#ignore my lack of lore knowledge

[bajablastflavoredsaxreed]

quivering rn what the heck

baron from the baronies is something that can be so personal actually

ough

[prodigalren]

kylo ren has very little interest in history. he knows the bare minimum of the clone wars & jedi execution , but nothing of its key players . he cherry picks events that he does know to better suit his narrative . . . particularly , darth vader and the galactic empire's reign of terror over the galaxy . this could partially be from the shielding of his bloodline as a child or the simple erasure of the past . . . but mostly, he just doesn't care. knowledge doesn't fulfill his needs in his pursuit for power & meaning .

this disinterest predates even ben's fall to the dark side. master luke often hand selected ben solo to be his companion on jedi artifact recovery missions because of the padawan's inattention during traditional 'classroom' history lessons ( among other reasons ). and while ben did express an interest in these field trips , he found more joy in leaving ossus & the stuffiness of the jedi temple than the education itself. it's easier to drone out your master when there's places to EXPLORE. distractions. imminent danger.

ben solo / kylo ren is very much a study of the phrase those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it .

[gilgil-machine]

Someone: Gilkidu is boring. I need drama! I need struggle!

Meanwhile Gilkidu (and a bit of Gilkingu):

Their story is very beautiful and quite tragic as well. It's a story about friendship/love, loyalty, death and grief.

And I could write the whole essay about their relationship and how Enkidu's death affected Gilgamesh but this post is already quite long and I've already talked about this a bit HERE, HERE and HERE.

[timebambi]

class bias in arcane : the problem with the "vi can't read" headcanon.

the idea that vi never learned to read or write because she's from zaun is not only ridiculous and completely unsupported by the show, but always revolves around the stigmatization of zaunites in general and the uplifting of caitlyn. which is, obviously, very bad …

this is going to be a bit long, but i really wanted to explore this and share my thoughts, especially because this headcanon harms vi and other zaunite characters in the show indirectly. which is something i. hate. so. much. i just can't comprehend how people are still saying this.

vi can read. the show literally shows us this.

in season 2, vi says to jinx that the letter is from vander to silco. a letter. which is handwritten in manuscript. meaning she's actually reading. because it requires standard literacy skills. so, you know, she can read :)

and she's not the only one. jinx also reads the letter (if you somehow missed her cracking hextech in season 1). vander wrote it himself, meaning he was literate too. silco and vander put their initials on their jackets, just more proof that literacy isn't uncommon in zaun. literally, at no point in season 2 does arcane show a zaunite struggling to read or write.

season 1 already gave us clues about this.

this isn't even new information. in season 1, episode 1, vi searches jayce's lab for valuables to steal, but she still stops to look at the books. that's not something you do if reading is completely foreign to you.

she also looks at jayce's research board, which is covered in scientific notes and calculations and immediately realizes she's in an inventor's workspace. if reading were completely unfamiliar to vi, that mess of writing would just look like abstract symbols or nonsense to her. but no. she can process enough of it to understand what it means.

and let's not forget powder. well, maybe i'm reading too much into that, so you can ignore this if you want. but in the same episode, she picks up a book and seems to read a line before closing it. it doesn't seem to me that she’s staring blankly at the page, but that her eyes are actually following a line of text.

so if vi’s younger sister could read at that time, why wouldn't she ?

zaunites aren't illiterate, arcane shows that over and over again.

okay. so, if vi knowing how to read is still somehow up for debate, what about the other zaunites ?

ekko is literally shown reading, writing, and eventually inventing a time machine in season 2. since this alternate universe shows zaun becoming like piltover, you'd expect a major difference between these two characters. i mean, according to some people, the undercity is full of the poor and uneducated, right ? so with piltover being more open, powder should have had more resources to develop her skills. if that were true, you'd think she'd notice ekko lacking in literacy. but nope. he's just as literate as the powder from that world, since they collaborated without any issues.

maybe i could add viktor. yes, arcane doesn't detail how viktor got into piltover's academy, but his official lore confirms that viktor's intelligence was recognized early, he was already deeply knowledgeable in science as a child, working alongside singed and so later, he was brought to piltover and caught the eye of heimerdinger. i just don't see how any of this would be possible without being literate. there's no way he'd get into the academy without knowing how to read or write.

so, now the question is : why them and not vi ?

why wouldn't vander make sure vi and powder could read ?

again, if you somehow missed that jinx can read and write in season 1, or if you still think that doesn't necessarily mean vi can, and to answer "why them and not vi ?", let's go over this.

nothing in arcane suggests that zaunites are generally illiterate, it's actually the contrary (e.g. ekko, vitkor, silco, vander), so why would vander's kids be the exception ? and if one of them had to be, why vi ? especially when both vi and powder didn't have to work in the mines thanks to vander. no but this alone shows that he invested in their well-being beyond just survival, so why wouldn't that also include making sure they had basic literacy ? even if their parents didn't teach them first, what reason could vander have to not teach vi and powder when he can read and write himself ?

actually, it makes even less sense to assume that the sisters never learned to read, considering they were more privileged than many other kids in zaun, especially since vander kept them out of child labor.

the "vi can't read, so caitlyn teaches her" headcanon is just ... gross.

now let's talk about how this headcanon is not just a silly fandom theory, but something harmful.

there's this recurring fandom trope where caitlyn, the wealthy piltover enforcer, teaches vi, the poor ex-prisoner from zaun, how to read. and it's always framed as something "cute" or "romantic."

except … it's not.

this plays directly into the class divide between them. caitlyn already comes from a position of power and privilege. framing vi as this uneducated, illiterate street kid who needs caitlyn to "civilize" her completely strips away vi's intelligence and independence. it infantilizes her, turning her into some kind of "fixer-upper" project rather than the strong, capable person we know she is.

and after season 2, this headcanon feels even worse. it's as if the fandom is desperate to preserve a "wholesome" version of their relationship, even if it means making vi less than she actually is. if the only way to keep caitvi looking healthy for some of you is to belittle vi's intelligence and reinforce a savior dynamic, then maybe the ship isn't made for you anymore.

this headcanon needs to die.

i guess i have to conclude with the fact that nowhere in arcane is there any real evidence that vi is illiterate. if anything, the show gives us multiple signs that she, and many other zaunites, can read and write just fine. also, the idea that she can't isn't just wrong, it's rooted in a fandom bias that constantly downplays her intelligence while uplifting caitlyn's role in her life.

[utilitycaster]

while reading sone c3 meta i realized c3 defenders are as incurious about the world as bells hells. not to say read/watch the lore but they could do some research. the biggest thing rightniw is the calamity is a family scabble on exandria but i never see them acknowledging why the gods are fighting. or that the gods always chose each other which is so wrong. calamity is because the gods dont chose each other, they chose mortals. the entire fight is to save mortals and at the end they saved 1/3 of mortals vs the total wipeout that could have happened. im reminded that in a world with living gods bells hells didnt even know their names or what they were like. i can see why this party resonates with the incurios.

So on the one hand I would say that the Prime vs. Betrayer fight is complicated, because the motivations that lead to it are them torn between what they want and their refusal leave or kill each other. The Schism happens because the Betrayers want to leave, but won't leave without the Primes, and the Primes don't want to leave and want to help mortals against the titans. The Calamity happens at least in part because the Betrayers want to kill the mortals, which in turn is at least in part motivated by the fact that they see the mortals as coming between them and the Primes. The Primes meanwhile do want to prevent the Betrayers from killing the mortals, and as we've seen, make an effort to spare noncombatant mortals (an effort which in Divergence largely succeeds, and Downfall fails), but are unwilling to kill the Betrayers and instead seal them both times.

However, the larger point, both that Bells Hells are exceptionally ignorant of religious knowledge and history in Exandria and make little effort to rectify this or even acknowledge that they don't know much, and that many of their loudest fans are incurious as well, is true. The thing that actually strikes me is that, given that of the Predathos options that did not involve either a simple defeat of those trying to unleash it or a simple unleashing and destruction of the gods, both involved the Luxon, there was a profound not just lack of curiosity, but dismissiveness of Ashton learning about the beacon earlier in the campaign by their alleged fans. Whether or not you liked it, the potion of possibility and beacon in their head, more so than the shard, was the culmination of their arc and absolutely plot crucial - and it was not uncommon earlier in the campaign for people to be like "who CARES, fuck Essek, let's go to the Hishari." When, in the end, the shard served more as an interesting mechanical bonus, an opportunity for some of the best roleplay of the game that was then mostly abandoned, and an excuse to go to the Shattered Teeth; the role of the titans was ultimately only something to bring up in fruitless arguments and justify dickish behavior. Even more so than the ignorance of Exandrian lore that I saw with some frequency, that stands out to me: even within the campaign they purported to love, they didn't care about exploring something that might gently brush up against Campaign 2. It's a real cutting off one's nose to spite one's face, and it made them look stupid, and Bells Hells felt similar: they did not want to find out information that might show them to be wrong, or show people whom they disliked to be right.

This incuriosity is still alive and well:

This is probably a vague of this post by me - but that post, I should note, came from me checking something in the transcript:

The fans of Campaign 3 don't even care enough about the campaign and party they are expending so much energy to defend, to engage with the questions the characters thereof are thinking about. They're willing to throw Dorian under the bus in a failed attempt to win an argument. Dorian cares about this, actually, is the thing, and he's mostly brushed off, and even if Bells Hells had said "oh damn you're right", my point is not "why doesn't Bells Hells care" so much as "framing this as the merciful option is again a very self-centered perspective, rather like how donating your impulse purchase fast fashion clothing still often puts it in a landfill, but there's a middleman that lets you pretend you're doing the more eco-conscious option."

And yes, it is similar to how Bells Hells, as the party of Campaign 3, didn't care enough about the people and world they claimed to speak for to learn about it. Recall how many NPCs told Ashton that the titans were dead? I think a fair interpretation is that party didn't want to talk to people because they might have told them something that challenged their limited worldview and required they change, grow, and empathize with others.

There's a line from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: "[My mother] said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy," with the implication that there is a difference between a lack of knowledge that comes from lack of opportunity, vs. lack of knowledge that comes from not caring. And that's the thing. If a fan doesn't know all the lore, or even gets something wrong in good faith? That's fine! There's a lot, and if people don't know every detail of the history of the Calamity that's not a failure on their part, particularly if they acknowledge that they might be missing some information and are still learning. But if someone looks at the story, and looks at the questions within it - in some cases, questions directly stated by the characters within it - and says "who cares?" that's incuriosity. It's not a lack of knowledge; it's a disinterest in gaining it, and a lot of fans of C3 are not just incurious but openly proud of it.

[doughguts-art]

What is your stance on the "Elsen is one guy who cloned himself a bajillion times" comment from the 15th anniversary livestream

My stance is that I respectfully disagree (for lack of a better term). Since “all elsens are clones of one person” wasn’t ever stated/explored in-game, I find it more fun to explore other Elsen origins for my projects instead. Mortis Ghost has also said in the past that people are welcome to play fast and loose with lore, and that’s what I was doing before I was ever introduced to the clone discussion. It’s easier for me to ignore that newer addition than to overhaul my original ideas, so that’s what I’m doing. I have no issue with people who decide to use that lore for their own works, but it doesn’t apply to mine.

With that being said, what’s MY lore for Elsen? For me, Elsens as we see them in-game are the result of 3 things:

Human’s evolution after the “apocalypse”. Elsens are what Humans are in the far future, as the lingering effects of the apocalypse (cough cough radiation) changed the very essence of what Humans are from the past.

Hugo’s influence as a “god” of this world. What we see is what Hugo specifically makes, so Elsens are the cartoony square-headed humanoids because that’s what we are made to perceive by Hugo.

The Batter’s/Protagonist’s perception. They all look the same because it is just easier for them to look the same. It is unnecessary for them to look any different than each other to the Batter, so we barely see any differences.

In my games, “Tiny Terror” and “Project GoldFinch”, the Elsen are more visually different than the original OFF’s because they are not filtered through the Batter’s practical lens. Non-important NPC Elsen are intended to have more variety, because they are supposed to be more individualized than what the Batter saw. Now I can’t say “everyone’s different” because I think I’d die if I had to make every NPC unique, but I’m trying to change up certain details so you’re not just talking to the same Elsen in a dress-shirt and tie.

“So, that’s how they look, but how are they made, if not cloning?” Glad you asked, I have a few explanations that usually (but not definitively) depend on which Zone they reside in!

The Zone’s Minimum Quota: Each Zone has an undefined number of Elsens that have to exist within it. There can always be more than the set number, and there usually is in any given Zone, but if a death of an Elsen would mean going under, then a fully adult Elsen will appear in another area once that death occurs. This new Elsen will have a basic knowledge of living, but will have to be taught to do specialized tasks. This is more common in Zone 3 than the other Zones, and it's the reason Enoch’s sugar industry has been sustained for so long.

Cloning (via the Big Elsen in the Room): YES OK I have a cloning piece of my lore too, but it’s not exactly what Mortis Ghost described, so I don’t count it as the same. This version of cloning is heavily inspired by tzalmavet’s idea of the Big Elsen. Sometimes normal-looking Elsens will grow and slough off of the Giant One (that I have dubbed Biggs for my story). Some of these Elsen are kept in the Room, but most are sent to the larger Zones. Unfortunately the ones that are sent away don’t survive for long outside of the Room because of genetic instability caused by leaving and the rapid mutations that results from it. All of the Elsen that come from Biggs are genetically the same despite any differing mutations, and consider themselves siblings. They can identify each other as such even if they are meeting for the first time.

Creations of the Guardians: Guardians can create Elsens if they choose to excerpt the massive amount of energy needed to make one. This was done mostly in the beginning of the Zones, before the Quota was established. It is very impractical to perform now that there are other easier ways Elsen can exist. The creation ritual requires “scaffolding” (usually made of plastic, metal, or meat), and a Guardian to infuse energy into it. The scaffolding + energy will create an Elsen with whatever features and knowledge the Guardian wishes to give them. Japhet was the Guardian who created Elsens using this method the most, which is why he considers the Elsen of Zone 2 his children (even if not all of the Elsen within the Zone are made by him anymore).

The Traditional Way: Elsens can just make other Elsens the same way Humans can make other Humans, though infertility rates are VERY high in most of the Zones. Zone 3 is pretty much completely infertile, it is very rare to see a child in Zone 1, and Zone 2 has the most children with enough to have a small school. Elsen babies grow and mature at the same rate as Humans do.

There are also miscellaneous "Special Cases". Some of my Elsens have unique origins separate from the ones I listed above, but I’d like to save the spoilers for my game to when it comes out, haha!

That's all for now, I hope you found my statement and lore explanation entertaining! I am excited to share more in the future.

[lostlegendaerie]

Veritas Ratio and Autistic Representation

Chances are you know autistic people in your life; autism itself is a fairly recently coined term, dating back to 1911, and can encompass a wide variety of symptoms and eccentricities which have existed since the dawn of humankind. (The 'fey-touched' child or changeling in European lore shares a lot of traits with autistic children.) Autism is a spectrum, encompassing and overlapping a lot with ADHD and other neurological disorders. There are probably millions of people out there, especially from older generations, who are on the spectrum and have no idea. I did not even get my diagnosis until I was 27.

So it is entirely possible that the creators of Veritas Ratio from Honkai: Star Rail did not intend to write him as autistic and based him on people they knew in their own lives, who, diagnosed or not, are on the autistic spectrum. However, the point of this piece is to talk about the ways in which Veritas Ratio is good autistic representation (in my opinion as a autistic person), and how people who want to write characters like this can take a page out of Honkai's book in their own work.

1) SPECIAL INTEREST. Ratio shows a *staggering* amount of dedication to the pursuit of knowledge and his quest to cure the world of ignorance. This quest of his tends to supersede everything else in his life, with no mention of any friends, family connections or romantic partners in his character story. (Said as a Ratiorine shipper - not sinking any 'ships, here) His dedication to education started early, with reading college undergraduate education levels while still in middle school - seven or so years ahead of his peers. Autism is considered a disability, yes, but it does not exclude you from being smart, and the fixation on your chosen topic(s) can be extremely useful in motivating you to reach the top of your field. His path being The Hunt also outlines this dedication; he is seeking his target without rest or distraction.

2) SENSORY ISSUES. Ratio very explicitly can become distracted and disgusted by the feeling of dirt or sweat on his skin, something that tends to be more prevalent with specific clothing textures but absolutely can manifest in a need to feel clean. He also can apparently become very irritated and overwhelmed by lights and sounds, and wears his plaster mask as a way to deaden and deafen the amount of sensory input that he receives. This allows him to think better, and is a fantastic example of what it feels like to suffer from sensory overload. (If you find yourself getting stressed in crowds, try bringing earplugs and putting them in the next time you're in a noisy restaurant and see if doesn't help you out.)

3) STRONG SENSE OF MORALITY. Autistic people tend to suffer from a somewhat black-and-white feeling of right and wrong, and can hold themselves and other people to an extremely strict moral code. This does not mean that they are always correct in what they believe is right and wrong, but it means that they can be extremely passionate about following those rules. Ratio's beef with the Genius Society and their selectivity is indicative of his unwavering passion towards sharing knowledge with the masses, but the tactless way in which he wishes to cure ignorance bleeds into our fourth point.

4) DIFFICULTY WITH SOCIAL CUES. In one of his earlier conversations with Aventurine (where he is clearly irritated at how careless Aventurine seems to be about their entire mission), Ratio inadvertently insults Aventurine's his lack of education and parents. He apologizes afterwards, stating he did not intend to come across that way, but he maintains the same imperious tone of voice. Autistic people often, but not always, struggle with social cues and can often be considered rude when we are trying to be direct and easily understood; and we can especially struggle with understanding sarcasm or sounding sarcastic when we intend to be sincere.

With my reasons for believing Ratio to be Autistic coded firmly established, let's move onto why I think he is good representation. The two most important parts of representation, in my lived experience as an Autistic person, are RELATABILITY and EMPATHY.

Ratio exhibits some of the same mentalities and symptoms I've had, such as being misunderstood and accidentally offending people and becoming extremely stressed in large crowds due to overstimulation, so he checks off the first box. But the way that the other characters in the game respect him and do not ridicule him for his eccentricities marks the second. Whether in marketing material or in character dialogue options, Ratio's love of baths, his plaster bust, and his ceaseless drive to educate other people (whether they need it or not) are seen as charming and generally positive, and those attributes are not constantly brought up (and mocked) in his interactions and dialogue with other characters. Aventurine doesn't constantly ask Ratio if he needs to leave the Dream to take a bath, and the TB's text conversations with him allow you to engage with his special interests such as his requests for problems to solve and debates to wage against you. He is canonically seen and respected as a brilliant individual, and not reduced to a joke or viewed as comic relief (e.g. Sampo, who almost exclusively is given negative dialogue options for the player to use when interacting with him and who almost every character in the story openly despises.)

Some of you are going to disagree with me in the comments (which is fine, it's my opinion), but for the few of you who read this all the way through, thank you. I hope that this helps you view Ratio and Autistic people overall in a new light, and I am excited to see where else we go from here with him and the rest of the cast!

[theweeklydiscourse]

What I don’t understand is at what point did LB switch form team Darkling to team anti-Darkling. Like, that’s genuinely puzzling to me.

New or show only fans might not know and parrot her ‘Darkling bad, Mal good’ propaganda and her old tumblr post might be deleted, but internet remembers. As well as the fans. I found about SB before the third part came out and I swear Mal was so insignificant that I didn’t know he existed until I actually read the books. No one talked about him, no one liked him, he was nowhere near actual books’ promotions and discussions. Yes, the books were poorly written from book 1 page 1, but you could clearly tell (including from LB’s own posts!) that they (the whole story, the whole ‘vibe’) revolved around Darklina. Yes, maybe LB always planned for it to be a tragedy, maybe Darkling and Darklina never had a chance from the very beginning. But Darkling’s character clearly wasn’t labeled as unquestionably toxic villain who is wrong about everything the way it’s done by the fandom and the author herself now.

Like, at what point something in LB’s brain switched from ‘he’s morally grey tragic figure’ to ‘he’s just evil and you must hate him period’? Did she think like that from the very beginning and was it all just a long ploy to lure readers in (because lets be real the book’s initial success and fanbase was built on the Darkling)? Is she just saying that bcs black/white views, (fake) moral superiority and fandom purism are all the rage now?

This is truly one of my biggest unanswered questions about Shadow and Bone. It’s the kind of thing that makes me want to peer inside Bardugo’s head to get a sense of her thought process. There are so many things that just don’t add up, little incongruous details that contradict the narrative’s ending and the vision Bardugo claimed to have.

Learned darklinas know the lore all too well. This is why newer fans’ pearl clutching over people shipping Darklina is ridiculous, especially when they pull out the age-old “The Darkling was based on LB’s irl abuser!” rumour. They simply didn’t see the tumblr posts where Bardugo was actively stoking the fires of Darklina and engaging with fan content in a positive way. Either that, or they want to ignore it. But we know that Bardugo’s views on Darklina have changed over the years, and we definitely know that some of those changes don’t add up.

Take the pony cart scene for example, I wrote a meta on it a while back, but the gist is that it’s an extended metaphor that feels wholly incongruent with the trilogy’s ending. It casts doubt on Bardugo’s beloved endgame Malina for some reason, seeming to lean more into the idea that Alina needs to embrace her true identity as a Grisha. Or we could point to the total lack of substance in the “abuse narrative” Bardugo claims to have created. The Darkling was never characterized as an abusive partner to Alina because Bardugo never created a situation where that could have occurred. Her trust can’t be abused because she never trusted him in the first place. He doesn’t have a meaningful hold over her heart and mind (at least, not in the way Mal has).

It’s my hunch that Bardugo switched up after the negative reception of Ruin and Rising, opting to capitalize on a more complex sort of story that she never even wrote. The minute the “abuse narrative” was breathed into existence, the fandom started to become more vitriolic and ostentatious about their objections to darklina and the darkling as a character. Because Bardugo’s readership is fairly young, they took the author’s words at face value and didn’t bother delving into the obvious contradiction that older readers detected. It’s common knowledge that Shadow and Bone is a poster child for YA cliches and shoddy writing, but the minute people mention the Darkling, it suddenly becomes a subversive and compelling narrative about abusive dynamics. To be honest, this is mainly a mix of fan fiction and foggy memories of the series, with a large helping of desire for moral superiority.

[ckret2]

How do you (personally) rank the validity of different canon sources?

Ex. Show, Books, Livestreams, Panels, Deleted Scenes ect.

Disclaimer ahead of time that this is solely for my own personal canon-compliant fic writing purposes and I don't expect anyone else to follow this or even think they're obligated to write canon compliantly

Tier one: the show is more canon than the books, but only 1% more canon. In defiance of Alex's decree, I do treat Little Gift Shop of Horrors as canon.

Tier two: everything in the books (plus the books' tie-in websites, like Shmeb-You-Unlocked or TINAWDC) is canon UNLESS it's contradicted in the show. If there's a contradiction, usually the show wins, but it has to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes contradicting book info take precedence over show info if the book's info is better. The best outcome is when the info can be smoothly synthesized. (Note that having to weigh a book against the show only applies to CONTRADICTIONS; if the book just ADDS ONTO our knowledge of the show in a way that doesn't actually contradict it, it's automatically canon.)

Also in defiance of Alex, I consider Time Pirates' Treasure wholly canon, with the "official" timeline being one of the ones where they get the treasure and all of the other choose-your-own-adventure branches being things that happened in neighboring parallel timelines.

Out of the books, Journal 3, TBOB (+TINAWDC), and Lost Legends (+Shmeb-You-Unlocked) are the most canon. TBOB takes precedence over Journal 3 on matters where TBOB's lore is clearly intended as an upgrade on prior ideas (ex: the shaman's portal and the pyramids). Dipper & Mabel's Guide, Time Pirates' Treasure (+ the Axolotl page), and Don't Color This Book are secondarily canon. Lazy screenshot-based novelizations of existing episodes are whatever.

I choose to selectively semi-reject some of the skeevier conspiracy theory claims in the books as "Bill's lying about these": outside of those exceptions, going "there's no evidence Bill's lying about this part but I've decided that he is just because I don't like it" is the coward's way and dishonorable.

Info in the Bill Cipher AMA is third tier canon, since it was written in-character and comes directly from Alex. (Some quotes from the AMA were recycled directly into TBOB + TINAWDC.) Gus Burnside's twitter account is also third tier.

For the first three tiers, all info is canon unless something in a higher tier contradicts it.

The Cipher Hunt is 3.5th tier.

All out-of-universe materials—livestreams, panels, interviews, DVD commentary, tweets, doodles & concept art, etc—are fourth tier. If it's contradicted by anything in the higher tiers, they take precedence; but, for lack of a conflict, out-of-universe materials fill in the gaps. But the person involved matters: show writers' statements on the characters are more canon than voice actors' statements. If fourth-tier materials contradict each other, the newer one takes precedence. Fourth-tier materials can be selectively ignored if so desired, but better to find a way to twist them to make them work.

The Gnome Gemulets game is fifth tier; all the lore from it is canon, but the events may or may not have actually happened, or else only loosely happened like that. Gnome Gemulets may occasionally rank higher than the out-of-universe materials.

Disney.com flash games and the like are semi-canon; you CAN take lore and details from them if you want but the events probably didn't literally happen unless you really want to make it work. Okay to imagine that events happened that were loosely inspired by the games.

Deleted scenes and cameos (ex: Bill in the Simpsons) are semi-semi canon. They probably didn't happen, especially if it contradicts canon; but you can freely take ideas and vibes from them and use them as examples of the kinds of things that could happen (ex: Bill would try to con people into buying crypto just for the heck of it).

Unwritten episodes are semi-semi-semi canon: they definitely didn't happen, but by god, you could MAKE them happen.

The How Not To Draw Grunkle Stan short is as yet unknown. Under normal conditions it ought to be semi-semi canon, but since TINAWDC did some stuff with the Henchmaniacs escaping to reality shortly before this clip came out about Bill escaping to reality, there's a slim possibility this is part of a budding storyline about Bill & the gang in the real world, so I'm reserving judgment for now.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Sometimes being in the SW Fandom is about diving into the annals of the internet researching the most obscure tidbit of batshit insane Canon or EU Lore imaginable to man (which is honestly my favorite thing to do because people have done some pretty insanely funny things with this universe and characters). But for the majority of the time, being in the SW Fandom is also watching people repeat a cycle of asinine arguments that make an absolute ass out of them for the worst possible reasons.

So here's a quick reminder of past arguments to be mindful of and always consider, when you see something in the tags that makes you wrinkle your nose at:

Everyone has something they like or dislike about the overall universe and story. Be it the Original Trilogy, the Prequels, the Sequels, the Animated series, the Live-Action series, EU stuff, Novels, etc. No one is above or below anyone else just because they don't love the entirety of the universe and/or the direction the current writers are taking it.

Canon can be a good baseline for your own creative purposes. You don't have to love it (because yes the whole thing can be inconsistent as hell), but don't get to a point in your fanfic/AU world-building where you vehemently deny that canon is an actual thing. This goes hand in hand with your personal depiction of characters vs someone else's depictions. Reading comprehension and the creative process depend on perspective and how you process the information you're given, so it's only normal that no two person's idea of a character is the same. But saying that your headcanons are how the characters should be written by everyone is not gonna do you any favors in the long run, because it's not up to you to decide on that. Don't forget Blorbo's actual roots and what it took to get him where you took him, but don't try to force someone else to accept the journey you orchestrated for them!

No one's OC should be put on a pedestal. It's good that people feel comfortable enough to play Barbies with each other's OCs in roleplay sessions, or even add a cameo in a fic to a character of a friend and/or artist/writer they admire from a distance. Hell, the fact many people are passionate about someone else's little fella/s is great! But the moment someone's OC becomes an object of obsession within a Fandom community, things can go a little wrong... It stops being fun to be in that kind of space that goes from welcoming OC discussions to suddenly shunning new people in favor of someone's Ultimate Blorbo who now has a Cult Following and should be written into every fanfic ever.

No one is evil for lacking knowledge or self-awareness of certain grievances that people rightfully have with the source material. The SW Fandom has always had a long-standing issue with racial stereotyping, whitewashing, cultural appropriation, sexism and many other equally serious topics that have been more eloquently explained in posts made by people much more eloquent and qualified than I am or ever will be. However, one must recognize that not everyone who joins the Fandom is immediately aware of these things. Especially the younger generations that have either not been exposed to these concepts due to one reason or another (upbringing, biased educational curriculum, etc), or because they were simply never in a position where they could delve into these topics with someone knowledgeable on them (some experiences simply aren't universal, especially if you come from a more privileged family). For the most part, SW is just a silly sci-fi universe that is nothing more than a simple means of escapism or dumb fun. Not everyone is going to study it under a microscope or go through it with a fine comb. That said, another important thing to remember is to listen to those who know their stuff and that have had personal grievances with any of the topics above. You can be excused for lack of knowledge, but you cannot be excused for purposefully ignoring the voices of those who provide you said knowledge for free if you go searching.

This is kinda returning to the second and previous topics, but I really need to put emphasis on this: If you're going to cling to certain design choices with an iron first and incorporate them into your personal ideas/headcanons, please always consider how it SOUNDS when you say characters that are written with basis on real POC people/communities are much better/superior if they have phenotypical trait expressions that are not present (or considered rare/atypical) in their real world basis. This is a CONSISTENT problem I have seen crop up specifically within the Clone Wars and Bad Batch sides of the fandom, especially when talking about Rex (who is a blond) and Clone Force 99 (who do not look like standard clones). Always remember: The problem isn't that Rex can't be naturally blond (genetics can be unpredictable and we really don't have an extensive look into the cloning process), the problem is the way some people think he'd be inferior in some way if he were a bottle blond who chose to distinguish himself (almost as if having darker skin, darker hair and darker eyes is somehow worse than having lighter skin, lighter hair or lighter eyes.. How curious isn't it?). Needless to say, I don't think I need to elaborate further on why CF99's "desirable mutations" giving them considerably lighter skin and less ethnic features, while also making their most POC presenting member look and sometimes act like a moronic brute (something which this Fandom pushes further by infantilizing him relentlessly), is a bit of a red flag...

Star Wars has always been political. It is literally in the name and in the meat of the writing. The entire thing is basically a political and social critique presented in a sci-fi/fantasy wrapper, with colorful plasma swords, cool spaceships, and kickass explosion bow on top. You cannot separate the political conversation from the universe's overall lore, and trying to do so makes you look foolish. Disney may have taken creative liberties with some of its shows, but at the end of the day they can't ever eliminate what the Original Trilogies and even the Prequels tried to tell us about. With that said, complaining about how some of the new shows are "too Woke" or PC is the equivalent of saying you read Romeo and Juliet and that the story is relationship goals. You might need to revisit the original material.

For the love of god if you don't like something, don't go after someone who does, it's not worth it. Sometimes the best thing you can do is either filter something you actively dislike/that makes you feel uncomfortable, or simply unfollow/block whoever is repeatedly bringing it onto your doorstep. And you also have no real obligation to explain your decision to block someone, especially if they hound you for questions. Rule of thumb: Don't like something? That's perfectly fine and valid. Take the steps to make yourself comfortable then, but don't go out of your way to be a royal asshole to someone else just because they themselves enjoy it. This encompasses things from anti-jedi demonization, actual ethnic cleansing in canon, siding with personifications of alt-right extremists, proshipping apologism, etc. The block button was added to this hellsite for a reason. Use it.

Sometimes you can't change someone else's opinions on a matter and that is perfectly fine. Just don't start a feud. People come and go, and their opinions vary (we're all individuals with out own perspectives and unique experiences after all), but getting up in arms every time someone either refuses to yield in a long-winded argument, or continuously tries to shove their unsolicited opinions/advice onto you, or even makes incredibly uncomfortable/forward/gross comments that they definitely shouldn't be saying to a complete stranger on the internet, is kind of pointless and will drain you of energy faster than you can say Death Star. You're not the lesser person for walking away from a lost cause. It's ultimately not your job or responsibility to fix/better someone else. Especially if they don't want to change.

[rottenpumpkin13]

AGSZ goes to Yharnam (Bloodborne world)

Written by @heraldofcrow , Bloodborne expert:

• Angeal dies first (lol) and ends up in the Hunter's Dream. Charmed by the Doll, fascinated by Gehrman's sagely regret, and delighted by the mixture of cool weaponry and garden atmosphere, he ends up staying there and ignoring the hunt. After a few hours, he has bonded with Gehrman over the mutual agony of training unhinged students and inevitably being separated from them via some form of suicide.

• Genesis somehow ends up in Cainhurst and first gets lost in the library because he's distracted by all the old books. But every time he tries to start reading, several of the ghost women screech at him, giving him multiple heart-attacks. He can't believe he will never stop being tormented by people with long silver hair and sharp objects wherever he goes.

• Then, after accidentally killing the frozen popsicle man (he melted him with a single firaga in a panic because he got jump-scared), he meets Queen Annalise (the vampire queen) and thinks she's Minerva, so he pledges loyalty but he doesn't get why she keeps telling him to fetch tadpole-shaped blood for her to consume. (Do NOT question why they look like tadpoles).

• Sephiroth ends up in the nightmare realms because he kept following the Amygdala to "free them from the lives of misery Hojo definitely created them for," and then he gets zapped into The Layers, where he somehow comes across Micolash (Hojo 2.0).

Micolash: Ah Kos...or some say Kosm....

Sephiroth: I have gained 99+ insight and the voices have spoken to me. You are my father. You have been my entire life and you never once admitted it to me. How could you, Hojo?

Micolash: Wait what

Sephiroth: Was I nothing but your greatest experiment to you? Was I like those abominations you created for the sole purpose of communing with Jenova?

Micolash: What the fuck

Sephiroth: And even worse! You were British this whole time! I can't believe this. My life is an overarching, singular lie crafted by your scientific hubris. I have no choice but to kill you now, Hojo.

Micolash: WHO IS HOE JOE?

*Sephiroth throws Masamune at him and misses because Micolash jumps through a mirror screaming*

Written by yours truly, lacking all knowledge of Bloodborne lore, relying solely upon the miracle of Google images:

Zack: Cool! Mutated dog beast!

The hunter: That is in fact the scourge.

Zack: It's the s'cute! :)

[thebramblewood]

If the Vatores stand united on one thing, it's their absolute disdain for Old Man Vlad.

Previous / Next

(Psst... there's some bonus lore under the cut for those who can't get enough.)

More on the Vatores' complicated relationship with Vlad to come, but for now I will say that settling in Forgotten Hollow despite hating his guts was absolutely a (petty) power move on Lilith's part. Vlad doesn't have any qualms about killing humans. In fact, he has little interest in the affairs of humans at all. But what he doesn't care for is Lilith's ostentatious style. He's very old-fashioned and set in his ways regarding how a "proper" vampire should behave and doesn't like when they draw too much attention to themselves because he believes it puts vampires as a collective at risk. He once hoped to mold Lilith in his image, but that obviously didn't work out, and he now finds her indiscreet, disrespectful, and lacking manners, and he finds Caleb a wimpy annoyance who should have never been turned.

I also wanted to explain a bit more about vampire telepathy in my universe. There's a psychic link between sire vampires and their children that allows them to communicate internally (as we've seen Lilith and Vlad do before - and we'll explore the circumstances of her turning in the future!) and also to probe each other's thoughts/memories (which, for example, is what allows Caleb to track down Helena). Physical distance weakens the link, and stronger vampires can establish barricades against intrusion (like Caleb is trying to do now with Lilith). It's also not a constant thing. It's an active choice to enter another's mind. Caleb is considerate (yes, even with his sister), so he does it sparingly and accesses only the information he needs. Lilith and Vlad couldn't care less, so they'll shamelessly dig for secrets. Most vampires are also able to wield telepathic powers over humans, although obviously this takes skill and practice. Humans' minds are more vulnerable and as such more susceptible to hypnosis. This allows vampires to control humans for feeding and other purposes and also to erase or alter their memories. I don't think any of this greatly deviates from what you would expect, and I've tried to imply most of it through the storytelling, but I just wanted to explain it all in one place.

Caleb: [stiffly] Straud.

Vlad: It seems you’re out and about these days more than your sister is. How is Lilith anyway? I can’t imagine she's finally come to her senses and decided to practice moderation for once in her life.

Caleb: Why don’t you rummage around in her thoughts and find out for yourself? She picked up that habit from you, after all.

Vlad: She’s learned how to keep up her guard against me. [pointed look] As I’m sure you’ve learned your own tricks against her. No matter. There are things in that girl's head beyond description. I’d rather not get mired in her depravity. Surely you know what I mean.

Caleb: I never acquired a taste for extracting people’s secrets without their permission.

Vlad: Of course not. You’re a peculiar creature, aren’t you? I warned her you wouldn’t be suited to this life. Well, in this case, you’re likely better off. Maintaining blissful ignorance is undoubtedly more pleasant than holding the eternal knowledge of all she’s done.

Caleb: [impatiently] Is there something else you wanted to discuss?

Vlad: That man - what is it, Benali? - and his charming little book… It’s not going to cause trouble, is it?

Caleb: I haven’t seen any angry hordes yet. This is your town, old man. There’ll be no trouble so long as you don’t let it in.

[bitedownme]

I had an idea for the lore behind the HK route and I wanted to share it. Imagine this: MC somehow ends up in Alagadda, and depending on the circumstances, there are a couple of ways they could have gotten there.

If MC isn’t the Scarlet King’s "pet," maybe they stumbled into Alagadda via a dream or through a magical object. But if they are the SK’s pet and live in his realm, they could have found their way to Alagadda through a portal. It feels fitting that there might be a portal connecting the two realms. Now, picture this: MC, bored out of their mind, decides to have a little fun and experiment with the portal, only to accidentally teleport themselves into Alagadda.

The problem? Once they’re in, the portal disappears, leaving them stranded in this bizarre and dangerous realm. MC now has to find the portal again and get back FAST because if the Scarlet King ever finds out they’re gone, they’re in serious trouble.

As MC searches for a way back, they eventually find themselves in Alagadda’s throne room,where the HK resides. HK recognizes them immediately, either from sensing their aura (since it’s likely tied to SK’s realm) or because they’ve seen or heard of them before. Knowing that MC is someone important to the SK, HK decides to keep their presence a secret, not informing the other Lords or even the Ambassador to prevent any unnecessary chaos or confusion.

But here’s the twist: MC doesn’t know HK and isn’t afraid of them (probably because they’ve already met countless gods and eldritch beings). Instead, they start bombarding HK with curious questions: What is this place? Why is it so lacking in colors? Why does everyone wear a mask? This catches HK completely off guard. For the first time in centuries, HK feels something close to normalcy,an interaction that doesn’t treat them as a fearsome god bound to their throne, ignored or feared by everyone.

Noticing HK’s loneliness and sadness, MC makes a promise before returning to the Scarlet King’s realm: They’ll come back to visit. And that’s how their secret meetings begin.MC sneaking back to Alagadda, not just to escape their own monotonous life but to bring a little light to HK’s dark and isolated world.

Honestly, took every single word from my tongue directly. Put my thoughts into words better than I would've ever done. Probably because I am more of a visual storyteller, it seems.

I imagined it exactly the same. Although not really with SK. If there are no connection to him, then just curiosity will drive them to the same place, they never knew HK and his supposed reputation after all. He is unsurprisingly confused by both MC's appearance (which he won't disclose anyway, as there's probably no need, it'll all end naturally) and their lack of knowledge of this wicked place.

And still "Are you... Lost?" "A little bit, I think? What is this place?" is the first line that starts their conversation in my head, lmao.

[presidenthades]

could you expand on Rheanyra’s relationship with the Targbros in the AU where her and Deamon are their parents? like how do she feel about Argon being her heir? Aemond’s lack of dragon? how it is a little unsettling how angry and lowkey homicidal little Dearon can get? or like how she feels about Helena’s dreams?

I finally have time to catch up on my Ask inbox!

Aegon: Rhaenyra sees in him her younger self, who was also rebellious and preferred a life of freedom over duty. She can be exasperated by his behavior, but as someone who underwent growth and maturity over the years, she knows Aegon has the same potential if he’s steered the right way. She also remembers how she felt ignored by Viserys before she became heir, so she would want to make sure Aegon always gets that guidance from her.

Aemond: In this AU, I guess Vermax would switch from being Syrax’s egg to Meleys’s egg, hence Jace gets Vermax in her cradle instead of Aemond. Aegon and Helaena don’t have cradle eggs either, so it isn’t until Daeron that Rhaenyra’s kids get any egg. Rhaenyra might be a bit worried about the lack of eggs, but she sees how Aegon and Helaena eventually claim dragons anyway, so Aemond has the same potential. It helps that Daemon also claimed a dragon later in life, so Aemond probably has less of a complex about being dragonless if he has his father’s example to look up to.

Helaena: Rhaenyra earnestly believes in the Song of Ice and Fire, so she wouldn’t dismiss Helaena’s visions out of hand. But first she needs to realize that Helaena’s visions are visions, not random mumbling. It’s hard for characters in-universe to realize Helaena’s prophecies have significance, because they aren’t getting her dialogue highlighted on-camera like us the audience. I think Rhaenyra at least suspects that Helaena’s prophecies are more than just rambling, but she doesn’t have enough lore knowledge to piece it together completely.

Daeron: He is the baby, and his latent homicidal tendencies remind Rhaenyra of his father. 😂 She’s most prone to coddling him of all the children, but not at the expense of his siblings. Honestly, the older kids probably don’t want Rhaenyra fussing over them all the time anyway. Aegon and Aemond definitely feel like they’re too old and cool for coddling.

[yuki-asahina]

Rules of my little blog~

Please be kind and respectful there is no need for hate

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The Fandoms i will write for

This blog is for otome games only for the moment

Ikemen prince (mainly)

Ikemen villans

Cindrella phenomenon

Bustafellows

7scarlet

Obey me!

Tears of themis

Note: Much as im very familiar with the lore and characters stories in general of the ikemen games I've mentioned above i haven't been able to read them all of the characters routes due the lack of time but im still confident in my knowledge of both ikemen games

I have completely finished the other games above

Feel free to request

Headcanons of a character in any topic that doesn't violate the rules

Character x the mc

Character x yn

And anything else that doesn't violate my rules ig

Thank you for coming to my vlog i hope you enjoy your time here<3

[utilitycaster]

If you've read that recent article on polygon about Candela Obscura - "Critical Role’s Candela Obscura fails to differentiate itself enough from its inspiration" (6 November 2023) - I don't know much about the other systems and have trouble being objective about things I love, I was wondering what your opinion is

Hi anon!

I have! I will also admit I don't know Blades in the Dark terribly well, or rather, I have roughly the same BitD knowledge as I have Candela knowledge: I've watched (or in this case, listened) to a actual play show run in it (TAZ Steeplechase) and I've looked at the SRD. The Candela full rulebook doesn't come out for a week, so I really can't judge it for myself. So this isn't going to be objective either, but hopefully it will point out what I think the flaws in this article are regardless of the merits or failures of Candela Obscura as a game.

I think my overall issue is what I said about Polygon on the whole earlier this week: it really feels like their metric is first, is this innovative; and second, "does this reinforce my pre-existing political values in a way that allows me to feel warm and fuzzy and virtuous because I played a fun game/watched a fun show and lets me continue to ignore that I haven't actually engaged in any of that tiresome and inconvenient meaningful anticapitalist action."

I also, for what it's worth, think that this mentality very explicitly conflicts with what Critical Role is doing. I think a lot of people interpret the whole "a group of friends playing games" image as encouraging parasocial behavior (which, frankly, is weird in that while the CR fandom has had a parasociality problem, it's no different than any large fandom - Laurisha shippers or the Twinnies & Husbands crowd are literally just the Actual Play Fandom equivalent of Gaylors and Larries; also like, the pitch for WBN earlier this year was basically "hey, we're four friends playing games" and no one has blinked at that, nor should they have) when I think it's intended to mean "we are friends having fun making and playing the games we want to play; it's great if you'll join us but we're doing what we want." Given that Polygon has shown something of a bias towards those shows that give them early access, I do think it might be that they're just cranky they're not being given any special treatment or catering by an actual play show they've been shitting on for years, and this is simply a vicious cycle.

All that aside, more importantly in this case, I think the article shows a notable lack of Ebert's law: "A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it." Samantha Nelson, the author of this article, appears to be both incapable of evaluating Candela Obscura outside the context of Blades in the Dark - which is frankly, in my again admittedly limited opinion, vastly overstated as an influence (the Forged in the Dark engine is certainly a strong influence, but that's purely mechanical and also it's still only an influence - more on this later) - and also seems to want Candela Obscura's rulebook to flesh out Newfaire and Oldfaire in the same way that Blades in the Dark fleshes out Duskvol.

The thing is, those wide-open spaces and the vagueness of OldFaire? That's deliberate. The Looper interview with Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall as well as the Tabletop News interview both make this clear. The aim of Candela Obscura is to be very easy to pick up, to not have a bunch of intimidating lore that players and GMs need to know before they jump in (and I say this as someone who, when invited to her first D&D game, was the person who read the PHB and sent the other new players a brief summary of each race and class; I love intimidating lore), and to accommodate a wide range of styles. They considered making Oldfaire much more detailed in the book and then decided not to so that GMs felt more free with the world. Again, my knowledge of Blades in the Dark is heavily skewed by an actual play of it that's explicitly not in Duskvol (which I think is a very interesting commentary, namely, maybe Nelson just really fucking loves Duskvol but no one else gives a shit). I genuinely think they are, as more and more Polygon TTRPG/Actual Play coverage seems to be, barely paying attention to what's in front of them and just deciding based on who put it out.

As I said in my earlier posts I do think Candela distinguishes itself from BitD in a number of ways mechanically. The gilded dice mechanic is obviously one of the biggest ones. The lack of flashbacks - a pretty core element of Blades in the Dark - is another. The fact that scars change your stats rather than dealing a permanent penalty (as Trauma does in BitD) is seen as a flaw, as is the lack of lair-building, but I think these things work in tandem. Blades in the Dark is very much about growing territory and becoming a more and more powerful crime syndicate; while four traumas will take you out of the game the same way scars will, there's a lot more opportunities to heal and I believe you have much more room to take stress. Candela Obscura, as another interview I read states (ScreenRant), is a gothic/eldritch horror game about normal people in unfathomable circumstances. You don't really get much better! You adapt, but progress against these monsters is always a long shot. Candela as an organization has been operating for millennia, and the war seems to be one of attrition, and the mechanics, from what I know from the show, reflect that.

The bit about the criminal crew and the lair is honestly kind of funny to me, because in the TAZ Steeplechase wrap-up I listened to last week the McElroys noted that the lair element of BitD was actually really hard to incorporate and they largely ignored it. Obviously that's not true for everyone, but famously D&D in the earlier editions guided high level play towards running one's own dungeon, and there is a reason that hasn't survived to the newer editions, namely, that shift from being a crew out there doing wild and exciting heists and adventures to painting the walls of your clubhouse and hiring guards is not actually fun for a lot of people.

So in summary: I really don't think the author of this article paid a single scrap of attention to the motivations behind design choices, is mad the horror game doesn't give them a kiss on the cheek and tell them they're So Good at Leftism (the comment about not understanding that the restrictions on scarlet aren't tied to anti-immigrant sentiment is particularly egregious), and generally is like "why is this game that shares some similarities but ultimately rather different goals than Blades in the Dark not literally Blades in the Dark but with slightly more aggressive ghosts."