#some things are intentionally there

[mai-komagata]

re: sexy stabbings

im writing this very long meta on how galadriel x sauron and silvergifting dynamics help an audience recognize different forms of seduction in a relatable way (including queer forms of seduction, which audiences are normally blind to), and how recognizing these ships isn't about "crack shipping" but about the text using the language of sexuality/eroticism/seduction to convey concepts that would otherwise be vague and not-understandable like temptation to a metal object or wounds that cannot heal or possession by an alien being as well as concept of "men in a fantasy/magical/superhero setting are not just power levels" -- ie. the strongest man should always win. Galadriel is *integral* to this because most characters in tolkien are male and audiences are pre-disposed to ignoring emotional dynamics in men other than anger and violence -- the contrast with a female romance lets an audience be like "these people, adar, galadriel, celebrimbor are more alike than distinct". (wow maybe i don't need to write it, anymore!). But since that is taking me very long to write and i keep running into queer-erasure every day i'll just say this: the reason we don't see Sauron torture Galadriel in the same way she tortures Celebrimbor is not because his relationship with them is cosmically different (obviously its different bc they are different people). Galadriel is not more "pure" or "loved" than Celebrimbor. Neither is blameless (i.e. both were ambitious) and neither is deserving of torture (nobody deserves that, even Sauron). It's because there is different symbolism to the way they are being hurt. Arrows being used as martyrdom is a millennia old way of showing homosexuality. Stabbing is metaphorical of penetration. He intended to kill both of them for denying them the Nine. Because Sauron is bad at impulse control, he takes and believes he is wiser than he is. If he wants something he will take it and then regret that he broke his favorite thing. (note he doesn't regret killing other people he doesn't twistedly love, like mirdania, or the orcs).

Galadriel had Nenya (i.e. Celebrimbor's magic, untouched by sauron) and Elrond was able to save her (love and light win the day). Celebrimbor died as symbolic for what happened to Eregion (he was alone and eregion fell).

This doesn't mean BOTH scenes aren't meant to be erotic. The stabbing is hot and the caressing of the arrows are hot. But they are hot in a BDSM/noncon way. "Do you understand what it's like to be tortured by a god?" sorta way.

Pragmatically, though, the reason we don't see more graphic galadriel is because it would make audiences uncomfortable. You can be way more graphic with gay shit and people won't be squicked than if you are graphic with m/f abuse. As i said, a good 50-70% of the audience won't even NOTICE the gay shit and think its just standard fantasy violence. The closer you make it to outright rape, the less compelling it is, because Sauron needs to both be APPEALING and EVIL in order to understand why people are drawn to the rings of power and why it is essential to oppose it.

[disclaimer: this is not anti galadriel x sauron, it is just in favor of seeing the ship in a dark way as part of the larger narrative. When I talk about shipping them in a dark way i don't mean simply its my kink, i mean this is a dark seduction story at heart. The actors are very hot, their acting is very sexy, but the function in the larger story is to display the different ways sauron tempts and corrupts people, including galadriel, celebrimbor, adar, and how sauron himself was corrupted by melkor].

[groovyfrog420]

So do you ever think about how in the current event you need to be in a team of 3 cookies to participate, and we've met exactly 3 beasts in the story?

yknow what would be funny.

(random story bits bellow the cut)

This is more of just a silly skin idea, but I still couldn't help but overthink of how they'd end up in this situation.

I imagine the Beasts joining the Grand Cookie Games for fun, bc unrestricted public violence, and they get to make a show out of it on a big stage?? It's like a relaxing holiday for them! 🥰

The ancients were on an *actual* holiday break but got roped into the chaos when they noticed the Beasts were present.

my idea is that Pure Vanilla, Dark Cacao and Golden Cheese (or Hollyberry bc I really want to see her in the arena) weren't planning to sign up for the tournament at all, but they went to check out the commotion caused by the Beasts, happened to be at the right place when the competition started, and decided it's too late to back out at this point - after all, someone had to put a stop to the Beasts were planning, and the general public doesn't even know of their existence, so they can't publicly reveal their identities in fear of causing mass panic. The only choice is to eliminate them in they competition and take care of them safely, away from bystanders (cartoon logic don't think too much about it)

It would be a funny role reversal to see "the good guys" try maybe a little bit of sabotage, and the beast team dance around the rules so that what they're doing is juuuust on the verge of being allowed.

[tempered-grace]

anyone else see the benzene ring in the house logos

like

thats skeletal structure!!!

[ari-continues-to-exist]

Get love and hate confused

Can’t separate the two

Oh, my love, how I’ve hated you

[lgbtlunaverse]

Mdzs fandom: I've got an ironclad objective and unambiguous account of this event as it happened in canon.

Me: Is it actually unambiguous?

Fandom: I don't understand

Me: I want to know if you have an ironclad unambiguous objective account of an event, or an in-universe subjective interpretation where the truth is intentionally left up to speculation?

Fandom: I have the objective account

Me: you're sure? It's fine if you have a subjective interpretation.

Fandom: I have an objective unambiguous account. I do not have a subjective interpretation

Me: Alright! Please give me the objective account.

Fandom: Here you go. *hands me an in-universe subjective interpretation of something where the truth is intentionally left up to speculation*

[seventeendeer]

this isn't at all meant to be condescending or finger-waggy because 100% we all have blind spots like this, but I'm really, really hoping that the people who never found Gaiman's approach to his own fandom concerning in any way will take this all as a learning moment.

he was an older, hyper-famous author engaging directly and frequently with an online audience of largely vulnerable young marginalized people. he presented himself as cultured and worldly, and made himself approachable as someone to go to for advice, encouragement and "wisdom." his manner of speech was extremely pathos-heavy and clearly intended to be comforting and encouraging in exactly the way his target demographic needed it to be to swallow every word. the way he spoke about stories and creativity was designed to make young creative hopefuls feel special and important, while sweeping real analytical techniques under the rug - in hindsight, likely so no one would think too critically about the disturbing amount of patriarchal abuse played for cheap shock value and voyerism in his own body of works.

Gaiman saw a target demographic that was desperate for an older creative role model to tell them they were worth something, and he exploited that pain to twist a narrative around himself where he was king and any critique leveled at him or his works were the enemy.

to be clear, he could have been innocent. he could totally have been just an out-of-touch old man saying nice things to people because he wanted to be kind and he thought he was a lot smarter than he really was. red flags are warning signs, not a surefire way to tell if someone is actually "secretly shitty."

but if you used to look up to him, PLEASE take this moment to revisit the ideas you absorbed from him. did you take his words to heart because they seemed to have objective merit? or did you take them to heart because it felt good to believe what he said? do you still hold these values? does knowing he was intentionally manipulating his online audience make you less certain? do you need more information from a different source before deciding one way or another?

again, I'm just really, really hoping people on here will take a moment to reevaluate the ideas and opinions he's injected into tumblr fandom culture, because his reach is immense and he has absolutely been manipulating popular perception of relevant topics to gain further influence and control the narrative around both his own and Pratchett's legacy. please, please take this moment to notice what he's been doing - and next time someone tries to pull the same shit, hopefully we'll be able to apply what we've learned from experience.

[eshithepetty]

"Haha Dream BBQ is so random and incomprehensible" "did they take drugs to make this lol" "you're actually not meant to understand anything in this series it's ok" "Joel G just makes up stuff on the spot based on what would be funny" "it's just random for random's sake" "is this AI" "stop theorising, it's not that deep" SHUT UPPPPPPPPPP

[a-dragons-journal]

How exactly is being otherkin any different than being transracial by idea? I’m not pro-transracial, but I can’t really formulate an argument on where the difference is and why one is okay while the other isn’t

The difference, in my opinion at least, basically comes down to the fact that race and ethnicity are things other real people deal with and which have big cultural impact for a lot of people; species is not. You can't hurt theriform wolves by identifying as a wolf because wolves are not people and are not aware of any of this. Dragons may be people depending on the dragon, but they don't exist physically in this world to have an opinion. You can, however, hurt people of color by identifying as transethnicity and approaching it in a disrespectful way.

And I say it that way because if I'm honest, transethnicity is one of those transIDs where I'm... a little torn on it. I can understand the feelings and experiences they're describing, but I struggle to find a way to engage with the idea of being transethnicity that isn't going to wind up being racist in one way or another. And while I haven't exactly spent a ton of time in radqueer/transID spaces, when I've gone into their tags and such to do a little research on them, I have overwhelmingly seen transethnicity people being kind of if not extremely racist about it. The experiences are not inherently harmful, but it's really easy to slide into engaging with those experiences in a way that's harmful.

And yet... in this community we have, for example, fictionkin whose fictotypes are a different race than them all the time, and sometimes that's very important to who their fictotype is and how they view the world. And that works out fine. I think the primary difference is that fictionkin are generally expected to acknowledge that they're not a part of that group in the present and can't speak on the group's issues or experiences as if they were, whereas the minute you put a trans- label onto the word, the expectation is that you should be treating a trans[x] person as if they're [x]. (And if it's not, then... why are you calling it trans- anything to begin with when that's what trans- means in an identity context?)

So, I do genuinely believe that they're having these experiences, but... idk, there has to be a better way to frame and engage with those experiences. I don't know what that is, but it's got to be out there somewhere, though it may not be a one-size-fits-all answer. (And maybe there's a transID community out there that's found it, I don't know.)

Anyway, open invitation for POC to give their thoughts on this, since they've probably got better-constructed ones than me; if I'm honest, I haven't spent all that much time thinking about this issue. I think about it on and off here and there when it comes up and then it gives me a headache so I move on.

[lizzybeeee]

DATV is overly reliant on Supplemental Media - especially if you are a returning player

TL;DR: Supplemental material should not be required reading in order to understand what's going on in the main game -> it's additional material that enhances what we were given. If what we were given is lacking and unable to coherently tell us a story, then the writers and those in charge did not prioritize what was important.

Not a take that's unique to Dragon Age, but one that is very relevant when talking about DATV. I've made a few posts about plot/story points that either make no sense or have been dropped entirely in the lead up from DAI to DATV. Every now and then I get a few comments or messages about how certain points I made were addressed in supplemental material released in the lead up to this games release.

This isn't a call out post, by the way! But it's frustrating, to me, that this games writing is so lacking that my understanding is being inhibited because I can't remember details from a book I read two years ago - not to mention various podcasts, comics, and short stories. My understanding of a video game in a video game series should not be reliant on additional/optional content.

DATV is a weird game in that it is absolutely a 'soft/scorched earth' reboot while also marketing itself as a continuation to what was set up in Inquisition and Trespasser. Personally, I think that if you are up to number 4 in a game series, one with a continuous story-line, it should be expected that new players won't be able to catch up to everything -> it's the game developers job to make the world and story intriguing enough that the new players will go back to previous games in the series and fill in the blanks themselves.

Veilguard, as a sequel, is overly reliant on content that comes from outside the games themselves (including DLC's) if you want to make sense of the world and story. Trespasser left us with an epilogue that set up some plot points for the next game: Solas & the Veil, the Elven Rebellion, and War with the Qun - plot points that have been built up since the time of Origins. But when we get into DATV two of these points have been dropped and resolved, off-screen.

There are more questions, but these are the ones that bothered me the most while playing the game:

What happened to the Agents of Fen'harel/ Elven Rebellion? -> answered in a cursed reddit AMA.

What happened to the Qunari following Trespasser -> addressed in Tevinter Nights, and a codex entry you can pick up (optional).

Why is Skyhold infested with demons? -> mentioned in Tevinter Nights.

How did the Dalish go from worshiping their own pantheon to knowing they are false gods? (specifically those we meet in the Veil Jumpers) -> mentioned in the Missing comic series.

What's up with Nevarra's Royals? -> Tevinter Nights addresses that there is a power struggle in the Pentaghast family and the role of the Mortalitasi in making it worse - though it does not address the whole 'mage puppeting a corpse' issue and all the implications it has.

This is a video game series -> the bulk of the information required for me to understand the story and its relation to previous entries needs to be included in the final game version. I am playing a video game and not attending a uni class - I should not need to have a required reading list in order to understand what the fuck is going on. I should definitely not need to go onto a reddit AMA to understand what happened in-game, either.

What makes this stand out the most is that DAI was very successful in tying in previous games, DLC's, movies, and books! Inquisition did a great job in getting you up to speed on the events of the previous games early on, providing personalization if you played those games, and giving the player the opportunity to inquire into these events.

Hiding away the answers in additional material or a codex entry that may be missed is not good game design or good writing. DAI didn't assume that you had bought and played the Legacy DLC -> it made certain you experienced the conversation with Varric and Hawke if you wanted to proceed in the game. It didn't hide away imperative information in codex entries - it had characters talk about it in scripted scenes and encourage the player to ask more. You would actively need to avoid interacting with characters for you to not experience this information in DAI.

Leliana talks about her role during the Blight, her calling by the Maker, and her relationship with Dorothea/Justinia -> DAO and Leliana's Song DLC.

Cullen talks about his time as a templar at Kinloch & Kirkwall -> DAO and DA2.

Cassandra speaks about her history, investigation into Hawke, and the Seekers -> Dawn of the Seeker movie, DA2, & Asunder novel.

Varric talks about Hawke, Kirkwall, and Corypheous -> DA2 and Legacy DLC.

Cole talks about how he discovered he was a 'demon' - it leads to further conversations about Rhys, Evangeline, and Lord-Seeker Lambert -> Asunder novel.

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts -> the game literally continues what the Masked Empire novel sets up, the Orlesian Civil War. The game does a decent job of telling us about the players (Celene, Gaspard, Briala etc...) and the reasoning behind the conflict through dialogue, the ability to explore the battlefields, quests, ambient dialogue, etc... The book is not required reading - though it greatly adds to the complexity of the characters, motivations, and political intrigue!

I never once, playing DA2 or DAI, felt penalized or like my experience was lacking because I had not engaged with supplemental material or DLC's. I got into Dragon Age when I was in high school, it wasn't until I graduated and began working after that I had the disposable income available for experiencing the extra material. I cannot say that for DATV - If you have played Inquisition and go into DATV straight from that you will, absolutely, be confused about how we got from A to B.

Which is especially strange to me!? Why is it that new players will be less confused than those that are returning players? It's like the game is actively punishing you for playing and caring about previous games in the series.

Supplemental media is bought because the main product has earned your investment, love, or interest. Not everyone has the income available to buy it with their own money - especially if you live outside the US and have to pay additional shipping costs. Not everyone has the ability to buy or 'obtain' the digital versions either. My understanding of the main story of a video game in a video game series should not require additional monetary investment into other mediums.

The game itself should be enough and DATV is not enough.

[revvethasmythh]

you know, i think sam does often just throw out chaotic comments he thought up on the fly while he's playing, especially when he's revisiting veth in her post-canon appearances, but i also think sam is very much the kind of player to roll with what he says and make concrete character beats out of them afterward. he did this during the main campaign with veth's fear of water--that was just a bit played for jokes initially that he decided had some meat to it and asked to incorporate it into her backstory, which he did very well and to great effect. so i think when he says something lowkey insane in the post-canon oneshots etc., i always have that in mind. like yeah, there's a high likelihood that he just thought this insane thing up in the moment with no pre-planning, but it also does not mean that it can't be a significant thing he may focus on in the future. absolute crap shot with this guy (affectionate). leaves a lot of character possibilities open, though

[horror-aesthete]

Twin Peaks, 1990, dir. Tina Rathborne

SE01E04 Rest in Pain

[teaboot]

I haven't done art professionally in years but there's this fancy gallery down the street that often has the worst art I've ever seen on display for thousands of dollars and it makes me so angry that I wanna create better but then I get home and I. Don't

[uncanny-tranny]

"haha, are you an art gay, a science gay, or a math gay"

Actually, I find the division between art, science, and math to be a very nebulous idea and useless when you actually interact with the universe. The more you learn about the world, the more you surround yourself with art and science and math, and you'll never be able to see it any other way and it will be beautiful. When I take your hand, it won't be the science of our atoms closing the distance between us that we will experience, but the math of our fingers interlocking and the art of our bodies that we will experience. You are math and you are science and you are art, and nothing will make you any lesser💛

[bmpmp3]

Kitty Being Constructed.

[blackberry-sage-tea]

Apologies but I have another stupid long analysis post. Been thinking about this and I think Veilguard defenders aren't necessarily wrong that Veilguard's main choices "matter" about as much as prior game choices matter--that is, in that they have a superficial impact on dialogue and story paths, while the core narrative is ultimately unchanged (albeit it has way, way less of those superficial changes). Dragon Age's main appeal as an RPG series (imo) is that it tries to balance player freedom with having a coherent and emotional narrative in a way that a lot of RPGs can't (either because they let you kill major NPCs if you want or because the endings diverge so heavily the next game has to be 100 years later), so it's always been more limited in what you can do. It's mostly always been down to dialogue, cameos, and side quests.

But the thing about Veilguard's major story choices is that it doesn't give you any context to appreciate what you're choosing or why you're choosing it. And so they FEEL like they don't matter in a way that prior games never had a problem with.

In DA:O your major choices come at the end of a quest chain. Harrowmont or Bhelen, werewolves or elves, mages or Templars. These choices have very little impact on the rest of the plot, your story is not significantly different for picking one or the other (except for, again, the superficial things). The thing that makes these choices feel weighted is not the consequences of which ally you have at the final battle or a single paragraph at the end, it's that you spend a lot of time building up to them--you are given the full context for what you're choosing, the game is asking you to make a decision on a topic that you are now very well informed on. You know what the stakes are for this choice, even if you don't see it outside of an epilogue blurb.

Awakening, similarly, has its main story choices near the end--Do you save Vigil's Keep or Amaranthine? Do you side with the Architect or against him? These impact the plot almost not at all because of their placement, it's a "future consequences" thing, but it feels like it matters because the game has spent its whole runtime telling you what choices you're making and building them up through its side quests. It's asking you what you think is most important.

DA2, same deal. The lesser story impact on your choices is, in this instance, more of a technical constraint this time around (the game is very unfinished so you're pretty much press-ganged into the Templar route for a good chunk of it) but all of the choices you make are based around things the game is constantly giving you context for. How you feel about the Qunari, how you feel about Templars and Mages, how you feel about the Chantry, these are things the game is ABOUT and so there are no major story choices where you ask yourself, "why should I care about this?"

Inquisition fumbled this a smidge, I think. The mage-Templar choice is a very early one, and it's given to you without much time to build context for it (if you're a new player, that is), however that's the choice that has a little more story impact than normal and unique quests for each so it's not as big a deal. The other choices though, they also come at the end of questlines where you get to know the stakes and the characters involved. Who do you leave in the Fade? Do you wish to redeem the Grey Wardens or not? Who do you think is the best ruler of Orlais? Should you drink the Well of Sorrows, given what you've learned of Elven history? I have my criticisms of the writing for these quests but like most people I appreciate in hindsight that it still followed the pattern of "your choices matter because you know what you're choosing and why it's important".

Veilguard doesn't do that, and that's why its major choices (what few there are) feel like nothing despite arguably getting the same amount of story impact that previous games did (ie, its mostly dialogue changes and slightly different side quests).

Who do you pick to help you in the opening? I mean, does it matter? The situation is dangerous whether they're helping you or fighting demons alone, there's not really any way to anticipate that the one who comes with you is getting seriously injured outside of "this is a video game". Should you help Treviso or Minrathous? Well, I mean in-universe as Rook I'm doubtful that there's anything I can actually do to save a whole city given my lack of resources (plus each city has a collection of warriors about as capable as me) and tbh I barely know anything about either one because this is pretty early game, I've just been focusing on recruitment thus far. Do you punch the First Warden or not? Yes…? I mean I get that it wants to give you a choice but I've been given no indication that there's a guy capable of reason in there--even the whole "You're hearing your Calling" thing is given AFTER the choice is made, and it's not like punching out the First Warden would have major consequences for the Wardens as an order, he's just a politician. Do you pick Davrin or Harding for your secondary team? Am I supposed to know in advance that this is going to get them killed? I'm picking the person I think is best for the job, and sure enough they successfully do the thing I picked them for. It's only later, after the choice is no longer relevant, that the consequences bear fruit. Do you pick Neve or Bellara to undo the wards? I mean there's no reason why that choice leads to Elgar'nan grabbing one or the other, it's literally just who is standing closest to the mirror when he shows up.

And this isn't even going into things like "Who should be Archon?", which is relegated to a single fucking side quest (unless you saved Treviso in which you have no choice) and your options are "reformist who wants to use dirty tactics" and "reformist who wants to use naive tactics" given to us after having 0 development on Tevinter's actual sociopolitical system and how it works other than "it's bad". Oh, and both candidates promise to support each other with no hard feelings and none of the people you ask have strong feelings one way or the other, just vague preferences.

You see where I'm going with this, right? The ONLY major choice the game has you make that it has spent the whole game building up to is how you want to deal with Solas, but to a long-time player who got more, BETTER context for who he is in Inquisition and Trespasser, it feels painfully unfair and lackluster in execution (it's not an exaggeration to say this game told me nothing about Solas as a person that I didn't already know going in, except for the things that directly contradicted his prior characterization). And of course, that's just one character--you're not being asked to make a decision that impacts the world (because the world consequences are the same no matter what), you're just deciding what flavor of Solas you want for your ending.

Your major choices don't matter not because they have less impact than prior games (which is a separate argument), or because there's less of them (this is true but it's not the point I'm making here), but because these choices are arbitrary as hell in the moment you're making them. You're not given the tools to care about them. All the reasoning people give for one or the other? Entirely meta or based on future knowledge. The narrative doesn't inform the decisions, the mechanics do.

[aeserathedreamer]

new bundle of hwbm memes