#it's not even like takes about them being enemies is widespread the most I see is that they aren't instantly bffs when they reunite 😭 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tangibletechnomancy · 1 year ago

Text

Neural Nets, Walled Gardens, and Positive Vibes Only

the crystal spire at the center of the techno-utopian walled garden

Anyone who knows or even just follows me knows that as much as I love neural nets, I'm far from being a fan of AI as a corporate fad. Despite this, I am willing to use big-name fad-chasing tools...sometimes, particularly on a free basis. My reasons for this are twofold:

Many people don't realize this, but these tools are more expensive for the companies to operate than they earn from increased interest in the technology. Using many of these free tools can, in fact, be the opposite of "support" at this time. Corporate AI is dying, use it to kill it faster!

You can't give a full, educated critique of something's flaws and failings without engaging with it yourself, and I fully intend to rip Dall-E 3, or more accurately the companies behind it, a whole new asshole - so I want it to be a fair, nuanced, and most importantly personally informed new asshole.

Now, much has already been said about the biases inherent to current AI models. This isn't a problem exclusive to closed-source corporate models; any model is only as good as its dataset, and it turns out that people across the whole wide internet are...pretty biased. Most major models right now, trained primarily on the English-language internet, present a very western point of view - treating young conventionally attractive white people as a default at best, and presenting blatantly misinformative stereotypes at worst. While awareness of the issue can turn it into a valuable tool to study those biases and how they intertwine, the marketing and hype around AI combined with the popular idea that computers can't possibly be biased tends to make it so they're likely to perpetuate them instead.

This problem only gets magnified when introduced to my mortal enemy-

If I never see this FUCKING dog again it will be too soon-

Content filters.

Theoretically, content filters exist to prevent some of the worst-faith uses of AI - deepfakes, true plagiarism and forgery, sexual exploitation, and more. In practice, many of them block anything that can be remotely construed as potentially sexual, violent, or even negative in any way. Frequently banned subjects include artistic nudity or even partial nudity, fight scenes, anything even remotely adjacent to horror, and still more.

The problems with this expand fractally.

While the belief that AI is capable of supplanting all other art forms, let alone should do so, is...far less widespread among its users than the more reactionary subset of its critics seem to believe (and in fact arguably less common among AI users than non-users in the first place; see again: you cannot give a full, educated critique of something's failings without engaging with it yourself), it's not nonexistent - and the business majors who have rarely if ever engaged with other forms of art, who make up a good percentage of the executives of these companies, often do fall on that side, or at least claim to in order to make more sales (but let's keep the lid on that can of worms for now).

When this ties to existing online censorship issues, such as a billionaire manchild taking over Twitter to "help humanity" (read: boost US far-right voices and promote and/or redefine hate speech), or arcane algorithms on TikTok determining what to boost and deboost leading to proliferation of neologisms to soften and obfuscate "sensitive" subjects (of which "unalive" is frequently considered emblematic), including such horrible, traumatizing things as...the existence of fat people, disabled people, and queer people (where the censorship is claimed to be for their benefit, no less!), the potential impact is apparent: while the end goal is impossible, in part because AI is not, in fact, capable of supplanting all other forms of art, what we're seeing is yet another part of a continuing, ever more aggressive push for sanitizing what kinds of ideas people can express at all, with the law looking to only make it worse rather than better through bills such as KOSA (which you can sign a petition against here).

And just like the other forms of censorship before and alongside it, AI content filtering targets the most vulnerable in society far more readily than it targets those looking to harm them. The filters have no idea what makes something an expression of a marginalized identity vs. what makes it a derogatory statement against that group, or an attempt at creating superficially safe-for-work fetish art - so, they frequently err on the side of removing anything uncertain. Boys in skirts and dresses are frequently blocked, presumably because they're taken for fetish art. Results of prompts about sadness or loneliness are frequently blocked, presumably because they may promote self harm, somehow. In my (admittedly limited) experiment, attempts at generating dark-skinned characters were blocked more frequently than attempts at generating light-skinned ones, presumably because the filter decided that it was racist to [checks notes] ...acknowledge that a character has a different skin tone than the default white characters it wanted to give me. Facial and limb differences are often either erased from results, or blocked presumably on suspicion of "violent content".

But note that I say "presumably" - the error message doesn't say on what grounds the detected images are "unsafe". Users are left only to speculate on what grounds we're being warned.

But what makes censorship of AI generated work even more alarming, in the context of the executive belief that it can render all other art forms obsolete, is that other forms of censorship only target where a person can say such earth-shaking, controversial things as "I am disabled and I like existing" or "I am happy being queer" or "mental health is important" or "I survived a violent crime" - you can be prevented from posting it on TikTok, but not from saying it to a friend next to you, let alone your therapist. AI content filtering, on the other hand, aims to prevent you from expressing it at all.

This becomes particularly alarming when you recall one of the most valuable use cases for AI generation: enabling disabled people to express themselves more clearly, or in new forms. Most people can find other workarounds in the form of more conventional, manual modes of expression, sure, but no amount of desperation can reverse hand paralysis that prevents a person from holding a pen, nor a traumatic brain injury or mental disability that blocks them from speaking or writing in a way that's easy to understand. And who is one of the most frequently censored groups? Disabled people.

So, my question to Bing and OpenAI is this: in what FUCKING universe is banning me from expressing my very existence "protecting" me?

Bad dog! Stop breaking my shit and get the FUCK out of my way!

Generated as a gift for a friend who was even more frustrated with that FUCKING dog than I was

All images - except the FUCKING dog - generated with Dall-E 3 via Bing Image Creator, under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?

#ai art #generated art #i want to make a stress toy out of that dog #i want to make a squishy stretchy plush toy #with weighted beans so it makes a satisfying THUNK when you throw it at the fucking wall #you did it you bastards you made a dog problematic

163 notes · View notes

torchwood-99 · 9 months ago

Note

From your Thematic Headcanon ask game:

hc + 😡 for a headcanon about something that makes them angry

I totally LOVE stuff to get angry about! And I’m having a chaotic day, so it feels fitting!

Oh yes here we go!!!!

Eomer

People who abuse women. His love for Eowyn and his inability to save his mother instilled him early on with a fierce hatred of people who mistreat women. A hatred that goes beyond rationality sometimes, if he sees someone treat their wife or daughter harshly he will act first, think later, barging in on the situation without considering the ramifications of his actions, and how his interference could cause harm. That said, in the aftermath, once his rage has cooled, he always tries to help in a constructive way as well. This results in several laws for the protection of wives, daughters and other female kin being passed in his day.

People making fun of his beard. Stealing this headcanon, @konartiste, because of his Numenorean blood, it took Eomer longer to grow a beard than his peers, and even after it grows in it's not so naturally lustrous as theirs. He spends hours trimming it and brushing it to give it volume, and he can't grow it too long because it comes in patchy.

People who mistreat horses. Needs no further elaboration.

Eowyn

Feeling boxed in, confined, mollycoddled, overlooked, underrated, left out, overworked, exploited or generally done shit by because of her sex. Not a headcanon just canon but it's such a pressure point (rightfully so) it has to be said.

Being sick. She hates being sick. Her relationship with her body is fraught, because on the one hand she has suffered from being relegated to certain roles because of her gender, with the onset of puberty in particular hailing a stronger enforcement of gender roles in her life, but through training and effort she has been able to give her body a great deal of strength and skill, and so any feeling of "weakness" causes her to feel like her body is betraying her. Her periods are actually quite irregular, but when they come they can be truly painful, and this she hates above all else. Working as a healer makes her more forgiving of her own weakness, and her marriage to Faramir, who never treats her as less because she is a woman, (and introduces her to a lot of fun stuff her body can do and feel) makes her more at peace with her sex, but her monthlies still cause her a fair bit of frustration, as it really does dredge up the worst feelings she has about sex and weakness. Her first period itself was pretty traumatic, without a mother or female relative to help her through it. With her mother and aunts all dead, and her entry into womanhood being marked with blood and pain, womanhood seems interconnected with suffering and death, and it takes her a long time to put that all into perspective.

Impractical shoes. She hates shoes that pinch or have high heels. She hates any female specific fashion that significantly impedes movement or comfort. If it's inflicted on men and women alike, she can stomach it (like high collars on formal occasions) but anything that singles women out for discomfort/lack of mobility is her sworn enemy.

Also, side-saddles. Absolutely detests them. Side-saddles at the end of the third age, beginning of the fourth age, are the ones that have women sit entirely facing the side, and give women riders significantly less control over their horse than front facing saddles. Lothiriel's time as queen sees the development of more practical side saddles, that allow women decent control over their horses, which Eowyn grudgingly accepts, but still holds in dislike. She actively fights against Rohan adopting them for widespread use, because the reasons for women riding side-saddle (to protect their chastity) is an attitude she rightfully sees as harmful to women. As a result of her influence, the side-saddle comes to be seen as a fashion accessory, to show off a lady's gown on formal or ceremonial occasions, and women for the most part ride astride for sport and day to day use.

Faramir

Intellectual debates. He says he's always up for an intellectual debate, he says he loves discussing ancient texts and laws and poetry, but in truth he can't stomach people having different ideas to him, whether it be philosophy, history, art etc... He tries to play it cool, and when someone says something wrong, he is happy to explain to them why they are wrong. But if they insist on being wrong, it sends him into a cold, hard fury. He maintains decorum in front of them, but then rants for hours to Eowyn about it afterwards. The thing is, he usually is right, and usually the people disagreeing with him are wrong and wilfully so, but nonetheless, it makes him a little tiresome. When he actually is wrong, and it's explained to him, he takes it on board with good grace. It's just most of the time, he's in the right, so it makes him come across as intolerant of other people's views.

People underestimating his wife. He knows that under Eowyn's proud veneer, she suffers from self-esteem issues, and he gets very angry at people dismissing her or overlooking her, because he knows it causes these issues to flame up. Also, he thinks she's absolutely amazing, and as we've established, he struggles with people having different opinions

He can camp out in absolutely filthy conditions, and put up with dirt and blood and grime as part of being a soldier, but at home and in court life, he likes things neat an orderly. He's actually a bit precious about his fine clothes, and if there's a smudge or a stain, it bothers him like an itch until it's sorted out. Eowyn sometimes teases him by wearing her coronet at an angle, and watching him resist the urge to straighten it for her. (She likes it when he does, because he's very gentle when he does it, and takes the opportunity to run his fingers through her hair.)

#LOTR #Lord of the Rings #Eowyn #Eomer #Faramir #headcanons

32 notes · View notes

thatweirdtranny · 1 year ago

Note

responding to your recent #transandrophobia post: yeah. it’s almost like radfems have been invading the community since the 1970s and before and the only way trans women can feel safe to discuss transmisogyny is to assimilate into the radfem status quo. transmascs do it too when they talk about afab socialization. all trying to paint cis women as the most oppressed gender and trans people’s oppression as just a fraction of what cis women experience. where trans women get the social consequences of womanhood and trans men get the biological consequences. this is wrong. really the narrow definition of womanhood and manhood is equally the problem as sexism is, so radical feminism and its adjacent movements will never completely and respectfully define trans experiences. arguably, transandrophobia is so much less terfy and more accurate of a term than afab socialization but gets more backlash because of radical feminism. trans women see transmascs trying to assimilate into radfeminism and approximate themselves to cis women and that rightfully upsets them, so they try to assimilate into radfeminism even harder too. both artificially constructed “sides” would be better off abandoning radical feminism completely. doesn’t mean people can’t hate men on a personal level, but making that your politics will always have consequence.

my take is basically: we need to root out all forms of radical feminism (whether exclusive or inclusive of different groups of trans people) from our communities and spaces and i definitely think there are plenty of trans people of all genders falling hook line and sinker for radical feminism, but that the creation of terms like transandrophobia and transmisogyny and exorsexism are critical to combating all forms of radical feminism and transphobia

i think hating men is a core part of being a radfem, and it’s the easiest radfem dog whistle to spot. it’s a huge component of transmisogyny AND transandrophobia. therefore, hating men and the bs justification for hating all men needs to be stamped out. make there be social consequences for it. you can’t claim to want gender based liberation if you paint all men as inherently enemies and all women as perpetual victims.

most of all though my take is we need widespread solidarity between all groups of trans people. it frustrates me to no end that a vocal group of trans people (of all genders!) have such a problem with transmascs creating terminology for our oppression and discussing our experiences, instead of leaning into solidarity. we could all be united but instead we have the current climate of discourse that seems to repeat itself every couple years. that’s why i like the term transunity — it reframes the discussion to be around radical solidarity and discourages infighting between different groups of trans people.

#i have very little brain energy right now so idk if i misunderstood anon but!! here’s my take #asks #anon

7 notes · View notes

thevoiceofthebard · 7 months ago

Text

Chapter 13 - Uthgerd IV: Bleak Falls Barrow

Middas 20th of Last Seed 4E201 Late Evening

Uthgerd

"I still can't believe how... Messy that trap was."

Talao, head still in the journal we lifted from the... Remains of the bandit, looked queasy still. "Can't say I disagree with you on that one." The sight of a man pinned against a wall, impaled by wooden spikes was... Gristly, to say the least.

He sighed, turning a page. "Shame. I did try to warn him there could be more traps, albeit subtly. I suppose I'll have to be more direct in the future."

"You did?"

"When I mentioned the puzzle trap from earlier."

"Ah." Frankly, the coward was asking for it, barreling through a ruin the way he did. Who wouldn't expect something to happen? He might've been able to outrun Draugr, but one dead end and he would have been helpless. Not to mention his obvious attempt at escaping. Served him right. Talao grunted, distracted again by the book in front of him. For some reason, I found myself comparing the two of them, what little I knew at least. They were both small and skinny, obviously, with no talent for fighting, but that was it. The dark elf had run at the first sign of danger, where Talao had stayed, despite his weakness. No to mention how he saved me at the entrance earlier. And the bandit was fool enough to run into a trap despite being warned, whereas Talao...

Hang on. Talao was smart enough to realize there would be traps, and to warn the bandit about them. Was he naive enough to just tell a possible enemy that, and expect him to not take the selfish route of taking the treasure for himself? Or did he do it to give the elf a choice to stay with us, safe, or run off and die? It seemed at odds with the peaceful presence he usually put forth. Seems there's more to this man than first I thought.

"We're here."

My thoughts cut short, I look up at an imposing wall. Nordic designs cover it, and there are large circular plates with pictures on them, as well as an odd dish in the center, with three holes set in it. But most importantly, it was a dead end. "So where's the door? You sure this is it?"

"Yes. The 'Hall of Stories.'" Rather than the wall ahead of us, Talao stares at some of the murals on the side walls. "Fascinating bas-relief sculptures. Very early Nordic, nearly Nedic. I suppose it is a Hall of Stories, after all. I wonder what this one tells of."

"Which one?" I look. "Seems to be about a local Dragon Priest."

"Really? How can you tell?"

Something the 'bard' doesn't know. What a novel experience. "Well, see this figure here is the Dragon Priest. They all were depicted as having some special mask, which supposedly held great power within them, and were part of the source of their own powers. The first panel shows him performing some feat of magic, and the Nords below are cowering in fear. This second one shows them worshiping the Priest, and tithing gifts to him. And this last one," a picture full of the screaming and dying, "shows those same people being destroyed by their supposed deity."

"Huh. I'm impressed."

"Really?" Is he making fun of me?

"Well, the Dragon Cult isn't the most widespread of stories. Few have heard tell of it, or its adherents."

"Maybe not in High Rock, but all of Skyrim was once under their rule," I say, gesturing to the wall. "You bards sometimes seem to forget that all stories have some person's history wrapped up in it."

"I would never..." he stops.

Did I just render him speechless? That'd be a first, and I feel quite a bit of pride for it. For all Talao's bluster, he's human too. "Come on, let's get this door open. Does the journal say anything about it?"

"Um... Ah yes. The bandit, Arvel, writes about 'the power of the ancient Nordic heroes,' as well as the man he stole it from - a Lucan Valerius? Let's see," he ruffles the pages again, as if searching for a specific spot. "Key, Bleak Falls Barrow, Hall of Stories, legend... A test to 'keep the unworthy away." I'd desperately like to know where he heard all this. Ah, here. 'When you hold the golden claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands.'"

I wait a moment, until it's clear no further information is coming from Talao. "Well that's frustratingly vague." And therefore probably accurate. No one would call the Nords a subtle race, but we're as fond of our wordplay as any other. I hold out the claw, talons pointed away from me, inspecting it against the wall. Three nails, three holes. Clearly where the "key" goes, so I try placing it within, and twist it as if it were an actual key. No response. It doesn't budge at all. However, I notice that the gold of the claw isn't completely smooth. "There's a bunch of odd runes on it. Nothing I can understand."

"Let me see. Hm, it seems to be late Nedic. All traits they valued, I suppose. This one says 'pride,' and this is 'valor.' Nothing about a door."

"What about those carvings on the door itself? What do those mean?"

"Odd... These aren't runes at all, but pictographs. Just animal murals with no deeper meaning."

I'm stumped, and so is Talao, if the strange look on his face is anything to go by. What did that bandit know that we don't? "'The solution is in the palm of your hands,'" I mutter.

"The palm... Wait. What if it's meant literally?" Talao exclaims. "We keep holding it like this, with the talons pointed away so we don't stab ourselves. What if the solution is in the palm of the claw, where our own palms have been?"

He turns it over, and we both look. While Talao is translating more of the runes, I notice something out of place. "Look there, in the middle. Three of those pictographs, hidden in the runes."

"By Y'ffre, you're right. The empty space makes out the animals. Good eye, Uthgerd. I see... From top to bottom a bear, a... Butterfly? Maybe a moth? Then an owl."

I look at the wall again. "The pictures up here are out of order, though."

"They probably move or rotate." He's right; the large circular segments run along some kind of rail, grinding smoothly, despite their age. "So... Bear, then moth, then owl." Each one clicks into place. "Now, try the claw."

Again I insert the claw into the central disk, pushing it in. I feel something catch, and it twists to the right. I expect some kind of door, but instead the entire wall begins to slowly descend into the floor. "Amazing."

"Magnificent." It's quite exciting. But, oddly, every inch the wall falls, I feel more... Fearful. As though I'd forgotten something. Something... dangerous.

"Uthgerd." Talao says. "You don't suppose... Might there be a Dragon Priest interred here?"

Now that was a frightening thought.. "The mural."

"Aye. It suddenly occurred to me how simple getting here was. The traps were definitely to deter intruders, but this wall... It seems built more to keep something in rather than out.

"And maybe the 'ancient power' buried here is not some artifact, but a being of power instead."

CLUNK

We both jump, as the wall hits the floor. Beyond is a cavernous chamber, muted moonlight flowing in from holes in the ceiling, illuminating a large, stony structure in the back. The awe-inspiring sight is spoiled by the sudden tension in the air. After a moment's hesitation, I draw my blade, and Talao holds his staff in front of him. We move slowly into the cavern. An underground brook gurgles by. A colony of bats screeches by after we startle them. The structure, a semi-circular wall, stands upon a worn podium. Along with an ornate treasure chest. A table.

And a coffin.

My heart jumps. Something is here. I can feel it. Nothing happens as we mount the stairs. The coffin remains still. Don't plan to let it out of my sight, though.

"Did you hear that? Talao says.

The wind. The stream. A falling rock. "...hear what?"

"I can hear... It's like it's both within and without me at once. Bum... Bum bum. Like drums."

Bum... Bum bum

Faintly, I hear it. Or... Feel it. Everywhere at once like Talao said. I could feel it in my bones, in my lungs.

Bum... Bum bum

Where is it coming from? Every step I take, it builds, louder and louder.

Bum... Bum bum

"The wall," I say. "Look at it." The moonlight falls directly on it, standing like a monolith. But it seems to glow brighter than it should. Magic?

Bum... Bum bum

"These markings..."

They don't look like the ones on the claw," I say. We move closer to the wall, the drums pounding through my body. "Just... Scratches."

BUM... BUM BUM

"No. This isn't a human language at all. Or mer, or beast. It's much older." He looks at me, eyes wide with wonder.

BUM... BUM BUM

"It's dragon."

...

"The drums have stopped." Talao ignores me, set on the wall in front of him, even more than with the journal. We're close enough to touch it, but it feels... Irreverent to do so, somehow. "Dragon, you said?"

"Aye," he responds. His eyes move back and forth in short bursts. "The oldest language recorded. Except for perhaps the Elder Scrolls themselves."

"Can you read it, then?"

"Words here and there. I've never actually seen the language written properly, only glossaries or dictionaries. Dragons never wrote on parchment, after all."

"Why?"

"Why?! He scoffs incredulously. "Do those markings look to be written in ink? No. They were carved into the stone by claw. This... This is a living testament to the existence of dragons. One stood, once, right where we stand now. And it left this. For us."

By Ysmir. I can hardly wrap my mind around the idea. "So... What does it say? Is this the 'Dragonstone'?"

"It'd be rather difficult to return to Farengar if 'twere. But no. I don't see any... Directions or anything related to burials. Except maybe this line. 'Het nok faal vahlok.' Here lies the... Something, but it's not 'dragon.' 'Deinmaar' is keeper, or holder. 'Dovahgolz,' dragon... something. Maybe stone? Yes, it must be 'Dragonstone.' 'Unslaad' I know means 'unending' or 'innumerable.' Rahgol ahrk vulom'... Anger and black? Dark?"

"Well, that's not foreboding at all." Sounds like our treasure is here. But where? And what is "keeping" it? Oh please, please, please don't be a Dragon Priest.

"Hang on, there's another word here... It's like my eyes slipped over it before. Hmm. FUS."

It happens quickly. The gentle breeze becomes a whirlwind, screaming through the cave, blowing me off balance. I see Talao, standing tall within the wind, as though it were focused around him. And then I see the wind, full of energy and colours somehow, stream into his nose and mouth, as he breathes in so much, I fear he may burst from the volume of it all.

And then it ends. The air falls silent once more, and Talao falls to his hands and knees with a mighty gasp. But only air.

"What in the..."

He breathes in.

A loud crash echoes behind me, and I turn to see the lid of the coffin fall aside. A hand reaches out, pulling with it a large Draugr, blue eyes glowing beneath an ornate helm. Well, at least it's not a Dragon Priest, thank Kyne. Small victories.

I can hear Talao breathing raggedly behind me as I size up the enemy. The good thing about Draugr, to me and anyone else, is that they're slow. All I have to do is dodge its swings, and strike while it recovers. They might fight on without legs, but so long as...

"FUS!"

I stumble backwards, barely avoiding catching myself on the wall. Did that thing just... shout at me? And force me back? It staggers toward me much quicker than I anticipated, but its attack is so widely telegraphed, I avoid it with ease. A shower of sparks flies from where his blade meets stone, and I regain my bearing, carving into its left arm. The wound does nothing. It doesn't bleed, or feel pain. Nothing short of cutting body parts off will do anything to stop it.

So, that's what I do. I close distance, keeping it from using its strange magic upon me again, and keep hacking away. Its left arm is first to go, dropping to the floor. Then I sever its legs. I few more swipes and I disarm it as well, then behead it with one fell swoop. The blue glow flickers and dies. Anti-climactic, maybe. But I think I've had enough thrills for the day.

I turn back to Talao. He sits, back against the wall, staff lying by his side. Staring into the distance, and quieter than I'd ever seen him. His breath has gone back to normal. "Talao? Are you alright?"

He looks at me, and I nearly flinch away. I feel... Utterly intimidated. There is a power behind his gaze that wasn't before. "I am. Alright, that is. At least, I think so."

"What happened? I mean... What... happened to you?"

"I'm not sure. I read that last word and then... It was like I was being filled with... I don't know. Like potential... Fus." He stared back into the darkness, his eyes unfocused. I wonder if he's in shock.

"Fus... The Draugr yelled that at me as well. Wonder what it means."

"Force. It means force."

I looks at him oddly. "How do you know?"

"I don't know. I just... Know. Or maybe I always knew, and I remembered it just now."

"Well, is that all you 'remember?'"

He rubs his face, then covers all but his mouth and recites:

Here lies the guardian, Keeper of the Dragonstone. A FORCE of unending Rage and darkness.

"The writing on the wall?" I ask.

"Yes. It's like it's imprinted in my brain. The knowledge. Maybe FUS was like a key that unlocked it."

I stand, running my hand along the word that Talao had touched. It wasn't only because I was feeling uncomfortable keeping eye contact. Fus... It resonates in my toes, sends a shiver down my spine. "Why didn't it happen to me as well, then?" Not that I was terrible interested or jealous in the same thing happening to me.

"Who know? Maybe only the first person who touches it is granted the knowledge. Someone who already knows some of it. Or some other criteria unbeknownst to us. This is beyond my stories."

A moment of silence. Talao stands up and moves to the now empty coffin stepping over the re-deceased corpse "I'll wager our treasure was interred with our dead friend here. A-ha. A bit bigger than I'd imagined." With a heave, he lifts a large five-sided stone tablet from within the coffin, and places it on what I suppose is (or was) an embalming table. "Yes, it's an actual physical map of Skyrim," he says as I lean in beside him. "Not to scale, clearly, but you can see the relation between the burial sites and nearby landmarks. Probably not exact in order to keep it somewhat secret, were it to fall into the wrong hands. Such as ours, most likely."

"Fascinating, I'm sure." It wasn't much to look at. But valuable enough to Farengar; he can have it. I open the chest I'd noticed earlier - I'd killed the guardian of the ruins, so by right of trial by combat, its treasures were now mine - but it was disappointingly sparse of any valuables. A handful of old Nordic gold and silver coins. Not Septims, but they might fetch a decent price from the right person. An old axe, corroded beyond repair, and at the bottom, a horned helm, similar to the one worm by the Draugr. A trophy fit for my victory, if nothing else. Talao had better have been truthful about the Jarl's reward.

"We'd best be going, Uthgerd." Talao scans the back wall. "These ruins usually have a secret exit that leads to the entrance or out the back. With luck, we can make it back to Whiterun, and our reward, within two sundowns."

Well. That sort of zeal is new. But welcome, compared to his usual sober pace. I shoulder my pack, heavier one Dragonstone, and catch him up near the back wall. All in all, our trek seems to have been a resounding success, and I'll be glad to return to Whiterun to tell everyone of the tale.

But...

I glance at Talao again, his eyes shining with confidence. Things have changed by our being here. I wonder if it will be for good or ill. I suppose only time will tell in the long run.

Even considering the accepted idea that the Dragon Claw keys were only meant to keep the Draugr IN their tombs, I always found the puzzles overly simplistic; I sincerely doubt the Dragon Cult or their imprisoners wanted the Lords/Priests released by any Joe Schmoe. So I made them slightly more interesting, at least in my mind. Putting the solution within the negative space created by the runes gives the Claws a bit more substance as a ritualistic or decorative piece, and makes it actually quite easy to overlook. I will hold off on any commentary regarding the Word Wall for now, but hope you enjoyed the scene; it was one I was very much looking forward to and, as Uthgerd unconsciously notices, marks a significant turning point in Talao's development. Suffice to say, "game mechanics" will be very much different in my fic.

Chapter 12 - Arvel I: Bleak Falls Barrow x Chapter 14 - Farengar II: Dragon Rising

#fanfic #gaming #skyrim #tes #the elder scrolls #dragonborn #tesblr #elder scrolls #the voice of the bard #please reblog and review

3 notes · View notes

youngpettyqueen · 9 months ago

Note

unpopular opinions ask ds9 edition: black heart and broken heart

I forgot about the emoji asks I reblogged for a second and was sitting here going "I dont remember an episode called black heart and broken heart I need to go look it up for my hot take on it" and then I. remembered. good morning I promise im awake

YES good questions lets see...

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

DS9 is one of those ones where I feel like most people get that literally everybody has moral nuance and everybody either lives in or dips into grey areas. that said, there is sometimes a tendency to over-babify Julian and act like he's done nothing wrong ever in his life, when that is very much not the case. I love him, he's my favourite, he's rewired my brain, but like. while Julian does staunchly stick by his own moral code as much as he can, he does show a willingness to do some fucked up shit. see Extreme Measures- Sloan is horrible, yes, but what Julian does to him in that episode is fucked up! see also his suspect behaviour towards women at times. and Chrysalis, where he pursues a relationship with Sarina- I know this one's hotly debated, but at the end of the day, Sarina is his patient and it is wrong to pursue a relationship with her. granted, on that one, Star Trek did love to do doctor/patient relationships in the 90s regardless of whether or not it would be in character for said doctors to pursue said patients, but still. it happened, I will acknowledge and include it here as an example that Julian isn't perfectly morally good

I feel like this take on him stems a lot from how its a widespread headcanon that he's autistic- a headcanon I share- because people tend to infantilize autistic characters which is. incredibly frustrating. I dont see it super often, but it tends to run in circles where people treat Julian like he's an insecure sad child and therefore could do no wrong. I could do a whole rant about that lol

💔: If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME I LOVE THEM ALLLLLLL. I genuinely dont know who I would remove. removing any one of them is devastating to me personally I love themmmmm but also removing any one of them would lead to some major differences in the series which I think could be fascinating to explore? some examples-

removing Odo would, in my opinion, have a massive impact on how the crew of DS9 interacts with the Changelings and the Dominion War. I do wonder how not having Odo around would affect how they approached the engineered disease against the Changelings- it was easier to protest it and try to find a cure when their friend was suffering, but if it was only the enemy? I wonder how that would've shaken up

removing Kira could be a big shake up with Federation/Bajoran relations in a scenario where instead of having a Bajoran as his secondhand, the Federation assigns Sisko a Starfleet First Officer. even with several Bajorans onboard both as Bajoran Militia and as civilians, I think without a Bajoran as his secondhand, even with his status as the Emissary, Sisko and by proxy the Federation's dynamic with Bajor would've been a lot more tense and maybe even hostile. beyond just being a Bajoran though, Kira specifically is so fiery and passionate and willing to butt heads with and go against Sisko, that taking her out and having somebody less fierce, less angry in her place would've also massively shifted the dynamic

I dont know if Garak necessarily counts as a major character but im counting him- I would be fascinated to see how the crew navigates some of those more morally dark scenarios without the convenience of handing it off to Garak or getting his help. In The Pale Moonlight without Garak would be a VERY different episode. it'd be interesting to see just how far people would be willing to go, without the convenience of someone like Garak around who's more than willing to do the dirty work

removing Ezri from the last season would be an interesting change in how everybody handles Jadzia's death. with Ezri there, there's this space that's filled, if only in the physical sense of another body filling that gap because, of course, Ezri isn't Jadzia and it isn't the same. it would've been interesting to really feel that absence through the last season- its desperate times and maybe nobody new can be brought in, and the crew just has to deal with this gap in their lives now. always one empty chair, one empty space, the absence of a laugh, a witty remark. I wonder how this would've affected the way everybody grieved, how things would've progressed differently, if Ezri wasn't there to help things along

just a few examples there, I honestly cant settle on a character I would remove, but I think removing any of them makes for a fascinating change in the series and how things progress. the one character I would say you absolutely cant remove is Sisko- you NEED Sisko in DS9, you cant take him out. anybody else you could take out and it could be interesting, but Sisko is a necessity he has to stay

#star trek: ds9 #ty for the ask!! these are rlly good ones #had to sit and ponder who I would remove cause god I love this entire cast #dont wanna part with any of them #but story potential is always fun to consider #and yeah like I said the way I see some people act like Julian is perfectly innocent and morally good... blegh #I see it all the time with autistic characters- whether theyre canonically autistic or if its a popular headcanon #people LOVE infantilizing autistic people #drives me insane

2 notes · View notes

theamityelf · 1 year ago

Note

Aw man, PROXY (the combat training droid) really would fit so well with the DRverse. Like his introduction scene has him randomly ambush Starkiller while using the Obi-Wan training program (complete with hologram/hard-light tech to make him appear as Obi-Wan did during the Clone Wars). And they just playfully banter like "Huh, didn't even know you still had that program, PROXY", "Oh, I thought if I surprised you with an old one, I might finally kill you master". To which Stakiller's like "Lol, better luck next time buddy". The whole relationship just seems exactly like what you'd get with Nagito having a robot as his only friend.

The fact that Vader had it fitted with an Obi-Wan program (as well as a Darth Maul program that's revealed later on) is both logical and weirdly hilarious to me. Like of course he'd want to prepare his Secret Apprentice to know how to fight his old master's lightsaber style, since he's still out there at this point in time. But it's just so hilariously obsessive. Actually PROXY later takes Vader off-guard by using it on him in a heroic sacrifice to save Starkiller (he's revealed to have been rebuilt in the sequel though).

Oh! And speaking of lightsaber styles...what do you think the DR cast members would pick as their main one if they were a Jedi, Sith, or some other lightsaber wielder? I'm not sure how much you know about those, so here's a rundown just in case. The whole made-up martial arts thing is part of the lore I find so endearingly stupid in an awesome way.

Form I/Shii-Cho is the beginner's form. Pretty much every Jedi is required to learn this one first, since it's the foundation for all the others. It was made in a time when they were transitioning from metal swords to lightsabers, and so it focuses a lot on non-lethal disarmament. As well as combatting multiple opponents. It's considered a bit clumsy and unrefined compared to its successors. But a handful of specialists of the form like Kit Fisto, were known for being very fluid and hard to predict.

Form II/Makashi is the most dueling-centric. With a focus on elegant, focused, and precise strikes. It was developed in response to the need for a lightsaber-to-lightsaber form when Dark Jedi became more prevalent. And as a result it fell out of widespread use when the Sith were thought extinct. With Jedi actually having to ask permission for training in it. It's two major flaws though are that's not ideal for multiple opponents, or against loads of blasters. Count Dooku is considered to be perhaps the greatest Makashi specialist, and managed to partly iron out of its weaknesses.

Form III/Soresu opts for a "stone wall" strategy. Being developed to combat massive numbers of blaster-wielding opponents. And allow the user to deflect dozens of bolts per second. And against other lightsaber-wielding opponents, the strategy is to tire them out with an unbreakable defense and then finish things with a decisive blow. It's polarizing among the Sith, as many view it as a weakling's form. Though the smarter ones like Darth Bane had a respect for it, seeing that there were some clear advantages. Obi-Wan is the most famous specialist, and that factored into the decision to send him after General Grievous.

Form IV/Ataru is kind of like the "fragile speedster" style. Since it heavily focuses on acrobatics for quick leaping strikes. Pretty good at quickly taking down single opponents, but not so much in prolonged fights, or while fighting in enclosed spaces. Not great against blasters either. Yoda and Ahsoka are the most notable specialists for it. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were too, though the latter switched to Soresu after finding Ataru didn't work so well for him against Darth Maul.

Form V/Shien is sort of like a more aggressive branch of Soresu. With the focus going from deflecting blaster bolts to redirecting them back at the enemy. It also has a more advanced dueling-centric variant called Djem So, which was made as an answer to Makashi. Requiring a lot of physical power from the user, the aim of it is to defend and then unleash a massive counter-attack of overwhelming strikes. Although they both had expertise in all forms, it was Anakin and Luke's preferred one. With Anakin actually going all in on transitioning from Shien to Djem So after losing to Dooku the first time. Other known specialists include Plo Koon, Aayla Secura, Darth Bane, and the legendary Ulic Qel-Droma.

Form VI/Niman was created as an all-rounder form. The idea being to take all the elements from the previous 5 and merge them into a single balanced form. In practice this ultimately led to most practitioners being just average in all fields, with no real strengths. It tended to be favored by Jedi who were more devoted to diplomacy and study. HOWEVER, mastered Niman is another story entirely. As its few specialists (who dedicated at least 10 years of determined study to it) had a style that was great in all fields, and had no weaknesses. With excellent skill at combining Force-based attacks into the style. Those specialists being legendary duelists like Exar Kun, Darth Krayt, and possibly Revan.

Form VII/Juyo is the last and most controversial of them. For its extreme viciousness and the intentional use of a wielder's emotions to fuel attacks. A highly aggressive that's like a more wild and untamed Makashi. Obviously it was the style most heavily favored by the Sith, and was the primary style of Darth Maul and Starkiller (who interestingly were both voiced by Sam Witner). Among the Jedi it was borderline taboo, and sanctioned to the point that only very disciplined masters were given permission to study it. Juyo also had a special variant developed by Mace Windu called Vaapad. Which channeled both his own inner darkness and his opponent's fury through himself, and convert those into attacks. This special technique might have factored into him managing to overpower Palpatine.

And of course there's Jar'Kai, which just means dual-wielding. Technically a lot of characters have used it, though only a handful do so regularly. Those beings ones like Ahsoka, Asajj Ventress, Starkiller's clone, Revan, and Darth Krayt. Tends to overlap a bit with Niman and Ataru.

...Lol, got a bit carried away with that explanation. Anyway, I personally reckon Izuru would be a dual-wielding Niman king. As well as being one of the few people to master Vaapad. Makoto I would see as a Soresu guy. And I'd probably leans towards Hajime favoring Djem So.

Wow, yeah, I think, if we're speaking comparatively, I know nothing about Star Wars. 🤣 This is all very fascinating! And yes, Soresu definitely seems to be compatible with Makoto's whole deal. And the fighting styles for Izuru and Hajime also seem really apt.

#danganronpa #star wars au #star wars

2 notes · View notes

amemoire · 1 year ago

Text

Vale Can't Shut Up About Scara Pt. 1

I just want to talk about my boy and you all are the unfortunate bystanders.

Whether its in main verse or aus, I think Scara has a lot of skills and talents. It comes as no surprise in main seeing as he's had centuries to pick up and perfect any number of skills, so naturally he'll have the most there. But a lot of things will end up carrying over, so I'll try to talk about these across however many posts I make on the matter. This one is mostly going to address things related to COMBAT.

No surprise he's good a fighting— he was a Harbinger. But more than that, he was specifically given the title of Scaramouche, " little skirmisher ". We know that these titles are only given to those found suitable of them. When there is no one alive that fits the title, the seat will be left empty indefinitely. As the one found worthy of essentially being called THE skirmisher, Scara is highly skilled when it comes to combat. This is something that would have been widespread knowledge pre-Irminsul erasure. It struck immense fear into other Fatui operatives as well as the general public of Snezhnaya. People knew of the Balladeer— they knew him as someone you didn't want to cross paths with, but more on his previous reputation another time. He excels in hand-to-hand combat and actually prefers when things are PERSONAL this way. He doesn't mind using a weapon, but there's a special delight to be had when his body itself is the weapon. There's also a twisted satisfaction in dealing both death and injury with his own hands.

Apart from this, he is well-trained with just about anything under the sun, but does have his preference of the sword and polearm over all the rest. ( Totally didn't mean to match him with Ei like that ). The sword was the first weapon he received any training with and he's honed this skill his whole life, largely practicing iaido but familiar with other forms as well. Meanwhile the polearm is the next option that allows him to maintain both SPEED and MOBILITY. These two things are essential to his fighting style as he doesn't like to drag matters out for too long— centering his techniques around a quick and clean defeat. The bow is likely his least used weapon given how impersonal it is as a primarily long-ranged weapon. But this doesn't mean he's not good with it. On the contrary he's exceptionally skilled with a bow.

As far as catalysts go, he doesn't actually use one. Similar to how realistically both Heizou and Wriothesley also wouldn't have one. ( Honestly, I feel like this could be the case for many if not all catalyst users because they appear to wield elements in raw form rather than infusing it into something else ). Apart from how we don't see a catalyst in cutscenes compared to other characters that wield swords, bows, polearms, etc. it just doesn't suit the way he fights. He harnesses the wind to literally tear his opponents apart and throws his whole body into it. It's violent and fast and outside of gameplay, we see that he is still very much getting physical throughout. He's utilizing his surroundings, using his own body for a shield, getting in close, taking the weapons of his opponents, and even grabbing and throwing them from high altitudes. Simply put, there's NO ROOM for a catalyst to actually be there.

He doesn't typically ' play with his food ' and is more about packing a lot of strength into a few exchanges or finding an opening for a single decisive strike. As I stated earlier, he aims for the quick and clean. The only time he'll make things messy and wicked is when he's in a particular mood. ( And THOSE are the fights that he was known for in the Fatui ). These instances were known to be bloody with death coming before one could even blink. All hands and uncontrolled electricity ripping through those unfortunate enough to be labelled an enemy.

Another important thing of note is how he's also one of the few characters we know to have journeyed into and returned from the Abyss. And he didn't go just once or twice, it was several times over the span of an undisclosed amount of time. All that we know at present is that he was gone for a LONG while. So putting that into perspective— this means he went up against monsters that were strong enough to render him in need of repairs and enhancements, came back for that, then went back to the Abyss only to encounter even stronger opponents, thus falling into this loop until he completed the expedition. We can infer that he was able to improve and refine his skill rather quickly this way. It may not be Ei's 500 year long battle against herself, but by no means was it any less dire. If he couldn't continually improve then he would've been destroyed. And I do headcanon that the time he spent in the Abyss was equivalent to SEVERAL years.

I do think he has fun when he's fighting. Not in the same way that Childe does, but I do think they have a few things in common. He's just about always needing to hold back but finds that fighting is a good way to let off a little steam. He'll indulge in some of his violent tendencies and laugh at those who actually thought they stood a chance against him— because they NEVER did.

#➤ hcs: dewdrops of time / scara #this post was supposed to be something else LMAO #it also got a LOT longer than intended oops #➤ ooc: the distant memory

2 notes · View notes

surveillance-0011 · 9 days ago

Text

HOL Gaming thoughts part 2!!!

I'm three bounties in and next time I play I'll be starting the skrendel bounty yayyy... starting with gameplay related talk and then some more plotpoint related stuff later in the post

I'm getting a better hand at the controls but I will tell you the gyro controls are only notable for when you lock in on a target or when you use the trick hole ability. A little annoying but the stick controls are fine

Parkour / platforming is relatively solid, though I wish there were more indications of where to go besides the sensor as I can pinpoint times ive nearly gone in circles here. Knife's grappling reigns supreme.

Gus is my favorite gun to have out atm. The disks work wonders in clearing out enemies, his main bullets kill enemies quick and his dialogue is the most pleasant. And ofc it's wonderful that he catches on to the Dr. Joopy scheme.

Also I'm convinced that for half his lines they just get JB Smoove to react in real time to the gameplay bc those lines abt fighting doug's empty suit sound way too gyatt damn genuine.

Greebles and mytes are a free headache. At least it's relatively easy to suck mytes into field of view with Gus.

All that being said and even though she insulted me for my shit aim i'm excited to try playing with sweezy esp with her automatic fire. and ofc to see what she has to say too!!

Knifey combos are the best feeling ever. Parrying disks and stabbing crystal-full enemies is gonna carry me through this game.

it's honestly kind of sad/scary to think abt the state douglas is in if you shoot him before he gets to his suit. Imagine actively dying and KNOWING YOU ARE MORTALLY WOUNDED and having to rely on the people who are trying to kill you to get you to your possible saving grace and being stuck in a pipe, no less!! I'd feel worse abt it if he didn't torture people to death as a living/hobby

also THE DIALOGUE OF THE MERKS HERE GOT A GIGGLE OUTTA ME NGL... esp the "god i hope douglas likes torture for sexual reasons" merk that took me out esp the other guy's total disgust w/ him after that

and how can i forget the nipulon vs giblets debate....

speaking of dialogue... quartermaster moppet saying krubis walked in AND KILLED THEIRR ENTIRE FAMILY??? IN FRONT OF THEM?? PERSONALLY?? bro is literally like puppy kicking levels of evil. hater from day 1. he's fucking sickening and it's awesome

but this sort of stuff also makes me think... gurgula is less scary because he's "especially evil" and more so because he's competent with a goal that's a little more cryptic and sophisticated than the petty vies for money and power and satisfaction that lead the G3 in their own crimes. not to mention how he actually succeeds in his goal as of the end of the game and is able to manipulate everyone around him and the general sense that the reality / extent of the brutality and widespread death seems to finally kick in. and you can't really laugh at him much ... yet >:) i see those crocs boy

and i mention him again bc. the bounty hunter forums. with the second clue found it appears he's outright able to suppress information about himself which is pretty scary. i assume its his own technical prowess given how he's able to persevere the info he needs but wipe everything in his lab the SECOND he knows an intruder is in there... but it is also funny to imagine it's some technology or code he got or learned from Giblets

in general i really really love the bounty hunter forums they're so authentic and really add to the world. they make me actually want to play and grind... without them id still be running from mytes when i really should be killing them to read the full forum post....

FIONA FISH STICK THEYLL NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU!! YOU'LL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS!! she seems so nice it makes me so sad that everyone is so mean to her :(((((

Speaking of mean.... I do enjoy checking out Lizzie's dialogue when you actually approach her and talk to her and it makes me feel so bad that im taking gene side's more often so i can get the ending where she kills tweeg... you can tell she's so afraid of losing people esp bc all her friends she mentioned in the beginning are probably dead... and if they aren't then they could be miles away... im glad there's an option to hear her out and ask abt her day without gene bitching to me (and i don't hate gene or anything he's funny but let's be real here it would suck to lose your normal life and then risk losing your only family member to a bounty hunter lifestyle bc of an alien you've just met)

i do think im gonna take the jetpack to valley bluff/ krubis's mech before i start skrendel hunting to see if it's possible to peek inside the mech or at least stand on the balcony... tee hee!!!

#high on life #high on life game #surv plays hol #.txt #dae games

1 note · View note

donveinot · 1 year ago

Link

0 notes

bleue-flora · 1 year ago

Text

Yes. This…hmmm this topic :) If I may add on, because I can’t help myself and you’ve given me brain rot for the next week no doubt lol XD

I think his behavior isn’t the vengeful aggressive lashing out we would rightfully expect from him not only because of his fear and not wanting to be alone like you expertly detailed, but also because even further he was, lack for a better word, hurt. So deeply hurt and it’s not hard to understand why. The people he once called friends saw him as nothing more than a monster needing to be captured, caged, defanged, and killed, which gave them the justification and conviction in their minds that he deserved it and it was the right thing to do. And the fact that they held such an opinion of him has to hurt in deeper ways than a knife. I’ve touched upon it before (linked here) but the prison arc wasn’t just cruel and inhumane and more savage than most of the fiction I’ve ever absorbed, it involved a widespread complicity and more importantly was at the hands of his once friends. His once family.

So after months of being told by monsters that you are the monster doesn’t make Dream want to become what they think he is, it makes him want to be seen even more than before. To prove them wrong. To show that he didn’t deserve it, that they were the ones that were evil. To say no. - “It’s because you like it! You like torturing me!” - you use me as an excuse to justify yourself - you use me as the blame for everything that goes wrong, and yet there I stayed wasting away in a prison and guess what? Your relationships still fell apart, wars still happened, blood still spilled from innocence, the ‘children’ still got hurt, fear and mistrust still filled the air, violence still reigned free - I am not the sole source of evil on this server, I am just as human as the rest and deserve-deserved to be treated like one. - After being spoken over, after being told about everything thing you are and did that made you deserve cruelty over and over again, it makes sense that with his freedom he can finally show them they were wrong.

- l feed you, when they left you to starve, not potatoes like you said I deserved, but good food: golden apples and cake, even though you really would deserve potatoes as direct revenge and karma. You didn’t have to hurt me to get the book, your reasons don’t make what you did right or less grotesque, I got the book from you without really laying a hand on you.

- I left you alone, sure I threatened your country and your life, but that was after you came to kill me, after you didn’t listen to me or show any signs of backing off. You provoked me, and I reacted in kind. In the end, I left you alone even when you expected me to come after you, even when you gave me plenty of reasons too.

- I don’t care about your discs or you, I let you have your way and leave after you come and barge into my house (… haven’t see that Wilbur lore in a bit so… don’t mind my memory’s perhaps poor generalization XD) I didn’t chase you down and kill you after you tried to capture me, I just did enough damage for you to run away (Bad). I didn’t blow you house to bits or really destroy it like others literally did, I just threatened you and gave you gifts because I wanted you to back off (Skeppy and Bad).

- You say I am so evil and need to be killed. That I don’t deserve a life free from torture… yet, does Aimsley deserve to be killed too? - Is it that you want to stop me, or you just want to kill and I’m feared and enemy #1? (Sapnap)

- You could hurt me because I hurt you right? But when you come to kill me, when you steal from me, barge into my house, I let you go. I had every reason to hurt you, the same reason you had, heck more reason too and yet I grant you freedom and mercy even when you don’t deserve it and even when you granted me none.

…..He just wanted to be seen and heard (notice how easily the mask comes off in the finale when someone just takes the 10 minutes or so to understand him) and to be seen him as more than someone they thought deserved the prison. And he wanted them to see the bad in themselves. To see the truth, to feel some guilt or remorse or understanding? something? just realize they aren’t just innocent and good. He wanted to show them what he actually looks like in the mirror and what their actual reflections look like.

Sure, the knives hurt, the starvation hurt, the isolation hurt, but the condemnation, the self righteousness, the hypocrisy and complicity from all sides made it all the more sting - to be hurt and told you don’t have the right to feel hurt because you deserve it.

He was and dehumanized - so he wanted them to see he was just a person like everyone else, flawed and imperfect with motivations and feelings.

He was afraid (on his knees waiting for the axe and hoping that he didn’t get killed that day) - so he locks himself in the safest building and he makes himself big and scary to make his enemies afraid, to keep them away so they are too busy playing defense than to come after him (“I’m going to make everyday for you a living hell.”)

He was powerless and weak - so he went for revenge to take back that power and feel strong and capable again, to claim back agency over himself by knocking his abusers down a peg, because they don’t have authority over him anymore, now he doesn’t have to listen to them, now he can kill them (“A living example of not to fuck with me!”.)

He was silenced and talked over - so he tried to tell what happened and explain his side because just wanted to be heard.

He was invalidated - so he just wanted someone to validate his feelings and understand him, to simply recognize that the torture was horrible and gruesome and cruel, giving him the right to be hurt.

He was told people’s reasons for why he deserved to be hurt - so he wanted for them to hear his reasons.

He was threatened and almost killed off constantly - so he just left people alone, making himself not a threat so he’d hopefully be granted the basic right to live.

He was abandoned and betrayed - so he shared his side and his true and tried to make nice and gain new allies so at the very least the next time he was surrounded on all sides about to be murdered for the last time that maybe someone will utter a word of disapproval.

How much it hurt to be so completely alone, in a world where people are so deluded and cruel that the only reason you’re even alive is because of a book. That you have to use a favor, a life debt, from someone who witnessed your torture, to escape the inhumanity of a living hell, just so everyone can try to drag you back no questions asked. That your friend becomes your torturer, your brother is out for your head, and just everyone else doesn’t give a damn unless asked to run a sword through your heart… How hurt and broken must you be for your must basic unreachable aspirations are to live and not be alone…

(well not sure if I made any sense or was just projecting………… oops yea may have gotten side tracked… anyways just thought I build off of the amazing points, it is hard to say what Punz and Dream’s plan was but killing everyone permanently likely wasn’t the plan—unless if was to sacrifice to XD to bring back the balance… hmmm)

been thinking about post-prison c!dream again and i feel like ... characterizations of him after pandora smtimes can lean vindictive. and it's not like there's no proof for this being the case, lol, this man has quite a few angry speeches post-prison about getting his Revenge! and such, and obviously has Feelings about the whole being left to rot and be tortured thing. that being said, i think it's worth pointing out how what a character thinks they believe and what their actions show can have some...pretty apparent discrepancies, and i think that c!dream's stated desires to take his revenge as well as a "us against them, you're either with me or against me" viewpoint of the server as a whole don't necessarily match up with his behavior post-prison

for one, i think it's worth pointing out how often c!dream's anger in these cases is obviously emotional to the point of incoherence--it's often been stated that his speech in the logstedshire chase scene screams of projection in the midst of a panic attack, which, i mean? yeah? he's making assumptions about what c!tommy thinks and basically repeating what c!quackity said in that cell almost word for word and making the kill-and-revive-you-over-and-over-and-over threat that he definitely wasn't going to go through with (though, is kind of interesting retrospectively considering we know that he literally did that to himself). then there's his rant to c!sam in daedalus one which literally includes his threatening c!sam with c!quackity, a claim so absurd that c!sam himself points it out as making no sense. and then there's his speech with c!quackity where he says he's going to torture...las nevadas? as in, the country? dream that's. dream it's a country. it can't feel pain. dream.

in this, a clear pattern is established where a lot of these angry threats are...bluffs. hot air. even if c!dream is genuine when he makes these threats, they're really not plausible (like, uh, please tell me how youre gonna convince quackity to torture sam for you king.) and it's not like c!dream doesn't have a pattern of being A Whole Lotta Bark when you have him in a position where he feels cornered, either. but with this, there's a precedent that's established where c!dream's threats, particularly threats where he's literally just listing shit out like that, should be taken with a grain of salt. less evidence of true plans and more an attempt to bare his teeth at you until you back the fuck away.

of course, this in itself isn't enough to claim that all of his claims of more vindictive actions should be dismissed. that being said, across the board, when you look at c!dream's actual actions post-prison...well, the amount of actual revenge this guy gets is. very small. very small. in fact, contrary to what one might think due to his paranoia and the huge breach of trust that had happened as a result of the prison, c!dream actually seems quite willing to establish connections with other people--friendly interactions, even alliances to a certain degree. looking at the following list of interactions w/ people post-prison:

He immediately gives the axe of peace to c!Techno in Snowchester after they part ways at the Arctic Commune--though the lack of favors between them indicates that there's no real explicit reason to call on each other in the immediate future, he does show very clearly that their parting has made himself unwilling to cooperate with c!Techno at all.

Punz is self-evident--he speaks with his ally and reaffirms that the plan is still on track (a plan made before the negative effects that prison had on his. uh .everything)

The aforementioned conflict with c!Tommy, where he makes a lot of threats in ways that seem like a pretty damn deliberate mirror of c!Quackity and makes no effort to follow through on, particularly in tems of the killing-and-reviving shit and keeping tommy in exile and whatever else he was saying there

The interaction with Sapnap, where he is clearly gauging c!Sapnap's reaction and flees shortly after things appear to grow in hostility, once again making overtures at a threat that he will never follow up on (even considering he could very easily follow Sapnap to find Kinoko and could as such attack it quite simply even with just, a couple flint & steels tbh)

An interaction with Eryn where he makes no effort to be hostile at any point, hiding behind his shield and then exchanging items when Eryn offers them. The entire time, c!Dream's actions are defensive and purposefully nonthreatening and at no point does he attempt to engage a fight--even when not asked for payment, he gives a valuable item in exchange. Clearly more an attempt to be friendly than any outright hostility, though he is also obviously wary.

Daedalus also quite self-explanatory--again, it should be emphasized that letting Sam go in any capacity with any lives is explicitly an act of mercy. Left alone, Sam would have died in the prison for good; he set his spawn in the prison, a fact Dream would've known when he escorted him out. He makes a lot of threats, including some that are quiet incoherent, and at the end he kills Sam once and then escorts him out of the prison grounds alive. Interestingly enough, conversations in Daedalus also seem pretty explicitly from a perspective of trying to get c!Sam to understand him in some respects--like, c!Dream isn't seeking division here. Even in consideration of the fact that he needed to get the keycards, c!Dream's continued emphasis on trying to get c!Sam to see him is...interesting, in view of how much of what went wrong being explicitly because of c!Sam's betrayal.

He warns Bad and Skeppy away from the prison shortly after beginning to reside there on a permanent basis. He gives them quite a sum of gifts (iirc, a block of netherite and a totem of undying) despite firing arrows at them; even though he has a reason to be aggressive towards c!Bad as one of the prison guards (something both c!Bad and c!Skeppy point out) he makes no effort to kill them and outright gives them valuable items while warning them to stay away from the prison

scrapped lore, whenever it was meant to happen, was an obvious "revenge" attempt against quackity...which goes, badly. a clue into the State that he was in in terms of his revenge quests. also, whatever interaction he has with c!wilbur later, obviously c!Wilbur doesn't end up worse for wear physically from it.

In inconsolable differences, c!Dream is more preoccupied with keeping a "feeling" of power over c!Wilbur over taking outright control over the room and therefore complies with c!Wilbur's orders. He does attack, but despite having more than the necessary means to kill both c!Wilbur and c!Tommy while he's there, does not do so. Neither does he manage to keep them trapped in the prison, something that he absolutely could've done if he so chose. Instead, he values a (imaginary) symbol of his continued alliance with c!Wilbur over any kind of hostile action, imprisonment, or killing of either person (and explicitly values c!Wilbur's life over just about everything, there.)

In his interaction with c!Foolish, he's outright trying to get c!Foolish to consider him beyond what other people have said about him. He's trying to establish some form of an alliance and offers...well, quite a lot in order to have one (in order to have a five minute warning of c!Quackity's location. like, he's putting himself in c!Foolish's service quite explicitly here, offering to become his hitman or bodyguard). He's obviously wary, but also obviously trying to be friendly and largely interacts with c!Foolish by trying to establish a rapport, not by trying to threaten him into something or attack him in any way. Even with c!Sam, the amount of outright threatening behavior from c!Dream isn't all that large--mostly, he's being petty? You could make an argument about c!Dream's vague threat to c!Sam's island, but clearly Sam loses no lives from Dream in any interaction they might have after they leave the summer home.

I consider the whole interaction with c!Aimsey canon bc literally everyone was playing as their characters there--c!Dream outright goes out of his way to try and protect a total stranger here with no obvious personal benefit. He literally inserts himself into the conflict to try and prevent c!Aimsey's death, which is kinda wild for someone to do as someone who allegedly wants people to die on the server. He attacks (and even kills c!George) c!snf here, but it's all in a scene where they get distracted from their whole "blowing shit up" moment because they want to chase c!Dream, and c!Dream specifically uses very little melee combat here--a lot of ranged stuff, which is far from his specific specialty. Further, there's a scene in this fight where c!Dream is acting entirely defensively, backed up against a wall with his shield in front of him as c!snf attack, and at the end he just runs away--all behavior that doesn't seem to be about killing anyone or profiting from anyone's deaths in any way.

LN5, threats similarly nonsensical, and he dips as soon as things start going south. For all of his seeming confidence, he's not the one that continues the chase in an attempt to kill c!Quackity, and the fight evidently freaks him out considering how he ends up not realizing he's being stalked by c!Tommy and then hides in the prison for a solid while (while still being stalked by c!Tommy)

Despite apparently wanting them to decide who to die in the saw trap (which had a premise that is frankly, quite hard to believe), c!clingy are given the exact items that could've facilitated their escape. He certainly could've killed both or one at any point in time, even if he wanted a message to be spread to the server (something easily done with one guy)--instead, he monologues at them, then conveniently leaves so that they can get away (and they could've with the literal items he gave them if tommy didn't burn their food.) When c!Tommy returns the following day, c!Dream makes it clear he expected both of them to have gotten out

Despite being clearly unable to stand c!Tommy, blaming him for most if not all of his problems on the server, and outright saying to c!Tommy that c!Tommy would never agree to help him (after they had a shouting match literally one day ago), gives quite the sales pitch to get c!Tommy on the same page as them.

I'm probably missing stuff, but you get my point--even when presented golden opportunities to kill off a player post-prison, c!Dream doesn't take it. He outright spares c!Sam when he could've easily died from the Revengers' tactic. When meeting with strangers, he prioritizes establishing a friendly rapport with them through things like gifts over, in his distrust, treating them badly so that they're scared of him and therefore don't fuck with him yadayada. His behavior, instead of exuding an aura of anger and vengeance and vying for destruction, tends to send a message of trying to be outright unthreatening, please-don't-attack-me. He's not going everywhere holding his big fuck off axe, he's seeing a new person and ducking behind his shield.

Oftentimes, I feel like this quote is pulled or paraphrased from No Way Home to show how c!Dream has become distrusting of people, vindictive, post-prison

And if that means we have to kill everybody— and ev— everybody that doesn't wanna go along with what me and Punz have to say? Everyone that doesn't want to figure it out? Then, fine! You can be simple-minded and you can die simple-minded. But! If you wanna actually know what's going on in this world, and you wanna fix it, and make it the best that we can be, and live forever? Then they can join us.

And while I'm not saying we should dismiss the whole quote as just being disingenous bluffing, I think when taken into the context of post-prison c!Dream's actions (or, well, c!Dream's actions as a whole) as well as his actions in the finale itself (such as his appealing to c!Tommy in the next stream), rather than putting the emphasis on the idea of "everyone who disagrees with me should die," c!Dream seems far more preoccupied with the idea of trying to find people who are willing to work with him to "fix" everything. People who will help him make it so that they can "live forever"--a desire he expresses in the fourth finale stream as well.

like, it's not to say that c!dream isn't vengeful. he is. i mean, i'd say moreso than vengeful, he's angry--just like how a lot of his overtures at friendliness are so deeply rooted in fear. the prison made him angry and the prison made him scared, and the anger has to be repurposed into revenge because revenge is power that he certainly didn't have when he was on his knees begging for mercy. but far from being closed off and unwilling to work with other people post-prison due to his experiences in Pandora (which. would make sense. i mean. like, he was left in there, and tortured, and betrayed. anger and revenge and a general distrust towards everyone and a desire to destroy a world that condemned him would be very easy to understand in this scenario), i'd say c!dream's interactions with people post-prison scream of a general lack of a desire to actually go through with killing people. hell, he even revives c!tommy--c!tommy! who just killed him! who c!dream outright blames for like, basically ruining his life! when revivals are literally apparently destabilizing the universe!--shortly after killing him. generally, he meets people who are dealing with him aggressively with a desire to flee moreso than with murderous intent (in genuine finale 2, for example, this guy was sure more focused on running the fuck away than he was on killing either of c!clingy), and even moreso deals with other people on the server by acting defensively and even in a manner that seems deliberately designed to get them to be more willing to work with him, or at least deal with him in a friendly way. despite his paranoia and how deeply pandora cut as a betrayal and his obvious wariness towards all people as a result (there's hardly a single interaction on the list above, after all, that doesn't have c!dream's obvious fear of people leaking all over the damn carpet), he seems to be much more focused on the idea of finding possible allies than he is on the idea of killing everyone possible.

which, i mean, makes sense. as he himself states:

#oops yea may have gotten side tracked…#anyways just thought I build off of the amazing points #it is hard to say what Punz and Dream’s plan was but killing everyone permanently likely wasn’t the plan #—unless if was to sacrifice to XD to bring back the balance… hmmm)#…. also this - “i think it's worth pointing out how what a character thinks they believe and #what their actions show can have some...pretty apparent discrepancies”#And even further what they *say.* Actions speak louder than words after all. Especially with Dream who puts on a good show #c!dream #dsmp #dreblr #dream smp #did someone order an essay?#nope?… his bought heartbreaking nonsense?… welp oops…#dsmp dream #pandora's vault #dsmp analysis #no one does it like c!dream #prison arc #dsmpblr #cdream #on the house #lol you can really tell I have been editing monsters don’t deserve hugs with all my monster mentions XD…. as an aside: I’m soooo exciting #for y’all go read the new chapters when they come out ;D

172 notes · View notes

fragmented-king · 3 years ago

Note

How about some hcs for the tree Vs with a overlord s/o? Their s/o isn't all that powerful but nobody dares attack them because they own all the factories and stores in hell. So like if someone threatens them they can go like "ok so no more (required item/items) for you".

I made them seperate since you didn’t say if you wanted them poly.

~~~

-Valentino-

Valentino may be powerful but his pyramid was constrained mostly to the porn industry. Now this was never a problem for him before, but after seeing your own widespread empire he was feeling a little jealous.

But once you start flooding him with expensive gifts and money he’s smitten all over again.

Super into being a total sugar baby for once, a man of power like him is often the giver and never the receiver.

This man’s love language is nearly everything under the sun. Though his favourites are definitely gifts and touch.

And since Val is Val, you two are getting freaky with each other very frequently. The overlord always making a show of it as he lavishes his s/o the only way he knows how, also his tongue is super long and flexible.

The workers know exactly who you are, since all their equipment from their clothes to the sets they use are all sourced from you. So they never got on your bad side.

Speaking of, when it came to raw power you were certainly lacking in that department, as your skills were more control and blackmail then throwing fireballs and fists.

And apparently this meant you were an easy target, a weak link that could be exploited.

Val doesn’t even interfere anymore, happily watching the show as you tear this poor schmuck apart with mere words and threats.

His favourite memory though is watching the life drain from some succubus bitches face as you simply declare that you’re shutting down her favourite alcohol for good.

She obviously didn’t know that you owned the every single freaking business in the pride ring, and she was crawling on her hands and knees to beg for you to reverse the decision only a few weeks later.

He found that super hot, how you asserted your superiority and absolute authority while barely even lifting a finger.

You could hold all of Pride hostage if you so wanted, because nearly every industry bends their knee to you.

Val can and will kiss your fucking shoes if you tell him too, just say the word and it’ll be done, the thrill of submission definitely spurring him on.

Though don’t tease him too much, he is a switch after all and will absolutely ravish you on the spot if wound too tightly.

Definitely happy to be a sugar baby to the most influential Overlord in hell.

-Vox-

This man knew your connections and how far your power spread, and he was impressed. Not that he’d ever admit it to your face.

That fact you control so much and work so little is awesome to him, what else could you do if you actually put real effort into it?

At first was disappointed you weren’t all that powerful, but when he found out his competitors suddenly were in debt and he had all sorts of deal with companies to boost his own network, he wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

Definitely spends time with you inside lounging around being lazy, either watching him stream or hanging out with the other two V’s.

Constantly gets free shit because he’s your s/o, he doesn’t even really need half the stuff he gets, he just does it to flex on people and boast about being with you.

Though in doing that he often forgets to show you some affection back, but if your patient then he’ll get that really cute guilty look on his face as he either does nothing but spend the day with you or gift you something you already own.

Just take it and give him a kiss, he’ll be over the moon and back to his cocky self in no time.

Because of who he is, he often has self proclaimed enemies, though Alastor is the worst of all. The old timey prick.

Eventually you’d get bored of their scuffles and step in one day, off handedly mentioning that while he is the Radio Demon, you could most certainly recall those precious boxes of his and have them all shit down.

Vox has never seen the red coloured overlord more flustered and panicked then now, watching him quickly and very eagerly make a deal with you before disappearing.

Often wonders how you haven’t been killed yet, especially about threats of demolishing a specific line of product to make someone fall in line.

Just say that you know he’d never let anyone hurt you, put on the sultry smile, flaunt your body and little and suddenly Vox is a ego filled television with delusions of grandeur about saving you from the clutches of death.

With Vox watching your back, and your far reaching influence, you two are by far one of the most dangerous couples hell has seen in years.

-Velvet-

Velvet abuses your power at every available opportunity, knowing what you own and what you don’t.

She definitely helps you conquer new businesses and swathes of land, watching your empire grow is like ecstasy to her and she is all for it.

Drags you out shopping to get all the free benefits, trying on dresses and lingerie all for you to see and judge.

Definitely having a quickie in the dressing room, she’s gonna be as load as she can, you own the place so nobody’s gonna confront her.

Also has regulars shipments of sweets. From chocolates to wraps, sour strips to cakes, she’s ordering anything she can at no expense.

Velvet doesn’t give a single fuck if you aren’t all powerful like her, Val or Vox, you’re a special kind of sinner all on your own.

Though she does find it sweet how cool how you can control someone with mere words and threats, all by owning massive amounts of literally everything.

So many posts on Voxtagram about you, most lovey dovey couple stuff, a few promotions thanks to you and some threatening her would be enemies.

She’s been following your example of threatening people by way of taking their entire livelihood out from under them.

Velvet never had to act on them before, since being associated with you was often a good enough ward, but some just didn’t get the message.

Either they threaten her, which was stupid, or try and make a move on her, which was downright idiotic.

What ever way, once you either see the post or Velvet tells you about the encounter, they are suddenly and very politely apologising to the girl.

Honestly with Velvet, it might be a 50/50 on if she kills them regardless, but she’ll always cover you in kisses and bone breaking hugs anyway for being so sweet and thoughtful about her.

#anon ask #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel x reader #headcanon #the three v’s #valentino #vox #velvet #valentino x reader #vox x reader #velvet x reader

628 notes · View notes

writerben01 · 2 years ago

Text

Oh goody, anon hate.

So, if you send these kinds of messages dumping your bad fandom take and don’t even sign your own name, it’s clear you’re not looking to give any feedback to a writer. This is selfish and doesn’t deserve my attention. It’s deleted from AO3, so I hope you enjoyed shouting into the void.

But I’ve got a few moments, so let me tear this comment apart bit by bit.

The absolute delusion of [A young Nara complimenting Sakura].

So, context matters. This is a flash from the future, somewhere 10-20 years after canon wrapped up. A lot can happen in that time. It is being said by an Academy student, who has limited information, in response to a Hyuuga student thrashing Sakura and needing to make sure that the Hyuuga shuts up and gives Sakura some respect before she starts thrashing the entire room.

It is also a literary device called foreshadowing. Because until then Sakura in present time has been relatively weak compared to her teammates, and at the end of the chapter she gets a massive power boost (Mokuton) that would let her rival and surpass Naruto/Sakura. This boasting from the Nara is supposed to mystify and intrigue.

In no alternate universe whatsoever could Sakura EVER be considered the strongest of her team. I can’t believe anyone could say that without laughing.

I pity your lack of imagination.

Sasuke with Perfect Susanoo alone is impenetrable. We’ve seen what happens when Tsunade at full strength tried to break it. It took her AND the Raikage to make any progress at it.

Sakura in canon needed about two years to get to Tsunade’s level, and did it without a tailed beast or bloodline helping her. Is it so hard to believe that she could be stronger than Tsunade and the Raikage combined if she had another 10-20 years?

Sasuke has Amaterasu. Good luck healing from her torso being covered in that fire. She’d have to start removing flesh but if he covered her with enough flames, there’s no healing from that.

Okay. So? If Sasuke killed her with a kunai, she would not be able to heal herself from death either. You’re making the assumption that Sasuke can land his attack on her. That she is unable to shield herself. That she would even let Sasuke get as far as using that attack on her. At least Sakura can heal herself. If Sasuke gets hit, he’ll have to deal with the damage. In a battle of endurance, Sakura actually has more chance.

Do you really think Sakura could beat 6 Paths Naruto?

Depending on the setting, easily. Naruto is weak to genjutsu. Boom. Threat neutralised.

There is a limit to what Sakura can do with her small chakra reserves. Even with the best control and techniques in the world.

So she gets bigger chakra reserves. Problem solved. Why do you keep arguing about the state of canon compared to what we’ve chosen to do in a fanfic? Is there no part of you that can imagine maybe, just maybe, some people would like to see Sakura as a strong ninja and will make whatever changes are needed from canon to get that result?

Just pretend she could get even close to high reserves. Do you really think Sakura could pose a threat to a village with a widespread attack? Sasuke and [Naruto] can destroy cities in a single attack. Sakura has nothing.

This is a nice pivot that I’d like to point to. Until now most arguments have been about whether Sakura would be able to defeat Naruto and Sasuke in battle. And they’re largely irrelevant because the three of them are fighting together against enemies. It’s hard in general to look at the three of them separately (in my fanfic) because of how much they work together.

Their strength would in fact be measured in how destructive they could be against enemies. Naruto can manifest a Kyuubi mode, make copies of himself and be a real force to be reckoned with. Sasuke can deal massive natural disasters. But Sakura? She can use her mokuton to create custom flowers that blow poisoned pollen into the air. Mokuton, in this version of fandom, is basically free to use because creating life generates more chakra than it takes. She can use this boost in chakra together with some channelling plants and use genjutsu to put entire villages to sleep. She assassinates anyone who could pose a threat, with zero casualties.

It's a different kind of frightening. A different kind of strength. And anyone who thinks she’s weak enough to attack (to break the genjutsu) gets their asses kicked.

Sasuke and Naruto are strong in a traditional sense, but Sakura is the one with options. She can deploy poisons that weaken enemies that even Sasuke and Naruto couldn’t fight. She has genjutsu that’s more subtle and versatile than always needing eye-contact. And on top of that she has surpassed the strength of Tsunade which was capable of tussling with Kage.7

The delusion of this statement is so unreal. I hate Sakura simping so much. It ruins fics.

If your fragile male ego can’t handle a competent woman, don’t read fanfics with the BAMF!Sakura tag. Don’t know what else to tell you. I’ve written a story about an overpowered Team 7, and since canon keeps insisting Sakura is the weakest, it’s most satisfying when she is raised up higher. She gets a bad deal from canon, so I feel it’s fandom’s job to make it up to her.

You don’t have to agree. Just be sure to tag your misogyny in your own fics so I know to avoid them. Thanks 😊

#naruto fanfiction #Ao3 comments #anon hate #thelionwrites #fanfiction #TheLionRants

19 notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years ago

Text

Games Workshop declares war on its customers (again)

There’s a difference between a con-artist and a grifter. A con-artist is just a gabby mugger, and when they vanish with your money, you know you’ve been robbed.

A grifter, on the other hand, is someone who can work the law to declare your stuff to be their stuff, which makes you a lawless cur because your pockets are stuffed full of their money and merely handing it over is the least you can do to make up for your sin.

IP trolls are grifters, not con artists, and that’s by design, a feature of the construction of copyright and trademark law.

Progressives may rail at the term “IP” for its imprecision, but truly, it has a very precise meaning: “‘IP’ is any law that lets me control the conduct of my customers, competitors and critics, such that they must arrange their affairs to my benefit.”

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

In that regard, it is a perfect grifter’s tool — a way to put you on the wrong side of the line for simply living your life in the way that works best for you, not the grifter.

Now, copyright and trademark’s framers were alive to the possibility that they might become this kind of weapon, and they wrote limitations and exceptions into each doctrine that were meant to safeguard the public’s right to free speech and free action.

But those limitations and exceptions are weirdly self-eviscerating. Both trademark and copyright’s limitations assume that they aren’t being weaponized by immoral sociopaths. Both collapse if they are.

Take copyright. Copyright has a suite of limitations and exceptions under various global legal systems, including US law. US law also contains a specific set of exceptions colloquially called “fair use,” a subject of much mystification for lay people.

Under fair use, someone accused of copyright infringement can ask a judge to find that their use of someone else’s copyrighted work is permissible because to deny it would be socially harmful.

The fair use law sets out four factors that judges MAY consider when considering such a claim. Note that these four factors are neither comprehensive (judges can weigh other factors), nor dispositive (failing to satisfy a factor doesn’t disqualify your use from being fair).

If that sounds confusing to you, don’t worry. It is confusing. As the lawyers say, “fair use is fact-intensive.”

The specifics of a use really matter: who’s making the use, what they’re using, why they’re using it, how they use it, and how much they use.

That’s why anyone who claims that “X is never fair use” (for example, commercial fanfic) are full of shit — as are people who say “X is always fair use”).

Commercial fanfic absolutely can be fair use. No less a body than the Supreme Court says so:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Done_Gone

Despite all this ambiguity and nuance, IP grifters who want to force other people to arrange their affairs to their own benefit are laser focused on the four factors, reasoning correctly that if they show a judge that the factors favor them, they’re more likely to prevail.

Half of the four factors are out of the grifter’s reach. As a rightsholder, you can’t control “the purpose and character of the use,” or “the amount and substantiality of the portion used.”

But the other two factors are more readily within the IP wielder’s remit. As someone seeking control a work, you can frame “to the nature of the copyrighted work” by talking up how much creativity and originality went into it, which judges will weigh in your favor.

More importantly — and disturbingly — is the way that an IP holder can influence the fourth factor: “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”

Think about that fourth factor for a moment here: if my use of your work doesn’t cost you any money, then it’s more likely that my use is fair.

The corollary: if you can bully some people into paying for something they’ve always gotten for free, then you can claim that the people who refuse to pay are ripping you off — that there is a “market” for the use, and that their failure to pay weakens that market.

This is effectively what’s happened to music sampling. Seminal albums like “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” were produced with thousands of uncleared samples — but at the time, no one was clearing samples.

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/07/08/creative-license-how-the-hell-did-sampling-get-so-screwed-up-and-what-the-hell-do-we-do-about-it/

Had the rightsholders to those samples dragged Public Enemy into court, they wouldn’t have had the fourth factor on their side. No one was paying for samples, so a failure to pay for samples had no “effect on the potential market for the copyrighted work.”

However, in the 33 years since Nation of Millions dropped, paying to license samples has become common practice — and the mere existence of paid samples makes not paying for samples more legally risky.

So say a rightsholder decided to aggressively license simple quotations — as the Associated Press did in 2008, when it offered to sell you a license to a 5-word quotation for a mere $12.50.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010341.html

All other things being equal, a short quotation from a news article is likely to be fair use. But if the AP managed to terrorize enough bloggers into coughing up $12.50 for a 5-word quote, it could create a market for 5-word quotations.

That market would change the fair use argument for people who don’t pay — yes, they’re making a transformative, critical use, but they’re also undermining the market for the copyright, and a judge might find this change tips the scales away from fair use.

Even more importantly, the additional uncertainty might stampede more people into paying $12.50 for a 5-word quote rather than risk a $250,000 statutory damages award for copyright infringement.

The more people who pay for 5-word quotes, the sturdier the market becomes and the riskier it is to rely upon fair use.

The fourth factor looks like an escape valve for uses that harm no one.

But it actually rewards to bullies who intimidate others out of money they don’t actually owe — until they do.

Trademark has a similar gotcha. Trademark is very different from copyright. Fundamentally, trademark is about protecting buyers, not sellers. Trademark meant to help buyers avoid being tricked into buying an inferior product because it was deceptively named or styled.

If you buy a can of Coke, you want the true Black Water of American Imperialism, not an inferior brand of dilute battery-acid.

But if your Coke turns out to be a fake, you might shrug off the harm or balk at the expense of punishing the fast operator who mis-sold you.

So trademark empowers Coke — and other vendors — to punish third parties who trick their customers, acting as their customers’ champions. Trademark doesn’t exist to prevent Coke from losing money to a rival — it exists to help Coke drinkers get what they pay for.

Trademarks can be registered with the USPTO, who nominally weigh trademark applications to ensure that they’re distinctive and original. Practically, examiners are busy, sometimes careless, and ideologically inclined to grant, not deny, claims.

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/06/14/son-of-cocky-a-writer-is-trying-to-trademark-dragon-slayer-for-fantasy-novels/

But you don’t have to register a trademark to assert it. You can threaten or pursue legal action on the grounds that someone has violated an unregistered trademark, which is any distinctive graphic or phrase that is associated with your product.

Registered or unregistered, trademark enforcement primarily comes down to whether a “naive consumer” would be mislead by someone else’s use of a mark. That is, when you bought a Coke-branded sack of chicken feet, did you think it was blessed by the Coca-Cola company?

If there’s no likelihood of confusion, trademark holders struggle to enforce their trademarks.

This standard seems reasonable, but, like the fourth factor in fair use, it has a sting in its tail.

One of the ways you can induce confusion in the public is to gain a reputation for being a litigious bully. Say Coke is known far and wide for clobbering anyone that uses its trademarks, no matter how trivial the use and no matter how bad it made them look.

If Coke is truly notorious for its zero-tolerance policy, that will lead to a widespread public understanding that every time you see Coke’s marks, the use was blessed by a Coke lawyer — meaning a use that might not otherwise be found to be confusing can be made confusing.

“If that was any other company’s trademark, I’d assume that they had nothing to do with it — but since I know Coke has an army of baby-eating attack lawyers who destroy anyone who uses a mark without permission, that must be an authorized use.”

Like fair use’s fourth factor, trademark’s confusion standard rewards the most vicious and uncaring businesspeople with new rights that their more reasonable competitors do not enjoy. IP selects for sociopathy.

Now, IP — in the most sinister sense of the phrase — has pervaded every industry, but the contradictions of IP are felt most keenly in its spawning grounds: the culture industry.

Culture is in tension with the control of ideas, because culture is the spread of ideas.

Creators (and execs) are vulnerable to the pirate/admiral fallacy: “When I take from my forebears, that’s legitimate artistic progress. When my successors do it to me, it’s theft.”

This pathology, combined with ready-to-hand IP weapons, incentivizes all manner of wickedness. Remember when Marvel and DC teamed up in a bid to trademark the word “super-hero” so that no one else would be allowed to use it?

https://memex.craphound.com/2006/03/18/marvel-comics-stealing-our-language/

These perverse incentives are made tragic by the inherently participatory nature of culture.

It’s not merely that Marvel and DC wanted to steal the word “super-hero” right out of our mouths.

It’s that super-heroes are culturally important because of how we take and remix them in our lives. Marvel went on to use the law to stop us from pretending to be superheroes online, something Casey Fiesler called “Pretending Without a License.”

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277598023_Pretending_Without_a_License_Intellectual_Property_and_Gender_Implications_in_Online_Games

Which brings me, at last, to Games Workshop, a company that has consistently led the IP bully pack, indiscriminately terrorizing the Warhammer 40k fans who made it a massive commercial success.

Warhammer is a strategy/roleplaying game that is played with miniature creatures that players buy, modify and paint. If you’re not familiar with all this, maybe this sounds a bit like toy soldiers.

It’s a lot more interesting — not just because of the game rules or lore, but because of the incredibly, unbelievable, jaw-dropping virtuosity of Warhammer players when they paint and style those miniatures.

There’s a reason I look forward to Saturday morning’s weekly linkdump from Jonathan Struan of the week’s best Warhammer and other RPG miniatures:

https://www.superpunch.net/search?q=warhammer&max-results=20&by-date=true

and why I follow incredible painters like Aurelie Schick:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/110246635@N06

Warhammer is intrinsically participatory, co-creative and active — it’s not media you consume, it’s media you produce.

Games Workshop has become fantastically rich off of this…and they hate it, and they always have.

For years they’ve pursued fans for producing their own fan-made supplements and additions to the game:

https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/99301

The more Warhammer players complained about the indiscriminate censorship of their fan media, the harder GW cracked down on them, wiping out whole genres of creative work:

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48933/games-workshop-files-purge-09

GW claimed it was only defending its rights, the grifter’s signature move, making you a crook for having the audacity not to put their shareholders’ interests ahead of your own.

Then Games Workshop claimed a trademark on “space marine,” a generic term that had been widely used in science fiction for decades, including, notably, in Heinlein’s classic “Starship Troopers” (1959).

https://web.archive.org/web/20130207002144/http://mcahogarth.org/?p=10593

They didn’t just go after RPGs that used the phrase — they used trademark claims to remove novels from Amazon for having the phrase in their titles.

“Space marine” is a generic phrase, but GW was betting if they were sufficiently, spectacularly brutal in their enforcement, they could create a proprietary interest: “Now, I know GW destroys anyone who uses ‘space marine,’ so this ‘space marine’ must be endorsed by GW.”

GW just launched a new set of terms of service, including: “individuals must not create fan films or animations based on our settings and characters. These are only to be created under licence from Games Workshop.”

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Intellectual-Property-Guidelines

Now, this isn’t how copyright works. There are many ways in which a fan film or animation could be fair use, no matter whether GW forbids or permits their production. But this isn’t mere overreach: it’s a direct play against the fourth factor in fair use.

If GW can establish that all animations and vids are produced under paid license, then any fanvid that doesn’t pay for a license has a weaker fair use case, because the fourth factor protects existing licensing markets.

Indeed, as Rob Beschizza points out on Boing Boing, GW timed the terms of service change to coincide with the announcement that they’re launching a subscription service including “cartoons, in-house hobby videos, access to a vault of ebooks and mags.”

https://www.pcgamer.com/now-even-warhammer-has-a-subscription-service/

This is bullying with a business-model, in other words. Fans have figured out how to have fun with each other for free, and GW wants them to stop and pay the company for its in-house version of that fun.

Warhammer creators are demoralized and disheartened. The creator of the hugely successful Oculus Imperia Youtube series posted a heart-rending message of surrender.

https://twitter.com/OculusImperia/status/1421136444437970949

Oculus Imperia also edits “If The Emperor Had A Text To Speech Device,” (TTS) another beloved Warhammer fan series. Alfabusa from TTS posted his own absolutely demoralized goodbye to his work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXljeaktnDA

Ironically, both channels would have a stronger fair use case if they mocked and criticized Warhammer, rather than celebrating it, as fair use tips favorably towards critical uses.

The fact is, they love their hobby and its community and they want to improve it, not tear it down.

Neither wants to get dragged into a brutal copyright case against a deep-pocketed corporation. Even people with great fair use cases balk at that:

https://waxy.org/2011/06/kind_of_screwed/

Now, some people might be thinking, what’s the big deal? Why don’t these creators just make up their own stories instead of remixing the ones that come from Games Workshop?

Those people are assholes.

*All* stories are fanfic of some kind or another. Every mystery novel is a remix of Poe’s Murders In the Rue Morgue. Games Workshop’s stories are the thrice-brewed teabags of many sf writers (remember “space marines?”).

Tolkien straight up ripped off his characters from the 1000-year-old Norse poem “Elder Edda,” which features dwarves named “Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Nori, Dori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur.”

https://musingsofatolkienist.blogspot.com/2015/07/hobbit-origins-catalog-of-dwarves.html

Culture is made of other culture.

GW made something wonderful with Warhammer — by plundering the stories that preceded it.

The sin isn’t in the taking, it’s in the pretense that it never happened, and the vicious grifting that punishes anyone who does unto GW as they did unto everyone else.

#pluralistic

163 notes · View notes

theggning · 4 years ago

Text

I Hate the Alternate Ending of Blind Betrayal, and Here's Why!

DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: Massive spoilers for Fallout 4 abound. This post discusses Blind Betrayal, a quest with suicide as a heavy theme. Content warning applies.

DISCLAIMER THE SECOND: This post discusses cut OFFICIAL content from Fallout 4 that has since been repurposed into multiple mods. I am not criticizing any modders or their implementations of this content. Mods are fun and people can enjoy whatever the hell kind of game experience they want with whatever mods they want.

I am ONLY interested in discussing the original cut content as Bethesda had written it, and how it would have impacted the story and lore of Fallout 4.

So, yeah, it seems there was originally going to be another way to conclude Blind Betrayal (BB).

As described in this Kotaku article (citing this post by Tumblr user tentacle-explosion,) there are unused audio files of Danse’s dialogue that show an alternate ending to his pivotal quest. These lines are the only evidence we have of this ending (suggesting that it was cut fairly early on, as no other actors/characters seem to have recorded for it.)

From what we can tell, in this alternate ending of BB, Danse comes up with a possible way out of the sticky situation re: his identity as a synth. According to the Brotherhood Litany, he is able to challenge Maxson’s authority as Elder via combat. If you agree to this idea, you go with Danse to challenge Maxson. The Paladin and the Elder duel one another, Danse wins, and Maxson dies. Then Danse names the Sole Survivor the new Elder-- or with a hard charisma check, you’re able to convince Danse to take the job himself. It is unknown how the main plot would have progressed beyond this point, as there is no other evidence of what being (or influencing) the Elder would have been like or what choices it would have given you.

There is understandable disappointment in learning that this ending was cut. Choices in games are great, and it could have been fun to have multiple different options for how to resolve the quest. In many gaming circles, people complain that this theoretical ending is superior to the one we got and shouldn’t have been axed. The Kotaku article calls it a “way better” ending, and you’ll see many players lamenting that it wasn’t implemented, saying Bethesda was bad at writing for cutting it, etc.

So why did Bethesda get rid of the Elder ending of BB?

In December 2020, after the Fallout 4 Cast Reunion, Danse’s voice actor Peter Jessop answered questions in a private signing session on his Instagram. Peter Jessop is an extremely kind and gracious man, an avid gamer, and a huge fan of Fallout. During the stream, he reflected on the alternate ending and remembered recording the lines, but stated the content was ultimately cut because Bethesda decided it was lore-breaking.

Peter Jessop is right. Bethesda was right. The Elder ending of BB is a bunch of dumb nonsense. It sucks, I hate it, and I’m glad they got rid of it. And now I’m going to tell you why!

SIDENOTE: King Shit of Fuck Mountain

There is no wrong way to play a single-player video game. If you are having fun, then you are accomplishing the task for which the game was made. Good for you! Play it on easy. Play it on hard. Mod it. Speedrun it. Make up an intricate roleplaying scenario. Perform “challenge” runs. Kill everybody you see. Ignore the story and run around collecting wheels of cheese. Games are meant to be fun and there is nothing wrong with enjoying a game however you damn well please. This is especially true for RPGs like Fallout, which are designed with player freedom in mind.

There is an RPG playstyle I like to call King Shit of Fuck Mountain: a naked power fantasy in which your protagonist is the most powerful person ever, even beyond normal RPG plot significance. Through brute strength, incredible charisma, or having completed tons of quests for world-breaking artifacts and weapons, your character wields godlike influence, able to control people, factions, and the fabric of the world itself. A game enables KSoFM gameplay when it allows the player limitless freedom to gain as much power as they like with zero consequences to plot or storytelling.

A great example of this is the Dragonborn in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. If the player chooses to pursue every questline in the game, one single person can become Harbinger of the Companions, Archmage of the College of Winterhold, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, Nightingale and Guildmaster of the Thieves’ Guild, hero of the Imperial/Stormcloak army, the chosen one of like, 11 different Daedric princes, a bard, a Blade, and otherwise just, absurdly goddamn powerful in completely unrealistic ways. And that’s not counting DLCs. A fully-kitted-out Dragonborn is King Shit of Fuck Mountain.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing KSoFM if you like to. But I’m not a big fan of this style, personally. Sure, my first Skyrim character became KSoFM while I was figuring out the game, but after my first playthrough I preferred my characters become coherent figures in the story of the world. I pick one or two character traits and things that my Dragonborn is good at, focus on them, and make them part of some overall story. My honorable Imperial paladin werewolf is in the Companions, and hunts vampires on principle. My Argonian sneaky archer is a gleeful thief, but would never jive with the College or the Dark Brotherhood. I like creating protagonists who fit into these settings immersively. I don’t care about power fantasies or being in charge. I don’t WANT my character to be all-powerful, because that ruins my immersion and my little story.

Additionally, in a plot-driven story-focused game like Fallout, KSoFM tears the narrative apart. Skyrim is fairly light on story, so the Dragonborn can be the leader of the Companions and the Dark Brotherhood and whatever other factions without any of them noticing or caring. But FO4’s themes, faction drama, and the main thrust of the plot don’t work at all if the Sole Survivor is able to become too powerful or too influential. The Sole Survivor cannot become the leader of every faction, solve every problem, or eliminate every inconvenient bend of the conflict because it makes the lore of the entire setting implode. Thus, the game forces you to choose between factions. You cannot be with the Minutemen and the Nuka-World Raiders. You cannot be with the Railroad and the Institute. And you cannot become Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel.

So if you’re the kind of person who loves playing KSoFM, if you like plots that your character can “solve” with relative ease, or if you just think it would be super cool for your Sole to become Elder regardless of surrounding storytelling, then you might think the Elder ending sounds super cool. You are absolutely allowed to disagree with me here. Install all the mods and write all the fic and have all the headcanons you like. I respect that. There is no wrong way to enjoy a single-player video game. Have fun!

But if you’re a big nitpicky pedantic lore nerd like me, a fan of cohesive storytelling, or if you just want to hear how the Elder ending of BB absolutely fucking ruins Maxson, Danse, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the entire plot of FO4 from a narrative perspective, read on!

1. The Synth Thing

The Elder ending requires the stupid plot contrivance of the BoS forgetting about Danse’s synthhood.

One of the biggest problems with the BoS as an institution is their strict and dogmatic beliefs, which include a widespread dislike of non-human species. Perhaps more than any other non-humans, the BoS hates synths. Synths are, in their eyes, machines given free will, a violation of the sanctity of human life and the ultimate example of technology run amok. To them, synths are not sympathetic, they are not slaves, and they are not victims of circumstance. They are weapons that left unchecked will destroy all of humanity for a second time. Synths are anathema to everything the BoS stands for, and finding out that one of their most beloved and trusted Paladins is one is an earth-shattering blow to their integrity and sense of security.

It is completely absurd that the BoS would allow a synth within their ranks, particularly as they are waging war against the Institute, who created synths in the first place. It is even MORE absurd that they’d allow one to influence their Elder, or even worse, to become Elder. It completely undermines their mission in the Commonwealth, and the core tenets of their extremely rigid beliefs. No matter the Elder, no matter the Litany or obscure BoS law, no matter how valuable the Sole Survivor is as a soldier or how much influence they wield. Danse is a synth. He’s the enemy. He is physically the embodiment of everything they hate.

Not only wouldn’t they trust a synth in general, but the BoS specifically believes that Danse is an infiltrator for the Institute. Even Danse believes that he is a danger, that the Institute may be able to take control of him and use him as a weapon. Sure, we know none of this is actually true, or possible, but the BoS don’t know that. And given how quick they are to order Danse dead without even the possibility of surrender, I don’t think there’s any charisma in the world that’s going to convince them otherwise.

According to Peter Jessop, this, ultimately, is the reason why the Elder ending was cut. He talks about it around the 11:30 timestamp in his Instagram stream, linked above:

“We recorded an ending where you keep Danse alive and you take over the Brotherhood. But there was a question of content… there’s no way the Brotherhood, once they knew he was a synth, would let him be even the right hand of the person in charge.”

Bethesda correctly recognized the incredible narrative contrivance for the BoS to shrug off the reason they’re trying to execute Danse in the first place. Whatever other beefs I have with this ending conceptually, they all come in second to just what a big dumb leap it is to get beyond this first and most important problem.

2. The Complete Death of Conflict

The Elder ending of BB destroys the conflict of the quest, and potentially the conflict of the entire game.

Greed is a poison. There is no such thing as a perfect ideal or a perfect organization. Power corrupts. Humanity has the choice to build back better. War never changes. The Fallout games are full of themes, depicted by the characters and quests and factions we play out.

Blind Betrayal is rightfully praised as one of the most powerful quests in FO4. Not only is it well-acted, but it puts the player in a very difficult position. The BoS has given you clout and glory and free power armor and lots of firepower, but now you see the price: unquestioning obedience. You are ordered to execute your friend and mentor Danse for the mere fact he is a synth. Are you going to follow that unjust order? Are you willing to give up your principles on command? Or is this where you can no longer stay quiet and stay in line?

To be honest, I’ve always thought the fact you can talk Maxson out of killing Danse but still remain with the BoS in good standing was a cop-out. BB goes 90% of the way to forcing you to choose between a companion and a faction, and then chickens out at the last second to let you have both, if your charisma is high enough.

(I believe this has the fingerprints of Skyrim’s development on it-- Bethesda’s writers got nervous about doing another Paarthurnax choice involving the fan favorite Brotherhood of Steel. That’s right. Danse is the Paarthurnax of Fallout. Frankly, I understand why they chose not to go there, but damn, wouldn’t it have been wild? You want to run with the BoS? Then kill your friend and feel the burn. THIS is what it means to follow orders without question.

As for me, I’d pick Danse every time and sleep soundly without the company of shitty bootlicking dieselpunk LARPers- but I digress.)

Anyway, you know what would have REALLY been a copout? If the game asked you to make a difficult thematic storyline choice, and you solved the problem by just not choosing at all.

You are supposed to feel uncomfortable when Maxson orders you to kill Danse, because the game is telling a story about how it is maybe a bad thing to thoughtlessly follow orders without question. It is asking you to think about what the BoS is, what they are doing, and how they are going to run things, if you choose to let them “win” the Commonwealth. It is pointing out that there is no room for gray in the BoS’ black and white. That a good, loyal man may die because of the way he was made, through no action of his own. That soon, you’ll be killing other people on command. The Railroad. Fleeing Institute synths and scientists. Others, down the line. It all depends on who’s giving the orders. Are you going to follow those orders?

Eesh, that sounds thought-provoking and unpleasant and difficult! Let’s just skip it by killing Maxson and making ourselves the boss. Now we get to tell everybody else what to do!

It’s unknown what powers the Elder ending would have granted the player, or how it would have interacted with the other factions. There is speculation that you’d have been able to ease back on the BoS’ dogmatism, or change some of the later events of the game. For instance, perhaps you could talk the BoS down from attacking the Railroad, sparing popular characters like Glory and Deacon who must die in the normal BoS storyline. Perhaps you could have made the BoS a kinder, gentler faction and directed them to run the way you want them to.

If this was indeed the case, then the Elder ending would not only suck the gravitas out of BB, but torpedo the entire main plot.

If you can get rid of any and all downsides to siding with the BoS, why in the hell would players side with anybody else? With the player given total power, the BoS becomes a perfect faction with no drawbacks, no weaknesses, no tough decisions to be made. Screw slumming it with the Railroad or the Minutemen, let’s take over the BoS. Free power armor and a giant robot! Forget the whole intolerance thing, I hereby proclaim the BoS No Longer Problematic! Now to force all the factions to get along, completely removing all conflict and nuance from the plot!

That’s some real anticlimactic “tell Legate Lanius to go home and then he does it” bullshit right there. King Shit of Fuck Mountain!

Look, it might be nice if there was a perfect path like that to take through the game. It would be cool if our characters could be that powerful and the game was that tailored to our individual choices. On the other hand, “I change all the factions to suit my exact liking” might be a fun idea for a fanfic, but it’s an incredibly boring plot for a video game. “I get to make everything in the world exactly how I want it” is Minecraft, not a story-driven RPG with a complex and intricate plot.

It would be great if complex conflicts could really be solved that easily and effortlessly, but hey, you know what? War never changes.

3. The Assassination of Arthur Maxson (Literal)

Arthur Maxson’s death is too significant and fundamentally disastrous for the Elder ending to make any sense at all.

Hero, villain, leader, monster, tortured soul, brutal dictator, immature twerp, bearded sex hunk. However you personally interpret Arthur Maxson, there is no denying that he is a venerated, popular, beloved figure in the BoS. He is the blood heir of the organization’s founder, a powerful warrior, a brilliant tactician, and a charismatic negotiator. He is responsible for reuniting the East Coast BoS with the Outcasts, leading the new, stronger BoS with a sense of shared purpose. There is a damn good reason his name is Arthur and he named his ship The Prydwen, echoes of King Arthur and the legends of his glorious kingdom of Camelot. Arthur Maxson is so beloved that many view him as a demigod, a messiah sent to lead the BoS into a mighty and prosperous future.

So I’m sure nobody’s going to be upset when some wasteland jackass recruited a month ago stumbles in with a synth, kills him, and takes over his job. Right?

It doesn’t matter that it’s “honorable.” It doesn’t matter that it’s done “by the book” via obscure BoS rules. There is no codex or litany or rule so binding that it’s going to overcome the cult of personality around Maxson. There is no way that the BoS is going to accept the death of Arthur Maxson, a man whose reverence borders on worship, especially not when he is immediately replaced by a wastelander, or a synth.

The death of Arthur Maxson removes the unifying glue that’s been holding the BoS together since mending the rift with the Outcasts. Maxson’s death eliminates the one person that both sides of that conflict agreed could steer the organization in the right direction. Some level heads may try to keep the focus on the mission and the Brotherhood tenets, but Maxson loyalists will never forgive the new Elder for his death, and that amount of passionate righteous anger will not be quelled by appeals to the rules. The new Elder’s war on the Institute is basically over before it begins, when the forces splinter and start infighting over the change in leadership.

And this is if the new Elder lives long enough to actually give any orders. I give them around 24 hours after the duel before some angry Maxson loyalist “accidentally” pulls the trigger and “tragically” empties a clip into their back.

24 seconds, if it’s Elder Danse, the dirty synth abomination.

4. The Assassination of Arthur Maxson (Figurative)

The Elder ending of BB falsely pretends that Arthur Maxson is the biggest and only problem with the BoS.

In the Elder ending, as written, the conflict of BB is considered completely and totally solved by the death of Arthur Maxson. The core problem, that Danse is a synth and considered an enemy by the BoS, has not gone away. But by getting rid of Maxson, this apparently no longer matters. Nobody else is going to take offense to Danse’s nature or protest his presence. Nobody else is going to attack him or try to follow through with Maxson’s prior orders. Nope, that meanybutt guy who gave the order is gone, and everybody else is going to welcome Danse back into the fold like nothing ever happened.

I touched on this a little bit on an ask about Maxson a few weeks back, but a lot of people seem to believe that the FO4 Brotherhood of Steel is the way they are purely because of him. That he is the one making them treat non-humans as second class citizens at best, and enemies to be slaughtered at worst. That it’s his fault the BoS is so vehemently against synths and the Institute. That he is the one influencing their imperialistic tendencies, and treating the Commonwealth like territory to be conquered and people to be ruled over by their betters.

He’s not. That’s the Brotherhood of Steel, guys.

The charitable, altruistic, virtuous BoS that many of us met for the first time in FO3 were outliers. Lyons’ group was literally disowned by the rest of the faction because their kindness to wastelanders had gone so far astray from the “core” tenets. The BoS as a whole has always been exclusive, isolated, and seen themselves as “superior” to the average wastelander. They have long disliked or outright hated non-humans (and even Lyons’ BoS in FO3 use ghouls, feral or not, for “target practice” if they get too close!) The rigid dogmatism of the BoS is not something that Arthur Maxson started, but has always been part of their fabric.

Now, it’s true that Maxson is absolutely going hard on the BoS tenets, and extremely dedicated to upholding them. His BoS are the way they are and act the way they act because he believes that this is the way it should be. Is it possible that a different leader may be a little more flexible? Absolutely. Could a skilled Elder eventually show them the benefits of a softer approach and a more generous worldview? Totally. Is getting rid of Maxson and replacing him going to make that happen overnight, or going to make the rest of the BoS who supported him shrug and follow suit?

Nope.

Blaming Arthur Maxson for everything unsavory about the Brotherhood is unfair to him and also foolishly ignoring the deep, massive problems that are far older than he is-- problems that plenty of its members wholeheartedly believe are not problems at all. Getting rid of Maxson does not make the BoS kinder or gentler. Even pretending Maxson isn’t as personally beloved as he is, any new Elder who steps in and starts trying to fundamentally alter the way the BoS operates and what they believe in is going to face some major, immediate pushback.

Like, a full clip of bullets in the back type of pushback.

In the face if it’s Elder Danse, the godless freak of nature.

5. The Un-Redemption of Paladin Danse

Last, and my personal least favorite!

At first glance, Paladin Danse is a steely jackboot, a die-hard Brotherhood loyalist who fully and firmly believes in their cause. Many immediately dismiss him as a humorless brute, or completely ignore him because they think that’s all there is. But if you spend any time with Danse at all, you’ll notice a sort of weariness in him. He is tired, overworked, and his years of service are starting to weigh on him. He has watched friends, comrades, and mentors die in horrible and gruesome ways, and he suffers from PTSD. Though he has always been told that his own sacrifices, the sacrifices of his brothers and sisters have been” worth it,” he’s starting to question if that’s true.

After telling of the incident where he personally executed his best friend Cutler, who’d been turned into a super mutant, the Sole Survivor is able to console him:

Player Default: You did the right thing. Danse: {Somber} It's what I was taught. I don't know if it was right.

This line is an excellent summary of Danse’s entire character arc. He learns to question whether to believe what the Brotherhood has taught him, or to believe in himself. His gut feelings. His sense of justice and his own ideas of what’s right and wrong.

(In the interest of not turning this into an essay about Danse’s character, I won’t even get into how this also applies to his beliefs about his worth as a person. But keep in mind, that dimension is there, Danse just covers it up by making everything about the Brotherhood.)

During Blind Betrayal, after getting the orders to execute him and hearing Haylen’s plea for mercy, we may expect Danse to be ready to fight back or flee. But when you confront him in the bunker at Listening Post Bravo, he’s compliant and suicidal. Danse is so deeply poisoned by the BoS’ rhetoric that his own feelings or will to live don’t factor into the conversation. He demands that you follow your orders and execute him, because he believes, as the BoS does, that all synths are dangerous and must be destroyed.

Danse: {Stern} Synths can't be trusted. Machines were never meant to make their own decisions, they need to be controlled. Technology that's run amok is what brought the entire world to its knees and humanity to the brink of extinction.

{Confident} I need to be the example, not the exception.

Through various dialogue options, if your charisma is high enough, you are able to talk Danse off the ledge. He is able to consider, at least, that the BoS’ merciless judgment of him is wrong and that what he was taught isn’t right. He is a thinking, feeling, self-aware synth, and that makes him as much a person as any human. Danse is no danger to humanity-- and maybe, most synths aren’t either.

Danse is an example, not an exception.

Later on, if you manage to get him out of BB alive, Danse shows further acceptance of his nature. His approvals about synths begin to soften slightly (or many of them do, at least… it’s not perfect.) He is still struggling with his identity and reconciling it with his former hatred, but his dialogue suggests that he’s on the road to being more open-minded and understanding. Along with this, Danse learns that he has value as a person beyond the Brotherhood. He no longer needs to define himself with BoS beliefs or judge himself by how useful he is to them. He learns that he is worth caring about, worth being friends with or being loved because of who he is-- not what he is, in any regard.

[SIDENOTE: Many players, myself included, are frustrated that Danse’s arc leaves off sort of midstream there. Due to the open-ended nature of the game, we don’t get a real conclusion to his arc-- even though much of his idle dialogue doesn’t change and he still espouses pro-BoS sentiments ( an unfortunate by-product of writing for a video game) there is every indication that he’s started down the right path, but understandably has a ways to go.

Also, Peter Jessop agrees with us.]

Meanwhile, in the Elder ending, Danse doesn’t get a redemption. His entire character arc, actually, hits the skids and does a total 180.

He never leaves the BoS. So scratch the need for Danse to ever think about himself as separate from them. He never needs to question what they’ve taught him or whether they’re right or wrong. He never needs to find any worth in himself beyond his use to the BoS. Why would he? He might be the Elder. The BoS is all he needs to care about anymore. The BoS is all he ever needs to be, ever again.

And I think, most horrifying of all, this Danse never needs to change his mind about synths. On the contrary, one of the surviving dialogue files includes Danse’s speech to reassure the rest of the BoS of his stance:

Danse: I want to make one thing clear to everyone. This body might be synth, but my heart and mind belong to the Brotherhood. The Institute is still a tremendous threat to the Commonwealth. They possess technologies that need to be confiscated or destroyed. And even if that means I have to pull the trigger on my own kind, I’m willing to make that sacrifice.

Elder ending Danse doesn’t grow more understanding on the nature of synths. He doesn’t accept that synths are people, or anything more than technology run amok. He won’t even accept that for himself. Elder Maxson wasn’t wrong about synths-- they’re the enemy and they need to be destroyed.

But, see, he was wrong about Danse. It’s okay for Danse to exist in spite of his nature. It’s okay for him to never fully accept his own personhood, and to outright deny it to his kind. Because his body is a machine, but he’s different from the rest because his heart and mind belong to the Brotherhood.

He’s the exception, not the example.

CONCLUSION:

The Elder ending of Blind Betrayal is dumb, contrived, stakeless, character-derailing powergaming crap at its finest and I’ll happily dance on its grave.

People give Bethesda a lot a shit for their writing-- whether it be stuff they left out, stuff they left in, or stuff that they never, ever could have made work due to the limitations of writing for a video game. Plenty of it is well-deserved, or at least worth a discussion. But from the minute I found out about its existence, I have always wanted to extend a congratulations to Bethesda for cutting the alternate Elder ending of Blind Betrayal. It was a good choice. A very good choice to cut a very dumb plot that would have fundamentally altered the story they were telling, and characters that I’ve grown to love. I think the writers deserve some credit and a hearty handshake for the wisdom of this decision.

Now as for why Nick Valentine isn’t romanceable--

#fallout 4 #fallout meta #paladin danse #arthur maxson #blind betrayal #this one was a long time coming #any thematic resemblance to any fics of mine is a coincidence #the blind betrayal manifesto #king shit of fuck mountain #the initial intrigue of the idea wears off if you think about it more than not at all

301 notes · View notes