#it just doesn't line up with our current lore

[neversetyoufree]

I have a theory regarding Jeanne's family: What if the reason why her family was killed by the Vampire Council was because they were the ones who killed Vanitas' family?

Interesting thought, but I don't think that works with what we already know.

(from mémoires 32 and 39)

Jeanne's parents were killed because they betrayed the vampires' war cause. Ruthven arranged a peace talk between humans and vampires, and Jeanne's parents, Ruthven's students, betrayed him in order to work with humans and kill the vampires assembled at that peace talk.

Plus, even if that reason turns out to be not entirely true, Jeanne's parents were killed before the Beast of Gévaudan incident, which means they were killed well over 100 years before the in-universe present day. As much as his backstory is mysterious, we have no reason to think Vanitas was alive back then. Jeanne's parents couldn't have killed Vanitas's dad because Vanitas's dad probably wasn't even born yet when they died.

[watcherintheweyr]

I can't believe I'm writing this

To open up with: IT IS ABSOLUTELY OKAY AND VALID TO BE DISAPPOINTED BY THE LACK OF WORLDSTATE CUSTOMIZATION IN DRAGON AGE THE VEILGUARD. I have my own disappointments about it!

Ok? We have that covered? We good?

Cool, moving on.

To people who are genuinely, hatefully angry, saying we will now be 'forced into Bioware's worldstate' (when this year alone they've stated there is no 'canon' worldstate more than once), or saying that none of our prior dragon age choices matter, I need you to take a step back and walk with me for a second, okay?

For starters: John Epler stated that one of the reasons they narrowed the choices is because they DO NOT want to invalidate the worldstates of their longtime players. However they also don't want to alienate newer players who don't have the history and lore of the past choices. It's a narrow line to walk.

Secondly, I want you to really look at the choices made by your Hero, Champion, and Inquisitor. Which of those choices genuinely affected NORTHERN Thedas, not Southern Thedas, to the point it would linger for years afterwards? Which of those choices weren't things that specifically affected or altered the sociopolitical Southern Thedas climate and landscape in lasting ways?

The Well? Kieran?

That only leaves that if your Inquisitor drank, they now have knowledge from ages long past... that Rook doesn't need. Rook has a direct line into Solas' history and a possible Veiljumper background, unlocking those very secrets on their own.

It's entirely likely and probable that the Well's fears and threats were a red herring. Think about it. We as a gandom have spent TEN YEARS worrying about the Well, about Solas, about Mythal.

Come June 2024, we're slapped in the face by the big bads of Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan.

Morrigan likely isn't going to be close and friendly with Rook- so there's likely not much reason for her to tell us about her child or husband if she has them.

The rulers of Southern Thedas aren't going to affect us. We aren't tackling the current world ending crisis from the position of a leader of armies like the Warden and Inquisitor, but as leader of a small task force. The Southern Divine doesn't much affect us either- nor do Southern mage politics or templar politics.

Because Rook is an entirely new perspective.

Because Rook is in an ENTIRELY different sociopolitical climate/landscape.

I DO think there should've been ways implemented to specify your Inquisitor's bonds and personality. I'm HOPING maybe there still are that we haven't seen. But otherwise?

My Warden is free. I can say she's cured her Calling and is wandering the world with Zevran.

My Champion can retire into total obscurity with his husband or be quietly helping said husband destroy the slave trade. Either way.

Your history and choices in Thedas still matter. Your heroes still matter.

They just aren't Rook's focus.

Take a breath please. And stop sending death threats to the devs bc what the **fuck.**

EDIT:

further context from the devs on Bluesky

[jevilowo]

MY OPINIONS ON VARIOUS TF2 SHIPS

For funsies

SCIENCE PARTY:

fun ship, but they're GodComplex4GodComplex and I fear that would only end in disaster

TOASTED SANDVICH:

if there is one heavypyro fan on this stupid baka planet it is me. shout out to menacing quiet individuals who like violence but have a soft side fr.

BLOODY SUIT:

literally The Original toxic yaoi rivals to lovers red blue combo ship. speeding bullet and napoleon complex fans WISH they had our shared update and corresponding voice lines

BATTING HELMET: (scout n solly)

i just think it's really funny trust me on this one guys. have you seen them in the fourth comic it's a constant "yes, and" bit between the two of them. soldier's love language is choking people out.

HIT AND A MISS: (scout n pauling)

like most ms pauling ships, i'm only into it if scout's a cool lesbian. which he is not most of the time.

RED OKTOBERFEST:

AAAAAAAAAAAAA literally the ship of all time save me heavymedic save me. if they don't smooch in the next comic i will become jay pinkerton's personal sleep paralysis demon.

SPEEDING BULLET:

my feelings on it are Complicated. twas my first love (otp) in this fandom, but the overabundance of twinky uwu scout and daddy dom snoipah has built up some resentment on my part. call me back when people stop making up imaginary life problems for sniper to comfort scout over.

NAPOLEON COMPLEX: (Spy n Engie)

literally just rarjack if they were boys and not horses to me and i'm not even an mlp fan. it's alright, just doesn't really stick out to me.

SPYMA:

LITERALLY THE POWERCOUPLE EVER TRULY A LOVE STORY FOR THE AGES or at least the version that exists in my head is. i have so much made up spyma lore it's crazyyy. bonus points if they're polying up they cule with sniper it's quickly becoming my favourite genre of fanart (i have seen at maximum three)

SUPPORT SANDWICH: (spy n sniper n medic)

in my opinion, it is healthy for everyone to have at least one ship they just like bc they think it's hot. for me, that is support sandwich. not much else to say on that the fics are all banging go look them up.

SNIDOS: (sniper n GLaDOS)

hell yeah.

ADMINPAULING:

i used to like it a lot, but timelining implies ms pauling's been working for helen since her mid teens at the latest so i no longer like it. 4chan leaks my beloathed pleaseee don't make them kiss i think it would kill me in a bad way

URINE SAMPLE: (medic n sniper)

there's a lot of werewolf and vampire stuff for these two on ao3 which is pretty fun. and i'm way more likely to find sniper angst under the medicsniper tag than sb and bs which is always a plus.

FRENCH TOAST: (spyro)

have you seen that one animation where pyro gives birth to spy's child and gordon freeman is there at one point. yeahhhh. the ship's pretty cute tho spy would be sooo soft for pyro they'd light his cigarettes for him.

BOOTS AND BOMBS:

THE FORBIDDEN RED/BLU ROMANCE GOES CRAZY I ADORE IT. same team bnb is pretty banging too. bonus points if they're polying up they cule with zhanna.

SPYPAULING:

HEAR ME OUT ON THIS ONE. imagine. spy x pauling. yuri. that will be all.

SWORDVAN:

SWORDVAN MY LOVE!!! idk what it is about demo and sniper together but HELL YEAH TOP 5 SHIPS FR FR. shout out to the guy still writing monsterous intent, they're like single handedly carrying the swordvandom.

TEXAS TOAST:

I used to think "this is cute" but then my friend got really really into it and that hyped me up into "THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SHIPS OF ALL TIME" territory. bonus points if they're yuri! shout out to Technicolor California, my current favourite fanfic of all time (it overtook running blind in the interal rankings). oh yeah insert mandatory "no hate to engie and pyro father son dynamic preferers" message here lol.

Ok that's enough I will cover more at some point maybe.

[genericpuff]

STAY OFF MY TERRITORY - Time Travel in Lore Olympus (feat. Springlock, our resident time traveller)

AH YES. TIME TRAVEL. BUILDING COFFEE TABLES FROM IKEA. BOTH A MESS, BOTH SOMETHING YOU SHOULD NEVER ATTEMPT EVEN AS A GAG.

THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS IN THIS ANALYTICAL DISSECTION OF LORE OLYMPUS' TIME TRAVEL !!!

Let's establish the "time travel" in LO first of all - it's briefly introduced by Hecate, who says that Hades isn't in a 'where' but a 'when' , hahahaha i so love time travel jokes /s THIS ISN'T A LAUGHING MATTER-

We had already covered this in the criticisms that Kronos' 'dream comas' would have been better allocated to his time travel abilities, and it seems now Rachel is trying to make that a reality at the last possible minute. I'm going to completely tear apart that reality to present to you why it doesn't work in LO.

Aw, Kronos' time abilities are finite? Get on my level, sir.

The caveat is the existential toll that time travel takes on the jumper, and the fact that in most cases, it's impossible to perform due to paradoxes. And Lore Olympus' time travel presents a lot of paradoxes. No wonder Kronos went crazy, I'm going crazy just thinking about everything that's wrong with this.

So Hades is trapped 'somewhere' in time. This isn't something I haven't seen before, but the issue it presents is getting someone back to their present time, as it presents the first paradox -

PARADOX #1 - There are no accidents. If someone is to jump into a timeline outside of their own, even if by 'accident', that would still have to be predestined by the timeline itself. This is in line with the grandfather paradox, which I will let the almighty Google define for us all to keep things brief:

You cannot travel back in time 'by accident'. If you were to travel back in time, it would have been written into the script of reality already, so any effects caused by your jumping would be purposeful, even if they seem like 'accidents' to you - such as becoming your own grandfather, Philip J Fry.

Moving on, in the most recent FastPass episode, Melinoe reveals that she was taken from her timeline by Kronos.

PARADOX #2 - Which version of Kronos took her? Was it the present version travelling into the future to take her from her timeline into his present? Or was it some future version of Kronos who has escaped yet again at some point in the future and then travelled back into the past to interfere with the events of the current present, possibly in an attempt to rewrite the script? If it's the latter, this means that Hera and Persephone can't feasibly stop Kronos indefinitely, as to stop Kronos would mean that he wouldn't exist in the future to take Melinoe from her future timeline and thus this present timeline of events would cease to exist. If we want to get even more granular with it, 'present' Kronos is still 'past' Kronos as it's the Kronos from ten years ago who got his hands on a deity to help him mess with people's dreams, and that deity has been revealed to be Melinoe, who would have had to be ripped from some point in their future timeline. This falls in line with a temporal paradox, or as most people know it, the 'kill baby Hitler' paradox, which designates that one cannot go back in time to kill baby Hitler, as killing baby Hitler would remove all the subsequent events that would lead up to you deciding to build a time machine and go back in time to kill baby Hitler.

Melinoe claims she's only been here a few days. That would be all well and good, as time is funny like that - I've done my fair share of jumps into the distant past only to return a few minutes later - but what doesn't line up is the present timeline of events that would only work unless she's actually been trapped for longer than a few days.

PARADOX #3 - So it's only been a few days, but Hades and Persephone have known about this child trapped in Tartarus for weeks, and we know Kronos has had her since the dream diving arc back near the end of S2. So unless Kronos is simply jumping to different points in time to cause shenanigans - which leads to even MORE paradoxes as you feasibly cannot travel to your own past to change it due to it creating a different future - then it can't have only been a 'few days' for Melinoe, it would have been at least a few weeks, giving some wiggle room to the past events of her appearing before Hades in his dreams due to her being the goddess of nightmares. Kronos escaping Tartarus after using Melinoe to put people to sleep and possess them was not something that happened in a pocket dimension, it was very real and very present.

Hades commits an even bigger sin, however, and the biggest issue with this 'time travel' plotline:

PARADOX #4 - I truly hope 'home' means 'home point in her timeline' and not their literal home. Hades and Persephone cannot take Melinoe, for two reasons: they haven't had their daughter yet, and the future timeline versions of Hades and Persephone need their daughter back. If Hades and Persephone were to adopt this version of Melinoe in their present timeline, it would create a clone paradox, as they would have a duplicate Melinoe from the future, OR it would create the grandfather paradox if they opted not to try for a child knowing they already have Melinoe which would erase the whole sequence of events that led to future Melinoe's birth in the first place.

Ultimately Lore Olympus' time travel suffers from the same issue many time travel stories suffer from - not having consistent rules. It is choosing now , near the finale of the series, to introduce time travel, rather than establishing it back in Season 1 when Kronos was first hinted at. It's also still not clear in what Hades' role is in this, as him being taken to a 'when' could still be read as a dream sequence rather than actual time travel. After all, Kronos supposedly "exhausted" his time travelling powers centuries ago - surely as a way for Rachel to have her cake and cover for the fact that she's had Kronos in the series since S1 and never actually had him do what he's known for - but now she's trying to eat it too by just giving him his time travel powers again for no reason besides rewriting the dream diving finale from S2 but with ambiguous time travel instead.

It's all a huge mess and the best thing I can do for myself is simply not let it keep me up at night. I have enough time travelling problems to worry about as it is. I will be sticking to the Austin Powers method -

(I am not enjoying myself.)

[david-talks-sw]

"Bring in the flamethrowers!"

The above moment from The Clone Wars gets brought up a lot to illustrate Ki-Adi Mundi or the Jedi's moral decadence, a fall from grace caused by the war.

Figured I'd point out a couple of things in support of Ki-Adi!

1) Simple answer: the situation called for it.

The Geonosians attacking Ki-Adi were:

enemy fighters

with the element of surprise

who could fly and were thus harder to hit with the clones' blasters, hence why more wide-ranging weapons like flamethrowers were called for, as the clones were getting picked off one-by-one.

Time was of the essence, men were dying, Ki-Adi made a choice.

Wanna know what Jedi choose when a Geonosian isn't actively trying to kill them? They save its life (and get praised for it by their peers).

2) In-universe, the Geonosians are assholes.

From Attack of the Clones - The Illustrated Companion, 2002:

"Geonosians are a physically intimidating race conditioned to live and work in caste-segregated hives. The vast majority of Geonosians are subservient to the ruling caste, and throughout Geonosian society, there is evidence of a biologically engineered class system. Some Geonosians have wings, while drones do not. [...] The blind obedience of menial Geonosians makes them an easily exploitable workforce for the upper classes, who have built a highly profitable business manufacturing Battle Droids, Super Battle Droids, and Droideka Droids for the Trade Federation and its allies."

"For unusually intelligent Geonosians unlucky enough to be born into the lower castes, participating in the games provides the only chance they will ever get to escape the misery of their downtrodden lifestyles and the rigid social expectations of the upper classes. Triumph in the arena is often a hollow victory, however; while lower- and middle-class Geonosians may win the right to talk to their superiors, they can never earn their respect."

Okay, so the winged upper class are obviously elitist bastards, but how is that even remotely relevant--

-- oh. But hey, two of them don't have wings! Those are members of the drone caste, and they're all begotten underdogs, so--

"If there is one thing that unites Geonosians of all classes, it is their xenophobia. A traditionally isolationist species, they fear espionage attempts by rivals eager to learn the secrets behind their latest droids."

-- oh. Huh.

Bottom line: yes, they're sentient... but they're xenophobic, have an elitist caste system, and earn their living by forging weapons that melt your insides or blow up planets.

Now sure, this notion has been explored and deconstructed in Star Wars: Rebels...

... and I'm not entirely sure if the quoted info still holds true in current Disney canon (the lore is from 2002, after all), but if you ask me?

On a normal day, ol' Klik-Klak would be actively trying to murder the entirety of the Ghost crew for daring to even step their dirty non-Geonosian feet on his pure red planet.

3) Out-of-universe, the Geonosians are just "bug aliens". Nothing more.

The production team of Attack of the Clones referred to them as the "termite people". The script describes them as "winged creatures" who are heard "chuckling" once Anakin and Padmé are sentenced to a gruesome death. At some point, the storyboard artists considered introducing the Geonosian workers like you would a horror monster.

Hell, the whole Lucas decided to base them on termites is because his house was besieged by them.

They're not people, which is why they're not designed to look like people. They're purposefully dehumanized so that when one of them gets killed by our heroes, it's ethically "okay" and the audience doesn't need to stop and think "oh my God, that's murder!" or "hey! that's racist" whenever a clone calls one of them a "bug."

A similar logic is applied to the stormtroopers, who have face-covering helmets that dehumanizes them.

Functionally, a stormtrooper is a fascist goon, nothing more.

Same goes for the Geonosian. It's a bug alien, that's about it.

4) The flamethrowers were probably just added because they're cool.

Dave Filoni described how the decision to add flamethrowers came up, and it doesn't sound like George had deeper storytelling motives:

"You know, we're going through the tunnel with the Geonosians and George is like: “Yeah, well, here, we'll have the-- the tunnel and the flamethrowers. Yeah. How about that? ‘Bring in the flamethrowers!’ have Ki-Adi Mundi say ‘bring in the flame throwers!’” And it's like “flame—- What? Flamethrowers?!”" - Dave Filoni, “Return to Geonosis” Featurette, 2010

It sounds like he came up with it on the spot.

The flamethrowers aren't indicative of "the moral degradation of Ki-Adi and the Jedi Order." They're likely just in there 'cause they're cool (and if you've played Team Fortress 2, you know that's true)!

At the end of the day, when it comes to the Geonosians, I think that there's a certain irony to how their story ends.

They gleefully created the battle droids that tore the galaxy asunder and the Death Star, a weapon that enables the Empire to commit genocide... but fell victim to genocide themselves, at the hands of an even bigger monster.

They reaped what they sowed. They're not meant to be mourned.

And it's nice to see this aspect of the narrative doesn't get ignored as much as I would've expected.

I came across this video that basically rips into Ki-Adi for using flamethrowers, and I was ready to roll my eyes when I scrolled down to the comments section...

... but then, a happy surprise!

Most of the comments disagree with the video's stance! For once, logic prevails over anti-Jedi bias.

So yeah, that put a smile on my face.

[reel-fear]

Bendy And The Power Of Representation

So those graphic novel pages huh? Seems I posted my cover post at just the right time because literally minutes after I was informed the preview pages came out and uh. This is Buddy and Norman!

Oh dear... I'll put the full graphic novel pages down below but I have so much to say on how awful this is it'll need several posts. However, right now I want to mostly talk about representation and briefly touch on why it's so damn important + inform others about the current shit Mike and Meatly are saying about the books n such.

Now note: All the things I'm saying below are based on my personal experience, maybe some people don't care about seeing the representation of their identities in the media they consume. Maybe some will think I'm merely being dramatic and I might be but I'm not lying when I say I personally believe being represented and seen in the media you consume can be one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.

Look I'm not here to argue with people who think that Norman in particular was never meant to be a person of color, I would argue he is very coded but the points I'm making here are not about how Norman particularly had to be black. The point I want to make is the lack of diversity in our cast in general and how Norman's design has heavily dwindled it considering most people [including myself] rightfully assumed he was at least one of three black characters in our cast. Not according to this though and looking at the the rest of the pages our chances of seeing any kind of decent diverse character designs dwindle more.

So firstly... Buddy a character who has been said to experience discrimination for being Jewish, lacks any kind of ethnic features at all. That's... Cool but yeah I think this shows a rather grim future for the character designs as a whole.

Also, Norman... As I mentioned he was largely assumed to be black due to his southern dialect, his voice, and other factors. But nope, he's a generic white guy. With... Gross looking hair tbh...

Sadly this is not the first time the topic of poor representation has come up concerning Bendy either.

[note how he disregarded the other mentioned minorities and specifically cites LGBTQ+ characters]

This sucks as a response but sadly considering Mike's recent behavior it seems to fall in line with the Bendy team's general lack of care towards representing anyone who isn't straight and white.

So how did Mike respond to all of this? Well...

TDLR - "Who cares if the Graphic Novel we're selling to our fans for full price sucks, we now no longer consider the books canon."

This is horrible, I know Mike and Meatly are only really in this for the money, the fact BATIM is in the state that it is proved that, but they really couldn't have been less obvious about it?

So basically when it benefited them, AKA when it meant people would have to buy the books to understand important lore like Boris' identity... [the character you spend all of chapter 4 trying to rescue] They were considered canon... At least the author sure thought so.

Hell even in the tweet Meatly made here he doesn't say the books aren't canon, he just says they're not needed to understand Bendy's world. Now Mike is using that as a shield instead of doing the right thing and saying "You're right, the poc in our fanbase deserve better we'll have it fixed right away!" Like most reasonable people would considering how his studio has literally been accused of bigotry, poor rep, and general lack of diversity before. Why risk making more people avoid this franchise?

Also just... Imagine how insulting it would be to be an author who helps flesh out so much of this world and gives its characters depth like NONE of the games have managed to do, filling in plot holes, creating a timeline for events, etc... Then because they couldn't bother to change the graphic novel for ur story to be better they instead throw out all ur writing and declare it non-canon.

If I were her to put it bluntly I'd feel insulted and horrible. Why make her do all the work of making sure her works align with the timeline and game's canon if they're not part of it?

I can't speak for her obviously but Meatly and Mike know of her account, so speaking out against this could very much risk her being fired or at least not allowed to work on Bendy anymore... So I would take all her tweets on this situation with a grain of salt. She very much is not in a position where she could be honest if she was against this.

So with all that history now, the question I'm sure many are wondering is... Why does this even matter? Who cares how diverse the characters are when it doesn't affect the story?

Well for one thing, if you think like that consider having more empathy for your fellow human beings but also it does affect the story. One of DCTL's themes is about the bigotry of the period it is set in.

Now the Bendy team has managed to make the discussion of this book centering around their bigotry which is ironic in a way I almost find funny... Though this entire thing is just a bit too hurtful and upsetting to find any humor in, at least for me...

But another thing is representation can bring people such joy when it's done with care. It really shouldn't be understated how far it can go to make people feel more comfortable in their own sense of self to have a franchise choose to represent them and their experiences. I know this from personal experience.

Now if you've been following me for a while, you know I'm a big fan of Transformers. I no longer engage with it much due to baggage from the fandom's awful treatment of me, but before I left I remember being able to witness the release of Transformers: Earthspark first few episodes.

These introduced the Maltos the family who meets the Transformers and serve as our protagonists and guess what?

It's a family of Filipinos!

Now look I'm not Filipino, but I am half Mexican and I have a lot of love for that part of me. So seeing the representation of any Spanish culture in this franchise I loved made me so happy! I remember just watching the first episode I was happily telling my partner how fun it was to see people like me and my family in a world I love!!

But it didn't end with the Maltos in fact... There was another character who spoke to me, their name was Nightshade. Their pronouns are They/Them and they spoke about it on the show! Not just mentioning it and moving on but actually sitting down to speak about their experiences...

This clip in particular really turned them into an absolute favorite among fans and well... I'll let you see it for yourself.

This scene... Fills me with a joy I cannot describe. It is the creators of a franchise I love telling me they see people like me and find the stories of people like me important enough to include in this series. There really is nothing like being able to say there are Non-Binary characters in a franchise I have so much love for. I was far from the only one too.

This is amazing, this is wonderful, this clip and character were moving to so so many people and...

This is a joy the Bendy creators have no interest in giving their audience. They don't care how you feel as a queer and/or black person, which... Hurts...

I... Discovered I was trans while in the Bendy community... It was where I learned the word Non-Binary and started using it for myself. To me Bendy will always have that connection... But the devs themselves seem to hate the idea of being forced to actually represent that in their games... And I still haven't really gotten over that pain or betrayal if I'm being honest.

So...

With Norman now being portrayed as white here, we are down to two black characters. Thomas [who Meatly has claimed is white in the past] based on a vague conversation with Sammy in DCTL they could easily ignore... And Jacob.... A book exclusive character which according to Mike means he is non-canon.

If we don't count Thomas' vague talk with Sammy about disrespect as confirmation he's black [which the devs don't seem to think so] then we have one black character in all of Bendy... And he recently got retconned into non-existence. Great.

Look... The Bendy fanbase has always been full of wonderfully diverse designs for the staff and even more diverse people creating them. Bendy's fandom was built with the work of queer people from all kinds of places.

If the Bendy team continues to show how little they care for anyone who isn't straight or white... I wonder who they are counting on to buy this book or in general financially support their franchise?

I know right now, I am furious, I am hurt and I most certainly don't feel like buying a book that's currently just a massive fuck you to the fans and I hope I've expressed why I feel this way in an easy-to-understand way here...

Either way, I will not be forgetting this anytime soon and I hope the fanbase does the same. Maybe just maybe, if there's enough backlash to this series of horrible decisions they'll learn better.

Right now, it's kinda of our only hope for a better future, and if you know any poc who are into Bendy right now... Maybe consider making sure they're feeling okay.

I know from experience how much this sort of thing hurts, to have the creators of a world you love straight up tell you they don't intend to fix the fact no one in their stories represents your identity or life...

What I'm trying to say is...

This is a really low point for Bendy and its fans... Even more for the poc who have to witness such ignorant and careless attitudes from Mike and Meatly towards their feelings.

Please don't forget them when you discuss these tweets or this situation. That's exactly what Mike and Meatly want right now.

For them to be unrepresented and therefore... Unheard.

[judesmoonbeauty]

merry christmas! 🎄🎁✨ can you brainrot a little (or a lot…?) about jude, nica, or both in the answer to this ask? :3c

Merry belated christmas anon! Thank you for such a sweet ask. There's spoilers involved, sooo....

˗ˏˋ 🍒 ˎˊ˗ As for Nica: Twice now he has said lines such as, "I've been raised right or I've had a good upbringing," and I've kinda like just given him the side-eye each time he's said that. Like "Uh-huh, okay, sure let's roll with that," but we all know that's not true or at least wasn't true for a time.

And with lore hints in the recent event of the twins being potentially abducted and used as test subjects for cursed experiments (most likely the victims of abuse too), I'm wondering if he says things like this to throw others off the trail about his past, is trying to convince himself that he had a good upbringing to cope with trauma; or IF Darius was the one that rescued the twins from that horrible place (assuming this is the case), could he be referring to the "upbringing" he would've received after being rescued?

....Or sadly, he is referring to potential domestic abuse as his "good upbringing"?

I'm very excited to learn more about the twins past, and to peer into that colder, more harsh side of Nica. (My weakness.) Still, I love watching his interactions with Kate overall, and love seeing him genuinely drop his guard with her and laugh as well. I think his route is going to be very good, from what I've seen of him so far.

˗ˏˋ⌛ˎˊ˗ As for Jude: A lot. I think about him 24/7, I'm obsessed. My mind jumps around with him so much that I can't even keep up lmao. Things like getting into bar fights with him, getting scolded by Victor along with him for doing something we shouldn't have, all the way to domestic life like dates, how would he interact with my tiny tiny nieces irl, curling up in bed together, having breakfast together, etc. But, um, I'll keep it brief....

His current election event story, there's this part where Jude mentions that he now that he's with Kate he doesn't feel as refreshed when he tramples down rotten nobles and such, and that it's only when he tortures and teases Kate, that he truly feels satisfied. This is HUGE. This is similar to what he says in his Halloween story.....all the feelings of satisfaction he gets from torturing others is nothing in comparison to satisfaction he gets from doing so with Kate. Of course, Jude absolutely curses (loves) and adores Kate!!

But now, I'm curious to know how his character will continue to develop going forward. Of course, that doesn't mean that Jude will stop getting revenge on others, or that others will stop seeking revenge on him. He is destined to die hating the world under this endless cycle of revenge, but how do I put this......does that mean in future events (depending on the setting), after Jude's taken care of his enemies, he will seek out Kate for some smexy "torture" sessions??? YES PLS.

It's not all about that though, I look forward to seeing more of their banter and his teasing her and spoiling her. Ugh....he's such a good boyfriend to her.

Overall, Jude has finally found happiness, and I can't wait to see how he continues to realize all the ways that Kate's presence is affecting him for the better. I think, regardless of who our faves are, it's so heart-warming to see them gain a measure of relief and happiness. Don't you? ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

[scoobydoodean]

reading your metas and realizing that the reason i find sam so annoying is that hes both obsessed with being a grown up who can make his own choices and isnt a child, and absolutely committed to never taking responsibility for his choices when push comes to shove.

hes a grown up when it comes to making decisions but not when those decisions have consequences

And it's very much on purpose in the writing, is the thing. This exact dynamic is one of the only lines of dialogue between Michael and Lucifer in 5.22 that really reflects Sam and Dean's more current conflicts (Recall that the lore here is that Lucifer twisted the first human soul (Lilith) into demonhood to spite God):

MICHAEL/ADAM: Oh, you know why! I have no choice, after what you did. LUCIFER/SAM: What I did? What if it's not my fault? MICHAEL/ADAM: What is that supposed to mean? LUCIFER/SAM: Think about it. Dad made everything. Which means he made me who I am! God wanted the Devil.

"Because someone wanted me to be bad, I have no choice but to be bad." The things that happen to us give us context and create room for sympathy, but they don't make our choices everyone else's fault. (And yes—free will does exist to Chuck's great frustration, or he wouldn't have had a season long tantrum about Team Free Will not ever doing what he wanted).

What's more, in this same conversation where Lucifer excuses his own actions as outside of his control, he tells Michael to defy their father's desires—something he just finished saying wasn't possible. He just said that he had to be exactly who he was meant to be, but he doesn't apply this same logic to Michael's God-given role. He only twists the narrative of their lives when it's about him, to make himself sound uniquely powerless. He assigns Michael all the culpability and control over how this fight goes down when Lucifer actively worked to bring this moment where they battle to fruition as well (including by stocking a mass grave in 5.10). It's manipulative bullshit.

How does Michael respond to all of this a few moments later? Before anything, by expressing resetment for Lucifer's refusal to take responsibility for his own choices:

MICHAEL/ADAM: You know, you haven't changed a bit, little brother. Always blaming everybody but yourself.

We can also reflect on the last time Lucifer threw himself a pity party about how mean his family is—to justify digging a mass grave into which he had dumped hundreds of bodies for a ritual to raise Death. He said it wasn't his fault then either—that Michael made him do it by betraying him—by refusing to stand by his side supporting his every decision (which, while framed as somehow making him powerless, strongly suggest a desire to control others feelings and for everyone including his older brother to fall in line behind him and do his bidding without question). It's never his fault. It's always someone else's fault for being mean to him.

[stressedbisexualtm]

i will say, one thing i really enjoy is how a lot of traffic/hermit twt and tumblr casually enjoy the qsmp. it shows up (for me) mostly in the form of people say "cubito" rather than "c!", and i like that a lot. it's fun to see big life series or hc accounts talking about todays lore on the qsmp, or who their favorite cubito is, or which egg they think is the best/most underappreciated. even the people who don't really say anything, maybe just reblog/retweet some fanart or a clip of fitmc being gay as hell absolutely make my day. i like what the qsmp has been able to do- not just merging different ethic communities, but subdivisions of the english mc community as well. during the dream smp and that little while before the qsmp was announced, there was this HUGE divide between the dsmp and all the other sub-communities and how they interacted with each other. there was some division before, as there was bound to be, but it's become a really harsh line since 2020. and im thankful the qsmp has merged that break between the two halves of the english mc community. again, it's just really awesome (and a little surreal!) to see hermit mains talking about the qsmp.

And there are qsmp fans out there who have never even heard of the life series or hermitcraft! to those of you that might see this post, I encourage you to watch a little bit of either series. they don't have the same standards on lore qsmp does, but they're all really great and fun people who love to make content. they're all youtube videos, but i promise that doesn't diminish the fun! there is lore, bits that certain creators sprinkle into the life series, and at least once per hermitcraft season (at least since season 6) they have a big lore event happen. hermitcraft is currently on it's 9th season, and they have so many massive projects and games and have had more than one lore event this season. the life series is on it's 5th season, secret life, that uploads weekly and has some really unique and fun game mechanics and player interactions. (and with both series, don't let the lack of lore deter you! both fan communities are amazing, and we have a habit of creating our own lore that is really interesting to work with).

same to life series or hermitcraft fans- they swear a lot on the qsmp, and it's all livestreamed, but they also have so many interesting characters and stories and so much more they still want to tell. it's not all completely scripted either, and there are a lot of references and cameos you can find! there's a lot to enjoy here, and I hope someone who reads this will go see it for the first time.

[zahri-melitor]

Newish Comics:

Action Comics #1072: I am enjoying following the path of both of these stories, but I'm getting the vibes that I need some things to start happening soon, rather than stacking up more mystery boxes.

Still delighted by Kenan and Kon's antics though. The decision to team them up continues to pay off.

Detective Comics #1090: look, have we seen the premise of Thomas helping characters he probably shouldn't have, as a doctor, and that leading to disaster down the track before? Yes. Am I going to enjoy the parallels again anyway? Also yes. Get Leslie into this plot, Tom Taylor, for some support for Thomas' tendencies.

Nightwing #119: My first thought here is how nice it is to see a run that's picking up smoothly from the last one and where the writer is fully indoctrinated on Dick/Babs flirting from the Dixon days. It's got potential and so far I don't mind the characterisation.

Absolute Wonder Woman #1: I think this is probably going to end up my favourite title from the Absolute line. The art was beautiful and full of character, and I really loved the characterisation of Circe in this, and how she moves from indifferent to a mother. "How you fall in love with a child is by raising it." gaaaaaaah I had those words still ringing in my head last night as I was supervising bathtime and teeth brushing.

Green Arrow #17: and we finally get this book handed off from Joshua Williamson. First half was more tidying up of the Absolute Power mess (without much real resolution, but we all need to move on from that plot), but the new run with Chris Condon looks like it has some promise. I'm happy to go with it for the second.

The Flash #14: Skartaris time! I still need to actually get to the point where I understand what the current timeline of Skartaris is from Flashpoint onwards, because my personal understanding is that Travis should be DEAD DEAD DEAD but yet he's still around. I suspect this is because nobody at DC actually cares about Warlord lore enough to make this a problem, aside from Mike Grell, who at this point is in 'sure, that art proposal sounds fun to draw' life stages.

Anyway, the concept of the Wests all going to Skartaris for some family bonding time is hysterical (by both definitions) and I eagerly await to see how Spurrier handles adapting it for an audience who isn't already used to Skartaris oddities. The fact we have floating Ancient Atlantean buildings in the art is a very promising sign to me, though.

Zatanna: Bring Down The House #5: This was a good conclusion to the story. It's been very much Black Label levels of existing in its own continuity, and I respect how it was put together. I do wonder how much of Tamaki's insistence on how she characterised and centred rabbits in the run is influenced by and in opposition to that classic picture of Giovanni Zatara from The Books of Magic #3 with the dead rabbit.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #18:

I really liked the art in Doubt. It was quite effective.

The Constantine and Streaky team up remained completely unnecessary but oh well, not written for me.

Reflections was an interesting team up! I wouldn't have put M'gann and Jackson together (actually I just realised this was probably influenced by YJA, carry on), but they do both have interesting placement in their narratives of Xebel v Atlantis and White v Green Martian. Wish the story had leant a bit more into that outsider narrative from the villain to try and convince them.

Why do we have a random Harley Quinn story from nowhere in the continuity? anyway.

Robin Season is uh not particularly good Tim and Damian characterisation (in that the one-upmanship competition doesn't really feel how the two of them compete?) but it's full of interesting background detailing for indications of setting.

The Warlord #73: This week for our second trip to Lost World of Skartaris, we're starting out strong as Travis is still trapped in the bondage tree from last week.

Terrible bondage peril! Over a fire!

Only to be further attacked by flying dinosaurs of some description!

Thanks for the art, Dan Jurgens.

We spend 6 pages of this comic with Travis trying to escape from the tree vines clinging to him, while also fighting the dinosaurs. We have never been more back.

In terms of the plot that doesn't involve tying Travis up in perilous situations, we're still tracking down the plague unicorn. The unicorn dies in a swamp, the gang figure out that Scarheart, our non-Skataran speaking friend from another dimension probably drank magical healing water from a pool which is why he doesn't have Unicorn Plague, and they go off to get some to heal everyone who's sick. Shakira gets better and falls immediately for Scarheart. They decide to hang out with the group of travellers who speak to animals and leave the main story group for a bit.

Also Travis uses up all his bullets, yet again. I must assume he just has a supplier in Skartaris by now who's worked out how to make ammunition.

[darth-razmus]

Now that the hype over the initial reveal is over time to post some thoughts.

First off....Holy Slaanesh the models look amazing. All the Slaanesh bits look great. I do get that there is not alot of body horror that tends to go along with Slaanesh but to allow us our own model line combined with Warhammer going more mainstream I get it.

Lucius...just wow.... Like the new Ahriman, Kharn and Typhus he got quite the glow up.

The new lords. Gonna grab a few of them for assorted kitbashed. The Kakophonic one is personally my fav of the pair.

The new noise marines. THINGS SHALL GET LOUD NOW!!! Love the new design. It is interesting to note that at this time noise marines are the only cult troop that is not battle line.

Pour one out for the pure demon players. The reveal that Slaaneshi demons are in the codex pretty much makes the squatting of the Daemon codex rumor a sure thing. I am always sad to see a codex disappear esp one like the demon codex where they still are a major player in the lore.

The flawless blades. I was writing for my homebrew a version of them. To have models fit my headcannon is quite nice. And they look pretty good.

I am sad like most other EC players that the sonic dreadnaught is still missing. Or even an upgrade to the hellbrute. A small missed opportunity.

Despite the full list of what we keep from the CSM dex not yet available I am a little more at ease due to our new battle line. Our version of melee and bolter Legionaries still work perfect as counts as from the core CSM codex which still doesn't invalidate my current WiP jump lord conversion. Or my good luck forgfiend(so far only maulerfiend is confirmed) Fluffy. Or the traitor guard force I am planning to represent the Archite Palatines. Having 2 books to play from depending on my mood is always a good thing.

Overall I am quite excited for what we got. I was concerned our launch was gonna be just Lucius and noise marines.

[wingsdippedingold]

Ch 1: "Please String your Bow"

New Series: Read ACOTAR with me!

Hello! I’ve decided to start a new series of me going back and rereading the ACOTAR series, as it's been years since I last actively did so, and posting it here on tumblr!

I plan to do my best to observe the story as though I’m reading it for the first time and don’t have prior knowledge, trying to build my opinions back up from a blank slate. Some of my annotations will try to reflect that, asking questions that I or you may already know the answer to. However, I’m including many of my old comments as well.

I may start a tag list if people are interested, but with that: Chapter 1!

wc : 859 - Index

This is the line that pulled me into the chapter.

So she's shooting a recurve, which in this case, is basically the standard medieval bow you'd imagine. Unstringing is done to keep the wooden limbs from straining and getting bent out of shape from the tension.

Alright, so this is our first bit of human lore regarding faeries beyond just the "they're dangerous". Humans believe that faeries eat people.

Okay, okay, very Cinderella-esque. Now, is the expression she's thinking of sad, disappointed, or angry- at this point it seems more pitiable.

I am familiar with this pose.

Seemingly, both her family and her town rely on Feyre. I know it's to emphasize her role as the only one working, but it's weird imagining an entire town asking a single 17 year old girl to provide for them. They're asking her to be the main character at this point. The world is cruel to Feyre.

The artist in her 😭

I think its interesting that she includes bother her father and her current cottage (quote below) in this dream.

On another note, I know some people interpret the last bit to be "oh she hates her sisters and wants them gone", but I think she knows they'd be unsatisfied with the simple life that she would be, wanting to go back to their prior life of luxury. (But, she basically becomes her sisters in this dream later in the series anyway)

Feyre and painting on fucking walls

Pretty words

Feyre, baby… you gotta string your bow again…

I think I know why y'all are starving.

Our first outright characterization of Nesta from Feyre:

I mean a regular arrow would still do more damage than a bee sting. Regardless, her weapons are important for later.

👍

This confused me. Because, either way, unless you kill the wolf, you starve, unless the wolf flat out leaves, but considering it's going for the deer, it won't. If he eats the doe or scares it, you have to kill him. SJM didn't give Feyre the mindset of a poor woman in dire need of food. Is eating the wolf not even an option?

I would imagine hunting the bigger game, even if less tasty and more dry, during a time of animal scarcity when she regularly comes back empty handed, would be a starving woman's first choice. Your shot would have to be a good one regardless of whichever you choose, and if its because of disease, eating any wild animal carries risks.

Maybe I'm just being stupid, but like... if they really were that poor and in need of food, how is the wolf not even an option?

8 years of experience, assuming she had consistent practice between hunts

Wrong, this happens even after death. How much research did SJM do before making an entire chapter around hunting and a character who's been doing it for 8 years?

Personally, I would try putting the poor thing out of its misery if I was unsure about pain, instead of sitting and waiting. Feyre has a hunting knife which she uses to skin the wolf later. Even with her appropriate level of caution, this animal couldn't jump up and kill you. I don't know, reading this made Feyre feel like a relatively amateur hunter, rather than the experienced one she's meant to be.

I imagine she waited for it to die in case it had faerie magic or something, but she decides that it's not one after its death, which doesn't make sense to me, because I imagine she had never seen a faerie die (or shapeshift)? How would its death have any different markers- beyond the ones Feyre couldn't previously identify- than a normal wolf?

Well no. It didn't. Earlier she said animal wouldn't live with the ash arrow in it's side, but it was her normal arrow in the eye that proved lethal (see below)

Mr. Wolf was still standing after the ash arrow, he only collapsed after the normal one in the eye.

Realistically, the better option would be to dress both animals, get rid of organs (especially the wolf's), guts, heads, genitals, and any other dead weight; this'll reduce the load by at least a third, if not a half, considering that she's only hunting for sustenance and not keeping any parts for trophies. Drag the wolf and carry the deer.

The wolf's size could be an issue- but she considers a small deer to be a struggle, so I'm not sure what's up with that. I imagine she isn't an experienced hunter and/or doesn't field dress, despite her 8 years, considering that she usually comes back empty-handed.

Alright, so dressing both animals would take upwards of an hour for someone with the amount of experience I would assume Feyre has. Regardless, for a wolf of that size and weight, with half of it against the ground, it'll take way longer than minutes to skin. You're gonna spend a while there, even if you don't dress the animal.

Back on track with Feyre being the cool protagonist that she's set up as.

Thank you for reading these! Overall, this was more nitpicky than any serious notetaking as its just the opening chapter- there's a lot more substance in the coming ones!

[feltcaverns]

But seriously, none of you people fucking get it.

There are rules to this shit. Okay? And if you're not intuiting them, you're not doing this right.

Fuck, it shouldn't be necessary at all for me to do this. But you keep fucking up like this in front of me, the least I can do is tell you some goddamn basics.

Number one. Don't fucking try and overshadow the main man. This ain't your rodeo, it's his. If you try and jump off your horse so you can impress the crowd, you're gonna just end up eating shit. Stay in line.

Number two. If they didn't sign up for this, don't fucking target them. Should be obvious, but for some of you, it doesn't look like it is. Don't post about muppet drugs in the replies of normal fucking people.

Number three. If he says jump, do not ask how high. Just fucking jump. Have any of you even been in a cult before? Don't answer. I don't want to fucking know. The brotherhood is an embarrassment in its current state. You people need organization and a cutoff point, but that's a whole separate issue.

Number four. Lurk moar. I'm 100% serious. Know your fucking lore, kiddos. If you don't know my name, and it ain't fucking Elegy, then are you really in the right place? Read a webcomic and come back later.

Number five. This is war.

What, you think I'm joking?

Every fucking day we'd wake up and figure out new ways to make him question our sanity. We'd create events spontaneously. We'd organize shit to surprise him. Entire arcs. And you know how much contact we had with the enemy directly?

Nearly fucking nil.

You people need to shape the fuck up, study your fucking history, or don't bother participating at all.

[ourlittleuluru]

Voyage Of The Outcast - My Thoughts 3/4

And this is where everything starts to hit all at once. the Feels, the callbacks and references... MORE LORE!

Notes in Chp 6 - 8

I feel like this whole part, literally also a reference to Xavier himself and how he's trying to keep up his appearances whilst working behind the scenes to protect MC :v

And this part just... got emotional. The feels T^T

Again, a little nod to something from 21 Days, even though chronologically in theory, it happens later

And again, the writers reallllllly putting it right in our faces. How much MC actually just, keeps the deeper questions to themselves. As if afraid to break this delicate balance that is their relationship. Kinda harkens back to their Lightseeker days huh...

ANECDOTE 3 REFERENCEEEEE ahhhhh 😭

And it seems like some part of MC's past, the feelings are ingrained into the very soul. This happens again later. Makes me wonder if MC will eventually remember?

There goes Xavier pulling this line back out again 🥺

Kind of feels like Xavier is trying to get MC not to think too much about what once was or unknown to them. To just face forward together with him, the current him. Maybe I'm overthinking here :v;;;

Okay and then comes in Soren... SOREN YOU LITTLE D:<

But dang kudos to the VA (in CN, I'll have to listen to the EN one another time) the HUGE change in tone from the introvereted scared vice president to a Backtracker that fears no Xavier... 👌

And this line just comes in hitting me like a damn truck

Just isekai me at this point o(--(

Literal star fall in starfall forest

AND THEN LITERALLY THE SAME LINE USED IN HIS MYTH PLEASE IMMA CRY HERE 😭😭😭 (the voice line is the exact same and I can say that 100% because I had to replay it a few times during Xavier's birthday c':)

So basically... MC... experienced a part of their past?

And now we're back. To the starting point. Where it all began.

Although I don't remember Starfall forest in LS Myth ever mentioned a mirror like lake in it... but this is definitely a reference to Anecdote 3's salt flats that they saw a meteor shower at...

Are things merging in a way? Especially since this place was created from Xavier's memories (and fears). But yes, the point of returning still stands.

Now, back to Soren... again good job VA for voicing Soren so well. I wanna slap him, acting so high and mighty >:T

OKAY

SO

another key note here. In CN, Soren specifically calls out saying that "帮你们。帮你。" instead of EN where Soren only mentions "you" aka Xavier. 你们 is the plural for 你 (you), which is to say, Soren said something more along the lines of "I used my life's work to help you all. help you. to pass through the Deepspace Tunnel to get here. " in full.

I feel this is a bit important as perhaps, he originally felt like he was part of the group which later turned sour. (Xavier did say that to Soren, the ends always justify the means so... who knows what crazy stuff this guy got up to... and then Soren also mentioned how he was abandoned, trampled, etc)

Also the fact that he changed from "help you all" to "help you"... it's like it's referencing where they find Xavier to be a traitor, noting that Xavier has used him... manipulated might be a better word... to get to this time period and caused all of them to be stranded and betraying their original mission. There's this nuance to what Soren said in CN that feels like it's a little lost in the EN line. The point still stands though! Just a little different.

But yes, he has a grudge against Xavier specifically.

So now we have identified more Backtrackers, and Soren is one of them that's still alive.

Not sure if he's Hat Guy tho... but Soren does have tech, plus knowledge and seems like a possible work partner to Ever company... hmmm But then again Hat Guy is described to be have an old voice 🤔 Doesn't sound like Soren... Maybe there's some youth potion thing that helped Soren turned younger? IDK. Speculating here at the moment

He's still most likely Hat guy, since... it would make a lil more sense story-wise, espeically if Infold ever wants to decide to rope in more plot points from stuff like WU Also Soren will DEFINITELY be coming back. !!!! IMAGINE THE POTENTIAL WAIT HOLD UP XAVIER AND JEREMIAH TEAM UP They find Soren or what is left of Soren's residence. Finds tech to finally fix Traceback II stuff like that! The possibilitiessss

Okay ngl... this part felt... how did we know Soren's evol and he's attacking Xavier's mind with it? Or is MC just refering to the illusion, aka a trick of the light?

And then Xavier's gasping just... 🥺🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭 Man's really suffering there

And this right here is when he breaks out of it 😭😭😭😭😭 of course it's when MC is touching and squishing his face. A gesture he knows too well

LOOK AT THE RELIEF HE FELT! IT'S WRITTEN ALL OVER HIS FACE AND 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Another part...

In CN, Xavier specifically said "不要怕", literal translation being "Don't be afraid". He's even reassuring MC at this stage even now 🥺

XAVIER YOU DO REALIZE THIS ISNT THE REAL STARFALL FOREST??? 😭 COME BACKKKKK don't sacrifice yourself over this scam!!!

Gotta love how MC wasn't lost in the moment and just be like eureka

These two are so reckless for each other 🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠

Love it but also "hate" it because...

These two are just gonna fulfill Mr Raincoat and his wishes... Guys please 🥺🥺🥺🥺

WHICH XAVIER ALMOST DID! I'm just... XAVIER PLS

And then you dare lecture us/MC, Xavier?! D':< SAME TO YOU PLEASE

This fking line is coming back to haunt me again... (┬┬﹏┬┬)

[retphienix]

it still annoys me that Fawkes' "You're destiny culminates here" moment is so thoroughly memed as a sign that FO3 is terribly written, when it's honestly par for the course for the story they were telling; a very simple "Good vs Evil" RPG story that needed to end with a good or evil option because it was 2008 and we were still drooling over fable 1's 2004 depiction of those decisions.

I mean hell, Fallout 3 released only a few days after Fable 2, we were waist deep in these things, it was the style at the time.

The game was ending it's straight forward story and wanted to end with a nice big boom, and sacrificing yourself is like, still common in "good ending" stories in games right here and now- having Fawkes, the most well read companion who dwells on the deeper meaning of actions- even naming themselves based on what they deemed a thematically appropriate reference- see our story as it is written- with our father's sacrifice and the immense importance of this action- and say some bullshit artsy "Destiny" line is like- so fucking expected and normal for a video game story that it's impressive it caught anyone's attention beyond school yard "Well Akchtually, they should have done it so I could keep being a wastelander 🤓" discussions.

His dialogue in that scene is just a nudge to stay on track for the big sacrifice scene that tugs on the strings of immersion /slightly/. (not even harshly). And it was probably done to avoid adding like 15 more ending slides (3 companions are immune, good and evil variants, FEV and non FEV variants etc)- the same justification done for plenty of FO3 and NV things.

It kind of isn't a matter of "Well it doesn't make sense", and it's much more of just a narrative plot pushing video game moment- it's nowhere near high literature- it's just "what it is". Similar to how you can't actually take over the strip with your interesting charisma, speech skill, and powerful ballistic fist in NV- you have to doom the world to an upcoming robot uprising because they railroaded you into that instead.

It's legitimately so bog standard that if hating FO3 wasn't a meme in and of itself then it wouldn't come up. If anything people'd have fun little conversations about which of the 3 radiation immune companions do a worst job of maintaining immersion for that story moment.

(It's RL-3. Charon is a dickass with a vague "contract" of loyalty- the vagueness leaves plenty enough room for him to say no because we don't actually know what the limits are- it's all hearsay. Fawkes is an artsy fuck who definitely thinks they are providing a meaningful end to a meaningful life. RL-3 is a robot programmed to obey us- no amount of military lingo alters that he's given an order and says "No Sir!")

it would be a fun tidbit people bring up every handful of years and go "Hey, isn't it funny how Fawkes could have done it? Ha!'' but that isn't how the fallout community handled it.

It being the style doesn't excuse bad writing, but that's the thing, it's just "neutral/popcorn narrative" writing, with some fun ideas written here and there.

Fallout 3's writing overall isn't half bad- the worst it does is "be written by a different team than Fallout 1+2" and "Be written in the exhaustively hot epicenter of good/evil video game narratives" which is like... yeah, obviously it's that.

But even within that "sin" they take the time to explain the lore as to why factions depicted in 3 are different than 1-2 (such as the BoS we witness in 3 being an offshoot that abandoned the BoS way), and they try to explore what you can do within the standardized "good/evil" formula in a /few/ quests, about as much as you'd expect for a 2008 release still trying to fit within the current fad design.

Anyways, Fawkes' moment at the "end of the game" is thoroughly memed as a sign that the game is devoid of good writing logic or reason and is just stupid railroading- and it's not even how the game operates for 99% of players because of broken steel, a DLC that extended the end of the game into an infinite sandbox (because players wanted it) and allowed you to use Fawkes, RL-3, or Charon in the "sacrifice" scene instead, since all 3 are immune to radiation.

You know, the version of the game everyone plays today, the one where instead of the ""iconic"" immersion breaking line Fawkes says this:

Yeah.

I think in reality it bothers me mostly because what is effectively a removed voice line is treated as the smoking gun- when the exact event people "demanded" be possible and continue to claim couldn't happen- literally happens.

Fawkes goes in for you.

That's how the game has worked ever since 2009.

His fucking removed voice line is still the first thing you see on his fandom wiki page, as well as being the final "noteworthy quote" instead of including his revised lines anywhere in those areas.

Cute, I guess.

Anways, Fawkes is a neat super mutant concept- I often forget like 99% of their character (since FO3 isn't companion writing focused) but revisiting it in Tale of Two Wastelands is reminding me that as a "concept" I like them a lot. I think they do a good job of presenting it when you meet them too- it's just a shame that Fallout 3 didn't do companion quests to further explore them because I like what's presented and how it's voice acted- but then they just become the gatling laser companion who screams in combat a bunch.

[incensuous]

HSR 2.1 SUNDAY & ROBIN, AVENTURINE & SISTER

My feelings about HSR aside, I wanted to update a bit more on the siblings in the game. The current story has not completed yet, but things are getting interesting (brosis wise at least lol).

***MAJOR SPOILERS!!***

For the more obvious, Sunday (brother) and Robin (younger sister): Robin "died" in the previous update and for this update, is still seemingly dead. We barely knew her before she was killed by an apparition named "Death" in the Dreamscape. I'm unclear but from my understanding, the people who were killed by "Death" inside the Dreamscape are currently stuck in a yet unseen area.

Sunday is the head of the Oak Family, who controls the planet of Penacony, and is obviously upset from Robin's death. He vows to find her murderer. We found out through some letters Robin tipped him off on her suspicion the traitor "Death" was from within the Family. She trusts Sunday, and therefore does not suspect him, but wishes he keeps safe, as he is the only family she has left. (Cute tidbit, Robin is a huge popstar in the world of HSR, but she says her favorite performance was a play one she did with Sunday when they were kids!)

I LOVE THE BABY ARTWORK WE GET OF THE SIBLINGS IN THIS GAME!

So far, Sunday has presented a calm demeanor, but it seems like he has a secret unhinged side. When confronted by Sparkle disguised as his sister, he doesn't react the way I thought someone would, if they knew their sister had just been murdered and someone is now prancing around in her form.

The Family as a whole is keeping the deaths, even Robin's, under wraps. There is a letter addressed to Sunday he should keep a level head, and criticizes him for being too focused on vengeance for Robin.

Again, he seems a bit strange overall. It isn't until the very end of the 2.1 quest, where we see him show his anger. ... And then dies! So I'm hoping in 2.2, Sunday and Robin are reunited in this "death" area, outside of the Dreamscape.

I hope Sunday and Robin will keep feeding us. They aren't our first sibling duo in HSR, but Robin is already revealed as a 5* (who tend to be more relevant in the lore), and I am personally going to riot if Sunday is a 4*, which I doubt anyways, considering his place in the story.

Aside from the dead chicken wing siblings, we got a LOVELY surprise sibling relationship. Fair warning, the sister is dead, unnamed, and faceless--BUT THAT HASN'T STOPPED ME BEFORE! In fact, they feel more fleshed out to me, currently than what we've seen of Sunday and Robin.

Aventurine was the focal point of the 2.1 quest. To introduce him, he's part of the IPC, which is the Amazon of the HSR world, some nasty megacorporation that I don't understand. When we first meet him, he pulls a Karen on us, for holding up the check-in line in Penacony. But then he quickly tries to befriend us with money instead. If this were real life, it would have worked on me, but in the video game world, I have principles, dammit!

Behind his sparkly facade, Aventurine is an Avgin, an ostracized ethnic group, who were effectively massacred by an opposing group.

Aventurine is presumably the sole survivor. Following the massacre, he is captured and sold as a slave. Through a series of bets, he ends up killing his master, then ends up in his current role as a top official in the IPC.

In flashbacks, we see the Avgins worshipped a god entirely out of the main Aeon system of HSR. Aventurine, birth name Kakavasha, was presumed to be especially blessed by their god, Gaiathra Triclops. His parents died early on, and we find out he was left with only his older sister for some time.

(In the Japanese dub, he calls her onee-chan!!)

The sweetest line is when she tells him, "I can live without the necklace, but I can't live without you, Kakavasha." They're poor orphans in an already poor clan, and I can only imagine how hard it was on the two of them.

In the final flashback with his sister, it's revealed the Katicans would plan to attack the Avgins on their sacred festival day--also Aventurine's birthday. His sister tells him they must part ways, he's the future of their clan, and that their parents are waiting for her--insinuating she's prepared to die. This reminds me of the way she'd told him, "I can't live without you".

I wish his sister had showed up more in the actual quest outside of cutscenes (he hallucinates his younger self accompanying him). But what we do have for them makes me honestly really love them. She's literally nameless, BUT! We do actually see her face in Aventurine's teaser.

Someone even writes in the comments how Sunday was projecting when he asked Aventurine personal questions, as they both know the loss of their sister.