#it was all so narratively satisfying

[hamable]

Ify using his DM minute to save Barsimmeon, summon more APS, successfully launch his car to land on the airborne White House, and unquestionably win the NSBU kill count competition by killing 10% of the world’s population (it’s okay they were all white supremacist super soldiers) managed to be simultaneously the exact brand of insanity that giving a PC full power would entail, while also all being satisfactory, story relevant, and tonally appropriate and I think Ify keeps proving he should DM a season in The future

More on Ify’s skills as a storyteller in the tags⬇️

[rigginsstreet]

The thing about billy is that he was marked for death the second his mom left him with neil.

He was either gonna die by Neil’s hands or, as we saw on the show, he was gonna go down such a self destructive path it would send him into an early grave of his own making.

So him dying at 18 isn’t really shocking. The part of it that was never written in the stars for him previously is that in his final moments he got to take some of his power back. He made the choice to stand against his abuser (the mindflayer) in the name of saving someone else. He got to fight back against the thing controlling him and contribute to its demise. Something he likely would’ve never gotten a chance to do with neil.

The tragedy is that he dies anyway, and no one can even give him the courtesy of acknowledging what that tragedy is. Not the writers, not the fandom, not the characters within the show.

His death becomes Max’s tragedy, it can’t even be his own. Nobody cares what billys death means in the context of billys life. Just like how nobody cared about billy when his mom left or when his dad was getting physical with him or when he started lashing out because of the abuse.

Nobody ever cared for billy, so why was he expected to care about anyone else?

He was never treated as a person, just a presence. And an inconvenient one at that. So of course he was never gonna make it to a long fulfilling life. And nobody ever thought to step in and intervene because well, Billys a problem, right? So what does it matter if he’s gone?

And you start to realize how inherently cruel the entire stranger things narrative is because there’s a clear line of people “worth” saving and those who aren’t. And if someone’s too much trouble then well, they’re expendable.

Billy was too much trouble for his mom to make her clean escape. He was too much trouble for not fitting in to Neil’s ideals of the perfect son. He was too much trouble for max as a brother. Too much trouble with all the rage and hate he had built up for the world around him for not protecting him.

So in the end, really, what was left for him to do?

[novelconcepts]

The more the show progresses, the more I want to see the 90s cast infiltrating the modern timeline. We've gotten hints of it with Shauna and her younger self, her Jackie hauntings. We've gotten a little more with adult Lottie seeing teenage Nat (and Laura Lee), and with Natalie getting teenage Lottie in her final moments. I want more. I want the teen cast to be absolutely invasive on pivotal adult moments, infecting their adult counterparts when least expected. I want Taissa's argument with Van to dissolve into their teenage selves, their bond endless and timeless and inescapable. I want Misty absolutely wrecked by young Natalie lurking around corners, watching from mirrors. I want to see these women unable to navigate adulthood without the specters of their teenage selves cropping up absolutely everywhere, more and more as they let the memories in, as they stop being able to repress the trauma. They didn't grow up. They never could. You are always doomed to regress around your high school teammates. You are haunted by the phantom elements of your misspent youth. It is a comfort, and it is a gift, and it is a trial, and it is a curse. I would love to see that reflected with greater intensity, until the lines blur, until the timelines have no choice but to intersect. They haven't escaped themselves at all. They didn't grow up. They just got older.

[blueskittlesart]

Would love to hear more about what you dislike in Arcane?

Not to be rude everyone can have their own interpretation but just curious because I felt the majority of the women were treaty well by the narrative.

it's about the focus of the narrative as a whole. in season 1 we were primed for a story centered entirely around vi and jinx and their relationship. for the first two episodes in there entirety, jayce doesn't exist beyond one background line--we don't even see his FACE. he and viktor are, in season 1, essentially set dressing. they exist to explain the magic system of the world and the class struggle that exists within it, and while they may have had their own secondary narrative it was SECONDARY to the MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE SHOW, jinx and vi. (and to a lesser extent cait and mel.) by season 2, though, jinx and vi are afterthoughts in their own story. they become the secondary narrative to jayce and viktor's insane magical cult thing. the final episode dedicates about 5 minutes total to the two of them and ends with jinx implicitly dying off-screen. can you see how insane of a writing choice that is. to spend a full 10-episode season setting up the central relationship between two female characters and then dedicating MAYBE 5 minutes to resolving it by KILLING ONE OF THEM in the last 10 minutes of the very last episode of your show. not to mention mel, who by the end of the series functions basically purely as a deus ex machina and whose growth as a mage happens entirely off-screen while her own mother exists purely to be a villain in jayce and viktor's story. it's just so abundantly clear to me that the writers decided that what they'd written jinx and vi into was going to be really complicated to resolve, and so rather than taking the time to make an interesting resolution out of it they threw it out and poured all their energy into their male faves. what we're left with is a story that doesn't feel FINISHED, let alone cohesive, because the writers literally threw out the buildup of season one in favor of their male side characters.

[aparticularbandit]

If Rio is Death and is after Billy for escaping his death.

If Rio cannot kill Agatha.

If they maintain the end of the initial Road story.

I think we might see an Agatha sacrifice for Billy.

Because she would be keeping him alive when she couldn't keep Nicholas alive.

Because dying might mean she could be with Rio.

Because finding a way to reverse her siphoning would mean that she can control it.

Because Rio cannot kill Agatha.

(Rio cannot kill; Rio takes what is already dead.)

Because if Agatha dies, Billy can probably bring her back.

If Billy dies, Agatha cannot bring him back.

[shripscapi]

Recently cleaned up some oc portraits so that I could update their lore post for the few people that are interested <3 I'll give the same disclaimer as before that I'm not a master worldbuilder or even a very good writer tbh. these are just my dolls I play with for fun.

anyways long post ahead here is your introductory guide to the characters of fitaly (fake italy) a fictional duchy set in the early 16th century.

Antonia de' Farona Antonia is the eldest child of the Duke Niccolò de' Farona. Though they interact infrequently, she has a wretched relationship with Andrea Bernardi, her sister's betrothed. She finds him dismissive and condescending and is suspicious of his behavior around her maid, Lucia. When she is wed, she brings Lucia with her to her husband's villa. The marriage lasts roughly 5 years until her husband passes (I haven't worked out from what yet, but it's not particularly integral to the story.) Seeing as they have no children, her husband's family contests her right to retain his properties and she returns to her father's palazzo, Lucia in tow. She is largely reclusive as a widow and prefers to remain in her apartments, despite having more relative freedom than her sisters. She sees Andrea as undeserving of her father's affection and believes that had she not had the "misfortune" to be born a woman it would be her in his place, and truly loathes him after her return. Despite this, there is a brief attempt by her father to offer her hand in marriage to Andrea after the death of Isabella, but she wholly refuses and begins spreading nasty (but not entirely untrue, nor undeserved) rumors about Andrea throughout court to deter further pursuits.

Isabella de' Farona Second child to the Duke Niccolò. She has been betrothed to Andrea Bernardi since they were both children. She finds him less objectionable than her sister Antonia does, but she is certainly not enamored with him. Isabella is a vivacious and charming girl, though Andrea seems entirely immune to her charms. She dies abruptly at the age of 16 (allegedly after suffering an acute illness, but circumstances are suspect) before she and Andrea are ever wed.

Maddelena de' Farona Maddalena is the Duke's third daughter, and she's rather meek but sweet. She's not particularly pivotal to the story, but it IS important to note that she too has already been betrothed, hence why Marietta had to resort to trying to marry Andrea to her widowed sister.

Paulo de' Farona Paulo is also not particularly relevant, but he's currently the Duke's only surviving male heir (thus far), so he's very doted on.

Lorenzo de' Bassani Administrator in the court of Duke Niccolò de' Farona. Lorenzo was instrumental in arranging a marriage between his young nephew Andrea and Isabella de' Farona with the intent that they would wed when they reached maturity. He hosts Andrea more and more frequently as he gets older, and secures him secretarial work at court.

Andrea Bernardi Andrea was betrothed to Isabella as a child as a means of satisfying his mother's political aspirations. Andrea is educated and ambitious but somewhat dour for his age. He leaves his family's villa to seek employment at court when he's 16, which he secures with the help of his uncle Lorenzo. He coerces Antonia's maid, Lucia, whom he is infatuated with into entering a relationship with him while at court, but shortly thereafter Antonia is wed and takes Lucia with her. During this time, he is taken under the wing of Duke Niccolò, who sees his younger self in Andrea's ambition. Several years later, when Lucia returns to the palazzo after the death of Antonia’s husband, he resumes their relationship while Antonia grows even more resentful of him. Isabelle dies before she and Andrea can fulfill the marriage contract. He is in no hurry to find a new match, but his mother immediately proposes that he marry the Duke's eldest, widowed daughter. Niccolò is inclined to agree, but Antonia causes such a fuss about the matter that it's quickly abandoned. Andrea leaves court abruptly, and takes Lucia with him, much to Antonia's dismay. Meanwhile, his mother secures the daughter of a Spanish ambassador to be his wife. The two have a very brief betrothal period before they're wed and Ysabel goes to live with him away from the eyes at court.

Ysabel de Torres y Mendoza Ysabel is the daughter of a Spanish ambassador and overall a very reserved girl. She finds herself somewhat isolated outside of Spain. Initially, she is tentatively pleased by her marriage to Andrea— she assumes he is keeping a respectful distance to allow her to acclimate— but it becomes clear over time that he is genuinely disinterested in her, and she has to fight for any semblance of affection from him. He makes no secret of Lucia as their marriage progresses, and young Ysabel chooses to make Lucia the object of her loathing rather than confront her unfaithful husband. Overall, it is an unhappy marriage from the outset. Despite this, she and Andrea eventually have children together, whom he is similarly uninterested in, except for their son.

Lucia Lucia is my favorite oc I will not even pretend to be unbiased... She is Antonia's servant and a notorious flirt and gossip. Though several years older than Andrea, she unwittingly gets his attention and is pressured into a relationship with him when he first arrives at court. Having been particularly unlucky in love thus far, she finds the easy attention she’s able to get from Andrea a refreshing (and deserved) change of pace. However, by the time of Antonia's marriage only a few months later, she's begun to find him immature and temperamental, and is relieved to be out from under his thumb when Antonia takes her away. During her years away, she takes another lover but once again leaves him behind when she and her mistress return to the palazzo after the death of Antonia’s husband. Upon her return, she is surprised to find that Andrea even remembers her— even more so that he again pursues her— but she believes he's matured and acquiesces to further relations with him. After Isabella's death and the disastrous marriage negotiations with Antonia, Andrea offers to offers to take Lucia with him away from the palazzo. She accepts, and briefly experiences a honeymoon period where he freely showers her with affection away from prying eyes. Unfortunately, the arrival of his new wife complicates matters, and tensions begin to escalate as Andrea’s wife and mistress grow discontent under the same roof.

Bartolomea Lucia's mother (and only known relative) and also a palazzo servant. She claims that Lucia's father was a craftsman who died shortly before Lucia's birth, forcing Bartolomea to find work in the palazzo to support herself and the expected child. The story about her father is 100% not true, but Lucia believes it. Neither she nor her daughter are literate.

I think that’s all for now.. it is hard for me to figure out how to introduce them bc I have a lot of lore backlogged but hopefully everything here makes sense <3

[introspectivememories]

tim and bernard who break up and it's nothing big, no one cheated or anything. it's just their lifestyles didn't work out well together. tim cannot give up vigilantism currently and bear cannot handle the level of danger tim puts himself in. and on the other hand, tim cannot handle the fact that bear chooses to run into danger as an emt bc he already worries about everything but now he has to worry if he'll find his boyfriend convulsing from fear gas in a random alley but also bear who felt the life drain out of darla cannot stand the thought of not helping people and runs headfirst into dangerous situation after dangerous situation hoping that every person he saves can somehow make up for the fact that he could not save darla.

(he very pointedly does not think about the fact that there was nothing he could do because if he thinks about that, he'll spiral until they have to lock him in arkham too)

and so they break up but they were tim & bernard in high school and when they started dating they balanced out the worst of each other and they became tim&bernard. and everyone who knows them, knows that they're better together but they cant be together, they refuse actually because they cannot lose another person to the violence of gotham and by the time they figure out that they cant work together as long as the other is an emt or vigilante, it's too late for both them. they've already left too many pieces of themselves in each other.

tim still knows what bear means when he says "tim" in that exasperated voice. tim still goes boneless when he hears bear say "baby" in that firm tone. bear can still read tim like a book. he still knows the right way to massage tim's neck so that tim can go to sleep. everyone at the first responders gala knows not to bother ceo drake-wayne and senior emt dowd when they're talking.

(and if they're standing a little too close to each other than what is normal, who are they to judge? everyone knows that dowd and drake-wayne have history)

and if everyone on the night shift has caught red robin with his head tucked into the crook of emt dowd's neck as emt dowd runs a soothing hand up and down the vigilante's back, well then, they just quietly back away.

(after all, dowd's one of like, five, emts that can get the bats to receive medical treatment so if turning a blind eye to whatever the fuck they have going on is what allows them to give back to their heroes, then the night shift will do it every time)

and of course, tim and bear are practical people. they loved (love) each other sure, but when your lives are fundamentally incompatible, well, you cant get too stuck on the what-ifs, that's for sure. and so they do find love with other people and yeah, maybe it's not what they expected love to be when they first fell in love with each other. it's not the bubbly, stomach-swoopy, cant stop grinning, feeling that permeated tim&bernard's early days or the i Know you/you Know me that was their middle or the quiet despair that was their end but it is contentment. and in a life with as many losses as theirs, contentment is something they hold dearly

and they're happy! truly! but sometimes, at galas when they're making each other snort champagne out their noses or in darkened alleyways when their clothes are both stained with blood or at rallies for stricter gun regulations in gotham where they both sit too close to each other, fingers enclosed around each other in a death grip, when the presenters inevitably bring up grieves

(worst school shooting in gotham in decades, there's blood on their hands and blood in their mouths and darla is dead in between both of them and there is a chasm so wide that they are screaming to get their voices across and she will always be dead and maybe this had always been the problem that she is dead and there is no coming back from that and that there is blood on their hands and blood in their mouth and blood on their han-)

but sometimes, most especially on opposite sides of the street, as life pulls them in different directions, just sometimes, they see each other and just for a second, nothing too long, the flap of a hummingbird's wings, the time it takes to blink, an electron's orbital, they look at each other and for the briefest moment, blue on brown, a barely noticeable stutter in their steps, the space between heartbeats, because this is all they will give themselves because they do not dwell on what-ifs or what-could-have-beens, or what-should-have-beens, or delusions of a softer world, their eyes meet and they think to themselves, god, in another life, i would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with him.

[spacedlexi]

people who think clem surviving makes no sense are so funny. "they were literally foreshadowing her death the entire season" let me introduce you to the concept of a red herring. she tells lilly she isnt lee and shes right. the narrative was forcing her down that path, a path she saw as an inevitable fate waiting to take her too, but its a narrative broken by aj, who is also his own person and not S1 clem

"it happened to lee, and itll happen to you" lilly tells clem she'll die protecting aj from some mistake he makes, when in reality his defiance of her will is what saves her life after she had already accepted her fate. he breaks clem free from the lee cycle and they get their relatively happy ending. good for them

[lesbianwyllravengard]

I'm a real tragedy enjoyer but Luis's death is no longer narratively enjoyable for me, now it just feels like an insult. I'm tired of characters having to die to be "redeemed". It's not their death that is the redemption, it's the fact that they were willing to die in the first place; it's the intent of sacrifice. I much prefer a narrative where Luis survives and is forced to every day atone for his past mistakes. I much prefer when characters don't get the respite of death, when they have to live with their demons, when they have to face their past and maintain their growth. And it's especially maddening when the only reason Luis dies is because he did in the original. They'll change his character so much to give him substance but they won't change his fate? I don't want that.

[toskarin]

I do almost wish I'd saved the part of that rant about how a good tabletop roleplayer is usually playing with an elven mindset by default for its own post, but maybe another day

[puhpandas]

just watched all the way through john fuhnaffs recent theory and like godd he really is cooking he truly is onto something but like. the idea that Cassies dad did all of thos important stuff and is connected to the mimic and built mxes and did all this shit is like. what do Gregory and vanessa even have to do with anything anymore at this point

[eosofspades]

okay i meant to make this post forever ago but my personal opinion on why so many people were so dissatisfied with lightfalll (disclaimer: i am not one of these people, i love lightfall SO much), is that lightfall was kind of subjected to a really aggressive marketing campaign.

like, stick with me here, i feel like almost all the lightfall release content (the trailers especially) were so focused on battling the witness, how this battle has been centuries in the making and this is the Second Collapse Finally Finding Us, only for there to be,,, no real resolution. the end was left on such a severe cliffhanger, but not only that, there was NO battle with the witness. the witness didn't even seem to be having a hard time at all with what we WERE throwing at it.

and for narrative reasons *i* am obsessed with this ending; in terms of storytelling i adore practically every creative decision that was made in lightfall, but i think the reason that so many people were so upset about it is because lightfall had such intense marketing and was rooted in the implication that this was the End of Days, only for us to get almost no closure, and instead so many more questions.

(there's also something to be said, i think, about the fact that the people who ARE most upset about this are like, the youtube gamer dudebros who's content is very very often rooted in the aggressive, violence-and-warfare, pvp-centric, no-interest-in-lore approach to destiny, and that the people i've seen primarily ENJOYING the narrative decisions (or at least being understanding about it) are the artists and writers and loremasters of the fandom, but i'm not quite sure,,, how to expand on that point.)

[queenlucythevaliant]

make your choice

Digory didn’t think much on making choices. The whole world would be over when his mother died anyhow.

Of course, this didn’t keep him from being curious or adventurous. It was exciting to meet new people, exciting to go exploring and to speculate about whatever mischief his Uncle Andrew was up to. Being a lively young boy was perhaps the best distraction from being a boy about to lose his mother.

Going after Polly was so obviously right that it might as well not have been a choice at all. What else could he do? It was easy to be righteous in the face of an evil old magician who said things like "Ours is a high and lonely destiny."

Yet once they were there in that rich, in-between place, with all the worlds there were splayed out before them— ((Make your choice, adventurous stranger)) Well. What sort of lively young boy would he be if he turned back now?

Digory could feel the bell’s magic ((strike the bell and bide the danger)) beginning to work on him. There was no use in resisting. He felt tendrils of magic sinking deep beneath his skin, laying claim to any free will he’d ever had. He said as much to Polly, but she wasn’t listening.

Polly said ((or wonder till it drives you mad)) that he looked exactly like his uncle when he said that.

Jadis’s whole world had ended. Everyone had died, and she’d just gone to sleep. She might have stayed sleeping forever if he hadn’t woken her. Sitting outside his mother’s sickroom, Digory wondered ((what would have followed if you had)) if that was really so shocking. Hadn’t he been preparing for just such an end? Were Charn and Mabel Kirke so different?

Narnia was not an end. It was a beginning.

And face to face with the Lion, Digory was forced to admit that the bell had not been magic. Nothing had caused him to strike it. Make your choice, the writing had said. Digory had chosen. 

I’ve spoiled everything. There’s no chance of getting anything for mother now.

The enormous Lion asked him, "Son of Adam, are you ready to undo the wrong that you have done?" and Digory sputtered his maybes.

"I asked, are you ready?" the Lion said again.

At that very moment, an ultimatum flashed through Digory’s mind. If I salvage your beginning, will you prevent my end? If make amends, will you save my mother? He thought of refusing, of holding his choice hostage until his future was secure. Could the Lion be bargained with? Could Digory twist his arm, as he'd twisted Polly's?

But what Digory said was, "Yes."

Jadis conjured such lovely visions of the future. His mother's face would lose its gray sheen and she would say, Why, I'm beginning to feel stronger. There would be no more morphia, no more of the terrible drawn look about her when she slept. She would rise from her sickbed, vibrant and whole ((Come in by the gold gates or not at all)) rise and walk to the door and fling it open and then Digory would go running into her arms. 

He gasped as though he'd been mortally wounded. Perhaps he had been in a way. After all, had the gate not said ((take my fruit for others or forbear))? 

Jadis ((for those who steal and those who climb my wall)) called Digory the Lion's slave. Years later, he would think back over all that those words implied. The Witch seemed to think that Digory had no will, if he was willing to subordinate himself to Aslan.

But was it not Aslan who made Digory realize his own culpability ((shall find their heart's desire and find despair)), and in the same breath gave him a way to repair it? Had not Aslan given his will back to him?

And at the foot of the tree, Aslan gave Digory his future back as well. 

He was old, but now he is young again, watching as the stars fall headlong across the black of the world-that-was. The world is ending at last, but Digory does not fear such things any longer.

[shallanspren]

Anyway, the way Sanderson decided to conclude Shallan's arc was stupid as hell and infuriating as fuck. We were promised answers regarding her and her past that we absolutely did not get. I'm absolutely livid.

[bookcub]

reread legendborn by tracy deonn in preparation for the third one releasing in march and wow, if it isnt even better on reread. would loveeeee a tv series adaptation one day sooooo much but only if its done well.

[tanjir0se]

Oh boy I love my favorite character allow me to Think Thoughts about them !

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