#narrative bais

[nightlyteaandpaper]

Please stop calling them Morally Grey, they are just dickheads

No one from the Night Court is morally grey. Their actions are horrible, the narrative justifies them.

Feyre destroys The Spring Court, leading to the destruction of the Summer Court, and the only two people who say something against this are the HLs of those courts, but even then, they don't put up much of a fight. Tarquin, after being disrespected in his home, goes to the HL's Meeting and says "Well, the Night Court were the only people who came to help," as if the High Court wasn't the reason his people were attacked. The narrative does not allow Tamlin any breathing room to make his point, right or wrong, instead, the rest of the people on page opening disregard his opinions (which is insane to me because they were his friends longer than Feyre had been alive, and they just take what Feyre says at face value.) Instead, no one speaks when Rhysand magically violates Tamlin's autonomy and shuts him up. No one spoke when Feyre and Azreal were whooping people's asses, despite the NC saying they wouldn't do it before the meeting, and the literal HL of Dawn putting wards on the room for no magic use (which, again, how were they able to use magic to attack people).

Feyre scrambled the minds and implanted thoughts in the heads of the guards in the Spring Court to destroy it and she never looked back on it for more than three seconds and went "huh, that was weird. It wasn't smart to do that because the wall is literally pressed against the Spring Court's ass..." No, everyone pats her on the back for her work. Lucien brings up briefly his discomfort being used as a pawn in Feyre's game and that she single-handedly destroyed his friendship with Tamlin, that older than Feyre had been alive, and the narrative doesn't even have her linger on that thought for more than one second. The narrative is quick to call out people who treat Feyre and the rest of the IC poorly, but never calls out them treating everyone else poorly. The narrative justifies the pimping of Feyre and her physical abuse by Rhysand (twisting her arm to make her agree to the bargain) as a necessary evil but does not extend the same grace to Tamlin, who did what he did as a necessary evil.

Trauma is understood when the person traumatized is the Night Court but never with anyone else. They constantly go back to dogpile on Tamlin, and the narrative doesn't have a single person stop and say, "Yeah, we should leave him alone." In fact, during FAS, after Rhysand tears into Tamlin, he goes back to Feyre, and she says, "You are always a bigger man" I refuse to say male. This is after Feyre writes to him and says, "Thank you for your help, I hope you find happiness too" and it is known that this man is so depressed that he is in his beast form. He does not have a kingdom anymore. Also, no one told Rhys to go to the Spring Court and harass him. One could say that the things the IC did could be from the perspective of Feyre and thus justified, but when we move to Nesta and Cassian's perspective again, nothing is challenged.

Nesta says that the only reason she hates Rhysand is because he is smug, not because of how he treats her. Nesta was threatened because she, albeit not in the kindest way, told Feyre that she was going to die in childbirth, and while Feyre said it wasn't right, there is nothing longer than a paragraph about the whole situation. It was just over as soon as it started. Nesta gets locked in the house for God knows how long (which, again, doesn't make sense because if she could get down the steps, get tired, and come back up, she should be able to make it all the way down the steps. Walking down the steps isn't what tries people out, it the coming back up because you are going against gravity) and no one thinks, "Hmm, that is exactly what Tamlin did to Feyre." They both locked someone in under the guise of protection. Cassian sees how the IC is treating Nesta, and while he tries to say something, he is always shut down.

And I will close on this. In an interview a few years ago, SJM said that Rhysand was a gift to her and that he could basically do no wrong. She also mentioned that the reason why Nesta was mad at Feyre and Rhysand was because she was jealous of their perfect life. This, my friends, is not how you write a story. This is an example of Authorial Fiat. You may say, "it's just a fantasy story" and I will say "Shut up, we know. I don't know how told tell you this, but: stories have to make sense."

[bricreative]

I’m the ghost in the back of your head

(WIP)

[wildwinterlunas]

"SMPE!Tommy and DSMP!Tommy are the same!"

SMPE!Tommy would have sided with c!Dream out of spite for c!Wilbur in the Independence War. SMPE!Tommy would have sided eyed c!Techno whenever he said he was an Anarchist because the Antarctic Empire was a dictatorship. SMPE!Tommy would have absolutely joined Manberg with no hesitation. SMPE!Tommy would have had straight up flash backs when c!Quackity threatened c!Techno's horse.

Buisness Bay could be canon to DSMP!Tommy. Deo, Bitzle and Luke could be canon to DSMP!Tommy. There is no way in hell that the entirety of SMPE!Tommy is the same person as him.

They're both chaotic little shits but SMPE!Tommy makes c!Tommy look like a saint.

[r0bbers02]

I'm actually so excited for the new lis game, max is one of my favorite characters not only from this franchise but in general

I'm nervous to see how they deal with the whole Chloe thing, but I'm trying to be optimistic about it

[scarefox]

and then they married 😌

[shrikeseams]

AU where the dwarves steal the silmaril+nauglamir without bloodshed (just shove it into someone's back pocket and make a run for it I guess), and when Thingol (and Beren) try to demand it back they just point out that Beren stole it in the first place, so Doriath doesn't have a leg to stand on re: lawful possession.

[saulweissberg]

availability / @doctornilaybailey setting / saul's home in oak gardens, around eleven am.

saul wasn’t that much of a handy guy, but as a now single man (again) that lived alone and far away from his son that he couldn’t bribe into doing the job for him, the maintenance work often fell to him. sometimes he hired out for a big job like replacing the water heater, but when it came to things like raking leaves in the fall or cleaning out the gutters, saul had too much pride to pay someone to do it for him… except for mowing the lawn; when it came to that, saul paid his friend kate’s fourteen year old son to do the chore for him. there was no pride involved when it came to the lawn mowing! so, on that spring morning, he was the one that had to take care of the clogged gutters of his home in oak gardens. on top of the ladder, he was dropping soggy old leaves into a bag when he heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up to the curb of his home. looking over his shoulder, he saw that it was nilay that had arrived. “hi, sheyfele!” he dusted off his yard gloves and held onto the ladder as he turned slightly to face her better. “do i spy a coffee from caffélicious in your hand there? you better have brought one for me, too!”

[agentark]

I genuinely feel shocked when I see how many people pick chloe over arcadia bay ngl

[brionysea]

local girl realises she can write about rachel amber. watch out

[apple-of-my-pie]

Something about how Wolf 359 is primarily character-driven rather than plot driven. Something about how all the villains extol the value of the ‘big picture’, the grand cosmic happenings that are more important than any people’s lives or desires. Something about the contact event mattering because of the way the characters react in the face of it. Something about an immortal alien empire reaching out to mankind for the first time by having a chat with one man alone in a room. Something about how, as aliens judge whether the human race deserves to live and a megacorporation plans world domination, the story is about a group of people stuck on a tin can together and the way they feel about their lives, the world and each other.

[incorrectthots]

"cause I'm on the outside, I'm looking in I can see through you, see to the real you."

Outside -Staind

[whathebrick]

honestly she's just vibing (until the horrors come for her)

[fluffypotatey]

So, is it settled that M is a bird? I can't help but think it might be funny if she was a cat, and that was, like, half of the reason why Bai He liked Macaque despite his grumpy persona (another half would be him catching her in s3 special) and wanted to hang around him. Someone with a cat for a daemon just can't be a bad person, you see.

what’s wrong with birds 🥺 what about bird daemons means bad person 🥺 (i’m KIDDING!!! THIS IS A JOKE!!!! i am being silly on purpose)

yeah M is settled as a bird in my mind and i fully it blame it on the bird transformation Macky was in when Wukong got possessed. also M is a falcon specifically and her and Mac could be twinning whenever he transform into one. and also bc he main color is dark purple/raven/black-ish color, we get that ambiguity of whether or not MacBook is our ally in the first few seasons. like her color is wholly dependent on Mcjagger’s shadow powers but MK doesn’t know that

also i feel like having a cat daemon =/= bad person. you might be one of the most normal people with it <-other ppl’s assumptions when they see your daemon it’s not like we’re in 1600s New England

[bulletbilltime]

Between Ethel Cain's Preacher's Daughter, Shisumo's Bookstore Max AU, and whimsicalcotton's polluted marrow Max AU (and let's be real pretty much all of Life is Strange 1 & True Colors), I am noticing that I may be latching on to stories about traumatized ppl more than may be healthy

[ultfreakme]

Don't let the media make what's happening with Israel, Iran and Jordan into some "middle-east problem" again. This was entirely orchestrated and encouraged by the US and the UK. Israel initiated every attack against Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iran. Israel KILLED, targeted, the children and grandchildren of Palestinians political leaders. And the US could've stopped all of this by simply not giving Israel money and weapons bu they didn't.

The Western media has constructed this narrative that countries like Iraq and Iran are the problem and the western nations are the antidote keeping their 'terrorism' at bay. No, they have always and at all times started the conflicts, or worsened them.

Because they want the land, they want hegemony over the resources of that region and that is it. And they've demonstrated already by killing over 33,000 people that they'll do anything.

Stop joking about World War 3 and take the loss of lives and the horror of what is happening seriously. This cannot keep escalating

[ifightformyfriends]

Good instincts! These are great prompts to get you thinking about your character as a person and how that person plays into the Class that they are. They’re really common in other TTRPGs.

Pathfinder takes a more Examples approach than Questions, providing examples of what a Class can be, and is often assumed to be, in various situations. They have similar information for Ancestries, with “You Might” and “Others probably” for each of those and also every Versatile Heritage (Things like Tiefling that you can slap onto any Ancestry for tons of combinations).

Beacon does go the question route, with 4 questions for each Class. Same for Ancestries here, too, along with an example Worldbuilding for them because there is a lot of worldbuilding you can do in the system. Also worth noting that Beacon has 12 level progression but each Class is only 3 levels, so it’s always worth thinking about the questions for why you take your next Class which keeps them always relevant.

And then there’s Fabula Ultima, which again offers 4 questions Per Class. Nothing for Ancestries since those aren’t mechanically relevant in Fabula Ultima, but there is a TON of group focused collaborative worldbuilding to help get everyone on the same page about the game being played, but that’s a bit out of scope for this. Fabula Ultima is a Tabletop JRPG, and as such you start at level 5 and you HAVE to Multiclass with 2 or 3 Classes for those initial 5. And the levels go up to 50! Though you can only have 3 Classes under level 10 at a time so at most...7 Classes over 50 levels.

They’re a very useful tool, especially for newer players, and their absence from 5e helps to highlight that 5e isn’t actually meant to be easy for new players, it’s meant to be approachable, and those are very different design goals.

So you're playing a D&D class

(had these thoughts while thinking about CR character builds, but relevant to D&D in general).

Here's just a brief list of three questions per class that are intended to be helpful if you're playing that class and are working on fleshing out that aspect of your character. Note that I'm only covering officially published classes for 5e. If you're a blood hunter I am just going to assume you know what you're about, and if you're a mystic then you are beyond help or hope. Also, obviously, there's way more to a character than their class! But understanding why the character is that class is pretty crucial to overall character build.

Artificer:

Did the magic come first or did the tinkering come first?

Did you apprentice or where you self-taught?

What do you dream of creating - or if you don't, what outside goal drives your creations?

Barbarian:

Is rage a cultural or family trait, or is this unique to you?

What do you feel like when you rage?

What do you feel your purpose is, outside of combat? Do you have one or are you not sure? (note - feel free to ask this about other martially focused classes, but barbarians skew especially hard towards combat skills above all others)

Bard:

What led you to be able to tap into the echoes of creation (not guaranteed for all artists!)

What is your medium, and how did you come to it/learn it?

You have a ton of skills - how did you acquire them?

Cleric:

What is your relationship with the deity/entity/concept that grants you your powers?

Since many sources have multiple domains, why this domain specifically?

What does your worship look like?

Druid:

Is your relationship to nature cultural, or personal?

What drew you to your circle?

How do you feel about wildshape? Is it a tool available to you, or an enjoyable experience?

Fighter:

Who trained you or how did you pick up your skills?

What led you to focus on fighting? Is there something you wished to attack or to protect?

Fighter is REALLY modular/subclass dependent, so dig into your subclass; if you're a champion, the 'what is your purpose outside combat' from Barbarian may apply, but if you're say, an eldritch knight or rune knight, you may have had two teachers and should dig into that.

Monk:

Who trained you?

What does Ki feel like for you?

Not a question, but: with the caveat that I know very little about martial arts, I do think that having a concept of the martial art style your monk uses is a huge help in bringing the character to life.

Paladin:

What drew you to this oath?

What continues to motivate you?

You're in a very versatile role; which part speaks to you the most- do you see yourself more as a protector? a healer? is the versatility itself what matters?

Ranger:

How did you learn your nature skills?

What is your relationship to your magic?

Why are your favored terrain and enemy what they are?

Rogue:

How did you learn to pick locks?

Did your thievery/stealth come as a necessity for survival, or was it a choice?

As with bard - what specifically led you to develop the skills you have?

Sorcerer:

When did your powers first manifest? If it was not when you were very young, what were you doing beforehand?

Are you interested in where your powers came from? How far would you go to learn about them? Or do you already know?

What would you do if your powers disappeared?

Warlock:

What led you to make the pact - even if it was accidental or a trick?

How do you feel about your patron generally?

Because warlock is truly very modular - that is, extremely reliant on the boon and evocations for flavor, analyze the choice of evocations and boon. If you picked agonizing blast, why specifically did your warlock want to make eldritch blast stronger? What drew your character to the blade vs. chain vs. tome?

Wizard:

What role do wizards play in your society?

How were you trained?

What do you most desire to learn or achieve?