#like gw just forgot they exist

[matrim-cauthons-hat]

have the leagues of votann gotten any lore outside of their own codex yet? like, idk, a book, or at least mentioned in some other faction's story?

[fireemblems24]

Golden Wildfire Ch 12

My thoughts below. So, about Claude . . .

MAIN STORY

Please just tell me I don't have to kill Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain, Rodrigue, Annette, Gustave, Mercedes, Dedue, or Dimitri :(

Oh, Arval. Forgot about all of that lamo.

Are we circling back to TWSITD and the origins of Shez's powers? It really hasn't played any role in GW so far. In AG, Shez brings it up all the time (with Dimitri always saying it doesn't matter) and in SB the whole "we only promoted you bc we don't trust your power, sorry now we do" thing.

Nadar . . . doesn't want us to call off the attack. He's really a bloodthirsty jerk, isn't he?

Is Claude JUST now figuring out that taking out the Kingdom is a bad idea for the Alliance?

At least Claude's not stupid enough to not realize Edelgard won't take over the Alliance next. Begs the question then, why?

That's what I mean. This is all potentially interesting, I just think Claude's plans are all really stupid.

So, Claude sided with the Empire because he hates the church that much and actually believes all that shit? Or does he really think Edelgard will stop her war when Rhea's dead? (because she definitely does not in Houses when Rhea's captured in her prisons)

I DO like this for Dimitri though. I'm REALLY curious to see what he does. Is it too much to hope that he'll dump the church to rescue his people from war?

IDK, I just love the idea of a Dimitri willing to sacrifice anything - even his sense of right and wrong (since leaving Rhea to die when all she's done is help him IS wrong) to spare his people pain.

But I'm predicting he'll be too stubborn or not trust Claude or Sylvain furious at his father's death will ruin it

But it's also really cool to see Dimitri kinda backed into a corner with no "good" way out.

I can forgive Hopes giving Edelgard a boring af plot, writing Claude like a moron, and making me kill Blue Lions members, but if they miswrite Dimitri here (or Sylvain, kinda worried about that too tbh), I'm really going to be pissed

Also, like if Claude's plan is really just to gank Rhea to stop Edelgard's rampage, that means he really did all this twisting around just to try and stop one woman's murder rampage - why not just, like, take her out? If this is all really about the least death possible, isn't assassinating Edelgard the fastest way to keep more people from dying?

God, please, please, please have Dimitri dump Rhea to spare his people (I'd feel awful for Rhea, but I really, really hope Dimitri proves to be someone who would spare his people any pain, even at the expense of himself - when he's sane at least lamo).

On the flip side, I'm dying to play GW. It's plot may not make any sense and my opinion of Claude has tanked, but you can't say it's not entertaining.

LORENZ & LEONIE B SUPPORT

Kinda sad they only go to B. They were cute together in Houses. Seems some of the ships got turned up to 11 and others got dialed down.

Lorenz is contemplating his existence in a world where commoners don't rely on the nobility.

He's struggling to see from the commoner's POV, so he wants a commoner to serve as an advisor. Honestly, Lorenz, pretty good call.

The way Lorenz talks about Leonie and her choices, it makes it sound like history was trending towards commoners and nobles not being so rigid without Edelgard doing anything.

Leonie turns down Lorenz's offer because she wants to be a mercenary.

LORENZ & MARIANNE A SUPPORT

Lorenz wakes up after getting injured. Marianne thinks it's her fault, which I saw coming.

Lorenz thought he imagined Marianne asking for help, but she actually did.

Marianne realizes she wanted to live, hence why she called for help. So she's feeling guilty that the end result is Lorenz got hurt.

Lorenz is encouraging and is happy Marianne opened up to him.

Honestly, a better support for him than a lot of the Hopes ones.

CAMP/SIDE MAPS

Balthus is . . . really hung up on the idea of wrestling Dimitri, isn't he?

So some NPC talked about how the Kingdom is getting attacked on all fronts. I can't be the only one who finds it amusing that Dimitri with his smaller army and surrounded by enemies is doing a better job than Edelgard with her massive one lol.

When Hapi proves way smarter than Claude, knowing how massively stupid Claude's plan of "let's kill everyone they love and then force whoever is left over to listen to us! I'm sure they'll be thrilled." Hapi's like, eh, not sure this will work.

Man, Ashe is just miserable when you recruit him. I do find it kind of heartwarming in a weird way how miserable all the recruitable Lions end up being (even in Houses, moreso than the other houses at least). Ashe and Felix taking the cake, but Mercedes was regretting her life choices the last SB chapter too.

Aww, Yuri is worried about Ashe and finds Claude cruel for forcing him to fight against the Kingdom.

Holy shit, Shez really spitting facts to Claude's face, telling him his plan is a giant disaster (Dimitri won't fall for intimidation tactics, and Edelgard won't stop attacking people even after she runs out of excuses.) As insufferable as all of the Golden Deer are in this game, at least we've got stuff like this pointing out how cruel and stupid they're being.

Lamo, take only one unit into the map, as if that's a challenge. I literally only use Lorenz. This'll be easy in AG too bc Dimitri's such a beast. Dreading it in SB though.

Annette is still alive here at least :( And Rodrigue. And Gustave. (we're with the Blue Lions discussing Claude being ... GW!Claude)

Sylvain thinks Claude's an idiot lol. Dimitri and Sylvain are sussing him out.

I love how Dimitri is the only character who's goal is to avoid bloodshed among the lords. The other two are, uh, yeah.

Oh.... is Dimitri actually going to run over the church? Like I wanted? When Dimitri's the best character in GW lol.

Dimitri looking out for Sylvain, knowing how angry he is with Claude.

I had to fight Ingrid :(

SHEZ & LYSITHEA A SUPPORT

Lysithea catches Shez assuring a younger girl that she doesn't seem like a child, but an adult.

Predictably, Lysithea gets angry, because it's Lysithea, but to be fair, she's upset because Shez said the same thing and thinks Shez is being insencere.

Shez admits that it's not cool, what she did, but she's bad at advice and keeps using the same lines she's learned from stories lamo. I love Shez.

Honestly, Lysithea is kinda right to get mad here, at least I get it unlike some of the times with her.

Lamo, Shez can borrow another line from a story. I'm gonna piss her off bc I can lol.

Lysithea buys it. I wonder if it's the same line lol.

SHEZ & SHAMIR C

Having mercenary talk. I had Shez choose to ask for help. Shamir offered once she's free.

Shez comments how mature Shamir is. Shamir comments how relaxed Shez is (but it's a positive thing, not like a judgment).

They bond over having lost trusted allies, including the ones at the beginning for Shez.

Kinda boring, but honestly these two are almost too well matched, like not enough tension and just too normal lol

LYSITHEA & HILDA A

Hilda wants to gossip, but Lysithea only goes on about how awesome Holst is, so she's not interested.

She thinks he should be more careful as head of household, but Lysithea points out that he has no choice.

Hilda is worried who Holst is married. There's an ick here where Lysithea thinks that's because he's too focused on Hilda.

Hilda just talks about who Lysithea might marry, which, yeah...

Hilda offers to help Lystheia out, and some, um, implications that she'll be Lysthesia's new family - she says big sister, but there's def some ship teasing

They made Hilda really flirt with all the girls this time lol

CLAUDE & HAPI B

Hapi finds Claude easier to talk to than Edelgard and Dimitri.

Props to Hapi for telling Claude not to unload his trauma on her.

Hapi's like if you're bitching, why not just quit? Lamo.

Hapi says she'll support him.

MARIANNE & BERNADETTA A

Honestly don't remember if I've seen this in SB already or not.

Bernie likes Marianne's painting, but not her own. This is true vice versa, because of course it is.

Marianne compliments Bernie's horsemanship.

Two shy girls compliment each other, then get shy.

Then Bernie asks what Marianne wants to do after the war and Marianne becomes a Disney princess, wanting to sit in the woods with animals. Bernie wants to finish a story. Honestly, both girls picked amazing options I too want.

Bernie's story is about Marianne lamo. But Marianne isn't mad, she just wants to read it.

I really find their friendship cute, ngl.

Also, Bernie supports Dimitri, so there's no way she's NOT writing fanfic about his life because it's a never drying well there.

LORENZ & RAPHAEL C

Lorenz asks Raphael why he didn't just stay at his family's inn instead and joined the war instead

Raphael wants to keep his family safe, and thinks that following Claude will bring peace to the world (lamo) so that's why

Lorenz is more grounded, saying that all he's doing is exposing his family to the dangers of war

Which, Lorenz isn't wrong, but he also starts prattles more about nobility need to do everything and commoners nothing

But like, does Lorenz really think you can make an army out of nobles only, because, like, that just doesn't happen

Raphael is touched lamo, thinking Lorenz is concerned

Raphael just challenges him to a muscles competition

It is amusing to see Lorenz try to give his spiel and Raphael just keeps doing his own thing

Like ALL of Lorenz's supports in this game is this though, he's more repetitive than Bernedetta at this point

LORENZ & CONSTANCE A

Lorenz is bragging about himself, Constance is in the sun so she's . . . not

You know, I was thinking just how insufferable Lorenz would be in my playthrough because he's like 10 levels ahead of everyone, a god on the battlefield, always MVP - he like trounces everyone so he's be bragging and he'd be right - I wish Claude had to deal with this, watching Lorenz win the war for him and have to put up with Lorenz being Lorenz over it

They overdid it a bit with her sunshine personality - like Dimitri and Marianne are very realistic about a lack of self-worth, but Constance just comes across like a joke (and maybe that's all she's supposed to be)

Poor Lorenz is just confused and wants the normal Constance

I do have a soft spot for when male characters are desperate for the snotty side of a female character to come back (like, really just talking about Rutger and Clarine)

This is going on for too long though without any change

LYSITHEA & LEONIE B

Lysithea mistook a mercenary Leonie talked to for a bandit

But he's just someone who loot dead bodies on battlefields

I always found that kind of distasteful

Lysithea feels torn because she wants to learn about commoners more, but doesn't seem comfortable talking to people who steal coins off dead people, which same

Lysithea of course wants to know about commoner sweets

And Leonie talks about how they can't afford noble treats and likes commoner snacks (hopefully different from Chole's folk food lamo)

SHEZ & YURI C

Shez is snooping on Yuri's letter. I love that Shez is a snoop.

Yuri's pissed though, lamo. He threatens Shez's life though. That's a bit . . . much.

I'm going to pretend I didn't read it lol.

OMG YURI HAS A MOM. SOMEONE IN THIS GAME HAS A MOM.

She's ill so he was visiting her.

He's a bit needlessly sometimes.

IGNATZ & LYSITHEA B

Lysithea thinks there's something wrong with Ignatz.

She guesses right that he's unhappy, but guesses wrong that he wishes he ran his father's company instead of his brother.

He slips up that he admits he's only a knight to please his family.

Awww, Lysithea offers Ignatz the opportunity to live in Ordelia territory and does whatever he wants to afterwords.

She was actually really sweet in this support.

Also, anyone else realize that Ignatz is proof that the church/crests/inheritance isn't the one forcing children to do things they don't want to? It's human greed?

CLAUDE & HAPI A

Claude left a meeting because he was bored of people arguing. Hapi also left a meeting.

Oh, interesting, Hapi asks Claude if he would walk away if someone could take his place. Claude says no that he wants to get a lot done and can't let anyone else do it. So a really uninteresting answer.

LEONIE & LINHARDT B

Linhardt got a gift he doesn't want so he offered it to Leonie.

Lamo, Linhardt forgot the meeting he set up with Leonie.

He gives her a notebook already full, so she wants to give him something in return.

She gives him a rock that turns out to be part of an ancient relic and he gets thrilled.

Linhardt comes to the conclusion that they value the complete opposite things, but they decides they're actually not a special pairing lamo.

MAIN BATTLE

Ugh, not looking forward to this.

Wow, imagine that, the Kingdom isn't bringing them a welcoming party. Like, did Shez really expect that?

They're a bunch of psychos. They're all excited to go kill people because they're strong warriors.

"Let's see if a crushing defeat can get through Dimitri's thick skull." Because you like tried talking with him so many times before???

What is Claude smoking? He's never tried anything but bloodshed of innocent Kingdom people to accomplish anything in this route?

I see what people mean when they say this is one of the most unlikeable casts ever.

Gustave's middle name is Eddie. Not Edward. Eddie. Suffering through GW is worth knowing that.

Also, fuck, I don't want to fight Annette and Gustave, who are only defending their home.

Thank fuck, Annette retreated. Having SB flashbacks where I had to kill Annette. Annette.

And thank God that Gustave did too.

On the flip side, I sort of wish GW wasn't so wish-washy and they all died. At least SB has the guts to show there's consequences for your character's actions. But GW like to pretend only Annette and Gustave matter and it'll be ok to slaughter thousands of low born people of Faerghus every single level because they're not named.

Dimitri evacuated his citizens. I think he's literally the only lord who did that lamo. (I remember distinctly Edelgard not doing that in VW, and I don't think Claude did in CF or AM? Could be wrong about Claude).

FUCK. Dedue. If he doesn't retreat, I swear to God I can't finish this.

Oh, God, not Sylvain too.

Wait, what the fuck, Claude. His "defense" against Sylvain accusing (rightly so) Claude of invading his home and murdering his parents is that "we're all risking our lives here." I guess Faerghus is 2-for-2 whenever someone is actually allowed to criticize people who are invading them.

At least Sylvain retreated.

Dimitri appeared to defend Faerghus. I swear whoever wrote this game didn't care at all about the Golden Deer.

Oh, a cut scene. Also pretty sure Shez called Dimitri Faerghus' strongest soldier.

Well, at least Dimitri being an utter and complete badass in this game continues since Claude admitted that he could never win against him. And he needed Hilda and Lorenz to just push him back, not even defeat him.

Oh, great, more backtracking. Claude has to retreat. Does this mean I have to fight Dimitri again?

You're right, Hilda, it's the same thing all over again. God, this gets old.

It would be funny if it was the Empire, but it's probably just TWSITD. It's pretty funny Claude is the one who learns the least in Hopes vs Houses.

At least Annette and Sylvain are still alive.

Gotta love also how damn badass Faerghus is in general, fighting a 3-way battle and not losing.

Dedue is here too, my beloved.

I love seeing Claude taking another L and having to retreat again.

xxx

[anabon3s]

Starting a blog: AUGUST 23

My names Lottie, I’m 20 years old and as in my first post I’m new to tumblr but not 3D!!

(I’ll pin this post)

For tumblr legal purposes

I am not PRO A4A, AGAINST RECOVEY or FAT-PHOBIC!!!!

Read or don’t read, follow or don’t follow, scroll on or don’t scroll on. BUT please don’t report, PLEASE PLEASE!!!! BLOCK me if you don’t like what I feel the need to share. THIS IS WHO I AM and this is my only outlet to people who understand and feel how I feel with no judgment or hesitation to help me feel less alone in this dark and lonely illness.

About me 😊

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I am 20 and relapsing for the 100th time through this bumpy gravel road (not really but it’s been on and off). I first got diagnosed when I was 14 and have had the best ups and downs of my life so far on it. I hate being ana (life is fucked up on this road and really we all know it deep down) but weirdly it is the only comfort I have now… earlier on this year (feb/March it’s unclear even to me) I relapsed into the worst state I’ve been in since I first got diagnosed.

Because I was seeing a GP for an already existing health condition since I was 12yo, I got “caught” pretty early on. Little to my knowledge, not so lucky for me (or lucky, you choose) my GP was “specialised” in 3D’s… ffs 🤦‍♀️

Since my diagnosis (being a minor family got involved against my choices early on). My family have been so hit and miss with holding me accountable, sometimes nothing can slip through the cracks for weeks and others I feel like they just “forgot” , “gave up” or “just don’t give a fuck” for literally months… BUT they hold me accountable to going to my GP appointments REGULARLY no matter what my weight or physical/mental health is like at the time 🙄

STATS:

HEIGHT: 156cm (5.1ft)

SW: 59kg (130lbs)

CW: 40kg (88lbs)

GW: 34kg (75lbs)

I’ve been through the highs and the lows of this illness (physically, weight wise and emotionally) I promise, I understand pretty much all sides and angles of it, most likely I’ve been through them my self :(

This is the long way of saying, I am open to sharing my journey from here, it is a lonely, dark journey a lot of us have not voluntarily taken part of but are stuck in for an unknown chunk of time for our lives!!!

I am always open for messages, chats, rants, questions or friendships! Just shoot the text and I’ll reply :)

[hapigairu]

Lysithea's parents watching her enable Ionius 2.0 in GW: >:c

:)))

Seriously though, there is so much wrong with this subplot.

First of all, the reasons as to why all of this happens. Claude decides to change Leicester's political system and becomes its first king, meaning that the spirit in which the Alliance was founded has been destroyed. Personally, I could have accepted a slight change that could give the leader of the Alliance full executive powers in wartime in their Constitution (or whatever legal text they have) or just as a new law. You could even have something like this (it's just a quick idea, and I'm no jurist so of course it's not well-written at all): "Art. 1: The leader of the Leicester Alliance shall be provided with all executive powers during wartime so as to not delay any strategic decisions. Art. 2: Upon the return of peaceful times, provided that the Leicester Alliance is victorious, our leader shall be subjected to a vote of approval in which all noble Houses but that of our leader shall participate. Art. 3: Should a majority of noble Houses vote in disfavour of our leader, they shall cede their position to the noble House that shall be appointed by a vote thereafter." Because, yeah, I get that having to debate with the roundtable during a war is far from ideal, but going "that's a nice system you have there... would be a shame if someone changed it completely and gave minor lords even less of a say"... is not okay.

Add to that the fact that these three minor Houses are dealt with in side-maps and never talked about ever again by Claude and his circus because invading the Kingdom from the East on behalf of Edelbulldozer is sooo much more important and interesting /s. We don't even know what happens to them exactly IIRC? Did they "just" take a beating but keep their territories? Were their territories given to another House? Who knows... The only thing that sets Claude above Ionius is that he didn't send Agarthans to these Houses, but... 1) of course, he couldn't because he doesn't know of their existence and 2) that's such a low bar it's basically buried in the ground. And yes, I find it really hard to believe Lysithea's parents would be a-okay with Claude's actions and her own leniency about all this. But they don't have names let alone sprites so who cares. Also, I could understand Lysithea not having too much of an impact in Houses, because of the permadeath option. But in Hopes? Sure, you have permadeath as well, but it works quite differently, right? If, say, Felix dies during a mission, it's game over instead of him disappearing forever, yeah? Why couldn't they do that with Lysithea and have her actively challenge Claude because of what happened to her? Oh, wait. I forgot Hopes was averse to criticising Claude or Edelgard and that GW's appeal was cute girls. My bad.

[zenosanalytic]

Paintbrush, PlasGlue, and Holy Clippers: Part >:::) : Finishing and Next Project

Ok so I forgot to mention another step before the varnish: APPLYING WATER TRANSFERS and PAINTING DECALS! This shouldn't take too long

ok so, again, this is particularly optional stuff, but Practice etc etc etc.

Water Transfers are little super-thin water-activated stickers that allow you to(theoretically) get the look of super-clean, super-fine symbols on your models without having the super-humanly fine motor control needed to create them by hand. I ONCE AGAIN did not take pictures of this process but bscl: Anything GW sells comes with a little sheet of these transfers, and they also sell supplements of subfaction-specific ones if you dont want to play whatever the Posterchild for a particular faction is(tho some, like the Eldar, are small enough that their transfer sheets MAY include everything you need, idk as I havent bought Eldar minis yet) A transfer sheet looks like this(I've already cut some out, youll see)

The process has lots of steps, but it's pretty straight forward. First, you paint the part of the minis you want to stick the decals on with a THIN NON GLOOPY layer of varnish(GW recommends their gloss varnish, 'Ard Coat, but I dont have that so I just used their matte, Stormshield). Varnish doesn't fully cure for about a day but an hour of drying time is fine for this. Then, you cut out the transfer you want, I used the tactical squad decal which is a little arrow, using whatever method you think best(I used my hobbyknife). Then you put the transfer on a paper towel or tissue and apply a goodly amount of water to it(I used my brush, dabbing it around 4 or 5 times, but if you have a dropper around that's perfect for this), and let it sit for about 30 seconds. While waiting, you wet the area of the mini you want to put the transfer on. Now poke gently at the transfer with your brush; if it moves then it's ready and if it doesnt, apply some more water and do some more waiting.

When it's ready, you pick it up with some tweezer, hold it near the area you're transferring it to, and gently prod it off the paper and onto that area with the brush. It doesn't need to be properly oriented right away; as long as the transfer and area remain wet you can fiddle with it, you have literally all the time you'd like to place it. Once its on you sort of just poke it into the orientation you want and, once you're satisfied, take your tissue/towel, dab away the remaining water, and press the transfer flat for a few seconds. Give it a few to dry, then apply another thin layer of MATTE varnish(unless you're looking for a glossy finish on the shoulders, I guess) to lock it down and you're done!

Now a problem with transfers is them bunching up, or getting bubbles stuck underneath them. There ARE chemical solutions to this, custom transfer mediums you can buy, but there are more reasonable workarounds. During the cutting phase, if you'll score empty areas of the transfer, for instance down the middle of an Ultra symbol or in the negative space made by the angles in the decal, this will reduce the pressures on it during transfer, create joints for it to bend at, and breaks in the transfer for air to escape through. Unfortunately I didn't find a vid explaining that until AFTER doing my transfers, so they may look a bit jank XD XD

ok so: Painting decals. All Space Marine chapters/legions have their own Heraldry, and canonically they include these on their pauldrons, with the other holding their squad designation. My problem is: The Nova Paladins aren't a canon Space Marine type, so no transfers for it exist. Again I COULD have just left the other shoulder blank but I didn't want to, so I painted a symbol on instead. I have a series of symbols of the NPs in me Noggin', but I went with a Circle surrounded by four triangles pointing outward at the cardinal points, symbolizing an exploding star, painted in Vallejo white.

And I forgot to take pics of BOTH pauldrons before applying the varnish -___- SO! Here are the finished models three days hence, with two layers of varnish each given a day to dry, and the pauldron heraldry Complete

As you can see, some bubbles here and there, but not bad for a first go. I'm also Pretty Ok with the Chapter/Legion Mark, tho I'd like to get better at painting tiny details like this; I tried making a stencil but I couldnt really get it small enough X| X|

Varnishing itself is pretty easy: I used GW/Citadel's Stormshield matte varnish, applying it with a regular #4 square-head brush. Don't let the varnish goop anywhere, and if it looks thick to you on the brush you can water it down with a palette, but I just used it from the bottle, occasionally cleaning and wetting it, and it was fine. As I said at the top, I did one coat on each model, setting them aside somewhere they could sit unmolested for a day when I finished, and then... let them sit there for a day to set before applying the second coat. If you wanted a glossy finish to certain parts of the mini you could use a gloss varnish there, but I wasn't looking for that here. I manipulated the models from their base while doing this, and plan to go back and varnish the sides of said base in future to protect ITS paintjob, but we don't need to hold up these posts for that.

So there's the Heavy Intercessors Finished! I had allot of fun with this learning experience and find the final results Acceptable ^v^ ^v^

So WHAT HAVE I LEARNED:

go piece by piece, mini to mini, to make sure I paint EVERYTHING the first time and avoid constant repainting of stuff Im not satisfied with

More Rigorous use of the Notebook to record what needs to be painted AND notes for these posts. For instance: write down the things you learn so you wont forget by the time you're ready to write your summation u_u

TAKE! PROCESS PICS!! Obvsl I wont be shooting video but there were allot of times when I forgot to document relevant steps in my hurry to do the next one, and I'd like to not do that in future

Keep my brushes wetter, keep a better eye on the amount of paint on the brush, and dont paint until I feel Steady.

Use different painting handles. Im Not A Fan of the GW one I have; it barely accommodated these Intercessors and the spring loading made it Finicky to get a model in and out, and FELT like it was always a split second from launching it into space.

Dont Varnish after basing. I found that, sometimes, little bits of flock or tuft would pull loose while I was varnishing the boots and get painted onto the model elsewhere with the varnish. If I base AFTER varnishing, this wont be an issue.

Alternatively: Experiment with doing bases differently and separately. This seems like a Big Deal, honestly. This raises the issue of priming tho. Maybe I could stick them to the paint platform with putty or tape at the feet? One option is using my hobby drill to drill holes in the feet of the minis, drill holes in the bases, clip some paper clips into teeny pegs, and use those to connect the minis until Im ready to prepare the bases, then take them off. I could also do something similar to connect the minis to painting handles, then detach them once I'm read to base. Hmmmm |:T |:T One of the painters I really like, Dana Howl, just glues the minis down with the basing paste as she applies it tho, so idk if it's THAT huge a deal. Maybe I just need to Accept My Destiny of painting the bases u_u u_u u_u

The prime I used here was too dark for the scheme I ended up using, I think. Next time I paint Nova Paladins, I think I'll try using a grey and white prime, and after that just a pure white prime. I've also heard things about PINK being a good prime for bright colors and especially yellow, so I might try a pink and white prime, or maybe just paint a bright pink onto the stuff I'll paint yellow later on a white prime.

So that's all I can remember u_u u_u

And now a teaser for my next project: ELVES!

with Sarge for scale OwO

I'll be painting these two Elf Rangers from WizKids' Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line of D&D Minis. As you can see they're about half the size of the Primaris Heavy Intercessors, so it should be Interesting. Im going to try to make this a quicker process, but we'll see how it works out. Hopefully I can start tomorrow so Seeya Then ^v^ ^v^

EDIT: OH WAIT!!!!!! I forgot to cite my sources by linking to the videos I studies for this project :3 :3 :3

HOW TO PREPARE MINIS FOR PAINTING: a step by step guide by Brushstroke Painting Guides

FUNDAMENTALS! A Complete Guide to Painting Minis from Goobertown Hobbies

How to Underpaint Miniatures: A Beginner's Guide to Sketch Style by Dana Howl

A Budget Starter Guide to Underpainting Miniatures: Hobby Basics 102 by Dana Howl

How To Paint a Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures D&D Human Fighter by TheMiniJunkie

How to Paint a Heresy Era Blood Angels Legionnaire by Duncan Rhodes

HOW TO PAINT KRONOS HEGEMONY: A Step by Step Guide by Brushstroke Painting Guides

How to Use: Citadel Technical Paints - Gemstone Paints by Warhammer(this is GW's official community youtube channel)

Citadel Colour - Transfers by Warhammer

Applying Transfers on Space Marine Shoulder Pads by Warhammer; the one I SHOULD have watched

HOW TO MAKE PATCHY GRASS BASES: A Step by Step Guide by Brushstroke Painting Guides

KEEP IT SIMPLE! Easy Basing for Miniature Skirmish Games by Dana Howl

Painting the Hoth Rebel Army by Dana Howl

Flock and Scatter How to Seal Your Miniature Bases by Geek Gaming Scenics. I didn't find this one's advice particularly useful, sadly, tho perhaps With Time I will realize it's Wisdoms u_u u_u u_u

VARNISHES ...and how to Use them Wisely by Duncan Rhodes

Goobertown, Dana Howl, Brushstroke, and Duncan Rhodes are honestly INVALUABLE resources for this hobby. Of the four Brushstroke and Howl will waste the least of your time: All are great, but Goobertown tends to ham it up a bit(which isn't BAD! and he makes up for it by rigorously indexing his videos in the load bar so you can skip around easily), and Rhodes likes to talk.

Rhodes covers EVERYTHING, but he's a really good source for advanced techniques, especially painting ones.

Brushstroke is not only a Good, super-informative miniature hobby channel, it's also a pretty decent ASMR one.

Dana is... Awesome. There's really nothing else to say that really encapsulates Her Whole Deal. Good painting advice(even if she mostly works with an airbrush which I dont), good color advice, good basic advice, good basing advice, Concise, Direct, and Hilarious.

Goobertown is an Endless source of inspiration for general Hobby tips and tricks(I am GOING to do magnets >:> Epoxy spooks me a bit tho X| X|) as well as being a great source for painting advice, spcl for beginners, AND he breaks down the science behind allot of this stuff. I owe to him my not getting a gloss varnish for this project because he proved it didn't really benefit you to do a gloss undercoat and matte overcoat, even though most ppl(like Duncan) will swear up and down it does something.

Ok: NOW Im done

[80-ursa-major]

-caro already had an established bond with elta and selphira to a lesser extent. You can even give the orchestra more screentime or hell add Sarah but no we need a completely new girl that has a bigget bond with caro, that has the entire event revolve around her and get an ssr. only silver lining is caro finally woke up and was playable. and of course i rolled her twice and wasted too much to get to caro.

-yuni, cosmos and everything about their parts in the event was trash and there was literally only one person who cared about the latter. so naturally instead of baldr or at least madl&kona they randomly have noa casually bring her back. seriously what??? do they even read their story

-remember when perci was the most popular guy and they forgot he existed and tthen brought him back but he forgot he ever liked you and then his brother got the valentines and he gives you rings in wd and seasonals and then they gave him a duo with his boytoy lmao 

-wonder how they’ll top the male swimsuit they drip feed us when last year had the other relatively popular guy finally get his and he still prefers the D(og) to D(anchou). 

-they know gw is terrible but they’ll balme players and only fix it by making female bosses show their asscrack and shove phallic objects in their tits

--absolutely nothing more disgusting that pedos who will spend every breath defending new lily or yaia because muh drawings as if they’re alien beings and not drawn because you know what real children look like and if the however dimensional version of that draws all the blood down you’re useless trash man, can’t even be recycled.

-who the fuck is icarus and ameliass and just fucking finish releasing characters from this game first

- baal-kun and nataku-san are very cool dudes and primals pals is a fun group they deserved equally great fire units to the girls so they could actually be used together

~still can’t believe san-chan got a valentines and his new postman outfit was only used in a silent montage where he went shopping and then him and bea kept cooking/brewing until cassius gave them a 5/5 review. i mean it’s good there was no luci and Cassius is literally my everything but objectively speaking it wasn’t right. 

+i still can’t believe they finally remembered pholia exists and is perfect. now remove her sister and we can talk

[randomnameless]

SB is the one where he reconnects with his family, and I do believe he has a lot of positive things to say more about the Church in Nopes even on GW, where he joins the Alliance by total coincidence(his friend lived there).

I was like "who are you talking about anon" but then I remembered !

Gotta say, "let's sack this place you worked in that basically served as an orphanage !" isn't the kind of familial bonding I'm fond of lol

The issue with gk in Nopes is how they tried to keep the lovable meme goofball but forgot how the character can't exist in a vacuum.

Like, no matter how hilarious Janaff and Ulki's banter about Tibarn is, I can't see them join Izuka's army.

Even if Ulki's sister willingly like all laguz do when they side with izuka joined Begnion's side.

But that's Nopes in a nutshell, the characters and the "plot" is so divorced from another that you wonder if this writing was made on purpose (mistake counting the number of times Supreme Leader blinked when they're invading countries) or if the devs just didn't care and flanderized characters to behave like their tea time versions bcs why not.

[nikethestatue]

so let’s break something down here because my mind is like ?????

i was reading this random thread and someone pointed out how majority of the acotar shippers for Az are gwynr*els.

now, how in the world is that logically possible? Canonly possible? there was no hint of any romance between the two in the acosf or the bonus chapter per se. now you can ship who you like but I’m m just trying to understand this by logic and numbers.

I do not know how true this is, so correct me if I am wrong but how can there be so many of them with nothing in canon to go off of? there needs to be a scientific research on this.

there is no way all these people are gwyr*el or gw*n fans because if they are claiming that we don’t know a lot about Elain, heck than what do we know or a side character who was only introduced in the most recent book? Also how well do we know Azriel outside of everyone else pov just like Elaine?

Now I want to hear your thoughts and others from the fandom that want to chime in. But here is what i think: a good majority of gwynr*els are first and foremost Elain haters/dislikers and that can only be for the following reasons plus more, give me some of yours if you can.

1. First: the read acosf as a stand alone: which still makes no sense but if someone doesn’t have the brain capacity to think wait this can’t possibly be a stand alone? How can we expect them to have the reading comprehension to pick up on all the 4 books and the novela’s foreshadowing and clear evidence that Elaine has been involved in every single aspect. Even though we don’t see her often, we still see that she does so much. How does your brain not register that? outside of ships, let’s be real for a second. This is ridiculous to me.

2 . She has more feminine traits and they want all woman to be warrior princess with a sword. apparently you are strong or exciting if you don’t sword play or ar

3. they self insert

Azriel wants Elaine and you have to be delusional to deny that lol. but moreover this whole Elaine doesn’t challenge Azriel thing sends me because first of all we don’t know them enough to assume they don’t challenge one another. But also, not everyone wants to be challenged. Have you all ever wondered why Azriel choose Elaine and not anyone else? Because maybe just because he wants peace and quiet??

Honestly I forgot where I was going with this lol but yeah I’m saying the numbers aren’t adding up. I feel like on tiktok/insta a lot of casual viewers + like, like things and move along but it’s in the polls where we see the actual numbers. for instance that whole Romeo&Juliette art send them freaking with “we refrained from voting” 😭

Sorry for the rant, but in hindsight, what I am asking is: how do these numbers make sense? How does this ship make any sense? Where are these ppl getting the nerve from?

One word answer to all your questions:

TikTok

The rise of Gwynriel directly coincides with the rise of booktok and TikTok.

Now, you can just blather on and on without anyone checking for facts. You can make up any headcanon, and if you are someone with lots of followers or convincing enough, people will simply think that you are telling the truth. That it actually happened in the books.

That's why the most common questions from newly minted Gwynriels, who've been drinking from the TikTok and Insta firehouse, is 'where is the Gwynriel book?' 'where can i read all the cute Gwynriel scenes?" 'i saw adorable art of Gwyn and Az, what scene was it?"

The answer is:

YOU CAN'T FIND IT BECAUSE IT DOESN'T EXIST.

But essentially, that's how it got started and how it spread. No other vehicle was more useful to useful idiots than TikTok.

They think that ACOSF is chockful of Gwynriel, and then, when they finally read the book, it they are very disappointed because there are no Gwynriel scenes.

They attribute 'you are the new ribbon' saying to Gwyn, even though of course it was Nesta who said it.

They think that Gwyn is walking around parading in her regifted necklace. No she isn't.

They think Azriel just about confessed his love to her, where as all he thinks about is Elain.

It's really quite sad.

But that's why you have to check your sources and your facts.

[themoomoorn]

Scarlet Blaze Salt Mine Highlights, Part 2 (Because I hit the image limit last time)

It's kind of a sad day when you're transitioning hyperfixations (Chainsaw Man and Tactics Ogre, in this case), because I'm tired of this game and I haven't even begun to cleanse by entire body with Azure Gleam. But I must!

Also I just wanted to finish this slog of a route so badly that I forgot to give away Shez's Merc Whistle. Oops.

Previous post is here.

He isn't wrong. If anything, between this and Egg reassuring Shez that no, betrayal totes wasn't gonna happen, this just reinforces the fact that Egg doesn't respect Claude at all.

Still, big oomph on Claude because his dreams don't even exist/make sense in this game.

Here lies the Tabletop Demon.

Kind of poetic/ironic that he's the only one who can truly die, while poor Dimitri, who gets dragged around like a wet cat in Houses, will always survive in this game. Egg mostly does, if you count her getting subjugated to the director's fantasies lobotomized in Azure Gleam as "surviving."

"Now what that ambition is, I simply do not know, but I will boldly assume it had to do with using bibles as toilet paper."

No Lies Detected(tm)

Sothis attempts to salvage this trainwreck with a quick and miserable death, but by plot dictation, she sadly fails.

Byleth's death here is on par with Dimitri's on Verdant Wind in how unceremonious and cruel it is. Devs, are you sure you're not actually mad at how popular Byleth is? Especially the one with the 200% Bustline Modifier?

We Stan a megalomaniac /s

The Agarthans never got to the Holy Tomb or the Holy Mausoleum in this game, and here we get the idea of the kind of crap Houses!Edelgard condoned.

Really, the one thing Rhea did wrong was not using the Aurora Breath on Edelgard during her coronation.

Like

Even now, Rhea knows Agartha is the true enemy here?????? Like back in Chapter...4?????

But no, per the Edelgard/Balthus Support, Edelgard started the war anyway, she knows that she's benefitting from the same megalomaniacs that have their hands in the Empire's politics, and she had farfetched history spoon-fed to her. She doesn't care. She still wants total power.

Bruh

Monica is talking about killing Thales, btw. Peak wlw representation, everyone /s

Linhardt is abhorrent.

Shez DGAF about anything, least of all on this route. But I suppose it's fine because they're not a weird nepotism teacher, or whatever.

So here's something I've noticed: Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire share several near-identical scenarios (the most obvious being the Chapter where Ordelia needs to be pacified), CGs (the still of Egg and Clyde shaking hands), and even video cutscenes (Rhea transforming into the Immaculate one; only the background is changed). GW!Claude knocks of a number of Edelgard's rhetoric and dialogue ("My hands are covered in blood and will never be clean again, feel bad for me uwu") and now we have a hollow knockoff of something poignant Claude says to Byleth on Verdant Wind.

There's also the general fact that because the Houses version of Claude ultimately became more heroic than intended, and because they had already delayed the game three times, they had Verdant Wind knock off most of Silver Snow...which is the default route for the Black Eagles.

There is a quasi-tumbleweedy-incestual bond between these two characters/routes. They fold into one another like brain proteins tangling on each other. This is not the case for Azure Moon (bar maps being shared, and even then the context differs drastically) and even more so for Azure Gleam.

Point is, I'm a Claude stan, but at this point, I feel like the Blue Lions route should be the canon one.

Local vampire simp and local masochistic noble boldly state their totally normal relationship with one another. I think I liked the Houses/Ending Card version more, because their bond made Edelgard jealous.

I did this strategy over the other two and it did absolutely nothing, by the way.

"ShE dOeSnT cArE aBoUt HiM" blah blah blah, we get it, you refuse to read the text and can't get over that Cyril and Claude are mostly incompatible when it comes to bonding.

I found a Khaloonie discover the flavor text for Seiros Tea (it's tea from southern Almyra and it got slapped with an in-universe localized name) and flipping out over it recently, funnily enough. Houses has been out for three years (as of this post) now, and you've only read that text recently???

"My daddy had stake over ruling the whole continent single-handedly first, you cut the line!"

Sothis please take the wheel -

Can confirm, they literally do almost nothing while Thales and Rhea tumble over that bridge. Very "Wormy Episode of Spongebob" energy right here.

"BUT SHE ENDED THE WAR FASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" /s

Good job Shez, you broke it.

The ending animation of the Crests rotating like planets changes depending on which route you picked, as that land's "native" Crests are what's displayed. Since the Empire's "native" Crests are that of the Four Saints (plus the Apostles Noa and Timotheos if you want to get technical), you get to bask in a kiddie pool of irony.

In the end, the standom's support of the Empire is akin to how many fans, from its inception in 1979, support the Empire of Zeon and factions similar to it across the Gundam franchise, I feel. Shame that Adrestia isn't as well-crafted as Zeon.

Speaking of worldbuilding, I suspect that there's a weird sort of hatred at how Faerghus is the most well-built (in a worldbuilding sense) of the three lands. This is pretty much proven by its first four chapters alone (having played the demo), and I can already tell I'm gonna be in for at least a decent time once I get to Gleam.

To cap off this shit-cake, here's what I find to be a pretty apt representation of how Edelgard is viewed/turned into during Azure Gleam's ending:

[signetxego]

The twst dorm leaders playing gbf, purely for meme purposes, something i spent too much time on. below the cut for long post.

Riddle

⁃ Rank 101

⁃ Plays casually but consistently, riddle is a perfectionist and wants to make his teams good, but he’s also realistic and pragmatic. He knows he’s a busy guy, and can’t join trains all day to bust up all his grids at once

⁃ The type to focus on one team at a time based on a predetermined order. Probably not in a crew (if he is, it’s just him, Cater and some of Cater’s friends) so he doesn’t worry about guild wars and building his teams based on that.

⁃ f2p, he’s responsible with his money. probably mains light since he likes the comfort of a high hp pool + stamina, and the typical light play style is reliable and safe.

⁃ Has only recruited one eternal—funf. Her voice probably drives him up the wall, but he likes the security of her heals to his light team. Is planning on 5*ing her!

⁃ favourite class is doctor. Practical, and he won’t admit it but sexy as fuck

⁃ He plays for the gameplay rather than the story/characters, the one exception is sandalphon, who he is incredibly fond of!!! he reads stories if the plot interests him, however, and if he’s got some spare time.

Leona

⁃ Rank 1

⁃ Leona doesn’t play he’s in it like a collecting game and so ruggie can use his randomly lucksacked mlb shiva as a support summon

⁃ like vil, plays on roulette season

⁃ reads some stories, but on ruggies account bc he cba to unlock them himself

⁃ ruggie made a joke about leona being percival ‘if he lost his sense of honour’ which made leona go and read the dragon knights stories

⁃ bruh he fucking stans percy so hard after reading between frost and flame but he won’t admit it

⁃ frequently throws money at the game just because he feels like pulling in gacha. ruggie is crying. leona don’t buy the scam star draw set you don’t even play the game please

⁃ is always really lucky in gacha

Azul

⁃ Rank 200

⁃ Only started playing recently, but was determined to catch up to Idia and become the best player so he got the twins and some poor unfortunate souls to help him grind and pay his way to instant victory

⁃ Doesn’t care for the plot, is purely driven by competition and wanting to have the best grids at any given time. Mains water for the Octavinelle Aesthetic and bitches about having to play the summer cagliostro crit setup to compete with other elements.

⁃ Likes quatre because they are both driven purely by spite and revenge, and is desperate for him to get a rebalance so he can run him w/ a clear conscience

⁃ Also likes Six, probably cried like a bitchboy during seeds of redemption which is to this date the only story he has read but you didn’t hear it from me

⁃ In a crew with idia and is waiting to overthrow him as captain

⁃ Has a weird spreadsheet showing exactly when to cast a status effect for it to land with the highest success that’s virtually unreadable to anyone aside from him

⁃ Plays chaos ruler as default bc he thinks it looks cool

⁃ sparks for the weapon rather than the character

⁃ hates farming for mats and gets the twins/his slaves to do his dailies when he’s busy a lot of the time god i wish i had slaves to farm ubaha host mats for me rn

Kalim

⁃ Rank 50 but his grids are the best of anyone in the game bc haha money go brrrr

⁃ He is cursed with bad gacha luck, and managed to deck himself out with the sexiest primal grid possible (puts idia’s to shame) thanks to jamils help, and a lot of money spent on trying to get Vikala’s ssr (before realising the spark function existed...)

⁃ He doesn’t favour any element, because he likes all the characters! He has a soft spot for Anila and Vikala though, since they’re so adorable and fun!

⁃ Doesn’t play seriously and mostly just reads the stories, idia wants to cry when he sees his fire grid with four flb ixabas going to waste

⁃ He likes Sarasa, and thinks she’s really funny, so when he does play it’s mostly grinding to recruit her!

⁃ Actually likes Vyrn and doesn’t find him annoying! has actually read the main story.

⁃ solos as soon as he has 300 crystals, he literally can’t save, i hate it here

⁃ his favourite class is lumberjack, but he hasn’t unlocked it yet ;-; ccws are hard to forge for rank 100 and below ;-;

Vil

⁃ Rank 25

⁃ seasonal player, shows up for roulette season and then leaves

⁃ downloaded the game because of the pretty art and the cute character designs, but can’t be bothered to learn how to play—he’s a busy man!

⁃ Europa was his first SSR and is still one of his favourite characters, she’s so pretty! He also loves michael and gabriel, and would start playing properly if they became playable mark my words

⁃ won’t admit it but probably wants belial to smear his makeup a little

⁃ kinda a basic bitch, has only read the wmtsb series cried at the ‘i’ll be waiting’ scene

⁃ criticises the fashion choices of every character he pulls, summons included. Won’t go into raids if the boss is ugly.

⁃ Does his makeup with zero playing in the bg and once parades lust...

Idia

⁃ Rank 275

⁃ that insane player who has soloed faasan hl in every element, has all the eternals 5*ed + the sexy blue skin, and all the evokers

⁃ a legendary figure in the community

⁃ plays as tormentor in every team bc he’s that bitch and also has a damascus knife mh for every element even if he doesn’t always use it

⁃ is both serious abt gameplay and the characters, watches all the gbf channel episodes and keeps up with news

⁃ was probably in a gbfvs tournament

⁃ his favourite character is caim, who reminds him of ortho with his childish innocence! Second is Nio, who is quiet and cute! He’s fond of a lot of characters though, like esser, funf, ferry and narmaya.

⁃ Strictly plays with his faves, but his grids are so good that he manages to make any setup meta.

⁃ Has siero scratcher ptsd bc it didn’t give him his third flb blue sphere but got tempted with it so. many. times.

⁃ Is in a guild w/ azul and ortho + some internet friends and if anyone doesn’t meet the gw quota in a day he screams at them w his hair all red and angry

⁃ owns the gisla body pillow.

⁃ He mains all elements. He has a primal whale grid for every element. His favourite to play with is probably wind, because he thinks it has the most flexibility in its play style. Hes a little mad that winds evoker is not as good as most of the others...

⁃ Idia: “i play for strategy” also idia: ‘gets fraux before alanaan bc the waifu is too strong’

Malleus

⁃ Rank 200

⁃ he can’t play, he’s just been farming tiamat omega raids daily since the games launch

⁃ he downloaded it to get closer to lilia, who is really *really* trying to teach him how to play with... little success

⁃ Still, he doesn’t give up!

⁃ Used his free gold bar uncapping a celeste horn

⁃ forgot to collect his free eternal

⁃ used parazonium as skill fodder (dw malmal i did the same and i live with the guilt)

⁃ uses auto select for his grids

⁃ lilia is crying in the background and often steps in to make the grids himself, but malleus always accidentally deletes them...

⁃ his favourite character is vania, she reminds him of lilia! and also, himself, in a strange way...

⁃ he also likes song, and has worked very hard to recruit her! he almost cried reading about how she was ostracised in her village for her talent at archery, and how lonely she feels, even in the eternals.

⁃ whenever the characters give him a seasonal message, he cries

⁃ gives valentines/white day/christmas gifts to every single character he has

[mumufic]

Yes, I'm updating fic and writing new ones.

I have a lot of WIPs.

I'm a really terrible updater because. Uh. Yeah, no reason, I just like moving back and forth between my various fandoms whenever i feel like it, and it means WIPs in the fandom I just vacated goes into some sort of limbo.

Right now, I am back in Gundam Wing fandom, which was one of the first fandoms I've written fic for, and I'm working on a long-ass fic for the @gwlemonyshenanigans event in May. The fic has no title, I'm about halfway through it, and it's about 50,000 words right now, and looks to be going on for maybe another 30k words so idk yay for that. It's very tiring to write and I can't seem to stop writing it because I'm crazy.

Now, back to the WIPs.

There are some I will definitely still continue in some nebulous future, and others which I probably should officially abandon but can't bring myself to because I'm too attached to the idea. Let's go through them by fandom:

Harry Potter

Gods and Men series

The first fic is done, it didn't really need a sequel, but I had some sort of vision when I started Harry Potter's Guide on How to be a God. I actually imagine, once I've burned through my crazy nostalgic Gundam Wing phase, I'm going back to this fic first to continue it, because I still have plans here. So yes, fic remains in progress.

Castle on a Cloud

I stopped because I got stuck. I had an idea for how to write the next part, but then I forgot what it was because I'm terrible at keeping track of my ideas, so... on hold until I figure out how to move forward.

The New Black

Ok, I didn't have anywhere for this fic to go. I wrote out the back story and sort of "world" I wanted to do, but then I didn't really have any idea of where I wanted the story to move into, so... on hold indefinitely.

All Was Never Well

This fic needs abandonment. I do not know where this is going.

Unraveling Reality

Ditto, for abandonment. No idea what to do here, especially since I'm terrible at rewriting parts of existing works. And also, I'm not informed enough on issues like gender dysphoria. I can't handle stories with it as one of the central character conflicts in any way that would do it justice.

All For the Game

Hummingbird Heartbeats series

Like Gods and Men, the first part is done. The second part is meant to be I guess a rewrite of the series with less focus on Exy and more focus on the relationship stuff because wtf I should just admit I'm writing romance fanfic and be done with it. I'm terrible at reordering/rewriting parts of existing works, so, on hold until I get my shit together.

Pitch Black, Blood Red (Raven!Neil) series

This comprises a single one-shot fic. There is a prior fic I've already finished but I have no intention of publishing that. So this series should be considered finished.

Bound by Blood

I am going to finish this. I will finish this! I actually liked where this story was going but I got stuck writing a portion of back story on Dan and Renee, and decided to take a break, which then got extended after I moved out of the AFTG fandom and into HP. I will come back to this fic after I finish Gods and Men, so... in progress but very very slow progress.

Gundam Wing

The Telltale Heart

I intend to write this once I'm done with my event fanfic for Lemony Shenanigans. istg, although given that a lot of the "voice" I intended to use for this fic is already in use with the other GW fic I'm currently working on, I'm going to put this on the back burner and likely work on either Harry Potter's Guide or Bound by Blood first. So... on hold?

[fireemblems24]

Long so put it below the cut. But if anyone wants a quick summary - I think it's just so blatently clear how little the writers care about the Golden Deer and Claude compared to the other lords. Like it's obvious the billing is 1. Edelgard. 2. Dimitri. 3. Claude, but the gap between Edelgard and Dimitri is wayyyyyy closer, there's like a huge gaping black hole between how much care and attention Dimitri gets vs poor Claude.

Almyra is so poorly written. They're a racist barbarian stereotype, but the game doesn't seem to realize how awful that culture looks because they didn't care enough to think that deeply about it. It's especially frustrating because the marketing made it look like Almyra would get used more in the story instead of the same-old-same-old.

Edelgard going after everyone would've been badass, but this game made it obvious that she couldn't take Faerghus and the "Federation" let along adding Almyra. But it would've been funny if she had Claude sicked on Faerghus while she scooted over to dominate Almyra from underneath him lol.

It's amusing that the game in SB spins Dimitri rooting out Western lords (who all initiated a genocide) as bad, but Claude refusing to allow defects is good. Though, SB that read more like a "how your life can change how you see something" than a serious criticism of Dimitri.

You're so right that it's because it's Cyril, who's not popular, that the slave thing gets brushed under a rug. It's so odd that they added that really unnecessary detail in his support with Hilda and just never talk about it. Like, why couldn't they just make Cyril a slave of some NPC evil noble fodder like Acheron? Why make it the Gonerils if they're not doing anything about it? Just because Hopes never mentions it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And it makes GW so hypocritical and Claude look so awful. And then Nadar just doesn't care that Holst is keeping Almyran kids as slaves? Maybe he thinks they "deserved" it for being weak or some shit. Or maybe they silently reconned that and thought no one would notice since it's only Cyril, but not saying anything at all is just so weird.

I literally never thought that about Hilda before, but you are completely right. Her laziness has a huge ick factor once you remember slaves were doing all the work for her when she lives at home.

I can't answer any of your questions about the Almyra stuff. The fact they treated pillaging and murder sprees that Nadar wanted to go on as a giant joke should tell you how seriously the writers took GW. Are we supposed to be all like, those silly barbarians, always wanting to rob and kill people. It's written like a kid who wants to eat the cookies early when mom said wait until after dinner, not murder and sending poor people (war victims to boot) into deeper poverty. I honestly, honestly think the writers just did not care about the Deer. Which is why they write shit like this and not care about the implications (everyone thinks it's amusing that Nadar wants to murder the victims of Imperialistic war for funzies and your "heroes" laugh about it). I really think they put way more care and passion into Edelgard and the Eagles and Dimitri and the Lions and Claude and the Deer were like "ooops, we've got 12 hours left, better write that script we forgot about lul."

I LOVE that bit with Claude and Hilda in CF. It says so much about both of them and it's done so well too. Here, it's juvenile writing. Because the core justification for everything Claude's doing to Faerghus is that their culture is bad and needs to get fixed. Their culture would need to be WAYYY worse to justify this. It's also so odd how the writing goes out of it's way to prove that what he just said is flat-out wrong. It's like the writers hated Claude, because they don't do this to Edelgard, Dimitri, or even Rhea.

I think I wrote to someone else that if someone got a paper cut, Rhea would get blamed for making paper that way lol. It's that ridiculous. And even more absurd is the choice to make sure she's not even in the game lol.

Curious about that chapter, because later on there's something in GW where Dimitri's forced to choose between Rhea or protecting his people, and I was so invested in that because I wanted Dimitri to choose his people so badly - and then he did, and I was ecstatic with that writing. He got forced into a corner where there was no good answers. Dimitri tends to be black/white, and never really grey. His actions are either unquestionably wrong or unquestionably right. But this was the first time he really got stuck between a rock and a hard place, and his decision was the one that lined up with the values of his character the most. It's honestly one of my favorite Dimitri moments in this game, and it's in GW. Because we got to see grey Dimitri, and he decided to protect his people above all else, and I loved that. It could be a totally different chapter, though.

Lamo, he really did sound just like Caellach. You should make a post about how eerily similar Claude sounds to a past villain.

Poor Rhea :( So far, her writing is fine to me, but she's said all of like 5 lines and most of it strategy discussions, lamo. At least her absence means the writers couldn't ruin her much.

I keep feeling torn between finding it pretty cool to see the church/deer/lions team up and wishing Dimitri got the chance to royally kick Claude's ass. I still low-key hope Claude betrays Dimitri, but then it wouldn't be as fun because it wouldn't be Faerghus vs the world, with Faerghus winning. It would've had to happen with Claude making his 4-d chess move of deciding to become Edelgard's minion.

Golden Wildfire Ch 11

On we go to ch 11. Things are . . . uh . . . interesting.

MAIN STORY

So if you didn't see ch 10, I failed to recruit Byleth. I retried the level a few time, but honestly I just want to finish this game so I didn't bother.

Plus, the reason I failed was that Claude just sat there instead of moving forward on the escort mission, which got really frustrating, and honestly I didn't want to bother.

Ugh, I don't want to fight the Kingdom.

So those Houses that wanted to defect to the Kingdom didn't because Claude's battle was that bloody in that fire map.

Poor Dimitri and co seems like he's just betting bullied for no real reason by two imperialistic maniacs.

I love how Arval is getting snooty over Shez getting credit for their tactics lamo.

Man, this dialogue is dragging.

So Nadar is going to cause diplomatic chaos by utilizing the Almyran army without getting real permission.

Wait, Claude riled up Sreng? So much for "ending racism" lamo. Wasn't having two cultures not be prejudice against each other like his MO? The writers really just threw him in the trash, hunh.

I feel so bad for Claude fans. He's really a piece of work in this.

MAP/SIDE STUFF

Everyone missing Judith has a lot more punch than Randolph. Even Monica was like "get over it" to Fleche (but nicely).

So, let me make sure I have this right. Mr. I Want to End Prejudice Between Cultures just provoked Sreng into attacking the Kingdom so Edelgard can take it over because Rhea is the reason for everything bad. Did I get that right?

Unlike SB, GW is entertaining as hell, but man is the logic here is just non-existant. And poor Claude RIP.

Like, I know I'm biased and all, but I don't see how you're supposed to be the heroes and not Dimitri here. The people just defending themselves are getting attacked on all 3 fronts for the crime of *existing.*

Not going to lie. I kinda wish Claude didn't side with you in AG either. It would've been hype to kick everyone's ass as Dimitri after getting cornered by all these land-grabbers.

GW!Claude is really just the mean girl's sidekick. 😂

If Felix and Rodrigue die in this chapter I swear to God . . . (I just remembered Rodrigue is dead in SB now 😭 - LET THIS MAN SURVIVE).

I had to fight Felix in a side mission. Lysithea said they had to "defend this place" - like, girl, you are invading.

When the challenge is "you can't dodge" but you're using Lorenz 😌👌 (FYI, he just does not take damage in this game)

SHEZ & HILDA A SUPPORT

They're talking about how Hilda exerted energy in a battle because she worried about Shez.

Hilda claims it's just self-defense bc she was cheering for Shez on the front lines and enemies were there (honestly, this is pretty boring so far)

It's the same-old Hilda claiming she's weak but that not being true.

SHEZ & CONSTANCE C SUPPORT

I know she's an Empire character, but whatever.

She wants to create new magics to restore her noble house and wants to research Shez bc of their weird magic

Lamo, Constance low-key called us dumb

Shez suggests she get her house back through military accomplishments.

Constance refuses to train right now, she wants to at night (it's her dual personality thing, right?)

CLAUDE & LYSITHEA B SUPPORT

Their first one. Claude's unhappy Lysithea charged in the last battle. But Lysithea kicked ass, so she's upset with Claude.

Claude calls her plan dumb and that he thought Lysithea was smarter than that. Lysithea still argues it ended earlier bc of her.

Lysithea doesn't back down.

Honestly, I side with her here. Claude's being patronizing. And it's rich of him not to care about all the other deaths dragging out the battle would cause and only Lysithea dying because she's *important*

CLAUDE & HOLST A SUPPORT

Oof, this one hurts. Claude accuses the church of creating all the systems to serve their own interests, because he doesn't know the truth here. That the Empire actually created most of it, and that all the church ever did was protect a genocided race from being murdered by more power-hungry humans.

It's also hysterical to hear Claude talk about wanting to improve foreign relations while instigating a war between two cultures.

Oof, Holst doesn't care about any of this. He's only worried Claude's going to send Hilda to marry a big, brown, scary foreigner. NOT a good look.

Holst says he cares more about Hilda's future than the whole Alliance. Yikes.

HILDA & HOLST A SUPPORT

They're preparing a feast.

Oh, it's nice to see Hilda's insecurities about Holst's "perfection" come up in this, bc so far she hadn't said much.

After that last support though, Holst is actually a pretty shitty leader.

Holst wants to make the feast all about Hilda instead of himself though. Hilda likes the attention.

Hilda basically had to set up her own feast lol.

HILDA & LINHARDT A SUPPORT

Hilda's cleaning, and Linhardt's honestly upset that he's lost a fellow lazy person.

Hilda claims she never pushes work on people. That, is a lie.

Linhardt is mostly worried how bad it'll look if he's the only one not working instead one of two.

All this support confirms that Linhardt is by far the superior lazy.

LORENZ & LYSITHEA A SUPPORT

Their only support.

So, not related to their support (and watch it counter it), but I find it pretty amusing how getting a leadership position faster matured Felix and Sylvain, but Lorenz is still a bit of a joke and the butt-end of every support he's in.

He's just bragging about how awesome his position and power is.

Lysithea says she's not inheriting her house. She claims it's because she doesn't like what comes with nobility, but we all know why.

She worried that the land will go to chaos without it's leaders though. Lorenz offers help (which, imo, he's actually mature here!)

Lorenz suspects she's turning it down for another reason and encourages her to rely on others to help.

RAPHAEL & LEONIE B SUPPORT

Raphael keeps snapping bows in half when he uses them. Leonie's shocked.

Leonie seems to actually make one and invites Raphael to test it while on guard duty with her.

IGNATZ & MARIANNE B SUPPORT

Marianne found his picture. He puts it down, but she likes it (it's a horse, well a pegasus, but of course)

Ignatz gets carried away talking about it, but Marianne finds it cute.

Ignatz finds Marianne loving pegasus cute. She blushes.

He wants Marianne's help, helping him paint a pegasus bc they don't like men, but if Marianne is around he can get closer and get a better painting. She's happy to help.

Honestly, this whole support is really cute.

MAIN BATTLE/STORY

It sucks having to attack the Kingdom over and over again when all they want to do is exist in peace.

Oh, joy, Nadar wants to plunder Faerghus. I can see why Fodlan is so evil for not wanting to let them do what they will.

GW really had a chance here to finally do something interesting with Almyra. It even marketed itself as a route that WOULD. But instead it's just doubled-down on Almyra being a one-note lawless place full of barbarians. At least we have Brigid and Duscur so the only brown country isn't some racist stereotype. Since it's only 1 of 3, it's not AS bad of a look.

Fuck. I don't want to kill Felix and Rodrigue. It would be one thing if the Kingdom actually provoked this, but Felix and Rodrigue haven't done anything to deserve this.

I get to recruit Ashe again. Is he miserable here too?

Ugh, I was hoping Felix and Rodrigue weren't here. It seems vastly unfair that it's only Kingdom characters who die for reel in this.

Wow. Claude's really an A-class asshole. He told Ashe to surrender because Dimitri wouldn't want him to die. Maybe don't invade for no reason then?

Is Claude also going to single Felix out as a citizen of Faerghus who deserves to live? Or does only Ashe count and not the nobles and unnamed grunts he's slaughtering because he decided to team up with the person who plans on taking over his rule? (not hate to Ashe at all, I honestly feel awful for him in this game)

Ok, so fighting Felix is just a side quest. I'd rather fail a side quest than fight Felix so, going to try to avoid having to kill him. Ugh, he's attacking the engineers. And he's damn right saying he has every right to kill the people who are invading his home.

Thank God, he just retreated.

I still love how Claude got bent out of shape over Ashe, but Lorenz alone has killed 500 citizens of Faerghus this chapter so . . .

Felix is so worried about Rodrigue. I swear the writers wanted you to feel like shit playing this route.

Oh, fuck. Just when I thought I was finished killing people for defending themselves, Daddy Gautier shows up :( He's sacrificing himself to safe Felix and Rodrigue, isn't he?

Oh, fuck. He died for real 😭

It's really hard to like these characters, making mindless chit-chat after killing Sylvain's daddy. I hope Sylvain fucks them up a new one.

I've never wanted to slap a character more than I'd love to slap Claude right now. The moron has the audacity to be surprised people are going to die while he's invading a foreign country. What a fucking stupid moron.

He's also blaming - get this right - chivalry.

I'm like. I'm speechless right now.

That's right guys. Margrave Gautier died defending his king, his country, his home, and most importantly one of his fucking best friends from an asshole invader. But it's CULTURE'S fault he died.

I'm really confused what the hell Claude thinks he's doing. Does he REALLY think killing Rhea will magically allow people to live as they please? Didn't he grow up in another country where they had princes and shit and NO Rhea?? All he's doing is making Edelgard's take over easier.

This is starting to feel like a borderline spoof. Look at us end the war by invading another nation!!! I mean???

What's his plan? Kill everyone in Faerghus - profit - "freedom" from Rhea - Edelgard takes over - no profit???

The writing in this route has gotten really fucking stupid. Like, I LIKE the idea of evil!Claude. Either a Claude who wants to take over all of Fodlan or one who's ruthless and will do anything to preserve Leicester.

But what I don't like is really fucking dumb Claude, which is what GW's devolved into.

Oh, God, now we get a flashback between father and son. Sylvain and Gautier :(

Sylvain better not be fucking recruitable in this route.

Now Sylvain's in charge 😭😭😭😭

I'm convinced someone who's a major Edelgard stan wrote the larger plot of this, but then a Dimitri stan wrote the actual dialogue 😅

We really go from one moment Claude being like - it's Rhea's fault Gautier died bc Kingdom culture bad because church bad to Sylvain being like, naw, he died defending his friends.

At the very least, I'll give Hopes credit here. At least they didn't write anyone opposing Edelgard as either evil or like they're idiots for resisting invasion, but I almost feel like they made the Kingdom especially too sympathetic which makes Edelgard look more interesting (since SB is more honest than CF) and Claude just look like a bozo. Rhea just doesn't look like anything since she's not even here.

Though, I REALLY wish Claude didn't side with us in AG. I really wish we got to see Faerghus backed into a corner and kick everyone's asses. They've very much the underdog and watching them do that would've been awesome.

Felix and Rodrigue are beating themselves up over this.

See, this is what I mean - Sylvain just said he's reserving all his hatred for the foreign invaders who take everything for no reason - I really feel like a Dimitri fan saw how everyone collectively decided to take a dump on the Kingdom in the big plot and got revenge by making everyone look like villains (or morons in Claude's case) for doing so in the writing.

xxx

[inventors-fair]

Herald Commentary

I’m happy with the wide range of cards that people jumped into for this contest! There was a wide range, but a lot of modern ideas. I think because of Magic’s contemporary focus on legendary creatures, many people sought ideas that came from more recent sets. Looking at the entries, what do you think?

Let’s get to commentary!

@ace-hobo​ — Caller of Devastation

That’s a pretty cool name, and it’s an interesting flavor that you’re going for. I would have rather seen a card that focused on a singular card and follower, one that fits an isolated flavor. For the sake of this contest, it makes sense that you would name the cards. I could see this printed in a regular set as a card that tutored for a God creature card or something.

@aethernalstars​ — Caller of the Harvest

Alright, it took me a second to understand this card. I don’t think that almost-irremovable devotion is a pain in extended formats, but in a vacuum it’s a pain in the butt, and I’m not a huge fan. Still, a cool idea for mechanical execution. Still trying to figure out how a plant becomes a cleric. Additionally, those symbols: it should be “GW, T:” with the comma and space.

@cas-420 — Crackling Boltkin

Now this is fun. Honestly, I would have liked this card better as either a graveyard summon or a library summon, not both. I’m really proud of you for the wording on this, though. It’s a complex idea that you pulled off well. The double triggers plus the double search makes this card feel like it’s trying to do a little too much, but I like the name and I like the concept. It feels like a contemporary elemental.

@dabudder​ — Gerrard, Legacy Protector

It’s interesting to see white using the graveyard as a “keep this secret safe” kind of thing. I think. Man, that ability though... I can imagine this being pretty crazy broken in some capacity. Stacking a bunch of different legendary artifacts and big bombs or something... I don’t know, this card feels powerful and worrying but it probably isn’t broken. Small note: The card is just “Weatherlight” lol

@dimestoretajic​ — Yar-Kul, the Maggot

I actually remember reading about Yargle way back in the Dominaria days. Man, wish I could have afforded more Magic back then... Anyway. I personally find the “card within a card” concept pretty fun. There’s nothing really objectively wrong with this card. If I had to find a criticism, it feels minorly clunky that one legend is a search while one is just a sacrifice. Comparing that to that Reef Worm thing from the Commander set, it’s just a little iffy. But it fulfills the contest and I like it.

@ezurad​ — Mad Cultist

Looks like you forgot to change the name in that activated ability there? Always always proofread. Conceptually, I think I like this card. For a common, I would have added reminder text to the Madness instead of adding flavor text, as cool as the flavor is. Interesting take on an “any number of X” ability. This card also needs a shuffle clause after the search, FYI. Not a bad entry!

@fractured-infinity​ — Hunter’s Prey

I don’t know enough about the Ikoria storyline, and that’s on me. Regardless, I get it, and it’s a fine enough tutor even if it is pretty easy to abuse. It’s a unique take on the tutor, and it’s a cool flavor to set out prey to summon your Snapdax. Two wording criticisms: One, the name doesn’t need to be in quotes; and Two, the shuffle clause can be added to the previous sentence e.g. “When ~ dies, its owner may search their library for a card named Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle their library.” Minor things, no biggie.

Genex-P — Herald of the Night

We’re going WAY back. I had to search this card because I was actually totally unfamiliar by name alone. I really like that! And holy crap, I didn’t know that Nightstalker was a real creature type. I do wish that the tokens contributed to the search, though. It feels weird that the first ability still requires you to have a different Nightstalker to activate it. Still, neat idea, pretty fun, and a great old callback with modern updates. Amazing flavor text, too.

@gollumni​ — Incarnation of Aclazotz

And I’m also not super familiar with Ixalan story, either, but that doesn’t mean this card isn’t cool. It’s complex, and it’s a little confusing to take things and turn them about, but the card itself plays well. I would really have liked for that token to have indestructible, personally, but that would have been a little too powerful for five mana. Still, cool concept, and an interesting “land tutor” in black.

@greensunzenith​ — Meroe Revane

Flavorfully, I think this card is really cool, even if I’m not positive that it makes sense considering... Would Nissa’s mom be on Zendikar where all this takes place? IDK. Anyway, mechanically, the fact that you have to have to have both the cards to do anything is a big ask. Nissa Revane, the card, was pretty egregious for asking to have that card itself. But yeah, I’m not the biggest fan of this card’s mechanics. Still a fun card conceptually.

@gus-goose — Herald of the Hunt

Another Snapdax stan? Did Snapdax become the ultimate Ikoria stan when I wasn’t looking? Anyway. I think that the combination of cards is a flavorful way to express devotion to Snapdax and I like how you included the mutate clause. I’m not a fan of how the ability works mechanically. Building around this card is pretty moot, because the setup feel like too much when you could just get Snapdax itself. Were there enough of those in Ikoria? There were a lot of creatures there... I don’t know, this card just feels like too much work.

@haru-n-harkel​ — Moonrise Dragster

I like the concept of searching for a flavorful aura like Caught in the Brights. It’s a fun and interesting way of tutoring for control cards. There’s a lot about this card that I’m not sure I understand. Why such a high crew cost? The mana cost to P/T ratio feels all out of whack. I’m also not sure why there’s the “doesn’t untap” clause. Is it flavorful? Is it a mechanical addition? I just don’t “get” a lot of this card’s decisions. Power-level wise, getting the aura from your graveyard is too much. It’s not a weak enchantment. 

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​ — Devotee’s Squire

It’s a cute idea, I think. A little bit underwhelming to search for a card to search for a card. I’m not sure why this card mechanically exists. Flavorfully, this also takes place on Theros, Greek mythology, which as far as I know doesn’t have knights or squires.

@ignorantturtlegaming​ — Whirling Waves

This card is...powerful. I think the first ability is crazy, but fine. Second ability is insanely overpowered in limited. Third ability is holy cow powerful, assuming you mean “X on each” and not “X distributed.” Conceptually, I like this card a lot and I think that it’s a cool summon. In practical terms, the power level needs significant tweaking.

@karkatvantasticvantas​ — The Second Scourge

Interesting! “Tapped and crewing” is a fantastic little tweak with a flavorful idea behind it that I fully support. Seven mana for that cost, though, is... It feels like a little much, but it probably isn’t? I would have made this card colorless, honestly. I don’t think the Grixis colors are really useful here. “Menace” should be lowercase. This is a unique card, and I think I like it. Probably should be a rare.

@koth-of-the-hammerpants — Krajling Incubator

“Egg Ooze.” Love it. Great flavor text and a pretty fun card that’s very Simic. Two small notes: “Remove” should be capitalized, and the card needs a shuffle clause. Aside from that, I think that this card is a pretty fun uncommon. I wish there was a way that it could put counters on creatures.

@misterstingyjack​ — End Times Proselytizer

Thirteen colorless nonland permanents is a LOT. Even if you get something crazy off that first trigger, getting up there is a lot. Thirteen creatures would be enough, honestly. If you would have an easier time casting Emrakul by herself than using this card, then things might be a little too crazy. Also, why doesn’t the first ability just say “for each non-Eldrazi creature that died this turn”? I think this is a cool card, but it’s just not as good as the creature you’re searching for. I do love how you cast it from outside the game.

@ozthearistocrat​ — Oketra’s Blade

It’s a concept that I appreciate for sure. Getting a creature at different points in the story feels like a Time Spiral-esque idea. Honestly, though, I’m not a fan of the mechanics here. There are two different sets for a reason, and the spirit of the contest is a little different than that. Still, not a bad idea. FYI, I would really look into getting your MSE set up with fonts, because this card is REALLY hard to read.

@real-aspen-hours​ — Oracle of Oracle of Mul Daya

10/10. In all seriousness, keep this in a file for something that can let you play land and Shaman cards from the top of your library or something. Not a bad concept. I am laughing at the name, though.

@reaperfromtheabyss​ — Terrible Flamespeaker

Once more, the name of the card doesn’t need to be in quotes. As for the card’s mechanics, this one is interesting. I like how it encourages mono-red shenanigans. It’s a powerful on-curve card by itself which is pretty cool. I like how it tells the story of a world more than it does of a legendary creature, even if it is a rare searching for a rare, which feels... IDK, a little off with the nature of this contest. There’s nothing objectively wrong with this card besides the quotes, though, so call it a success.

@shakeszx — Beast Blessed Sword

Was there something about the Eldraine story that I missed? When was there a sword involved? Why isn’t there a hyphen to make it “Beast-Blessed” - unless it’s a different meaning? I’m a little confused. Regardless, the card itself I like. It’s recursion for Kenrith, which is a pain in the ass, but it’s a fun card regardless, I think. Having played against Kenrith, I’m not the biggest fan, but I know he’s fun to play, so I can’t complain.

@shandylamb​ — Scrap // Salvage

Okay. Straight-up, this card is doing too much. If this was on an actual Aftermath card, it would be packed to the gills and be practically unreadable. Scrap is probably the best side, even though it should say “put it onto the battlefield” and just “sacrifice an artifact” since you can only sacrifice permanents you control anyway. Salvage is just... I don’t know, I don’t get it. It requires both a legendary permanent and a target for it, and it doesn’t feel like a legendary event. The thing about “legendary” instants and sorceries was that they had a creature or planeswalker attached to them that made them feel epic. This card just doesn’t have that. I feel like you put too many ideas into too small a space.

@sigiledpaladin​ — Alarm of the Tenth

Why does this card search your graveyard too? That’s one hair in an otherwise fine cupcake of a card. It’s just a bit of a shame that it doesn’t “do” anything when it first comes out. Also, the second sentence should be “This ability costs (4) less to activate if [etc].” It’s a fine tutor, just a little underwhelming.

@snugz​ — Sliver Hivecaller

Would you believe that I actually love this card? Would you also believe that, in my opinion, this card would have been a winner......... if it wasn’t a Sliver? With the exception of the old legendary Slivers, all Slivers should inform other Slivers. And, well, this card doesn’t feel like a sliver. I love it, I really do. But it’s just not Sliver-y. I know that’s useless and boring commentary, but man, trust me, this card is great. Just make it, like, a Human Shaman or something? Ooh, or a mutant.

@starch255​ — Oracle of Ancestry

This card would break eternal formats. Tutoring for Ancestral Recall and Brainstorm is... Wow. I don’t know, I might just be paranoid, but “tutor for some of the most powerful draw and thinning in Magic’s history” is something to be paranoid about, right? I’m not going crazy? Considering the wide range of formats and places that these cards come from, it’s not out of the question to assume that that was the intention of the card. Not sure how I feel about that.

@yesimnotrealanymore — Rise of Emrakul

The good: It’s certainly flavorful. The criticism:

3BBBB is way too costly, and color-heavy.

You don’t necessarily need “a” in that first ability. Just “Create Cryptolith”

Second ability should be two sentences. “Its,” not “it’s”

“Destroy up to four target creatures. For each creature destroyed this way, its controller creates a colorless 3/2 Eldrazi creature token.”

The Roman numeral for four is “IV.”

In order for that last ability to work, Emrakul would need three time counters on it and then gain vanishing. Additionally, we need to suspend our disbelief that both sagas and vanishing exist in the same set as Eldritch Moon.

~

Thank you all for your entries! A new legendary contest starts tomorrow.

[abbeyfangirl]

dragon age: all characters (companions)

I’ve been in this fandom for a hot minute now and I want to update my opinions on characters :)

Origins

Alistair: super sweet dude who literally is not the stereotypicalchantryguyfightme. He’s a great example of healthy masculinity and I totally wish he was bi because I have an entire essay on that— also: he’s a poc! His mum was brown. In game he’s got dark features. if you really want a blond/blue-eyes/white guy, make your warden that. or accept that brown people can be noble and moral. or just draw cailan, idk. just because BioWare whitewashes doesn’t mean you should.

Leliana: someone hug my singing girlfriend before I crush her under with my own hugs. Also: nugs. Yes! Shoes. Yes! She likes how I style my hair? YES!! I honestly think she’s super duper and it pisses me off whenever someone’s like: yeah she enjoys killing people and the Game. ok. and michel de chevin willingly participated in genocidal marches through the alienage he grew up in with his elvhen mum. 

Morrigan: dirty swamp witch that i stan and also have a v big crush on. tiddies. Have a son with a GW so we can raise him with our tiddies out in the forest. she’s also white-passing, as her father was chasind and all people we’ve seen that are chasind are black. therefore, she is biracial. therefore, poc can be goths and don’t shy away from giving morrigan a darker skintone. if the devs had of been thinking, she’d have a darker skintone.

Zevran: Actually is the best romance, I think. Loves consent, therefore I will stan him so hard my skull cracks a little. Also: he is a very brown boy and if he’s white in da4 I’m seriously going to throw all canon out the fucking window. genuinely a good person who needs to be told so. 

Wynne: grandma who only likes my friends who go to church. but also super sweet and I’d rest my head on her bosom (in a platonic way omg ZEVRAN)

Sten: angry quiet boi. the bestest boi. I totally would give him a kitten for a gift and bake him cookies. Thicc softie. I think if I had DA:O and i knew how to use mods i would mod the fuck outta him. sorry.

Sha(y)le: who’s gender? idk her. See also: fuck birds and authority. pound ur ass into the ground you feathery meatbag little shits. fuck songbirds.

Dog: such a good boi. thicc. thinks Alistair is a whiny fuck and is Morrigan’s only friend. love him. he’s the cutest companion. bet.

Ohgren: honestly forgot about him bcc he’s such a shitbag. also: he could’ve been a really cool addiction recovery type but NOPE. probably would have a trump shirt in a modern au and would catcall wlw and hit mlm. no thanks.

Awakening

Anders: he acts like rlly straight but he’s so gay I can smell it. also he’s rlly cute and fun and I love him so much.

Justice: MAYBE i’M selF CONSCious OF THE twitchING. is the friend that genuinely doesn’t get dick jokes but is ur 110% ride or die.

Nathaniel Howe: honestly is sort of a white knight/neck beard a little, but it’s kind of charming with his whole velanna m’lady?? grump boi. annoying soul patch that I’d mod out SO FAST—

Sigrun: would have ROMANCED the FUCK out of her. why she even entertains the idea of fucking with ohgren makes me realize most of the writers are dumbfucks.png. peppy little emo. 12/10 would die if she kissed my cheek teasingly.

Ohgren: why. why. why. I’d have brought Shayle over. Maybe Zev? Definitely Dog.

Velanna: she was written to be an annoying feminist and you can tell but I deadass am a kindred spirit with her bcc I too am deadpan annoyed with Thedas’ general population too. love her. Would’ve loved to romance her. She’d totally be one of those who’d get all tsundere and be like “n-no i hate you” *kisses the fuckin soul out of you then blushes so hard she’s now a tomato*

Dragon Age II

Anders: fuck the cops. i don’t care. fuck the cops. (vine reference). also: do i hate him for blowing up the chantry that would eventually annul a huge collection of his people? no. read dalishious’s meta on Anders. v intriguing. didn’t they retcon the fuck out of the reported deaths too? like there was like eight Templars and Elthinia in there. Templars killed more “abominations” in a day than Anders in the game canon—

Aveline: initially thought she was fine and then realized she’s shit to my lil brother and I will fucking clap her ginger ass. See also: whorephobia isn’t a joke so fuck off with treating Isabela badly, you tit.

Bethany: sunshine. Literal sunshine. I feel my freckles grow in her presence and i love it. she’s my little baby sister and I’d slam that ogre so fuckin hard before it touched either twin.

Carver: there has to be a mod where both twins survive. I love them both to bits. My babies. carver is my bitter, angry little brother and I can relate because I too am very angry and would totally clap my own ass. hes so genuine and I don’t get the competition between Beth and Carver. Like, both are fuckin stellar in different ways. In this essay I will—

Fenris: honestly, I don’t get the general hate between him and Anders. Fenris’ main arc should’ve been a recovery arc, not drunken moping and revenge. he deserves better. give him a soft sweater instead of his spikes and let him love himself as much as I love him for MAKERS SAKE. like when you really think about their relationship, it could’ve been an eye-opener for fenris and finally some legit sympathy for anders. but we all know that if they had of teamed up that Meredith would’ve been dead before the end of Act 1 so.

Isabela: whorephobia is not a joke. oversexualizing your only appearing brown woman is so poorly written. how about we appreciate her and her lovely bosoms but also let people tease her about her heart of gold? her innate understanding of freedom? instead of just a wave of dick? please?? can we give her some pants for when she fights? can we accept that i fall for rogues who hate themselves?? fuck. also whomever draws her x femHawke x Merrill literally is after my own heart.

Merrill: my fucking babygirl MARRY ME. Fenris could’ve been her older brother type, but NO. she and Isabela should’ve been canonical gfs instead of Isabela/Fenris (no shaming the pairing tho!!). I love how she’s written as neurodivergent. V nice. Sometimes I just look her up and cry because she’s fucking everything. Also: she’s in the Dalish origin and she’s far from being white. Why did they make the most innocent/naïve character really white? hmmmm.

Sebastian: whew that boy. Would totally be that annoying Mormon at your door but you still let him in bcc he’s super sweet. Also: huge ass bible thumper and should get his head slap because you said the maker loved all his children why do you defend a complicit old hag you annoying attractive fuck—

Varric: totally is a bard and the devs couldn’t handle the idea of him being one bcc it might make him look less straight. is the only grey morality person I don’t want to fucking bash in with a fry pan. he sees people and I like that, but you totally know he’s siding with mages every time bcc him and Anders are like besties. I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules. “Professional Younger Brother”.

Tallis: I know nothing about her but she seems okay. I think she was an escaped slave and honestly? Fucking props. Spy on a shitting organization, idk what you’re doing, but your VA was that cool lesbian from SPN so I think ur okay?

Inquisition

Blackwall: Redemption Arc 101. Love him to bits. Sad dad bunwall. good man. actually atoned for his sins by actively becoming a good person. his initial design is 80% hotter im so sorry but so not.

Cassandra: was way browner in the last game. would romance the fuck outta her. I love me a butch lady who melts at my dorky recitation of poetry. BioWare is a coward. also is the worst choice for divine. but not a bad person. could use some more guidance or get her ass whipped by a dalish elf about religion or a circle mage kid whos like “yeah bud i didn’t ask for the templars to whip my ass everyday for existing.”

The Iron Bull: I think the Qunari/Vashoth were a little based off black people (the whole anti blackness thing where ppl are scared of them bcc of whatever reason) and it pisses me off that he had a weird ass dubcon thing with Dorian in banter. It doesn’t make sense— he’s an A+++ dom and would not jump straight in role play without at least checking in at first like wtf BioWare.

Cole: his mother was chasind so he’s like not supposed to be that white? or like biracial? albino? idk. love him to bits tho. He’s neurodivergent and I deadass love him. romancing him? idk. I see why ppl think it’s fuckin nasty but also like as a writer I’d age him the fuck up so fast before my inquisitor even THOUGHT about that. like idk. I’m down with him being a sweet little bro character tho. he’s a babe. love him.

Sera: had the worst fucking writer I’ve ever seen and I willingly read the twilight saga twice by a shit ass racist white lady who okay’d pedophilia. like. Fuck you Kristjanson suck your own dick you fuck. had the worst options in regards to speak to her. has a thicc case of internalized racism that literally most of the fandom just loves to use against her. my lesbian neurodivergent queen. Would write a thousand fix it fics for her. Love her to bits. im gay.

Varric: I haven’t played DA2 so i don’t get why everyone wants to romance him but like. a dwarf romance? yes please. Idk he reminds me of my uncle so I only see him as fun uncle material. Deadass should adopt Cole and Merrill and co parent with Blackwall for Sera. dads? fuck yeah. love me some wholesome, present fathers.

Dorian: is a gay stereotype that I love/hate so much. and he’s also just as bad about being a creep bcc he sexualizes qunari men (in banter). I attribute that to shit writing tho. I want to protect him from all the “omg gay best friend!” people. he’d clearly be that tired gay that wouldn’t give a diddly damn about ur het romance. wanna talk about politics? he’s ur guy/gay.

Solas: “me, an intellectual:”. I don’t hate him, but I’m not about him. He comes off as mysterious and suave (which he totally is) but I deadass would not save him from himself because he’s a racist, exclusionist eggshell. idk. not my cup of tea, but I can totally see the appeal. And he’s interesting, I’ll totally say that. “I think the Dalish are garbage but they made you” is not a compliment. it’s so offensive. and such bait for “quirky girls” which I’m no fan of. Would be Achilles and let Patroclus (Lavellan in his case) die before he realized how his pride is literally a waste of time. If he gets a redemption arc I hope Lavellan gets to slap him before getting him to teach all about ancient Arlathan and show that the Evanuris weren’t all total dicknozzles. (Aka I really have a hard time believing that they’d be slavery cult things. especially since they’ve compared elves to indigenous ppl, Jews and the Romani.)

Vivienne: it’s so racist that they’d make a black woman be pro-slavery. That’s such internalized racism. She could’ve been the cool ass “educate yourself first before you speak, fool” ice lady, but NO. the devs could’ve kept the “Templars are a tool that I proudly can mandate” and the “circles are very good education” and we. Could. Have. Romanced. Her. Like. Fuck. Sake. I just wanna give her a hug and say “love yourself omg!!” and not even in a romantic way. Also: she and morrigan should not have been so antagonistic towards each other. I’d expect them to have great respect for each other, as they both moved up in the world through hardwork and very little help. They could learn different magic from each other too and still maintain that rival respect “oh you” mood. Sidenote: probably the cooler option for Divine. if her approval is high enough she’ll love and be loyal to you forever and i can’t see her agenda being bad. she improves the circles exponentially and tells all the antis to suck her pretty painted toes.

Josephine: an actual disney princess. romanced her my first playthrough. I love her so much. she just makes me so happy. And she’s like: “Integrity, Loyalty, peace. That is what it means to be a GREY WARDEN good fucking person.” she’s the person who would let you hold her hand if you got anxious and she’d be that person who shouldered the whole group project with finesse and poise and would probably lie for everyone as to not be mean. i love josie. her and leliana’s relationship is so cute, too. whether it’s romantic or not: women supporting women.

Leliana: if you leave her hardened you must hate her. why. she becomes so against herself. i like how shes feminine and lighthearted because that’s so powerful-- to remain hopeful when the world is hopeless. (its hard to know when to soften her/harden her so i get it but. google it. she deserves to be happy and sweet again.)

Cullen: uwu war criminal with shit ass “redemption arc” that was actually a half-assed (at BEST) recovery arc. Recovery isn’t linear, it isn’t pretty, and even the broken need to be told they are wrong in order to heal right. Like I’m offended by that bullshit. I’ve had to do some mental health recovery in the past and unlearning lots of toxic ideologies— which I’m still unlearning— and it bothers me that he gets an easy pass because he’s hot. It’s one thing if you like Cullen, it’s another thing if you hold him accountable.

[ato-matsuri]

The Tiger King -- Ruler

I'm so sorry.

Joe Exotic has got to be a Ruler, without a doubt. You may be expecting me to say that he ran for Pres and leave it at that, but there's more to his tale -- as we likely all know at this point.

So, when he's inevitably sworn into the Throne, what will his skills look like?

Why Ruler?

Putting aside the obvious (that he ran for Pres), let's look at what he did for a living.

He ran a 'tiger reserve' of a sort, where he'd stuff a shit ton of tigers into a zoo and feed them shitty meats. If it were just this, yeah, he'd probably be a Rider or something.

But there's more to his tale.

As you may remember, he had a group of people under his control. A small group, perhaps, ran by tigers, meth, and marriage. But it was a 'kingdom' of a sort, if a small one. These people followed Joe's command, by their own will or begrudgingly, running this place with almost comically bad rules with comically awful reasons to stick around.

It also helps that he had a long-standing rivalry with another 'ruler' in his eyes -- Carole Baskins, that would ultimately culminate in a murder-for-hire. The battle between the two was legendary (read: kinda boring, really), with Joe himself providing most of the anger between the two, fully convinced Carole killed her husband.

From this, I can conclude his best class is that of a Ruler -- though Avenger could also work, with his anger towards Baskins that he truly never forgot, or Rider, drawing from his Tiger King title. If you guys are masochistic enough to want more, I'll try and do writeups of them, too.

Passives

I imagine Joe would have some degree of Madness Enhancement. A Ruler simply can't have Avenger or any related skills for obvious reasons, but ME is theoretically possible. I'd stick him at EX, to be honest -- as his madness isn't always there, but comes out in full force with his mild obliviousness to reality, and his endless hatred towards Carole.

Apart from this, I don't quite think he'd have any passive skills, apart from perhaps Riding D. As a more modern human, he'd lack Magic Resistance, I imagine.

Active Skills

Charisma E - While I can't say the guy's a rallying master, he knows how to get people to do his thing -- even if it's a small group of people. The morale in the zoo wasn't all that great near the end of its cycle, and apart from the relationships, I can't recall him being much of a moral support.

Mana Burst (Rage) - Joe, as we saw with his rants and general hatred of Carole, quite likes his violent outbursts -- and his liking of weapons quite accentuates that. Personally, I see the Throne morphing that into a form of Mana Burst, letting his anger run wild for a short time, and letting him come in guns ablaze.

The Tiger King's Men EX -- What's a proper SSR without a personal skill? I like to imagine that this would be a 3-turn Buster buff to everyone on the field. As a strange offensive support character that he's turning out to be, he'd be able to strengthen everyone's punching power.

NP -- G.W. Zoo -- Hear thy Name, Baskins

The very zoo that Joe had created -- his life's work, sublimated into one existence.

As a Ruler, his violent nature isn't capitalized on as much here -- however, a pure support NP wouldn't make much sense for someone like Joe.

I imagine it working a bit like Sanat Kumara and Saint Seiya!Roma -- as the GW Zoo wasn't exactly a very safe place, I see it netting a decent deal of damage. An ATK buff on all allies could work, but I'd think that instead, the 'Tiger' tag would be placed upon everyone on the battlefield. Those with the Tiger tag on your side would be gifted with an ATK buff for each tag they had, while opponents with the tag would be hit with another DEF down for each tag they had.

Overall, an NP that winds up over time for a massive punch to the face later -- arguably, kind of like Joe's story was, what with the climactic ending of a murder-for-hire that went south.

(1/2)

[sveasauvageon]

lol, got a ref to Svea’s canadian hubs like a year before he even existed. 

The best friendships are born out of mutual hatred for something || HSWW/GW

☾♔; March 6, 2018 ☾♔; sotd: idk ☾♔; comedian otd: STEPHEN MF-ING COLBERT ☾♔; Funsies Doll of GoT hating ☾♔; {G} https://goo.gl/PnjH23 ☾♔; Mod(s): @.miky94

featured not-mine oc: Theo Nott @themadmonarchist

I so love this dynamic and an excuse to make doll about how much I hate game of thrones. I mean how much Svea hates it. It's just so fcking stupid and it's ruined the greatness of the books! They seem to have totally forgotten that Dany is definitely the Stallion that will mount the world, and are focusing on the "Prince that was Promised" prophecy, even though there are numerous other candidates and that prophecy is less confirmed. And don't get me started on "hold the door" and the whole "whitewalkers are first men" storylines, what bullsht! The others aren't undead, they're just a species of ice people with a penchant for villainy! ARGHalkjgadlkgjdfklgj

oh, also, in my anger, I forgot to mention, Svea has poutine there because she gets hangry. and presumably drank at least half of those bottles.