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rathayibacter · 12 hours ago

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BXLLET TIME!

time for another game breakdown!

BXLLET is a ten page post-apocalyptic cowboy ttrpg. The world struggles to rebuild after catastrophe, but remnants of the past still linger. Can you build something new with the tools of the old, or are you inheriting the sins of the dead?

Mechanically, BXLLET revolves around its namesake mechanic: you begin the game with a single bullet, and can collect more as you venture through the Wastes. These bullets act like experience points, unlocking new unique abilities as your collection grows. But, of course, they're also your most deadly weapon: any bullet fired instantly kills your target. Simple, immediate, brutal.

What does that mean? Well, let's talk about it.

Something that I haven't seen remarked upon much is how combat mechanics are, functionally, a sort of censorship. Real-life violence is fucking scary, it can happen out of nowhere and leave behind a lifetime of pain and trauma. Even "safe" forms of violence, such as a shove or a slap, can and often do turn lethal unexpectedly. When we design game mechanics around violence, even those meant to be realistic or gruesome, we're putting a layer of abstraction between ourselves and the violence being depicted. We're no longer thinking of it as violence, but as a resource exchange, or a risky gamble, or an elaborate puzzle.

And to be clear, I don't think this is a bad thing! It's both useful and necessary to have, you literally can't engage with these ideas without some level of abstraction. But it is an interesting thing to think about, and it's one of the threads that led me to BXLLET. Because, when you strip away nearly every combat mechanic, when you make it all about the choice of whether or not to kill, then you start really thinking about what that choice means.

One of the most basic structures in any ttrpg adventure is "here's the bad guy who needs to be killed and then everything will be fine." And, well, that's not impossible to do in BXLLET (one of the NPC types is "Capitalist" and comes with a whole host of obstacles to put in the way of you marching into their office and shooting them in the head) but the structure of the game pushes you much more towards systemic issues. Even when there's a monster in an ivory tower exploiting the people under him, he exists within a context that's not so easily dealt with. And this goes even more for the people underneath! The bandits and scam artists and dickheads who make up the usual ttrpg combat churn are all recontextualized by this mechanic. You have to start asking yourself "what does it mean if we kill this person? What happens as a result? What scars do we leave behind by doing so?" You have to decide if it's still worth it. Sometimes, it still is. But not always.

Every time I've run BXLLET, it's forced me to think more deeply about the characters and setting I was presenting my players. It's pushed me to engage with them in a very different way, a way that I feel is more authentic because of it. And I'm not the only one! There's a host of brilliant designers who've written supplements for BXLLET, and many of them delved even deeper into this concept than I did.

And hell, that's as good a segue as any to talk about those supplements! It's truly incredible to see what folks have written for this game, ranging from over fifty new PC archetypes to fascinating new locations to whole new settings and even new games! Last I checked, there's at least 50 PC archetypes to the original game's four, and over two hundred pages of material to the original game's ten. Check them all out here:

Thanks a ton for reading all this! BXLLET is currently on sale, along with a ton of my other work! Check it out, and help me pay some moving expenses:

#ttrpgs #BXLLET

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whistlingstarlight · 1 year ago

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Readinggg the Island of Sodor lore book and every mention of Henry I and II is so fucking ominous to me. Like I knew it was a fan theory/headcanon that Henry was replaced after being sent to Crewe but does this make it canon? Awdry what the fuck does this mean???

#it talks about him in context of a rebuild #but no other engines that were rebuilt are implied to have two versions #it's so dystopian wtf are these implications-#the railway series #ttte #ttte henry

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bethsfolklore · 2 years ago

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No bc I agree with everything about this. I truly want to believe that everything wrong with the season five finale will be somewhat rectified in season six. Especially because we have almost a year until it airs. It won't be able to rectify the fact that Adrien wasn't there or the fact that he will never get the closure his character so desperately needs. However it can have Marinette actually think about what she's doing and have her change her mind and have her tell him (obviously as Ladybug). I'd rather it not narratively cause problems because it does upset me that this was one thing that genuinely had nothing to do with relationship conflict and it never should have been but all I want at this point is for Adrien to stop being left in the dark. It's been an ongoing theme in the show since season two and there are so many episodes showing why that shouldn't happen (especially in season four) and yet it keeps happening. The truth might hurt for him to hear but he deserves to know and I really do hope Maribug tells him because the absolute worst thing that could happen is someone else tells him.

ok since i’ve really only whined but not actually explained my reasoning lol, here is my take on the s5 finale. (this is long, sorry)

I think we’re all on the same page about the idea that gabriel being seen as a hero, by all of paris but especially adrien, is icky. and on top of that it does not feel good that marinette is supporting that lie, even if it’s out of love for adrien. most people are assuming this issue will be resolved somehow in 6, probably by lila exposing the truth. cool. that’s my hope as well. but even if that’s the case, i still dislike the framing of his wish and what the surrounding context seems to imply about it.

it is not my assumption that gabriel’s wish included green initiatives and a reformation of the parisian school system lol. I assume that his wish was to exchange his own life for nathalie’s. but as we know, wishes literally rewrite reality. the fact is that paris improved after his wish, so it is still related. he remade the world, and the new world ended up better. It all supports the idea that his wish was a good thing—a noble sacrifice that redeemed him in some sense. my impression is that even if (hopefully) he is exposed as hawkmoth, the actual wish he made will still be framed as admirable. obviously marinette found it noble enough to agree to lie to everyone about gabriel’s identity as hawkmoth.

which brings me to another pain point: the fact that gabriel essentially won the long battle against ladybug and chat noir. i’ve heard arguments that he didn’t win because he died and how is that winning? he got what he deserved in the end. but imo, he just put himself out of his own misery, because he was on the brink of death anyway because of his cataclysm wound, and he basically escaped having to face any emotional consequences from his literal terrorism and child abuse. and even if you don’t consider that a win, you also can’t consider marinette’s end of the deal a win either. her goal was to prevent hawkmoth from unifying the miraculous and making a reality-altering wish. which is exactly what happened. so she failed her mission. ladybug lost. and to me it’s sort of bizarre that the narrative seems to be framing that as a good thing? ladybug lost, but the new reality that resulted from it is so much better than the old one, and she is actively choosing to lie in order to protect the seeming goodness of that reality.

marinette is lying, of course, to protect adrien, which does not feel out of character. we’ve seen her do this before. but it is frustrating to me for precisely that reason. the final battle was meant to highlight how much marinette has grown over the past five seasons, but her choice here highlights the ways she has not grown. starting with syren in season 2, she has witnessed how much it hurts chat noir to be left in the dark and how it weakens their partnership. in that case, she convinced master fu to let him be in the know, and trust was restored. but then she continued a habit of keeping things from him, putting more and more distance between them, till it culminated with kuro neko in s4—a total breakdown of the ladynoir partnership, where chat noir renounced his miraculous. i would have thought that marinette would learn from that experience and realize that keeping people in the dark is harmful and that even if the truth hurts, adrien has a right to know it. but she once again made the decision for him, and when he finally finds out, it will be all the more painful to know that the person he loves and trusts most in the world lied to him. i actually really appreciate that marinette as a protagonist has such a good heart but is still such an imperfect character, so i want to respect this choice as a manifestation of her flawed but good intentions. i just can’t help but be really disappointed that after 5 seasons of making the same mistakes again and again, she has apparently not learned from them, which makes me feel she has not grown the way the writers say she has.

her facing hawkmoth alone for the final battle is supposed to be a sign of that growth—and yes, I can see how she has grown a lot in confidence and capability since her shaky debut as ladybug. but i also feel that her flying solo defies one of the central themes of miraculous: that in the fight against evil, good people need to stand together. just think of the difference between the s4 and the s5 finale. in strike back, ladybug is broken and sobbing because she has lost the miraculous and feels like a failure who is all alone. but then she is buoyed up by her faithful partner and all of paris, who express unbreakable faith in her and vow to stand by her side. that was so powerful! showing that she doesn’t have to be alone, and she’s not supposed to be alone, and that part of being a hero means accepting help and working with others to achieve good goals. this message was a major part of marinette’s character arc in s4 and it’s something that was introduced from the very beginning and has been supported over and over in the show. but then in “re-creation,” she has no team, and she doesn’t need one. which … good for her, I guess? But then why did we have 5 seasons of “you and me against the world” if in the end it was always going to culminate with “I'm sure we can figure out a solution if we work together. You … and me”—referring to Marinette and Gabriel, while Adrien is literally locked in a blank white prison hundreds of miles away?

it just really kills me that in kuro neko, adrien gave up his ring under the assumption that chat noir was not needed—that he was entirely useless to ladybug. and then the narrative proved him right. ladybug did not need chat noir to defeat monarch. she just needed his ring. the writers confirmed in their recent commentary that they had planned a bug noire fusion from the beginning, and they intentionally sidelined adrien so that could happen—they even had to figure out an excuse for why he wouldn’t be there. so they traumatized him with nightmares of destruction and fear of akumatization to ensure that he would once again give up his ring and conveniently remained locked away while bug noire faced down monarch alone.

you could argue that it’s better for adrien to have missed the final battle anyway, since facing his own father would just be even more traumatizing for him. i understand that. (that’s the reason i liked that in the owl house, it ended up being just luz vs belos, and hunter did not have to face him again.) but at the same time it feels so narratively unjust that chat noir—who has been fighting against hawkmoth by ladybug’s side since day 1—has zero part in seeing his mission through to the end. even though it’s all about him. because while marinette is the protagonist, adrien is the connecting piece of the whole story. it’s always been ladybug vs hawkmoth, and adrien is in the middle of them, because he’s both ladybug’s partner and gabriel’s son.

you’d think, logically, that as the connecting piece, Adrien’s decisions would be vital to the plot. That he’d have the power to tip it either way. but instead he is completely stripped of his autonomy—literally, because he’s a senti, and also symbolically in the narrative, because he’s simply removed from the equation. Like, he’s still central to the equation but he has no say in it. It’s all about him but he’s not even present. Everyone is fighting for him but he can’t fight for himself. Everyone is speaking for him but he doesn’t even have a voice.

the finale kind of sets up marinette and gabriel as narrative foils of each other, showing how they have the same motivation—to make adrien happy. and they make the same decision to protect that goal. which is interesting, sure, but also kind of effed up to me? i’m not sure what to take from the idea of the protagonist mirroring the antagonist in this way. that’s been done loads of times, but in this context, for a child audience, i don’t know what to make of it. what kind of message that is supposed to send to the children who are the primary audience of this show? ladybug is a good guy, and in the end, she’s just like the villain because they both love adrien and want to protect him. so that’s why she agrees to tell everyone the bad guy was a hero. ????

that gabriel/marinette parallel leaves adrien to parallel emilie, which makes sense and is fitting but also just sort of … depressing and again, lowkey effed up. that adrien ends up with the same narrative role as a corpse in a coffin. almost, like, macguffin-esque—a thing that motivates the agents of the story but has no agency itself. despite him being so central to both sides of the main conflict, his decisions don’t affect the outcome. because he doesn’t have the option to make any. because he’s not even present. both gabriel and marinette made a life-altering decision for adrien, thinking it was best for him, without considering that what’s best for him is to know his own story and make his own choices. him getting the rings was somewhat relieving, but it also felt like kind of a slap in the face. because it’s like, “look, adrien’s free! he has his amok and no one can control him anymore!” but, like, how free is a person who is living a lie? will he ever experience true autonomy, or will his life continue to be dictated by the decisions others make for him? will the narrative give him decision-making power or will his role continue to be symbolic?

one thing that makes this all extra dissatisfying is that Adrien literally does not have the option of getting closure with his father, because he’s dead. maybe a dramatic reveal in the middle of the final battle would not be the best way to go about it, but now he can’t have any sort of closure. in the owl house, it didn’t feel necessary for hunter to be present in the belos takedown because he already had his confrontation with belos in graveyard possession scene. belos tried to physically control him, and hunter broke free, and spoke his mind, and as traumatizing at is all was, it was good for him to be able to do that. it would’ve been so nice if adrien also had that opportunity. if he did break free from his father’s control, either by overcoming akumatization or the control of his amok somehow. or if not that, if he were just able to have one honest conversation with his father about emilie. like he did with his alt self in the paris special. it was so significant for the writers that bug noire detransformed and spoke to gabriel as marinette. why couldn’t adrien have done that? Marinette is the one to tell Gabriel that Adrien wouldn’t want him to make the wish and hurt someone else, that Adrien has made peace with his grief, that he has learned to cherish his mother’s memory without living in the past. wouldn’t that be even more powerful coming from adrien himself? if adrien was part of that final confrontation just as himself, we could even still have bug noire play a primary role.

i get that adrien being part of the battle is a risk, since we saw in chat blanc one option of how it could play out. but we also saw in the collector another potential way adrien might respond to learning that his father is hawkmoth—charging into battle by ladybug’s side. especially if he was given time to process the idea beforehand. it’s not impossible. you’d just have to compose the scene and its buildup a different way. so honestly it feels sort of lazy to just remove him for the sake of ease? and also sort of a waste of narrative potential? the villain being the father of one of the main characters is such an interesting plot element. imagine if luke skywalker did not ever face darth vader. if he never even learned that vader was his father. or if he learned that fact after vader’s death, which was the result of a confrontation he was not present for.

of course, i know adrien is not the protagonist. marinette is. and of course i want her to be empowered by the story. but i’m getting a little tired of what i see as kind of cheap feminism in ML. like, girl power for the sake of visibility so the writers can pat themselves on the back about it, if that makes sense? this show does have so much good feminist power with a strong female lead who has realistic flawless and a big heart, who overcomes self-doubt and other struggles, and who has proven time and again to be a smart, capable leader who has earned the trust of everyone on her team. but all of that sometimes feels undercut by the narrative treatment of adrien—like he has to be put down somehow to elevate marinette. ML has subverted gender roles in a lot of ways by having ladybug lead with her brain while chat noir follows with his heart. and adrien has a lot of other strong feminine associations—the focus on his physical appearance, the expectation of perfection and obedience, his soft and gentle nature, his romanticism, etc. And one of the biggest ones is all the ways he is trapped, all the ways he is pushed down and made to be submissive. they even depict him as a princess locked in a tower, with marinette as the knight in shining armor to save him from the evil dragon (his father). with adrien in that traditionally feminine role, it would have been empowering to see him to take a leading part in his own liberation. instead, he was locked away both literally and symbolically in favor of a solo bug noire confrontation, so marinette could look like a girlboss in her cool new outfit, taking on the bad guy all by herself, even when it would (imo) fit better with the themes of the show and her own character arc for her to fight alongside her partner. but as Thomas Astruc said, “She's Barbie, he's Ken. You don't like it. I get it. It won't change. Anything else?” (X) it just makes me feel that the writers cared more about the cinematic value and feminist brownie points of that battle than its narrative significance—which i feel could only be increased by adrien’s participation. “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing” … and that is all adrien was allowed to do.

i think a lot of fans at this point are just assuming that whatever feels dissatisfying/off will be fixed in s6. they’re trusting that the writers have a brilliant master plan that we just have to be patient and wait to see come together. idk, maybe i’m just tired. or a little jaded. i think there will be a lot to enjoy in s6, but i’m also prepared for disappointment. i honestly did not love many elements of s4 as well as s5, and i had expectations that weren’t fulfilled there either. i’ve felt let down by the writers many times now, so i expect that many of their future choices will resonate with me. but i still love ML, and I am eager to see how everything will unfold. i’ve also read a lot of other analyses of the s5 finale, and there are great points being made on many sides. this is just my personal interpretation and opinion. i did not like the finale when i first watched it, and after sitting on it for months and trying to evaluate my feelings and look at it logically, i still do not like it lol. if you do, great! this isn’t intended as a personal attack on anyone—just me expressing my two cents, which ended up being more like $20. thanks for bearing with me if you read all this ✌️

#ml #ml s5 #ml s5 spoilers #ml recreation #ml negativity #(not that I think this is particularly negative but like. just in case)#for ppl who are tired of the conversation #anyway. this is how I feel #a lot of this is just stuff i've talked with mar about the last few days especially #if u like the finale I love that for you!! it makes me very sad actually that I dislike it so much #but I cannot get around the fact that it was deeply unsatisfying to me #that ending in no way felt like what the hawkmoth arc had been building toward #I struggle to make sense of a lottt of the central themes of the show with the context that they had always planned #to have marinette face hm alone #and i completely disagree that the finale depicts gabriel losing #him getting to obtain ultimate power and create a wish to rewrite reality at all (no matter what the wish was) IS winning.#that is exactly what ladybug and chat noir had been working to prevent all this time #the aim was never to convince hawkmoth to make a good wish. it was always to keep it from happening at all.#because no one should have that much power #mar's point that origins posits that 'all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing'#and that doing nothing is ALL adrien is allowed to do #is right on the money for me. ml has had such strong themes of working together and depending on your friends - the whole paris special hit #on this - and the culmination of the primary fight of the narrative being marinette on her own is so. odd to me. just really unsatisfying #of course i will watch season 6 and I will hope that these loose ends will be resolved in a satisfying way. i'll hope that marinette comes #clean and she and adrien are able to rebuild their relationship from there. and i'll hope that he is allowed to become at least as active i #the narrative as he used to be (circa seasons 1-3)#but I don't think there's a way for season 6 to make up for the letdown that was the s5 finale.#from the beginning - as soon as you get an inkling that gabe is hm - you think 'oh WHAT is going to happen when adrien finds out'#it's one of the strongest underlying tensions in the narrative - and one of the things that makes the story so interesting #the ladynoir dynamic of 'its us against the world' convinces us that the two of them will work together to take down hm

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obsidianstrawberrymilk · 4 months ago

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You know some anti-JC stuff I'm like. Okay I disagree with you but at the very least I can understand how you would get to that point. JC mistreats WWX? Like, you're wrong, but a (very) selective/biased reading of the text makes it *possible*. JC abuses JL? Again, you're wrong, but a specific reading of and ignoring the cultural context of the text makes it *possible*. JC is a bad sect leader? Like, again, biased reading of the text, but.... sure. Whatever.

Some things though, I'm like. Literally what are you talking about. "JC forced JYL to marry JZX" it is an entire plot point that he did not do that. The book tells you the exact opposite.

"JC didn't rebuild Lotus Pier/the Jiangs" okay so who did? Because you understand the whole clan was gone, right? It was him, WWX who was getting drunk off his ass then dying, Jiang Yanli who eventually married out and also died, and a husk of Lotus Pier which had still been damaged and altered by the war. They had.... a few buildings? What the fuck else do you call what he did than rebuilding?

"JC never protected WWX" it is an entire plot point that he lost his core doing that. That is a thing the book tells you. He covers WWX with his body against his own mother and Zidian during the siege on Lotus Pier.

#sighs. w anti jcs im like wow we are not looking at the same media huh!!#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #founder of diabolism #jiang cheng #mdzs jc #wei wuxian #jiang wanyin #wei ying #jiang yanli #jin zixuan #jin ling

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blueroyalgirl · 1 month ago

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RWRB 1 (because we can say that now, ahh! 🤭) shot June-August 2022. They filmed reshoots in January 2023.

one of my favourite: nick’s hair looks so sksksjsn good unghhhh moments 💗

Reshoots were done in-part because Miguel was recast, and also because Matthew wanted additional footage for some scenes, which isn’t uncommon.

It was this list of scenes in which Nick wears a wig - because he’s filming another project - that inspired this post, and then I was also re-reading some old interviews, and I wanted to put them all in one place!

Nick wears a wig during the reshoots because he was filming Mary & George (He shot Bottoms > RWRB > TIOY > M&G with very few breaks, if any. TIOY wrapped in December 2022, M&G began shooting in January 2023, and the reshoots for RWRB were also in January 2023.)

If there’s a silly!weird thing to know about me when it comes to movies and shows I love, it’s that I will spot an inconsistency like a wig/sudden hair change (hello twilight saga wig fiasco, it’s been over 15 years and I still know all the lore, and think about those fuck ass wigs every time I rewatch those addictive movies 🤪).

Nick wears a wig for RWRB reshoots during these scenes:

The television broadcast on the balcony.

Henry and Alex see each other for the first time during the receiving line.

Matthew reveals that their first meeting on-screen was originally going to be in front of the cake, before he realized the audience would need more context.

"The initial meeting on screen was when they met up in front of the cake but I realized watching the film that I needed to introduce and create a sense of animosity between them earlier and so that's how the receiving line scene came about," shares Matthew. These additional scenes were then completed in January 2023.

The receiving line scene is also a wonderful example of the wildness Taylor brings to the screen as Alex, something that Matthew says he never needed to coach Taylor on.

Henry on the couch during NYE.

Also again briefly while looking sad after Alex/girls kiss during NYE.

Matthew Lopez: It was a hard-won scene. We actually filmed it in two sections, six months apart. We got all of the scene work and the beats down, and we got what we thought was sufficient party atmosphere beats. And we started to cut the film together, and I realized we just didn’t have enough. And so, we went back in January for a few days of reshoots on a couple of other things, and I got them to rebuild part of the set for me. And we brought in just a bunch of people, and we just had a big party and shot it.

That was one of the great lessons for me as a first-time filmmaker, thinking I had enough and realizing that I didn’t, and then being given the opportunity to go back and get more of what I needed. But one of the blessings of that was because I had cut the scene already, then I got to plan the new shots very carefully. We got to invent moments and grab them.

Henry arrives at the DNC to surprise Alex (but then it’s Nick’s real hair when they get up to the hotel room).

When they’re leaving the gates of Kensington Palace to go to the V&A.

Henry crying in the car after the leak.

wig on the left, nick’s real hair on the right.

Henry sitting at the piano (Alex comes to sit with him and they talk - when Henry is seen playing the piano, it’s Nick’s real hair. Only the conversation is a reshoot/wig).

When Nick went back to do RWRB reshoots, he had just wrapped TIOY. During reshoots, he shot this piano scene with Taylor, where he says the line as Henry: “they loved the idea of me” which is like inception… or something. But just adds to the crazy long invisible string of Nick’s career! 💫 he then of course, goes back to shooting M&G, and we all know about the connection there…

When firstprince go out onto the balcony after their confrontation with The King.

Henry on stage when they win the election.

• Deleted scenes: in BTS photos, Nick is seen in a wig while wearing an apron for what would have been the Thanksgiving scene.

If I missed any, please let me know, and I will update.

I conclude my list with some final favourite moments: Henry’s perfect prince hair 💙

my favourite blondie cupcake moments irl from the rwrb 1 era 💖:

the day we get another one of these BTS videos, and Nick has Henry hair skdkdkdk 🤭

Seeing Nick’s long luscious locks out and about, while he’s been filming He-Man right now, I am begging, BEGGING he continues to take his M&G girlies everywhere he goes. They did insane work with him on that show (Rita 🙂‍↕️) and are currently working with him again on MOTU.

the prettiest prince 👑 Nick’s hair is beautiful 💛

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pumpkinpenguin · 4 months ago

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TFA: Turtles in Disguise

New Beginnings: Part One (you're here!) - Part Two

okay first of all i'm so sorry if some panels are messier than others! i was drawing with wrist wraps so i had limited mobility gluhh

second, i'm so excited because i've been rolling this au around in my head like a big glass marble for two weeks and finally started working on it!!

for some context: this au is going off my own timeline for things so ignore canon years okay? okay! ( •̀ ω •́ )b✧ in this au the turtle bros are in their early twenties! they all work for the EPF and mutants have become somewhat accepted by society (they prefer to work in secret still). fugitoid is here because i'm pissed that his head was left floating in space in canon. bishop got him back and donnie helped rebuild his body

april and casey are in uni so they're not as present at first but they'll make their way in eventually! dw!! ^^

idk how often i'll update ╮(╯▽╰)╭ but please feel free to ask me about it! i'd love to talk abt it even if i have a period where i have to work on something else (/▽＼);

#tmnt #tmnt 2012 #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt donatello #tmnt leonardo #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt raphael #tmnt bishop #tmnt fugitoid #transformers animated #transformers #maccadam #tfa bumblebee #bumblebee #excuse my shit hand writing lmaooo #ttid au

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simonsoys · 5 days ago

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Sick on the couch today doodling redesigns and thinking about Bernie from the Archie Sonic comics.

I feel like Bernie never really got her own character story like Jules did, which feels like a waste. We know she was top of her class in school, was a soldier on important missions, and is later only ever shown as a housewife.

So I thought the contrast between what we get in the flashbacks with how she's characterized (or lack thereof) in the present could be interesting. Like she was ambitious in her youth, and wanted to break gender stereotypes. She kept getting told she should be more traditional, that she's better suited to being a wife and a mom, but she continues.

Later, after she's a very successful officer in spite of the nay-sayers, she wants to have a family. Now people are telling her she's wasting her career if she "throws it away" to be "just" a wife and mom.

Frustrated by people telling her what's best for her, she eventually decides for herself that she wants to be with her loved ones. I picture this culminating with her deciding to marry Jules.

(Of course it almost immediately gets ripped apart by circumstances out of her control.)

Even after everything she goes through, she has no regrets, because she made the decision. I want to frame her character story as people pushing "career woman" vs. "stay home mom" lifestyles on her, when there is no correct choice except the one she decided was right for her.

If I could give Sally a more concentrated character arc, it would've been her evaluation of the old Acorn traditions she fought to preserve, versus a new way of doing things. I think Sally sees Kingdom Acorn as its people and its values, while Max sees it as a physical place and its history.

This is a comic that regularly has King Max and Queen Alicia remind Sally of what her expected, passive role is. As soon as his son shows up, Max throws the crown at him despite being completely unqualified. Sally's autonomy and qualifications are regularly dismissed and discouraged.

There's a clear divide in the politics of the kids who grew up in Knothole versus the old folks from Mobotropolis. Maybe not all traditions should be brought back as they rebuild.

While Sally is grappling with her frustration, I think it'd be nice if there was a character she could talk to that's already dealt with the stifling old traditions, even if for one scene. She's looking for advice on what the "strong" thing to do is in this situation, but Bernie says the strongest thing she can do is not let anyone tell her who or what she is.

I think the typical "girl power" message would pick the more badass role, but in-context that alone isn't what Sally needs to be free. Bernie could be a good foil to Alicia. Alicia who passively entered her significant political role, versus Bernie who actively walked away from it.

#also importantly i HC that Bernie made the racecar bed for sonic since he loved cars when he was 2 #and that he just pretends to like it because she worked hard on it and doesn't want to make her sad #i used to want to make her do something big and important last time I drew her in my 20s #but now that i'm in my 30s I'm just like 'yeah Bernie get that mom life'#'I'd prioritize family too after all the unrelenting horrors'#and for the record i don't think bernie's choice would necessarily be the right choice for sally too #long post #archie sonic #bernadette hedgehog #simon says a lot of things #bernie hedgehog #what was my art tag again

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tainbocuailnge · 3 months ago

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THING IS i think shadowbringers as abortion narrative (post being referenced) has some basis as genuine read but you have to take it in the context of emet selch being an abusive paternal figure absolutely seething that the future belongs to his children instead of him (note how almost all the shades in amaurot talk about how all the work adults do to improve the world is for the sake of the children that will inherit it) and trying to use wol('s body) for his own goals of rebuilding and maintaining the illusionary glorious past (=fascism), which extends into vauthry (emet-selch's creation, his child metaphorically albeit not literally) showcasing the worst most self serving aspects of that belief the world should belong to him, abandoning and looking down on all the people who relied on him as a leader the same way emet-selch looks down on the garlemald that he raised for behaving the way he raised it and throwing a huge bitchfit the moment someone even slightly disagrees with him because can't they see he alone is the chosen one, and ran'jit raising generations of girls to offer their lives (bodies) to eulmore then saying young girls are simply tragically doomed to giving their lives(bodies) and denying ryne all self-determination just because her body happens to have traits of [the mother goddess], and of course contrasted with exarch as someone who is a loving if distant paternal figure to lyna and so convinced that the world belongs to the people that come after him that he has to be reminded there's room for him in it too, and thancred eventually setting his own hangups aside to support ryne's autonomy. and ardbert is the coat hanger for wol's light abortion yeah.

#efksiv

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tritoch · 9 months ago

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i've seen a lot of people complain about the dawntrail final dungeon for being a thing that we have basically already done and i understand and in many ways agree with that complaint but i do think it varies from the usual in ways that are actually pretty compelling.

spoilers for dawntrail follow, natch.

like okay in amaurot and the dead ends and the lunar subterrane (okay this is definitely a well CBU3 has gone to too many times), the premise is the fights you're engaging in are all kind of historical. behold, the dooms of amaurot. tremble before ra-la, a real sphinx that actually existed once somewhere. face durante, just as golbez faced him in real life.

and accordingly, because all the fighting is supposed to match the energy of the dungeons, these are moments of panic and peril. the world is ending. the worlds are ending. the kingdom is on fire. there's a solemn villain voiceover to really drive the point home (we just wanted to play...on da amaurotine playground...). amaurot is falling and look how sad it is. every world died and look how painful it was. my best buddy golbez died and it was really sad. everything is Fucked Up.

what's really fun about alexandria by contrast, particularly in the first part, is that things are fine, actually! sphene's here (well, "heah"), and we love her, and she smiles because we smile and we smile for her :). oh no alexandria is falling and it's so sad and noble because of everyone's chivalric sacrifices :( oh yay we're rebuilding from the ashes :)

it's a beautiful, tragic, noble story. and the whole time no one's talking to you, not like normal. sphene's kind of reciting the lyrics to memory from cats listlessly but everyone in her memories is talking to each other, not to you. none of them are interacting with you. you're not fighting alongside her against her enemies or taking down conjured horrors from the past.

no, the whole time you're being reminded of one very specific fact.

You're foreign. You're not from here. This is not for you. This is not yours. This peace was not yours and never will be. This grief, this hope. You chose otherwise. You were offered the chance to be Alexandrian. You rejected it. Stay over there. Stay out. You are not wanted here.

in what i personally choose to interpret as a bit of dark comedy, when things start breaking down, it's literally one of the only words you still understand.

ultimately what distinguishes alexandria from amaurot or the dead ends (intentional "this is why i'm sad" slideshows made specifically for the warrior of light to experience) or the lunar subterrane (accidental memory recreation) is that you are choosing to invade sphene's memories. you are doing a cool little backdoor heist at the luxor casino by causing chaos all over the strip before you crawl through the vents to get to the mainframe or whatever.

but in the context of dawntrail, alexandria is the invading power, the rapacious techno-dystopia that intends to carry out forever wars so it can use the literal souls of its enemies to power its treat machines and which not so coincidentally spawned in north america. and alexandria has literally invaded both tuliyollal and yyasulani at this point. so the conceit of the memory guardians helps make clear the hegemonic logic at play. you are a foreign entity. you are not a subject of the state. your life has no value. you must be removed.

or, if removal proves impossible, exterminated.

#ffxiv #dawntrail spoilers #alexandria ffxiv #endwalker spoilers #shadowbringers spoilers #okay but for real i need the next final dungeon to be not this #one yearns for the simple drama of a good ala mhigo #dawntrail #meta: durai report

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ffsanaaaa · 1 month ago

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I finally rewatched Brave New World now that's on Disney+, and watching it after Thunderbolts hits different 😭

Something that got my attention was Sam saying that he knows and has been working with Joaquin for 3 years... EXCUSE ME???? what happened in these 3 years??!! I really really need to know and I need details!!!

My initial guess is that he focused on helping the expatriates after the whole flagsmasher thing, a job which I assume involved less ass whooping and more public appearances and speeches, not much different from Steve's job at the beginning as a patriotic symbol and icon, but I like to believe that Sam had more agency and that it was actually this moment of his life that changed his opinion about the government which is very different to the way he used to think in civil war (needless to say that doesn't mean he's the government lap dog who will abide with everything, the whole movie is him going against the president orders to prove Isaiah's innocence).

I'd go as far as to say that this period where Sam was essentially a politician was what inspired Bucky to become a congressman, Bucky himself told Sam at the hospital how Sam gives people people something to aspire to, who's to say that he's not talking about himself as well???

Ok, now I want to talk more in depth about their relationship.

Sam's first scene is at a bar where the bartender clearly not only knows who he is but knows him, and giving with how comfortable Sam is about the beers being on the house I'd say he's probably in Delacroix. And let's not forget how Sam bought TWO beers but we never got to see to whom was the second one (seriously, why??),it could be literally anyone like Sarah or Joaquin but since for some reason they decided to omit the person's identity I choose to believe it's Bucky. 😁

All that to say that, considering this first scene happens 5 months prior to the main events in the movie, for me it's clear that during these 3 years Sam and Bucky only got closer, and since we never got to see where Sam is living I don't think is too much of a stretch to say that they live together.

Now let's grab eachothers hands and be strong because the next topic is gonna hurt 💔

I know lots of other sambucky shippers have pointed out how the fact that Sam gave no additional context regarding Sterns shows how Sam kept Bucky updated about the mission, but that also means that Sam deliberately chose to not talk about Ross asking him to rebuild the Avengers until he could do it in person, showing just how important and sensitive was this topic to him.

So imagine Sam finding out that Bucky is in a new avengers group not by Bucky telling him in person, not by him even texting or calling him, but through the news on TV, just like he found out about the government chosing Walker to be the new Captain America. Oh, and guess what? Walker is on the team as well. 🫠

#sam wilson #bucky barnes #sambucky #buckysam #marvel #mcu #captain america #winter soldier #captain america brave new world #brave new world #thunderbolts

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hcneymooners · 3 months ago

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hello, hello.

i've been debating making this post, but i’ve been thinking a lot about how my work often references God, religion, faith in general, and all the things in between. as someone raised in both the south and caribbean culture, i thought maybe this could be helpful for others trying to navigate queerness and religion—especially the mess and clarity that come with deconstruction.

note: this isn’t meant to tell anyone how to feel about faith or how to navigate their own path—this is just what’s been true for me. if it helps even one person feel a little less alone or a little more seen, then that’s enough. read with grace, take what you need, and leave the rest behind.

for a long time, i aimed to be good. good at school. good to people even when it meant letting them take advantage of me. i convinced myself that as long as i was pure, i would be okay. that it was that simple, and that somehow, i’d figured it out before anyone else. but i didn’t account for anger. or desire. or being a lesbian. what did lana say in that one song? “we had a deal and i fucked it up when / i made the decision to become someone.” so here's a little of my survival guide. for context, i was raised roman catholic.

first comes the work of reshaping the imagery. i released the God of my childhood and awakened the God of my womanhood. i began to replace “him” with “her,” then “Him” with “Her.” i already know some might see that as blasphemous, but it made praying easier which was something i wasn’t ready to lose. the universe is God to me. the universe is love, and so is God, and so i trust Her. She is Him, and He is Her. the universe, to me, can also be a woman who has big eyes and a dark face and makes me feel like i might be staring into myself. it’s easier to come back to God when i picture it differently. when i strip the man to the bone and rebuild into the woman i see, it’s so much easier to pray. she feels like my mother.

"offline or online, i am still connected." i think that’s how i feel about faith; i’m still connected to believing in something. it’s just that what i believe has changed and expanded. it doesn’t harm me. it helps me return to myself and shows me the way home. it’s easier to pray to Mary when i’m scared on a plane, to tell her that i know i’ll make it through because she wouldn’t place me in something i could not get through.

an altar can be anywhere. i used to feel guilty about not having a bible verse in my bio or the bible app on my phone. but i don’t need those things to make my prayer real. you don’t either. your love will pour out and stain the feet of the God before you, and They will wipe your mouth. They will understand that it’s prayer.

physicality. this was important to me when i was unpacking the feeling of being wrong or impure. if the universe condensed into one person, i’d ask her to lie down with me. we’d be pressed knee to knee and leg to leg. i’d think of her hips on top of mine, wide and inviting like the moon. i guess we are naked if i take a step back, but it’s not at all sexual. it’s just the understanding that she is holding me. babying me. and i’ve always wanted someone to. i will feel her touch me, and i’ll try to say thank you, because gratitude has been engraved in me. my mouth will move and nothing will come out, but she'll hear me.

the talking can be constant if you need it to be. i’m always speaking to God, about God, my understanding of it. it’s not organized. i haven’t constructed anything bigger than myself. restructuring kind of feels like waking up tangled in a spider’s web and standing carefully, your feet sticky as you navigate the threads. i took care not to break some of them but snapped others, creating space for new weaving. God becomes synonymous with the world, and you will find faith everywhere.

others may judge, but stick to what works for you.

another realization: it never really leaves you, and that’s fine. it’s also fine if you want to hold on.

sometimes faith blends. i work with water and have my crystals, listen to protection frequencies, and still buy my virgin Mary candle in all of its pink and radiant glory to light in the bathroom. i pray every time i board a plane, after a nightmare, or whenever a wave of unease hits. each time, it’s a Hail Mary.

also: resources. my God, find people who interpret with grace. below are some of my favorite blogs.

has content about faith: @ginwhitlock, @boykeats, @ohholydyke, ethel cain when she was active and i'm being so serious. has content that has made me see the world differently & renew faith in myself: @podencos @watermotif @cocainejuul @kristina100000 @eatpussypraylove @chloeinletters @anxeious

most importantly, i’m taking your hand until you can hold your own. i’m looking at you, because i really mean this: there is nothing wrong with you. you were nine. or thirteen. or fifteen. or twenty-one. or twenty-three. or. i’m saying it because i’d have given anything to hear that back then.

it would’ve been Heaven to me.

if you want to reach out, my inbox and messages are always open.

love you.

allyson. x

#mine ; 🐎.#🐇 ; about ally.#🦷 ; ally’s question for the culture.#catholiccore #catholicism #deconstructing religion #lesbian #sapphic #queer #queer religion #queer faith #spirituality

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bigfatbreak · 2 years ago

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I see a lot of people talking about what Chloé and Kim did, and I think I'm missing something? What did they do?

In a more recent episode "Derision," (sloppy sum up below)

its discovered that the reason Marinette is so stunted, awkward, and generally staccato about dating Adrien in spite of genuinely liking him, is because she was a major victim of Chloe's the year prior. During that year, Chloe threatened anyone who would attempt to befriend her, isolating Marinette completely, only having a friend in a girl named Socqueline who would relentlessly defend her.

At the time, Marinette had a crush on Kim, and so Chloe, knowing Kim loves pranks, had him "prank" her at the pool as a fake confession. As Kim offered a fake, heartfelt confession in return for Marinette's own, he gifted Marinette a box full of spiders, causing her to flip out and fall into the pool from the high end. Sabine and Chloe were filming the whole thing, and planned on posting it on social media to openly mock her. The only thing stopping them is Socqueline, who legitimately kicks the phone out of Chloe's hands.

This leads into why Marinette is so bad at confessions. After a year of being harassed, bullied, and isolated, she takes a chance on love, and is only horrifically and publicly mocked. Her attitude towards Adrien makes more sense with this context - deeply and passionately loving him, but constantly hesitating on the last step, as last time was so devastating. She's got some severe trauma around confessing and connecting with love interests, as she assumes they're always going to mock her in the end.

I really wish this episode had been planned earlier in the series, because it DOES give good insight as to how bad Marinette had it, and would've been great context for the audience. Not long after, Socqueline had to move away, too, so Marinette had to rebuild her entire social network from the ground up, with several people in the class who didn't mind humiliating her for their own amusement.

Also I really liked Chat Noir/Adrien going sicko mode on Kim. PLEASE kill that boy Adrien. I am BEGGING YOU. He tries to cataclysm Kim in the fucking face. I was thrilled. I thrive off negativity

Using this as groundwork in the dad villain au, having all that shit happen to Marinette alongside losing Sabine essentially made her go "wow I am going to quit school and work at my dad's business. bye" which is super ironic because that is ALL gabriel wants adrien to do lmao

#replies #a sum up bc a lot of my audience hasnt watched the newer eps #and in their defense neither have i hfffhfhf #okay i skim them but i work full time #its hard finding the minutes to spare

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starsofarda · 6 months ago

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Ok, since @starshadeemilyart has inspired me, here's a spinoff, or several, of my post about the Finweans + Thingol in the Shire in the Third Age. Also PLS CHECK HER ART, IT'S FEFE FIGHTING LOBELIA SACKVILLE-BAGGINS!!!!!

Anyway, here's what I have to offer.

It's VERY long, so I am putting this under cut

MAGLOR'S HOBBIT EXTREME MAKEOVER

Well, as seen in my OG post, Maglor gets picked up on the way to Hobbiton. He is wearing shabby black robes and has seaweed in his hair, bc by now he IS the beach cryptid everyone talk about. At least, Hobbits know of him and treat him like we treat fairies.

It is a bit of a surprise for the Hobbits to know that he is technically a prince and lord and whatnot, and they take a good look at him and then at his brothers/father/cousins/uncle/whoever is Thingol and decide that the local cryptid needs a makeover. The Hobbit Way.

So Maglor gets gently bullied into following the Hobbit ladies, who insist that "This is for your own good, Mr. Cryptid, no gentleHobbit wears seaweed in their hair, also what is the last time you had a proper bath?"

They have to find the biggest bathtub ever known to Hobbit, which they do.

It takes the Hobbit ladies a good 5 hours, interlaced with Maglor trying to say "but my ladies, I have male body parts, you surely would be ashamed!" and "you really do not need to extend your kindness to me", to which he gets a "we have seen it all" because they are elderly grandmas who think the Cryptid is their child or something and have had countless kids and grandkids, and also "once again, it is for your own good!".

Well. Maglor comes back all cleaned up and dressed head to toe in Hobbit fashion: white shirt, red vest, navy coat and black trousers, hair neatly tied in a low ponytail (the grandmas had been waiting this moment since the first time they saw Maglor Being a Cryptid).

Feanor has to commend the grandmas, he offers to repair and rebuild everything they need, but he gets shushed with a "it's nothing, we were planning that for years and also you gave the nasty Sackville-Bagginses a run for their money and that's more than enough".

They also polished Maglor's harp properly.

The contrast with the Elvish robes the others are wearing is a bit jarring, but they all agree that it's an upgrade from "Seaweed Elf". They also commend the use of red, which is actually the family color (the Hobbits did not know that, they just thought it would fit him).

Later on Maglor will keep the Hobbit fashion, albeit slightly more adapted to himself and to Elvish customs.

RUSSINGON WEDDING

Yes, I mentioned Russingon Shire wedding and @starshadeemilyart made a brilliant piece on that, pls check it!

Anyway.

Fingon is called "The Valiant" for many reasons, but I am 1000% sure that in this context he is The Valiant for proposing:

Publicly at the Green Dragon

In front of all Elves and Hobbits

In front of his own father Fingolfin

Most importantly in front of Feanor himself.

Yes, Mae said yes. Of course he did, there was a lot of hugging and kissing and crying.

Yes, both Fefe and Golfin wanted to go kinslayer mode on their own offspring, but the assorted cheers from the Hobbits, consequent flower throwing and cousins/siblings joining in shenanigans stopped them.

Well, now the wedding is on. The family starts arguing over EVERYTHING.

From the robes to wear, to the circlets, to the jewelry, to the wedding rings, to the venue, to the food and drinks.

IDK if you have in mind the Reddit posts about the most inane arguments over a wedding. Yep, that's the Finweans.

Russingon NEARLY regret saying anything, plans to just elope are being drawn. That until the happy couple is dragged away from the drama by the Cottons and surrounded by Hobbits who have also dragged Bilbo out of his Hobbit hole for his (granted, very limited) knowledge about Elvish customs.

Mae and Fingon kindly fill in what they remember of their own parents' weddings and indeed the groom&groom's families have to participate somehow.

F&F get threatened on letting THINGOL organize the wedding and they would rather face Morgoth again than let him do ANYTHING for the wedding of their own offspring.

The Hobbits will supply food and drinks and venue, they are adamant about that. And ofc the suits/wedding rings for Russingon. Things are going great.

Curufin gets to build the altar and the decorations together with Feanor, Caranthir is in charge of the budget, Argon, Amras & Amrod are the ones spreading word and invites around the Shire. And ofc EVERYONE is going to show up, it's an (C)EventTM.

Celegorm helps hunting/gathering the beasts for the banquet, Maglor is in charge of the music - he has to be reminded that it is a JOYOUS event tho.

Fingolfin gets dragged away by Thingol and the Gaffer to take care of the flowers. No way they are letting any micromanaging maniac near the happy couple.

I have no idea of what Turgon does, but it's definitely in the "organizing the invitees list and the guestbook" area.

Gandalf supplies the fireworks.

The wedding is a blast, Fefe and Golfin get to bring their sons to the altar. Paladin Took, the Thane, to officiate the wedding.

It's a beautiful spring wedding, at the end of which Russingon get to ride off to their honeymoon into the sunset.

They come back and find a fully built house for them - Curufinwe and Junior had a lot of free time. It's a mix between an Elvish palace and a Hobbit hole. Russingon loves that to bits.

THINGOL AND THE GAFFER

Well. Thingol, amidst the Finwean shenanigans feels a little left out, until he spots the Gaffer tending to his garden. And he gets sad, because he is missing Doriath, he is missing his wife and he is missing everything.

So much loss over a rock.

Well, not even the spite bet done when Feanor fought Lobelia went well. But he knows gardening quite a lot, his wife was a Maia dammit! And the Gaffer is struggling with some sort of invasive species of weed that's killing his roses.

And he's like "my wife was the best, I know a thing or two, may I help?" and the Gaffer is like "yeah sure, I tried everything, the bloody weed keeps appearing, I am out of my wits."

And Thingol manages to draw out whatever power/knowledge he has left and the weed disappears in a couple of weeks. He and the Gaffer bond over gardening and Thingol becomes a lot more chill, but not chill enough to say sorry about the Silmarils.

Thingol loves pipeweed. The gardens in the Shire bloom beautifully and it almost looks like Doriath is there again. He does have to tone it down a few notches to not attract Sauron's servants tho.

Even the Finweans love and appreciate what happened with the gardens. Ofc they would love for him to say sorry about the Silmaril, but that's never gonna happen.

Thingol becomes the (second) best gardener. He lays down his crown for the farmer's hat. Somehow the Gamgees are blessed with everything needed to let nature grow and the strength and resilience needed to last an eternity.

CELEDHEL WEDDING

And well. If the Russingon wedding was not enough to send Feanor and Fingolfin's blood pressures to ungodly levels, now Aredhel and Celegorm arrive in front of them saying that they are getting married.

They both are about to say something when Turgon stands up in all his height and proclaims: "THESE TWO DO NOT NEED YOUR BLESSINGS BECAUSE THEY ALREADY HAVE MINE. i WOULD RATHER HAVE CELEGORM AS IN-LAW, THAN THE WRETCHED ELF WHO DEFILED MY SISTER."

He also adds that maybe having Celegorm as father figure will help Maeglin be less depressed when he gets re-embodied.

The only complaint Celegorm has is that Huan will not be there. When questioned about Huan, he responds that it was the name of his dear dog.

At the word "dog" Old Maggots gets summoned. He is bringing a puppy with him, ofc of the age when puppies can be on their own. He presents the puppy to the Elf. "It ain't magic, or trained yet, but if I lost me dogs I'd be called Mad Maggots! Hope your ladywife loves dogs too!"

And Celegorm looks at the puppy, looks at Old Maggots, picks up the puppy and presents it to Aredhel with teary eyes. "LOOK WE HAVE THE RINGBEARER! I AM ALREADY IN LOVE WITH THIS VERY GOOD BOY!"

And Aredhel looks at them both and sas "aw of course! He's going to be the best boy and ringbearer!"

And they both think it will end there.

Oh how wrong they are. The dog is being named Huan II and Celegorm spends time with him And Aredhel to train him properly, whilst they wait for the second wedding drama to unfold.

Tasks are distributed more or less in the same way as the Russingon wedding, this time however Fingon distracts Maedhros from micromanaging EVERYTHING.

Ofc groom and bride are dressed in Hobbit fashion.

Paladin Took is there to officiate once again.

The banquet however is a RIOT. There is a lot of drinking and dancing, if watching Celegorm and Aredhel stomping happily on the ground can be defined dancing.

It is there that finally Fefe and Golfin find it in their heart to get along. Like, properly get along, no more fighting unless it's petty small stuff and no more insulting each other.

Right before the wedding Namo decides to make Maeglin being re-embodied, he gets picked up by Gandalf, taken to Hobbiton, cue family reunion and being filled with anything happening. At least Maeglin is happy that his mother is actually marrying because she wants to and she is happy.

---

That's what I have so far. I have something cooking for Curufin and Celebrimbor, but I still have to elaborate on that.

#tolkien #the silmarillion #the lord of the rings #feanorians #finweans #finweans adventures in middle earth #thingol #hobbits #lotr crack #silm crack

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thecoolerliauditore · 8 months ago

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do you have a specific thing you'd like to talk about but haven't found the opportunity (analysis/observations/anything else) etc? if so can you respond to this ask with that :3 and if not you can share some images you'd like to post or something

alright finally calling on this

Let's talk about Wild Life alliances and "family". (long post)

"family" is a word that gets repeatedly thrown around this season and, unlike in LimL, it's not just limited to being one group's running gag. While the Clockers parodied the family dynamic, Wild Life alliances revolve more around the concept of family itself, and the differences in how each player treats that word can be viewed as telling of their own understanding of "family".

The most noticeable example of family as a theme in WL is from Joel, who literally looks into the camera and says that's what his theme is going to be this season.

Joel's understanding of "family" is, in a lot of ways, a little shallow. First of all he's doing it all within the context of Fast and Furious references, which is funny but on a character level could be seen as him mimicking media instead of really understanding what he's doing.

His "family" with Gem doesn't really operate any differently from any other alliance he's had -- if anything, his behaviour changes in relation to people outside of Gem are infinitely more notable. All throughout the season he has gone out of his way to be helpful, such as when he teaches Skizz to crit, or teaches Tango about the effectiveness of lava buckets due to the gimmick, or when he helps BET rebuild their trap that they just tried to kill him with.

Even more notable are his interactions with Jimmy, who DID kill him, but he remains amicable to even after yelling at him that he hated him just an episode ago (for, again, trying to kill him).

This all goes back to Joel's original monologue that bought up the family theming in the first place -- to Joel, family look out for eachother, are nice to eachother and put eachother first (not completely unlike what Scott values, which I'll get to in a sec). But he's not actually doing this for "family", he's being nice so that people are less likely to kill him, and he believes embracing "family" and being nicer will help him perform better.

What Joel actually wants is to shed his antagonism, so he's gone the opposite direction into being super nice and forgiving. "Family" is more or less a filler concept to help him realise it.

But Gem, on the other hand, has a very different approach to "family". When she asks Etho to the family, she expects loyalty and when he allows Pearl to grab food from Gem's barn, Gem scolds him and lets him know "we're not friends with Pearl".

Gem's idea of "family" is a lot more concrete than Joels i.e. she naturally expects to be listened to and to move as a unit.

"Control" is an interesting factor in terms of Gem's behaviour in this season, as she seems to believe it's a vital aspect to "family", as seen previously with her scolding Etho. She also yells at Scar for letting Jimmy threaten to kill Joel, telling him "no! we're supposed to be family!" and to "control your guy!"

Which is, strangely, reminiscent of a conversation she had with Scott where she asked him to "control" Pearl as well.

Maybe it's due to Gem being newer and therefore more naive or the fact that the use of the word "family" was spearheaded by Joel and Gem simply adopted it, but it's curious to me where the line between "family" and "alliance" are for Gem. It's hard to tell for sure because her control in Gem and the Scotts really was never challenged until Scott's permadeath, and tasks like the zombie task literally put her in control, but it is interesting to me that she is much more verbal about her allies behaviour now than she was before (<-- footnote: this might be partially because she is allied with Etho right now who is insane this season)

She also is the one that tends to say stuff relating specifically to family out of the two as well, such as "family don't steal from eachother!" and so on.

Gem likes to lead and be in control, and that attitude is reflected in the way she talks about family. I for one would love to see an instance where Gem is the one who needs to be "controlled", I think it'd be enlightening. Right now she feels to me like a kid parroting things adults have told her, since she is absolutely a more rebellious spirit and challenges when people who Aren't her have more control than she thinks they ought to (such as when Etho mentions building his base out of copper and she asks him why he has to listen to Bdubs).

Speaking of family and control, that brings us to the big heavy hitter faction, GGG(GG).

Early on, Impulse declares the alliance to be his family and since then, although the word "family" itself hasn't popped up as much compared to Gem and Joel, it certainly has been paraphrased. i.e. Scott's compared himself twice now to a parental figure, once more generally and the second time specifically towards Pearl. He also labels Cleo as the other parent, which quietly acknowledges their place as the alliance's pseudo-leadership.

Impulse saying this is. Dubious to me at best, since he says this and then goes on to be his usual, independently moving self after this episode. He even agrees with Pearl to keep his farm a secret from Scott and Cleo, which isn't very "family-like" at all.

We know from the past that Impulse is a good liar and has a more or less traditional view on family if his DL run with Bdubs is anything to go by. I do think Impulse has some weirdness attached to emotional investment in his alliances, most evident I think in TIES and Gem and the Scotts, but in this case. Ehhh I'm not an Impulse guy I can't draw any conclusion there, but it sure is a strange thing to say!

There is of course also Scott literally saying to Pearl "we're family, whether you want it or not" -- which is quite curious because Pearl Isn't Actually Scott's family. She does have a choice to leave, yet that isn't framed as a possibility.

I think the lines between alliance and family are very blurred for Scott specifically, who quickly named Jimmy as his husband (aka family) in 3L with very little hesitation and claims he "loves everyone". Scott genuinely believes his love for his death game teammates is comparable to that of a family and, possibly enabled through Impulse's words, has become a lot more brazen about it.

Like Gem, I think Scott sees control as a necessary aspect in order for families to function, and as such follows his infantilization of Pearl both through the blatant comparisons of her to a child in his care and through him saying in roundabout ways that she is too emotional to be trusted or too immature/impulsive in her decision-making.

I have relatively less to say about Cleo despite her being Mother Clocker which you'd think would make her more relevant to this discussion, but afaik she's been more or less dodging the "parent" stuff that Scott has been dipping into. Maybe it has something to do with Scott's very detached sitcom-esque perception of what motherhood entails, maybe she's like Etho and has shut it all out after LimL, eitherway lmao.

In short: alliance = family --> those who subscribe apply their concepts of family (e.g. control/discipline, emotional investment) onto their alliances --> dynamics get weird as many who meant to come out with an attitude of "I care for -- or even love -- my teammates" get morphed into treating their teammates as Literally their children or siblings

One alliance that entirely and utterly rejects the "alliance = family" notion is BET (I refuse to write "Tuff Guys" for the entirety of this post).

Right out of the gate they establish that they are more roommates than ride or die, and that everyone will betray eachother eventually anyway. They also yell and bicker and talk behind eachother's backs almost constantly, to the point where other people even pick up that they don't see to like eachother.

So it's interesting to me that BET.. Do care for eachother, despite what they say, but it's almost always hidden under non-acknowledgement (Etho protecting Bdubs from a skeleton, Bdubs trying to save Etho in the slow-mo fight at the beginning of episode 4) or balanced out with verbally ripping eachother to shreds right afterwards (Etho trying to help Tango get a kill and yelling at him for being incompetent when he fails repeatedly).

It's like, if they really are "every man for themselves", why help Tango at all?

When it comes down to it, BET have chosen eachother over other alliances -- even ones that they are "family" with, when Etho lures Joel and Gem over to Tango's trap.

One conversation between the three I don't see bought up much is them half-mocking Etho displaying the flower he got from Gem, I think it was Bdubs who pointed out that the flower would be useless if it weren't for Etho putting worth into it by showing he values it, and that once you show that you value something, people will see it as something they can take from you.

This, to me, is very telling when combined with how they have insisted they don't care for one another this season -- if they don't value eachother as allies in the first place, they can't lose eachother as allies.

It's the polar opposite of the "family loves eachother" approach to alliances, and "control" over eachother's actions only becomes relevant when things get desperate and all of them are involved.

Once again using the example of Gem telling Etho he "doesn't have to listen to Bdubs" -- I think it's interesting that Gem assumes that Bdubs is making Etho build out of copper, when in reality Etho asked Bdubs for a suggestion, Bdubs said copper as a joke (and later even reacted in shock when Etho took him seriously) and Etho's gone the full 100 miles with it. As well as the fact that Etho completely dodges that part of Gem's sentence, leaving her in ignorance of the fact he willfully listened to Bdubs -- of the fact he /valued/ Bdubs' input.

I hesitate to say more for now but I am excited to see how this develops and what brand of emotional attachment to one's teammates will come out ontop.

Anyway. Rambly post done. This means absolutely nothing have a good day. Freud would have things to say about this

#asks #wild life spoilers #traffic spoilers #long post

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