#she's a giant mess

[monkayy]

[spoopy-arcade]

Uhh Cassie's dad ig??? + some doodles

[so-very-small]

you are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down; strike a match and I'll burn you to the ground

i loooove a lab rat + evil scientist combo :3

[lafaiette]

Gods I feel you I'm only 10 hours in after having received the game as a gift and I REALLY try to like it but it just ... doesn't feel like Dragon Age. Characters know stuff they shouldn't know about, the game keeps talking down to me, nothing I did in the previous games mattered, the tone is completely different, the mature storytelling of the previous games seems to be missing so far & what I heard so far of how the lore and the characters from previous games have been handled is honestly the worst part and breaks my heart. idk even if i wanna finish the game at this point anymore, I'm just kinda ... sad.

I'm so sad and disappointed, too, I remember our conversations, fics, and headcanons about DA! We were so excited and happy, because Inquisition, DA2, and DAO were genuinely well-made and aimed at pleasing the fans, despite their faults.

DATV is a good action game, no doubt about that. The combat is fun, there is a lot to explore and discover, and many locations are beautiful, even though some are terrible to navigate (Dock Town's structure makes no sense). But that's it - it's a good action game with the name "Dragon Age" pasted on it. It doesn't feel like it's part of the series, it constantly treats the player like an idiot, some references to past games and characters are literally hidden in the brief descriptions of the mementos, and there is even a Glossary to make sure the new players don't get frustrated.

Everything is safe and aseptic, cleaned of every deep piece of lore that could have scared new fans into buying or continuing the game. Even the banters lack the depth of the previous games.

A good game company should lure new players in not by rejecting their past entries, but by making them look even more interesting with their sequels.

Bioware wasn't afraid of offering piece of lore after piece of lore in Inquisition - it was a game set in a precise moment, whose prologue was directly tied to the events of the previous game, and new players had to accept this if they decided to buy it and play it. If they liked that premise, all that information and those details, then they were more than welcome - they were encouraged! - to go back, try the older games, and see how it had all started. It was a game made for the fans the company had already managed to win over, not for possible fans who may or may not bring new money in.

In DATV the new players can jump right in after quickly learning who Solas is and what he's trying to do, and old fans are left with an empty shell, with minor references that are supposed to make us feel happy and accomplished peppered here and there, while all our past choices and our favorite characters are forgotten or brought back with a terrible case of amnesia. It's lazy, infuriating, and very sad, and it smells of reboot, because the new devs probably realized they couldn't keep up with the amount of lore and choices the series contain, and they needed to start anew.

[isbergillustration]

Went to the library to write and it’s going so efficiently.

[iamumbra195]

If Ashlyn Banner was a character in a typical magic manhwa she would be the cool mage that remained isolated in the tower for over a decade without any sort of human contact until they were forced to due to the MC’s stupidity or in her case, Aiden’s shenanigans.

She would subsequently be roped into the chaos against her will, all while trying to figure out how to properly interact with real people after all this time and trying to protect this rag-tag group of people with varying backgrounds from certain death.

Aiden would be the crown prince who hated his position and responsibilities after the war so much he decided to become an explorer. It was a risky business with so many unexplored magical lands so it was right up in his alley but his parents only agreed to let him go if he brought his cousin Ben with him as a companion. Ben would be the powerful knight who was heavily traumatized and rendered mute during the war, working on finding himself once more while he and Aiden explored the world together.

Tyler would be the promising young knight who's trying to gain some prestige in order to take care of his family. Taylor would run the repair shop their dad left them but struggled to find a lot of customers due to the stigma that a woman couldn't possibly be strong enough or smart enough to do good repairs. The repair shop was incidentally right across the flower shop Logan's parents ran while he studied something with math or science at a fancy school and occasionally came by to help.

And the Crane Cult are the Big Bad™ that are using a blood sacrifices to call on the power of a higher being or something like that. And they wear bird masks of course.

Ashlyn vs Maverick in a magic duel, when?

Kinda Part 2: Here

[sugarsweetvirgo]

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Trust

A glimpse into Eve and Kaiba's slow and very shaky start into a relationship, along with how Eve acquired her favorite choker.

[lemonlovemeanslove]

Coffee Prince is like such an easy go-to example as to why genderqueer AFAB x cis man relationships are in fact queer, like thats in their nature. The show is a queer show about queer romance, about sexuality and gender and the complex, complex ways these things interact with culture and intense feelings. The sworn brother oath is such a great way to exemplify how we use socially accepted concepts of intimacy between men to justify (both to others but mostly to ourselves) why the feelings we feel for that particular person are so intense. When Eun Chan cried "I am neither man or woman," that is a confession. The ''whether you're a man or an alien'' line I have more complicated feelings with.

(Context: I've grown up in the Middle East in a very conservative circle. I say this now because when I tell you I KNOW misogyny and homophobia, I mean I KNOW misogyny and homophobia, and have in my youth consumed a lot of East Asian media where I have definitely noticed a kind of trend in many different genres. Because of misogyny, there is for a lot of women with a kind of fantasy of being loved despite being female. The man-woman relationship is so loaded with so much angst and patriarchy that there is this kind of underlying feeling that you aren’t liked for you, that you are seen for your gender and what it’s supposed to look like, to the point where it’s hard to want to project yourself into a typical F x M dynamic, because you can really only associate it with the patriarchal ideal you so wish to avoid for yourself.)

But anyways, that line to me is also hinting to this: hey, this isn’t just my kind of strange and confused coming out because I feel strange and confused, but also you, Eun Chan, are something out of binary that my subconscious has kind of picked up on but that I right now don’t really have the words for or even awareness of. Eun Chan sometimes wants to be perceived as female—or rather, as a ''girl'' sparkle sparkle—but only when looking for or wanting male validation. (This might seem contradictory to the italicized section, but it actually isn’t. Wanting to escape the role of the female completely but still craving the attention you have been taught to chase actually go very much hand in hand with each other.) Eun Chan is always performing gender when they need to. When they don’t, it isn’t brought up. It isn’t given a name, it just is.

Yes, I know it’s an older drama from a conservative country, but that doesn’t mean none of this was intended. And despite intent, it doesn’t make it less valid.

The drama is thoughtful and is open to complexities, half-truths, and almosts. Cut to ANYTHING between Han Yoo-joo and Han-sung. When I say I want complex female characters, I’m talking about Han Yoo-joo—what a fucking scene-stealer. Anyways, I’m rewatching the drama since I first saw it at 15 because my life is in turmoil, and yeah, it still hits.

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[triffany-lottablog]

Seen multiple posts about doing the fire quest in town but i think we are forgetting the best place to do it.

[ericbttle]

poor Claire really was the pinnacle of a “female love interest written by a man.” hunting down Carmy’s phone # after he gave her a fake one, somehow always having free time to spend with him despite her being a medical resident (???), never once showing an emotion outside of “in love 😌” or “slightly sad 😢”, no substantial view of who she is as a person outside of being the ~love of carmy’s life~. she could’ve been an interesting glimpse into carmy’s past in regards to romance but…wasn’t.

[certainwizardlady]

Ah yes, the classic trope of looks like they would kill you, is a cinnamon roll:

And looks like a cinnamon roll, will kill you:

[owlcatchyoul8r]

Miriam,

Acrobat of the marvelous, mysterious Merriment circus.

[confettiart]

a tiny look into the process of making my audrey ii puppet last year for halloween, it was extremely frustrating but like she’s my little baby and i love they way she turned out!

[blackjackkent]

As the dragon collapses, its soul once again fading into oblivion, Rakha feels the Weave rip open behind her. The Emperor steps from its hiding place and surveys the fallen body impassively.

"Ansur," it says gravely. "I never thought I'd see it again."

Rakha very nearly hurls herself at the mind flayer right then and there.

It's a mark of how much things have changed that she almost certainly could succeed in striking it. Wyll and Jaheira and Lae'zel have all let their guard down, knowing that Rakha is no longer driven by the beast urge in her head to violence without cause.

But this isn't violence without cause. This is her anger, not the beast's, and it has been growing and growing since the night it showed her all its cards. It has manipulated her, it has taunted her, it has used her - and now she finds that it still continues to lie to her.

That anger feels good, it feels real, not like the beast's ravings - but she doesn't like that it feels good. That makes it feel far too familiar for comfort.

There is another difference though, as well. She feels the anger - but she is not owned by it. She can see it and feel it and not act on it. She sets her jaw. She waits it out.

She is calm.

"How much more of your past are you not telling me about?" she growls. The anger and humiliation sit in every syllable, almost reminiscent of the edge her voice held while under Bhaal's thrall - but she does not strike.

"My past is past," the Emperor says coolly. "I concealed nothing from you. I simply left out the details that were not pertinent to our cause. But it seems you are interested in them."

Its voice is monotone but she has learned to detect the shades in it. She hears them now - disdain, sarcasm - and her voice echoes them in answer.

"I just need to know," she says curtly, "if you're going to kill me. Like you killed your last 'friend.'" She shoots a glance at the dead dragon.

She isn't sure, but she thinks she sees the illithid stiffen slightly. "I killed Ansur out of necessity," it growls. "For the crime of being illithid, he would have killed me first."

It shrugs, turns away from her, looking at the fallen dragon again. "It's like I always told you. I was just like you - an adventurer who yearned for greatness. And in mortal terms, I achieved it. As captain of the Wandering Eye, I acquired enough gold to found Baldur's Gate. I stayed for a while to watch my city grow, but it was not enough. I grew restless again. The sea called to me and I ran to her with open arms."

Its head tilts to one side thoughtfully. "Life at sea was not easy. Our last adventure was ruinous. My ship was destroyed, my crew lost, but my spirit was far from broken. I was determined to return in triumph once again. I heard of treasure in Moonrise. I strove to find it."

One of its tentacles twitches. "What I found was an illithid colony, where I acquired a tadpole much like yours and became a mind flayer, enthralled to the elder brain. It was Ansur who found me, Ansur who pulled me from the brain's domination, Ansur who brought me home. He sought to cure me of my sickness, called on every healer he could find, nearly broke his spirit in the attempt."

It floats over to stand next to Ansur's skull. "But he failed to understand - I wanted no healing. I was not sick."

Rakha's eyes narrow as she listens to this speech. It astonishes her, really, that she ever followed the Emperor with reverence and trust. Its words no longer follow the path of her thoughts.

I was just like you - an adventurer who yearned for greatness. Rakha has never desired greatness, not that she has any memory of at least. All she wants is to be done, to rest, to be left alone with the silence in her mind.

The Emperor - Balduran - instead sought glory and trod into the wrong place and became a monster for it. And Ansur, his friend, wished to save it.

"So you killed him," she says flatly.

"Even after he had exhausted all possibility of reversing my condition," the Emperor says, "he still clung to hope. I tried to convince him of my reality - I was on the cusp of greatness beyond my wildest dreams. But all he could see was a mind flayer."

Again the illithid's tentacles twitch, more sharply this time, its eyes narrowing to slits. "He came to me as I slept. A mercy killing, in his mind. I saw the tears; I felt his grief. I had no choice but to kill him first. It was an act of self-preservation."

Rakha finds herself remembering a night deep in the darkness of the shadow-cursed lands - the night they emerged from the Shadowfell, the last night before the assault on Moonrise Towers. She remembers Sceleritas's mocking voice, and then the beast surging up and taking control, more strongly than it ever had.

She remembers very nearly becoming a monster, very nearly ripping Wyll's throat open with her bare hands. She remembers the panicked terror of sitting inside her own mind and watching it steer her body into damnation.

Wyll survived that night. She was strong enough, barely, to hold on until Wyll and Lae'zel could subdue her, bind her... but she is all too aware of the dark period around two o'clock in the morning when she was nothing but a rabid animal. She knows, left to her own devices, she would have killed Wyll then.

More than once she has been soothed by the promise that one of her friends - Lae'zel, Jaheira, Minthara, even Minsc - would not hesitate to kill her if she slipped beyond any hope of redemption. If it came to that point, she would have welcomed the knife.

The Emperor, it seems, does not see things the same way.

"You could have done the honorable thing," she mutters hoarsely, "and let him kill you."

The Emperor stares at her steadily. "Words easier said than lived by," it says coldly. "Do not think I am ignorant of what I have lost. I may not regret my actions - but I do regret that they were necessary."

Rakha shakes her head. All she hears, now, is exactly what she heard the night they rescued Minsc from the cistern. Alliance, loyalty, friendship - all of these things mean nothing to it before pragmatism. It has sacrificed those more important than her in the past, and it will sacrifice her, too, without a second thought, when she is no longer of use to it.

When this is finished... there will be a final reckoning between us, she thinks wearily. And I too regret that it is *necessary*.

The Emperor's tentacles flick restlessly, and then it turns away and, with a gesture, reopens its portal back to the Astral. "While the past is beyond my influence, the present is not. It is time we move on. One Netherstone remains. We must find it before the brain breaks free."

[galaxythreads]

Hi, do you mind if I rant a little? Because I found one of your posts while browsing the Loki tag and I’ve since found several more. Then I found your WandaVision one and it reminded me all over again how annoyed that finale made me. I’m sorry, I know it’s been a couple years since it came out, but MY DAYS! What were they thinking in the writers room!? It could’ve all been resolved if Wanda didn’t know what she was doing and sincerely apologised after for it, but… SHE KNEW!? The whole time! And then felt justified for it! “They won’t know what you sacrificed” still being one of the worst lines to come from Marvel. What happened to Wanda crying her eyes out in Lagos because she caused casualties? What happened to Wanda having a panic attack in AOU because she realised what she’d accidentally caused to happen? I had my own opinions about her before, but now I can’t stand her. It would be alright if Marvel went down the villain route of Wanda grieving so much she can no longer care to do good, but they’re still trying to act like she’s a good person after this, as if they haven’t made all her casualties only POC, as if she had a right to enslave an entire town and gaslight her husband and kids. I’m sorry, I’ve gone on for longer than I meant to about something you’re probably not even bothered about anymore. I don’t even know if I’m making sense

rant away, you're good. I remember that i made that post after months (weeks?) of frustration about seeing people praising the ground that Wanda walks on when all I could see when I looked at her is one of the most selfish people in the entirety of MCU. Her character was so good until WandaVision and MoM. She and Loki were my favorite characters.

"It could’ve all been resolved if Wanda didn’t know what she was doing and sincerely apologized after for it, but… SHE KNEW!?"

EXACTLY. There is a massive difference between "i did this without meaning to, I am so sorry" vs "I know I am actively hurting these people and I DO NOT CARE" she comes across as so cold and so selfish because she doesn't. Wanda in WandaVision doesn't care about other people, just what she wants. I just can't help but think about the beginning of her arc vs the end and just feel massive disappointment. And I think it wouldn't be as annoying if it wasn't framed like she was a hero. If they intentionally took her on a dark path and let her be evil, it would have been fine and I would have enjoyed it because I would have been in awe of the clever writing.

But she's not. Wanda is not a hero in WandaVision for holding an entire town captive. she's not a hero for being aware of what she was doing and then doing it anyway. Like I guess the problem with WandaVision is that the finale and the rest of the series seem to disagree with each other, if that makes sense?

Wanda knows what she's doing in every episode until the end, where she's suddenly more sympathetic because she's not trying to hurt people?

like this scene:

this scene was clearly intended for her to BE the villain

but then you get to the end and the finale is like "NOPE! She was actually a good person the Whole Time :D"

look at her! Would I say she's in her right mind? no. but she is aware, she is responding, she is conscious, she KNOWS what she is doing because she understands that the wall can be exited and entered, she is aware these people are here to RESCUE the townspeople and she threatens them. She has what she wants, that's all that matters. WandaVision is an amazing villain origin story. but somehow after all of this she still doesn't have to face any repercussions???

gughsguhgusdghsdglihsdg. Yeah, it's been years and I'm still mad.

but this

are not this: