#identity really is the theme of this campaign

[mariuslepual]

critical role campaign 2 is really that bitch. best cr PCs of all time. best NPCs of all time. the golden age of Sam's ads. MOTHER I BRING NEWS FROM THE WOMB. storytelling and pure luck coming together for such cohesive, meaningful narrative. the themes of identity, second chances and growth. FLUFFERNUTTER. making my way. WIZARDS. SO MANY WIZARDS. the Luxon. Ruby of the Sea, the best lay ever. accidental piracy. a theatre full of people yelling BALLEATER. three kobolds in a trench coat. successfully getting precious state secrets with 12 persuasion. AEOR MY BELOVED. the pusheen ad. taliesin resurrecting himself. AND THEN IN THE END, THERE WERE NEIN OF THEM.

[glitter-stained]

A fun, happy dc story for a change

Look I can be very critical of Winick's writing because I'm so ambivalent about it but damn if it isn't, on a meta level, a really satisfying spite story.

At the core of this story, there is Jim Starlin. Now Starlin's writing has many flaws, not least of all the blatant racism and sexism. And if there's one thing Jim hates, it's Robin. He wants to kill that little boy so bad, oh how he hates that bright coloured child in tights that's just holding Batman back from reaching his true potential as an absolute badass... And hey, good news! Dc, in trying to bring a second Robin after the first got a new identity, has dropped the ball, and the new boy is unpopular amongst the fans who miss the previous iteration! This is his opportunity to kill Robin, definitely!

But how? People may not have voted him dead yet, but Jim is already planning, setting up plots and trying his damndest to get him killed. And the thing about Jim- the thing that makes him a good writer, you see, the thing that separates him from those losers who fail to see Batman's true potential, is that his writing is gritty. He's not afraid to write a true dark knight facing the grimdark horrors of a town laden with crime, to shy away from the real dark, gritty topic that are mature and dark like rape. And uh, sexual violence against women. And uh, serial raping and killing women. (I'm kidding, of course, I didn't forget the native american cult leader who bathes in blood to prolongate his life. Or about the kgb agent Batman straight-up kills after he tries to kill Reagan. Or about the suicides, god I haven't forgotten about that. Don't worry.) But anyway, sexual abuse in general is a big theme for Jim. It shows how serious and dark and gritty he can be. So he has an idea: why not make Robin a child sexual abuse victim and give him AIDS? That way that's a justification to write Robin unlikeable (by making him emotional when exposed to situations of sexual abuse, unable to restrain his anger when defending a prostitute...) and at the same time it's the perfect way to kill Robin! DC has been considering giving a character AIDS, it's perfect! It will show everyone how dark and gritty Jim's writing is, he can make Robin even more unlikeable on top of how people are upset about the transition between Robins, and then he can finally kill Robin! It's perfect! Jim is a genius!!!

Now, of course, we know that plan failed: first because dc rejected Starlin's idea for Jason to die of AIDS, and second because as soon as Jason (as a character, which is what DC apparently had a problem with) died, they fired Starlin as a Batman writer and introduced a new Robin, making Starlin's vehement campaign against a fictional fifteen years old completely vain.

So that's it, right? Crisis avoided, we almost had some even worst writing that what already was, everyone sigh in relief and go home?

Enter Judd Winick stage left.

Now, remember how DC wanted to give a character AIDS? In 2003, Green Arrow #43 reveals that Mia Dearden, Oliver Queen's ward and a csa survivor of underage prostitution, is HIV positive, and in #45, she takes on the mantle of the second Speedy, becoming, according to Wikipedia, the most prominent HIV-positive superhero to star in an ongoing comic book. (And also one of my favourite comics characters, but that's unrelated.) An important thing about Winick, who wrote those issues, is that he is personally invested in education about AIDS, continuing his friend Pedro Zamora's educational work after his death of AIDS-related progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. (He also wrote a graphic novel about it, called Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss and What I've Learned). So kudos! We finally got someone who has done research and actually holds respect for HIV+ people writing HIV+ characters. And Mia is so cool, man- but not only is she a really interesting character, she is, first and foremost, a survivor. That's how she characterizes herself, sees what happened to her: she did what she had to do to survive, and now she's a fucking superhero and she's here to help others and you know what she's not gonna do? Die "of AIDS."

Yeah, I haven't forgotten Starlin's terrible writing. And, if Winick's writing is any identification, it seems like he hasn't either. The idea of making the second Speedy a parallel with the second Robin isn't groundbreaking, but it's cool that it's there (and also, incidentally, a reminder that parallels are interesting and fun and backstories are not a finite resource characters can run out of or steal from eachother.) Anyway, this includes Winick altering Mia's backstory and making her a street kid to make it more similar to Jason's, as well as Mia's on-screen murder offering a nice parallel to Jason's ambiguous murder in Starlin's Diplomat Son (a parallel I can't help but regard with vindicative snark, because that's how you handle a teenager who has just caused, directly or not, a man's death out of hopelessness in a situation that felt impossible. A little snark of See? Now this is how it's done. Yeah, Starlin's Bruce isn't winning any parenting against Winick's Ollie, that's for sure.) So there it is! Our fun spite story, Winick taking on Starlin's terrible ideas, a teen vigilante and survivor taking on a hero identity to mirror a teen vigilant's loss and death, a good old fashioned schooling. Cool? Cool!

And then, in 2005, Winick buries Starlin's last remaining impact on DC by bringing back Jason Todd, in a move so audacious in the back-then landscape it would be kinda akin to bringing Ben Parker back to life in Spiderman's life as a villain (please don't tell me this happens in the comics I don't read Marvel and if someone wrote that I would honestly prefer not to know). Now, of course, the impact of Jason's death on the narrative can't and shouldn't be undone by that move, but that's not important, because that's not what Starlin wanted when killing Jason - he wanted to kill Jason/Robin, not give everyone grief-induced hallucinations where Jason/Robin had an incredibly salient place in the narrative, so he didn't get what he wanted anyway.

Personally, my view on Winick's writing of Jason is contrasted (and the fact that there are some elements of Starlin's characterization of Jason that I prefer to Winick's deeply amazes me, incredibly ironic situation. Which only serves to point that even Starlin' goal of making us hate his version of robin failed drastically, as me and my jaybin fan mutuals can attest. Sucks to suck!). But as much as some of the decisions frustrate me, do you understand how much of a power move it is to take this child, this victim who has been victim-blamed for years, and bring him back to life with a vengeance and a demand that his life mattered, that his death was a bad thing that shouldn't be tolerated? Do you know how good that story feels, especially to victims when reading it and see that indignation validated, that rebellion against the status quo and victim-blaming, how good it feels to see a "bad victim" that refuses to stay down ? And in the context of Starlin's intent to write Jason a CSA victim, Winick writing Mia, the HIV+ plot for them both- do you understand the genuine and violent glee I feel, that it's Winick that wrote Jason coming back to life and hunting down the narrative with a machine gun?

So yeah. This is the context in which I talk about acknowledging the csa subtext in Green Arrow: Seeing Red, but this post isn't about lecturing you to accept it as canon or imply that you're bad for not sharing that interpretation. It's about spite -towards Jim Starlin specifically. And it's about that interpretation, but the context in which it was written in general, is not just a victory against Starlin, that guy lost long ago, but the narrative equivalent of that Green Arrow meme about taking a funny selfie over a gravestone. In Seeing Red (specifically in the line that's discussed when questioning the csa headcanon), Jason tells Mia they are similar because of what they had to do to survive, framing the sexual trauma on Mia's part (and thus allegedly also on Jason's) again firmly on the side of survival rather than victimhood. Whether it's by becoming a villain or a hero, there's this rebellion against being an object to the violence, which is at the core of Starlin's treatment of sexual violence. This is fun. We're having fun. I'm repeating myself, but do you understand how satisfying, electrifying it is? I'm filled with unreasonable amounts of glee. You don't always need the context in which a story was written to enjoy it but in this case, doesn't this make it so much more enjoyable? (And on top of that, kudos to Winick for killing Captain Nazi, I hope it was as satisfying to write as it looked.) Anyway, Mia Dearden and Jason Todd, the characters that you are. I love them so much.

[radicalreliablerandomness]

Podcast Rec Masterpost

I've been asked a couple times for podcast recommendations so I thought I'd post a compilation of some shows and a bit of info about them. Most shows I talk about are tagged below (I ran out of tags) so you can look through fan content as well if you're not one to care about spoilers. My asks are still open for personalized recs if you send me some others that you've listened to just because I love you, yes that's right! You. The person reading this right now!

Here goes!

Dungeons And Daddies *not a BDSM podcast

This show is a dnd actual play podcast. The first season is about four dads from our world lost in the Forgotten Realms in search of their lost sons. It’s a comedy but as with all comedies, you will cry by the end of it. It's super easy to get into with great chemistry between all the cast players and the dm, no prior knowledge of dnd is necessary. They do invoke slight horror sometimes so do keep an eye out for content warnings. Season 1 has 68.5 episodes along with bonus content and a mini campaign in between seasons 1 and 2. Season 2 is currently ongoing. Transcripts available.

The Bright Sessions

This is a science fiction podcast. The premise is a collection of clinical recordings of superpowered people's therapy sessions. The plot gets more interesting and convoluted as you get further in. Incredible voice acting filled with emotion. Does have some heavier discussions so be on the lookout for content warnings. It has 7 seasons (the last two are technically not part of the first five seasons' plot) and is completed. Transcripts available.

Hello From the Hallowoods

A post-apocalyptic fiction podcast. A beautifully written and preformed podcast that explores identity, religion, and other themes in vignettes throughout this haunted world narrated by an omniscient being. Some heavier topics are included so check the content warning before each episode. Seasons 1 and 2 are completed and season 3 will be done soon. Transcripts available.

The Magnus Archives

A horror fiction podcast. A well written chronological story told through anthology which seem to be tape recordings from a paranormal investigation institute. Incredible writing and actors that really bring it to life. This is horror so make sure to check the content warnings. The show is completed at 5 seasons. Transcripts available.

Neighbourly

Another horror fiction podcast! An interesting look into all the houses on Little Street and their peculiarities. Some more peculiar than others. The podcast is absolutely delightful with a horribly fun narrator. I would suggest checking the content warnings as some episodes are more intense than others. The show has 2 completed seasons. Transcripts available.

The Fall of the House of Sunshine

A musical mystery fiction podcast. The first season is about an investigation on the murder of a beloved host of a children's tooth-themed show. That's all I can say without spoilers. There are 3 incredible seasons along with short stories in between each season. Transcripts available until halfway through season 2.

Welcome to Nightvale

Possibly the most well known science fiction podcast, it really speaks for itself but I'll do my spiel anyways. Recorded as snippets of a daily radio broadcast, the show details the weird goings on in this strange desert town of Nightvale. Narrated almost completely by the radio host's smooth voice. It's ongoing and is currently sitting at 233 episodes. Transcripts available.

The Two Princes

A fictional queer romance podcast. It takes place in that special part of fiction that always starts with "once upon a time," it feels like a story book almost. The show is based around two boys meeting in the woods. Spoiler alert: they fall in love. It's just a cute feel good show. The podcast is complete at 3 seasons. Spotify auto-generated transcripts available.

What's the Frequency?

A self described psychedelic noir podcast. It's an absolute blast even if it is a bit hard to follow. Takes place in the 1940s in LA when all radio broadcasts were turned to static. You kind of just have to go with it until you get to the end. Completed at 12 episodes. Transcripts available.

Story Break

A writer's room podcast. The basic concept behind Story Break is 3 Hollywood writers in a room together take a prompt and try to make a story for it in an hour. There are many laughs in this podcast and just all around good humor and vibes. The show is complete at 169 episodes plus two full movie scripts. No transcript.

Who Killed Avril Lavigne

A science fiction podcast. It's about a time traveling pop punk loser and that's all you need to know. It's a podmusical so you'll be getting great nostalgic pop punk type songs along with crying from laughing so hard. Completed at 8 episodes. No transcript.

The Behemoth

A fiction podcast. Based around an unexplainable creature emerging from the ocean and how the world, and one girl in particular, deal with this phenomenon. It is pretty short with the longest episode being about 12 minutes. Completed at 20 episodes. No transcript.

Rude Tales of Magic

A dnd actual play podcast. It is mainly focused on the actual roleplay and story telling as opposed to the actual play. A handful of college students from Polaris University fuck the world up by completing a hazing ritual which in this case is a supposedly demon summoning. Obviously now they need to fix the world. Currently 64 episodes and ongoing. No transcript.

Midnight Burger

A very well written fiction podcast. It’s about a time/space traveling diner where the employees try to help solve a problem every place they land. Think Doctor Who adjacent vibes but with more drama. There is an overarching plot that comes together so look out for that. It has incredible characters that are really nicely fleshed out. You’ll somehow like and hate all of them as much as possible in the best way. Currently has 29 episodes of the main feed and a 9 episode mini-series. Transcript available.

Monstrous Agonies

A fiction podcast. It’s an radio advice segment on a station for “liminal Britain” aka the monstrous world to put it plainly. It’s really chill and comforting. There’s very good advice there and the intermittent ad reads will have you giggling to yourself. Episodes are on the shorter side, averaging about 15 minutes each. It does have some heavier discussions so make sure to check the content warnings. The show is completed at 111 episodes through 3 seasons. Transcripts available.

Desert Skies

A fiction podcast. The voice acting in this one is incredible, it’s the same person the whole time. The show as a whole is also just super well done. The premise is that when you die you show up on a highway and get to this astral pit stop. I’m not going to spoil it anymore you just have to experience it. There is an additional show, Desert Skies FM that's a buddy to this one. I recommend listening to both. Season 1 was completed at 12 episodes. Transcripts available.

Wooden Overcoats

A sitcom dramedy podcast. The show is about two siblings that run a funeral home on an island. It used to be the only one, it isn’t anymore. It has a wacky cast of characters and even wackier plot points. The dialogue can be a little hard to get used to at the beginning but once you get into it it flows easily. The show is completed at 4 seasons. Transcripts available.

Greater Boston

An audio drama podcast. It's set in Boston if you couldn't tell from the title and starts with the death of a man on a rollercoaster. It blends real life with some subtle (and at times not-so-subtle) fantasy elements. It's currently at 4 completed seasons. Transcript available.

Gay Future

A science fiction podcast. In a world where everyone is gay in the future we focus on this one straight kid. Following his journey to destroy the government who are making everyone gay. This is a satire by the way. 1 season completed at 6 episodes. No transcripts.

Death by Dying

A dark comedy podcast. The show follows an obituary writer while he does things that are totally under the jurisdiction of his job. A well written and preformed show. There are a lot of laughs and obviously some heartbreaks as well. Currently 1 completed season with season 2 sitting at 2 episodes for a bit now. Transcript available.

Not Another D&D Podcast

An actual play dnd podcast. This one's more mainstream than my other podcasts so I don't talk about it as much but that doesn't mean it's not incredible. The first campaign is about 3 adventurers off to save the world. Obviously. It can be a bit slow in the beginning but anything past the second half of the first season is incredible. There's humor, drama, love, and much more. The DM is also just incredible. 1 completed season, a couple mini campaigns, and the second season is currently at 43 episodes. No transcripts.

Forgive Me!

A fiction podcast. It starts based around vignettes of confessionals in this small town taken by a new father in the local church. An overarching plot is present but it's generally a feel good, sweet and simple show. They have 2 complete seasons with season 3 currently at 9 episodes. Transcripts available.

Real Housewives of D&D

An actual play dnd podcast. This show is based around the concept of a "Real Housewives..." type show but you don't need to know anything about those to listen to this. It's about 4 reality TV stars thrown into a magical fantasy world with no knowledge of how to get home. There's drama, excitement, danger, and lots more. The first season was just completed at 16 episodes. Transcripts available.

The Silt Verses

A horror fiction podcast. Two people who worship a banned god travel together up a river in a pilgrimage. There is incredible worldbuilding in this show along with acting and sound design. This is horror and a very good one at that so make sure you check content warnings. Season 1 and 2 are completed and season 3 is at 2 episodes so far. Transcripts available.

The Land Whale Murders

A comedy fiction podcast. It takes place in the year 1899 and is about a pair of friends? maybe not, that metaphorically explore the world they're living in. It is a commentary on the world we live in and the problems in it through a hilarious and wacky cast. There are currently 17 episodes between both seasons 1 and 2. Transcripts available.

Elaine's Cooking for the Soul

A post-apocalyptic cooking podcast. The show is about a dentist who makes her way through the fallout of an apocalypse while also making a cooking podcast. It does have depictions of violence, war, and dentistry so check out the content warnings. There are 2 completed seasons. No transcripts.

Fawx and Stallion

A mystery podcast. If you hate Sherlock Holmes you'll love this podcast. Also if you love Sherlock Holmes you'll love this podcast. It's based around the detectives who live across the street from Holmes at 224B Baker street. It's pretty goofy. Season 1 is completed. Transcripts available.

The Amelia Project

A fiction podcast. Follow the shenanigans of this death-faking organization as they take in new clients and hear their stories. It does develop an actual overarching plot later on but every second is fun. Seasons 1-4 have been completed and season 5 is in progress. Transcripts available.

A Voice From Darkness

A horror podcast. It's centered around a radio show hosted by Dr. Malcolm Ryder, Parapsychologist. He helps people who call into his show with supernatural problems, gives PSAs and warnings about strange happenings, and more. Season 1 is completed and season 2 is at 9 episodes. Transcripts available.

Station Arcadia

A dystopian fiction podcast. Formatted through a radio show, it tells the story of a world that's slowly dying. There are vignettes of different characters through different areas of the world. Season 1 is completed at 25 episodes. Transcripts available.

Margaret's Garden

A science fiction podcast. It has two plots running at the same time which keeps you on your toes but makes for an intriguing story line. In one plot line, two agents are sent to investigate the strange happenings of a weird little long abandoned town. Simultaneously, we hear from the past of that town as it catches up to the agents. Completed at 10 episodes. Transcripts available.

Camp Here & There

A horror comedy podcast. It's recorded as a set of daily announcements over a loudspeaker at a totally normal summer camp. The announcements are made by the camp nurse and he's also totally normal. I promise. Make sure to check in with the content warnings as some topics are a little mature or graphic. There are currently 34 episodes. Transcripts available.

Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye

A companion horror podcast. This is actually a bit meta because it is the result of a youtube series. This show is the one the podcast hosts in the series release, it's definitely worth both the watch and the listen though. It's got werewolves and drama. Completed at 10 episodes of video and 10 of the podcast. No transcripts.

I am in Eskew

A horror podcast. It's about a man who's trapped in a city where the buildings always change and the rain never stops. There's a weird monotonous creeping horror in this show that just draws you in. Check for content warnings definitely. Completed at 30 episodes. Transcripts available.

Traveling Light

A comfy cozy fiction podcast. It follows The Traveller on their exploration through space, visiting alien planets and collecting stories to send back to their community. For supporters of the show, it almost functions as a choose-your-own-adventure with choices to vote on and listener submissions. It's made by the same people as Monstrous Agonies so if you enjoyed that, you'd enjoy this and vice versa. There are currently 16 episodes. Transcripts available.

Not yet described but still recommended:

Eeler’s Choice

The Secret of St Kilda

The Endless Ocean

The Department of Variance of Somewhere, Ohio

The Sword & The Stoner

World Gone Wrong: a fictional chat show about friendship at the end of the world

Travelling Light

Waterlogged

Brimstone Valley Mall

[utilitycaster]

This question is entirely in good faith: I’m currently watching campaign 2 for the first time, and you’ve said multiple times that you are a mighty nein girlie above all else. I am enjoying it, I think it’s fun and characters are great. But I find myself preferring campaign 1 more. I know this is a minority opinion as everyone loves campaign 2, but I just can’t really find myself embracing it the same way. What is it that draws you about the MN?

So I do want to preface this with the statement that I think it’s extremely valid to prefer Campaign 1 to Campaign 2. Plenty of people whom I respect do! The Mighty Nein happen to appeal to a lot of my sensibilities specifically but I don’t expect it to appeal to everyone else in the same way.

I also want to note that while it's true Campaign 2 is the fan favorite, firstly, the correct response if you prefer something that isn't the fan favorite is to commend yourself on rarified taste, and secondly, statistics are a funny thing. It's worth remembering that what you see as the Critical Role Active Fandom mostly doesn't include people who dearly loved Campaign 1, didn't like Campaign 2, and drifted away entirely in 2018; whereas people who loved C2 and didn't click with C3 are a little more likely to be around just because it's been less time and because there's more non-main-campaign stuff to hang around for (ie, people who haven't kept up with C3 might still have watched EXU Calamity or Downfall, or might be interested in Midst or Candela stuff, or are hanging out for TLOVM/Nein Animated reasons). You are not seeing Every Person Who Ever Liked Critical Role; you're seeing this segment in time.

ANYWAY. Getting to the actual point, I think Campaign 2 is my favorite because I think I take a fairly holistic view of fiction. I have my favorite characters and ships and themes and all that, but it is difficult for me to enjoy something if I don't enjoy a significant portion of it. I can't just watch for one blorbo, because the character should feel deeply rooted in a world, and have a plot that engages with who they are. This is what drew me to D&D and actual play in the first place!

Campaign 2 is the CR campaign that, in my opinion, achieves this to the highest degree. Hilariously, if you see the campaigns as a trilogy, while usually the middle of a trilogy gets slammed for being all moving pieces and no resolution, that actually works out great for a D&D game. Campaign 1 had the responsibility of introducing an entire world that was being built as the game went on (and introducing the players to TTRPGs); Campaign 3 is the realization of all that plot set up. Campaign 2 gets to explore, build out the world, and delve into characters who are inextricable from their setting, and that's what I love.

I started with Campaign 2, but decided to start catching up on Campaign 1 concurrently as I watched C2 week to week, and I started this quite early and finished C1 in about 4-5 months, and I happen to remember that I watched C2 episode 12 and an early Briarwoods Arc C1 episode back to back, and at the time, I preferred Campaign 1. Campaign 1 has its rocky starts, but the cast had already found their characters (even if the mechanics were being ironed out still) and there were very clear tasks. Early Campaign 2, while I still enjoy it, has a lot of milling about and aimless fucking around, and, understandably, the cast is still figuring a lot out. If you put, say, the Nein in Alfield next to Vox Machina at the Briarwoods Banquet? Yeah, one of these is stronger.

The thing is, that aimless fucking around led to character moments, which is the absolute heart of why the Nein are my favorites, and why I think many others love them as well. Without a clear mission or benefactor, this party had to figure out an identity and what they wanted to do, and in doing so, we got incredible moments between pretty much every party member. Vox Machina has no shortage of incredible conversations, but, for example, Keyleth and Scanlan just straight up don't interact one-on-one very much. You can't point to something like that in the Nein. I also think the fact that none of the characters knew each other terribly well helped with this. I've brought that up to contrast with the bonds in Campaign 3; it's not a bad thing to have a person your character comes in with and knows well, but much as I adore a twins conversation, the reason those conversations are so good are because Vex and Vax both spend a lot of time with other people as well. With the Mighty Nein, everyone has to do that because really, with Yasha gone half the time and then with Molly's death early on, we've got Fjord and Jester (have known each other like a month longer than anyone else) and Caleb and Nott (six-ish months and they're both hiding a lot.)

I really do get if people prefer that Vox Machina has two clear missions (with plenty of fuck around time built in) to start, the show-stopping Briarwoods arc next, and then the Chroma Conclave, especially watching after the fact - I am not sure how C2 is if you binge it vs. watch week to week, and it may suffer from a binge watch whereas C1 honestly might benefit. But the payoff is so great; you do not get the interpersonal relationships the Nein eventually have with each other without that early need for them to set their own direction.

Moving on from there, I love the setting of Wildemount and how much slow travel there is (which, to be fair, Vox Machina didn't have because that was all pre-stream; the Nein started teleporting at level 9 and Campaign 1 starts with the party at level 8). I love, as I mentioned, how tied to the continent everyone is and how relevant that is to most of their stories. I do think Molly's abrupt and unfair death early in the story is a crucial part of who the Nein are, and serves as a defining moment that is impossible to replicate but is very meaningful to me.

Also, and this is getting into some very idiosyncratic stuff: I love wizards and clerics and paladins and we get all those. I like gruff or overly formal characters with tragic backstories and good hearts and that's most of the party (unsurprisingly, Vex and Percy, in that order, are my favorite VM members). As someone who is constantly fighting the "Dump WIS not INT" fight, the fact that the Mighty Nein is fairly smart and has multiple characters specifically interested in history and politics and lore is right up my alley (the twins and Percy and Scanlan in C1 serve a similar purpose, and the fact that C3 doesn't have anyone really like this...shows).

I also like that the Mighty Nein are never famous, and I think some people don't like that. For all they are heroes of the Dynasty and end up with connections in the Empire, they aren't council members or tied to anyone specific, and this floating mercenary nature means they are setting their own pace. The only part where I think things get frustrating after some of the rockier early days is when they're hunting down Obann, and that's only a few episodes. While Molly's death is a defining moment, what is honestly a more defining moment is a few episodes earlier, when they decide against the multiple institutionally-backed job offers and decide to take a couple of jobs that will get them out of the city. I think it was jarring for people used to Vox Machina, with their duties to the council of Tal'Dorei, who dedicated a third of their campaign to saving the continent from dragons; but the Mighty Nein's greatest duty is always to each other and to becoming better people. The focus is always on them. Yes there are fetch quests, yes there are NPCs who give them some unavoidable tasks, and yes people use the term "player agency" in weird ways all the time; but the Mighty Nein are, I think, the zenith of what a player agency driven campaign can be. The story is, above all else, theirs and theirs alone.

I don't know if there will be a Campaign 4 - I'm a bit more sanguine about the prospect than I was earlier in C3 - but for what it's worth I don't think Campaign 2 is irreplicable. Or rather, it can't be replicated, obviously, but I think they could do another campaign that is deeply tied to its setting and lets the party choose their own adventure in the same way. It just takes a little more prep up front, and a little more flexibility once it actually starts. If there is a campaign 4, I really hope they do it in that same style.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Got any games about being a little creature out to cause chaos?

THEME: Chaos Gremlins.

Hello friend! I sure do!

Space Gerbils, by Penguin King Games

You are the galaxy's most famous bounty hunter, but nobody knows your real name, or what your real voice sounds like. In fact, you've never taken your helmet off in public, at least as far as anybody knows!

The interstellar tabloids have accused any number of public figures of secretly being you. They are, of course, all wrong. The real reason you never remove your helmet is that you're actually a bunch of space gerbils operating a human-size mech suit.

You're very keen on not letting this get out.

Space Gerbils is definitely the longest game on this list, with over 100 pages in the current iteration of the playtest. This is a game about teamwork, and the mech creation is the first indicator of that, as you’ll have to collaboratively create the robot the gerbils pilot in order to keep their identities a secret.

Play involves a series of phases (setup, operations, fallout, end) and a grid where your gerbils will strategically move in order to operate their bounty hunter effectively. While the premise of Space Gerbils is cute and funny, it has the potential for both humorous and dramatic scenes, you’ll likely find that your play table will approach the strategy of the game with dedication and the desire to succeed. As a result, I think Space Gerbils is going to produce a high amount of group investment.

Mutant Possum Cowboys, by It’s Eric! Games.

Mutant Possum Cowboys is a quick-play RPG where ya take the roll of talkin' possums who have taken it upon themselves ta help tha' townsfolk of tha' Wild West. 

Yer a Mutant Possum Cowboy. Yer posse is part of tha' Order of tha' Gun, dedicated ta wanderin’ from Town ta Town in “Roadkill County,” tha' Mutated Deserts of tha' Wild West, offerin’ help where needed against mutated critters and all sorts of Ne'er-Do-Wells. 

This game involves distributing points among three stats to indicate what your lil’ cowboy is good at. Your character also gets a special treasure in addition to their regular gear that gives them a little bit of kick - such as “Tha Rallyin’ Jaw Harp” which sounds like an instrument that can call for aid from miles away, or “Gold Lightnin’”, a famous double-barrelled revolver. The game feels like it draws a lot of inspiration from games such as Lasers and Feelings - particularly the roll tables provided to the GM to help them quickly generate a problem situation that the possums will have to wrangle with.

Sockgoblins, by poorstudents

You are a Sockgoblin! One of many loyal to the Great And All Powerful And Really Important Queen, living in the secret underground goblin city. Your Queen demands all sorts of items from the surface world; coffee, really big hats, the occasional hubcap. But what she craves most are Socks.

Every year, the Queen demands a sock tithe, which is where you, little sockgoblin, come in! Every other Sockgoblin has already got their Socks, but you have been slacking! You will need to venture up into the giant world of the humans and steal the last Socks! But the humans are ready. They have prepared their traps, trained their guard animals, and hired the dreaded Sockgoblin exterminator.

You and your crew of Sockgoblins venture into the world finding adventure, danger, and most importantly, Socks! No one knows where the Socks are now but you’re confident you know where they will end up; at the feet of your Great And All Powerful And Really Important Queen!

Sockgoblins is a Forged-in-the-Dark game inspired by media such as The Boxtrolls, Over the Garden Wall, and Home Alone, and provides adventures as little goblins stealing socks for the Goblin Queen. The danger of the each thing you try to do escalates in correlation to how many socks you’ll get out of it - and you can actually play using socks because they’re part of your inventory!

Sockgoblins can work as ether a one-shot or as an episodic campaign, so it’s great if you want to try out a game of it to see if your group wants to keep coming back to it.

Hotdog Princess, by jesthehuman

You are on a rookie team of Hotdog Hopefuls, wanting to join the ranks of HOTDOG: Hyper Optic Team DOG. There are a limited number of spots on the team, but one way to impress the Top Dog is by being crowned the Hotdog Princess at the local puppy pageant. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate the Puppy Pageant and WIN. Alliances should be formed. Knowing when to break them is key. 

Hotdog Princess is full of puns and nods to various kinds of ‘dogs, with “Chili Dog”, “Veggie Dog” and “Danger Dog’ just a few of the dog options underneath the roll table that determines your character type. Players have two tracks: “hot” and “dog’, which you’ll fill out hangman-style whenever you fail a roll. Filling either one of the tracks prompts an end for your dog in some way. Your stats are, of course, “hot” and “dog”, with “hot” representing your charm, while your “dog” represents your jokes and pranks.

If you want a goofy game with an even goofier premise, you want Hotdog Princess.

Partners in Grime, by Michael Low

Partnerz in Grime is a story game in which the players take on the role of a crew of goblins: awesomely awful, magical critters hiding out on the edges of hooman society getting into all sorts of trouble.

The bones of this game is the Stories RPG, which is a one-page game that details some simple rules about how to use d6 dice pools to overcome obstacles or move the story forward. Partnerz in Grime is not just a story to run through with the base engine - it also comes with worldubuilding prompts, drama clocks, ways to power up your character, and a mechanic that improves’ players’ math as they play. The authorial voice is incredibly specific, sinking you into the goofiness of the game from the start, and character creation involves fill-in-the-blank prompts that fill out the character’s story.

If you want a game that is great for kids or that is really open about the kind of chaos you can unleash, you might want to check out Partnerz in Grime.

Heckhounds, by TheOtherTracy

Yours is a legacy of brimstone, fire, and damnation. You're a hunter of hell, sent to Earth to bring escaped damned souls back to the Eternal Fire.

You're also a good boy! Who's a good boy? You are!

Heckhounds is game of hellfire and tail wags. You and your littermates were sent to Earth to hunt an escaped damned soul. Business as usual, right? Except this time you got the bodies of mortal, Earth puppies rather than the hellhound bodies you'd normally get. The nature of the puppy in you is strong, and you've got to keep from blowing your cover while you hunt down your target!

This game feels directly inspired by the dog given to Adam in Good Omens, and I love the idea of it already. The three stats in Heckhounds are Hell, Hound, and Ineffability, with Hell relating to your infernal demon-dog strength, Hound relating to your puppy charms and virtues, and Ineffability relating to what the game calls “the odd surety of the unknowable.” The game is inspired by Honey Heist, which means that your stats will fluctuate in value and you are always at the risk of pushing a stat too high and triggering some kind of end-game state. If you want a game that sparks fun times by merging great cosmic power into an itty bitty life-form, then you want Heckhounds.

Games I’ve Recommended in the Past…

Cryptid TV,by yanahn.

Something Is Wrong With The Chickens, by Elliot Davis.

Geese At The Beach, by Justin Joyce.

I’ll Be Taking That, by porchlightdusk.

Mouse Cult, by Mint-Rabbit (that’s me!)

[formosusiniquis]

when you're fifteen

Even as he hands over the platter of chocolate chip miracles he makes, Steve sighs. It's a full bodied affair that makes Eddie nervous on instinct. "We need to talk about Mike."

It is and isn't a surprise.

Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson; Steve Harrington & Mike Wheeler WC: 4044 | Rated T | Tags/Themes: Good Babysitter Steve, Period Atypical Depictions of DnD, HoH!Steve, Disabled!Eddie Ao3

Eddie prided himself on his ability to manage a table. A forever DM, four years into a lifetime sentence, he can keep a story on track and, more importantly, keep tempers in check for hours at a time. 

He kept track of a thousand little details across notebooks, binders, and just trapped in his own brain. He knew everything about his NPCs, the world, his player’s characters, and the things that drove his players nuts. He had plans, backup plans, and vague ideas of shit he could do if things went completely and totally off the rails despite all of those plans. That was one of the things he held fast on his tongue the first time he failed senior year. Of course he didn’t pass. He’d taken on the mantle of Dungeon Master. He had to put together a story that took into account: Jeff’s high stakes backstory with the missing mother and bounty on his head, Gareth’s need to flirt with anything age appropriate that had a pulse, and Joey’s tactical mind when it comes to battle. Wasn’t it enough that he was going to class, he had to do shit at home about it too?

He didn’t like saying it. He liked to bitch about it a lot, actually. Eddie wasn’t really sure what he’d do with himself if he wasn’t The DM. It was like a core part of his identity.

It made the current situation he was in more world rocking than he really wanted to deal with.

He liked to think, if he couldn’t feel the remaining muscles in his side screaming in agony because he was sitting wrong -- or for too long or both -- and if his lower back wasn’t seizing and spasming for the same or maybe a brand new reason it had decided to come up with today, that he’d be able to manage this table just as well as he always had. Eight really wasn’t that different from three.

Except that combat is impossible to manage, each round took forever and that’s when everyone was paying attention. Except that there hasn’t been a satisfying story moment for Jeffrey the Jovial or Dustin’s Sir Rathington in the last four sessions. Except that Erica has been scribbling something in her notebook that probably wasn’t campaign notes since she hadn’t called him on the plot hole he caught session planning a month ago and hasn’t been able to fix -- and is more likely to have something to do with the way he noticed her looking at Uhura and Chapel when she was watching Star Trek reruns with Steve.

Except that Mike has been screaming at Dustin and Lucas for the better part of five minutes and Eddie really isn’t sure how to fix it.

“The plan is stupid. Did you even spend more than ten seconds thinking about it or did you decide that Will could just roll another character and we could save the resources.”

“Will could roll another character. It's not the first time he's rolled another character.” Lucas points out for what might be the third time, Eddie’s lost count.

“This whole thing is about resources, Mike.” Dustin snaps, “We’ll all be rolling new characters if we go into this stupid fucking fight while Gareth has no spell slots, Lucas is down to three arrows, Joey’s already used his second wind, and half the party is below half health.”

“It doesn’t matter, if we don’t go into the fight now Will is going to turn into some bloodsucking vampire spawn.”

Eddie knows this is the point that he should grab the reins again. He should prompt one of them to make a decision, or better yet, take the decision away from them entirely. But there’s a numbness in his thigh that has somehow spread to his mouth; it’s different from the pain the rest of his body is in, not really better or worse, and just as distracting. 

The rest of the table is quiet, boredom and annoyance plain on their faces. But they’ve also stopped looking to him to fix the problem. That’s the worst thing the Upside Down took from him, he thinks, even as his body is radiating pain from places he used to be able to forget he had.

“Or maybe it’s a trap,” Lucas points out. And it should be, but Lucas is a far better tactician than Eddie who already knows he won’t want to deal with the work it would take to do that well. “Y’know since you made all your weak spots pretty clear to Lord Ellias.”

“Or,” Dustin drawls out with a Harrington’s level of bitch and ire, “we could trust Eddie to turn this into a fucking story moment.”

“You guys are both so full of shit, just-” Mike has his nose curled and lip snarled, Eddie can feel the breeze of the blade swinging down to deliver the death blow to this campaign and adventuring party.

“Alright time to take a break.” Steve claps his hands, an angel come from on high to save Eddie. “Get up, get a snack, move your feet. Give my dining room some time to air out before it smells like nerd forever.”

Mike turns the full weight of his aggression on to Steve, who hopefully has a damage immunity or advantage on saves at the very least otherwise this is looking like a short talk, “We can't just take a break. Do you not get what the stakes are here? We've got to save-”

“Save someone who will still be in danger in twenty minutes.” Steve steamrolls over Mike’s argument with an unaffected ease. Eddie can feel the mood of the table lift just a bit, now that they’re about to be rescued.

“You just don't get it.”

“I get that it's pretend.” In a pre-Vencapocalypse world that would have been enough to get Eddie fighting on Little Wheeler’s side, but much as DnD is still his life. Fuck, it is all just pretend. “Go take a lap.”

“Ugh why do we even come over here. We could do this at my house without washed up jocks interrupting us.” Mike says but he gets up. Storming off to god knows where in the monstrosity of Steve’s house. Will, quiet as he always seems to get when he’s the center of one of these drag outs, trails off after Mike with an eye roll at the other two sophomores and an apologetic shrug for Steve.

And Eddie has his table again. Quiet and still, waiting for him to say something. Like there’s even anything to say when his very own Deus Ex Machina is leaving the room without so much as a backward glance at the poor schmucks he’s saved. “Well,” he says with a clap of his hands, “My blood sugar is dropping, so I’m going to shove as many of those cookies I smelled earlier into my mouth as I can in twenty minutes.” Because as much as they weren’t looking to him before, they need the DM to break the spell of the table. That’s how the whole thing goes.

And they scatter once it breaks. Eddie’s original Hellfire boys stay at the table, their ease at the Harrington house has been hardwon and the argument has rekindled something nerdy and skittish in them. Erica has headed off to the corner of the house Steve has let her claim as her own, nose still buried in her notebook. He doesn’t know where Lucas and Dustin are, but wherever they’ve gone they aren’t around to watch him struggle to pull himself out of his throne with his cane. He should just give in and let Steve raise the seat, half the problem is that it sits too low -- but knowing that and being willing to admit it at any point other than when he’s in PT levels of misery from pulling himself up are very different things.

Steve has his back to the door again, by the time Eddie makes his way to the kitchen. He has a bizarre semi-awareness of his surroundings that can be hard to predict. Sometimes it’s freaky how Steve can call out Dustin or Erica from a different room with an almost parental ‘eyes in the back of his head’ sixth sense. Other times his own soulmate can get the drop on him, managing to get her arms wrapped around his middle before he even realizes they’re in the same room.

It’s better to slam his cane against the floor a couple times. To let Steve feel the vibrations through the floorboards with his sock feet, that way nobody has to get hurt or feel guilty for doing the hurting.

Getting to see Steve’s grin bloom across his face as he flips that famous hair and catches sight of Eddie isn’t so bad either.

Next to Steve, it’s safe to prop his cane against the counter. He can rest his hips against the sure, solid surface and relax in the presence of his boyfriend while the blood returns to his limbs and a new kind of discomfort settles in. A hand, warm and sudsy finds the back of his neck. A strong thumb digging into a knot that had been there since at least last week with an erotic precision.

“You’ve got to stop letting them keep you in that chair for so long.”

"If we take breaks we'll just be here longer."

He shrugs, pulling his other hand from the dish water to pull Eddie into a gentle hold. "So be here longer."

"You'd get sick of the fighting. I'd get sick of the fighting." Actually it was probably better not to remind Steve of that. "You know I really did want one of those famous Stevie Henderson cookies."

Even as he hands over the platter of chocolate chip miracles he makes, Steve sighs. It's a full bodied affair that makes Eddie nervous on instinct. "We need to talk about Mike."

It is and isn't a surprise. "I know the yelling is a lot, Sweetheart, I'm sorry. You don't have a migraine, do you? I can talk to him and make him chill out a bit." That last part is absolutely a lie; he doesn't think he could get Mike under control right now if he had a stun gun and half a pound of Argyle’s primo Cali weed.

Not that it matters Steve has on his scrunchy faced 'you're wrong about something,' look, Eddie just needs to give him the minute it'll take to get his thoughts together. "You know I love you right?"

“In this dimension and any others,” Eddie supplies.

Steve smiles, feather soft, and runs a soothing hand through Eddie's hair the way he always does right before he says something atrociously bitchy. "I turn my hearing aids off the second you all start playing. If I had to listen to your game three different times, three different ways I'd drive my car into a portal."

He keeps going the way he does when he's afraid he's been too mean and wants to try to soften his edges for general consumption, like Eddie hadn't fallen in love with him the first time he called Dusin a butthead. "This way you and Dust can still use me as a sounding board for your plots and theories and I don't have to listen to my favorite nerds try to remember if 5+7 is 11 or 12."

“So what’s?”

“I’m worried about him!” Steve insists. Eddie might pride himself on his ability to handle a table, but he knows Steve is proud of his way with the kids. His relationship with each of them is rich and distinct, the way he handles each of them unique.

But it’s Mike.

Something must cross his face. He can only call it something, because he’s honestly not sure what emotion he’s feeling other than headache and how many cookies can I eat before they start tasting like nausea. But something else must have been there that causes Steve to cross his arms and glare.

“Yeah, of course, you’re worried about him. We are worried about him. Why are we worried about him, other than worried about what an asshole he’s been lately?”

That was not the right thing to say either, Eddie’s really rolling straight ones today. Steve’s glare shutters even further closed, and seriously it’s Mike. The same kid who called Steve a washed up jock not ten minutes ago. Who takes every single offered opportunity, and even some that he makes himself, to bitch and glare at Hawkins own #1 babysitter and monster hunter. 

“He’s a teenager with more trauma than a ‘Nam vet. But even if he weren’t he’s not an asshole for being barely fifteen and not knowing when to shut the hell up. Do you remember the kind of shit you were saying back then?”

Big brother Steve has successfully landed a critical hit. Eddie does remember the kind of shit he used to say. Just like he knows Steve remembers the kind of shit he used to say. And they both remember the shit that they used to say to one another. How Eddie called Steve a braindead future Reganite who wouldn’t know good taste if it spit in his mouth. How Steve had called Eddie a tryhard that was so desperate to be different because that was the only way he could hide having nothing to offer.

“So we’re worried?”

“I just don’t want him to say something he can’t walk back because he forgot the thing he’s getting upset over is pretend.” He runs a finger down Eddie’s splayed hands. A tickling sensation he can feel down the path it traces from the back of his palm and down his middle finger and, in a phantom mirror, down his spine. “I know you get into your characters, or whatever, I’m sure this is bringing up a lot of memories but he’s going to regret lashing out if it means he pushes away Dustin or Lucas or one of the other guys.”

“I notice you left out Will.”

“Yeah well, Will is more likely to get hurt by something he says when lashing out while they aren’t playing exposure therapy the game. I mean seriously, you had to kidnap him? That’s where your, ‘Stevie, baby, what should I do with them this week? They decided to do something stupid,’ bitching and moaning landed you?”

Eddie doesn’t even really have time to let himself feel the fluttery, squishy feeling he wants to feel -- cause Steve does actually listen when they’ve got their feet tangled on the sofa together, each working on their own things -- before it’s getting smacked by down by the paladin of his heart. “No, no, that isn’t where I landed. I had a perfectly acceptable diplomacy mission prepared, with a back up fight that they were supposed to run away from. What do you want me to do, Sunshine? I gotta give the game some stakes. It’s not exactly fun for Will if he knows he’s indestructible.”

Maybe, he thinks, he should just stop talking today. Just cancel the rest of the session entirely. Will gets carried off by the vampire spawn, half dead and unsaveable, the party on its last legs, unable to agree on a course of action; and actually that’s where we’re gonna end things come back next week and hope Steve even lets us in the house after the screaming we’ve all done. Why? Because he can feel every joint in his body and every one of them is in pain. Because there’s been the dull throb of a low grade headache beating an even pulse in his temples since he woke up this morning. But mostly because every time he opens his stupid fucking mouth to talk Steve stops touching him, and that sucks absolute balls.

“I maybe had an idea,” Steve says. His voice dips and slides while he keeps his hands small, quiet, and close to his chest. Something Robin told him, and he’s now noticing, means Steve has thought about this idea a lot, long enough that he’s convinced himself it’s bad. Eddie’s noticed that even when these ideas aren’t phrased well, they’re never bad.

“I know it’s like rule number one: don’t split the party,” Steve can’t help but roll his eyes when he says it, an instinctive bit of brotherly mockery of Dustin, he would guess. “But what if you split the group a bit. Mike can go after Will, I’m sure Erica would be down to kill some vampires. She loves a chance to test drive her new feats and shit. Then Jeff and Dustin and whoever else can finish up that thing? With the missing girlfriend or whatever? And once that’s done they reunite to do whatever’s next on the list, save the kingdom.”

Eddie sits with that for a bit.

Impulsive is still his middle name, but sometime between being eaten alive by other dimensional hell creatures and getting a thousand and six tiny, itchy stitches removed he’s started giving things second and even third thoughts. Though in this case the second thoughts are less ‘is this a good idea’ and more ‘will Steve bend me over that solid oak dining table and critique my DM notes while he rails me.’

As his stomach swoops, his lower body twinges in a much less enjoyable way. Letting him know that now he’d been standing too long, or leaning against the counter the wrong way, or maybe something else entirely that made his legs tired of doing one of the few things they were made to do. 

Figures he finally lands a hot boyfriend and he's got chronic pain keeping him from getting his dick wet.

“If you’ve already got another idea-”

“No,” he rushes to assure Steve, who needs to stay confident in his own ideas for all kinds of reasons but right now mostly so he’ll be willing to play into this new fantasy of Eddie’s once his body is willing to cooperate with the standing and the bending it’s going to require. “No, it’s a fantastic idea. I’m plotting as we speak.” 

And that isn’t a total lie. Forever DM, he can think about all the fun ways the love of his life and reason he’s still living could degrade his current campaign -- An oath of vengeance paladin questing to save a lost love, isn’t that a little played out. Oh wow, rat swarms in a dungeon, they’re never gonna see that coming -- and figure out how to trick the group into thinking splitting the party was their own idea.

“How long,” he asks his resident child expert, “do you think it would take Will to roll up a new character?”

The smile that tips the corners of Steve’s face is the best part of his day. “Will always has an extra character rolled up with the rest of his stuff in his folder."

Things are slotting together in his head now, and as Steve's hands come around to do something magical in a spot on his back that probably has a name but mostly makes his legs feel like they should really belong to a baby deer.

“So Will…”

“Can convince Mike, and get a chance to try out the new thingy he built. He’s been waiting to talk to you about it.”

Eddie’s getting excited now, hands shaking in the good way. He doesn’t even care that his knee locks as he tries to bounce on his toes, just lets his hands get out the excited energy. “And the band can go do the story side plot shit I’ve been putting off…” 

“With Dustin,” Steve reminds, “cause he’ll want to go wherever there’s the best chance to stir up shit. You already know Erica is going to go where there’s a chance to prove she’s the best at fighting, Lucas too. Not the fighting thing. He’ll go to round out the group, and so his mom doesn’t have to worry about keeping track of one more thing on the family calendar.”

“You’re a genius, Sweetheart.” He snags Steve by the collar, ignoring his bitching that the two fingered pinch he’s got it in is going to stretch it out, and pulls him close. Pressing a kiss on the corner of his perfect boyfriend’s pleased little smile. “I gotta go talk to Will about this character.”

“Send Mike down when you do?”

He’s surprised when he gets no argument, barely gets acknowledgement, when he finds Will and Mike in the guest bathroom and separates them. Mike slips from the room with nothing but a backward glance at Will, who smiles supportively. Once he clears the room, it takes next to zero prompting to get Will to talk about his backup character. The ‘thingy’ he'd been working on a tricked out ranger build that's going to annihilate. 

There's something fresh, brightening, about Will's enthusiasm for the character that infects Eddie too. It gets him excited, for the first time since everyone arrived, to sit down around their over crowded table and play the hour of set up it's going to take to get the party ready to be split. 

And Will doesn't duck his head anymore when Eddie pushes at him and his DnD expertise, he just pushes back. Together they work out a couple tweaks that will make the build fit better in the party, flesh out a backstory that they can integrate even if it doesn't end up going anywhere, and it doesn't really feel like time passes at all. Until Sinclair is sticking his head through the door, surprise artfully hidden at who he finds, as he asks if they're ready to go.

Mike is conspicuously absent from the table when Eddie makes his way to it, and that won't do at all. He's not an asshole, he's just 15. Something like shame crawls up the back of his throat as Steve's reminder sounds in his head. He remembers 15 and the things he said but more than that, as he looks around the table, he remembers being the last to arrive at a hangout of people you're already worried hate you only to find them having a good time without you. 

Eddie has always prided himself on his ability to run a good session. "Stevie, gimme back our paladin, do I need to bring in a hostage negotiator."

A cookie held in one hand while the other smooths down the ruffled fringe of his bangs, Mike re-enters the dining room. The back of his Hellfire shirt is bunched and, if that weren't sign enough he'd been on the receiving end of a perfect Harrington hug, he looks settled. A smile tugging at his face that Eddie hadn't realized how much he missed, he looks boyish and happy and if Eddie didn't before he understands Steve's mission to keep these kids kids by whatever means necessary.

"Alright, now where were we?” He says once Mike is back in his seat beside Will, “Ah yes, you all watch in horror as the vampire spawn, hastened, dash away from you all with the unconscious, but still alive, body of Sir William the Wizened." Before anyone can restart the shouting, and he knows there will be shouting now that they’ve all had a chance to look over their notes and their character sheets, he barrels on. “From the hill behind you comes a shot. An arrow flies, thwip thwip. It slices between you all, before sinking into the back of one of the spawn at the back of the pack. He stumbles to the ground and the rest of the pack leave him to die.”

“We can interrogate him!” 

“Worry about who’s behind us, dude.”

He doesn’t let Mike or Dustin derail him, Eddie continues, “As you turn the hill behind you is nothing but mist. You all know the range of an elven bow, but whoever fired it is nowhere to be seen. You wait, breath held, as a figure all in black slowly approaches. You get the feeling you see him now only because he wants to be seen.

“Will, describe your new character for us!”

[superdillin]

The Time We Have

The Time We Have campaign ends soon and I REALLY want as many people as possible to experience this game. I also wanna talk about my experiences playing it!!

I've played this game twice so far. Once was private, with my friend @rowanzeoli, and once on recording for One Shot, with @morebluebs

I have brothers, but I didn't grow up with brothers, and there's the whole "raised a girl" thing so I was a little worried that the dynamic would be too unrelatable for me to truly get the most out of the game. OH! I was wrong.

I would never lay all my emotional cards out on the table for public consumption, because goodness knows that's not healthy to do. Trust me, the game Elliot and I played is emotional, and real, but still has a thin filter of the public boundary layered over it. But in that private game with Rowan I really, really did put it all out, as did she. I sat locked inside my bathroom with Rowan on the other side, and realized that I was playing through a scenario I spend a lot of time thinking about as a chronically sick person - saying goodbye and knowing I'm leaving people behind. Rowan was playing my little brother, someone who felt like I already had abandoned him when I left him home on his own with our homophobic parents. And then, in that moment, I'm leaving again forever, and won't be able to protect him from the horrors outside.

Gang, in all these years being sick, I've gone to so much therapy about confronting mortality, and how to cope with those anxieties. Sitting in that closed white room and playing out my own end of life with someone I love so much took a blacklight to all the unseen critters that I did not realize were crawling through the sheets of my subconscious. And of course that's not enough, because games aren't therapy*, but those are things I now talk about, with my loved ones, with my therapist, with myself. And when that door re-opened and I hugged Rowan we were 10 times the friends we were before. We sat on my couch with a drink, pulling on all the loose threads that the game experience made us aware of and unraveling them with each other. Identity and love and unfinished business and how we are all burdened by each other and why that is beautiful. I learned her life story, she learned mine, we shared insights and wisdom and every so often we kept pointing back to something that was said in that game that lit that part of our real self up.

Playing through themes like this is something that a few years ago, I would never have touched. I came into the hobby a little traumatized and green and I just wasn't ready to use games in this kind of deep and existential way. It was all escapism, no introspection. This game in particular makes me feel so grateful that I've gotten to a place where games can be as deep and as uncomfortable for me as they have the capacity to be.

I think this game is a little window to Elliot's enormous heart, and it speaks directly to mine, and I hope others will love it all the same.

Go back the game please:

*games are like, a little bit therapy. I know that's taboo to say, but like. Lots of things are therapy. These things are not so black and white. I could say more but that's not what this is about.

[homestuckreplay]

♡ Die, Cry, Psychoanalyze ♡

(page 360-364)

Just the other day I asked to see more of Rose's house, and today I got my wish! Today we get a glimpse of Rose's living room, filled with many inconveniently placed wizard statues of various sizes, and also a few dragon statues. It's got a floating staircase, four different patterned rugs, a 6+ seater couch that only takes up a corner of the space, another giant panoramic window, and of course the bronze vacuum cleaner statue. All pretty regular stuff. I gotta know about these guests Rose has over, because the rushing water noises can't possibly be the thing they think is strangest.

I fucking love Rose's mom though. She sounds like she rules. She should be a character and not just a silhouette in the hallway. Anyone with that level of commitment to the bit and passion for a single thing is cool in my book, and I really understand getting a gift from someone you care about and never wanting to actually use it, just wanting to keep it pristine and display it forever instead.

If Rose won't psychoanalyze a love of wizards, I will. A wizard fixation means that Rose's mother craves ultimate control over the world achieved via knowledge, that she values mental prowess far above physical strength, that she craves solitude, that she doesn't distinguish between a work life and a home life, that she considers herself above good vs evil morality, that she envies the reputation of wisdom and eccentricity, and that she may want to pass on her talents to a worthy apprentice. Put this way, she honestly doesn't sound a million miles away from Rose.

The parallels between our three characters continue to pay off and become clearer. All of them are now at war with a family member - John's Prankster's Gambit with his dad, Dave's campaign of one-upmanship with his brother, and now Rose's cold war of passive aggression with her mom. There are also misunderstandings between all these pairs. John's dad misunderstands him, thinking he wants a clown doll and a hundred cakes. Dave misunderstands his brother, thinking he's the height of cool when he's probably a big loser. Rose and her mom's misunderstandings apparently go both ways, with Rose thinking her mom doesn't really love wizards, Rose's mom getting her a princess doll when she's really not a princess kind of girl.

There's definitely a Doll Parallel, where both Rose and John get given a doll for their birthday by a family member, and both of them customize it (specifically, its arms and face) on the living room couch. At 13 most kids have grown out of dolls, so I'm interested in the theme of parents not realizing their kids are growing up or trying to keep them young, and perhaps also trying to keep their kids in the family space of the living room while the kids are fighting for their own space (their rooms) and their own identities (the customizations).

Finally, 'You're going to have a hell of a time accessing that card when you need it. You guess you'll just cross that bridge later.' (p.364) I'm pretty sure when Rose takes something off of the top card all her stuff just falls on the floor at once no matter what. So I think she'll be good. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ur-mousey]

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The Coffin of Andy And Leyley Should We Really Care About the Incest? !!!

Plot Summary: A water contamination scheme keeps the brother-sister duo, Andrew and Ashely Graves, locked in their apartment on the verge of starvation. They discover a way out through demonic shenangians. Can these two grow past their childhood identities? Or are they destined to be each other's demise?

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Overall Thoughts:

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*Warning* These are my thoughts. Do not take them seriously. You can disagree all you want in the comments below. Enjoy!

First hearing about The Coffin of Andy and Leyley left a sour taste in my mouth. And it's probably for the same reason most people refuse to engage with the story being told by creator Nemlei. The notion on Twitter (or X, ew) dubbed this media as just the 'incest' game unfairly and failed to appreciate the themes being showcased by the siblings.

I believe that The Coffin of Andy and Leyley will grow in popularity by the release of the third episode. And this game will be a cult classic in no time, setting new records for storytelling in future indie projects.

I deep-dived into Nemlei's gameography, and dare I say, those other projects walked so Andrew and Leyley could run. There's only praise that should be afforded to Nemlei based on their improvements.

Watch or play through No-Good Noelle, which had come out three months prior, and see the differences. I also recommend Divilethion for those yearning for Nemlei's storytelling/art style.

But what those two games have in common, is that there's less to do for the players. While Andy and Leyley have the mechanics within its gameplay to be 10x more interactive for audiences. No wonder it had grown in popularity.

Now, to address the incest.

You do not have to like taboo topics. You do not have to engage with media that showcase it or be a part of a hate campaign because you don't like something. And as a society, we should bring awareness to media forms that encourage/promote dangerous ideology. Which in most cases does include incest.

However, art forms can get away with handling these taboo topics because they turn them into tools for driving a theme forward. And they aren't inherently romanticizing dangerous ideals. With that said it can be tricky for creators to handle these topics with care. You can hold the opinion that The Coffin of Andy and Leyley didn't utilize the concept of incest effectively in its narrative.

But, most people who've 'criticized' the game, dog pilled it because of the incest without understanding its importance to the themes. I get it, okay. It's disgusting that these siblings are down to bone.

Yet, as a writer, Andrew and Ashely are stellar characters with unique relationship dynamics. The theme of codependency is heightened by the pair's familial ties. Here's a little exercise:

Imagine Andrew and Ashely weren't siblings... They become slightly less interesting. Mainly due to the fact, they cannot uphold their OG purpose.

Episode two has two endings, Decay and Burial. Both hinges on the siblings making a choice to either let the past go or hold onto Andy and Leyley, their childhood nickname, now a source of resentment. Ashely idolizes the past while Andrew strives towards the future. On paper, they are foils of one another. These characters can work while not being related.

They could've been childhood friends if Nemlei wanted. But, then the plot would need to change.

Episode 2 wouldn't have worked to flesh out these characters equally because it was a murder scheme against their parents. Both Andrew and Ashely's interaction with their mother and how the events of the murder played out, heightened the themes of willingness to change or the lack of. And subsequentially, the codependency of the siblings.

At the end of the day, creators should be encouraged and pushed to create narratives through uncomfortable lenses. Sometimes a story can only stand out with that unique perspective. Nemlei's rap sheet as a game developer has never been taboo-free, however, it was this game that got them hated, bullied, and doxed.

Because of implied incest -from what I'm concerned. Aside from the dream stuff.

I'm not shocked, just disappointed that people took to the internet to be hateful about a game with merit.

I hope Nemlei takes this in stride and comes back to the platform with the release of episode 3. I am in love with The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. There are many unanswered questions. And I can only see a bittersweet ending for these characters.

Join me next time, when I give my thoughts on Andrew and Ashely Graves. I will deep dive into episodes 1 and 2 as well in the future.

⚰️🔪⚰️🔪⚰️🔪 Thoughts on Ashely Graves:

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⚰️🔪⚰️🔪⚰️🔪 Thoughts on Andrew Graves:

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Thank you for reading! Request rules are here! Follow my ig = lil.thoughts.xo! Do you agree or disagree? Comment down below! Future fanfics are in the works so follow me. 🥹

I recommend checking out my character thought pieces on Okazaki Kei and Shiraishi Kageyuki from Collar X Malice.

[averageartistamber]

Yeah, so last Wednesday one of the players in my DnD campaign offered to run a Girl by Moonlight one-shot (which it looks fairly likely that it's not gonna stay as a one-shot), which was a game I'd never heard of before but I thought I'd give it a shot, it's alright really.

Yeah, I am up for trying different systems, and this one being a Magical Girl game gave me something different enought to drag me out of my artblock. Decided to have another go at Wanda, who you might remember I posted ages ago alongside this Kamen Rider kind of character.

Gave her a sidekick/buddy too, moderately based on the character who I played in the one-shot. Thought I'd be fun if my funny magic girlies had a theme to them, like in PreCure or something. Here they're creatives in their civilian identities, Wanda being a fashion designer and Fern being a artist.

Might do something with these goobers? Probably a one-off short story or something idk.

This was the Girl By Moonlight (Maze of Dreams specifically) character. Wanted Fern to be similar, but not exactly the same.

[avelera]

The Three Act Structure as Foreshadowing in Across the Spiderverse

I re-watched Across the Spiderverse yesterday, as its a perennial favorite in our household, and once again found the crafting of the story so rich that there's always something new to discover. In this case, whether or not we've left Miles in a good place or a bad place at the end of the film is left ambiguous, and this ambiguity is built into the very structure of the film.

In a Shakespearean comedy or tragedy, one easy way to chart which one the story takes place in is whether it begins in a good place or a bad place. If the story opens with happiness and triumph, bad news, you're in a tragedy. And vice versa, if something bad happens at the beginning, good news, you're in a comedy.

For example, Othello begins with Othello's triumphant return to the city after a successful military campaign, honored and adored by the city, and ends in the destruction of everything and everyone he loves. Whereas in Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice's best friend Hero is falsely accused of infidelity, creating the dramatic action of the story (gross simplification) and unlike poor Desdemona in Othello, by the end her name is cleared and all the happy couples can get married.

Right, so back to Across the Spiderverse, Act 1 opens with Gwen and Miles, our co-protagonists, in a bad place. Their secrecy around their Spider-Person identities are leaving their family lives in shambles, with Gwen estranged from her father and Miles feeling alienated from his parents. However, Act 1 ends on a happy, hopeful note in the form of the Spiderverse HQ. Miles finally got his wish to reunite with his Spider-family, and the future (literally, 2099) seems bright.

But watch out. Because Spider-verse brilliantly uses story hooks to pull you from one Act to the next. Act 1 really follows its own plot structure, with The Spot as action, A-plot villain being battled throughout. The emotional, B-plot story is around family trust and loneliness. By the end, Mumbhattan is saved, though the Spot got away, tugging us along through the story, and Miles and Gwen's loneliness is at least temporarily solved with all the new and old Spider-friends they meet.

However, this means we go into Act 2 in triumph. Which means we've got tragedy on the horizon. Act 2 has Miguel as our villain, they don't make much secret of it, and the encounter with him as Miles eventually flees the Spiderverse HQ is the action climax of Act 2. Our themes of belonging reemerge and echo Into the Spiderverse, (sometimes with direct visual call-backs, flashes of the younger Miles while he flickers between universes, as well as with the return of Peter B.).

Now, this is where the structure gets interesting. Because I argue that Act 2 ends with Miles escaping Spiderverse HQ and Gwen being forcibly kicked out. Act 3 is a shorter Act, but not as short as it seems, from when Miles ends up in Universe 42 to the end credits is actually a pretty long sequence. In that sequence, we close out other important beats in the story, like the dangling thread of Gwen and her father's estrangement.

So, Gwen's story in Act 3 begins with a tragedy: she's been kicked out of Spiderverse HQ against her will. This consequence she's feared since the beginning, that she'll be forced to return to her home universe, is finally realized. However, note that structure again, because she starts in a bad place, we can fully expect her to end in a good place. And she does! She reconciles with her father, defeats the bad guys like 90's Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) and gets the band back together. She has finally resolved her emotional story, which began in tragedy and thus moved towards comedy/happiness. She is full-actualized with her allies by her side and her father back in her corner.

Miles though? Miles story gets really interesting in Act 3.

Because at first glance, his story would be the opposite of Gwen's. She was kicked out of HQ, but Miles fled which means his arrival should be a triumph. That would mean he's set up for tragedy, and that is what it appears to be at first. He ends up imprisoned by the Universe 42 Miles Morales and Uncle Aaron, apparently getting ready for a fight for his life and for the life of his father.

However, it's actually a bit ambiguous if he opens tragically or comedically. Because Miles doesn't know where he is. So arguably, you could flip the truth of the opening of Act 3 - Miles begins tragically, because he tried to go home but he's actually far from it, in another universe.

But here the flipping gets even more interesting and complex, because I'm not convinced Miles is the good guy in Universe 42. His speech to Universe 42 Rio about how he "beat them all" in terms of his former Spider-friends sure sounds a lot like a villain speech. Miles also dives in by making a lot of assumptions when he arrives there, like that Uncle Aaron is a bad guy here too, that he's the Prowler, and that this means he's a supervillain. When he learns that Universe 42 Miles has assumed the mantle of the Prowler, he continues to try to talk them into joining, "the good side" all based on almost zero information. They laugh at him. But why are they laughing?

All we know about Universe 42 is that they never had a Spider-man. That Miles was supposed to be the Spider-man of this universe, but the collider transported the radioactive spider so it bit our Miles instead. Miles knows nothing about what this unprotected universe suffered as a result but at first glance, it's clearly bad. Indeed, on that point alone as Miguel pointed out, our Miles is a villain in this universe because his becoming Spider-man robbed them of their Miles Spider-man.

And actually, knowing that Miles is Miles, that he's a good kid at heart, there's just as much evidence that in this universe, Miles is already a good guy, that Uncle Aaron is his mentor (after all Uncle Aaron was always a bit on the fence about evil and in a world that's gone to evil, it's easy to imagine that he leans good). Thus, 42-Miles and 42-Aaron's anger and dark amusement at Original Miles speech about good vs. evil could be because they're offended to be labeled as villains by this privileged kid who never lost anything, who indeed comes from a privileged universe where his father never died.

So going back to the Act 3 structure, from the Miles perspective, which is subjective and not objective, the Act begins with a triumphant escape, and therefore must be headed towards a tragic defeat - capture by his evil alternate universe self. But Miles didn't know at first that he was tragically in the wrong universe. Which means that he could actually be in a structural comedy: beginning the Act with something bad happening, a transport accident gone wrong, and ending it exactly where he needs to be: surrounded by heroes who can help him, his own alternate universe self who is a good guy in this universe, along with Uncle Aaron. All of the darkness is in Miles's head, because he just came from a place where he was betrayed by supposed allies, but actually it's much more complicated than that, ending in ambiguity.

[beebundt]

In the theme of that last post (and making you make good on your word) i wanna hear all your thoughts and inspirations for Mimsy and how she's changed over the years 👀💕 ilyb

MORGAN ILYYYY 💞💞💞 ofcccc anything for you what..... and tbh this is so indulgent for me you dont even knowwwwwwwww. bc each year i feel like i grow a better grasp on who she is as a person & the reasoning behind her decisions, but also just generally i feel like ive also really grasped her style and where i want to go in her character design. which you've already seen ofc, my loveliest dm 😌 but ill show some snippets here too so i don't feel like im doing her dirty lmao.

that being said if any of my party members could avoid this post ill love you forever.......... 🙏🙏

ive def said this before on here but mimyr's initial inspiration came from user rennybu's design of THEIR wonderful firbolg Loam, and user ckiddo's general stylisation of firbolgs + Caduceus Clay interpretations. i had really pining to make a firbolg before our campaign started and since ours was so centered around islands and the sea, i thought that make for an interesting mix as a sea-faring firbolg i hadnt really seen before, hitching rides to explore outside their secluded home. so especially in her very first design/portrait art, i leaned harder into that vibe. this is also where i first decided her clan would be represented with a mint green and it's been reoccurring since, just with the support of other colors later on. also i kind of miss her big ole ears.... they were so cute but i was also not 100% settled how i wanted blogs to look yet so she doesn't even have her tail until design 2 and her features slowly get more cow-ish.

then we had our second big design change!! right after the big ship wreck and we finally get new clothes on land. there's a literal strip of identity since our members were... literally stripped of our belongings and clothes since the ship incident so honestly there's not much to say with this one other than i imagine it's her best scrounging of cloth in a way that's comfortable to her. its more earthy, loose, comfortable, good for traveling in the hot city we were in. i imagine she specifically chose pieces with the fun beadwork/stitching and colors because she found it pretty. also im now realizing 2 years later how short she looks here oh my god. she is 7 foot, i got my proportions so wrong lmao 😭 and she gets far more wide-eyed by the 3rd which is interesting

and then there was the third iteration, im including the 4th design (second) with it too since it's really just a change in the position of her wrap but it was done at a much later time hence the style difference. im not going to lie im not a huge fan of these looking back, i think it look too cluttered but i think moving the wrap did help break it up a bit even if i still really enjoy the silhouette of the first one. although there was a more lore motivated reason for the wrap moving lmao. i remember really wanting to incorporate that dark blue, which i still do, because i think it goes nicely with the mint. i really don't like her wrap pattern though, i think it's perfectly pretty outside of this but i would've preferred to do something more elaborate and fantastical and fitting to her and not bedsheet pattern. but i couldn't come up with better at the time so it is what it is 🤷‍♀️

it brings over elements of the old design like with the waist wrap, which i think is true to her character. she is a person who likes to hoard however she can, save past materials and repurpose them. in her very first design i was even imagining her head wrap to be an old baby blanket repurposed. also i feel wishy washy about the under sweater layer but since we were moving into a colder climate it seemed fine enough at the time. i thought it looks too clingy but i think my real issue with it is that it would've felt more appropriate if she had more of a loose, flowy layer on top of it, like a robe or loose blouse? it's definitely something im considering to be done for the future.

honestly her outfits up until this point are what have really pushed me to want to step up my game and do better for her so in all this time ive been really crafting just how i visualize her style. i want to do more billowy, loose clothing with a lot of layering, things she'd feel comfortable in. including floral aspects, simple stichwork, simple fastenings that would be easy to take on and off like cloth belts/wraps. things that wouldn't annoy her or get in the way of pulling back a bow. admittedly the sleeves below may be a bit too long for that reason so it might help having some way to tie it up to her elbows or something and let it down when she gets cold.

below are some concepts of that ive been really happy with so far, plus a cute baby mimsy's outfit design lmao. AND a short hair mimsy which i can guarantee will happen at least once in the future bc she's sooooooo cute. i want to add more baubles and trinkets in her hair and maybe some hair wraps because she loves tying stuff into it and i never draw it 💔 heartbreaking

something i didn't mention as well is recently ive been thinking she's gotten too cow-ish so ive been trying to bring back that initial inspiration from c-kiddo's work with firbolgs having more cat-like (?) feature as well, which adds a fun element i think. like whiskers. i think it looks cute n feels more whimsical......

ok. POST OVER !

[ohwolfling]

If I think about the narrative stuff about Gale’s orb blowing him up ending, it surprises me because after Elminster shows up, none of the companions actively encourage him to do The Big Noble Sacrifice. Assuming that narratively (with no Tav) at the end they’d be OK with it because it’s the most efficient way to take out the Netherbrain, it just so happens to also complete his character arc of redemption through sacrifice to save the world. After merely a few weeks of the campaign, I doubt they’d give enough of a shit about him to try hard enough to stop him from killing himself to actually hold any water without a Tav. In my mind, then, his redemption-through-death is more important because it saves the world more than whatever they think for his overall arc to be completed. I hope I’m making sense, I’m trying to figure it out after the interview to really see it the way a literary expert would. Not just as somebody who likes Gale and doesn’t want him to die.

Ok, this will be a little longer but I wanna break it into pieces for ya!

I think a way to think about it is that without a Tav in the party, anything could happen. We only see the story because there IS a Tav. That's our roles as a player and as a protagonist (the game of course makes origin plays available, but that's very BG3 specific, so we'll ignore that for this chat). Without Tav to facilitate a friendship or romance, we assume that all parties would remain on their paths (which is usually their bad ending or an additional bad ending - the party never solidifies or takes clear direction and so they end up dead). Gale and Astarion are foils - Astarion being an outward Byronic hero, made more obvious by the frame of vampirism + subverted by the nature of being allowed to KNOW WHY he is so Byronic, Gale being seemingly less violent and more charismatic than the Byronic hero, but lo and behold that classic Byron sullenness and violence is turned inward.

When I talk about its narrative soundness, that doesn't mean that anyone in game would be happy with it or that any part of it is "good" or "bad." It isn't necessarily what anyone wants and we can't know whether the talks the camp has with Tav about Gale are talks they would have with Gale, or if through their various traumas and additional life threatening story details they never have the thought or get there to see it at all. We have what we DO know, from the story's structure:

Big Bad -> Ilithid and/or world ending Big Three

but each character has their own personal boss, even before they acknowledge that to themselves in story, a personal boss that carries with it specific themes of the personal nature AND a systemic nature (and maybe in some plays they never do, hence the "bad" endings even with Tav)

Shadowheart -> Shar herself, cult of Shar (child abuse, child torture, identity and estrangement)

Lae'zel -> Vlaakith (child soldier indoctrination & trauma, isolation)

Astarion -> Cazador (patriarchal abuse, SA, human trafficking, safety and purpose)

& so on, so forth

For Gale, it's Mystra + Elminster & more cult-y aspects of wizard academia (grooming, coercion, possibly CSA, self esteem, self worth, self harm)

Even with Tav there, the bad endings are possible. So without her, narratively, the only thread we know FOR SURE is the thread through the bad ending, the themes above.

My personal interpretation is that without Tav, Gale fucks off much sooner and just kabooms with no purpose before Mystra even deigns to use him as a tool. And so narratively, that's the biggest echo. It's not the only echo and I don't think it's more important than the other endings (& as a survivor who writes about this semi professionally, I have a lot of thoughts about how many stories about trauma need desperately to evolve past this kind of self sacrifice thing). But the Netherese orb, Gale's tendency for self harm, isolation, shame, self loathing, etc, those are our threads that go all the way through, with or without Tav.

I hope that made some sense? And truly I don't believe in literary experts. It's about interpretation, lived experience, and applying the tools you have in your tool box (figurative language, archetypes, references to other literature, sometimes the author's own notes/words or even THEIR lived experience, etc) to the big slab of marble we call a story and seeing what you can sculpt out of it.

I may dive into this more in the coming weeks (I'll be prioritizing commissions and we'll see how it shakes loose but I WANT TO DIVE INTO IT MORE TBH), but for looking at the story of Gale specifically, a good start might be just hanging on the wikipedia or TV Tropes page for Byronic heroes, reading some of Byron's poems, getting a feel for that. I think Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights are on either side of Gale in terms of what a Byronic hero can be/do, but those would be characters to take a peak at. If you're more comfortable with film/TV arguments can be made that the Driver in Drive (2011), Tony Stark in the first few Iron Man films, Anakin Skywalker AND Kylo Ren from Star Wars, Angel and Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Daemon Targaryen on House of the Dragon, Dean Winchester from Supernatural, I'm sure folks can reply with more they interpret that way!

[scarlet--wiccan]

How do you feel about the way Margali has been treated in the last few years, especially in regards to the retcon? Because I don't know why, but the way she’s been treated feels eerily similar to Exodus’ propaganda. 

I don't think that these two things are problematic in the same way, but they are both symptomatic of the same issue, which is that most Marvel writers are not willing or capable of recognizing when they're doing something that is anti-Romani. There's not really much sensitivity involved. Even in Scarlet Witch, which has done something really amazing and important by changing the way Wanda & Pietro look, I can tell that Orlando isn't thinking too closely about how Wanda's identity & life experiences should inform her perspective on certain things. For me, this is the next bridge in Romani representation, and I don't think we're going to cross it until we start including Romani creators.

Margali is a character that has long been mired in racist tropes about Romani women. In addition to playing Margali to type, the Krakoan era also had her collaborating with fascists. She's always been a morally complex character, and that's not a problem unto itself, but there's a difference being a toxic parent or doing, like, magic crimes, and teaming up with a genocidal organization that is actively trying to wipe a minority population off of the planet. Is this really something that a Romani woman from a heavily marginalized background would do? Is the conniving circus fortuneteller still an acceptable way to write Romani characters? I don't think anybody in the X-Office was asking these questions.

Wanda's treatment in the Krakoan era is different, because it's not that she was committing problematic or offensive actions, it's that her existence and history were politicized in-universe in a manner that became exceedingly fraught when read through a racial lens. To me, it reads as if the Council, and, in particular, Exodus intentionally distorted information about the Decimation so they could use a Romani woman as a boogeyman in a campaign to engender nationalism and mutant essentialism. To me, this was just as alarming as any of the other political themes in early Krakoa, which often courted comparisons to real-world places and historical events but did not commit to the gravity of such parallels.

[justalittlelilac]

Happy New Year!

Long rambling post about last year reflections, mushy thank you's, feelings, and this years goals. (I promise Our Life is involved it's just at the bottom lol the tag is appropriate) Mostly just writing it down so it's out of my head lol

2025 goals:

Write and draw more! (Especially stuff I've put off from the holidays 😅)

Improve my Spanish with a tutor.

Hopefully start ballet and hip hop again!

Start violin lessons and learn how to play my favorite song from the OLNF soundtrack and Outer Wilds theme.

Post more of my cosplays on here and Bluesky (have one in the works currently).

Be a better neighbor and get involved in my community.

Make more friends in my online communities (y'all are making this one easy).

Don't know if I wanna commit to it yet, but I think I wanna dabble in voice acting. I don't know though.

Last year, I surrounded myself in themes for the New Year instead of goals. Community, Creativity, and Activism.

Although it wasn't the community I had originally thought of, I harbored a brand new one on here and made tons of connections and got a lot closer in my Internet relationships. I'd like to continue this.

I also just got out more. I pushed myself to try so many new things. Ballet, hip-hop, gymnastics, posting my writing and drawing, being more present in cosplay communities were all things that lead me to meet tons of new people.

I participated in multiple activitist campaigns in my community, especially where Palestine was concerned. Which was out of my comfort zone. I'm naturally confrontationally avoidant, and I knew I would meet resistance in places. I'm happy that with the encouragement of my loved ones and therapist I was able to advocate for my values and people that need it. My rep probably has my name on a spam list now 😂.

I performed on a stage for the first time in a decade! It was terrifying, but I have never felt more confident and in love with the art of dance again.

Creativity was a big moment for me this year. I let my whims lead me anywhere they wanted to go. I ended up writing a novella series that was 80k+ words (that will never see the light of day but I did that!). The Our Life hyperfixation took hold so heavily, I started to learn how to draw and became an active participant in the community. I have posts on here with 300+ notes! I know that's not a lot on the grand scheme but it's nothing to sneeze at! That's just to name a few things.

The worst thing that happened this year was that I was outed to my family before I was ready. It was weird and made me have an identity crisis, but my circle really came through. I can now say with confidence, I'm out as pansexual and have never felt more comfortable in my skin where that is concerned.

In 2024, I took a lot of time to get to know myself and I found that I really like me. I quite enjoy being me and being around me. A lot of work has been done since 2021 to get me here. All that work started to make me bloom in 2024, I think. I am becoming the person I have always wanted to be. Someone I can be proud of and believe that other people are proud of and want to be around. In 2025, I want to continue this development.

If you read this far, thank you. It is likely that you were a part of all of this for me. Even in a small way. Thank you.

And especially thank you to the Our Life community who has made me feel welcomed and provided a space for me to grow in confidence. I don't think I could ever put into words properly how much this fandom means to me. Again. Thank you from my bottom of my heart and happy 2025.

[critter-genfic-events]

Queer Platonic : A Critical Role Gen-fic Rec List

Hello everyone! Please enjoy these seven amazing Queer Platonic fics that have been recced by the Critter community! Oh, and don't forget to show the authors some love if you liked their work!

Spider Silk Vows by hanap (88103,Teen) Warnings: no archive warnings apply Pairings Beauregard Lionett & Essek Thelyss

Beau and Essek are required to enter an arranged marriage. There's suspicion on all sides, and other forces at work.

Reccer says: It's got some amazing characterization and a developing queerplatonic relationship, plus all of the arranged marriage + political machination tropes I love.

fate (is but dandruff) by Meridas (1794,General) Warnings: none Pairings Mollymauk Tealeaf & Yasha Nydoorin

The Inherent Queerness and Triumph of Cutting Off All Your Hair

Reccer says: There's not enough fic about Molly and Yasha's relationship. This is a post-canon Mollymauk who is dealing with his fractured identity with a little help from Yasha.

Still The Same by The_Singular_Peep (4104,General) Warnings: Alcohol & a very messy hangover Pairings Caleb & Veth

After finding out about Veth's past, the relationship between Caleb and Veth becomes strained. Veth get's drunk and Caleb realizes that there was a misunderstanding

Reccer says: I always love when a fic actually digs into the feelings of "This isn't romantic or sexual but there is definitely love here".

count your blessings (not your flaws) by Enby_Tiefling (2152,General) Warnings: Pairings Yasha & Kingsley, Past QPR Yasha & Molly

She loves Molly, but he isn’t here anymore. Kingsley is.

Reccer says: I have a soft spot for Yasha dealing with her grief for Molly while also trying to be fair and treat Kingsley as their own person, and this hits the spot.

It's a Date by daretodhampir (stardustedknuckles) (2744,Teen) Warnings: None Pairings QPR Fearne/Laudna/Imogen

Fearne takes Imogen and Laudna on something resembling a date and it's just what you'd expect from a fey creature doing her best to be a good friend in a strange new world. And also making it up as she goes, but it's fine. Truly, it's the thoughts that count.

Reccer says: I like that there's definitely different types of sexuality and interest in sex within the triad, and the casual, loving feel to their interactions

Philia, Is That You? by Professor_Rye (2034,General) Warnings: None Pairings Molly & Yasha

Yasha gets hurt and Molly makes sure to take care of her. This causes some confusing feelings for poor Yasha

Reccer says: I like how Yasha works through her confusion and feelings as she accepts that she loves Molly, just not like that

Same Same Different by hummus_tea (1117,General) Warnings: none Pairings Fjord & Caduceus

Caduceus hears from some old friends and has a reunion, and goes on a hike, makes some tea. Fjord is awkward.

Reccer says: I really like Fjord and Caduceus's friendship in Campaign 2, this is a short and sweet fic that's about their relationship afterwards

If you liked this rec list, follow along for more! We'll be posting a new list with a new theme each Monday. And if you would like to make a rec yourself, feel free to reach out to @professor-rye to request access to the submission form! Next week's theme is going to be our first character focused list! We'll be doing a character list each first monday of the month, so stay tuned for those! Next week's list is going to be about our favorite grave cleric, Caduceus Clay!