#rambling about stuff

[caihnurst]

There is something endearing and fascinating about The Witcher 3 male's face characteristics. The moles. Aquiline noses. Greek features for some. Prominent Renaissance-like foreheads. I am IN LOVE.

You can understand so much about their physiognomy just by staring at them.

This is how you make a character attractive. It is not about how "clean" or "neat" they are. The wrinkles, the frown, the eyes, the shape of the lips.. This is so much more enticing to me.

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

I love Johnathan "It seems my academic detachment has fled me" Sims with my whole heart, and honestly it's because he's a fucking prick. He spends all of season 1 genuinely being a massive asshole, and not just on the outside, he's a prick through and through. I think there's an instinct to justify his behavior because people like him, but I think that's discounting what makes him interesting.

Yes, when he lies and pretends that he is skeptical, it is out of self-preservation. It is out of fear. But he allows his fear to become something that hurts the people around him. He implies to multiple people, traumatized people looking for help, that they're delusional. To their faces. It's not the only thing he says, but he says it with a heavy tone of condescension and irritation, two things that vulnerable frightened people do not need. Both Martin and Sasha almost end up dead because they're convinced that John won't take them seriously if they don't have good enough evidence of their experiences. He's a huge asshole to Martin for literally no reason. You aren't obligated to like everybody, but goddamn, John, some thoughts are inside thoughts!

And then he realizes that he's a massive prick, at some point in the latter half of season 2. Really realizes it, realizes how much his actions impact the people around him. And he doesn't really stop for a long time, arguably he doesn't stop ever. But holy shit, he tries. He tries with everything in his entire being to be better. He puts his whole life into being better than he was, into trying to fix what he feels he broke, and he will try and try and try until his hands bleed and his legs collapse under him because he let people suffer under his watch and by his own hand and Never Again. I think that's why he leans so hard into sacrificing himself, it's the cumulative guilt of everything, even stuff before the Magnus Institute, and he really does think that he can only be good if he destroys himself in the process because what the hell has ever been good about him?

And that's horrifying, and tragic, and fascinating. God, he's such a good character

[alligatorpie1945]

Some Thoughts/Reasons why the “Final” Season doesn't worry me. 

Many animated shows lately have been canceled prematurely due to corporate interference, budget cuts, or higher up dealings. Which at least for me, has left me feeling frustrated and discouraged when it comes to consuming entertainment. And at first, hearing that The Bad Batch was already in its final season after just two seasons, immediately reignited a lot of those feelings. 

But I want to remind everyone that it is not being canceled. Its ending, but it's by the choice of the creative team. I feel like too often shows will either fall into two categories. Either they are canceled way too soon, or they are kept alive well after their expiration date. And both scenarios are not ideal. 

While its fun to have your favorite show go on indefinitely, it will one way or another get to a point where it feels directionless, unmotivated, or stale. Typically writing goes down the toilet, actors leave, and characters aren't interesting anymore. (*ahem* The Mandalorian) 

If the creators of this show feel like they can tell the rest of the Batch’s story in one season, then I trust them. I want a good ending for these characters, I want one that is not rushed or slapped together. Its okay for things to end. I just want it to be given the time and effort they deserve.

And lets be real, this is Star Wars we are talking about. Characters (especially beloved characters) are hardly ever gone permanently. Pretty much every “main” character has come back in another show. So even with the end of this series on the horizon, I highly doubt it will be the end of these characters. So keep that in mind if you find yourself spiraling. 

Side Note: 

I think most of us have seen the leaked teaser, but remember! Star Wars is pretty crafty with their trailers. For season 2 the majority of the trailer was made up from the first 6ish episodes! I’m predicting they save Cross and Omega within the first couple episodes, Tech will probably come back either early - mid season and then who knows what we will be getting at the very end. I remember hearing, I think Dee Bradly Cooper say that the show is about The Batch at its core. And given we didn't really get to see everyone in action together during season 2. I'm assuming we are building up to have ALL SIX of them together fighting a big ol battle at the end of the show. Whatever I'm sure they do, it will be great!

[guzmasenbyboyfriend]

So in October of last year this current hyperfixation on Ghostbusters started (I was already hyperfixated on the series once like years ago but it came back and stronger than before) but something I didn't expect to get with this round of hyperfixating on Ghostbusters was also hyperfixating on Harold Ramis which I rarely get hyperfixated on people actually I can't even think of another time I have been so that's something

[not-poignant]

Woof, that Constellations reveal!! How come Gwyn knows which psychologist Ef saw at Hillview but not what happened with Henton?

Oooo this is an awesome question.

So there's a few layers to this, thank you for enabling my rambling, this won't be a short answer.

The main reason is simply that Efnisien didn't want him to know. And given that Efnisien's privacy had been violated unconscionably repeatedly at Hillview, Dr Gary wasn't in a rush to tell Gwyn ap Nudd, especially because (in this particular world I'm writing lol) he had no legal obligation to. Efnisien was a legal adult at the time the recorded assaults took place, and his choices actually matter.

Like, it wasn't like Gwyn was getting regular progress reports or anything once Efnisien was in Hillview, and he certainly got a lot less as soon as Efnisien became a legal adult. Gwyn was notified of some bare bones stuff in the hospital because Efnisien's life was in danger and frankly doctors and psychologists tend to be a bit more open while someone's life is in danger in a hospital (and Efnisien wasn't formally enrolled at Hillview yet or living there).

But after that, most of what Gwyn knew about Hillview he learned directly from Efnisien. Efnisien would have told him that he was seeing Dr Henton while he was still verbal / talking.

Once the sexual abuse and assault started, Efnisien went fully nonverbal for some months afterwards. Not just with Dr Gary, but also with Gwyn. All Gwyn knows is that, all of a sudden, Efnisien has gone nonverbal and changed psychologists.

Gwyn assumed this was because Efnisien relapsed and started hurting other people, and his attitude actually changed around Efnisien after that, and Efnisien never corrected him because he never saw the point.

Not only that, but it's in Efnisien's records that Gwyn has been abusive to Efnisien. They allow his visitations, but Efnisien has also disclosed that Gwyn has broken bones in his face, beaten him, and been violent towards him, and while Efnisien didn't know this was being written in his general file - the staff certainly knew of Gwyn in context of 'actual abuser visiting Efnisien on occasion.'

So they don't exactly have incentive to say 'heyyyyy...abuser of Efnisien that we allow him to see because his mental health dives without you, we're just going to share that he was abused by another guy in case you want to like...abuse him over that too.' It's not like Gwyn is 'just a concerned cousin' - he's not an immediate family member, he's a point of contact, but he's a point of contact with caveats, like 'we know Efnisien has stated clearly he needs to see Gwyn, but we don't like him' caveats. They're not going to rush to give Gwyn tools to harm Efnisien.

And he would have.

And Efnisien knew he would have.

This is really vital. All along, Efnisien has always assumed Gwyn would say 'well that's what you deserve' re: Henton's actions (or 'now you know what it's like I guess') and we know Gwyn would have said something like that, based on how he reacts to Efnisien being harmed during Falling Falling Stars.

Like, Gwyn's attitude changes over time, but Efnisien and the staff are right to think that Gwyn would hurt Efnisien with the knowledge that he'd been abused by staff at Hillview.

So yeah, and also like... Dr Gary tried to get Efnisien to press charges, he even brought lawyers in, and Efnisien just...didn't talk. Refused to talk to anyone. While he couldn't verbally consent to literally anything, they erred on the side of caution. Probably the only thing he insisted on was staying at Hillview, because he knew Gwyn would only keep seeing him if he went to Hillview.

And that is why Efnisien stayed at Hillview, after Henton assaulted him. :(

Because Gwyn blackmailed him into staying there.

Idk if Gwyn would ever find that out, because it'll break his heart in Constellations if he realises. But like, Efnisien didn't want to go stay at a place where he was regularly abused and assaulted, but he did, because he was so desperate to keep the one lifeline he had.

Anyway yeah, there's a few reasons basically why Gwyn knew the name of the psychologist only, and then nothing else!

And a lot of it was purely that Efnisien never wanted him to know, and the folks around him respected that.

[spicygambles]

Thinking about fandom "Watchers"

It theory, its also a thing in whatever universe I'm writing for.. Just not as all-knowing or all-encompassing as the general consensus is. Like.. a bunch of stuck up researchers in lab coats kinda vibes.

Maybe my Grian was also a watcher once upon a time. But it was a case of "Neo was drawn into taking the whatever pill because the people recruiting him had mystical powers and always wore swanky suits and shades but what they didn't tell him was that when he was outside he had nothing but rags and only had oatmeal to eat". While I'm talking about more surface level stuff, I'm sure there's some deeper stuff in there than can be talked about but I haven't really dug too deep on the whole thing.

Him kidnapping meeting Mumbo was the push he needed to leave.

[expederest]

As the days get shorter, and the nights get colder, it can only mean one thing - It's time for Great British Bake Off! And Bake Off always gets me in the mood to, well, bake. So I decided it'd be fun to follow along, and make something related to every week. This week was cake week, so I made a marbled orange and chocolate cake.

[wisdomisadumpstat]

My character in Baldur's Gate 3, Selakiir Arkentlar, Early Access vs Full Release. (I have used Customizor's Compedium in both screenshots for the faces, sorry Larian, but I still don't vibe with the masc elf faces.)

Selakiir's old tattoo (which can barely be seen in the first screenshot, it was a dragon holding a sword) didn't make it into the full release, but the new tattoo I used for him vibes way better as his pact mark anyway (while Hexblades are not in full release, lore-wise Selakiir is a Hexblade warlock). Scars and tattoos were added in the full release as well, and while Selakiir does not have his scar until later on, it's nice to portray it (even if it was originally on the other side of his face) and it's nice to portray him with the silver earrings he's littered his ears with. Finally, the ponytail is a new addition in full release, and a new addition for Selakiir. His old hairstyle is still good, but I couldn't resist the allure of the ponytail.

[adventuretolkienlover]

Have you ever thought you had a great idea and you write it down and then it doesn't work so you're all sad but then you come up with what you think is a better idea so you write that one down instead but instead of fixing it you make things worse and then you're just sitting there in your puddle of disappointment and writer failure? Because I have. ��🤣

[monkeyparasite]

HORRIBLE NEWS ONE OF THE PORN BOTS HAVE uwu IN THEIR USERNAME, THEYRE BECOMING BRAINFUL AS MUCH AS THEY CAN.

A hollow shell with malicious intent, pretending to be a person. Does it know? Does it care? I do not know, I believe that robots only know what their purpose and has no empathy, sympathy, feelings, anything of the sort. Might they know that their purpose is harmful yet they do not care, despite understanding. Its not their fault

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

Oh my god Dandies in Danger just hit me in the heart again- and no I'm not gonna stop posting about it because the audience is so small and I want to take a megaphone and just scream out to the entire world about how good this is-

There's a scene in Episode 14 of Arc 4 that I just finished that genuinely made me emotional in a very personal way. It's a scene between Liam and Adrian, who have been friends for a long time, where Liam apologizes to Adrian for taking him on a 5 hour shopping spree. Now, Liam is a very kindhearted, enthusiastic, social butterfly type, who was very excited to go get some nice clothes and even more excited to hang out with Adrian. Adrian is a very moody poet who (I don't know if this is intended, but still) comes off as probably being autistic. He's very blunt, he's hyper-aware of how other people are perceiving him and his actions, he tends to directly describe his feelings when he pushes himself to be vulnerable with his friends, he's prone to sensory overwhelm, and ect. Some of these traits probably overlap with his clear depression and anxiety as well. He likes Liam a lot, he's definitely his best friend, and he chooses to go shopping because he wants to go hang out with Liam. But the streets are very busy and loud and there are a lot of people, and by the end of the outing he's utterly exhausted. Unfortunately they end up getting swept into an adventure the same day, which involves so much socializing and dancing and investigating and it's a lot.

In the middle of this adventure, Liam and Adrian find some time alone, and Liam stops to check in on him. And he says that he's sorry for not considering Adrian's feelings during the shopping trip. He got caught up in the excitement of it and forgot that this is very overwhelming for Adrian, and he wanted to make sure Adrian knew that it wasn't on purpose and that he didn't want it to happen again. And Adrian says

"It's fine. I know most people can do this every day of the week. Well- maybe not the- the adventure thing- but-"

"I understand. But perhaps next time, if you do want to go with me again on a shopping trip, we spread it out a bit."

And like. Y'all. I damn near teared up. I'm a person with an incredibly low social bandwidth. I have very few friends that I keep very close. And this reminded me so much of how of my own friends have reacted to me when I expressed my own struggles. Or more accurately in some cases, when they noticed the struggles I was failing to express. Especially when I was worried that they would be offended or put off by those things. Things like a friend guiding me by the hand in a crowd because I was so overwhelmed by it all that I was literally shaking and could barely move. Or a friend readily accepting my rejection of a hug and instead thinking up a silly handshake we could do with our jacket sleeves on the spot so that I would feel included without being uncomfortable. And just- jesus christ. It's one of the single nicest feelings I've ever had, and it was deeply cathartic to see that kind of relationship in this show. These characters have become very important to me in such a short amount of time, and I really think that's a testament to the ability of their players. So, thank you Dandies Team. You made me feel very seen :)

[alligatorpie1945]

Just visited the National WWII museum down in New Orleans earlier this week. And it rekindled my love for history! Anyway, here are some plane doodles during the trip back.

Joe Liebgott from Band of Brothers and Louise Zamperini from Unbroken.

The trip made me also want to revisit my old college thesis film. So who knows, guess I gotta find something to do until TBB season 3.

[the-reborn-ancestor-project]

I like cats a lot but I also think foxes are pretty cool

[adjit]

I think we need to get more comfortable with the idea that sometimes shitty, racist, homophobic, bigoted people are still incredibly talented.

I feel like every time I see a post addressing someone’s shitty behavior the post also takes the time to mention that they’re not even good at [x] anyway. And that’s just not always true? Equating being good at a skill as being morally good is just not necessary. Someone can be a fantastic writer, can have a beautiful singing voice, can create breathtaking artwork, and still be a horrible person.

I know part of this is probably just the instinct to dislike everything about a person when you dislike them, but I also think this mindset leads to people defending creatives way past where they should, because if bad people create bad art, then if this person creates art that I like and resonates with me, then they can’t be a bad person!

And you know. That’s just not true. Those two things are simply completely unconnected and I think it’d be healthier if we all started disconnecting them in our heads.

[seawispdenizen]

I think writing about fantasy worlds and rules works best for me because maybe I know very little about this world... I feel like a lot of information I've missed out on but I don't really know what steps to take to fix that. Life is so complicated, I love/hate when I sleep for a long time but it's so peaceful I don't have to think about anything!

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.