#it's the shedding that's the issue

[i3utterflyeffect]

okay fine. medium loaf to complement the small and large loaf

[mettywiththenotes]

I see some people asking "when are we going to get a Bakugou moment where he encourages Izuku??" But didn't he already have it?

I believe he was the one who started the whole "do your best" thing off before 422

[tomatoart]

to stay the same sad, sorry mother

[the-magpie-collective]

Let's talk about how Ulder Ravengard was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year when he finally runs into Wyll, for the first time in seven years, and his son is now definitely maybe sort of a devil?

Look, D&D cannon is absolutely wild and inconsistent but I need ya'll to know approximately how many horrible things befell Ulder Ravengard in the few months right before the events of Baldur's Gate 3.

Ulder Ravengard goes to Elturel. This is fairly normal. He often had to travel as a Duke for diplomatic reasons to nearby cities. Sure, the Vanthampurs' had their fingers pulling the strings this time to ensure he went, but that is also, unfortunately, normal. And it's not like anyone else can go in his place. Who would he send? Portyr whose only use is as a windsock? Stelmane who is suffering from the long term effects of a "stroke"? Vanthampur?

(Portyr, Stelmane, and Vanthampur being the other four dukes at the time)

So he goes and it's supposed to just be another diplomatic trip to a neighboring city. Except exactly nothing goes to plan. The Vanthampurs have made an alliance with devils and a deal with the leaders of Elturel to orchestrate the fall of the entire city into Avernus. Ulder Ravengard is there with several of the Flaming Fist when the entire city is plunged into hell. And no, Avernus is not some sort of cushy vacation spot. There's a reason why Karlach would rather die than go back. There's a reason why it is called hell.

It's not hard to imagine he watches many of the Flaming Fist get slaughtered. People he's worked with for years, maybe even decades. People he called friends. Not hard to think that he watches innocents suffer as they are preyed upon by devils and demons, children slaughtered in the streets all while he is helpless to stop it from happening. It's not out of the question to think this is possibly one of the worst times in his life. Oh, Ulder Ravengard has been through numerous disasters before. He's watched countless friends die. But when has he ever been so helpless as the time he was caught in an entire city of relative innocents as it is dragged down to the hells?

It gets worse.

You see, Ulder Ravengard is put into a catatonic state by the Demon Lord Baphomet using the the Helm of Torm's sight. The Helm of Torm's sight is a holy item that allows the user to commune with Torm (god of Duty, Loyalty, etc). In a last ditch effort to save the city of Elturel, Ulder Ravengard attempted to get to the Helm in the hopes that it could be used to fight back. Instead he gets to watch as his hope is perverted and used against him. He gets to see himself fall helpless and under control of the demon while his men are slaughtered in the attack.

We don't know how Ulder Ravengard escapes this situation (*cough* play Descent into Avernus *cough*) but somehow he does. After weeks of fighting in the hells (maybe even months?) and narrowly escaping with his life and mind intact Ulder Ravengard is hurrying back to Baldur's Gate as quickly as he can. He knows the city is in danger, whether the Vanthampurs' succeeded at seizing power or not. And on the way home he gets ambushed by fucking goblins and drow working together. He gets to see as some of the few survivors who made it through their time in Avernus with him, get killed. He gets to see his close friend and advisor Counselor Florrick get trapped in a burning building.

Then he's kept imprisoned, and likely harassed, in the dungeons of Moonrise towers. All he hears is 'the Absolute' this and 'the Absolute' that. Then what does he know but apparently the mastermind behind this whole thing is fucking Gortash, the slimy counselor he has spent the past while doing his best to ignore because even if he didn't like him and thought most of his ideas were bad he couldn't actually do anything to get rid of him. And then Orin—a fucking Bhaalspawn—uses him for a chair while Ketheric Thorm goes on a whiny oh-woe-is-me rant and Gortash sticks a tadpole in his eye all while mocking him.

He then gets to spend the next while under control of the Absolute. We don't know how unpleasant this is, but we do know that when the Absolute controls someone directly their brain starts bleeding so severely they collapse and die after less than a minute :) and when he's finally freed from the Absolute he has chronic migraines so yeah not fucking pleasant :)))))

And then his son rescues him. Yay. His son who he strove to teach right from wrong all those years. His son to whom he imparted the four pillars: strategy, courage, justice, insight. His son, who, despite everything he has ever taught him chose to throw all of his promise away to a devil. And he doesn't know why and maybe he hopes that there was a good reason behind it all, but he does know that he lost any chance he had to ever be able to fully trust his son again because he doesn't know the terms of the pact and he can't know the full terms of the pact but he does know that his son is now under the control of a devil.

And please just take a moment to think about how terrifying that would be. This isn't something that an 'I'm sorry' can fix. Wyll says it himself: it would be easier to drink the Chionthar down, drop by drop, than to break a devil's pact. The chances of Wyll ever being freed from his pact are slim to none and the damage he could do in the mean time is immeasurable. Ulder Ravengard has the weight of an entire city's well being on his shoulders. I am not saying he made the right choice, but there is a reason why Wyll says it was the only choice he could make. He told Wyll to go. Maybe out of shame, maybe out of fear, maybe out of the hope that his son would do less damage far away than if he were to stay. We don't know why. Maybe he regretted it, maybe he never looked back.

But he's been having one of the worst fucking years of his life and most of it is due either directly to devils or to people conspiring with devils. His mind has been scraped raw by the Absolute. He's injured and if you broke Wyll's pact he was just attacked by another devil and exploding spiders. If you didn't break Wyll's pact, he just saw evidence that Wyll is still in leagues with a devil, after all Mizora states very clearly that she always fulfills her promises as she saves him.

Oh and if you didn't kill Karlach, Wyll is a devil now (*techinically he is still human, just with some devilish features and will be regonized as infernal in origin by the spell Detect Good and Evil, but Ulder Ravengard doesn't have the insight to game mechanics that we have and may or may not be aware that Wyll turning into a devil is a lot less probable than him just being made to look like one.)

So maybe, it's just a little understandable that instead of greeting Wyll with joy or gratitude at being saved the first thing he thinks, the only thing he can think of is: what fresh hell is he in for now?

(And maybe ya'll can be a little more understanding of Wyll choosing to forgive his father too. I don't think it's out of character for Wyll. I don't think he's ignoring everything wrong with what his father did. I don't think Wyll is a bad person for choosing to forgive his father or that anger would have been the right choice for him. It's far, far more complicated than that.)

[wolfythewitch]

Hmm trying to figure out what topics I want to explore for my thesis (a short animated film, like 2-5 minutes). Do you guys have any suggestions

[porto-rosso]

barbara trying to integrate cass into civilian life via boys and reading when all she had to do was sign her up for amateur rugby

[batmobilestires]

i HATE when people mischaracterize Dick and Jason’s Robin likeeee

Robin was created because Dick wanted to literally murder his parents murderer. like sure he had his soft moments, but he was a little ball of rage!! i hate it when yall try to make it seem like he was just a constant ray of sunshine - it’s okay for him to be a little ball of rage sometimes!!

on the other hand, people try to make it seem like Jason’s Robin was the aggressive one just to lessen the importance of his death. like sure Jason was a little feisty - courtesy of growing up on the streets. but do not forget that he literally is the “Robin is magic” kid!!

[utilitycaster]

One last thought of the morning but it is interesting that on the most basic level, one can say most defenses or criticism of Laudna comes down to intent vs. material effect: is she absolved of her actions because she was manipulated and abused, or is she sympathetic but still a pretty serious liability? And I have actively been trying to step away from assumptions regarding people's religious experiences informing their opinions, but also, the Faith Vs. Works parallels are rather unavoidable here.

[superkitten-poison]

to me velvette doesnt lie about *being bisexual* for attention but she lies about being bisexual *for attention*. like admitting to being attracted to women would make her a dyke and manly and f/f relationships dont even count bc her internalized misogyny goes so crazy she subconsicounsly does not see women as full people and needs men to validate her own personhood, and since men hold most of the power, surrounding herself with men is in fact a means to power. so one way she feels she Can have sexual contact with women is through excuses: it's for attention, for convenience, as a power play. but never because of her own desires and it can never mean anything. can you imagine? two women in a loving relationship. who would want to see that?

[theblackqueen-ofmyheart]

I don’t care about a man in uniform. But show me a man in a lab coat and I’m going to go feral

[meeple-inc]

A small question for the employees running the blog; what's it like to work at Meeple, or even the HQ specifically if you happen to be there? Any cool workplace stories?

We do in fact work at Meeple HQ, at the MeCloud! Unfortunately, Meeple policies prohibit me from discussing anything about what happens within the workplace in detail, but I get plenty of desk space and I enjoy the presence of my coworkers!

[faaun]

i feel rly sad and conflicted abt one of my best friends on earth but idk who to ask for advice bc i usually would have consulted her in this situation lmao

[fayevalcntine]

The whole "Claudia is now his sister"/Louis' sibling comparisons are never gonna sit right with me because that's never going to erase the fact that Claudia exists as a vampire partly because of him. Their relationship will never have this clearly defined role of siblings in the same manner Louis had with Grace or Paul, even if he was their older brother and was implicitly given the role of providing for them as the successor and manager of his family's estate. Because Louis was never responsible in part for their creation, the reason why they existed the way that they do in terms of behavior and life itself.

It also makes his betrayal of her all the more heartbreaking in ways that him and Grace drifting apart never will. He was her father, and didn't provide emotional support for her. She had to turn the tables and try to assume the role of being on an equal level because of this failure but this doesn't make him not choosing her any less painful than it did the first time. Even as they shift roles, take or give emotional responsibility one has towards the other, the fact that Claudia exists the way she does because of him and Lestat will always be there.

[fauvester]

goofy silly lovedrunk bashir! and AWED STARRY EYED GARAK!

[t4tails]

Wait what's wrong with jujutsu kaisen??

just a shounen manga that falls into the same pitfalls a lot of shounen mangas do

[thatcheeseycandle]

(Current me here right before posting this, I yeah- I was a bit burnt out from a lot and I found this sitting in my drafts while looking through them. Might as well post it while I can)

//ITS ACTUALLY A GOOD MONDAY CAUSE ITS A HOISNY READING WOOOOOOOOO

TW FOR SPOILERS ON THE ENTIRETY OF HOISNY CHP. 4 BTW

wOO OKAY I'll be wishing that the notes aren't gonna jinx me LMAO

"He didn’t want to think about what had happened at the Great Race, though it was the only thing he could think about." Felt that feeling before hOLY GOSH

Diving head on with a fresh recap of the chapters before this with it's angst I suppose BEHHSWHDH but hey I'm not complaining SO YEAH CONTINUING ON

(insert me reading silently with some "oUGHS"s in the mix, I can't remember how I exactly felt about this bit but I remember that I was just sad for Thomas. Like my guy found out all his family was wiped out IN SECONDS right there and it was infront of A LOT of people.)

"What would Gordon say if he saw his friends divided?" Well considering a lot, it's not a thought to dwell on with the joyous of emotions unfortunately BEHSHDHDHSHS

(Okay yeah insert another silence with the only noises from me being "oh"s and "oUGH"s cause I don't know how to word how I felt but I just felt like my heart was melting but like in a way I felt sad for them)

"'Wait a minute-' Samuel started, suddenly coming to a realisation. 'The story of you falling into a mine, that’s true?!'"

'It was written about?!'��Thomas screeched, his face going as red as James’s paint from embarrassment and both crews spontaneously started laughing." I LOVE THIS BIT OHMYGHAHAGAHSJXH

(Yet again, I couldn't find the words to describe my reaction for the rest of this considering my lungs kept deflating when I regained a bit of oxygen every sentence LMAO)

AAYYYY READING RWS LETS GOO

This whole bit, I love it so much like YEAHAHDJDHDH LETS GO THEYRE GONNA READ RWS and AND THEYRE GONNA HANG OUT WITH EACHOTHER (aka cope with their situations together LMAOCHDHSJ)

Okay people WE'RE AT THE STEAMWORKS NOW LETS GOOO

(Yet again, lost my words at this bit and my feelings were basically a combination of curiosity and sadness sneaking from the back of my mind aka I started slipping into that unbreakable trans whenever you read)

Ah crap okay Scot you better not slip your words on this (but hey I cant exactly blame him if he does considering that was HIS BROTHER)

(Okay seriously WHAT IS WITH ME PAUSING WITH MY WORDS IN THIS- Insert another silence with the only emotions in this being relatability and sadness)

Scot you aren't the only one to have a hard time sleeping now BHAAHSHXBJAJXH SO YEAH

(Seems like I was so shocked in this scene that I fORGOT TO WRITE MY REACTION TO IT But basically it was me being super shocked, my heart dropped, then needed minutes to process it before continuing on)

“No, it’s not silly. You’re going through a hard time right now and what you’re experiencing is valid.” SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK AND SIDE HENRY‼‼

(Okay sorry for interrupting this reaction with my current notes but GOD I FORGOT TO WRITE DOWN A LOT OF REACTIONS. But from what I remember of this, I think I was just happy at the fluff that started to slither in. Thank God I'm finishing up this review the same day Chp. 5 comes out so I dont have to wait after this LMAO)

And RIGHT THERE FOLKS we end it off with a cliffhanger, except it's a nice cliffhanger! Very excited for the next chapter now that's built up to that

Yet again credits to Loraine ( @lorainedoesthings ) for releasing such a great chapter! Very excited to see what's to come in these coming weeks