#not too much at least

[didoleonina]

My oc Lenore Lannister who has the misfortune of looking like her aunt Joanna

[luniviravosshipper]

Okay, so, I’m actually going to talk about Viren’s death and why it seems a little pointless after season 7.

So, this entire time I thought that a lot of the problems I found with Viren’s arc had to do with the writers not really knowing what to do with him anymore and feeling like he wasn’t relevant to the story they wanted to tell. And that’s why for an entire season he was in a coma-like state and in another he only interacted with one person before dying again.

But watching season 7��� so many of the things would have made more sense if he just stayed alive??

Like, so many people are talking about how a fitting ending for Aaravos would’ve involved him being talked to and negotiated with. But there’s only one person I feel like would be perfect for him to talk to and that’s Viren. And that would have made much more sense added to the fact that now Aaravos has bonded with his daughter. So they would share that connection and maybe Viren would be able to get through to him and teach him how to reconcile with his grief.

I mean, yeah sure, in arc 3 maybe one of the kids who lost their parents (which is nearly all of them) could talk to him and relate to his experience but from the other side of loss. But I don’t know, it feels more suitable if Viren was the one to do it. And I don’t even say that as a Viravos shipper, I just mean in general Viren is the character who has known Aaravos the longest and has had one of the closest relationships to him. I’ll even make a separate more well articulated post on this, but Aaravos seems to have legitimately treated Viren different from the other cast members including Claudia, and I feel like that could have been because he was secretly hoping he’d exceed his expectations of him. And just the fact that the first intro of act 2 we got was just of Viren and Aaravos (and there’s some really interesting analyses of that too that I’ve seen when it was first posted)… I feel like they were playing their relationship up like there was going to be more that was going to happen between them and I think this would have been a perfect opportunity for something more to happen.

And then the confirmation of the Harrow is in the bird theory… I’m not entirely mad about it being confirmed, just mainly annoyed by how they went about it… But also… I’m even more annoyed by the fact that I don’t think it’s going to really work out at all without Viren. I mean, the Virrow fans were the ones who were keeping that theory alive. The whole fight over Harrow sacrificing himself instead of letting Viren use dark magic on him was significant to their dynamic and to Viren’s character development later on. And Viren has dealt with so much unresolved grief over Harrow’s loss that’s been hinted at in the books and throughout the seasons. (It didn’t even feel properly acknowledged by the end of his life.) To canonize that Viren did trap him in the bird… that tells us so much more about Viren as a person and his relationship with Harrow and yet we are never going to be able to explore that further because he’s dead. Even if we learn some things from Harrow’s perspective, so much of it is about Viren’s own choice to save his life without his permission. How could they explore that in length if we’re not hearing Viren’s side? And to have that never even explored earlier when he was alive, to have it be hinted that it could be something they were planning on canonizing but not have Viren’s feelings towards what he did to Harrow ever reconciled… How are we supposed to believe now he died in peace?

It also just seems like an afterthought? I mean, (the way they went about treating it like a joke and decided to place it at the very end of the season so that we could see the characters still struggle with coming to terms with how he died but having the writers not realize that making this decision for him to not have would completely undermine all of that development and the messages surrounding loss in the series, but also) the fact that in the last season there was no indication made that this was something they were planning to reveal. There was some stuff in season 5, but not really at all in season 6. And I feel like this would have been very important in some way acknowledging prior to the big reveal with the “redemption arc” they tried to give Viren.

Edit: Oh, and I completely forgot. The fact that they let Runaan completely off the hook compared to Viren. Not just by confirming that Runaan didn’t kill Harrow in the first place, but also by having the show at multiple times act as though it was completely unfair for having Runaan be punished for what he did by Ezran. Obviously, I don’t think Ezran was completely justifiable in all his actions this season, but the extent in which the show actively antagonized his character was insane… Having Rayla show absolute disregard for what he was going through or what Runaan did just because she wanted to bring him back to the Silvergrove. And never in this season do they acknowledge the lack of sympathy that was shown to Ezran and his situation by her. But somehow when everything was said and done, Ezran was willing to hear him out. But Viren was never given the chance. And I know that arguably Viren made a lot more wrongdoings than him, but just the fact that we literally watched for 3 seasons Viren change as a character… and even prior then that in the first act doubting his own motivations... Just for the show to act like there was no chance at offering him forgiveness or reconciliation at all… It would have been so interesting to see them parallel Viren and Runaan this season, on how if one didn’t deserve that sense of forgiveness then the other one didn’t deserve it as well. Not saying that Runaan shouldn’t have been forgiven, more like disappointed at the fact that that conflict didn’t even arise in the first place. It was like there was never even a question about whether or not Viren deserved to be heard out, he just didn’t in the show’s eyes. But had they kept him around longer, they could actually flesh out his character arc more in a way that, if they weren’t willing to hear him out earlier, would be more willing to hear him out now.

And then, Rayla. Okay. Don’t get me started on her. I have a lot of controversial opinions on the handling of her character in act 2 that I haven’t shared on here before because I’m scared to lol. (Don’t worry though, I do love her still and I don’t think she was done as bad as Viren). But there was so much setup for there to be this big confrontation between Rayla and Viren… And I’ve thought about this since the moment season 5 came out. This is a bigger issue with the way they wrote Viren’s arc that I haven’t seen anyone else who is also critical of his arc talk about. I feel like so many of the issues I had with both arcs could have been resolved if these two characters interacted with each other. I mean, if only Viren could have joined Rayla and Callum on their trip to the Starscraper instead of going to Katolis. Literally everything would have been different and it would have all flown so much more smoothly. (I can outline how I think this would play out plot point by plot point and for the better at another time.)

Oh, and of course, Kpp’ar. If they weren’t going to give us any new information this season about him and were just going to use the excuse that that would be too upsetting for one of the characters (I’m talking about Claudia shutting down the conversation about him as soon as Aaravos brought up the idea he could have been self eating) or that one of the characters doesn’t know enough to give us new information on him anyways, then couldn’t we have had Viren in this season to tell us more about him? Like, just a flashback or something. Just to have him in the background supplementing some intel that Claudia couldn’t. He could have at least been given that purpose this season.

I know a lot of these thoughts don’t seem very coherent, and they aren’t. I’m purposefully leaving out some other thoughts because I feel like it’d be more appropriate to share them later. But I have had thoughts like this reminiscing since the release of season 5. I didn’t know where they were going to go with his character after that season and I was incredibly anxious about how they would write his interactions with Soren in particular and season 6 really confirmed a lot of my worries. I had hope though that this season would be good without him, because, as I said earlier, it really felt like maybe they were just having trouble fitting him into the narrative so perhaps it’d be easier for them to write certain plot points without him. But after this season came out… A lot of the things that were left too open in the end I feel like he could have helped close. But I don’t know.

Anyways, this is all I’m going to share for now. I have a lot of other thoughts, but I’m going to wait till I am better capable of explaining them properly and in a way that isn’t formatted as a rant. In the meantime, I’m just going to start reblogging some posts I like that commentate on the handling of Viren as a character and his arc.

[morganandthemoon]

self mumbling: don't use omegaverse in tarot

[transannabeth]

if you opened discord’s april fools day loot boxes how long did it take you to get all the items? it took my friend 18 boxes but me 65 and i want to see how bad my luck is

[chloesimaginationthings]

The Afton’s different ways of parenting in FNAF

[arcanegifs]

ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 2x08 - “Killing is a Cycle” ↳ "Some people are really misunderstanding the dialogue before the scene in the cell" | (essay link)

[ruushes]

companions re-classed pt 2 - wyll 🗡️💘🐉

with thanks to @thedragonagelesbian and everyone who suggested drakewarden, i think the change made it a much better piece! 💛

karlach

[aphel1on]

AuDHD is so funny sometimes like what do you mean my hyperfixations/special interests will last for years on end or possibly forever but they will cycle out every month or two with absolutely no transitional period or warning. like i will think about the same topic every day obsessively for 46 days in a row and on the 47th day with no visible cause adhd brain goes "ok! bored of that now" and autism brain goes "dw i got something queued up for ya" and i blast into full blown obsession on some other topic whose mental file folders haven't opened in 9 months. brain's out here treating hyperfixations like a crop rotation. once the dopamine runs out it cycles in another one but once something's in the rotation it never ever leaves. last summer we brought in one from when i was 11. it's so funny to me but frustrating too bc like. i cannot stress enough my inability to predict or control this. or how completely abrupt and random it can be

[pangur-and-grim]

ah......I might have priced myself out of a cool work opportunity. it's happened before - serious industry people come to me with projects that would take half a year of me working full time, and then I calculate my mortgage, my food, my various bills, add a sprinkle of profit on top so that I'm not just breaking even, and ask for that. and the response is always "wtf, you're insane!"

I don't like working in illustration. it's why I barely do any freelance anymore. my wrists are ruined, my back is ruined, and I have to make enough to keep living. I can't jump for crumbs anymore.

[mythicalcoolkid]

You don't wish your disability was worse or more visible, you wish your disability was taken seriously. Please stop confusing the two, I guarantee you would not get the support you need JUST by being more severe or more visible. Please listen to visibly disabled people when we tell you it isn't better on our side

[lucdoodle]

trying to get better with colors!

another fanart of @forgettable-au !

[demaparbat-hp]

She will (and he'll let her)

[insomniac-arrest]

This is your permission to not think about the horrors for a bit. You can put it down now. They’ll be there tomorrow

[turtleblogatlast]

Leo learns something about himself 🏳️‍⚧️

Based roughly on this old post.

Bonus:

[Leo is taking the fact that he was born biologically female simultaneously very well and also not so well but overall he’s mostly coping with the fact that it was Draxum that just essentially gave him the turtle equivalent of ‘The Talk’.]

[qoldenskies]

i think its so funny when people take the way donnie acts at face value even though its a horrible lie because he's a horrible liar, while understanding leo is bullshitting very well despite him actually being GOOD at bullshitting. many such cases

[dcartcorner]

marks

(animated gif below the cut - warning for image flashing)