#so yeha i do love tommys character

[the-official-account]

episode.......25

and so it begins...or ends!

anything can kill a vampire it just has to happen a lot alsdfjal;sdjfasdlfkjas

"what do we have in the way of the tommy gun...ACAB but i'll take it" asdjlfa;sdlfjasf

one of my favorite parts of ttrpgs is the whole "buckle down to fight a boss" bits they're so satafying, the anticipation if palpable

okay the trip threat has been adjusted but in my mine vellum is still for sure looking 👀👀👀😳😳😳

spar is like "Bestie I have one emotionally intelligent braincell on loan from anya...but i'll do my best!!!" (I'm exaggerating, he's pretty savvy but asd;lfas;dlf)

I love how bridge worship's providence and their whole deal is STILL "dont fucking mess with those cards"

"When i don't know what to do I try to think about what makes the people I care about safest" Where's that *gently holds* image when you need it because AAAAWWWWHHHHHHH.

" we could try locking them up?" Spar no asldfja;wdsjf

The dreamy sigh i let out when spar said the whole "I trust you with my life" thing. That's the gayest shit he's said yet, I think.

Okay but all im saying is consider Xbala/Anya/Tatiana. Just consider. Really think on this. the ultimate chaos trio

"It's Xbala"

"Does she have anya with her?"

"yes"

it was establish that anya was standing behind her but my initial mental image was FOR SURE Xbala carrying's anya under one arm dfghsadflhgsfgsld

I feel like spar is trying to hard to exude "man of the house" energy all the time and normally that would work except 80% of people in the podcast see him as a younger brother-ish-situation. But he did good with anya!!!!

I think they should give anya a knife and set her lose though, that's just my opinion

SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA, SEE A LAWYER AND PICK EM IPAS DFA;LDSJFAS BY STUPID DOODLE IS CANNON NOW I HAVE DECIDED.

:O SPAR DON'T BE MEAN TO XBALA!!

"look i had real qualms about manhandling a lawyers" asdfjha;sdjfa;skdfj

"AND ANYAS LIKE i would bite you" QUEEEEEEN SHIT OH MY GOD

OF COURSE FUCKING DIAMOND IS TRYING TO DITCH OUT ON THE FUCKING DEAL. UGH!!! (DEROGATORY!) TOMATO TOMATO TOMATO!

Diamond better not be saying they're going to that meeting.

ipswitch noooo. Ipswitch i like you so much but don't fall for thissss noooo. something sus is like fore SURE going down adn i dunno what it is but i DO NOT trust it

COMMUTES VIA PARKOUR WHILE BLINDFOLDED HE'S SUCHHHH AS FUNNY LITTLE GUY!!!!!! OH MY BGOD

oh my god vellum but as a baby.....wait who is iris? I may not know an iris yet but I am VERY interested in vellum's work friends (in inventing names of one(1) random character for a fic I chose, or all names, naomi...........)

SPAR MAKING MATCHING SHIT FOR HIM AND SOREL IS SO PRECIOUS HOLY FUCK.

what ARE the xbala anya vibes. OMG IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO CONSIDERED THAT SHIP. Ooooh Xbanya is a really good name. Xatianya also??? At some point if you cram enough names together they make one (1) sci-fi russian princess.

Yeha maybe Lunavella's just a GILF. THE CAT/BIRD ENERGY there are layers...there are LAYERS to this yeah as;kldfja;lsjdf

as a listener I had not considered this I would assume the poleaxe was just like. a socially acceptable and sexy addition to an outfit

LALSDFJLSDFHGALKJSFD i was waiting for spar's reaction to the triple threat

I feel like if you're headed to the truth booth in your relatioship it oughta be ending anyway

MERIM I'VE BEEN ABANDONED BY MY DATE NOOOOOO Jakub ditching lunavella for QC is understandable and probably the best strategic but still a bit lame

Luna is sticking with vellum and bc you just KNOW she's a god at that etch-a-sketch. The kiddies in the olde elven kinda garden couldn't HOPE to keep up.

DIAMOND CAN YOU RESPECT EPIPLE'S AUTONOMY FOR FIVE MINUTES?

OOOOH THAT TELEPORTATION IDEA IS RAD

OOOOH THE HOUSING BEING FAKE IS SO GOOD

Do all the pendant work? Did they find a way to manufacturer more? If they can surgery everyone wearing a pendant like giving them diamond's mind control is a massive L but being able to identify that many members is super useful? Also fuck diamond.

"diamond is frozen in time" haha. Bitch.

EEEEEE voracity outing Merim like that aiiiiiint great. VORACITY YOU LEAVE SPAR THE FUCK ALONE. FUCK.

I really hope they get their backup in soon. Ahhh!!!!!

I'm glad to be caught up. My blood pressure will be slightly higher for the next 2 weeks

@threeheartscast

[zeta-in-de-walls]

Tommy’s character and the theme of failure

One thing I’ve always rather appreciated about Tommy’s story in the Dream SMP is how it explores the idea of failure. It can be a challenging one to do right as it means exploring a character’s weakness a lot and can start to feel unsatisfying if the character never succeeds but I feel like Tommy’s story avoids this issue as his arc is ultimately an encouraging one. His character never stops trying or gives up in spite of his losses, showing the perseverance to keep going until eventually he starts to find happiness, no matter how elusive it seems. 

Tommy’s character is no stranger to failure of course but I’d say this theme starts to become prominent with November the 16th. Tommy had two goals: to save L’Manberg and to save Wilbur. He was pretty optimistic about both. And he failed. The day ended in disaster with Wilbur dead, Technoblade, his idol, mocking his heroism and telling him to die, and his home in ruins. It takes him a long time to come to terms with who Wilbur was, separating Wilbur into two in his mind: President Wilbur and the ‘crazy’ Wilbur who blew up L’Manburg. 

But Tommy continues on, quietly moving on as L’Manburg gets rebuilt. No matter what, he still believes in L’Manburg; it’s still alive. Also, he wants to finally get his remaining disc back from Dream, feeling the need to do this after putting it aside for so long.

But of course, things don’t go well. That which he had taken for granted, his bond with Tubbo, was under fire. His personal wish to get his discs back was causing division. A simple prank gone wrong was tearing everything apart as Dream threatened L’Manburg once again. None of these things were purely Tommy’s actions, and yet his actions played a part all the same as Dream essentially took advantage of all of Tommy’s weaknesses. Tommy was being viewed as a liability, a troublemaker, as self-centred, as a problem. 

Tommy’s character likely blamed himself somewhat for his failure with Wilbur and L’Manburg the first time but it had been out of his hands and his reactions were more shock than being truly broken by the events and he kept up his optimism. Yet this time, the problems were not things far beyond his control. It seemed it was his own mistakes spelling his doom and it impacted him quite severely. As much as he recognised Dream as an antagonist here, his friends distrust of him was his failure. Despite his best efforts, he could not convince Tubbo not to exile him. 

Rather than seeing the fairly resilient, optimistic Tommy like the first time he was banished, this time Tommy’s defeated. We see the full effects it takes on his mental state and the narrative does not pull its punches. Tommy’s already depressed and we start to see evidence of suicidal thoughts very quickly. This is all made far, far worse by Dream who encourages his dark thoughts and feelings of worthlessness, telling him everyone’s better off without him while breaking his spirit and making him miserable by repeatedly blowing up his items. 

Dream was of course Tommy’s enemy, he’d recognised before that what Dream had been doing to L’Manburg, with the obsidian walls and insisting on banishing Tommy, had been unfair even if Tommy had been helpless to stop him. Yet over exile we see him really start to internalise Dream’s words, starting to really believe that narrative that he is unloved and a liability, despite his best efforts. As his mental state worsens we see him starting to believe Dream’s lies so much that he begins to believe that Dream is really his friend who cares about him. Meanwhile, he’s angrier and lashing out at the people he cares about, we seem him kill Jack, break the bridges he built and generally lashing out at the people he misses the most. 

So through exile, we see Tommy at his weakest and most vulnerable. We also see some of his flaws with his uglier side, his uncontrolled emotions, his dependency on others, his deep self-worth issues and how he can be so successfully lied to. This deep exploration of Tommy’s character allows us to really see how the repeated failures and setbacks and losses affected his character mentally and depict it as yet another obstacle he needs to overcome. 

And ultimately he does, ultimately deciding to fight back and run away from exile on his own. Tommy’s arc goes to very depressing places but manages to remain an inspiring story by showing you at his weakest and yet also show him never truly giving up but pressing on, in search of that happy ending. Running away from exile has him also realising that Dream is his enemy, not his friend and he commits to fighting back against him. 

But of course the narrative doesn’t entirely move on. Tommy’s struggles and failures continue to plague him as the mental issues he has with self-worth and his confused feelings towards Dream do not go away. He managed to continue but that wasn’t the perfect victory as most of his problems are still there and he’s still the same person. at Techno’s house, we see him and his confusion. He’s lighthearted and joking about but he’s still deeply troubled without a clear stance on Dream or L’Manburg or Tubbo and he clings to the idea of the disc as a simple goal. It seems as if he’s doomed to become the person he hated or make the same mistakes again. He once failed to save Wilbur and it seems as if his greatest failure would be to go down Wilbur’s path too, blowing up the country he once loved. 

And Tommy nearly goes too far. He finally meets Tubbo again and his anger, his issues all come back as does some self-centred behaviour as he declares that ‘the discs are worth more than you ever were’.

And he immediately regrets it. He apologises, he turns around and gives them up to Dream. He won’t let himself turn into Wilbur. 

And yet, every little victory he fights so hard for is met with an even greater failure. He switches sides on Technoblade while giving Dream exactly what he wanted. His story isn’t a happy one in spite of him trying his very best and making the decisions that are right for him. And we can only wonder how inevitable it was or if he could’ve done better for he hurts Techno deeply. Is he doing better or does his very nature doom him to make the same mistakes again and again?

Once ore, we see L’Manburg blown up and this time Tommy declares it a lost cause. Despite his best efforts, it’s over and we can only stare at the ruins of the nation he’d once helped build with Wilbur. Additionally, Tommy is dead to Techno now, that relationship seemingly broken forever. 

But it’s not the end. Tommy is defeated once more, with each failure hitting harder than the last but he doesn’t give up. He keeps on fighting. For all he’s lost, he’s won Tubbo back, and the experiences may have been terrible but he has learned something through all of it. Even if all that is, is understanding suffering a bit better and getting back the courage to apologise and reconcile.

He and Tubbo go after Dream and it’s almost, almost too late. He’s nearly locked in prison forever and Tubbo almost killed. 

But it’s not end. Just this once, it’s not a failure. They bet it all and finally had that victory. The rest of the server comes to save them and Dream gets locked in his prison while Tommy and Tubbo are finally free. 

Course, Tommy’s story isn’t over there. And the thing with this theme of failure is that it keeps on cropping up. They may have finally gotten a victory but Tommy’s issues aren’t over. he tries to start again, building his hotel but the trauma from exile has made an impact on him. It’s something that can’t be solved in a day, but only over a long time. And despite everything, the issues keep coming back. Tommy feels like things are unresolved with Dream and visits him again. 

And he gets locked in prison and dies and then gets resurrected. And its all absolutely devastating and it seems as if Tommy will never get better, that he’ll never truly have his happy ending. His hotel gets stolen from him and its as if everything he tries to do ends in failure.

He tries to sort things out, tries solving things with killing Dream and it just gets Ghostbur killed and the guilt can only eat at him. Wilbur is back at Tommy’s afraid but time has passed and he’s starting to see Wilbur more for who he is. After all he’s been through, he understands him way better than he did before. He once more commits to helping him but Tommy isn’t the naive kid he once was. 

Tommy still lives in the very same spot he always did. He still wants the same things he always did: a home, security, peace, friends, and he’s been experiencing many losses. And yet, his story is not a hopeless one. Because in spite of all that’s happened, he’s still trying again. And he’s learned and can avoid making those mistakes again. Right now, he’s doing better, he’s committing to living peacefully in a way he hasn’t in a long time. He’s been attempting to build bridges and though all his failures haunt him, he is gradually healing day by day, still trying to find that happy ending.

I think Tommy’s story is very cool for the way it really explores these themes of failure. It does not pull its punches, its dark, never easy or straightforward but that’s also what makes it so powerful. Those bright spots, feel so good, they feel so rewarding because they were so hard-fought. We root for Tommy’s character because we’ve seen his journey and really feel he deserves his happy end even though its never going to be perfect and indeed every failure is a mixture of forces outside of his control and his character which he has been trying to improve, learning to be nicer, more forgiving and more aware of his own emotions. He can’t fix Dream nor does he know how best to help Wilbur but he can help himself and that’s what he’s always trying to do. He holds himself to account and always tries his best.

[mushromman]

X Y Z

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

OKYA OKAY UHH butters, catra, fitz, sora, eddie, craig and tweek :), robbe, sander, sander again, steven universe, garnet, fin the human, and then that one leopard guy in spryo

Y- What are some of ur secondhand fandoms

Mmm probably mcyt I know fairly a lot abt it and I think it’s a p sexy plot line n stuff like I LOVE Tommy and tubbos dynamic like those tiktoks of tommy upset bc dream manipulated him into thinking everyone hates him bc they didn’t go to his party and he’s the MOST hurt over tubbo... and the compass.... ohhh it makes me :$@;&/!(&/!;&/ but I consider more secondhand bc I’m not rlly active in the fandom and everything I know is through carter cjndngmdnt

Z- Just ramble abt something fandom related, go go go

OH UH I WASNT PREPARED OMG..... we are going with kingdom hearts...... I have never finished any of the games yet but I’ve started all of them and idk if you’ve ever played kingdom hearts but the intros are SO sexy like there’s always this cutscene with a song and a bunch of scene from the game cut together to form this sexy ass intro and when I started playing kh 3 the intro was probably the best yet or at least that I rmemeber bc holy fuck I cried... like basically kh is abt (in the first one) sora discovering that he’s a keyblade master and his friends all get ripped away from him so he travels to different worlds (basically different disney movies) and helps play out the plot n stuff only different and the disney villains have an alliance and are trying to gather seven princesses and take their hearts and turn them into heartless I think?? I don’t rlly rmemeber if I’m being honest but something like that and sora has to stop them meanwhile still trying to find his friends (riku and kyrie) and I’m kh 2 it’s abt rocks who is soras nobody, which is when u take the heart and make the heartless,, the thing left behind is a nobody? Idk if that makes sense but yeah but basically everyone has a nobody but they’re in different universes so they aren’t ever supposed to see each other but roxas starts to get visions n shit abt sora and what happened in the first one and what is soon to happen to him so he freaks out but then it cuts back to u playing as sora again,, and he’s grown a bit yknow like it’s been a while but basically orginazation 13 (who is also in the first one but I forgot to mention but basically they were just trying tk help the villains, or rather the villains were helping them) is back and trying to collect hearts again and build an army meanwhile sora is finding out all this new shit abt being a keyblade master and nobodies n all that and then roxas is tricked into joining organization 13 and makes friends with axel and some other person can’t rmemeber their name but yeah and then roxas finds out he’s on the wrong side of shit and he meets sora, and then they fight the boss battle n stuff I honestly don’t know I never got this far but based on the third one,, basically roxas gets thrown back into his world but it’s not real it’s like. A simulation created by organization 13 so everything’s all whack and sora is trying to figure out how to get him out, and he says all this stuff abt how roxas is a part of his heart and like. Apiece of him n stuff and he needs to free him but organization 13 is still a threat so he needs to learn this certain spell that can help him defeat them for good but in the second one something happened and all his training and skills he had learned over the course of them game was forgotten and he has to start all the way at the beginning again so he has to figure all this shit out and how to do his spells n all that before he can learn what he needs all while he’s trying to figure out to save roxas as well as going through more disney worlds like tangled and toy story and that’s all I know bc I haven’t finished it 😎 but anyways yeha I’ve been thinking a lot abt it n like.... the storyline and plot of this game is SO sexy fucking fight me. u get to see soras struggle as he learns all this stuff and tries to find his friends meanwhile saving the world and his struggle as he learns abt roxas and his connection with nobodies AND his struggle as he tries to free roxas and learn all his skills again so he can defeat organization 13 for good liek sora Ily so much holy fuck I need to go to my brothers house more so I can play it more often I’ve been thinking abt it so much lately.... I need to draw sora again.... I wanna try drawing kyrie too but I don’t like her hair >:(( it’s weird looks hard to draw >:(( fucking anime ppl 🙄 anywyas I’ll stop now bc holy mother of god this is long

[therewas-a-girl]

Do of the wretched - bc u only did shipwrecks for becca

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

okay so - Of The Wretched was started by me in wow holy shit , in 2016!!!! I dont even remember what inspired me to write it (probably some arrow fuckery), though i do remember that the ‘flashback scenes’ - were never meant to dominate the way they did. They were just like, a window that became its own house and then separated from the old house, aka the ‘present tense’ of the story. 

I do remember that i had been rewatching gilmore girls at the time and rory’s dynamic with Logan (and Jess) inspired Felicity’s with Oliver when they were young. 

I also remember that i was writing ‘all worthy places’ at the time - like, that was my MAIN story in those days - and it was at times so heavy emotionally, that to unwind, i would write the parts about oliver and felicity in interacting as teenagers. 

2: What scene did you first put down?

i think the one with Thea and Felicity on the plane, leaving Starling. Yeha, the opening scene of the fic. The first few chapters of the fic were what it was meant to be actually. Like, it was never meant to go in the past but it did. *shrug* XD. 

3: What's your favorite line of narration?

Oliver and Felicity in the past. Definitely. And just like - Felicity’s pov when she was a teen and navigating her repationship with her mom and Oliver and tommy, that whole thing. Also i just looooove writing chapter 4 of ‘and so it is’ - the flashback part that became its own story. thats the chapter where we actually SEE oliver falling in love and his freaked out reaction to it. 

4: What's your favorite line of dialogue?

That whole scene in the abovementioned chapter 4, when oliver is drunk and felicity is exhausted and she finds him sleeping (aka passed out) in her room and moves ihm to the bed. 

tho i also love the scene where Felicity and Malcolm are arguing and oliver and tommy are in the next room and Oliver hears the threat in Malcolms voice and just - wants to go over there 

It wasn’t the words, exactly. It was the way Malcolm said them. Like there was supposed to be some kind of action implied after them.

Felicity though – she either missed it or didn’t give a fuck. “Right back at ya, Mister Merlyn.”

“You selfish girl! I fly over half the country to get you out of trouble and this is the treatment I get for my trouble?”

“I didn’t ask you to come here!” Felicity yelled over him, her anger reaching an explosive pitch Oliver didn't know she was capable of. “Oliver and Tommy got me out of trouble, and I will see myself through whatever comes next. I don’t need your help and I don’t want it, because your gross way of hanging your so called ‘ good deeds ’ over people’s head makes me sick .”

I just wish i had her balls, honestly. and her steel nerves

5: What part was hardest to write?

The reconciliation between Oliver and Felicity, after they fell out. I feel like the chapter in which it happened was less natural than the ones before it. 

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

It was incredibly fun to write. Like, i truly enjoyed writing it because that version of the characters and their relationship was just so entertainng to me personally, and just light and amusing, and overall just good, in the way they affected each other. (considering i was writing the darkest parts of ‘all worthy places’ in the mean time, yeah that became the most fun aspect of the story) 

7: Where did the title come from?

The story started as an exploration of an alternate universe where Robert was the Green Arrow/Arrow, and everything in the lives of the characters went to shit. It was meant to be the ‘dark universe’. where nothing is happy and everything is bad. ....and then it changed because @bisexualfelicity has a very strong hold on me and she likes happy things. 

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

Nah not really. this was just pure fun. 

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Yup. Felicity practically declares war on the league over Oliver. There is an actual war. lots of people  die. Moira dies - mostly all of the people that die in canon die during the war, etc etc, no one is happy. Everything that can go wrong does, bla bla bla 

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

I was very obsessed with it at the time and to an extent, still am. 

11: What do you like best about this fic?

How much fun it was to write and Oliver and Felicity’s personalities, which kind of took a life of their own. 

12: What do you like least about this fic?

How i handled Donna and Malcolm. And the the fact that its unfinished. 

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

I dont really remember having a fixed playlist for this one, actually. Which is weird of me. 

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

I genuinely wanted everyone reading to have as much fun as i was having. 

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

That a love story is at its best when its happening inhte background - when characters are falling in love and you dont mention it once but its so obvious to the reader. Also i learned that my favorite love stories are the ones where the lovers are super best friends first.