#she is my narrative foil :(

[bacchuschucklefuck]

she turns, makes direct eye contact with you, smiles,

[governmentmandatedryujinstan420]

releasing this from the hj discord dungeon because the public populace was in agreement also i'm chronically offline on tumblr and need to fix that for my chronically online ahh

[lunarharp]

chapter 79 things :')

[crayonstoperfume]

...and now you’re mine

[yunmeng-jiang]

Wen Qing and Wen Zhuliu are like opposites. WZL is like "I have this super crazy destructive power related to golden cores and I don't particularly care about using it but my boss told me to use it for evil so I guess I'm doing that" while WQ is like "I have this super crazy life-changing idea related to golden cores and I really want to try it but I have too many ethical concerns so I guess I'll never get to do it"

[howlonomy]

Ms. 15.5%

[strawberrylemongrass]

my sister doesn't appreciate the little wonders of life?? and she says she's just better?? girl,,,

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

laying face down on the floor wondering if I am not seeing certain characters' relationships to the core themes of the game because I don't appreciate them enough/correctly or if they genuinely aren't super central to the core themes of the game

[url-is-url]

Headcanon: Paulina likes/liked Winx Club (past or present tense depending on if you set your fic in the 00s or move it closer to the present) and her favorite character is Bloom because a) dragons cool and b) Bloom's temper and violent streak are relatable to her. (This is the girl who sucks at the cheer part of cheerleading and this fact is SO important to me.) Secretly, her inner child still wants to be a fairy princess when she grows up. After the events with Dorothea's amulet, Paulina's inner child is very willing to settle for being a dragon when she grows up.

However. Up until now, Paulina has been conditioned to believe that being NORMAL is the key to being a cool kid. And leaning into, say, some latent dragon-themed superpowers would be cool, but it would also be objectively weird and this does not compute. Insert existential crisis here!

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

I've been thinking about names re: durges (and especially Corentin)

I haven't really liked the whole "this character's name is The Dark Urge" because it's honestly...silly to me? A bit? But I saw someone else discussing their durge's backstory today and it got me thinking about the function of names a bit more.

Naming someone "The Dark Urge" is super dehumanizing. And, like, that's the point, of course. But Corentin, even at their most compliant, was always trying to eek out some semblance of individuality or control or rebellion. They were kidnapped brought to the Bhaalists at 15, after all. Even with the cult's (and Bhaal's) efforts, it's difficult to completely rewire someone who's nearly a grown adult, especially one who's fighting it kicking and screaming most of the time.

So while they lose their memories of their family due to the constant trauma, they do manage to hold on to some things. Their refusal to eat bog body stays the entire time, as does their insistence on maintaining a hair care routine (which is when they start braiding Orin's hair, too). But after they break, other aspects of cleanliness they'd managed to hold onto until that point fall to the wayside, and they stop resisting when Savorak, and Fel, and the Bhaalists call them "The Dark Urge" instead of their name. Orin still calls them Corentin for a little bit, but she stops eventually too as she gets more and more restless and insistent on gaining power.

And then they meet Gortash who, despite also being a horrible person, isn't as bad as the people Corentin had been forced to lead. At this point they know what the likely ending of the Absolutist plot is going to be (though they're still in the early stages of the plan) but being able to work so closely with someone who's sincere and, more importantly, isn't going to stab them the moment they turn their back to him, is like breathing in fresh air for the first time in a decade or more (both figuratively and literally). And they dare to hope that there's an actual, true way out of the hell they'd been living in.

So when Gortash eventually asks if The Dark Urge is really their name, they tell him no.

[akkivee]

the mood is still like this pic of reol, femme fatale’s writer, in between the chuuoku seiyuu btw lmao

[tanglecolors]

I love their dynamic sm lol

[bowenoke]

I don't know what Buddy's story is going to end up being, but I do think it's pretty crazy that Kristen's dead god being unable to answer her call for divine intervention probably still expended more effort than his own god

[perigilpin]

Bo-Katan Week Day 6

Bo-Katan and The Armorer

I need my golden crown of sorrow

My bloody sword to swing

My empty halls to echo with grand self-mythology

I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king

[martyrmarked]

how it feels writing a trevelyan amidst all the lavellans

[welcometogrouchland]

It's about like.

Willow fought to be seen as strong, because she is and for a very long time people not only convinced her that she wasn't, but that a lack of strength correlated to a lack of worth. And because of this past of having to prove herself and rediscover who she is and could be, Willow accidentally internalized the idea that others perception of her as strong is conditional on her always succeeding despite the obstacles, always staying in control and on top of things, always being the shoulder to cry on, etc etc.

And to an extent, she was right! Amity (unintentionally and well meaningly) refused to acknowledge willow's strength, leading to her having to prove herself, Boscha takes great pleasure in pointing out the chinks in willow's armour because Boscha feels better about herself when someone else is beneath her and she most often makes Willow that target. These are examples in which someone (correctly) paints Willow as pretending to be strong, but act like if they peeled back that facade, all you'd be left with is weak, half a witch willow. Whereas Hunter and Gus understand that even if you peel back willow's front of strength to see the more vulnerable side of her, there's still a strong foundation that takes little time in getting back into the swing of things once she's let it all out. Willow can be reliable and have debilitating anxiety. She can be whiney and needy and still be brave and powerful. Reliable people need someone to rely on too.

Willow's arc in labyrinth runners meant a lot to me because being consistently told that you are weak and need the help of people who love you but who struggle to understand you and see past their own need to protect you, by those people hit close to home and was incredibly validating to see. Somebody once compared the writing of those interactions to microaggressions, and intentional or not it resonated with me bc of that I think.

And now willow's arc in FTF completes this in a way that's very viscerally satisfying to me. Because proving your worth to people, no matter how successfully you do so, takes such a toll on your own mental well being and self perception. Bottling up your emotions so you don't drag others down is so difficult. And you deserve to cry like a big fucking baby if you've been doing this. Let it out!

For the future is an episode about being seen and heard, so to have Willow be so thoroughly seen and heard not just by the people who understand her best within the show, but also by the writers and consequently the audience is just.

It's what she deserves. And I love her very much