.

Iroh: going by our definitions… Iroh would be good. Yes, I don’t love the man and I certainly don’t think he’s pure good, but…: “"Good" implies altruism, respect for life, and a concern for the dignity of sentient beings. Good characters make personal sacrifices to help others.” While there are so many questionable things about Iroh and while I’m DEAD SURE he wasn’t always good, even the earliest Iroh is shown as a man who’s traveling with Zuko even if he probably could be doing something that makes him happier elsewhere. He’s following his nephew around, helping him, teaching him lessons, all because it’s the right thing to do, I guess. Which really just suits the line I bolded there. Iroh also sacrifices himself, allows the Dai Li and Azula to capture him, so Aang and Katara can escape. So yes, I think he’s a mess… but he’s good anyways.In regards of Law vs. Chaos… “"Chaos" implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility.” Iroh IS adaptable. He changes his way of life so many times through the show and he’s seldom shown suffering about it. Recklessness? Yes. Remember Book 1? Getting caught by Earth Kingdom soldiers because of those hot springs? Recklessness indeed. Resentment toward legitimate authority? He both defies Ozai’s rule throughout the show, and defies Zuko’s command of their mission in Book 1 as many times as he pleases. He seems to actually think himself above all authority. Arbitrary actions? “I lost my White Lotus tile, let’s derail our entire journey so I can buy a new one!”, anyone? How about “I’m going to make tea out of this flower even if it might just kill me!”? Yep. He’s definitely guilty of this. And irresponsibility? Not only did he not discipline Zuko on COUNTLESS occasions where he should have, which I find irresponsible, but: his behavior with June? His theft of the nuns? His heating the tea because it was cold even if it meant risking getting discovered?Iroh can join Katara’s camp, as far as I’m concerned: Chaotic Good, right here. “A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society.”

Mai: well, she certainly seems to be a True Neutral on sight, and I guess we’ll just prove that: “People who are neutral with respect to good and evil have compunctions against killing the innocent but lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others. Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships.” Mai’s entire character arc ended up revolving around her relationship with Zuko. So, yes. Committed by personal relationships indeed. “Someone who is neutral with respect to law and chaos has a normal respect for authority and feels neither a compulsion to obey nor a compulsion to rebel.” I think this works for Book 2 Mai… Book 3 Mai absolutely rebelled against authority, needless to say. But again, as it was because of a personal relationship, I don’t think that’s particularly non-Neutral anyways.Finally, “Some neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.” I think Mai is this kind of True Neutral, as opposed to Toph, who’s neutral just because she doesn’t really care either way. Mai isn’t consciously, constantly preaching this kind of philosophy like a Herbalife salesman, but she keeps being bored both by both victory and defeat. Both by good people and bad. Everything’s boring, everything leaves her unaffected… well, on the most part. Again, personal relationships are the only thing that really matter to her. So, True Neutral Mai indeed. 

Ty Lee: when it comes to Ty Lee… dang. I really am a little unsure initially. She’s definitely good, I don’t doubt that, but chaos and lawfulness… she did obey Azula for a long time and to this day there’s no evidence she wanted to put an end to the Fire Nation’s rule, but I guess she did defy Azula eventually. Not mention, “"Chaos" implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility”, and does something scream Ty Lee more than that definition?I’d say Chaotic Good, yeah. “Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit.” Again, sounds so very Ty Lee…

I guess that’s all the main characters? At least, the ones who were around for long enough. I could try to think of Ozai’s alignment too… I’d say he’s a cross of Neutral and Chaotic Evil. It’s just kinda funny because he disregarded authority just so HE could become the real authority. Kind of a complicated fellow too, but who’s surprised? His position in the story is that of a Lawful Evil villain (big figure of authority that needs to be deposed), his attitude seems to be that of a Neutral Evil (”does whatever he can get away with. He is out for herself, pure and simple.”), but his actions are 100% Chaotic Evil (“A chaotic evil character does whatever his greed, hatred, and lust for destruction drive him to do. He is hot-tempered, vicious, arbitrarily violent, and unpredictable. If he is simply out for whatever he can get, he is ruthless and brutal. If he is committed to the spread of evil and chaos, he is even worse.”).

… He’s evil. Let’s just leave it as that.

I know you may disagree here and there, but this took long enough as it is xD

[eirikrjs]

A Deep, Strange Week

My crazy week with vacationing Japanese friends is over! After coming to terms with the fact that I was close to death multiple times while navigating a hearing-and-English-language deficient elderly man through DC-area highways, I’m finally able to get back to doing what I do best: being a wet blanket. 

But in truth, in commenting further about DSJ, the blanket will remain mostly dry. I’ll get to a few common asks and leave the spoiler talk behind a jump. 

#1: The Shekinah (神霊 シェキナー; she is a Godly!)

Tons of people sent the name to me and THANK YOU because I was, after all, asking for it. A shame it didn’t get revealed before the trip because now it already feels like old news. 

Anyway, without getting into spoilers, this turned out to be a pleasant reveal for once. I have a couple quibbles with it (the dark purple faces, even if they are meant to be “cosmic”, seem “evil” when some bluish, greenish, or especially reddish hue for them would have better represented the “presence” aspect; plus that one face that’s grimacing for some reason), but those aside this is one of the only decent demon designs from DSJ, along with Anahita, I guess! 

#2: For the Glory of Speculation

So what does this mean for our good friend from the SMT5 trailer, “Shekinah Glory”? Don’t expect it to translate into this Shekinah appearing in that game in a major way, since it’s already used here. Instead, I can see this referring to the male protagonist’s (sorry folks, that’s just the reality) girlfriend, who could possibly serve as a kind of navigator for you after you both get eaten by those demons. Or, at the very least, she will be the “megami tensei” because we have to take that literally from now on. The broad strokes of femininity and divinity! 

Oh, and “Daath”...you see, Daath isn’t always on the sephirot tree, so I figure it could refer to a hidden or alternate path, because I doubt they will be able to get away from Law/Neutral/Chaos. Hopefully it represents something more abstract! 

#3: Have My Thoughts on DSJ Changed at All? 

This is a question from @m4tter4545. In short: sort of, but not really. I’ll get into the new endings in spoiler territory, but even thought they are interesting, they don’t erase what happened to Zeus or Demeter; it’s still a net negative in my eyes. I would maybe buy the English version on sale, but I’m not willing to commit to it beyond that. 

#4: Farewell, Miiverse! 

Before I move on to spoilers, let’s pour one out for Miiverse, which closes on Tuesday. While you still can, enjoy the Japanese DSJ community. Plenty of decent screenshots to grab in these final hours, like Mem Aleph above in full view for once--though the rest of her legs were always present in the original DS version, as seen at the bottom; the 3DS sprite is ever so slightly bigger, as well. I’m gonna miss Miiverse and its eccentric users, especially those on the European SMT4 page who supplied almost all of the screenshots I needed for Identity Crisis. Cheers to all you lucky devils who were able to post horny Walter, it was greatly appreciated! 

Be careful, spoilers ahead! 

#5: Lucifer’s Child and the New Endings 

So for some of these spoiler topics I honestly won’t have much to say because I don’t want to prematurely judge without the full context. Sometimes having the whole story at your disposal makes things better, sometimes worse (like for Apocalypse). 

But Alex being the daughter of Lucifer and MC is perhaps completely unexpected, so bravo to Atlus for surpassing expectations. But Lucifer...a mother? I mean, it’s a supernatural entity that doesn’t really exist and seems to be able to fully shapeshift, so who’s to say it couldn’t happen? But other than the weird logistics, I don’t find the idea bad or anything, at least based on the basics I know at the moment. 

The new endings seem to be divided between Law and Chaos endings on steroids and a primary new Neutral ending, where MC and Arthur become immortal or something and live on the moon to defend the world from the Schwarzwelt, which now reappears every 150 years. On paper that sounds totally rad, but kinda silly if you think about it for more than a minute. So let’s not do that and just conclude that it’s rad. 

#6: The Three Wise Women 

Even though I like the Shekinah design, her place in the overall SJ scenario seems odd. No, it’s not necessarily the Three Wise Men changing genders, as they were so vaguely defined (and smartly so) that they could be anything; that said, this idea definitely seems like a retcon. 

But it’s more that since canonically in the SJ universe, God has been split apart by the mothers, right? Hence the Metatron/Demiurge quest. But the Three Wise Men were still around, yet here they turn into what is certainly a direct avatar of YHVH. But hey, missing context, huh? I think some Cosmic Egg shenanigans were going on, too, so that may be enough to handwave it. 

Oh yeah, and apparently Demeter turns out to be Shekinah’s underling or something. Whatever. The quicker we move on from that mess, the better. 

#7: Zeus and Amon 

The last major topic I can think of, the game links Amon and Zeus together. Why? Because of Zeus-Ammon. 

I don’t know that many specifics about this other than it has to do with the Lucifer ring that Alex owns, which she uses to control Amon (?). But this connection strikes me as incredibly tenuous, chiefly because you can’t really make a direct connection between Zeus and Amon because a whole other god is standing between them: the Egyptian Amun. Just because one group equated A to B and another equated B to C doesn’t mean that A is equal to C. But yeah, yeah, this is the same game where Asherah results from Asura, so who really cares. 

I believe that’s it for now! Let me know if there’s anything to correct or add! Thanks for reading! 

[tumblunni]

Ehh I mostly Really do not like what they did with marvel Loki, and then the movie version in particular. I’ve heard that the recent threequel kinda hits the reset button on the entire thing and reestablishes him and like he actually has a decent brotherly relationship and gets redeemed now?? So like woo! I’m happy for you! EVen if i’m still mostly not interested in this character!

BUT ANYWAY SORRY WHAT WAS I ORIGINALLY MAKING THIS POST ABOUT WHUPS

What i mean is im not particularly interested in marvel loki in any way, but i always thought his movie plot was a really interesting and sad idea. That they TOTALLY WASTED! tho really it’d be wasted even if they pulled it off perfectly cos i still could not get over the general dissonance of ‘wtf loki wasnt his brother he was like twice his age and knew his dad before he was born, and also he was never half anything and always knew he was a jotunn’. Srsly its fuckin weird that in mythology he never had any magic excuse for working with the aesir, he just.. decided to. And he was good. he was one of the good guys. he turned bad later and he was always a morally nebulous comedic trickster man but he was never fuckin... im only here cos i was raised as a human guy. and also im somehow younger than my best friend’s son who was kinda my nephew i guess. srsly he just.. was a giant who.. chose to switch sides. its not a hard plot to do. why did they even feel they had to change that... tho also incidentally historically jotunn didnt mean giant, it was more like ‘chaos spirit’ in practise. loki being like a 4 foot tall angry gremlin wasnt particularly unusual in the mythos so its funny how out of place he is in the marvelverse actually. and also they weren’t all ice but had fire and ice as basically races or countries, and loki was never really stated which one he was, or if he was some sort of neutral aligned one or there were other elemental types that just never got a starring role in any particular story. or in some interpretations the vanir are considered to perhaps be a form of elemental god too, though that’s just an attempt to nail down how exactly they were meant to be different from aesir. Though there are some textbooks that describe loki’s name as coming from fire, that was actually brought up in-universe during one of his adventures where he fought an evil clone of himself named logi, which is the one that actually means fire. and also there was utgard-loki who was an entirely unrelated rival of his, apparantly just because they had the same name and he was pissed about it? anyway other-loki tricked loki into fighting logi who was actually a magic clone made from wildfire, who was by definition unbeatable in eating contests cos fire consumes everything. Also thor had to outdrink a magical ocean guy and got his ass kicked by a grandma that was actually death in disguise and somehow ‘nobody can fight death’ quite literally meant she was a master of suplexes. Also a cat. A cat was there. And they slept in a giant glove. It was a fun myth cos for once thor and loki got their asses kicked and it was kind of a moral about pride and stuff. Damn that other-loki and his gary oak role in my loki life..!!

SORRY SORRY IM GOING OFFTOPIC AGAIN sorry, mythology stuff was kinda my special interest as a kid and i got stupidly pissy about ‘innacuracy’ in something that wasn’t even claiming to be an adaptation, more of a ‘vaguely inspired by the thing’ I guess...

anyway WHAT I ORIGINALLY MEANT LOL is that ‘he never knew he was a monster thing and was raised as a human and got super sad when he found out’ is wildly innacurate and OOC to fuckin everything about this proud-as-fuck magic man who walked around being Aggressively Gay And Trans Erryday and calling odin out on his shit even when he knew he was gonna get his ass kicked. srsly loki never being able to stop being Happy About Himself is kinda what started his actual turn to evil in the myths, he got drunk and couldnt stop telling crude sex jokes and making up dumb rumours about how he was better than all the gods and banged all their wives and also their wives’s husbands btw. And odin was like Hey That Was Even More Loki Than Usual and murdered all loki’s children and locked him in the centre of the earth having his eyes constantly melted out with acid and regrowing and also a snake was eating him and also he was pinned with his dead son’s own guts as chains and also lets punish the wife who wasnt even there and tie her up too forever hugging her screaming hubby and trying to hold the acid out of his eyes with a comically small cup and her increasingly scarred skeleton hands. Because he was rude at a party. Then loki turned evil when he finally escaped and Hey I Think He Might Have Had One Or Two Reasons. Mythology is kinda fucked up sometimes, lol!

... ANYWAY WHERE WAS I, SORRY

loki being a lil emo teen dude who’s sad cos o no i am a monster and my dad never loved me = innacurate, and less interesting than many very interesting things of these myths that i wish they did instead

BUT

if it wasnt a weird attempt to change an already good story then it would be a good story yo!

like srsly there were a lot of particular elements to it that were really distinctive visually and i can see why they ended up being way more popular in fanart even if they were practically never shown again. It was a good idea to give the jotunn more of a distinct physical appearance from the Big Ol Protagonist Gods Of Generic Humanness, that like the one thing they made more accurate than the comics! And the funky blue look is really cool cos its like a fantasy equivelant of aliens, and like.. a cool lookin deep blue that isnt quite the cliche you’d expect for ice guys. And it looks nice with glowy red eyes and those weird patterns like theyre born with tattoos or somethin! And it was an interesting change from the comics to NOT have loki be a half jotunn or anything, he was just a regular jotunn orphan who was ambiguously either spared by odin as the last survivor of the war or stolen away from his real family as some sort of messed up trophy. But just like I Guess They’re Celtic Mythology Changelings Too so he magically ended up looking like a human cos he thought he was one? Which fits pretty cool with his particular magic powers being illusion-based, even though everybody else is all ice guys. (which is funnily enough also myth accurate to how NO OTHER JOTUNNS EVER SEEM TO SHAPESHIFT, GEEZ. srsly its not clear whether its some loki unique power or just a big ol plot hole XD)

And then it added a really cool visual aspect to have basically this guy who was under a glamour his entire life and didnt know it, and gets a really kinda existentially horrifying moment of finding out his face isnt his face?? srsly that was so messed up! you’re standing there and you know this is The Poorly Explained McGuffin That Somehow Powers Up Jotunns I Guess and you’re “dad this is your last chance to stop lying” and HE CONTINUES TO LIE ANYWAY but then whoops u touched the thing and I Guess You Really Was Monsters Poor guy...

BUT THEN MY PONT IS LIKE its so wasted!!! none of that really comes up again after that scene!! and we arent supposed to be sympathetic to loki and he’s just the bad guy and all we get is a twist that he did all his bad guy stuff with the unexpected motive of actually NOT betraying his father but just leading the jotunns to take over asgard and then killing them all and somehow faking being a hero so everyone would accept him back, even though nobody except the dad even knew he was a jotunn and indicated they were gonna kick him out and also why did you suddenly want to murder your brother out of a poorly established jealousy you apparantly always had yet also you still love him and just... uhh?? how was any of this plot meant to work out, dude. Srsly I am SO glad to hear they made his characterization more consistant in the sequels but i really hated the first movie so much i’ll probably never watch them lol. and did we really need to wait like half a decade to get some proper sibling dynamic? im so grossed out by how all the fans of the first movie shipped them and pulled that weird ‘not blood related’ excuse...

WHOOPS IM RAMBLING AGAIN

anyway it sucks that: * we never get to see Cool Blue Monster Loki Design ever again in the film * he’s suddenly evil and does a bunch of shit that doesnt even make sense given the motivation of Sad Because Monster Lies * we dont even get any emotional continuation or conclusion on that one big sad reveal scene that looked like it had so much plot potential * ALL THE JOTUNNS ARE JUST EVIL. At the same time that the film tries to make a moral about loki being bad for wanting to kill them all EVEN THOUGH THATS WHAT THOR DID AT THE BEGINNING * srsly the film starts off with thor being a huge jerk and then he doesnt become more sympathetic until way after loki suddenly turned unsympathetic so we have this void in the middle where we cant root for anyone. and it makes you wonder why they even bothered with SUCH a powerful sympathetic scene for this poor dude! * all the jotunns are evil and just agree to murder all of valhalla for no reason and also none of them even talk except Biological Dad Man, who is also super super evil and doesnt love loki cos Hey We Cant Have Any Complexity Here * also they mixed up the names and called him by myth loki’s mom’s name which I suppose could work if this was the same character who transitioned or something, but this was at a point back when marvel tried to cover up all references to genderfluidity being a literal superpower of loki’s. also they didnt show him having a mum at all and all the female characters were kinda poorly handled so yeah. * loki for no fuckin reason stays loyal to odin even though he just learned he was kidnapped as a kid and has been raised to want to kill his own home village like seriously what the fuck * last minute out of nowhere backstabbing of personalityless evil jotunn dad and yknow.. like the million bazillion jotunns who were all (as far as we know) super happy to have their presumed dead prince come back and perfectly nice to him as a family. like seriously could you not have at least established that they were jerks to him in.. some way? WE SAW SO MUCH OF ODIN BEING A TERRIBLE DAD UNTIL NOW. And he was supposed to be sympathetic! and his last scene up until now was being called out on lying to his adopted son for a bazillion years and the question of his goddamn motives was left wide open so we dont KNOW if he was sympathetic or not, geez! if you cant bother to establish why loki should side with odin then at least establish why he should want to murder his entire biological family right after they ACCEPTED HIM INTO THEIR HOME. They were shown being evil in that they wanted to invade asgard, yeh, but also your protagonist’s main goddamn struggle is about wanting to invade jotunheim and like apparrantly everyone’s being doing this for a bazillion years and there’s not even the slightest hint who started the damn war in the first place... * Don’t kill jotunns thats bad, loki is bad for doing that. But also all jotunns are bad and we can kill them anyway cos they invaded first. Yknow.. due to loki tricking them specifically to kill them. And them believing him cos he’s Kinda The King’s Presumed Dead Son And Seriously Why Does Nobody Talk One Way Another About Whether They’re Happy Or Not That He’s Back * did loki and incorrectly named king guy even have a single sentence together that wasn’t ‘mwahaha we shall Plot Device to Evil Invade’? not like five seconds of ‘fuck i missed my son’ or ‘its awkward to bond again with a son that grew up without me’ or even ‘what was it like to be trapped with our mortal enemies that we all assume are evil and kidnapped you’  * LIKE ACTUALLY WHY WAS THAT NEVER BROUGHT UP? the jotuns didnt fuckin know that loki got adopted by a guy and raised as a human! did any of this make sense from their perspective?? were they not even slightly suspicious when he didnt tell them where he’d been for all those years and also spent all his screentime staying in human form and never showing off that cool special effect evr again?? didnt anyone think maybe he was just an asgardian lying to them? and did nobody recognise him as the son of their mortal enemy and think that was a way bigger reason he might be lying, or even a reason not to trust him even if he was indeed a jotunn with an identity complex...? or hell, did he NOT EVEN TELL THEM HIS BIG BACKSTORY MOTIVE??? did they just think Hey Some Random Asgardian Wants To Betray His Own Kind, That’s Not Suspicious In Any Way? i mean at least that would explain about why Dad 2; The Redaddening literally never mentioned being his damn dad or showed any emotion except Generic Evil... * Anyway none of this matters cos we killed all the jotunns in a justified way even though killing the jotunns is why loki is the bad guy, and then we do some sort of magical segregation power to cut off the path between the worlds so like.. the 5% of not dead guys over there can never appear again and we can have some sort of weird sense of moral high ground. Also loki falls off a cliff and dies, but obviously its a fakeout for the sequel, The End

THINGS THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN REALLY COOL TO DO WITH THIS PLOT INSTEAD MAYBE: * like fffuckign show goddamn Loki Real if you bothered to invent a new design for the jotunns looking not like humans in the first place... * hey actually explore the kind of existential horror stuff of finding out your preconceived notions about some other realm’s citizens being Inherantly Evil Monsters are all wrong and also you were one of them all along * also like.. actually commit to the plot of them NOT being Inherantly Evil Monsters. like seriously i guess loki was the only not bad one cos he was raised as an asgardian?? and then he immediately switches sides as soon as his orignal nature is revealed, so i guess not. >_> * like man there’s fifty bazillion ways you could have handled trying to stop a war between two sides where neither is evil, and like seriously the dude who’s part of both works could have been the symbol of peace who did that... * also minor note but why is every other jotunn identical and never speaks except loki and Evildad Plotdevice, thats really fuckin stupid * srsly imagine if they had any form of established culture or civilization or anything instead of just Standing In A Field, Being Vaguely Menacing, With No Houses Even Nearby. like srsly their whole world is just generic jrpg dungeon tundras i guess... * imagine all the plots that could come from Not Villain Plot Loki getting to go visit this other country of the monster folks and get a first hand experience on how the citizens live and how they’re not just all enemy soldiers with no damn personality or motive beyond Bad Hatewrong The Anger Things. imagine the fuckin complex plot sads that could come from if he was actually WELCOMED by his birth family and had a dad that had been mourning him for like thirty fuckin years and just wanted to keep him happy and safe. You could have eighty more angsts if the plot of those angsts is Oh Fuck I Was So Wrong About These People And Stood By And Supported This War That Was Killing Them, And Am I A Bad Person Because I Only Found Sympathy For Them After Discovering A Blood Relation? * and like you could still have bad guys, you could have bad guys on both sides who are perpetuating the war and both have to be stopped so this peace can happen. And you can have not bad guys who were suckered in by war propeganda into working for these bad guys, and you have to try and make them reach the same realization that poor loki had forced upon him. * and like.. what if they did explore that one weird throwaway line about not knowing if odin’s motives were sympathy for the last survivor of a massacre, or a desire to steal a kid as a trophy of that same massacre? like maybe odin actually was a war hungry monster back then and his intentions were cruel in kidnapping this kid, but he realized what a horrible mistake he’d been making with his life when he began to see the kid grow up and have just as much of a complexity of emotion and potential for goodness as any of his own people. And the reason he never told loki his past was not because of Plot Device but because of shame for his original motives in this whole sad affair, and guilt in feeling that he could never undo what happened. like ‘oh god maybe the boy will be happier if he never knows he had all the stuff he lost because of me’. And thats also why he could seem distant like he doesnt love him, its feeling like he doesnt deserve to experience this kid’s love after he’s coe to realize the true atrocity of what he did to him.. * and also i dunno maybe the two dads could get At Least One Scene of Actually Talking Together and resolve some damn things... * could even be sad if odin like.. wants biological-dad to kill him so he can atone for his sins, and loki goes bursting in at the last second like WAIT NO ITS A TRAP HE’S TRYING TO COMMIT SUICIDE DAMMIT and then we find some way to resolve a plot that isnt Action Scenes And All The Bad Guys Die A Lot * also fuck i dont know if u want a ship of monster dude and not monster dude then do the two dads instead of a guy and his adopted brother, thats just gross * also MORE SCREENTIME FOR THE CUTE AND COOL MONSTER LOKI DESIGN. like yo you cant have any form of plot about accepting yourself unless you show his true form like.. more than once. as far as i know it never appears in the sequels even after they give him his super overdue redemption plot :/

^ Dat’s Pretty Neat

srsly it sucks that this is even the only damn screenshot i could get of it like fuckin 0.4 seconds of one damn movie, never shown again

its funny how just by googling it you’ll get like fifty bazillion edited screenshots of what if he stayed that way for the rest of the film and also the sequels and also a bazillion fanarts and fan jotunn ocs and like seriously fuckin EVERYONE likes the cool blue elves design, marvel, use it more often!!

look at this really great fanart by this artist here I can’t say any opinion on the rest of their art tho cos they seem to be one of those people that ship him with his brother.. sigh... >_> still drawing terrible ships elsewhere doesnt make your other art any less talented! thank u for blessing us with Casual Monster Man Knows He Is Cute BECAUSE MARVEL IS TOO COWARD TO DO IT

[notadrde]

Alignment

I just wanted to weigh in about alignment because there’s been a lot of discourse around it and I wanted to throw in some thoughts about alignment in general and aside from any CR character

D&D was designed to tell and involve characters in certain kinds of stories. Its connection to high fantasy is the reason for the kinds of stories the D&D typically is about. D&D was meant for stories that involve large-scale conflicts between good and evil, and between order and chaos. Powerful entities behind these, like demon lords, ancient dragons, and gods and angels, are the setting and driving pieces of these stories because they embody that conflict on a fundamental level. This is the reason why D&D draws a distinction between devils and demons - they are on opposite ends of the spectrum between order and chaos, and therefore opposed to one another despite the fact that they are all evil. Similarly, lawful and chaotic good deities have been known to have major beef with each other on that basis.

Alignment is simultaneously a really great system and a flawed one. It’s a really great system because it’s a quick, succinct, and broadly-encapsulating system that tracks where any creature falls down on that spectrum for the sake of those conflicts. Where does an orc stand? What about a dragon? and so on. It also measures, importantly, where the player characters fall, especially with regards to their motivations. 

That’s why neutrality exists. Characters who are neutral on one axis of the spectrum are there because that particular conflict is not their motivating factor. Characters who are neutral on the good-evil axis may or may not pick a side in the large-scale conflicts of good and evil, but when they do it’s because of their law-vs-chaos stance. A lawful neutral character who picks a side does so because that side aligns with the way they’re lawful, so on lawful good vs. chaotic evil, which is a common combo, the lawful neutral character probably falls in with the lawful good people, not because they’re good but because they’re lawful and the character is opposed to the chaotic evil people over there, again not because they’re evil but because they’re chaotic. Similarly a chaotic neutral person might side with the underdog, or the one who can advance their personal goals, or selfishness, regardless of whether that side is good or evil. But lawful good vs. chaotic evil is probably the most common conflict in D&D because it is closest to a lot of western myth and legend, so lawful neutral is thought to be closer to good than chaotic neutral. Importantly, a similar thing applies to characters who are neutral on the good-evil axis. When faced with the conflict between order and chaos, a neutral good character is neutral good because they choose the side that is the most good, irrespective of order or chaos, and a neutral evil character chooses the side that most fits their brand of evil.

Evil when evil is tied to things like selfishness, power, and gain, it is always also specifically at the expense of others. On the D&D scale selfishness does not equal evil. Similarly good represents doing things for the benefit of others. Law and chaos deal with the order with which people go about their own actions and what they support in the systems in the world. Basically:

Alignment is a very simple system that deals with large-scale conflicts well. Player characters have alignment for the purposes of tracking their motivations for where they fall down on those conflicts. It’s clear why it evolved if you look at the evolution of D&D - it came out of wargames. The original D&D came out of a session of a wargame where, to add complexity for fun, one of the players (I think it was gygax but I could be wrong) decided he was going to give each of his little pieces their own personality and motivations. But he had a lot of little pieces, hence, well, are they good or bad, do they like the rules and the government or not?

This is why virtually nobody plays true neutral, because by definition the true neutral character almost never chooses a side and if they do do not do it on the basis of any strong motivations in particular. Player characters are by definition the major actors and affectors in the conflicts of the world, especially at high level, so it’s pretty hard to do that and be active without in some way becoming a bit sympathetic to good, evil, order, or chaos. NPCs who don’t give a shit about you or your adventure, however, are great at being true neutral.

So alignment is great for these kinds of questions and conflicts. What it is not great for is small-scale or individual conflicts. Your willingness to, say, grab a magic broom and then secretly keep it for yourself, tricking the original owner out of it effectively, says little about where you stand on the conflict between evil and good and more about your motivations in that moment.

Any time a character does something in a smaller-scale interaction, one way to kind of suss this out is to think: would a solar or a demon lord care about this? For example, if you stole a loaf of bread to feed your family and the baker noticed but isn’t gonna miss it, a solar isn’t going to care. They’re beings of cosmic morality and the cosmic weight of moral actions, and on the cosmic scales that hang in balance, whether you a mostly nice person stole a magic broom from another mostly nice person weighs zero pounds and zero ounces on that scale. A solar cares whether you’re with it or against it in smiting the legions of hell or saving the world. Any conflict on a smaller scale than that is mostly peanuts to it. Same with a demon lord. If you once pet a puppy and saved a guy, Asmodeus doesn’t care, he wants to know if you’re with him in taking over the world and fucking up those pesky angels.

All of this is why I don’t think alignment is a big deal in everyday PC roleplaying or interactions within the party, and the discourse around alignment in the CR fandom right now is a big reason why I strongly encourage my players to mention their alignment as little as possible - once you mention it, people’s characters then have a tendency to pay attention to it and treat you like your alignment, and not based on your character’s personality and interactions. I’m hugely in favor of making smaller-scale interactions based on smaller-scale personality traits and characteristics, on roleplaying, and on more nitpickey character motivations, and when it comes to the big themes and conflicts of the story caring about the character’s alignment. Being greedy, or impulsive, or not caring sufficiently about the rest of the party, or whatever, says more about a character’s personality than their alignment.

Now at the start I said I wouldn’t get in to the CR discourse but I lied. I think the majority of the party is correctly aligned, which is neat because it’s almost like they’re generally good D&D players with a really good DM to help them out with this. Percy is good, because he cares about the people who might rationally matter to him, he generally works for what he believes are their interests, and wants the best for them. He is chaotic, because, as Talesin specifically said, he is afraid of his own nobility and the responsibility it entails. Vex is good, especially moreso nowadays because she cares about herself and the people around her, wants to better herself, wants to help those who are victimized by others, and wants to ensure she’s not being hasty or vengeful when she has to fight. She’s chaotic because she pilfered a broom that one time. Vax is good because he wants to destroy bad things, simple as that. Again, I think everyone would do well to think big-scale when it comes to all this. If you’re nitpicking with alignment, I don’ think you’re doing alignment right.

/endrant