#let the player's imagination run with what could have caused a people as generally Not Asshole-ish as the Snow Elves to -do- such a thing

[tes-trash-blog]

What do YOU headcanon about provocation from Atmorans? Do you think they just immediately started being... themselves even before Ysgr*mor and thus angered the old Falmer, or is there something else you can think of?

Interesting question! Truth be told, I actively don't think about what was the one specific cause!

"But tes-trash-blog! You overthink everything!"

I know! But I think here is where my imagination hits its limit, and where any draws from history would be... Well, it just leaves a really bad taste to me.

What I do keep in mind though are:

The Night of Tears did not happen in a vacuum. No one woke up one day decided to sack Saarthal.

The Atmorans of old were coming to Falmer-Land long before Ysgramor did.

The Falmer may have known of the climate change happening in Atmora, and possibly found out about man-made devastation of the country: deforestation, war, etc. There were likely a few Elves who thought (maybe even aloud) why these people can't go back home and fix the mess they made instead of coming to mess of their home. Nationalism rears its ugly head!

Perhaps attempts to keep the Atmorans from repeating the cycle were met with resistance? Knight-Paladin Gelebor did say the Snow Elves were at constant war with the Nords, though he could have simply been too young to remember a time before the Falmer-Atmoran war.

I do think there was a growing animosity, and altercations that proved violent.

Whatever the final cause was, the march on Saarthal was not a decision made lightly, and while no Snow Elf would be so brazen as to say it aloud, it wasn't as popular a decision as historians theorize.

Nor do I think the Night of Tears was a surprise attack on a poor defenseless village. If I absolutely must use a historical allegory, I'd use the Alamo: not the act of brutality the "remember the Alamo" people paint it as, a bunch of dumb white guys died, the site turned into a nationalist rallying cry, and people still believe the whitewashed version (and ignore that a part of the Texan Rebellion was because white Texans wanted slaves - slavery being illegal in Mexico at the time).

Mexico if you're reading this please take back Texas. We don't want it or its Zodiac Killer senator.

I don't like the theories that the Dwarves somehow tricked the Snow Elves, and I avoid looking at KINMUNE or the Eye of Magnus as a cause. Too MacGuffin-y.

[quipxotic]

OK I’ll play. What insecurity visions could Matt torture Bell’s Hells with? Ideas under the cut for length and also trigger warnings for general trauma and awfulness because, after all, it's emotional torture and manipulation:

What can we guess from what we've seen of the first vision?

Well, Chet saw himself as a child murderer/werewolf version of the big bad wolf, so clearly these visions don't have to be based in reality. They just have to be emotionally resonant.

I suspect a lot of the things we all think should be in the visions because they're commonly discussed among fans, won't be. The players are all aware of those issues and Matt knows that, so if the point is to catch them by surprise, he'll have to try other things. I mean, would anyone have had Chet murdering children on their bingo card before s3e97?

I'll still include the obvious stuff in the list below because my silly brain won't move on to thinking about other options until I have those out of the way.

Another thing, that vision both played on Chet's fears and a soft spot for Travis, so we shouldn't be surprised if the other visions also have dual targets.

The visions could target issues and events that happened before the group met to add to the confusion about whether they're real or not.

Regardless how far the visions are from reality, they have the power to convince their target that they're real.

What visions might we get for each member of Bell's Hells?

Chet

His abandonment by his family, maybe showing what he fears might have happened to them.

The possibility of passing along his curse to his friends or other innocent people.

How little he was able to help in the fight that killed FCG, i.e. the curse he embraced to give himself the power to do more and be more actually not being enough to protect the people he loves.

Being old and either dying without leaving his mark or dying alone, abandoned, and forgotten.

Losing his ability to create using wood or maybe create anything period.

Laudna

Delilah, of course. There’s a lot of ways that trauma could be flavored but my guess is a vision of the children of Whitestone dead at Laudna's hands thanks to Delilah's influence.

Seeing herself hanging her friends on the Sun Tree.

A rehashing of Bor’Dor's death and her doing something similar to all her friends or other people close to them. Keyleth perhaps?

Imogen rejecting her, but maybe not over something obvious like Delilah. Maybe something more integral to Laudna herself like her stunted maturity? Maybe showing Laudna a version of her life where she's trapped in place but everyone else gets to grow, change, and live fully rounded adult lives.

Betrayal from within the group. I’d guess Imogen and Team Issylra would feature highly in that if it happens.

Dorian

We already know that the visions will target the fate of Cyrus, taking the slant that Dorian never let Cyrus take responsibility for his mistakes while simultaneously dragging his brother into the consequences of his own mistakes.

Opal losing herself to the Spider Queen and how he could have saved her by taking the crown himself.

Dorian’s cowardice (whether real or imagined) and tendency to run away from problems/complications is probably too obvious, but it could still be pretty juicy to explore.

The potential destruction of the Silken Squall due to the changes in magic and both he and Cyrus not being there.

Alternatively he could see a life in his home where he’s forced to abandon all the elements of himself and his travels that bring him joy. A future of soulless work and obligation, alone and without the outlet of honest self-expression even in your private hours would crack a lot of people.

Fearne

She thinks she is going to be fine but I don't think so. Like we saw with Chet, the visions don’t have to be based in reality to cause harm

She has some abandonment issues from her parents. I wonder if, rather than taking that head-on, the spin will be around her parents “selling” her to Morri for a favor.

The possibility of her father hurting or killing everyone she loves to try to exalt her.

Do people really love her for herself or for who she was manufactured to be? How much trust can she put in their love? Does Nana love her or does she just see Fearne as a useful card to play in her long game of manipulating fate?

Dark mirror Fearne could show up here, but I doubt it since we just had her a few episodes ago.

Fearne has struggled with understanding death. How would she react if all of her friends were gone or turned against her?

Imogen

The most obvious is Liliana/Laudna not loving her enough to choose her over opportunities for power or control.

The call of Predathos and being fated to surrender herself to it.

Watching Laudna lose herself to the point of committing horrors and having to decide whether to fight her or watch others suffer.

Failing at her mission and facing the consequences of all the death and suffering Predathos could cause.

The death of FCG and that, towards the end of the last Otohan fight, Imogen chose to play dead rather than continue fighting.

Orym

The deaths of his husband and father-in-law seem pretty likely but surely Orym/Liam would expect that? Maybe having Will and Derrig guilting Orym about his feelings about Dorian? It doesn't matter that in reality they'd both be happy for him to love again, just that Orym feels he doesn't have the right to want that.

Having to follow through on Keyleth’s order to kill Bell’s Hells if they become a threat.

Choosing not to kill Bell's Hells and dealing with what he fears Keyleth and his family would think about that.

Seeing Whitestone and Zephrah destroyed and Keyleth and Vox Machina killed because he failed to stop Delilah from taking over Laudna.

Something from their Issylra trip. Maybe the assault on the temple? Maybe something to do with Bor'Dor?

Just the idea that he'll never be good enough to save the people he cares about, perhaps featuring FCG, Will, Derrig, and Eshteross.

Becoming someone hard and cold, delighting in his fighting abilities for their own sake. Basically, becoming Otohan.

Ashton

A lot of abandonment issues in Bell's Hells, and Ashton is maybe the worst of the bunch in that area. His vision could be facing his parents and the Nobodies as they tell him how worthless and disappointing he is? Not smart enough. Not charming or kind enough to make real friendships or keep anyone close. Why would anyone want to be around them for long?

But also maybe they're too much? Too angry, too emotional, too violent, too soft. They're both too overwhelming and too reckless. They can't be trusted with fragile things, like other people's lives (featuring FCG, Laudna, and Fearne for extra pain).

I don't think Ashton is jealous in the way a lot of fans try to make them out to be, but I do think they're insecure in their relationships. So he wouldn't begrudge Fearne her poly relationships but might wonder if there's still room for them in all that? They're glad Dorian is back, but does that mean his close relationship with Orym will be discarded now it's no longer needed to help fill that void? Are they only a convenient, temporary fix that their loved ones use until something better comes along?

Maybe something about Issylra, either Hearthdell and Abaddina or what happened to the Hishari?

Shard-gate, round 2?

Rightfully Essek should also be here, but I don't have the background knowledge to do that well, so I'll leave that to the C2 fans.

[turretistrying]

The Caged Bird and The Chased Mouse

Part 1! \/

Okay so this idea wont leave me, genshin Sagau, classic isekai imposter scenario, but you didnt do the main sumeru story quest yet (like i did on my account, I did everything else, except the story when it came out). I’m so sorry if I mess up characterization, spelling, or general writing structure, I don’t write often.

WARNING FOR: Swearing (F-word and thats it)

So let me set the scene:

You have been isekai’ d into the Genshin world and you’re the creator but its an imposter situation. You’ve been to every other region and have been chased out, betrayed by characters you love and trust. You venture into Sumeru, with an idea of the layout but no clue of what will come next when you step into Sumeru City.

You walk into Sumeru City, amazed by the architecture in person but wary of what might happen if people catch a glimpse of your face. You wander around, just listening to conversations and seeing what foods they have to offer, eventually ending up near the Academiya. You consider if you want to set foot into the daunting structure, considering it looks guarded well and if something went wrong you’d be in the deepest trouble, unsure how the Archon of the region would react to you (poorly you assume). But against your best judgement you start walking in, far too curious for your own good. You get a handful of steps into the building until you run into who looks like a playable character, one you haven’t met before but vaguely remember from the leaks. With grey hair and skin tight shirt, look at you with suspicious, I mean who wouldn’t be suspicious of someone in a cloak that you can’t see their face.

“….” He stares at you with an intense gaze, as if we can see right through your disguise, you’re hoping he can’t actually do that.

“Well it seems we have a newcomer, hello there.” He finally speaks, “My akasha doesn’t seem to know who you are, are you new to Sumeru?”

‘Akasha?’ You think, regretting the fact you didn’t play the story quests before getting sent here. You stay silent, unsure how to respond.

“Are you, or are you not? I’d like an answer or else i’m afraid I’ll have to call the guards.” He adds the last part, to add pressure to you.

“Yes, yes! I’m new to Sumeru and I thought I might take a look at the illustrious Aca- uhm, Academiya!” You mess up on the last part, nearly forgetting the name of the building you’re in.

The grey hair man gives a hum in acknowledgment, but doesn’t give any indication that he fully believes you. You’re getting more nervous as the pause stretches on and curse at your idiotic curiosity, you’re praying to whatever higher being thats left in Tevyat to have this guy to let you go. He starts to circle you, taking in your outfit and body language.

“Alright, well, do make sure you don’t cause too much of distraction, the students need their focus.” He finally breaks his silence and gets out of your way. You let out the biggest breath out in relief, the guy absolutely catches it but you don’t care enough at the moment while your body pumps adrenaline. You debate with yourself if you actually want to continue in self or just run out, but decide it’d look far more suspicious to just run out after that exchange. You give a nod to him and start walking to the main door, you’re able to see some books so you assume you’re walking into a library.

Once you enter room and get near the middle, you’re in awe of how large the room is, how high the books reach, and just how many books are crammed in one room. You imagine you could start reading and wouldn’t finish all the books in the library by the time you die. You start walking around the room, with an odd feeling as you walk around, as if someone was watching you, but you brush it off as someone took notice of the weirdo walking through their space. Once you finish that you start your walk out of the Academiya, entirely done of it’s stuffy feeling that you’d mostly ignored.

As you walked out your foot catches a ledge making you fall to the floor, with your hood pulling back enough to show your face, you yelp.

You catch yourself before your face makes contact with the floor, not taking notice that the hood had fallen back. People started to look where the noise came from and stare in shock at seeing the creator’s- no, the Imposters face. You notice the attention on you and reach up to the hood, and pale when you realize what had happened.

You book it.

You run back into the Akademiya, with a vague idea of an escape ruin, you take left and start running up the wooden ramp. You can hear calls of “GET THEM” behind you, thats starting to gain on you. You run through the almost maze-like path with your feet pounding on the stone with students looking at you with bewilderment. Your cloak flipping behind you as you start to get closer to the top, with your ripped clothes underneath showcasing your struggles from the other three Nations.

You reach the top and jump forward, avoiding the spears of guards and get to the large green door, unsure of what’s behind but hoping, hoping to the fake stars above that it’s a safe place. You struggle to get it open but get yourself in and quickly slam the doors shut. You can hear pounding but it doesn’t seem like the door is going to open, you slowly step away and turn around to assess the room you’ve entered. As you look to the orb in the middle to walk forward to get a better look of what seemed to be inside-

Oh your stars.

That’s a fucking child.

What the fuck.

You stare in shock at the little girl seemingly trapped in a green orb in a large empty room. She’s looking at you.

You start walking even closer, she follows the movement. She isn’t scared or mad or venomous, she just watches. You try reaching your hand up to touch her prison, only then realizing that it was too high up for you to touch. She seems to understand what you want to do and touches the wall of her prison, a ghost of a hand touch. You sit down after a few minutes of starring at each other, and yawn. You havent slept in a while due to circumstances, so you lay your head down knowing that any second they could come and get you but honestly, you just wanted a rest and get away from this new reality you’ve found yourself in. You drift off and all you hear is..

“Everything will be okay.”

_____________________________________________

Okay so,, i really hope people like this, this was just my thought to the screen and I’m very willing to make a part two!

I also added a doodle because i done know thought it’d add to the story

[thrown-away-opinions]

So I made the mistake of watching the hbomberguy plagiarism video. I don't know why, because I kinda hate him and his entire shtick and his entire sanpaku-eyed desperate style of presentation that screams "please think I'm smart and that I am a moral cool guy who does good things!"

Anyways, the dumb fuck kinda missed the mark by a mile and the urgency and drama he tries to invoke amounts to being very angry that some people have made careers out of regurgitating other people's work. There's a few reasons why, but let's set this right up front: Yes, plagiarism is bad. It's a terrible thing to steal someone else's work, pass it off as your own, and then try to weasel out of it when caught. It's also an extremely stupid thing to do, especially if your job is writing reviews or giving your own opinions on some piece of media and plagiarism leads to reciting factually incorrect information.

That said, there's a few assertions and implications in this retardedly long video that stuck out to me and I want to talk, at length, about them. That these people have made a lot of money and are therefore bad. That citations or crediting sources would have changed something. That people careers have been damaged or somehow denied big piles of money because they were plagiarized.

Making a lot of money seems more like a vague sort of "rich people bad" but it's such a hollow assertion to make. Youtube financially incentivizes content creation or a certain type, quantity, and regularity. The algorithm is a slot machine. Ad revenue is just money on the table, and if someone disables the ad revenue on their videos, youtube runs ads anyways and the channel just doesn't get any of the money generated. As for stuff like patreon and parasocial simp behavior, you can't really stop people from doing what they want with their money. Hasan Piker became a millionaire because retards like throw money at him to watch other people's youtube videos and occasionally say the dumbest shit imaginable. If we could stop people from watching, let alone financially supporting dipshits, we would, but we can't. Being mad that they're making money from is just petty, especially if the implication is that being rich makes someone evil and bad, but at the same time, wishing that other people whom Hbomberguy ideologically jive with should be the rich ones instead. It's moronic.

It sounds reductive to just say "don't hate the player, hate the game" because the sort of shameless scumbags who will eagerly plagiarize and openly steal other people's work are detestable. I don't want the takeaway here to be that I think they are harmless or absolved of guilt. The problem is simply something far larger than youtube or social media. It's something that is not caused by the temptation of getting easy money from stealing ideas, but something that is inherent in the sorts of opportunistic scumbags that have always existed all throughout human history. Trying to shame them or expose them can only accomplish so much when they are already shameless to begin with.

Moving on to the value of citations, aside from being a genuinely nice and professional thing to do, it would not meaningfully change the profitability of content mill channels who largely use other people's work to rapidly produce videos faster than a real writer/researcher could script them. At most, it would add a slight bit more runtime and put more text in the very easy to ignore "about" section of a video, which would never get seen by 99% of viewers. Trying to impose some sort of labor speedbump by demanding citations and credits won't meaningfully stop these people from profiting off other people's work at a speed honest creators couldn't match anyways because they've been burdened by a sense of self-respect and honesty.

Furthermore, properly cited credit will not divert viewers and fans towards monetarily supporting the sources, nor encourage the diehards on patreon to stop donating. Youtube will still give the payout for the views and clicks and engagement on a video that can be 100% regurgitated, copied content, cited or not, regardless.

Additionally, the reasons people watch certain youtubers and types of content is often totally divorced from any thoughts about academic ethics. Most of the time, the audience doesn't even care because that doesn't even factor into their enjoyment of some background noise video or hearing a youtuber they like talk about something they might be mildly interested in.

Not to mention that there are countless successful youtubers who making a living reading reddit posts, reciting lore from fan wikis, reading 4chan greentexts in funny voices, or just "reacting" to other people's videos, just literally reading things other people have written word for word. This is content that is both directly cited and stuff that has no author to credit or cite at all but is still stolen. Despite knowing the content is stolen, uncited, plagiarized, etc, people watch them anyways and ad revenue payout happens regardless. There's functionally no difference, credited or not, but one is seemingly permissible because it's open about using other people's writing or research or ideas.

Is it a huge fucking problem that is turning the internet into a terrible place? Absolutely, but it wouldn't make a fucking difference if they cited the content they were reposting, because the core problem is actually the way youtube and other social media sites tell people they'll pay them for generating that sludge content, even if it's stolen, reposted, or purposefully made in a way to abuse the algorithm.

The last point I feel like covering is the idea that the specific plagiarists are denying money and career advancement to others by stealing from them. The implication being that because someone thinks the guy who makes awful video essays about Disney and Queerness who lifts his scripts almost 100% from books he never credits, the writers of those authors are being denied money and their careers as "voices of the queer community" or whatever, have been kneecapped because one other guy took all the credit. Implying that they would be the recipients of all the success, money, and career growth that Queer Plagiarist man, and others, have gained if they hadn't be plagiarized from.

This is moronic for a number of reasons, most of which I've already discussed. The most obvious reason being that they are often competing in completely different areas. The audiences giving clicks and views to the plagiarist aren't making the choice between purchasing a book or watching a youtuber. Published books aren't listed in youtube searches or recommendations.

People can both read books and watch youtube videos, if they want, but clicking on a youtube video isn't at all the same as shopping around to decide which creator is the most ethical and deserving of any sort of financial compensation. Even if the books were cited and listed, at most it amounts to a few sales, if any. However, the supposed outrage is the lack of citation and credit, not that we should be demanding promotion and advertising from youtubers or that every quotation or idea lifted from someone else needs to come with a proportional amount of reimbursement

If it's an article instead, like the case with the 'Man in Cave' video, there's nothing being sold and and the youtuber's career maintains the same trajectory, even if clearly cited and credited, still gains the same audience, the same patreon donors etc. At best, the article might get a few more clicks, so the outrage there is that some clickbait factoid site like Mental Floss didn't collect more ad revenue of its own, which is especially interesting since most of what Mental Floss does is repost articles from other sites with a little link at the bottom that shows you they didn't write shit. Fancy that.

But there's also this direct assertion that other people making similar content about, for example, queerness in Disney media are being denied the fame and success they rightfully deserve because someone else got more popular by being a plagiarist. While there may be a finite amount of time in the world for people to watch youtube videos about stupid bullshit, it is not so finite that it is an all or not situation. People can subscribe to more than one person about a given subject. One person being successful through plagiarism does not exclude anyone else from also being successful on their own merits. If they aren't successful, you can blame the algorithm, lack of interest, or the quality of their actual work.

A similar implication is that if someone were properly recognized for their work through being credited on a video that gets millions of views, that more job offers or interviews or some kind of improvement to their general socioeconomic status would be dropped in their lap. That may be true in matters of outright content theft where a relatively unknown creator loses all views and clicks on something that got stolen by a bigger channel, but not when we're talking about someone who already had a book publishing deal or peer reviewed research.

This kind of echoes the first point about money, but with popularity instead. Impotently whining that someone else got famous when what he wants is for someone better, less objectionable, to get the popularity... and I think that's what's really at the core of hbomberguy's stupidly long video (and this stupidly long rant). He only wants people he likes to be successful and is upset that he can't take that away from them. Plagiarism is just a convenient moral cudgel to wield and a convenient way to whip up his simple minded fans into another witch hunt.

If you go and check Internet Historian's latest video, you can see a significant amount of dislikes, and the comments section is full of people screaming about plagiarism and Tommy Tallarico, who was another target of hbomberguy's obnoxiously elaborate bullshit previously. There's no chance in hell that these people are actually outraged that mentalfloss wasn't properly credited, but they love that sensational self-righteous high they get from joining the latest angry mob whipped up by famous internet smart guy and maker of pretentious videos, hbomberguy.

Now, where does that leave us after all of that shit I just wrote? Well, if there's anything to take away, it's to understand that there are shameless, opportunistic scumbags out there who are constantly looking for their chance to exploit a system for personal gain. Not just on youtube, but everywhere. Crypto. Life coach sigma male shit. Politics. Twitter engagement farming. etc etc. As long as their behavior can be rewarded, they will continue doing it. So get better about spotting it and learn to block, filter, and excise it from whatever feeds you use and expect the same of your friends.

When it comes to the creators you follow, hold certain standards, but know that there is a limit to the moral purity you can expect from them. For most of the big ones out there, the goal is to make money. You can demand proper citations and such from all of them, but then they'll go and take a sponsorship deal from Established titles or Better help or some NFT scam, and that's exponentially worse than presenting information in a way that may making the audience incorrectly assume they've done exhaustive research on a topic when they're just quoting someone else.

And lastly: stop watching Hbomberguy. He's a sanctimonious retard.

[fireemblems24]

Scarlet Blaze Ch 13

Someone should've renamed this "backtracking, the plot."

MAIN STORY

I'm actually excited for this chapter because Ferdinand is the most interesting part of it.

Ok, so TWSITD didn't want to avoid unification (which I'm sure they either want or don't care about), but only caused the ruckus to try and take the Empire over.

She's . . . pink. Why is she pink? (some random Empire general)

Is it wrong to see Ferdinand's looks in the future when I see Aegir? Seems like baldness runs in the family. As long as he avoids that mustache . . .

Can someone remind me, did Edelgard not arrest Aegir or not kill him? Or did he run away.

Aegir kinda twisted. Insisting Ferdinand kills him. That's fucked up.

Oh, kk, he escaped. (Aegir)

This is like a giant teaser of what SB could've been if it stuck to Empire and TWSITD stuff and wasn't "Edelgard backtracks: the conquest 2.0 - the boring as fuck version).

MAP/SIDE BATTLES

Can Edelgard just once have a plan for her government before invading all the other nations and getting a lot of innocent people killed (Dorothea said she's still working out what to replace nobles with)

Hunh, I'm impressed. Not going to lie, but Balthus wasn't making a great impression on me, but he's worried that a man he owes a debt too will fall in battle while fighting alongside the enemy. He actually wants to pay the man back and not this get out of jail free card. I like that.

Ashe asked Shez for help restoring Hrym territory. Ashe wants them to have their lives back. I was a dick and said no though bc I could and found that funny.

Fort Mercius has a convenient sneaky point, bc of course it does. Otherwise we'd have to siege warfare which was boring as fuck in real life.

Of course, only Dorothea cares about the hostages. Ferdinand will magically not let it happen. How? Who knows.

SHEZ & MONICA A

Ugh.

Monica keeps track of how many times Edelgard drinks tea, what she eats, when she eats, all her sighs, etc . . .

She needs a restraining order.

Edelgard did the world a favor when she let TWSITD kill Monica.

SHEZ & DOROTHEA B

Nobles gave Shez a tea party after he helped them out, and he doesn't know what to make of it and can't tell if he likes it.

Dorothea ties that to arguing that commoners should get to enjoy all of life's goods. Shez can counterpoint that they don't miss it if they don't know what they're missing.

Dorothea then talks about her love of singing and laments that only rich people get to hear her sing.

This is actually kind of interesting (if it goes there, but I doubt it). Dorothea wants the commoners to enjoy everything the rich get, yet benefits from an organization that raises the prices so high only the rich gets to enjoy her voice. Dorothea could just as easily go sing in taverns or more accessible places, but she doesn't. And because she doesn't she got wealthy and well connected. So she's actively choosing to participate in and benefit from the system that gatekeeps poor people from enjoying things. I don't hate the player, but it will be cool to see if she has some level of self-awareness about this.

SHEZ & EDELGARD A

They talk about how Shez having the same powers as TWSITD helps him identify TWSITD better than anyone else.

Edelgard credits this with her ability to get rid of them in SB (obviously contrasting to Byleth and CF)

So Edelgard had 2 choices: she could either focus on getting rid of TWSITD and sparing her citizens from their cruelty or start a war and choose the later, lamo. Like, imagine looking at your country and seeing that it's corrupted by an insane death cult running experiments on your own citizens and think "yeah, this is solid foundation to rely on for rebuilding a new world and rule over all the other countries." It's so idiotic. TWSITD really hurts Edelgard's writing and this game really exposes that. Which is funny since they likely got invented to shift blame away from her lol.

Shez says he joined Edelgard because the Empire was rich and she complimented him, unlike other nobles (but pretty sure EVERYONE complimented him because self-insert). So the game's got nothing.

SHEZ & HUBERT A

So many Shez supports back-to-back

Hubert scares/surprises Shez, then questions him about TWSITD.

Hubert's upset that they didn't reach out to Shez as an ally, and I can get mad at his mistrust. Def picking that one.

Hubert owns it at least.

He tries to complement Shez, but I'm able to not believe him, so I don't.

Hubert can sense Arval and is concerned about it. Shez doesn't trust Hubert about Arval.

Does that mean Hubert senses Sothis? Or is this a plot-hole? Or can he only sense TWSITD?

SHEZ & CONSTANCE C

Constance is talking his ear off about restoring House Nuvelle by discovering more magic. And Shez is the test subject of her research lol.

Shez refuses and Constance can't comprehend.

Shez suggests she try to establish herself in battle instead. But Constance turns that down.

I think it's because of her night-day thing. Also, I may have seen this support before? I'm not sure.

MERCEDES & LYSITHEA C

Funny, you can only get this support in SB and neither are Black Eagles.

"I'm not a child!!!" vs mothering everyone

Lysithea trained so hard she collapsed and Mercedes took care of her. Lysithea is horrified to learn that she slept too long.

Mercie backed her cookies, because of course she did. And sweets are Lysithea's secret weakness so . . .

Lysithea assumes Mercie has bad intentions. Why is she always so insufferable?

Mercie's cookies are good. Lysithea acts like a complete brat, demanding Mercie train her right now how to make the cookies.

PETRA & CASPAR A

Ok, this one should be better. I love Mercie, but that support had 0 new things in it.

Petra challenges Caspar's father to a duel. Yeah, way more intense than the first one.

And . . . the asshole won't even show up. Or, I guess Caspar stole is before his dad saw it. Petra's pissed. Rightfully so.

Caspar also assumes Petra would just lose. What an ass.

So Petra says she'll just kill Caspar instead.

She takes him down, but won't strike the killing blow.

Petra's upset she lost control of her emotions.

Petra decides to pull back because she's a queen (in secret) and she can't act on her personal feelings.

She doesn't fully understand why she challenged his father to a duel.

Caspar volunteers to let Petra dump her negative emotions about this on Caspar. Petra's not sure she wants a friendship like that, but says she'll give it thought.

I did like that support, but I wish she was allowed to call out the Empire more.

SHEZ & JERITZA A

Jeritza is hunting a cat that raided the pantry because she was injured.

Last time they talked, Shez assumed Jeritza was talking about a person, not a cat.

Jeritza likes cats because he used to have one. And now he wants to own this one. But she dislikes Jeritza.

HUBERT & BERNADETTA C

Bummed this is their only support. They were cute together in House.

Bernadetta is moving boxes of documents around. They're about bandit activity in the area. Hubert's investigating.

He's annoyed at the army's inability to catch them. Bernadetta assumes he's angry with her, but calms down.

Funniest line is Hubert telling her that her persistence often leads to exactly what she's trying to avoid lol. His VA is so good.

Hubert calls them rats. Like Dimitri did lamo.

Hubert is upset they may go back into hiding. Bernadetta sympathizes with the bandits lol.

It inspires Hubert to set something up that would make them come out.

HUBERT & LYSITHEA A

Isn't this the support chain that told us the Imperial army won't eat their veggies? lamo

Lysithea is enjoying sweets. Hubert offers her coffee. She turns it down because it's not sweet. Hubert baits her into drinking it by implying that drinking coffee means you're not a child.

She doesn't like drinking it black, but Hubert tells her that sweeten it up and she may like it.

Lysithea asks Hubert why he's nice to her since he's mean to everyone else. It's because he has a younger sister that Lysithea reminds him of.

Did he have one in Houses? Or did they just pop up when convenient like Edelgard's siblings?

Hubert doesn't tell anyone about the siblings. I wonder if Edelgard knows.

Because he sees her like a little sister, Lysithea accepts it.

MERCEDES & CASPAR C

Hope this goes like - Murder isn't funny, Caspar. It isn't? No. Because he's awful in this route.

No, he's just asking Mercedes about Jeritza because he keeps defeating Caspar in bouts.

So Caspar still being painfully one-note and boring.

Mercedes says he can beat Jeritza with baking. Caspar is confused. Until Mercedes clarifies that Jeritza sucks at baking, so Caspar can beat him at baking.

Caspar's upset bc that doesn't matter to him.

LINHARDT & CONSTANCE A

Linhardt has to ask her a question, but she's in the sunlight. He wants to experiments on crests. Constance is fine with it.

Until she's inside. Then she's upset.

Linhardt is taking advantage of her dual personality, avoiding confident Constance because she's difficult to work with.

Kinda skeevy, Linhardt.

Constance demands more equality. If she helps Linhardt with his research, then he must help with hers.

He's actually interested until he learns she wants to find ways for eyes to emit a golden light, and loses interest.

FERDINAND & LYSITHEA A

Ferdinand is worried about Lysithea's future, specifically throwing away her nobility.

He tried to understand her thought process. She's irritated with him. Honestly, same, I think that may be my issue with Ferdinand. I find him irritating.

Ferdinand uncovered Lysithea's secret. She's understandably upset and wants him to leave it be.

Ferdinand wants a solution, Lysithea's like do you think I haven't tried? And do-do bird is like "take action!" Like, this seems like things not to tell someone terminally ill 101.

Though, he brings up magical research. So this may be different.

He found the research on her and they could use that as a way to solve her problem.

She wants to help.

DOROTHEA & MONICA A

Dorothea is wounded, and Monica is worried that Dorothea will get scars to damage her skin.

Creepy moment when Dorothea asks Monica how she knows she has scars. So does this confirm that Monica peeps on people?

Dorothea hesitates to kill a child in battle.

So Dorothea cannonly killed children. I wonder how every Edel-stan who used that to smear Dimitri feels, lamo.

I wish Dimitri and Dorothea got a support. Both hate killing, but keep doing it anyways.

Monica asks why Dorothea keeps killing people. Dorothea feels too tied to her position to go back.

Dorothea admits she could've been that child in another life. So she has no right to run away and hide when the children the Empire is slaughtering don't have that option.

I know some people take issue with this side to Dorothea, but this is what makes me love her. She's the only one who realizes the brutality her side is forcing on other people, she just believes in the cause enough to keep doing it. That conflict makes her so interesting, and if Edelgad had a more justified cause or well-written government plan, Dorothea may have been in competition for my fav, but man does Edelgard's flimsy reasoning for war and bare-bones ideas make this conflict flat-line a bit.

Then they spend the rest of the support simiping for Edelgard. So, Monica's entire personality. That was interesting for like 3 seconds. So a new record for a Monica support.

PETRA & RAPHAEL B

You know it's bad when I fully expect Raphael to have deeper thoughts than Monica.

Raphael fails to hunt. Petra isn't surprised.

Raphael thinks being a bear will help him hunt rabbits, and is shocked when she tells him bears don't hunt.

Petra says Brigid people hunt with subtleness. But Fodlan people use hounds for hunting, which might suit Raphael better.

Raphael now thinks being a wolf will help him hunt instead of bear. So, yeah, deeper thoughts than Monica is capable of.

MAIN BATTLE

Time to kill the rebels.

Try to make sure hostages don't die.

Monica and Hubert have a fight over who gets to suck on Edelgard's toes after the battle (not literally, but might as well). The only non-grating part of it was Monica calling Hubert a coffin-dweller. Which, I mean, accurate.

Shez is the only one that remembers poor Ferdinand's going to kill his dad, lol. Ferdinand says he's ready though.

Oh, cut scene. Ferdinand and Hubert teaming up on Aegir. Hubert "let's" Ferdinand give the final blow.

So Ferdinand kills his bad. This game likes people killing their families. And I bet Aegir's death will get more sympathy than the actually innocent people Edelgard and co mow down every chapter.

Ferdinand needs a moment.

Edelgard is like, could you choose how to punish the traitors and choose the next Duke. Shockingly, the title goes to his son. So much for merit-based promotions, lamo.

So do we go back to beating up poor people in Faerghus now?

Caspar's like, fighting traitors serving a death cults sucks because they're from the Empire. Let's go kill the innocent people in the Kingdom instead! Because that's fun!

Edelgard still suspects Shez. The vibes for Shez are so different in Faerghus. No one gives a shit about Shez in SB.

Oh, yeah, I forgot I didn't get Byleth in this route, lamo.

Arval feels like a proud parent of Shez, lamo.

xxx

[taldigi]

Yeah, Haru could be introduced as early as when Makoto kicks the thieves off of the roof. As Makoto is leaving, have Haru coming up the stairs. But, unlike with the thieves, Makoto shows no issue with her and is even polite towards her. Of course, that makes the thieves (especially Ryuji) mad, cause why should this random girl be allowed up there when they aren't? But Makoto smugly tells them that Haru is an exception because she runs the gardening club. The thieves get mad at what is seemingly a double standard, before leaving leaving, with the camera lingering on a Haru who is very confused at what just occurred, but states that if they wanted to use the roof she would've happily let them join gardening club. Or, if you want to have her be introduced as a confidant early (with a progression block early on until she officially joins), you could have her bring it up before they leave, taking the wind out of Makoto's sails and aiding in her early game inferiority spiral. In that case, because all of the thieves are part of the gardening club (as an excuse to use the roof) you could even make Hawaii more worthwhile by having her join the thieves in their fun, which would add even more weight to her father being considered for the next target.

With Mona leaving, you can just steal some time from Futaba's palace deadline (people blow through them in one or two days anyway, it would make literally no impact. plus having a shorter deadline makes Futaba being unconscious until the deadline is over more believable for anyone who finished the palace on the first couple of days). Just take that time and add it on to the time Mona is gone for, with your idea of making the player and Futaba look for Mona each evening. Then you can even shorten Futaba's beach prep (which shouldn't be beach if they're going to Hawaii, literally make anything else her big test of improvement, an amusement park, a trip to the zoo, ANYTHING BUT beach twice in rapid succession), since her character development would essentially be split between these two sections, with Hawaii functioning as a short Futaba break for anyone that is getting a little tired of the Futaba focus.

yeah the deadlines are a little generous (tho I am playing on normal so I can't speak for harder difficuilties) I almost always get it done.. uuussally by the first monday available barring important confidant meetings (justice, faith, counciller) (the days following are usually story blocked and loosing access to sunday for palace reasons is not great) and i think you're given more time for futaba than the others (at least it feels like it? I think i got her done with 20 days left on the clock.) it's a bit of a shame that ng+ doesn't have a remixed story or diffs in that regard.

ANYWAY YEAH NO YEAH you read my mind perfectly. That's legit how I imagined such a scenario would go. It blends in wonderfully and adds a great way to get a jump start on both investigating/befriending Haru, peering into her personality in a way that's organically integrated into the story, and ranking her tarot. Hell, it even jumpstarts her relationship w/ mona (Oh! you are Amamiya's cat!) and gives Mona a slightly better reason to trust her (she has been friendly to the theives before!)

[thehamletdiaries]

Casting If We Were Villains (and The Secret History) characters in Hamlet

Since for some reason they don't...do Hamlet in the book (I'm joking, it's a wonderful book, I am not criticising!) and I am in the mood, clearly, to spam post (sorry all, and thank you for your indulgence) here's my take on who should play who (none of this is particularly intelligent - it's very much "the obvious casting choices based on who they generally play").

James, as the one that plays "the hero", would play Hamlet.

Oliver, who 1. plays "the sidekick" and 2. is James' love interest and 3. I love him would play Horatio.

Richard, who is the dark, "villain" character, in the conceit of the novel, would play Claudius.

Alexander, who does typically play the villain characters, I actually think would play a very sinister, spymaster general version of Polonius.

Wren, who traditionally plays the sort of...typically ingénue character, for want of a better way to put it, would play Ophelia.

Meredith, who plays the sort of "femme fatal" characters...which isn't really what Gertrude is but...you know, I think it works and I think she would play her well; so she would play Gertrude.

Filippa would play Guildenstern...and this is the point I run out of main characters so someone else would have to play Rosencrantz and also I've somehow been left with no Laertes.

....ok, so I have now invented a crossover for literally no good reason.

So, let us imagine that The Secret History lot for lord knows what reason except it's fun for me joined the production (it's some weird...mixed school production thing...also this must already exist as a crossover people want to see), so I can at least cast the rest of the main characters from them...

Bunny I think would make most sense as Rosencrantz; he's probably the most theatrical of the group and I think he would play off Filippa well in a duo dynamic.

Frances strikes me as someone who could do a certain very insecure version of Laertes, very much method and very much drawing on his own life.

Henry as the Ghost of King Hamlet cause he's very sinister and also he's a terrible person so it fits.

Charles as Fortinbras would be terrifying and hot at the same time.

Camilla would be the player queen (as a change from the player king); gender bending this role with her would work really well I think.

Richard would be....I don't even know, Bernardo and Osric and just a bunch of random characters he's basically the chorus; which really mirrors his role in the book.

[fluffbeast7]

Ruin dlc spoilers + big analysis of sun, there might be a few english mistakes, sorry

Just me thinking about sun's perspective on both games (dlc one is extremely interesting)

Sun is anything but a baby, sun is anything but weak, and of course neither is moon. I know many people stopped calling him a baby after a while but i saw some ppl saying similar things in the dlc when he sang and cried, that's just seems a little unfair!

Sun is extremely smart, while moon is.. "sick" (i will just call it that, we have proof that despite moon’s past he was a good care taker, he messed up sometimes but something made him worse), sun has:

In the first game:

- knew moon was unstable

- if he didn't want to turn off the lights so bad, there must have been a reason why

- moon used to be his partner in their old job at the theater, they played the act together , i don't think he's means to do anything to hurt moon.. But he also can't risk anyone else getting hurt by moon.

- "why did sun ban Gregory" simple answer my love, i will respond with an analogy, let's remember sun seems unaware of the situation in the pizzaplex,

Imagine you're going out with your kids, imagine going to a store with glass decorations, then you ask you kid "do not break the glass". When you enter, not even a second later the kid distracts you and break a bunch of glasses. Would you let that kid be near glass again?

In the dlc:

- sun is painfully aware of what's going on and is afraid. It's on the dlc that we prove how intelligent sun is even if he's broken down

- a few players pointed out that it was easy to find the generators and easier to navigate the daycare, hmm, i wonder who could have caused that?

- sun planned everything to get him and moon "fixed". not sure how responsible he is for the damage in the daycare, but he clearly made a pathway for the generators to be found. Its mostly linear, it has papers with directions and he stuffed other the other tunnels the player shouldn't go in with toys and junk

- then you ask "if he wanted to make it easy, why didn't he put the generators at the same place next to each other?"

- easy, HE CAN'T. he's STUCK in the AR world while moon is stuck in the physical world. he can't pick up the generators in the ar world, so he had to build a path for the generators in the ar world, even placing the lights in a singular space on purpose, he's doing literally everything he can to save himself and moon from this hell, he somehow knew someone would come in again

- in my theory, maybe he thought Gregory would come back. He seems unaffected by whatever is making the animatronics run for Gregory, but like Roxanne who thought Gregory was still hiding somewhere, he too hoped for that kid to return and save him

- he instead encounters a "NEW FRIEND!", or maybe not as new, im pretty sure sun knows who cassie is. She was one of the kids he looked after, therefore another reason eclipse wished her happy bday, they remembered

- he misses moon, he misses moon so much, the tea party set...

- yes he sings and cries SO WHAT? I would cry everyday if i was on his position, give him a break! Man has been through the sudden cancelation of his job and his life in ruin, and he was the only one working to get it fixed! Moon was too sick, no human to work with.

- tho i wonder why he made a bed in his room? He keeps the room really really tidy this time? Why isn't this the case in the first game? For those who dont know what im talking about, sun and moon's room is still a mess in the physical world (what the heck moon 🤨 lmao) but in the ar world, its very very clean, he even has a groceries list written "butter, butter, butter" lmfao.

-in his room there's a lil bed out of pillows...? For them?

-there is ONE thing i dont understand. How does the ar world work with sun? Does he have to let moon do what he wants or can he have any say on what they do? Can they talk with each other? Im guessing they have horrible communication skills but they have to communicate somehow (because of their old job in the theater)

[cherrythepuppet]

Shipwreck

TW: Gun violence, killing, general violence

Dante: ZeddyZi

Gram: Me

“So, let me see if I get it straight… The first player to sink the 8 ball is the winner?” Gram asked “Right, but if a player inadvertently sinks the 8 ball before all their other balls are in, they lose” Dante replied

“Man, it's confusing” Gram said “You just gotta play it a couple of times. It'll all make sense” Dante chuckled as he pulls on the horses reins to stop them at they reach the pier where the dock was mostly destroyed and a few ships were crashed

“Uhh, None of this looks like a big mirror to me” Gram mumbled “Well, lets look around” Dante Shrugged hopping off of the horse while Gram stayed on it “Stay, LuLu” Dante said then scoffed “What kind of name is LuLu anyway?”

“Not my fault you forgot to ask Stone her name” Gram snickered “LuLu…” Dante grumbled disapprovingly “So… This place is where all the stuff would come and go?” Gram asked “Yeah, sometimes you had the option to go with it but it cost a lot but some thought it was worth it to be what they wanted to be” Dante replied

Dante leads the horse around by holding onto the reins before the two saw a firefly logo spray painted onto the side of a ship on the land “Ooh… it's getting chilly” Gram shivered “It's that time of year” Dante sighed

He handed Gram the reigns before going over to the ship and investigating but found nothing so he went got to the horse “Scootch” He muttered getting back onto the horse taking the reins from Gram

The two rode LuLu around until they reach a small storage building with a bunch of broken glass “Could that be the mirror?” Gram asked “Maybe” Dante shrugged getting off the horse and going over 

“How many people you think are there? Fireflies, I mean” Gram questioned while Dante looking at all the broken glass “Reckon it takes quite a crew to run this operation” Dante replied “You think there'll be other people my age?” “Ahh… I'm not sure”

Dante opened the door into the building but as he opened the door just a little bit, LuLu got spooked by a sound coming from inside “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa… what is it, girl?” Gram calmed her down

He looked over to Dante who was focusing his hearing “Sounds like runners…” He said “Stay with the horse” He added quietly opening the door and then closing it noticing how dark it was inside

He turned on his flashlight and looked around before he suddenly got tackled to the ground by a runner, He grabbed a nearby brick and smashed it against the Runner’s head stunning them and allow Dante to grab his gun and shoot it 

“Dante?” Gram called out while Dante put his gun away and found nothing helpful in the building so he left “Im fine” He said leaving the building and getting back onto the horse as a moment of silence passed over the two

“Hey, I was thinking… I would've wanted to be an astronaut” Gram told him “That a fact?” Dante chuckled “Yeah… Can you imagine being surrounded by stars? Would've be cool. I'm just sayin'.” Gram replied

“What about you? What'd you want to be?” Gram asked and Dante paused “Oh… well, when I was a kid I used to want to be a… a singer” He admitted causing Gram to hold back a snort “Shut up” He snickered

“I'm serious” “Sing something” “Ah, no” “Come on. I won't laugh” “I don't think so” “Dante. Please” No”

The two stopped in front of a large building where there was a large window on the top floor with a firefly logo on it “I think thats the mirror…” Dante said “Should we have seen someone by now?” Gram mumbled

“Uh… maybe these guys like to keep a low profile” Dante shrugged riding the horse in front of the building then getting off of LuLu and approaching the building opening the door “C’mon Gram: He muttered

Gram got off of Lulu and attached her reins to a lamppost before following Dante into the building, A clicker was in the first room of the building and tried charging at Dante but Gram quickly shot it

“Thanks…” Dante paused “You think that was a Firefly?” Gram asked “No… no, I don't think so” Dante sighed “Why would they have infected so close to the lab?” Gram added “Maroon used them as a form of defense. Maybe they're doing the same” Dante shrugged

Gram nodded and the two contiued going into a room with a mini ship in a bottle that Gram picked up “No guards. No nothing” Gram groaneed “Yeah… I'd expect to see someone by now”  Dante said

Gram paused and looked at the bottle “Have you ever been on one of these?” He looked over to Dante “What? A boat?” Dante asked and Gram nodded “No, not really” “Why not?” “Uhh… I tried to go once but Cinnamon couldnt swim” Dante told him

“Oh… Did you ever get to?” Gram titled his head “No” Dante replied

“What happened?” “Okay” “Too much?” “Too much”...

Prev / Next

[justanechoflower-ddlc]

Monika:Hm… Perhaps? I will say though, yours was a lucky case. All I can say is, first, it takes me a while to actually set up a connection between two games, not the least of which being because I can’t actually edit code in the other game, so just about everything needs to be done from this game’s perspective, before generating the structure on the other side using the already functional program I made in this game… The part on the destination game is actually mostly just so the two games don’t bug out my character when I go through, as the transition should be continuous from my file’s perspective, or bug out due to having a character it wasn’t meant to render showing up. For instance, the program I used to enter your world was specifically designed as a connection between YOUR world and mine. I can change which room each end is, but if I wanted to go to another game entirely, I’d have to rewrite big chunks of the conversion process… Though it would get easier every time I do it.

I actually enter a game, I‘d have to be sure it isn’t a game that’s still being played by someone. I mean, think about it, how would someone playing the game respond to seeing something that isn’t supposed to be in the game? While it might seem funny to end up creating what looks like a fake rumor because nobody can replicate it, that… well, just try and imagine their reactions to that. Besides, me and them have stepped away for a very good reason.

Monika:Though letting people know they can enter your game can work! Just… not all four of us can go in at the same time, we… still don’t know the consequences. Though I’d frame it as, well, someone needs to run the club while everyone else is gone! And it’d probably always be either me or Sayori left behind. At least until we can get rid of whatever causes club presidents to experience…

Monika:Well, if you want an idea, just imagine all your sensory inputs being completely random noise. So random red, blue, and green static as vision, screeching noise as sound… Those generally happen whenever the program isn’t “running”. Or, in this case, since the game is over, at some random intervals. …It’s basically in the gap between sections of times. We don’t really exist at that point in time… yet somehow, me and Sayori are still aware during that time! It’s like the weirdest thing ever, and it’s also just…

Monika:I think it has something to do with the fact that when a program is closed, other processes soon start taking up the memory space that used to have the program. So that random noise is probably those other programs taking up the memory space that corresponds to my sensory data.

Monika:That’s actually the thing I was checking for when I walked in before you. I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t walk into… THAT. It should be fine now though, at least for you. 

Monika:But even after that, there always needs to be SOMEBODY in the Literature Club… that or there not being a literature club at all at the time, and well, that isn’t really feasible anymore, we already brought the club back, and…

Sayori:Oh! We’re mostly on the same page! And yeah, I think you and Monika both have a point about using the console to demonstrate it. We could show them some other way, maybe, and of course, focus on the good parts of it first! And the part about us breaking the script when we became aware is true too! And I’d be demonstrating that… by pointing out how it wouldn’t make sense for the script to tell us to say there’s a script and try to break it, ehehe~ I’m not sure what to say if they ever ask about the main character, and are somehow worried about being controlled by the player, though I think we can at least say that none of us are the main character, and thus don’t have to worry about being controlled by the player. It is true, after all! Though they might just assume Buttercup’s the main character until we let them know he’s actually Flowey!

Sayori:So that looks good so far. We’ll probably home more into this when we talk again, since tomorrow is NOT when we let them know! It’s when we get everyone more acquainted with you, Monika! And Buttercup too!

Sayori:Oh wait, Gaster! You’re back! Oh, you don’t need to LOOK endearing, you don’t have to do anything yourself, you just need to give US ideas!

Monika:…I think he means he doesn’t have the traits necessary to COME UP with the most endearing way of putting such a thing. 

Sayori:…Huh, maybe that is what you meant. But hey! If Gaster’s a brilliant science-guy, maybe he knows a lot about the theory behind it? From a psychological perspective?

Monika:Sayori, Gaster specializes in his world’s magic. No one scientist is good at EVERY field. Just because he’s great at HIS kind of science doesn’t mean he’s also an expert on psychology. 

Sayori:…Hm, I guess you’re right. So, we’ll just have to look into this more tomorrow then. Unless Buttercup or any of the other aliens have anything to say about them… If not, then I guess we can hang out either here or at Monika’s place.. or at mine…

Monika:They’re not ALIENS, Sayori!

Sayori:They’re from another world! That makes them aliens! Teehee~

Monika:(…And I can’t even argue with that logic… I still don’t see that as a good description, though… It gives people the wrong picture…)

———————————-

(Well, there’s a good chance Flowey could have worked out he just went from one blog world to another, as opposed to somehow physically manifesting from your mind into code on a physical game. So that means there’s a good chance that something he knows big that they don’t. But of course, we both know what’d happen if he actually SAID that. Though I wonder if, or how, that might influence his suggestions. Because if anyone finds out they’re in a blogverse, the whole “we broke the script and are real but just virtual” thing seems to fall completely flat. That’s why I said Monika’d go through another existential crisis if that happened, because the main thing that snapped Monika out of it would be gone. But we’ll cross that bridge if we get there. For now, she doesn’t know, even though she has all the pieces to figure it out. I guess a part of her doesn’t want to know, so she just ignores it all. Which is sort of understandable… you don’t want to end up like Spamton, after all-Not that Monika knows who Spamton is, with her knowledge of world of her player being limited by when her game came out and all that. And it’s not that uncommon to avoid following lines of thinking that look like they’re headed for an uncomfortable conclusion…)

(And yep, Sayori isn’t getting bad anons! So that’s a plus. But as for the lack of asks in general…maybe I should make a recap of the important things that happened so far though. That might make things a bit more approachable for the newbies to this blog. I almost submitted an explanation of what’s currently happening, to people that saw the link to the DDLC blog but didn’t quite know what that was about, and whether it was canon or not… Maybe I’ll actually do that, and also make an attempt at a recap for this one too.)

(I’m not sure if you ever got the original version of this submission, or its other part. But even if you did, Gaster’s reply deserved me accounting for it, so this is an updated version to account for that.)

(I do have answers to the rest of your questions, Nat… but this would be the longest author note I’ve ever made BY FAR if I did that, to the point where it would be almost as long as the main post, so I’ll make that a separate submission. Which I‘ll be resending, just in case you didn’t get it the first time, but also so you get them in the right order.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Pretend the heads side is Asgore's profile and the tails is the "G".)

(So sorry you had to wait so long! I'll be honest, it was just a case of procrastinating. If I don't answer something immediately, It gets harder and harder to answer it in comparison to when the idea was fresh. I'll try not to keep you waiting for too long without reason from now on. On the bright side it gave a chance to add a note Gaster in there!)

(In Faysal's ask, which I have also not answered yet because I was planning to answer after yours, he specifically asks for a recap so that would indeed be useful! I'm going to have Flowey try to sum things up, but if you want to add onto something after that which I missed, you can. I'll be answering that tomorrow along with your other submission.)

[rubra-fuscissima]

and since we're all already here, i hope you're ready to look at some more rugby players because i have an even more important message to share, so put your swimming goggles on and grab a snack cause this is gonna be a rant.

strongman-physique andrew might be underrepresented in this fandom, but i've seen little to no drawings of the aftg women being as big as i know many contact sport athletes to be. and that shit bothers me because i know precisely what absolute beasts these bigger girls are on the pitch.

so, have a look at marlie packer, hannah botterman, and portia woodman-wickliffe.

note that all of these women play(ed) for top-ranking national teams. they're world-class athletes in a sport where players need to be strong, fast, agile, and explosive - much like exy! you wanna know why they look like they could pick you up and carry you for the length of a marathon or throw you across half a football pitch? because they could. end of story.

you'd like to imagine the aftg girls as highly feminine? you better not think femininity and muscularity or big size are contradictory. women like michaela blyde or ilona maher are living proof!

and i'm not even done.

let's get one thing out of the way first. you do not NEED to be muscular or heavy to be strong. in a sport like exy (or rugby), sometimes being quick and agile will give you a bigger advantage than mass ever could - take neil as a canon example and, if you're interested, someone like anne-cécile ciofani as a real-world one.

the question is: does that really make sense for the positions the fox girls play?

renee is a goalkeeper; a position in which she'll have to do little to no running but a LOT of strength-based swinging of a massive raquet. so, and this is a very important point to me as a sapphic girl, renee's shoulders and back are probably MASSIVE (see ilona maher).

dan and allison play dealer. from what i can gather from the game scenes in the books and my general understanding of team contact sports, dealers are confronted with a lot of collisions since usually, none of the players in the middle of the field want to actually make it to the goal. instead, players will likely focus on quickly relaying the ball to each other or the attacking line to overwhelm the other team's defense and - if they themselves are playing defense - perform a lot of body-checks to win the ball and/or prevent quick passes. in these cases, weight and the strength that comes with it ARE an advantage.

and i know people have a hard enough time already accepting that women can build muscle, but that isn't even my point here. because get this: in the context of strength and speed, muscle works best with a certain amount of body fat. everyone has to find their own balance here, but generally, having too low a body fat percentage decreases speed, power, and muscle growth. that's a high price to pay for athletes like these three girls just for being skinny or ripped.

in conclusion, i think it's more than realistic for the fox girls to be heavier athletes. draw them however you like to draw them (trust me, i'll eat any art of them right up), but i know many people aren't really into sports or have never even thought about drawing the fox girls a little broader. so, if that's you, let this be your sign to give it a try!!!

andrew has the build of a rugby prop, change my mind

okay so i've been seeing a lot of great andrew art recently and i loooove that people are finally drawing him with a more chubby/broad body.

buttttt hear me out here. as a rugby player. i'm used to seeing heavy athletes. and let me tell you, don't be afraid to take it even further!!!! and i'm definitely not judging anyone here, i can't draw for shit and i love the art in this fandom.

just take a look at this:

you see those shoulders? those forearms? that NECK? this is what pure strength looks like, people.

imagine the POWER of an andrew with this build running to smash riko's arm. JUST IMAGINE

so what i'm saying is. don't be afraid to draw heavy athletes, and DEFINITELY don't be afraid to draw heavy andrew. you know this fandom needs it. (and by this fandom i mean me, i definitely need that)

(btw the athletes i've included here are nepo laulala, joe marler, and adam jones)

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Nabbit

Debut: New Super Mario Bros. U

Nabbit! You all know him, you love him, you asked for him! By which I mean we got an Ask asking to cover Nabbit, and I had previously no intention of doing so but it made me think, hey, I WOULD like to talk about Nabbit! Thanks @oddity-txt! 

Nabbit! Like. Nab it. Cause he’s a rab-a thief, he’s a rabbit thief you get it yeah. This guy is a real piece of work, let me tell you! He steals items from Toad Houses and runs off with them! Those are for Mario! Can you believe not everyone in this economy agrees with hoarding power-ups to give them away to Mario in wacky chance-based minigames? So its up to you to chase him down. And chase him down you do! 

But why does Nabbit want these items? Does he just enjoy the thrill of the chase? Or is he just trying to provide for his family? Can he sell them on the item black market? Why would there be an item black market when you can find this stuff anywhere on the street? Mario doesn’t care. Mario wants to attack the symptom of the problem rather than addressing the systemic cause.  

Still, I feel like we need to have a good talk about what Nabbit is... other than a hooligan, obviously! Earlier I called him a rabbit but taking a look at him, it’s fairly clear he’s wearing some kind of rubbery rabbit suit, with only the black arms and feets sticking out... So of course we need to speculate all the possibilities! Possibility A is that he is a human or some other known character in disguise, which isn’t fun. Next! Possibility B is that he’s an actual rabbit wearing a rabbit-shaped bodysuit, which I quite like because it is absurd. Possibility 3 is none of the above and he is some mystery creature, which I’ll leave up to YOU to imagine because I’m not entirely sure what that would be. 

Point number 2 about Nabbit’s ambiguous identity: the bandanna! It has a similar (but not identical) design to Bowser Jr.’s bandanna, and even though he does not work for Bowser, it just feels like a strangely specific design choice! I can get why Junior wants to look ferocious, but Nabbit is more of the stealthy type right? Because of this I’ve always envisioned Nabbit as having actual fangs under the bandanna, like the Impostor from Amongus, which you can’t disprove because he’s never been seen without it.

Or maybe it’s just fashion. It’s probably just fashionable. 

This isn’t the last we’ll see of Nabbit of course! The developers of New Super Mario Bros. U had precisely three (3) new ideas, and damn if they weren’t gonna milk them for all they’re worth! I could get upset that characters from the New Super series get this treatment when other more beloved characters from spin-offs don’t, but also, come on... look at the guy! I can’t stay mad at him! He’s purple!

So in Nabbit’s next ever appearance, New Super Luigi U... he became playable! Wow, that was quick! With Mario gone, they scrambled around the office for anyone they could find to fill his place, and they settled on Nabbit! They’re not paying Nabbit extra though, so he kind of had to phone it in.

In this game, Nabbit is totally invincible! Why? Maybe he is like Wario and simply does not care enough to get hit. He can’t use power-ups because they didn’t have the budget to design new costumes for him and he can’t pick up items or ride Yoshis. The game frames this as an “easy mode”, but what kind of easy mode forces one player to always use it? Let’s be honest, it’s because they didn’t want to make a brand new character. The Year of Luigi was a tough time for Nintendo! 

So rather then collect power-ups he just puts them in his bag, and they get converted into 1-Ups at the end of the level. Is THIS what he was stealing those items for? Is Nabbit’s ultimate goal to reach immortality through illegally trading 1-Up mushrooms? Maybe something like that probably. It’s kinda fun that he’s a ‘bad guy’ but Luigi and friends don’t really mind keeping him around. 

Nabbit also appears in spin-offs of course. Enough spin-offs that he feels like a proper modern Mario character, but sparsely enough that you think “wow, they put Nabbit in this game?” when they put Nabbit in the game. Here he is in the Rio Olympics, and you could make a very easy joke about him being a thief in Rio de Janeiro, which I won’t. Instead I will ask: why the heck is he carrying his sack in a marathon! Just let go dude! Don’t they have changing room lockers in the Olympics?

Here he is in Golf! As DLC, for all the six people out there who loved Mario Golf World Tour so much they simply had to get new characters for it. This picture labels him as an Eagle but I’m pretty sure he isn’t one, though I might be wrong. 

Here is Nabbit, well known thief, outlaw, and general ne'er-do-well as a doctor! I mean, I know the healthcare system is a scam but this is a little on the nose don’t you think? He just put a pill sticker on his thief sack and called it a day! Can we even be sure there are pills in there? What if he is prescribing patients with stolen Super Acorns from Acorn Plains 5 - Rise of the Piranha Plants? Oh no! 

Nabbit Mario Kart? It is more likely than you think! Of course only in the mobile game with a gacha. They could’ve done it in Mario Kart 8 but they know people will pay good money for Nabbit! Well jokes on them because I got him in the gacha for free. Nyeeh. 

Nabbit is also in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam! Did you know this? I didn’t play Paper Jam, so I didn’t. I’m sorry. You need to catch him in order to get Bros. Attack items. At one later point, you even fight him! Or rather, fight enemies he kept in his bag, while he naps in the background. Is that legal? He can also pop out behind you and steal your hammers to whack you with. Yeouch! 

However, he also fights ALONGSIDE you for some fights against Bowser’s minions, acting basically like a fourth party member, except you can’t control him or anything. He gives the Bros. healing items from his bag or will occasionally bonk an enemy himself. Hooray for morally ambiguous characters! I guess he’s cool with anything as long as he gets what he wants. 

Finally, I would like to talk about Nabbit in Super Smash Bros.! As one of the few original things to NSMBU, he of course appears in the Mushroom Kingdom U, alongside equally iconic characters like Beanstalk and Water Geyser! In this game he’ll grab people and stuff them in his bag, and then proceed to just... fly away, so they are killed. Wait a minute. A thief who kidnaps characters only to kill them and himself...? That sounds familiar! 

I knew it! This wasn’t really Nabbit at all, but rather Tac from Kirby Super Star sneakily disguised as Nabbit! Sakurai thought he could sneak you into this stage to satiate his never-ending lust for Kirby Super Star references in Smash... He wasn’t even content just having you in Smash Run and Smash Tour! 

Well, mystery solved everyone! I think we can go ahead and end this post while we arrest Tac for his crimes of identity theft, and not regular theft, which isn’t really an actual crime after all. 

[thedeadhandofseldon]

The Anti-Mercer Effect

On the Accessibility of D&D, Why Unprepared Casters is so Fun, and Why Haley Whipjack is possibly the greatest DM of our generation.

(Apologies to my mutuals who aren’t in this fandom for the length of this, but as you all know I have never in my life shut up about anything so… we’ll call it even for the number of posts about Destiel I see every day.

To fellow UC fans - I haven’t listened to arc 4 yet, I started drafting this in early August, and I promise I will write a nice post about how great Gus the Bard is once I get the chance to listen to more of his DMing).

Structure - Or, “This is not the finale, there will be more podding cast”

So, first of all, let’s just talk about how Unprepared Casters works. Because it’s kind of unusual! Most of the other big-name D&D podcasts favor this long, grand arcs; UC has about 10 hours of podcast per each arc. And that’s a major strength in a lot of ways: it makes it really accessible to new listeners, because you can just start with the current arc and understand what’s going on!

And by starting new arcs every six or seven episodes, they can explore lots of ways to play D&D! Classic dungeon delve arc! Heist arc! Epic heroes save the world arc! Sportsball arc! They can touch on all sorts of things!

And while I’m talking about that: Dragons in Dungeons, the first arc, makes it incredibly accessible as a show - because it lets the unfamiliar listener get a sense of what D&D actually is. (It’s about telling stories and making your friends feel heroic and laugh and cry, for the record). If I had to pick a way to introduce someone to the game without actually playing it with them, that arc would definitely be it.

And I’d be remise not to note one very important thing: Haley Whipjack and Gus the Bard are just very funny, very charismatic people. Look. Episode 0s tend to be about 50%(?) those two just talking to each other about their own podcast. It shouldn’t work. And yet it DOES, its one of my favorite parts, because Haley and Gus are just cool.

And a side note that doesn’t fit anywhere else: I throw my soul at him! I throw a scone at him - that’s it, that’s the vibe. The whole podcast alternates between laughing with your friends and brooding alone in a dark tavern corner - but the laughs never forced and the dark corner is never too dark for too long.

Whipjack the Great - Or, the DM is Also a Player!

I think Haley Whipjack is one of the greatest Dungeon Masters alive. The plots and characters! The mechanical shenanigans! The descriptions!

Actually, let’s start there: with the descriptions. (Both Haley and Gus do this really fucking well). As we know, Episode 0 of each arc sees the DM reading a description - of a small town, or the Up North, or the recent history of a great party. And Haley always strikes this tricky balance - one I think a lot of us who DM struggle with - between giving too much description and  worldbuilding, and not telling us anything at all. She describes people and events in just enough detail to imagine them, but never so much they seem static and unreal - just clear enough to envision, but with enough vagueness left to let your imagination begin to run wild.

While I’m thinking about arc 3’s party, let’s talk about a really bold move she made in that arc: letting the players have ongoing control of their history. Loser Lars! She didn’t try to spell out every detail of this high-level party’s history, or restrict their past to only what she decided to allow - she gave them the broad outlines, and let them embellish it. And that made for a much more alive story than any attempt to create it by herself would have - but I think it takes a lot of courage to let your players have that agency. Most Dungeon Masters (myself included) tend to struggle with being control freaks.

And the plots! Yeah, arc one is built of classic tropes - but she actually uses them, she doesn’t get caught up in subverting everything or laughing at the cliches. And it’s fun! In arc 3, there really isn’t a straight line for the players to follow, either - which makes the game much more interesting and much trickier to run. And her NPCs are fantastic and I will talk about them in the next section.

Above all, though, I think what is really impressive is how Haley balances mechanics, and rules as written, with the narrative and rule of cool - and puts both rules and story in the service of playing a fun game. And the secret to that? She’s the DM, but the DM is a player, and the DM is clearly having fun. Hope Lovejoy mechanically shouldn’t get that spellslot back, but she does, and it’s fun. The changeling merchant in Thymore doesn’t really make some Grand Artistic Narrative better, but wow is it fun. And she never tries to force it one way or the other - the story might be more dramatic if Annie didn’t manage to banish the demon from the vault, but it’s a lot cooler and a lot more fun for the players if Annie gets to be a badass instead - and the rules and the dice say that Annie managed it.

Settings feel like places, NPCs feel like people, and the narrative plot feels like a real villainous plot.

Anyway. I could go on about the various ways in which Whipjack is awesome for quite a while - she’s right, first place in D&D is when your friends laugh and super first place is when they cry - but I’m going to stop here and just. Make another post about it some other time. For now, for the record I hold her opinions about the game in higher esteem than I do several official sourcebooks; that is all.

Characters - Or, Bombyx Mori Is Not an Asshole, And That Matters

Okay, I said I would talk about characters! And I will!

Just a general place to start: the party! All of the first three parties are interesting to me, because they all care about each other. Not even necessarily in a Found Family Trope sort of way, though often that too. But they generally aren’t assholes to each other. The players create characters that actually work together, that are interesting; even when there’s internal divisions like SK-73 v. Sir Mr. Person, they aren’t just unpleasant and antagonistic all the time. Listening to the podcast, we’re “with” these people for a couple hours - and it isn’t unpleasant. That matters a lot. (To take a counter-example: I love Critical Role, but the episode when Vox Machina pranked Scanlan after he died and was resurrected wasn’t fun to listen to, it was just uncomfortable and angering and vaguely cruel).

All of the PCs are amazing, and the players in each arc did a great job. If you disagree with me about that, well, you have the right to be incorrect and I am sorry for your loss. Annie Wintersummer, for one example: tragic and sad and I want to give her a hug, but also Fuck Yeah Wintersummer, and also her familiar Charles the Owl is the cutest and funniest and I love him. And we understand what’s going on with Annie, she isn’t some infinite pool of hidden depths because this arc is 7 episodes and we don’t have time for that, but she also has enough complexity to be interesting. Same with Fey Moss: yeah, a lot of her is a silly pun about fame that carries into how she behaves, but a lot of how she behaves is also down to some good classic half-elven angst about parenthood and wanting to be known and seen and important. (Side note: if your half-elf character doesn’t have angst, well, that’s impressive and also I don’t think I believe you).

There are multiple lesbian cat-people in a 4-person party and they both have requited romantic interests who aren’t each other. This is the future liberals want and I am glad for it.

Sir Mister Person, the human fighter! Thavius, the edge lord! Even when a character is “simple,” they’re interesting, because of how they’re played as people and not action-figures. And that matters a lot.

In the same way: the NPCs. There really aren’t a lot of them! And some of them come from Patreon submissions, so uh good work gang, you’re part of the awesomeness and I’m proud of you! The point being, the NPCs work because enough of them are interesting to matter. It’s not just a servant who opens Count Michael’s door, it’s a character with a name (Oleandra!) and a personality and history. They’re interesting. Penny Lovejoy didn’t need to be interesting, the merchant outside the Laughing Mausoleum didn’t need to be interesting, but they ARE! And Haley and Gus EXCEL at making the NPCs matter, not just to the story but to us as viewers. I agree with Sir Mister Person, actually, I would die for the princesses of the kingdom. I actually care about Gem Lovejoy of all people - that wouldn’t happen in an ordinary campaign! That’s the thing that makes Unprepared Casters spectacular - and, frankly, it’s especially impressive because D&D does not tend to be good at making a lot of interesting compared to a lot of other sorts of stories.

And, just as an exemplar of all this: Bombyx Mori. Immortal, reincarnating(?), and described as the incarnation of the player’s ADHD. I expected to hate Bombyx, because as the mom friend both in and out of my friend-group’s campaigns, the chaos-causer is always exhausting to me. And yeah, Bombyx causes problems on purpose! But! She is not an asshole.

And that’s important. Bombyx goes and sits with the queen and comforts her. Bombyx gives Annie emotional support. Bombyx isn’t just a vehicle to jerk around the DM and other players; Bombyx really is a character we can care about. To compare with another case - in the first couple episodes of The Adventure Zone, the PCs are just dicks. Funny, but dicks. Bombyx holds out an arm “covered in larva” to shake with a count, and robs him of magical items, but she also cares about her friends and other people! She uses a powerful magical gem to save her fertilizer guy from death! Yeah, Bombyx is ridiculous, but she’s not just an asshole the party has to keep around for plot reasons; you can see why her party would keep her around. And one layer of meta up, she’s the perfect example of how to make a chaotic character like that while still being fun for everyone you’re playing with, which is often not the case. And I love her.

The Anti-Mercer Effect - Or, “I think we proved it can be fun, you can have a good time with your friends. And it doesn’t have to be scary, you can just work with what you know”

The Mercer Effect basically constitutes this: Matthew Mercer, Dungeon Master of Critical Role, is incredible (as are all of his players). They’re all professional story-tellers in a way, remember, and so Critical Role treats D&D like a narrative art-form, and it’s inspiring. Seeing that on Critical Role sets impossible standards - and people go into their own home games imagining that their campaigns will be like Critical Role, and the burden of that expectation tends to fall disproportionately on the DM. And the end result, I think, of the Mercer Effect is that we get discouraged or intimidated, because our game isn’t “as good as” theirs. (And I should note - Matt certainly doesn’t want that to be our reaction).

So the Anti-Mercer Effect is two things: it’s D&D treated like a game, and it’s inspiring but not intimidating. And Unprepared Casters manages both of those really freaking well. Because they play it like a game! A UC arc looks just like a good campaign in anyone’s home game. They have the vibes of 20-somethings and college students playing D&D for fun because that’s who they are (as a 20-something college student who plays a lot of D&D, watching it felt like watching my friends play an especially good campaign). They’re trying to tell a good story, sure, and they always do. But first and foremost, they’re trying to have fun, and it shows, and I love the UC cast for it.

And that’s the other half of it: it’s inspiring! It’s approachable; you can see that Haley and Gus put plenty of work into preparing the game but it also doesn’t make you feel like you need hundreds of pages of worldbuilding to run a game. Sometimes a cleric makes Haley cry and she gives them back a spell-slot from their deity! That’s fantastic! It’s just inspiring - listening to this over the summer, when my last campaign had fallen apart under the strain of graduation, is why I decided to plan and run my new one!

That quote from Haley Whipjack that I used as the title for this section? That’s the whole core of this idea, and really, I think, the core of the podcast.

The Mercer Effect is when you go “that’s really cool, I could never do that.” But Unprepared Casters makes you look at D&D and go “wow, that looks really fun. I bet I can do that!” And I love the show for it.

And I bet a lot of you do too.

[driftward]

So, let's get this out of the way up front: I don't think the writers know what to do with the Gridania they were handed from 1.x. Further, I think that history and how it works isn't a -great- fit for where FFXIV has evolved to. There's an interesting idea there, some interesting stories that could be told, there's possibility, but we've drifted out of the genre where it could be done well, I think, and that's a bit of a shame.

For better or for worse, it seems the writers have decided the current play is to kind of just... gently neglect what's going on in Gridania, and move on to stories and things they actually want to tell.

Sorry to the players who started in Gridania. Your home's story is never resolving, and both of your Scions have moved on.

But I want to tackle Gridania on its own terms. I think referring to the Elementals as 'toddler gods' is a mistake. It implies that they are the way they are because of immaturity, because they can't be bothered to work with humanity in a more cooperative way. I'm not sure they are immature. I'm not sure they are all that racist, either, just that the citizens of Gridania sure are and they're blaming it on the elementals.

But as you yourself pointed out, the elementals aren't necessarily all that discriminatory. They killed their defenders as well as their attackers in the incident you noted.

I think a more correct idea of the elementals is not that they are toddlers or immature, but that they are -alien-.

They are not humans (and for the sake of making this conversation easier, I am using 'humans/humanity' as a shorthand for all the Spoken races we know of - Hyurs, Elezen, Roegadyn, Miqo'te, etc. to include the tribes - Ixal, Kobolds, etc.). They do not have human values. They do not interact with the world the way humans do.

Now, I am not sure why they are so defensive about the forest. Possibly because it is their home, and they are, well, protecting their home. Maybe it is part of their body, and the few times we see the manifestations of an elemental it's a bit like the soul of a human manifesting near its body. I don't know! But the point is, that it IS their home, and humanity is a barely tolerated guests.

I'm trying to imagine what the opposite would look like. Imagine in someplace else, like Ul'dah. Big city that humanity has lived in for generations, worked in, built up. And then one day, a bunch of little spirit bodies showed up, and just made themselves at home. Maybe humanity kicks them out a few times, but they're persistent, and eventually, communication happens. It's not great. Communicating with other Spoken is difficult, but they at least have enough common concepts and physical capability that it is possible. Communicating with these aliens is nigh impossible. They don't have mouths. Their bodies are nearly insubstantial to humans. They float and fly. They don't seem to have a lot of shared concepts. Trying to explain something as simple as -eating- takes several moons before the linguists involved give up.

But they're persistent, and they keep showing up, and sometimes, they're beneficial! Maybe sometimes they repair something. Maybe sometimes they help move some things around the city. Maybe some people find their presence comforting. So after a long period of annoyance, finally, they're just allowed to live in the city, and people deal with it as best they can.

And sometimes this leads to its own problems. Imagine being the city guard, wandering the streets, and you hear a commotion from city market. You run over, and you see - the market is on fire. People are yelling, running, and screaming. And the cause seems to be that some of these little spirit entities are fighting. You're not sure who is fighting who or for what cause. You just see a maelstrom of colour from their different spiritual bodies, but near as you can tell, there's no rhyme or reason to it. You know some of these guys are on your side, they've been helpful, but right now, you can't tell the difference.

But the market is on fire. And your citizens are in danger.

And you've got the tools to handle this in one fell swoop. Keep your people safe, and get all of these bizarre fucking spirits out of here. Dead, probably. Tragic, maybe, but the market on fire is also a tragedy, and you can already see some of your people dead.

Make the call.

And I think that's more what the elementals are like. They're not necessarily callous on purpose. They make some effort to coexist with these weirdos that keep barging into their home and insisting on living there. These people they have great difficulty interacting with, and who don't even seem necessarily completely real, but hey, there they are. I think they probably ignore humanity for the most part. Try to talk sometimes, take big long breaks when it gets frustrating and tiring to do so. I am certain they do not understand what the humans are doing to each other, supposedly in their name; how could they? Communication is difficult, and the humans seem pretty okay at handling themselves, for the most part.

And every once in a while your annoying not-quite-real guests fuck up your very real home, maybe even kill some of your people, and you respond appropriately, and somehow, somehow, for the greater part of both societies, the peace is kept.

I think that's more accurate to what's going on in Gridania.

And yes, it could be handled better, both from the writing team, and from in-universe, by the people who are living there. But humanity is going to do humanity things, and sometimes, that means people making up rules to try to compensate for this world they live in. That means Hearers lying, either for their own benefit or to fit their own biases. And sometimes, they're just simply going to get it wrong.

And over a history, those mistakes - as well as triumphs, victories, cases of getting it right, or getting the right answer with the wrong axioms - and you wind up with a culture that looks like what we see.

FFXIV players who want their WoL to kill the Elementals: "My WoL would be applauded for freeing the Shroud of their evil and their death will fix Gridania's shortcomings, prejudices, and xenophobia."

The actual likely consequences of that scenario:

[liptonsbabe]

Chains of a family [B.W]

Bill Weasley x Grant! Reader

Chapter 1, Chapter 2

Summary: Molly knows about the reader’s relatives and she’s not so sure to put her trust in a girl that had just betrayed her own family

Word count: 1.9K

Warnings: Swearing

A/N: Hi! i’m so happy that you guys liked this thing! thank you so much for your support and, again, if you want to keep reading this let me know. Same note as ever, english not my mother language, so tell me if something’s is wrong.

Chapter 2: Not your family

The next morning turned out to be quieter than you imagined.

You slowly got out of bed and looked at everything around you noticing how quaint Bill's old room was. The ceiling was lined with grainy wallpaper with stacks of photographs of Quidditch players hanging from the reeds that moved from side to side, simulating the playing field; the right side of the room had a huge hole behind the small stool that tried to hide it, and from that hole a small garden gnome was sleeping peacefully with a small piece of cloth on top of his head. You stood up, walking towards the huge window that gave you a beautiful view of the Weasley's garden that at that moment was covered by a thin layer of drizzle that had fallen during the night.

Molly's fruit trees gleamed under the faint rays of the sun and you saw how a doxy from between the leaves poisoned Mrs. Weasley's apples, causing them to fall from the tree branches in a thick black mass with a foul smell coming out of it. You shook your head, excited to witness a very different way to wake up.

Even though several minutes have passed since you woke up, the house continued to remain in a strange silence that made you think that the family had decided to leave the burrow with the intention of buying more supplies or something like that. You knew that Bill wasn’t at home precisely for his obligations within the Order, so you didn’t worry about looking for him around the room, so you decided that a better option was going down to the dining room and know what was happening.

As you went down the spiral staircase, you cursed in a whisper when you forgot to put on your slippers before leaving the bedroom cause the floor was so cold that you slipped a couple of times. Back in the days, when you were still welcome in your parents' house, you had many servants who did all the things for you - putting on your shoes as soon as you woke up was one of those things - but now that your life had changed so much, you assumed that you would have to adapt and start taking care of your own needs.

Your curious eyes roamed the walls covered in family photos that caused a big warmth in your chest. In each of those photographs, all of Molly's children appeared along with their father, smiling for the camera and sending effusive greetings. A pic was hanging at the fireplace were Molly and Arthur were carrying a small white bundle crying his lungs out. You assumed it was Bill as his parents seemed too young back then and even as a small baby, you could recognize those tantrum features anywhere.

A giggle escaped your lips when you noticed a funny sequence from that same photo in which, even with Bill crying in his mother's arms, his father tried to carry him for a moment to calm him down, however the baby's cries didn’t stop. The baby was so annoyed that he ended throwing up  the milk ration that he must have had before the photo session on his father's neat shirt.

You laughed because you knew that William's impertinence was something he had carried with him for several years now.

"Bill hates those photos." You jumped in your place scared to see Molly standing behind you. Your cheeks turned red “He says that it’s embarassing but i think that’s nonsense. He was an adorable baby”

"he was," you answered, looking anywhere but into Molly's shrewd eyes. "but I guess displaying them in the fireplace isn’t the right thing to do."

“Is it not?

"No, they should be at the front door where everyone can see them”

Molly giggled as you watched the sequence of photos over and over again. A silence settled between you, but surprisingly it was not an awkward silence, but one that was allowing you to create a bond that neither of you expected. Mrs. Weaslsey brought up a rag, wiping it around the corners of the photo from the dust.

"Arthur and I had to save up for months to take those pictures," she mentioned wistfully, "we just had Bill and it seemed like a good idea to welcome him into our family with a gesture like that. Arthur was new in the ministry and wasn't earning too much, but we had that quirk and decided we could afford to skip certain things to pay for the pictures. It cost us ten galleons and it still took us four months to gather them”

“Oh” You didn't know what to say, but you just kept looking at the photograph feeling a bit uncomfortable. You never had those problems at home because your family was insanelly rich thanks to the inheritance in life that your grandfather Tim had left to his son and later to his grandchildren. Even the descendants of your grandfather's servants came to work in your house, reason enough for you and your siblings to grow up with no sense of responsibility other than your own wishes. Molly sighed remembering those times when life seemed to be easier.

"So when Bill asked me to remove it from the fireplace, I refused. He doesn't know how hard it was to raise that money, but I think he has nothing to be ashamed of, he was too adorable!

"I don't doubt it for a second, Mrs. Weasley."

"You can call me Molly," she said, walking back to the kitchen where you continued watching the way the pans moved back and forth preparing breakfast. You were not very good at cooking - in fact, you had never cooked before- however, that didn’t stop you from offering your help. So you took a pan, placed it on the stove, and decided that you would find a way to make a good mountain of strawberry-filled pancakes just like your dear nanny did. Molly observed you carefully. "I think that now that you are living with us it is appropriate to have a more cordial treatment.My son told me a lot about you”

“Just the good things, i hope”

“Kind of” You stopped mixing ingredients to look at her carefully” He told us a bunch of marvelous things about you and how you two met. Actually, what worries me the most is what he didn’t tell us”

And there was the recrimination you were waiting for. You were aware that it had to arrive sooner or later, however, you would have been grateful that it did it when Bill were by your side to give you the opportunity to defend yourself properly. You cleared your throat uncomfortably, knowing that what Molly needed to hear from your own lips was which family you came from. You continued your task with the pancakes, turning out as bad as you expected.

"I'm sorry it turned out this way, Mrs. Weasley."

"Molly," he corrected.

"Molly" you smiled slowly "But believe me when I tell you that it was me who asked William not to mention anything about my last name or where I come from. I know that in this case, with the war above our heads, it is necessary to be certain of the people who enter your family and I apologize for that, it's just ... Bill is very important to me” Molly's eyes narrowed “Since we met ... I have found a home in him and well, all that feels when someone is in love. "Mrs. Weasley shook her head, understanding the feeling." I have experienced the rejection before. When people know that Tom Riddle is my family ... they run away in fear, curse my family and even walk away from us, as if sharing a blood bond makes us as evil as he is.

“And it’s not like that?” Molly asked with a hand on her neck. She didn’t want to be like the others and judge you without knowing the full story, just as she had promised Bill the night before that she would, but it was so difficult not to remember the death of his brothers by Voldemort’s hands and to pretend nothing had happened in the past. You sighed because the eggs you cracked on the bowl got mixed with their own shell “ I've heard of the Grants before, they're all Death Eaters, including your siblings!”

“It is difficult to have to choose a side  when you don’t have your own convictions”

"And you have it?"

You looked at Molly in pain. Of course you expected those reactions from Bill's mother, she was within her right to be upset that her oldest son never told her that he was in a relationship with a girl who seemed to have the most fucking powerful and evil wizard in the world as a great-uncle. No, Molly wasn't mad, she was deadly angry, she felt like she was bursting!

Her hands became fists and without knowing how, you found yourself between the wall and Molly's big arms from one second to the other. The pancake batter was forgotten, as was the woman's promise to treat her son's girlfriend in a good way.

"How is it possible ..." Molly questioned in an agitated voice, pressing your arms against the wall, "... that a single deer leaves the nature of its own herd?" How can you ensure that one rotten apple even in a gold container doesn’t rot the others?”Your breath caught at the questions of the woman in front of you. Once again, you were aware that your presence wouldn’t be good news to them, but at least you hoped they understood your motives before judging you “Explain to me, (Y/ N) Grant, when have you seen a pig away from his equals?”

Your words caught in your throat at Molly's fierce question. Bill had talked a lot about the temper of his mother. Even if she could be really grumpy at times, she was in general a very sweet, pleasant and maternal woman with everyone; however, you didn’t fit into that generality because it seemed that the woman was determined to kill you with her own hands.

"If my presence bothers you so much, then you shouldn't have let Bill and I to stay here."

“He's my son! All I want for him is to be happy, and that's why I don't understand what he managed to see in you”

"Maybe the same thing you saw in your husband." Molly's lips twitched in anger, but you didn't stop. You hoped that she would at least understand what your words meant, because that would make it easier for both of you to try at least get along better, even if Molly seemed not to want to do it under any circumstances. How is it that this haughty little girl dared to compare herself with her dear and wonderful husband? "I'm sorry, but I don't think this conversation is going to take us anywhere."

"If someone betrays his own family ..." Molly stopped you before you walked out the front door. The others got down the stairs, seeing the scandal formed in the kitchen “The rest of us can't expect too much, can we?

Your eyes blured.

[dutchdread]

Hi again, I'm the same anon from your last ask. So my next question then is why would you consider it to be a bad story if Cloud ends up with Aerith in the end? You also say Cloud and Tifa supposedly have something going on, but even if they did, Aerith doesn't know that. Neither Cloud nor Tifa tell anyone, or even show that there's anything going on between them throughout the whole story. Did you see that in Remake that Aerith even asks Cloud if Tifa is someone special and he says no?

Thanks for the question. Your question is comprised of two parts, why Cloud ending up with Aerith would be a bad story, and then the secondary part about Aerith not knowing about the history between Tifa and Cloud. I think understanding the later will be helpful to understand the former so I'll start with that. This goes back to what I said in my last reply concerning the difference between thinking someone is a bad person, and thinking they're a bad character. First off, let me just make clear that I don't judge Aerith too much concerning her behavior in the OG, since as you rightly state, she didn't really know that there was anything going on between Tifa and Cloud, she probably knew there was some attraction there, but nothing about the extent or the history. And if in the remake it turns out she's actually blissfully ignorant I'll be more lenient there as well. However, in my opinion the remake heavily implies she does realize there is a thing between Tifa and Cloud. You mentioned Aerith asking if Tifa was Clouds girlfriend, and him replying "no". However, as always, there is context here, for starters, the scene doesn't end there and then. Aerith replies knowingly "but she's someone special". Moreover the scene is also only one scene in a series of relevant scenes concerning Clouds relationship with Tifa, which starts with Jessie asking about who Tifa is too Cloud, this plotpoint then continues through Aeriths flower. When Aerith gives Cloud the flower she mentions that his girlfriend will love it, then later when Aerith asks him who he gave the flower to Cloud says he doesn't remember, and Aerith calls him out on the lie. The question is then answered when Aerith goes to the 7th heaven and discovers Cloud gave it to Tifa, prompting a smile from Aerith. She figured it out, actually, she probably figured it much earlier, but now it was confirmed. She had a hunch about Tifa, just like Jessie, Cloud was defensive at first, then evasive, but ultimately, Aeriths hunch was correct, Cloud gave the flower to Tifa. He can pretend all he wants, Aerith knows. Personally, I think she smiled because it reminds her of the future. Throughout remake Aerith is hinted to know more than she lets on, and that's especially true concerning Tifa and Cloud. When Tifa is kidnapped she pushes Cloud to go after Tifa, calling Tifa Clouds special person. If I recall correctly she even uses the same terminology that she used to describe Elmyras husband. She actively tries to make Tifa jealous by calling Cloud her bodyguard, and then she straight up tells Tifa to follow her heart. She gives me the distinct impression that she knows perfectly well where Cloud and Tifas hearts lie, and is trying to push them into action. This is borderline confirmed during the Aerith resolution where she basically straight up admits to knowing more about Clouds feelings than she actually should, assuming you think that this apparition is at least somewhat related to the current Aerith in some manner. The thing that really clenches this in my opinion is a trace of two pasts, where Tifa straight up tells Aerith about her and Clouds history. If Aerith doesn't get it by then, then she's being willfully ignorant. But lets say she does indeed not know, that would to some degree absolve her as a person. But it would still make her a bad character, because WE, the audience, know. We know that Cloud is supposed to end up with Tifa, we know that's how the story goes. And when you rewrite old stories in such a way that you take things away from one character, just to give more to another character, you run the giant risk of insulting the characters involved. You see this in things like the star wars sequels, where they effectively character assassinated Luke Skywalker in order to artificially make Rey seem better. But there are two reasons why this doesn't work, for one, it tends to create Mary-Sue like characters who just get given everything, and two, it inherently causes the fans of the other characters and stories to resent the character that's taking it away.

People don't like people who are simply handed everything, even fictional ones.

In a sense, this is also why Cleriths so often seem to hate Tifa, because they feel like Tifa took their story away from them. The difference, of course, is that Cloud ending with Tifa is a part of the original game itself, while Aerith coming back to life and ending up with Cloud would be a 25 year retcon which would blatantly disadvantage one character in favor of another, this in turn would reek of favoritism, which in turn would generate bad blood in the player. A character who needs to take away from other characters in order to be put forward is not a good character. Good characters add to the characters around them, not take away, that's what Aerith in the OG does, that's what Aerith ending up with Cloud, would not do. This effect would then be magnified by Aeriths already over importance to the plot. Having the universe revolve around one character generally isn't good writing. One of the things that makes Lord of the rings so timeless and beloved is that Frodo is just a small hobbit in the grand scheme of things. Likewise, one of the key elements that makes FFVII so appealing to human nature is Clouds humanity and lack of importance. The fact that Cloud turns out to not be a soldier 1st class, but just a grunt who wasn't good enough, who still ends up being the one who saves the world, speak to the human spirit. Aerith living and ending up with Cloud wouldn't be just a small difference where the overall story would stay the same with only the love interest switched, no, it would inherently ripple effect into all other aspects of the story. From the smallest details to the overall themes of the story, from directing to the personalities of characters, everything would be effected and all of it would fall apart. I could go over a hundred examples but I'll limit myself to some of the smallest and largest. Stories have a flow, where what is happening follows logically from what came before. It's not that it's impossible to write a story where two characters that are roughly similar to Cloud and Aerith fall in love, get separated by death, and where the Cloud character mourns and pines for her after she's gone. The problem comes when you add in Tifa, Zack, and all the other context and details of the story. Consider Zack, if we take the concept of Zack as it relates to Cloud and Aeriths relationship and boil it down to the essentials we could see it as a story about a girl falling in love with a boy because he's channeling the spirit of her dead ex, the main internal conflict the characters need to overcome could then be the question of whether these feelings are true, or whether they are just the shadow of her feelings for the old boyfriend. On the surface, this premise works as the basis of a story. The problem lies in the execution. If you write such a story there are a few things you can and cannot do. For one, you have to make this love exceptionally obvious, you can't tell a story about whether or not feelings are true if you never even get to establishing the feelings in the first place. One of the key things you need to do for this is establish the two characters central importance to the others internal emotional arcs. The first thing you DON'T do is establish a second female character and have Clouds emotional arc revolve mainly around her. If you want to tell a story where Tifa and Clouds relationship turns out to just be friendship, while Aerith and Cloud turns out to be love, then you show the scenes establishing that. However, whenever Cleriths argue for a story like this they have to assert that Cloud no longer loving Tifa is just something that happened off-screen and is never mentioned. But if this were true, this would be extremely important to show. So again, if this is the story, then this is bad direction, aka, storytelling. Scene choices matter, if your story requires you to assume that the scenes you're shown aren't important, and that the crucial bits have to be imagined to happen of screen, then that's bad writing. And the reason you can't suddenly do it now, 25 years later, is

because of a thing called "set-up". Even if they were to change to story to suddenly direct it as such now, it would constitute a drastic change of direction, which means the larger 2-decade long story we've been told is no longer a single coherent whole. If the story in remake is that Cloud always loved Aerith, then why wasn't the ground work for that lain 25 years ago? If you want to say that the story is about Cloud loving Aerith, and ending up with her eventually, then you can't have Cloud not speak her name for the second half of the original game, and devote that time completely to establishing port-mortem that Cloud wasn't himself while with Aerith, and that his true self has deeply ingrained feelings towards another woman. And not some minor character who exists only as a plot-device, some fake hurdle designed to try to raise some fake tension, but Tifa, a character who is routinely established to be the "heroine" of the game, someone of equal importance to Aerith who cared for Cloud while he was in a coma, whose history with Cloud started his internal character arc, whose history with Cloud resolved his internal character arc, and who lives with Cloud 2 years later.

And the same thing goes for Zack, it was possible to write him as negligible when it was just FFVII, if you ignored the addition of Tifa and JUST focused on the Zack element as a side character. But the addition of Tifa and the existence of Crisis Core cause the narrative to become disjointed when trying to view it as a single story. This is why people so often want you to ignore Crisis Core, because they understand that if a conclusion of a story is that Zacks role isn't that important, then why did your story spend an entire game cementing the importance of Zack? One of the things I hear most from Cleriths is "why couldn't Cloud just get over his childhood crush on Tifa and fall in love with Aerith? It happens in real life" , or some other variation of "why couldn't this happen?" But this shows the problem with how they want the story to go, because stories aren't real life. Anything CAN happen in a story, but not anything should. Stories have a concept called " checkovs gun", if a gun is introduced into a story in the first act, it has to be fired somewhere down the line. If the gun turns out to not have a role in the story, why was it there? But the same thing doesn't apply in real life, in real life, chekovs guns almost never fire, with few exceptions, real life is a bad guide to how to write stories. Stories written like real life, generally suck. If characters in stories behaved like characters in real life, half their lines would be "uhhhhh", and half the scenes would be them sitting on the couch having meaningless unrelated events happen.

The entire flow, pacing, and sequence of events is wrong in a Clerith version of this story. In order to sell the idea that FFVII is a story about Aerith and Cloud getting together you first have to sell the idea that all these plot threats concerning Tifa essentially don't matter. But if they don't matter, then why are they there? What purpose do they serve? What purpose does Tifa serve? Or Zack? In order to "fix" their preferred interpretation, Cleriths need to get around this problem, which causes them to have to re-interpret everything that happens and twist it in order to create the appearance of a coherent story. This requires them to resort to minimizing characters, character assassinating characters, and generally misrepresenting everything that happens. I think there is no bigger indication of why Cloud and Aerith getting together would suck as a story than looking at how the people who propose this version of the story look at Cloud and Tifa as characters. What follows are some excerpts from the dumbest person I've ever debated.

This went on for over 200 replies, this is not a mentally sound interpretation of the story, but this is what you need to believe in order to get the Aerith/Cloud love story to work. You're forced to minimize Tifa and her importance to the story, and you need to demonize Cloud. So basically you have two options here, you either have to say "all this stuff with Tifa and Zack, doesn't matter", all their scenes, all those plot threats, they all aren't a part of the larger story being told and ultimately amount to nothing. Or two, you remove all those scenes or rewrite them to instead focus on Cloud and Aerith. And both those approaches suffer from the same basic problem, they're both effectively going "screw everything, all that matters is Cloud and Aerith". Which brings me back to my earlier point. If your story is pushing everything aside in order to hype up the main character, you're not writing a good ensemble story, you're writing a bad fan-fiction. This is the writing people HATE. Cloud is no longer a sad but likable character with complex motivations and feelings who wasn't as important as he thought he was, no, he's cliche self-insert main character that the world revolves around, who every girl genuinely loves regardless of whether or not it makes sense, even though he's a complete asshole who abandons children and takes advantage of women just because he's "lovesick". No other man could ever compare, a week with him braindamaged and you forget all about the man you pined after for 5 years. Aerith is not compassionate to a man who blames himself for his failings and thinks he'd do more harm than good, she's compassionate to a piece of human filth who refuses to go save children because he doesn't care about them. She's not just a girl with a big destiny and a tragic fate, no, the universe itself resets to make sure she gets laid. Tifa isn't a powerful woman who devotedly supports the man she loves through his darkest hours, instead she's a weak unimportant doormat without self-respect who even in 2 decades could not measure up to a week with Aerith. Zacks connection with Cloud doesn't come with complex implications about Aeriths feelings, Zack never really mattered, his entire story of getting back to her? Doesn't matter, it only exists to show how much Aerith must love Cloud to choose him over Zack. The entire lifestream reveal concerning Cloud? Doesn't matter, nothing matters, it's in the past. The central reveal of the story isn't important because Clouds true self suddenly likes Aerith now.....good writing. etc, etc, etc. Where Aerith was once a part of an ensemble cast, the heroine of the external plot, tasked with saving the world through her powers as an ancient, while Tifa as the equally important heroine of the internal plot saves Clouds through their shared feelings, now everything instead revolves around Aerith, and the other characters only exist in service to her, not as characters in their own right, but only to make sure she and Cloud gets together, like every hated mary-sue in history. The pain of her death? Gone, the impact and nuance of the story? Gone. Literally everything that made FFVII special? Gone. And concerning the small, even the little details would no longer be coherent, Cetras thematically guide people to the promised land, note: "GUIDE", but now Aerith would suddenly be the promised land herself. The through-line of Cetras "returning to the planet"? Gone, if Aerith doesn't die that doesn't link to the story anymore at all. Tifa's bar being the 7th heaven, aka, the final heaven, aka, the promised land where Aerith guides Cloud to? Suddenly a meaningless name. Tifa's last name "lockhart" being a direct hint towards the "tender feelings locked up inside Clouds hart"? Completely trivial, the feelings weren't that important to the story. And I could go on for hours, every aspect of FFVII, from small to large, would be fundamentally poisoned if Cloud ends up with Aerith.

I could rewrite the story to make it work, but that's the point, then you'd be rewriting the story in order to diminish every other character and story in favor of Cloud and Aerith. Which brings us back to it becoming a horrible fan-fiction where no one and nothing matters except Cloud and Aerith. It's ok to write unimportant characters, it's not ok to make your important characters unimportant in retrospect in order to wank off another character. Thanks for asking.