#kind of wishy washy

[boysnberriespie]

One of my pet peeves is Americans talking about “libel” when what they mean is “lying”

[vigilskeep]

when i was playing nennaia in dai, i established a precedent in my head that she was not telling anyone anything about her life with the dalish, which means literally anything that had happened to her for the fifty or so years she’s been alive. the dalish are characterised as somewhat secretive as a very rational safety measure, and i thought i could use this hc to sand off the edges of some of the most egregious lavellan dialogues where they seem not to know anything about their own culture and beliefs, or to explain away canonically-mentioned details that conflicted with my hc lore. and it worked pretty well for those purposes! unfortunately i never came to believe that there was a point where she would suddenly open up and reveal everything to literally any inquisition companion, so i fully believe some people in that inner circle make it until trespasser before realising they know nothing about her at all

[vaguely-concerned]

early game harding thinks rye is so full of shit and it's so funny. 'what did varric bring in this wishy-washy little mage kid for exactly. he was fine to have around as someone who could crack jokes that made varric really smile and to be a Knower of Stuff about the fade and veil and magic and everything but uh... this ain't it fam. does he think he can outthink the apocalypse. did taking direct immediate action kill his ma or something for him to avoid it like this. I know he's a mortalitasi and everything and I guess they think about death differently over there in nevarra who am I to judge (*judges viciously in the privacy of her own mind*) but andraste's mercy he doesn't even seem SAD. what is WRONG with him. no stop it lace he's doing his best we're all doing our best varric believed in him people grieve in their own ways and we can't judge them for it, we have to have his back he's in a difficult situation and needs our support. I GUESS'

also. imagining her some months later watching him tear through weisshaupt like a bullet from a gun and go 'well in hindsight I might have misread this particular character trait. perhaps a walking act of the maker should make sure it knows where it's headed before it cuts loose for everyone's sake actually. he might have the right idea there'

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

When I see stuff like this I kinda want to bash my head into a wall:

To start off, I’m not sure whether this person was commenting on book or show Cersei, but honestly, it doesn’t even matter because she’s so much more than the ‘ambitious villain’ or the ‘murderous girlboss’ tropes in both the book and show.

(Of course, I do have my issues with the way Cersei was written in the show like most people but this is simply a rant post so I’m not going to go through the differences of Show vs Book Cersei)

Cersei is a female character who was shaped by her environment, who’s insecurities were created by her environment, and she’s a woman who’s idiotic mistakes can be traced back to how her environment shaped her. She’s much more than a murderous girlboss, she’s both a victim of the system and also a beneficiary of it, while also acting as an agent of it to keep the status quo while also desiring what the system denied her.

Cersei is NUANCED and complicated and even now people hate that about her and want her to have been a purely evil woman handcrafted in a vacuum, ignoring the context of her life because readers would rather not engage with Cersei’s victimhood and nuances because that ruins their idea of: She Was The Problem and Always The Problem. (People would rather say that she deserved her walk of shame instead of interacting meaningfully with the theme of systematic gender-based violence that is so prevalent in Cersei’s story. The exploration of patriarchal violence in Show Alicent’s story is done so horribly in comparison.)

And what really pissed me off about these tags is that this person has clearly decided that they don’t care to interact with the nuance of Cersei and are fine with flattening her, and yet they shit on others for not liking Alicent.

Because of the way Alicent is written in this show, she almost always has a ‘woe is me I can do no wrong’ attitude, which of course drives people away from the character (woe is me I deserve to take a child’s eye 🥺). However, what actually annoys me is how she’s made out to be stupid, foolish, ignorant, and inconsistent due to the horrible writing of this show, all of which are deviations from her book characterization. Also, I despise it when people want me to support writing decisions and changes made in adaptations that are downright misogynistic and are meant to attract the male gaze.

But what pisses many people, including myself, off is how the changes made negatively impacted many other characters. Alicent’s terrible characterization is like a black hole that distorts and warps the whole story! It’s annoying af!

So when people like this say: ‘She’s nuanced and people just can’t handle it 🙄;’ I say: No. She’s horribly written and a different character from the book and people have a right to be critical about these changes that stripped a female character of 1) her agency and 2) her intelligence!

And the thing is, there was little reason for the writers to have made all these changes to Alicent’s characterization! In the book she is an interesting character with clear motives and understandable reactions. She’s cunning and ambitious and acts the way a noble lady who became queen would. And despite her clear ambitions and dislike of Rhaenyra, she still makes a comment wondering about who would protect the Princess from Ser Criston, and yet she then takes Cole into her service after his falling out with Rhaenyra. That’s a perfect example of nuance! Show Alicent could never compare to book Alicent’s clear moral values and consistent disregard of said moral values in pursuit of power.

And because of this, Book Alicent isn’t easy to stomach. It’s hard for most people to come to terms with a character like her and it’s even harder for people to feel sympathetic for her at the end when she went mad with grief.

On the other hand, Show Alicent was designed in a way to garner pity, and when the writers felt like her current arc wouldn’t be enough to garner the specific reaction they wanted they would then throw in a time skip and suddenly she’s completely different and yet still Thee victim. She’s designed to be as sympathetic as fucking possible! The camera angles, the background music, and the lighting is set up in a way to make sure you the viewer feels pity or sympathy for her! Cause that’s her role in this series! She’s thee Ultimate Victim!

But too bad for the writers as many people are fed up with this kind of inconsistent writing. Even when the writers created a whole new challenge for Alicent where she’s shitted on by the green council and forced to face the beast she helped to raise, I and many others could never feel any satisfaction as it was clear that once again Alicent was being made to be Thee Ultimate Victim who was just led astray by the patriarchy and was a victim of it and was only just realizing it so don’t you pity her don’t you feel sad for her and now she’s trying to do the right thing so pls pls pls pity her 🥺~ So it shouldn’t be surprising that many people are annoyed by these eNLiGhtEnEd changes that have led to a complete deviation from the source material.

To summarize: Cersei is an excellent fucking character who’s by no means easy to stomach, and because she’s not easy to stomach she’s often reduced to annoying ass tropes by dumbasses who are reading above their comprehension level. But when you actually try to understand her, you can easily see why she turned out the way she did and you can feel sympathy for her while understanding that she’s both victim and perpetrator! On the other hand, Show Alicent is a mess and HOTD is trying to make her serve a different narrative role than she did in the books so ofc people are going to be unhappy with the changes as book readers are once again faced with the annoying reality that the writers don’t give a fuck about the source material.

[irhabiya]

commit to antizionism or fuck off

[diodellet]

cw: incoherent rambling, im still going through it™, unbeta'd++all mistakes are mine

grim being a selfish brat is the point of his character arc. when you're told to claw for your survival in a prestigious yet hostile magical academy, when you're told that the weak must obey the strong, of course you're going to make use of what little advantages are given to you. that means demanding your henchman to do your every bidding and taking any opportunity to prove your strength.

kindness, consideration, compassion, empathy - they don't have a place in NRC. or so it seems.

the great thing about him starting the story with an obnoxious and abrasive personality is in how he awkwardly navigates his first ever friendships. in the sweetness of the rare scene where kinship just clicks for him, where his boasts and complaints become banter, where he feels like he gets to belong, to have a home.

and there's something deeply tragic about grim too, the fact that he's going to be left alone when yuu returns to their original world. what will happen to his student status? will he have to move out of the ramshackle dormitory? can he make it through his studies without you at his side?

when the first person who gave you kindness leaves, what are you supposed to do? will you say goodbye or will you fight to keep them?

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I'm pretty aromantic but I know how people in love feel because I haven't gone to shul and I won't be going to my class this week and I'm feeling like this

[paingoes]

What would have happened if Delta during Destroyer had straight up sent Kitty and Apollo the empire's file on Δ-107 and been like "this is me"?

my understanding is that a lot of the plan was predicated on plausible deniability. its unclear exactly how things developed on galatea’s end but by the time of rescue, apollo and kitty were pretty sure of delta’s identity. but without explicit confirmation they could kinda just frame it as a normal rescue operation and justify it like “we didnt knowwwwwww ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ” (they knew).

if delta just came out and said it they would probably have to tell levon. in that case there would be a more formalized plan put in place to address the Δ-107 crisis.

its a really delicate situation. i think it would take a while for galatea to reach a consensus about it. unfortunately the most straightforward way to neutralize delta is to kill him. its also a matter of removing him from the equation without crippling paris’s offense, thus ending the war early and letting nezu predominate. plus its a lot of resources sunk into both rescuing and then safeguarding delta for the rest of his life.

i think he wouldve still been rescued ultimately. probably wouldve been fine tbh? and safer??? this is why levon is so pissed off at them like “why didnt you just tell me? i wouldve said yes.”

but hes lying to himself when he says this. there was a non-zero chance he wouldve said no and opted to kill delta instead, given the information he had at the time. its a war!

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

SOTE SPOILERS

I just beat the dlc so I’ll sum up my thoughts. Best part was by far the world and sidequests, lots of gorgeous scenery and NPCs that work well with what the base game set up and had interesting quests. I especially liked Trina/Thiollier’s (all the stuff about being a god would be a cage for him even goes with Mohg’s intentions) and Ymir’s (finger lore and hand mpreg just goes extremely hard okay)

So I’m disappointed that the main story I think was just… bad and disconnected from base game as a whole. I was looking forward to more Miquella but the final boss felt more like an excuse to fight Radahn at his peak than what would make sense story-wise. If he’s so important to Miq’s plans, then you’d expect base game to bring that up like… at all? And why Radahn as his consort when Malenia exists, who he ACTUALLY has twin prince vibes with…? She’s dear to him, and just as strong? And it makes Aeonia a waste, cause if Radahn agreed, why fight and hurt even herself in the process? And if not, why couldn’t Miq just charm him especially after they make such a big deal about it with Mohg? I DO think the Mohg thing backfired on him but I doubt Radahn would have as twisted visions of love as him so why not?

Which coming to that, I also hate how they emphasize Mohg being some victim of bewitching, it felt boring and cowardly to do so, instead of lean into the implications they set up. I still think Mohg DID abuse him though for a number of reasons 1- Ansbach is a high ranking knight of Mohg’s of course he’s biased towards his lord 2- other NPCS who were human not even demigods still had awareness of the charm and were still able to distrust others 3- Mohg’s obsession and possessiveness of Miq is unique to him not even Leda acts so fixated 4- There’s literally nothing saying the kidnapping was planned (hell the haligtree isn’t even mentioned despite it being his life’s work lmaooo) so ripping him out of that seems like it would be against his will. All they say is a vague “needed him to get to the land of shadows”. Somehow. 5- Mohg being killed also couldn’t have been part of his plan you don’t even need to set foot in the dynasty to become Elden lord and he’s in a secluded spot and relatively unknown. So that’s very unreliable… 6- Miq’s plans had nothing to do with the Mother or the Dynasty so making Miq into a god under Her and forming the basis of the dynasty is 100% Mohg. Probably it backfired in the sense Mohg has a twisted sense of love that hurts the one he claims to love. Ansbach probably saw his plan for a dead end though (Miq certainly wasn’t waking up) so he tried to stop his obsession with him. <-very sick of people claiming he “beat the allegations”

As for what this means for my art I’m certainly less inspired by this game than before but I do intend to to draw an extra bloodied, violated mess of a Miq, and occasional (non-consensual) MohgMiq kinda out of spite for people claiming him innocent now also I need to see Miq broken

[pfffsfic]

just a note: improbabill works on the assumption that bill can't enter the minds of (and is unwilling or unable to read the minds of, maybe because of his meds or the damage that caused the scar?) the other residents of the theraprism. i just realized they never actually said that anywhere in canon, but it goes along with him standing/sitting instead of floating as we see in all of the canon theraprism images we have so far.

In hindsight, to make that make more sense, I should have written him without any of his powers, but he does set his hand on fire in part 3, so I can't really go with that now.

current idea is that they medicated away his reality warping as well. There's a little bit of a precedent in that Bill says he can alter the text of the BoB because the pages are made of brain matter, which implies he couldn't change the text if it was just paper- that's weird considering his normal power set. then again, that is something magic-ish that he can do, so maybe I should chalk up the question of "why doesn't he just read Rob's mind and have all his questions answered" to unwillingness because he doesn't want to admit he's curious.

or it could have something to do with the big brain on the Theraprism, which would indicate the whole place is a mindscape of some kind? not sure what the implications would be there

[cdroloisms]

A lot of people hated the Mama puffy hc but I really liked it especially because she disowns c!Dream. It’s a moment that (if the hc was real) would’ve shown the very real truth that blood means nothing and parents can disown their children for any reason, valid or not. The idea that she denounces her own son hurts more because of this ingrained concept that a mother always loves her children, no matter what. I enjoy the topic quite a bit and I enjoy the angst that inevitably comes from it. It’s not that I want it to be canon, just that I enjoy the hc a lot.

i think mama puffy is whatever with fanwork but in canon it's obviously not true. i think c!puffy's whole entitled parasocial guardian thing is objectively funnier--woman, how are you gonna declare yourself this guy's guardian and then get Disappointed In Him when you think you have some special say over who he is and what he should do morally bc he helped you with ur chores that one time, what.

[13eyond13]

Hate that I agree so hard with Takumi about something.....

Also this drunk little background smooch made my day lol

[allgremlinart]

hm.

[madivandoren]

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White. I didn’t really like the book, but i did LOVE the concept of knot magic! So here’s a Gwen, or generic medieval lady :)

[wuntrum]

hey, sorry if this is like too personal, but I just toured MECAD and saw some of your art there, and I was wondering what your experience there was like? I'm trying to make college decisions but they didn't really go over what student life was like? thank you!!

hey! thats wild, i didnt realize they show some of my art during those tours 😭 (or maybe i did and i just forgot lol) my experience there was generally good, though take that with a grain of salt because there's soooo many factors at play that'll make or break your experience. i know a bunch of people who hated it there and wish they had never gone (whether they dropped out first semester or finished their degree, for whatever reason), but i also know a lot of people who really enjoyed it!

it was the right fit for me, personally--i grew up in a small town and a small highschool, so i wanted a college where the student body wasn't too big, i like knowing the people around me, even if i dont like them lol. and i had fine-> great roommates all throughout, i know a looooot of people who's experience was negatively impacted by the roommates they were assigned. i'm also privileged because i'm white and able bodied so, i know experiences i've heard from poc and disabled friends that weren't great (though, again, all of these sorts of things are not MECA exclusive, they can happen anywhere). i'm also just generally an easy going and friendly person so, i personally didn't have an issue making friends, i met so many great people in my time there. i had a couple not-great professors, but a lot of great ones! i'd say i'm doing alright in a professional artist sense, but i also know a lot of people who were sort of failed by the curriculum, and are still trying to rebuild their relationship w art to this day

i'd be happy to answer any more specific questions, but yeah, any sort of college experience is a mixed bag honestly! theres other factors involved too, especially the cost...i hesitate to give a glowing or overly negative review because the experience really does vary a lot from person to person

[zonotrichia-albicollis]

Giant personal vent time

This guy stole somewhere between 3 to 6 MILLION dollars from my grandmother by conning my great aunt into signing over her estate and medical & financial power of attorney to him literally on her death bed

I and my aunt have been working basically a whole second job the last 3 months trying to get together a legal case to go after this guy. And now my grandma wants to drop it. And no one else has standing so what the fuck can we do.

This man has absolutely done this to other ppl before, there is no doubt in my mind. I’ve seen his property records for just what’s publicly available in my county and it’s sketchy as hell. I am never going to get over this but there’s nothing I can do.

Gonna put like a million more thoughts in the tags because I’m losing my fucking mind.