#regardless of ship choices

[five-flavor-soup]

This is technically in response/as an addition to a post on the supposed ‘double standard’ in the fandom between Zuko and Jet as Katara’s love interests, but it’s been so long since it was posted and I figured the OP would be entirely uninterested in my word vomit, especially after like one and half years—so, separate post. I added a link for those interested. There's a cut because this got quite long lmao.

In short, the post supposes the argument that though Jet would’ve made Katara kill people (something Zuko very much Did Not Do, no matter what you think about The Southern Raiders), he cleaned up his act after this. Zuko, on the other hand, did lots of Really Bad Things to Katara & Co. with far more frequency than Jet did and got redeemed after a multitude of episodes doing Various Things Moste Evile. To then slap Jet with The Toxic Ex-label and see Zuko as the ‘healthier’ and ‘better’ option creates a Double Standard(™) within the fandom, which is supposedly bad and not an arguably incorrect reading. 

But the differences in fandom perception between Jet and Zuko as Love Interests for Katara (one of which canonically, and the other potentially and apparently talked about in the writer’s room) are easily explained, as can the Supposed Double Standard—just by thinking about it from Katara’s viewpoint, or even the audience’s. Because, well, the worst things Jet ‘almost’ ended up doing didn’t happen because of outside interference only. 

That’s the important bit here. He 100% would’ve drowned an entire village just to get rid of a handful of Fire Nation soldiers, had Sokka not managed to evacuate everybody. He 100% would’ve grievously injured two people who, as far as Jet and everybody else were aware, were refugees who might not even be firebenders — considering nobody else saw Iroh heat up his tea, he could’ve been wrong — in an attempt to prove his own hunch. Had the guards not been there, had Zuko not been able to fight back with swords, Jet would’ve genuinely attempted to wound them for as much as a puff of smoke. And Jet consistently involves bystanders (innocent or not) in his desperate quest to harm and defeat the Fire Nation: the Gaang (and particularly Katara, through explicitly manipulative means) and the villagers in Jet; Zuko, Iroh, and the people in the teashop in City of Walls and Secrets. Additionally, we don’t see more violence from him because he’s not a main character like Zuko is—though it’s implied that Jet beats up villagers who are supposedly in cahoots with the Fire Nation often, only agreeing to turn over a new leaf when he, Smellerbee, and Longshot decide to move to Ba Sing Se. 

Zuko explicitly and frequently doesn’t harm people: that, or it isn’t important to the plot. He doesn’t burn down the village on Kyoshi, he literally only manages to lightly singe it. He threatens people with violence frequently but never actually goes in for the kill. I’d argue that the most explicitly violent thing he does in Book 1 is breaking Aang out of the Pouhai Stronghold—for his own ends obviously, but if it’s spelled like treason and sounds like treason, it’s probably treason. When he thinks of robbing the pregnant couple while he’s on the run, he stops himself of his own volition; when he considers using Appa to catch Aang (this was a point made against Zuko in the post), he’s unaware of what Appa’s been through prior to that point and sees him as no more than an animal used for travel, much like the ostrich horse he stole earlier in the season. 

Zuko’s schtick throughout Book 1 and 2 is that he doesn’t want to think of the consequences of his actions. His plans are never fully complete. He doesn’t think of how he’s going to get a chained, notoriously slippery little eel of an Avatar to the Fire Nation, and he doesn’t think about what would happen to twelve-year-old Aang after they got there—which is horrible of him, but it also shows an odd, ignorant kind of innocence that you’d associate with a kid who’s got a hard time telling right from wrong. Like, I love Zuko dearly, adore him even, but kiddo doesn’t think ahead until the Book 2 finale and even that’s debatable. He’ll eventually start thinking ahead a little bit but for the most part, he doesn’t. Not saying that takes away responsibility, because it absolutely doesn’t, but it is telling of Zuko’s character: he’s an ‘act first, think later’-kind of guy, all ‘fuck around; find out; maybe success’. His sole goal throughout Book 1 and 2 is going home, without even thinking on how to get there beyond like, Avatar in my custody => back in Fire Nation with Avatar => dad loves me again. And he says that his only intention is to go home too, in Ep 2 of Book 1:

Aang: If I go with you, [He holds his staff in front of him as an offer, making sure Zuko understands that he does not wish to continue fighting.] will you promise to leave everyone alone? [The camera cuts to a side-view of the area, Zuko's men still surrounding him, spears poised. After a brief moment of hesitation, Zuko erects himself and nods in agreement. Aang is apprehended by Zuko's men, who take his staff . . . ] Zuko: [Boarding the ship up the walkway. Determined.] Head a course for the Fire Nation. I'm going home.

(Added emphasis for my point)

Zuko is not the Big Bad. He’s not The Largest Threat. He never is. In Book 1 it’s Zhao, in Book 2 it’s Azula, and in Book 3 it’s Ozai. Zuko is a consistent threat, yes, but not a particularly large one no matter how good of a fighter he is. Because he’s presented to us as a disastrously hurt and traumatised little brat who we, the audience, are supposed to feel sorry for, and slowly grow fond of. Because we learn in The Storm that the notion of “caring for others is weak” has literally been branded into him. Because he keeps getting back up to fight, but consistently holds back. We are shown that he knows, on some level, that what he’s doing is wrong: the text suggests that Zuko is actively suppressing his morals. And by the time Zuko hires an assassin to ensure the Avatar is dead, we know that Zuko is incredibly unhappy with his choice(s) and is desperate to be safe; that he’s uncomfortable but wants to be comfortable; that he’s incorrect about the source of his fear while he’s back in the palace. The audience is shown this explicitly. 

By contrast, we’re shown that Jet is fully aware that those villagers will die. He’s fully aware that, if he manages to prove the two refugees are firebenders, they’ll be arrested and probably mutilated (if the hand-crushing is any indication). I love Jet and his character, but he’s supposed to be the example of poisoning yourself with your hatred, anger, and hurt. He’s revenge that goes too far, because he doesn’t allow himself closure. He knows the consequences and isn’t shown to care for them, as long as his goal is furthered.

And there is the small, but significant, difference between the two characters: Zuko initially just wants to capture the Avatar, is purposefully remaining unaware of what will happen when he does so, and is clearly shown to change, while Jet just wants to punish firebenders and is very aware of what will be necessary for him to do so, with a handful of lines of how he ‘stopped being like that’. And honestly, Jet is far more mature than Zuko is for quite some time, regarding the violence of war—basically as mature as Zuko eventually becomes at the tail-end of his redemption arc. But Zuko’s maturity is at that point healthier, because he doesn’t want to genuinely do harm. 

In regards to their separate relationships with Katara, there’s these fantastic points that @sokkastyles made in reply to the post:

The fact that Zuko actually did change and Katara actually forgave him makes ALL the difference. [ . . . ] The thing about Jet is how manipulative he was with Katara. He not only almost made her kill innocents, but he lied to her about the man he attacked having a knife when he was called out, so that Katara would see her as righteous. Someone who is willing to lie in order to make themselves seem good and someone who says they are going to change but then does the same things doesn’t have a good track record, and that’s a more troubling relationship dynamic than someone who acts as an upfront enemy but then sincerely changes.

And: 

I do think it makes sense to focus on manipulation being worse than being a cartoon villain when we're talking about personal relationships. I think many people can relate to having someone like Jet in their lives who seems nice but who lies and manipulates to justify their own bad behavior despite repeatedly claiming that they will change. Not that many people will experience being tied to a tree by someone who wants you to tell them where the Avatar is, and it is completely reasonable for people to be more forgivable of things Zuko did as a villain than things Jet did to Katara when he claimed to be a friend.

I actually don’t have anything to add to this, lol. It’s succinct and well-worded.

Lastly, in addition the relatability and the relationships being different (the manipulative, emotionally hurt, and self-proclaimed anti-hero versus the initially childish, explicitly confused and desperate cartoon villain, plus the girl they hurt horribly), there’s also the problem of Jet not being a main character. Jet is a relatively well-written side character, whilst Zuko is very quickly established as a main-ish character with his own POV (as the writers decided during the conceptualisation that he’d be joining Team Avatar eventually). Zuko’s troubling, self-destructive nature that has been forced upon him and his Tragic Childhood is shown in high definition. The audience is supposed to eventually be okay with Zuko and hopefully like him, slowly adding puzzle pieces to complete the picture of a horrific earlier youth and treatment by nearly everybody he knows except Iroh. Something like this isn’t necessary with Jet, not just because he was already incredibly likeable and understandable from his introduction and onwards, but also because he’s neither a villain nor a main character. 

There’s multiple reasons as to why Zuko is often seen as the ‘better’ option, just like there are multiple reasons why Jet and Zuko are compared so frequently—they’re both traumatised teenage boys who ‘rebel’ to get some semblance of control back, but we see Zuko change into a kid anyone would be a little bit proud and fond of and that doesn’t happen with Jet. Double standard or not, Zuko and Jet are different characters who the writers also treated very differently, on purpose. It makes sense to me that the audience would think Zutara is the ‘less bad’ or far better option. We know far more about Zuko than we know about Jet; and Jet’s redemption arc, if we can even call it that, halts permanently when Zuko’s is reaching the height it for him to go into a freefall, ultimately culminating in a genuine redemption. We, the audience, know this. So does Katara.

[yanderemeganekko]

"Thistle is 15" "Thistle is 1000 years old" "Thistle is a child" "Thistle was 40/60/80/100 at the point where he" shut up shut up shut up elves don't mature the exact same as humans do and he has no confirmed canon human age plus people can be immature at literally any age especially after being forced to shoulder insane responsibilities from a young age just let people do what they want. We're not doing this to the Dungeon Meshi fandom ffs.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

sometimes when I see killermare (usually fanon) i have to remind myself that it’s fictional and interpretations and blah blah blah

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

oh! theres actually something thats been going around on bsd twitter that rimbaud and verlaine were, in a way, a generation of soukoku themselves? unofficially? and i think it makes sense! theres also those little parallels between rimbaud and dazai believing in verlaine and chuuyas humanity....the meta sense where one has a lighter hair color and the other dark....etc etc..i really wished we could've seen rimbaud and verlaine more as a duo, and what kind of dynamic they have back then.

Oh yeah there’s definitely parallels! What’s neat though is that both Dazai and Chuuya have commonalities with both Rimbaud and Verlaine.

Dazai - Rimbaud: dark hair, polite, logical and detached except with specific people who they intensely care for, grows darker from extended time spent in the dark, thinks the world of their respective partnerships and always see their partner as human

Dazai - Verlaine: nihilistic worldview, think they should not have been born, feel inherently different and separate from humanity, feel like a cursed/unholy existence and think negatively of themselves (which unfortunately enables them to be worse), decide to make their problems everyone else’s problems

Chuuya - Rimbaud: follow the commands of their organizations yet have more personally driven motivations, enjoy having a trusted other at their side, assert the importance of living - a refusal of their partner’s brand of defeated nihilism, see Verlaine as just like a human even though he’s a clone and empathize with him

Chuuya - Verlaine: lighter hair, same ability, similar appearance, similar backstory, never stops fighting, destructive with the wish to burn everything down (though Chuuya fights this), cocky and flaunts their strength (the pear scene with N) but this strength also makes them feel outcasted, deeply deeply lonely

These are just off the top of my head so I’m sure there’s more if you really go through the text (and perhaps I also misspoke on some of these), but there’s a lot there already. It seems pretty deliberate, from an author’s standpoint.

The thing that Rimbaud and Verlaine didn’t have was that mutual unshakeable trust that makes Soukoku so powerful. Rimbaud trusted Verlaine, but Verlaine was resentful, and that destroyed them. And that’s kind of why I’d like to see at least one of their missions together - because I bet you that would show. What would that look like? Both occupying similar positions? Lack of communication? One of them deviates without warning but “it’s fine because it all worked out”? Really neat to think about.

[coulsonlives]

"DNI if you support proship."

Fam, I don't think you know what that word means. 😭

[icybreaths]

//

[multishipper-baby]

I randomly stumbled across a Fox/Cami post on Instagram and was very curious but then it ended up being Fonnie and now I'm even more curious about what the idea was.

[gizdathemxel]

if reading the queering the map post where a Palestinian man is talking about his lover who he wishes he could’ve said I love you to before he died and ending the message with to youssef I will kiss you in heaven doesn’t break you and convince you that Palestinians are the real victims idk what will

[dootznbootz]

You know, most "fans" of Penelope usually aren't fans of Odysseus in solidarity with her. Have fun with your toxic unfaithful ship I guess. ✌

ANON!!! NO!!! ANON! YOU'RE TRYING TO GIRLBOSS HER AND NOT WANTING TO UNDERSTAND WHO AND WHAT PENELOPE WANTS! ANON! ANON! PENELOPE WANTS ODYSSEUS BACK IN HER ARMS!!! SHE MISSES AND LOVES HIM!!! ANON! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE ODYSSEUS HAD ANY CHOICE WITH THE GODDESSES!!! AS THOUGH HE DID NOT WEEP WHILE WITH THE GODDESSES! AS THOUGH HE DID NOT THINK OF PENELOPE EVERY DAY!!! ANON!!! EVEN THEN, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER HE EVEN HAD A CHOICE IN THE FIRST PLACE, PENELOPE CAN MAKE HER OWN CHOICES!!! AND HER CHOICE IS ODYSSEUS!!! ALWAYS WILL BE!!! JUST AS SHE IS HIS CHOICE ALWAYS!!! ANON! NO! THEY ARE LIKEMINDED AND BASICALLY SOULMATES!!! GET YOUR HEAD OUTTA YOUR ASS! ANON!!!

[starsweeperskies]

.

[avengerraven]

In Defence of Buttercup

Buttercup’s supposed passiveness is the crux of most critiques of The Princess Bride. But I’d argue that Buttercup acts in her own interests throughout the movie, making moves to secure her own future from her position of powerlessness. For the entirety of the movie barring the first and last scenes, Buttercup is a captive. She has to marry Humperdink in accordance with the law- she has no choice. In this moment we see her at her most passive. She’s accepted that he will marry her regardless of her feelings and she seeks her happiness in other places. Then she gets kidnapped. From that moment to the end of the movie Buttercup gets passed back and forth as the trophy everyone fights over. However, she doesn’t sit idly by. She attempts to escape Vizzini by jumping overboard into eel infested waters. That’s a brave move. She doesn’t know who is on the other ship she swims towards. She only hopes they won’t kill her like Vizzini plans to. Her failure doesn’t negate the bravery of her actions. Then she defies Wesley before she knows his identity. She tries to kill him by pushing him down the hill. He turns his back for one second and she makes a move against a man who she thinks will likely kill her. She saves Wesley when they exit the forest. Yes, it backfires, but she doesn’t know that. From that point on, Buttercup makes deals and argues with Humperdink in an attempt to get out of her betrothal. She uses any argument in her arsenal. It doesn’t work because she doesn’t know what he has planned for her.

Do you notice a theme? Because as I wrote this I noticed that Buttercup makes moves without context, which is why her escapes never work. She is a character acting without the information to succeed. That’s not her fault. That’s not passivity. That’s plot. The plot actively works against Buttercup freeing herself. So maybe we cut her some slack.

[love-byers]

crazy things happening on the stranger things memes twitter account

saying you're bringing 'actual canon content' to the table and proceeding to post ai slop garbage is certainly a choice...

also why do mlvns think we ignore canon and only thrive on fanon stuff...erm hello all we talk about is canon byler😭😭 that's like our whole thing...pointing out that their canon scenes and dynamic are proof enough that they are in love

like fanon is great and all but who needs it when we have all this...like we're chilling💀💀 we are more than happy with what we have, trust me. we have THE childhood best friends to lovers angsty slowburn of the century (elite overcoming internalized homophobia edition) right here we don't envy your bland ass het ship i PROMISE

and regardless we don't need grok 2.0 to get content like some people i know...

[radiance1]

Danny:

Pariah Dark:

Fright Knight:

Danny: Look, I can explain-

Pariah Dark places a hand on Danny's shoulder, crouching down to his level (or as much as he can anyway) and giving the boy the proudest, most loving look he is able. "Son. I am so proud of you."

"Hah?" Danny asked, intelligently.

Fright Knight nodded. "I am as well." He even went as far as wiping an imaginary-no wait that's an actual tear. "It is just- It is so beautiful to see my nephew following in our footsteps." He sniffed, taking a handkerchief from... Somewhere, to further dab at his eyes.

"Hah??" Danny, once more, said intelligently.

"It is alright son." Pariah Dark continued, giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "You did extremely well. Never let another say you did not. I am sure Time would be most pleased as well."

"What the fu-" Danny began.

"Language." Came the instant reply from them both as Fright Knight casually bisected an alien.

"Funny cheese puffs are you guys talking about??" Danny very shamelessly changed his sentence and went with.

"You started a war-"

"And cultivated fear."

"-Were you unaware?"

Danny blinked. Once. Then twice.

"Nuh uh." He said maturely. "I didn't do shii-" Faced with the glares of two angry parental figures, he very carefully chose his next words. "Ship. I'm innocent."

"He's even denying responsibility." Fright Knight dabbed away a few more tears and sniffed. "Truly, he reminds me of when you were younger my king."

"Haha!" Pariah Dark laughed, standing up and dusting himself off. "Truly! A prince after my own core!" Pariah patted Danny on the head, ruffling his hair. "Yes, my little 'ling is as innocent as he appears." Pariah winked knowingly.

Danny has some choice words for who let him know how to do that.

"Now..." War rubbed his chin as he looked out over the amount of carnage taking place in the city below from the fight between the aliens and the League of Justice. "Fear, do you think they would oppose to us joining?"

"That would depend on which side we fight for." Fear inclined his head, kicking a corpse off the side of the building they stood on. "Though I would rather not have this planet destroyed as we have an arrangement later this week."

"Ah, with Kents, yes?" War chuckled, cracking his knuckles. "Up for a wager, Fear?"

"What kind?"

"Least kills has to attend with no food."

"Hey wait a minute-" Danny tried to interject.

"This is not within my favor." Fear said calmly. "But I shall take you up on this offer regardless, my king."

And just like that, they were off.

Danny stood there for a moment, questioning if he should really step in and try to stop them. What would the Justice League say when the Ancients of War and Fear join in on a totally out of the blue invasion that Danny totally didn't have a hand in. How would the GIW react to this?

Then Danny thought. 'Wait, I have nothing to do with this.' And then decided this... Isn't his problem.

Then went back to sleep.

[mareastrorum]

Been chewing more on how C3 wound up here. What’s throwing me is the strange shift from the cast’s unflinching “yes, and” game in C2 to a misplaced feeling that they need to choose correctly in C3.

I want to be clear here that this isn’t a criticism post because I genuinely don’t know what’s happening here. It’s just odd behaviors that seem to signal a problem, and I don’t know what solution would resolve it. I’m not going to be so presumptuous as to hypothesize about any cast member’s thoughts.

In the Cooldown for C3E118 (and offhandedly previously), Laura and Ashley expressed some nervousness about making big decisions because they’re worried about making the “wrong” choice. Without more, that attitude alone would explain much of the party’s indecisiveness about key campaign questions. After all, their characters are the two Ruidusborn of most interest to the campaign villains, and other characters (especially Orym, Laudna, and Ashton) have insisted that Imogen and Fearne take the lead on Predathos.

But this isn’t a story in a vacuum. C2 got completely derailed multiple times. The Mighty Nein decided to steal a pirate ship and leave the continent the campaign was set on; shortly after they returned, they decided to reopen a collapsed tunnel to go the opposite side of the continent; then Caleb returned the Luxon Beacon and made themselves heroes of an enemy nation instantly. That’s not even getting into the fact that Molly died before the Nein got to Shadycreek Run (which absolutely would have been all about his backstory) or that Twiggy left an incredible magical artifact that wasn’t supposed to be given to the Nein. Each time, Matt adjusted and made it work. Granted, C2 was more of a sandbox campaign, but Matt demonstrated his flexibility as a DM time and again.

Like, as a general rule of thumb, DMs shouldn’t offer options that would torpedo the campaign. It’s rational to avoid situations that have a genuine possibility of undercutting the game. Matt has been DMing for a long time; he’s done a very good job of finding ways to make the campaign work regardless of the decisions the players make. Even when players do something directly against the signals he threw out (like Ashton trying to absorb a second shard despite consistent, dire warnings that it would kill him), he works with the players to come to a reasonable solution (Ashton survived but the shard wouldn’t take, and he got some character moments out of the failure). We, the audience, know Matt is good at pivoting when he needs to.

In addition to taking the players’ curveballs like a champ, Matt also takes big swings for the sake of the story. In C1, Matt broke his biggest city with a dragon invasion, then made a new god leading an undead titan to go stomp out the world’s oldest civilization. In C2, he let the players go off the map whenever and still made the digression relevant to their character arcs every time. Not to be parasocial, but if we can figure out that that Matt can handle this sort of thing, the players certainly have a better feel for it than us.

So what is going on in C3? We know Matt isn’t scared of breaking Exandria or destroying the pantheon: he set that possibility in motion as the default ending if the players did nothing. CR literally did a mini series about the start of the end of the world with EXU Calamity. Laura and Ashley were also in Downfall and making big choices between the gods and mortals. Breaking stuff is what they do!

Where did this idea that there’s a “wrong” choice come from? That type of thinking kills a lot of great improv, and the whole point of the “yes, and” exercise is to shake it off. While it’s incredibly obvious to say not to think that way, the real issue is sorting out why that mentality has taken hold at all. That’s a problem no amount of fan discussion is going to resolve.

[utilitycaster]

Hi, would just like to say thank you for writing up so much meta on campaign 3, it is keeping me sane seeing similar thoughts to what I’ve had written down coherently.

The last couple asks you’ve answered have got me thinking about how campaign 3 ended up like this (indecisive characters, weird nonsensical themes, only setpieces and maybe a ship or two being memorable) and I remember hearing that c3 was described by Matt as ”Pulpy” and I keep coming back to that and thinking that there was never even meant to be a big decision. From what I’ve read of old pulp fiction dnd novels it's pretty much “here’s the big bad go defeat/seal/slap them on the wrist, have fun on the way there with several cool setpieces and romance!” and I wonder if there was even meant to be a god debate at all or if it was just picked up in the middle of the story by the cast. It could explain why the characters wouldn't fit the story if this wasn’t meant to be the story.

Cause a character who goes with the flow is fine in those books and a character who only looks into what is thrust upon them works, but it feels like somewhere it tried to be more and just fell apart.

Because even now the story does feel pulpy but just held down by a narrative it isn’t handling well. 119 was a great episode and having the Raven Queen show up in the middle to give boons is an incredibly cool beat that would be memorable as hell but for it to end up as another god debate just sucks. But the rest of the campaign sort of does that with cool beats that end up dragged down in one way or another so its not unique I guess

I know you talked about the “pulpy”ness of c3 a while ago and was wondering if you had more thoughts now that we’re in the endgame for the campaign

I do - this is all rather speculative but in some discussions with other people one possible explanation that's come up is that Matt genuinely didn't expect the characters to be so hesitant to save the gods or stop Ludinus or sympathize with the the Vanguard, and has kind of pivoted to make a campaign that accomodates those doubts...but in doing so sort of fucked his end premise of "we must deal with Predathos". Which, you know, makes a lot of sense! What if Hearthdell was intended as a glimpse into why people might join something like the Vanguard to introduce an element of complexity to a party that (quite reasonably I might add) had said "these people are a fucking scourge on Exandria" but instead served to fan the flames of "well the gods didn't give me things when I asked so yeah we should let them be eaten"? What if the fetch quests to the Shattered Teeth or the scouting mission were like the quest for vestiges - something that the party desperately wished to do to achieve a deeply felt goal - and not something they had to be nudged along to do every step of the way? What if the party went into the final confrontation with any consensus or intention? Because then yeah a pulpier "you're taking on the Big Bad Ultimate Threat...but your MOTHER is on THEIR side" a la vintage superhero comics plays out much more coherently. I cannot stress enough that the cultural touchstone Matt brings up about the campaign is the 2012 Avengers film. Regardless of some posts I've seen (which tend to assume anything the cast has ever read/watched/played is an influence, which is. incorrect) that is your starting point.

The thing about all the "take a third option" and "status quo" talk surrounding this campaign is...this post is actually a good description of how it plays out in real life. Like yeah there's a lot of political constructs within the world that are stupid and unjust! However it is unproductive, naive, and idiotic to act as though just because you don't like them they aren't part of a complex system that needs thoughtful dismantling (at least, if you place any value on human life) or worse, that they simply don't exist because they shouldn't. Sometimes you genuinely do have two choices and neither is ideal and if you do not choose between them because you're holding out for a better option the choice is made for you, and often, it's the worse one. Sometimes there is in fact a problem caused by something stupid that you cannot undo in time to solve said problem, and it is selfish and childish to say "well I think this shouldn't be a problem" and leave it at that. You will fail in your endeavors if you do this. People will see that's your approach and stop listening to anything you say.

Bells Hells feel like that to me and it's not even entirely their fault. I think because Matt had such a clear endgame in mind in the sense of "face off against Predathos" and the party was so ill-suited, and the early pacing was genuinely already bad, he's sort of tried to pivot away by following every dumb idea Bells Hells have to perhaps funnel them towards that endgame. And this is a problem too, because it means the plot doesn't push back on them and they do not grow as people, which means that a lot of us are getting tired with their shit. It's telling that most of Bells Hells' loudest defenders are the "well, if you're traumatized, you're excused from all responsibility for your actions ever :)" types within the fandom because like, part of why people are sick of Laudna's shit (for example) is that it's like ok I agree you shouldn't have an evil wizard in your head but you do, so like, what are you doing about it. And because she hadn't done anything about it and because they had to get to Predathos we had our Deus Essek Machina situation, which to be clear, not mad about, but it also means Laudna never really learned or grew from this. And to be clear she's not alone; part of the frustration around Ashton is it seemed like they DID have a revelation around shardgate and then immediately discarded it.

There's many more factors I'm sure but just to sum up:

Matt has a very clear overarching plot in mind [and, also, probably was creating a campaign for characters who see point 3 had more realized worldviews and goals and investment in their communities]

Matt does not give the cast much guidance in creating characters for that plot; "pulpy" is really tonal and not even genre

Cast, having played characters specifically designed for the "complex and morally gray and must be from the continent the campaign is set on" campaign last, turn to wacky and go-with-the-flow types

Overarching plot kicks in; characters do not behave as expected

Matt tries to embrace/encourage this by getting the party to follow what they want to do

Go-with-flow/take no responsibility party doesn't know what they want to do

endless loop of a DM trying to adjust the direction of flow to a directionless party instead of imposing a direction/Cast trying to take direction cues from a DM who keeps throwing more options at them in the hopes one will appeal to them which turns into a "what do you want to do" "I don't know what do you want to do" situation.

[heeseung64]

★彡ーROADTRIP!

the tropes and love language of enha as you and your cozy friends plan a three day long road-trip.

friends to lovers, mutual pining, fluff! confession, jealousy and all that jazz.

3 part series.

taglist: open

★彡ーHEESEUNG AND JAY!

𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘯𝘨…

• quiet in the mornings,

he's a lil' grumpy that he has to wake up at the crack of dawn to start the road-trip, but at least he's not driving- and- more importantly, you're sitting next to him. you bring him peace that can never be broken. neither of you are the perfect choice to mess with in the morning, so being idle and appreciating the silence made him much more giddy with you, which wreaked chaos and unbelievable anxiety in his mind. though his nerves are unseen, he hesitantly shares his earphones with you, and with the way you compliment his hazy playlist, it made his heart flutter, starting his morning off with a burning engine. his first words in the whole trip was only to you: "this song reminds me of you." he whispered, taking out the earbud out your ear before he puts it back in. wave to earth, cute.

more below。

• would never let you help,

lee heeseung himself doesn't believe in help, and his walls of pride were too high to even consider a pretty girl like you to help him with something he could impress you with. but the gas in the airbnb isn't lighting up, and he keeps complaining he's getting colder by the minute. you watch him, and eventually you yank off whatever is occupied in his hands. "i don't-" "i'm cold too." you stop his words before helping him. you finish the job for him, yet he doesn't say thank you, he walks off, annoyed and huffy.

eventually in the night, he whispers a sorry, pulling you aside as you watch the bonfire light against your friends' faces afar. what he gives you is his hoodie, putting it on you before tucking in your hair as he warns you: "don't take it off, i don't want you being cold. m'kay?" he tries to hide his smile, shrugging off his nerves until he's kept up awake at the thought of you being snuggly under his own scent.

was it his way of being sorry? you wonder, at this point you knew the boy enough to know that he liked you- maybe you're just waiting for him to show it.

• quiet observer, loud messages,

"did i do something to piss you off, hee?" are the words for heeseung to realise that you were quick on his tail. his eyes were practically stuck on you, waiting that'd you eventually talk or interact with him- praying-even; that you'd be just as stickily close to him like your other skin-ship friendships this night. but those words had broke sense to him that maybe his actions came out as aloof.

"i.. just wanted you to notice me." he whispers, blurting out his confession in a series of tiny words. his cold demeanour wasn't so cold on his cheeks, and his watery eyes and red ears worsened when you kissed him between his cheek and the corner of his lips. "if you wanted some love, always ask from now on." you say back, and he nods, flustered. his only regret was to beg for you to kiss right where his lips were. the rest of the trip was glee to heeseung, smiling uncontrollably, bantering with the guys, and later on asking to be more physical, cuddling you, playing with your hair and eventually being warm and fuzzy on your neck, sweet. he doesn't know what you and him are after that, but he's so surely determined to make you his.

𝘫𝘢𝘺…

• a man of service,

handsy is an understatement. you know how close you guys are regardless of the trip but, with a day so free and unrestricted, he rests his hands on your thighs like its no problem, not to mention he made you sit in the front with him as he drove. and likewise, he recognises your wisdom than others- so its best to have you with him as he makes every itinerary and packing decision. inseparable, you call it. love, the others know it. he'd be the first to know if you're sleepy or un-energetic amongst the group, and he'd be first to offer you food and little snacks as you guys visited sites and other places.

"i'm not hungry." you'd lie, and jay could see right through it. "say ahh!" he'd jokingly force you, and he'd hold you down to feed you anything until you wouldn't complain. "next time just ask if you wanted me to do feed you." since then, the others labelled any interaction between you as 'couple's quarrelling', and as much as it bothered you, you could see jay's demeanour unshaken by this.

"come with me to the nearest grocery store." he'd pull you up to keep him company, buying your favourite things even when you don't even say it. "how many do you want, y/n?" he'd ask, seriously. and when you say you don't want them, he'd chuck it in the cart anyway. you find that he's often getting others their favourite things, and doing favours for them as his love language, so nothing is different towards you.. right? you start to believe otherwise when he starts prepping the first night dinner, feeding you food as he cooks, only supplying you with the generous meats and the better sauces, while the remains end up with him or the younger friends. he'd make you sit on a stool, humming to the music setup adjacent to the kitchen as you guys were isolated from the others setting up their rooms and games. jay would only make you stay with him, keeping his peace intact when you were around, and if you left, he'd find you again to ask for help in the kitchen- when all you do is let him feed you. "how's it taste?" he asks, looking down into your eyes before licking his thumb and wiping the little stain off your lips. "tastes.. like love in a plate." you reply, smiling sweet as he backs away, smiling to himself. "good."

• not satisfied til' you are,

jay was not happy when you received a few cuts and scratches after scraping your hands on the rocky coral by the third day of the trip. the beach was relaxing, yet his world had sirens blasting with his eyes alert constantly watching and looking out for you- not to mention how good you looked. he pretty much made it clear that if someone were first to approach you, it would be their last.

though he may not be the one to softly tell you that he cares, he shows it. "don't be a stupid idiot and do that again." he warns as he wraps your hand, and when he sees your doe eyes and watery rims reflect against him he falters, securing your wound with a little peck as he hides away his blush- making sure know one else saw what he did.

"there, better?" he asks, and you nod, wrapping your hands around his arm. you stuck by him like glue, and he didn't mind- infact, this was the most you've been so quiet and so yearning for him- so he was ecstatic, off his head, especially when he started talking back to the guys. later in the night you took your courage to approach his room in the cabin, knocking on his door.

"jjong." you call his nickname, and just by the knock he instantly takes you in, breathy as he'd realised he'd taken you in too quickly and awkwardly. "y-you called?" he asks, his hair half wet as he had finished his shower. "i think i like you." you boldly confess over your fumble of words. jay wildly smiles, poking his tongue in his cheek as he looks around the room, avoiding your eyes as you stand there, meek. "you do?" were the first words he responded to you. when you nodded, it was over; his hands were all over you. no one questioned why you weren't in your room that night, instead they mentally cheered that you magically woke up in jay's.

SUNGHOON AND JAKE! ★>>

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