#relevant for both in this case

[grimalkinmessor]

The way that I—

[penofwildfire]

Ninjago Pilots: Teenage girl gets kidnapped by skeletons

Ninjago Dragons Rising Season 2: Teenage skeleton gets kidnapped by girl

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[wolfsong-the-bloody-beast]

I'm kind of obsessed with Blackwall's idealized ideas about the Wardens. He was once picked up by a Warden and lulled by the promise of atoning for his crimes and turning his life around, only for that opportunity to slip away when the Warden not only saved him, but sacrificed his own life to do it. This whole experience makes our Blackwall become a Warden in heart, if not in blood, but with his own ideas of what a Grey Warden should be - noble, brave, inspiring, heroic, self-sacrificial. Everything he now wants to embody. He knows well that he's not there, but he wants nothing more than to start from scratch and be that.

In his beliefs, he reminds me a bit of Wynne in Origins who tells the Warden at some point that the Grey Wardens are supposed to be more than killing machines and weapons against the blight.

“There’s more to being a Grey Warden than killing darkspawn and saving the world from the Blight. Ultimately, being a Grey Warden is about serving others, about serving all people, whether elves or dwarves or men. As a Grey Warden, you are a guardian of men. And you guard them because their continued existence is more important than you are.”

However, we know that's not exactly how it works. That's what they want the Wardens to be. The light against darkness. The shield against monsters.

Although it's not entirely wrong, either, I suppose, all things considered. The more darkspawn they obliterate and push back, the more people are protected from them. Of course, sacrificing their lives to fight literal monsters, which means those same monsters don't eat everybody's kids, ultimately is heroic, and it's something that must have been born out of the need to protect the world and its inhabitants (from the Blight). But to have idealized opinions of the Wardens to this degree, you have to ignore all the other shady stuff and the mentality we, as players, also know the Wardens for. The fact that the Wardens are primarily weapons to slay darkspawn, prevent and end Blights, by any means necessary. The last part is important. After all, they are the Grey Wardens, not the White Wardens. They recruit from all walks of life and are famous for taking in criminals. Not to redeem themselves and get a second chance at life, but because they usually have nowhere to go and nothing left to lose. It's not a coincidence that each of the Origins gets chosen by Duncan, not only because he sees them as capable, but also because they are in a situation they can't escape from. Either they join the Wardens, or they're done for.

We know the Wardens from a few games now, but does the public in the setting even know? Does the average person have any idea how far the Wardens are willing to go? Besides grand stories of slaying monsters in the dark and preventing the end of the world? Probably not. The order is very secretive. And it explains a lot. The Wardens end up sounding almost romantic, when being a Warden is anything but. Is it ignorance talking out of these characters? Perhaps.

It once again shows us this aspect of Dragon Age where you can't take everything a character says as a fact, because the setting is full of people who have no idea what they're talking about, but who are absolutely convinced that they do.

And yet, I can't help but also like Wynne's and Blackwall's romantic ideas about what the Wardens are or should be, almost knights in shining armour and all that. They're fairy tales, but they're beautiful fairy tales. And I can't fault the characters for wanting to believe it or even live it. Especially in case of Blackwall, who sees it as a way to make up for the crimes he committed, somewhat. In the end, this might actually be a bigger draw to join the Wardens than, "Got nowhere to go? Come suffer horribly and probably die gruesomely with us!" It all sounds great on paper, though. I can't fault Davrin for trying to find purpose in life by becoming a monster hunter, either.

And maybe a little bit of idealism doesn't hurt. Not only it's good motivation, but in the end, doing things by "any means necessary" doesn't always pay off, either. It led the Wardens into all kinds of trouble, like getting tricked into employing dangerous forms of blood magic and demon summoning, basically into doing their enemy's work for them. In their determination to win at any cost, they helped trigger a cataclysmic event. Maybe having some principles isn't so bad after all.

In the end, I can appreciate that we get to see the clash of the old and new blood in Veilguard, where there's hope for the order to transform into an organization that's less secretive, less exclusive, and hopefully less prone to letting corruption spread through its ranks and make other devastating mistakes. Duncan once said that letting people join the Wardens isn't an "act of charity", and I like how Evka and Antoine go, "Yeah, you know what? Fuck that." And that likely inspires more loyalty. I imagine Blackwall would like that.

[madbard]

I’ve been thinking about having a double.

Maybe they’re better than you, and you resent them for that. Maybe they’re better than you, and you are in some way grateful that you don’t need to be perfect anymore, because they will be perfect for you. Maybe they’re better than you, and everyone else agrees, and you are left alone, and you hate them because of it.

Maybe they’re worse than you, and you feel such a deep empathy for them because that could have been you. Maybe they’re worse than you, and you hate them because they represent everything you hate about yourself. Maybe they’re worse than you, and everybody else agrees, and when they abandon this lesser version of yourself you must wonder how easily you could be discarded as well.

Maybe one of you is more real than the other, and you both know who it is. Maybe one is more real than the other, and you don’t know who it is. Maybe both of you are equally real, which means you are equally unreal, and as halves of what should have been a united whole you become something either so much greater than yourself, or so much less.

Maybe you were torn in half, and you will always feel the phantom pain where another consciousness was ripped from your very being, where you were born from an act of unfathomable violence.

Maybe you discovered them, as you were just living your life, and it shook you to your very core, because if nothing else was certain, you at least had a sense of yourself as a singular entity, and that sense of self can never fully be regained.

If your double experiences something, are they stealing that experience from you, or are they expanding the definition of you so that you may experience twice as much? If someone loves your double because they think it is you, is that love stolen? What if your double loves them back?

If you love your double, is it because you love yourself, or because you love the person you were, or the person you could be? Is it because they know you like no one else can? Is it because they are inescapable, as the self is inescapable, no matter how far you run? If you hate your double, does it mean the same thing?

Is your double your reflection? Are they your shadow? Are they a carbon copy or the imprint you have left, the inversion of your impression on the world?

If you kill your double, have you killed yourself? Or have you become, for the first time since they existed, an individual?

Does killing your double make you a monster, or does it finally make you human?

[starlight-eclipsed]

"A juicy sweet-and-sour dish combining newly ripened apples with honey."

I like to imagine that Legend has a sweet tooth while Ravio prefers sour things. Despite these differences, they share a favorite food--honeyed apple. This specific recipe uses apples, honey, nuts, and some pepper.

[shorthaltsjester]

have been watching some of my fav cr2 moments all day bc if criticizing one campaign does anything it certainly reminds me what i cherished about previous ones and genuinely man i think fjord & jester might be one of my favourite love stories and i have a horrendously long draft i’ve been working on for months analyzing why i think their story is so well done but like. it truly has such a good build of friendship to confidants they allow to see pieces of them no one else does to the pining and then swapping who was pining and them growing to be steady supports and protectors of one another and after All That. they actually get into a relationship and find love with each other. and now they’re looking for wedding venues on the moon . get me out of here i love them so much

[curiosity-killed]

*crawls out of 2 yrs’ silence on mdzs* in a modern au Lan Wangji’s reliance on structure and rules could closely mirror the way some students advance immediately from bachelors to masters to phd without taking breaks because it is a “safe” route that allows them to fulfill family and societal expectations of success and intellect in a relatively familiar environment without the perceived higher risk and greater volatility of success in the workforce, particularly where there is a family business in which such education is not necessary but still rewarded. His protection of Wei Wuxian could similarly play out as him dropping out of his studies before being pulled back by his family, and his growth across the 13 yrs supported by completing his degree but shifting his dissertation focus or concentration to a less theoretical and more highly applied vein of the same field. In this AU, I—

[wondercourse]

if your "pro-CDD" advocacy involves fakeclaiming pwCDDs who are pro-endo, it's not pro-CDD. it's just anti-endo. please stop pretending it's for all pwCDDs when so many of you are willing to catch them in the crossfire because clearly they're having it INCORRECTLY and FAKELY (/sarcasm) due to them believing that... [squints at paper] ...plurality and CDDs are two separate concepts that have heavy overlap, rather than a singular entity with two aspects that are inextricable from one another.

it's not about caring about people with CDDs. if it ever was, it's not anymore. it's just about hating endos.

btw this goes the other way too (i.e., yes you hate anti-endos but are you normal about pro-endos with CDDs and non-CDD plurality, including outside of western cultures), it's just that the initial example is more common in my experience + it's fresh on my mind

[misslisamiray]

Y'know, since the Spike pic popped up in my FB memories recently, I HAD to do a side by side of me at 19 in my first cosplay and me at 40 in my most recent cosplay.

Also, "Unmortricken" was on at 3:30 A.M., and after that I watched the last two episodes of Cowboy Bebop. So I'm very in my feelings about all of that (and these pictures).

And I need to make it everyone's problem before I have to start getting ready for the blood center.

Also, for Tumblr only, here's something you may not know: The Adult Swim premiere dates for "The Real Folk Blues" are November 18th, 2001 (Part 1) and November 25th, 2001. (Part 2). The original airdate of "Unmortricken" is November 12th, 2023.

So while the actual premieres are over two decades apart, the anniversaries are super close to each other. I need mutuals who are in both of these fandoms to just... be insane over that the entire month of November with.

[dullahandyke]

Who is Bláthnaid youve been Bláthnaid posting recently who is she?

Girl (gender-neutral) in my noggin <3

[beneaththebloodylake]

sorry but edgeworth would not wear earings. that is not the same character

[fideidefenswhore]

Anne's ability to hold the king off for seven years is part of her legend. The brilliance of her strategy was to cast herself in the role of the courtly lady, requiring Henry to play to perfect knight. Henry was nothing if not dogged in the pursuit of all the roles in which he cast himself—philosopher-king, warrior, even husband—and 'this persona of courtly lover...was fully formed in Henry and had been signaling...for an answering adept to come and lift its latch. In Anne, he had her: she was the mistress of Petrarchan contraries [...] the perfect [player] for the king's tender interest.'

Renaissance Prince: Elizabeth, Lisa Hilton

[arundolyn]

i might be speaking too soon cause its fully possible i didnt catch something yet but it seems pretty notable that venoms strive theme is one of the only ones that comes directly to mind thats for a returning character and doesnt have a brief motif alluding to a past theme/motif?

[nexus-nebulae]

love watching weather science videos but like. why am i 1000x more interested in tornadoes over hurricanes. they're both spinning air

[raggydollsscreenshots]

Posting screenshots from The Raggy Dolls every day until ITV puts it on ITVX: Day 123: