#return to the status quo

[oneofthosenightbees]

Hey guys is it gay to fall for your boss you met in the fighting pit????

(A collection of @cotl-flower-crown gang au doodles cause it has taken over my mind)

[avituses]

Ignorance is bliss

Batman 48 got me feeling feelings again goddamit

[factsilike]

Really tired of constantly seeing posts declaring that everyone in MXTX novels is complicated and 'morally grey' and that's what makes her works wonderfully written, and that everyone else who doesn't see that is stupid, or is 'demonising' characters and bashing them for rightfully criticising their shitty, very much unjustified actions.

And ironically it seems so simplistic to just declare that, because yes her stories are wonderfully written and complex, but not for that reason. You're clearly not reading her works and only spouting what you think her stories say. There are many morally grey characters in morally complex stories out there, but MDZS IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

NONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS (i.e protagonists and their male leads except for LBH maybe) ARE MORALLY GREY OR MORALLY COMPLEX.

THEY ARE ALL MORALLY RIGHTEOUS.

Just take a closer look at their actions compared to the actions of literally everyone else around them, it's not that hard to see.

Not to mention that MXTX herself literally says that WWX and LWJ are both morally ideal and that ahe hopes her readers can be like them, but people seem to have no respect for the word of authors in the name of their self projection onto the characters being contradicted nowadays 😒

(also saw someone dismissively say that HC may think that the world revolves around XL or whatever, but others don't and they're right??

First of all, did you even read the novel? HC made his judgement based on how others treated him versus how XL did when he was a CHILD. And how XL continues to treat others to this day. He is well within his rights to think the world of XL, especially since XL suffered more than every other person and still doesn't succumb to evil, despite having every right to do so, miles more than others. He all but regards XL as his moral compass, because he's proof that truly good people do exist in this world, and not ONE other person in the novel is shown to be as good as him.)

One of the reasons why I really don't like the Xianle Trio is this; neither FX nor MQ seem to regard XL as his own person with his own agency, who is capable of making his own decisions initially as HC does, and only near the end of the novel do they let up a bit when their asses had to be saved by XL multiple times. (especially considering what fools they made of themselves in that spiderweb cave lmao)

Both of them try to enforce XL ALL THE TIME ("Your Highness don't do this or don't do that or don't say this or don't go there or don't talk to him"), as if XL has not survived perfectly well on his own without them FOR 800 YEARS.

The difference between them and HC is clearly spelled out when FC asks HC about why he is not stopping XL, and HC replies that while he may not agree with some of XL's decisions, he would never force him to do what he thinks is correct, something both MQ and FX are CONSTANTLY shown to try to do.

Like please. Xianle Trio who? More like suffering XL and his pair of nuisances who think themselves to be his babysitters. And most of the time he's the one babysitting them.

Another thing that irks me is that their frequent arguments are often played off for laughs, but XL is truly a saint, because if my friends were constantly bickering over petty things all throughout our dangerous journey and giving me nothing but headaches, especially in survival situations, I'd given them the boot a long time ago.

[zazikels]

the fact is, if varric lives (and that's an if bc maybe solas does kill him lmao idk how much to trust that minimap reveal) it IS weird that you can't customise a hawke or account for the decision because it would be a little weird if a man who has lived through a wannabe god + blight dragon attacking warden fortress has nothing to say about ghilan'nain and her blight dragon attacking a warden fortress, especially if he potentially lost his best friend (Hawke). It's not outlandish for people to be a little disappointed to not get some customisation there because the choices are not equal to varric. the loss of hawke is obviously a bigger impact on him than whichever warden is there. given varric's personality, it's not outlandish to expect him to talk about it with Rook either especially considering weisshaupt is a thing that happens in the game. if he dies beforehand it doesn't matter, but if he's going to be around? yeah you'd think he'd be talking about it here.

speaking of weisshaupt, A PLACE YOU GET TO GO, a hero of ferelden who made the ultimate sacrifice IS FUCKING INTERRED THERE. But it's just "whining" to expect a nod (esp one that you can customise so it's your hero of ferelden) i guess.

regardless of whether morrigan has mythal or not, who she is as a person does change based on whether she was romanced and whether she had a child. it is natural that this matters and people aren't stupid to be tentatively concerned that nothing of her history is "required" but she's apparently this important vip character who will have more involvement in the game than you expect. like you are allowed to ask: okay what does this mean, what will she be like, will she be the same character i've loved across multiple games?

people are allowed to be upset or concerned that a game series that historically took your choices and your decisions into account has watered that down to 3 choices when certain choices that WOULD impact characters that appear in THIS game aren't. (and to be clear being upset does not mean harassing the devs, don't do that).

[autisticphineas]

girls don’t want boys, girls want the phineas and ferb revival to take place in their middle school years with doof as their science teacher.

[ohsalome]

This isn't offence to the game devs because I haven't played the games to be able to criticize them but there needs to be a discussion how foreginers (russian or not) heavily engage and sometimes coopt the tragedy of Chornobyl but refuse to engage with Ukraine at all. Even just the connection between Chornobyl and Ukraine ("Why are you spelling it like that?") and especially ignoring the living Ukrainians that lived through it (@ HBO)

Credit where credit's due at least the guy separated us from russians (doesn't justify the erasure of Poles and Serbians) and from a cursory search the metro series is set in moscow (I think? correct me if I'm wrong) so i unfortunately could've confused it for a russian game too

I think @understanding-hold-on's comment sums it up pretty nicely:

But do we call, say, Assassin's Creed Odyssey a greek game just because it is set in Greece? Do we call Silent Hill an american game because it is set in the USA? With every other game, the principle is "[the developers' country] game". Only russians are free to appropriate whatever they like freely neely.

[rosecolouredheart]

Man while we're talking about TotK disappointments let me share mine. The ending. The way Zelda is restored? I hated it. She goes and sacrifices herself with the understanding that there's no going back and then they just rush through magically fixing it at the end? I don't mind that they restored her, I mind that the way they did it felt like a rushed cop-out and made it feel like there were no consequences.

I am mad about Link magically getting his arm back, though. Let him stay an amputee and give him a sick magi-tek sheikah arm! It could have been so cool!

Big yes on both accounts!!! Zelda turns back from sacrificing herself... because the evil is been defeated? Ghost magic that there's no reason to think Link's arm would be capable of being a conduit for on that scale even with ghost greatgreagreatgreatgreat grandparents adding their whatever?? That's rewinding millennia when all game you could barely rewind rocks falling like a minute backwards.

I wouldn't have liked it if Zelda wasn't restored, but they way they did it just lacks feeling. Make Link go through a spirit trial. Let ghost greatgreatgreatgr- rauru or sonia show up and say that there is the power to turn Zelda back, but the cost is sacrificing all the power you've collected through the quest. Link without hesitating nods and THEN the arm glows and the thing happens but the arm is gone.

Let them be forever changed!

[countlessofvoids]

You hate the third movie because you can't stand endings that aren't "and they lived happily ever after". I hate the third movie because it actively destroys the first movie's message in favor of a lazy "humans bad, animals good" narrative and fumbles every interesting idea it presents. We are not the same.

[aimasup]

me trying to explain how The Nightmare Before Christmas isn't about 'stick to the status quo' or 'be true to yourself' it's about feeling stuck or burnt out in a career you enjoy and no matter how 'you' the career is a change of scenery once in a while is necessary to realign the spark of inspiration it's about expanding your horizons and experiencing new things even if you don't end up excelling it's about the wonders of curiosity and it's benefits but also disadvantages its about PUTTING YOURSELF OUT THERE

[wesavegotham]

There is also just something about the Joker talking about breaking Bruce this issue that really annoyed me.

How many Batman runs have been about "breaking Bruce/Batman" in a row now? Hasn't this been all writers could think of since Morrison did it? We get it, Bruce will always get up again, focus on something else already. Like an actually good detective story or something. Anything! Just stop trying to break Batman. We know he's not going to break no matter how many supporting characters you are throwing under the bus to hurt him.

I have my own gripes with people who cling to nostalgia, but sometimes I think the last few years have removed Bruce from the status quo people know too much and if the current trend continues I'm not sure what the next writer could even take from him to break Bruce. He has lost Alfred, his fortune, Wayne Manor, Wayne Enterprises, one of his hands, his family (depending on what book you are reading)...even killing him would be lame because of all the recent arcs that had the people of Gotham believe Batman was dead.

Maybe just go back to basics, give Bruce a few things he lost back, try to write interesting stories about Batman fighting his rogues gallery, have Bruce be a mentor/father to the members of the batfamily and let the whole "we need to break Batman" stuff rest for a few years. Just find another goal for your Batman run that isn't "I'm going to break him". God.

[askaniritual]

i am prepared to have my mind changed abt this but i do think vash should have died at the end of trimax. or at least he and knives should have run away together like vash was always asking him to.

like i understand vash spent the entire series waiting to die so maybe it’s not like. satisfying to be like “heartwarming! local man who wants to die finally gets his wish” but also like. he did live for 150 years. and to me the part where he’s saying to knives like we’re too powerful for the future of this planet, we don’t have a place here anymore. i’m like yeah like vash and knives have shaped the future of this planet and now humanity needs to be able to move on without them. to me that’s like the whole point is that in order for humanity to actually create a better world, vash and knives’ ideological struggle needs to end.

at the very least i wish we hadn’t ended up back exactly where we started. it feels a little bit like a copout to me to be like “and the only thing vash wanted to do all along was the same thing he’s been doing!” when we know that his nomadic, chaos causing lifestyle was a direct result of knives’ influence on his life and that in his heart of hearts he was always hoping he could settle down and start a family even if he knew he couldn’t really have that with the way things were.

[kyuriman]

I like that one theory that Cartman is so callous with life and is such a shithead because he's vaguely aware of the fact that he's in a surrealist sitcom... life and being morally good doesn't hold much value to him since he's vaguely aware of the way everything is seemingly episodic and that most things don't have long lasting outcomes... A sort of extremist petty nihilism that is rewarded in the overall show

[zahri-melitor]

In the alternative, where you posit Tim never existed or say Tim appeared in ALPOD and was rejected by the public, you have to square with the fact that:

Robin 1993 is one of the longest continuous solo ongoings in DC that DOESN’T belong to the lead character of a family, at 185 issues (it might be THE longest, actually: Jimmy Olson clocks in at 163 issues before a major title change, Nightwing vol 2 has 155, Lois Lane is shorter again at 137, and I can’t think of anyone else who touches them).

The only reason Robin 1993 occurred was because Robin I (and then II and III) sold so well.

There’s an argument to be made that if Robin I and Robin 1993 hadn’t been successful, we might not have got a Nightwing solo ongoing when he was returned to the custody of the Bat office.

Now imagine what the Batfam looks like without Robin or Nightwing as ongoing books. You almost certainly never got anything more than minis or extended minis for other characters not named Bruce Wayne. That’s what happens if you delete Tim from existence.

(And that’s before you discuss how Tim’s ‘team up Robin’ habits created the thing we call the Batfamily today more than any other character can claim)

[pespillo]

collector not understanding the gravity of death/pain for mortals =/= collector not knowing people were getting hurt

[facesunavailable]

you see the mending book is the lure on the angler fish that is the sea. hes going to finally get it and thats exactly when the ocean will Eat him for real

[miru-mu]

I'm too sleepy to properly formulate how happy I am to get back to our pf campaign and how much fun it was but like it was so good, I love all the boys and this primadonna whomst belongs to our special guest star friend @/sousourocket !! keith made her an outfit as a present and I had to draw it so I've been sitting on this for a while lol