#like what the actual fuck???

[artistic-mathematics]

Analysis on Shadowheart, her relationship with "Mother Superior", and Shar

Spoilers for all three acts of BG3 below.

I just had the sudden realization that Viconia sent Shadowheart to retrieve the relic with every intention of letting Shadowheart die alone and as a nobody out of pure jealousy, all the while being thrown around like a ragdoll for fucking fun by the goddess she's devoted everything to because she's been gaslit and manipulated her entire life.

Viconia sent her on a fucking suicide mission (KNOWING that it was a suicide mission) and told her that her memories would be restored after she returned under the impression that Shadowheart was going to die. She knew that she was going directly against what Shar wanted (to convert Shadowheart and puppet her around like a plaything until she became Shar's obedient Chosen) and did it anyway because she considered Shadowheart to be a joke and decided that if Shadowheart was dead, then she would have to be the Chosen.

There's only a few things that Shadowheart knows about herself that aren't total fabrications (not including the fear of wolves, I suppose, though they did gaslight her into being terrified of them). She likes night orchids. She can't swim. She's a cleric of Shar. She has a Sharran wound that hurts sometimes -- and she doesn't really even know why it hurts, just that it hurts. The saddest part about this is that two out of these four things, maybe even three, are things that she most likely learnt via intuition. The only other things she knows? Her suicide mission -- to steal the githyanki relic and return it to Baldur's Gate. And the authority figure in her life (emphasis on authority) -- Viconia Devir, Mother Superior, and the things that she'd had done to put her in place.

Viconia wiped literally everything else from Shadowheart's life except for Shar and herself. Shadowheart has a better idea of who Viconia is than who she herself is, and it only gets worse because Viconia had marked her as "expendable". Meanwhile, Shadowheart is completely unaware, believing that she'll be rewarded greatly upon delivering the relic to Baldur's Gate (she doesn't even know where the House of Grief is, or where she's supposed to deliver the relic to specifically!). Except when Shadowheart does become a Dark Justiciar and shows up to overthrow Viconia, Viconia faces her and calls her a traitor anyway despite knowing that Shadowheart is telling the truth. (Note how Viconia doesn't call out "for Shar!" at the beginning of this battle.)

Everything Shadowheart knows about herself is either shit she was manipulated into believing or things she's figured out on her own. She doesn't remember anyone she was close with -- not her best friend Nocturne or any of the initiates she'd trained with. Meanwhile, it's outright explicitly stated that all of her companions -- both from those still in the House of Grief and those who were sent with her on the relic mission, were never treated this way. People in Shadowheart's past all know Shadowheart better than herself -- at least, they know who she used to be before the events of the nautiloid -- but that's just the problem at hand.

Shadowheart has zero sense of identity. Even at the beginning of the game, with the knowledge of being a Sharran cleric, she's struggling with herself. She very clearly is downright terrible at being a Sharran cleric -- I mean like yeah, she likes deceiving people and playing dirty, but she's horrendous at keeping secrets and worries way too much for people and animals than she cares to admit. Even as going down the Dark Justiciar path, Shadowheart's morals -- the ones that Viconia and Shar both tried to suppress -- stand in the way, especially in the House of Grief. When she's faced with her parents, deep down, she knows that killing them is outright wrong, despite everything that she was taught. If you let her do as she pleases, she makes a comment about just serving blindly, because it's just so much easier to do rather than continue with the mental battle that she's been fighting for years -- and note she doesn't even kill her parents intentionally in this route, and she falls to her knees grieving for these people she doesn't recognize because she understands suddenly, realizes that what it'd all meant, but it's far too late because Shar wipes her memory all over again, and her identity is now officially molded into someone completely unrecognizable.

The worst part about it is that Aylin was right about the "terrible blood price" -- the moment Shadowheart kills Aylin, she will never be free from Shar ever again. At this point, she's doomed to be within Shar's clutches forever, her only fate to end up like The Unclaimed (a story about a Sharran cleric who, as the title suggests, was unclaimed by Shar in death). Shadowheart will never be free from Shar as long as she allows her parents to live, and that is so ridiculously fucking petty from a goddess that already took EVERYTHING from this scared little child in the forest who got roped into Shar's undying animosity.

TLDR: Both Shar and Viconia fucking suck, and I want to fistfight Shar (and win, because genuinely, fuck this bitch.)

[neptune-scythe]

ok i just watched the promo for 8x05

and

Y'ALL???

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?

[themoonunderstoodmydadjokes]

Things to not say or do in my DMs or just in general to strangers on the internet…

[seattlereign]

im sorry but what the actual fuck is manu doing? she didnt even attempt to save that and it was right next to her.

[jtmarx]

Honestly the whole Honor Dogs plotline is so fucking stupid.  You have one of the most diverse casts on television today and you wanna waste it on white people???

[mythtakens]

“these characters should be mentally healthy before they get together 😌” ummm no I actually think we should smash their mental illnesses together like clumps of play-doh and see what colors it makes

[eosofspades]

i didn't have "i'm broken" teenage asexual angst i had "i'm literally being the only reasonable one about this concept and the rest of you are behaving like fucking freaks" perception issues

[inkskinned]

she's singing in another room and my dog is asleep at my feet. my grandma asked me why i haven't found a man yet and i laughed. oh, you know. i like my house clean.

my girlfriend is also my man is also "my partner" if i'm in a professional setting. yesterday we went to a ren faire and a man mimed at me - you're together? and at my delighted nod, his baffled, you're gay? made me laugh. a woman with rainbow hair said i love the two of you together. you're both so beautiful it's absurd.

my dad introduced my partner as my "..... friend. or whatever" the other day. he knows we're dating. in the same way, i was never able to get my sister's husband to stop saying that's gay like it's 2008. he still uses the word fa***t, and my sister's defense of him has always been well, he's just kidding.

my lover and i dance to old music in a tiny kitchen. we judge new music together and take food critique very seriously. we watch love is blind before we fall asleep and agree that if they had a queer season, it would be bloody but also make for excellent tv. of fucking course queer people would know someone for only 2 weeks and agree to get married. what are you saying.

at a bar with friends, a man puts his hand on my wrist. got a boyfriend? and yes, i do have a boyfriend, she's amazing. i am texting her while i wander around a gas station named after geese. i am visiting a swing state for a wedding. in the candy aisle i overhear: she's actually like a lesbian it's disgusting. two teenage girls with packaged sandwiches in their hands, giggling. no literally, like. i'm not, like. okay with her being there while we're all, like, naked and changing.

my girlfriend and i tailgate, drink gin and cider out of cups. from the frat group beside us, a man corrects himself with one of his friends: bro, i mean, nonbinary entity, and it makes everyone around him laugh, myself included. he razzes his friend the same way i would have killed for at 19 years old - like nothing happened, he continues: you apply sunscreen like an alien. he does a little sassy (and fairly accurate) dance interpretation of the motion. his friend is laughing so hard they're crying.

i am lucky, i live in a safe neighborhood in a safe state. my masc passenger princess comes up from DC. i drive her for an hour to where all the leaves are a violent arrangement of color. we walk along the trails, letting autumn into our blood. in this part of the state, there's a lot of pickup trucks and trump signs. when we chastely kiss before getting into the car, i accidentally make eye contact with a woman holding her child's wrist. she looks disgusted. she looks fucking pissed.

two hours later my girl and i are eating dinner on a patio, soaking in the last warmth of new england sun before the chill of winter sets in. we are giggling and trying to talk through plastic vampire teeth. at another table, i see a young woman sit up straighter. i watch her watch us. she blushes and takes her partner's hand from across the table. shy, like the taste of evening has just become something deeper.

it's worth it for this moment, i think. my lover is still humming the same song she's been singing for four days straight and i don't want to kill her for it. her guitar is beside my bed. her toothbrush is in my bathroom. in a few moments i will make us lunch. we are lucky enough to have found each other. it is lucky enough to be in love.

[ardri-na-bpiteog]

Also increasingly aware that a LOT of people "manage" getting through the 40+ hour work week by sleeping less than is healthy and relying on stimulants like coffee and energy drinks to keep them going.

For people who are unwilling or unable to do this...work really does just dominate your life. Like we really should not have to rely on unhealthy practices just to have a social life or keep on top of housework or whatever.

I know I post about this a lot but I'm so TIRED all the time and it's just so depressing that this is how we're expected to spend the one life we have.

[cryptocism]

that half-blank, half-apocalyptic look

"i can b ur angle or yuor devil" etc etc "get a man who can do both" etc etc

obsessed with this vamp i think he should get to do whatever he wants forever

[bean-spring]

Hot take and not to be a killjoy or the shipping police but people treating Viktor or Jinx's aroace headcanons as if they were canon is not the revolutionary take people think it is.

Headcanons are always all right but we have to acknowledge that they are somehow damaging when they apply to stereotypes. It might not be the case for everyone but most of the time people unconsciously assume that disability/mental illness=asexuality. These headcanons erase the freedom of attraction from people who are already seen as unable to have sexual/romantic experiences/desires, when it's completely untrue and harmful.

You can headcanon Viktor and Jinx as aroace, but I have seen people changing their minds once Viktor is no longer disabled (s2 with all of his other forms) and Jinx is no longer as mentally ill (alternate universe Powder). And it speaks wonders of how people see these characters.

"I never thought about Jinx being able to feel romantic/sexual attraction until s2!" To believe she's actually only capable of that when she's not "damaged" is incredibly disturbing. Especially since Jinx has always had a bit of a flirty personality too.

"I've always seen Viktor as asexual, I don't know why!" That's fine. You can headcanon him as ace. But I believe there is a reason behind it, most of the time, if for some inexplicable reason the "vibes" of the disabled character are making you think he's ace.

I say all of this being aroaspec myself, by the way. Headcanon all you want but going to people's posts commenting how "it's weird for you that they have romantic/sexual plots when they're clearly aroace" is not a win at all. It's a headcanon, after all, and it should be treated as such, and that's fine. But it also is damaging to spread stereotypes like these.

Of course the disabled character is asexual. Of course the mentally ill character is aromantic. It's not as revolutionary as you might think, tbh.

Fandom is not activism and it's all right to have any headcanons you want BUT some of them are filled with damaging stuff and perhaps we should look into ourselves more before treating these assumptions as something canon.

[yurtgirlsophie0]

Any straight guy who would be interested in dating me?🥹

[backpackingspace]

okay so post epic odyssey where odysseus and Penelope have surfaced from their room finally and he and diomedes are catching up I'm imagining the conversation going something like this

Odysseus: so then I gave up being merciful and became the monster.

Diomedes:....you tried being merciful?

Odysseus: Yes?

Diomedes: you did? You tried being a good merciful person? You?

Odysseus: Yah okay fuck off it was polties dying wish. I had to try.

Diomedes:.....90% of the war crimes in the Trojan war were suggested, planned out, and carried out by you. We literally stoned to death the guy you had a personal grudge against. We framed him for treason and stoned him to death. 70% of why Athena liked you was because she thought she knew all the ways to kill someone and then you'd suggest something insane and I'd see her taking notes. You literally gave Ajex a psyoctic break just being yourself.

Odysseus: shut up

Diomedes: I'm not wrong. Did you tell Penelope about your attempt to be a good person?

Odysseus: What? Of course I did. I told her everything.

Diomedes: did she laugh?

Odysseus:...shut up that's not the point

Diomedes: she did didn't she!!!

Odysseus: ANYWAY eurylochus wasn't appreciative of my return to monsterhood and he started causing problems so I

Diomedes: killed him? Yah saw that coming. No shit. I'm so shocked.

[havenshereagain]

DPxDC Idea

Danny working at Wayne Enterprises as some sort of engineer, uses the in-house app for all his blueprints and stuff

He starts getting notes from a coworker in-app, and assumes its this annoying older guy in his department who constantly undermines him because of his age, despite his education and past achievements (i feel like in this AU the Fentons react well to the reveal and they work together on a number of non-lethal ecto inventions that have Danny's name attached to them)

Except one day his coworker mentions never using the app, and Danny suddenly realizes there's only one other TD he could've been arguing with in the notes of the app

[lotus-pear]

charm stat at debonair ‼️‼️

[collgeruledzebra]

the thing about trying to recommend fiction podcasts to someone who isn't familiar with them is that not only are so so many genres represented but also the level of production can fall anywhere from "basically an audiobook" to "major motion picture minus the pictures"