#or vacuums for that matter

[monkesupreme]

Maybe i SHOULD draft out my ‘Clark is a SuperPlant’ propaganda post

[varpusvaras]

It does not matter if Jason was a bad kid. It does not matter if he was reckless. It does not matter if he had a "mean-streak". It does not matter if he had a temper. It does not matter if he didn't follow orders.

None of that matters. He was a child. A child who was violently tortured and murdered.

Nothing could've made a child deserve that.

[crossdressingdeath]

You know what? I think a lot of DAV's biggest plot weaknesses ultimately come back to DAI, because a lot of them can be summarized as "Why didn't they get into [thing that DAI set up]" and... the answer is that Bioware was never going to be able to meaningfully engage with those things, and they should've known that when they wrote them into DAI. The Divine, Kieran's existence, Urthemiel's soul, the Well of Sorrows, all that stuff DAI set up that people are mad DAV didn't focus on? All of those should have led to pretty big alterations in the worldstate, and the worldstate has to remain roughly the same for everyone. We were never going to get the massive impact those choices should've had, for the same reason the Warden's boon at the end of DAO was quietly forgotten about as soon as Dragon Age became a series instead of a standalone game: the writing just can't support choices that would create such massive divergences. Like... take Urthemiel. Whether or not Mythal got Urthemiel's soul (and by extension whether or not Solas potentially had the chance to take it) should have been a huge deal! It should've led to two pretty different paths! Except... it can't. Because Bioware can only write one story for each game they make, which means the critical path can't really change beyond flavour text and occasionally which character gets a cameo slot; Mythal didn't get Urthemiel's soul in every worldstate, so Urthemiel's soul can never be relevant to the main plot. And the thing is, they would've known that going in! DAI was the third game, they must have known that worldstate variation could never be more than flavour text and cameos! Hell, you can see Bioware scrambling to make all the Divine options more or less the same in terms of impact on Thedosian society in DAI, which was definitely done to make writing sequels feasible. So why did they write Mythal getting Urthemiel's soul into DAI? And it's the same for all those other big, story-changing choices. People have differing opinions on the merits of including variable flavour text just to say it's there but that's not what this is about; in terms of the actual plot the variables cannot be relevant (unless it's something like the Warden ally choice where every option is ultimately the same in terms of plot impact, and even that one's pushing it; it never is explained how Hawke ended up friendly with Loghain). I think when talking about choices from DAI that DAV didn't engage with it's important to take a second to ask yourself if Bioware could have written a version of events that worked equally well with every possible outcome of that choice and could be tweaked to engage with every variation without having any major impact on the main plot. If the answer is no I think it's better described as a DAI problem than a DAV problem, because it's not actually DAV's fault that DAI wrote checks it couldn't cash.

[itspileofgoodthings]

had a very nice realization about peace, especially spiritual peace, the other day. (Been brewing for a while.) and it’s just: peace is for the non-peaceful.

[louthestarspeaker]

There's like this one genre of post and video essay I keep seeing from people who say they aren't upset about the HTTYD casting for racist reasons, they're upset because they don't like the characters they love to change. They're attached to their appearance, and they'd be uncomfortable with any deviation.

I am going to give these people the benefit of the doubt and assume this is true. But, like, so? Why do you think your discomfort should be prioritized over representation?

You realize that's what you're saying right. They shouldn't have cast Astrid as a black girl to protect your comfort.

And you can say it's not about race and you'd be just as upset with any changes, but when you do that you're ignoring a larger context that I don't have the privilege to. This franchise (that I do love) has had a long acknowledged racism problem. People put the idea of a "faithful" adaptation on some kind of pedestal but HTTYD was not perfect, and I'm not interested in preserving that aspect of it.

And I can hear the original character defense coming from a mile and away and yes. Absolutely there should be original characters of color being written with intention from the very start. But if Dreamworks is going to thrust HTTYD right back into the center of the cultural zeitgeist again, then I am glad as hell they're doing it with POC included this time.

Do you know what it's like to be excluded so often you don't even think to look for yourself anymore? I grew up writing stories with only white protagonists because I, in the most literal sense possible, did not realize you could write stories a different way (and this wasn't a long time ago I'm young, you guys).

And the absolute joy that comes with seeing yourself represented in media you love? Do you know how much it changes you? I swear to God it alters your trajectory.

You don't get to put your comfort above others knowing they're accepted. Above little black girls all over the world watching this movie with a new kind of magic in their eyes because now black girls can ride dragons too.

It's not some great, egregious thing to you that Nico Parker is playing Astrid. It's not some mortal wound that you can never recover from. If you're so attached to one version of the character, then watch the version with her in it, it's not hard. The film isn't being force fed to you, if it makes you unhappy, act like a mature human being and don't interact with it.

But you don't get to exclude people of color again just because it makes you feel better that we're not there.

[tinystepsforward]

i also realise there's people who are gonna be like "you expect me to believe that tony tinystepsforward is 29, disabled, a sex worker of nearly a decade, worked at automattic for six years, and someone who does as much organising with local trans and prison abolitionist and sex worker spaces as they seem to imply" and frankly you can believe i'm lying if you want, that's your right, just block me or w/e you don't have to be here. but yes i do in fact both work to eat and work for a better world. i just happen to be the kind of person who really struggles with inertia and is always doing a million things. kiasu, as my singaporean friends still call me, though i don't think i fit the classic archetype there at all — it's not a fomo thing as much as a having poor judgement about the feasibility of the ways i want to be generous with my time and energy and skills. i'm working on it. i would like to learn how to rest.

[galactaknightyaoi]

making a fankid but shaking my head the entire time so people know i'm against the societal belief that everyone's goal and only purpose in life should be to have kids and form a family

[lyss-sketchbox]

Iansan is the only natlan character i want and if she's put in the banner with the leopard or the vampire cowboy lady im actually skipping the entire natlan roster until columbina

[goddessofroyalty]

In your verse, Amaranthine is an alfa, beta or omega?

Im sure both her and Naph could get flack for being zaunite/half zaunite/adopted but how would react Jayvik if they were critizied for both being omegas?

Like, when people talk shit because you only had girls (happend to my dad btw)

Amy, Isha and Naph causing trouble together is my new favorite

I haven't really settled one the designations for the younger generation of kids (and probably never fully will) because in my head I'm mostly thinking about them as well... the pups of the family. And so haven't presented yet instead just being the general young children.

I think Jayce mostly gets comments about the adopted/half zaunite thing. Just because Piltover (and Zaun) doesn't seem to care all that much about gender in canon (nobody makes a bit deal about Cait being the only heir to the Kiramman's and the name clearly has come from her mother's side) and I tend to try and match canon gender discrimination levels in omegaverse discrimination levels (plus I have plenty to play with just from the Zaun stuff). Way back when we did discuss the idea of people assuming Naph was the adopted one because of how much more he takes after Viktor over Jayce (and fact that he does tend to have a more Zaunite bent in his style) and it driving Jayce crazy not because he thinks it matters whether his kids are adopted or not they're both his kids but because of the implications behind why they think Naph is the poor orphan he took in and not the more Piltover-looking Amaranthine.

Yeah I'm really enjoying the idea of the three of them getting into trouble. Although it's probably more Amaranthine and Isha leading Naph into trouble because he's a little bit (couple of years) younger than both girls (and more mild tempered). Their families reputation definitively proceeds them and means they can get away with a lot more things because people don't want to bring the wrath of their family down on them if they make these kids cry. But the flipside is also there is so many adults across both Piltover and Zaun who know who they are and will dob them in to their parents.

[mihai-florescu]

Im never being a hater again im a reformed man!!! Im a being full of love only, shabby and foolish, but that's okay

[romanceyourdemons]

shen qingqiu rated most stealable body with five thefts and one purchase over the course of like twenty years

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

I keep stumbling accross terrible 2010s fandom memes and cringing but then I remember a human being who was passionate about something made that. They thought it was funny and awkwardly smashed it together in mspaint. And then I look at today's youtube shorts soulless miserable content vomit smothered in a glossy ai filter to feed the machine. And feel some kinda way.

[mapsofnonexistentplaces]

obviously i think its good to grow out of mocking people relentlessly especially to their face but honestly i think people should also grow a bigger backbone with regards to like. someone saying their interest is lame or sucks. like a lot of people have turned the idea of 'oh we need to kill the idea of cringe culture and public shaming for harmless fun' to 'i have to take every post against my interests personally and people should never complain about anything so that they dont hurt my feelings'

[dogdenhoarde]

Sick to death of posts like "reminder that gaining new system members (specifically introjects) isn't a bad thing!!" - like. No shit. It's not about it being a bad thing, or shameful or embarassing or anything else. When we avoid interacting with media because we know we'll introject someone from it it's because it's fuckin' annoying to have a million fragments that take up all the brainspace associated with the media. It becomes about Them instead of just enjoying it on its own, stops being a fun fandom thing and turns into another exotrauma exploration. Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to have Every Interest of yours inevitably become someone else's identity that now you can't engage with without them breathing down your neck being awkward

[spitblaze]

todays award for 'man what the fuck' goes to reddit for making me see pr0/-ship discourse in goddamn 2023. thought we were past that but i guess not

[lazer-screwdriver]

Fantasizing about doing inhumane experiments on jack