#specifically c3

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

There's a phenomenon I've noticed in fandom I'm going to call "Canon is mean to my blorbo" wherein fans of ongoing or serial media become really attached to one or a group of characters and build up in their minds an idea of how their story is going to go, but when the story doesn't end up going in that direction, regardless of how well the direction it actually takes was built up along the way, these fans will insist it was done out of malice or disregard towards their faves, rather than simply being a logical continuation or addition to the story that simply wasn't how they would have liked it to go.

[arcanemarion]

Honestly, I think it's grounding when some of your favorite creators do put out work you don't particularly like every once in a while. Sure, it can be frustrating and annoying and disappointing, but to the tune of "I know you can do better so I'm still interested to see what else you got". And if they somehow don't get any better or make any more stuff that you like, well, you've still got that other thing - and frankly, it's perfectly natural and okay and dare I say it even good to move on and find something else.

It also helps you develop taste, preferences, and discernment as a consumer of art and media. Just because a creator put out something you really love doesn't oblige you to heap praise on everything they create, especially when it's mediocre or bad, and in fact being able to recognize that creators don't make good work 100% of the time is a good way to help keep you from putting them on unnecessarily high pedestals.

I can't help but wonder if people are sometimes hesitant to put out critiques of things because there's been this pervasive idea in fandom (all of them, everywhere) the past, idk, decade or so that if you're going to dislike something you have to do it on some kind of weird moral justification as part of your supporting arguments, and if you don't do that you leave yourself open to being called some kind of epithet based on whatever attributes of the thing or character you've dared to analyze (which isn't to say that people don't write shit analysis like that ever, because they do, but so often fans of said thing don't practice enough discernment or reading skills to actually be able to tell the difference, or flat out don't care, because how dare you not like their favorite and write about it on your own space) -- which is all to say, how many people have allowed themselves to not develop discernible taste or allowed themselves to avoid picking apart why they don't like x story element or y character or z trait because general consensus appears to be that unmoralized critique is "mean"?

Not everyone enjoys picking apart their reactions to media, or analyzing the elements in said media. Many people, especially these days, just want a break for their brain and to escape the world for a little while - and I get that, I really do. But I also believe that everyone needs to develop a baseline level of discernment that you can tune into every now and again to check your own biases, and any that are potentially being presented to you, whether in the media itself or in analyses. It's a good skill to have, and ever increasingly a necessary one, to look at something and ask yourself "what is this, what is it saying, who is saying it, and where does it come from?"

Being able to understand what drives your preferences helps you identify your own biases and blind spots, and makes you better equipped to recognize when something is actually fucked up instead of just meekly accepting everyone else's opinion. Then, you can decide for yourself how to engage with it. Not only does this help you find other things you are more likely to legitimately enjoy (taste), but can also help hone your instincts when something feels off (discernment).

[spottedenchants]

so when the mighty nein participate in a premeditated, treasonous act against the governance in their nation and exonerate themselves by framing innocents for the crime, they are lauded as underground heroes, but when I, essek thelyss-

[undead-knick-knack]

When you're the only woman in a stable relationship

[acaciapines]

thinking about the roaring knight again. it really is between dess and carol to me okay. like dess bc THAT WAS A BASEBALL BAT. also the voice on the phone feels more dess than carol to me. 'kris you promised' is KILLING ME but this could be my own projection on how i write and see dess. carol knight bc WHY. WAS HER TEXT RED. FOR 'YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME HERE.' i mean it HAS to be one of them but im.

i think dess is so fun but idk...........

okay like. kris for sure went into the bunker after chapter three right. like the door OPENS, then we cut, then we get a flashback to closing the fountain to start 4. so i THINK kris is only working with the knight?/phone voice since then--dark world three feels very much like. i think they did that one on their own. i could see cyber city being them but if it was the knight (so dess or carol) that still tracks, leaning towards dess for that one bc it makes sense w/ how queen is? i feel like if carol opened it queen would be. uh. less Like That w/ noelle yknow.

i just feel like kris would risk it all for dess but maybe not their strict maybe-aunt yknow. BUT AGAIN THAT RED YOU. EVEN IF CAROL ISNT THE KNIGHT SHE FUCKING KNOWS OKAY.

also i want it to be dess bc i love her :333 and i also give her fucked up shadowy shapeshifty magic bc the dark has gotten under her skin and made a home there. WHO ELSE HAS THOUGHTS I CAN BE SWAYED EITHER WAY.

[zwoftt]

at this point, every small gesture and moment from dorym feels like they're making out with each other

[nottanothercritter]

when all is said and done, orym looks to imogen and can only see hunger, all-consuming, scraping her clean from the inside out just like it had him back in the wildmother's domain. he sees the glint in her eyes, the way her head tilts, the drive. and something in him responds in kind.

hunger remains their close companion, at the end of it all.

orym, cracking apart under it, hollow and adrift, with wet eyes and bloodied hands.

imogen, chasing with wild abandon. pressing low with intent, digging deep, finding prey. hunting.

orym's hunger is an empty echo that still tugs at whatever mess the wildmother's overstep had made of what he was before. imogen's is wide awake, a snarling beast with the scent of blood in the air. when he looks at her, all he sees is the very thing that broke him to begin with, in the shape of his friend rather than that fallen star that had torn his throat apart with the need to scream.

he watches clawed hands tear and scoop, watches eyes narrow and lips pull back to reveal eager teeth.

he knows what he ought to do. instead, all he can do is remember, and hunger.

[maryallenc]

ashton, to m9: wow, you people are crazy :D

me: no, they're just from wildemount. i mean, look at chetney.

[greenteaandtattoos]

jester and fearne are ludinus' sleep paralysis demons

[astralleywright]

It's so hard discussing C3 cause I'll find myself kinda agreeing with an opinion and then the vibe ends up being 'and that's why the campaign sucks and BH should go die in a ditch' and I'm like oh... we're not talking about the same thing...I actually wanted to see a longer aftermath of many things for BH - not just in the finale either - cause I love them, my bad.

no this is exactly it 😭 there are plenty of criticisms i agree with, at least in part, and things i wish had happened differently in the finale or even on a more macro scale. but so many critiques of C3 just misunderstand the plot and themes and characters entirely and treat any flaws as indicative of a campaign-wide failure and well. i simply do not think that's true. and with the way fandom abhors nuance it's very difficult to make my own critiques without feeling like i'm contributing to that attitude, or at the very least spending time i could be spending talking about what i liked or defending it from the dumbest/most obviously untrue critiques instead!

[clar-a-m]

Happy Halloween!!! Have some Laudna form of dread sketches

[one-little-nerd-stayed-home]

Ok I said this was coming weeks ago so here it is: FURTHER THOUGHTS ON WEIGHT AND NADDPOD

Weight: A common point of comparison in Animal Agriculture. There are number of important types of weight when dealing with livestock:

1 - Live Weight - The actual weight of a live animal. This weight may feel lighter than it is because live animals instinctively balance themselves when lifted.

1.a) Calder - Its strange being the biggest. But Calder knows what that means. He has to look after Callie and Sol because they’re smaller than him. He has to carry them even when they flail and attack things behind him and twist in his arms. He can’t drop them when they cuff his ears accidentally because you have to be gentle when things are smaller than you. But he can’t get to them every time. He can’t save them every time and he’s always been the littlest but he isn't anymore. He needs to save them. So he takes the helm. He makes the deal because it saves Callie and Sol and they’re alive and if he has to wait on the frozen plain for them to come for him well it’s easier to wait knowing they're still alive.

1.b) Live weight is easier to carry because it is Alive

2 - Adjusted Weight - The calculated weight of an animal at a particular age. Commonly used for comparison between slightly older or younger animals of the same herd.

2.a) Sol - 'If I’m dead weight just drop me.' Sol is always a little surprised when he comes back staring into Calder or Callie’s face He’s surprised when Swag says looking at him isn't like a broken mirror at all. Calder and Callie talk about siblings and families and how you have to stick together. They grew up bickering and fighting for their places but Sol grew up alone. He stares into his own eyes and sees a glimpse of a life slightly to the left of the one he's lived. Defined by absence the same way his was. It doesn't feel... good. But it is good right? To have a blood relation - a family… that's what family is isn’t it? It’s hard to account for something he’s never had before. 2.b) Adjusted weight is used for comparison but as a calculation it may not reflect the real world

3 - Rail Weight - The weight of a carcass once it’s been prepared for butchering. Usually about 60% of the live weight.

3.a) Callie - It feels… different, nice maybe, to watch Glen fumble and scramble and beg and to feel nothing but a mild disinterest. He’s a hollow man and anything left in her heart for him pales in comparison to the cold fury at the fact that they lost Calder to his stupid scheme. Calder saved them and Callie… doesn’t like being saved it turns out. So she reaches for her mother's cool logic. Oberon speaks to her and Callie feels the anticipation of the hunt in her veins but she remembers the gutted eladrin hung from the branches of the enormous tree. 3.b) a gutted, prepared animal, though lighter is still a load to carry.

4 - Dead Weight - The weight of a dead animal. this weight can feel heavier than live weight as there is no instinctive balance when lifting a dead animal.

4.a) Hardwon -No matter how much he’s done or how far he’s gone Hardwon has always been the human kid in a dwarphenage who never fit anywhere quite right. He fits with Moonshine and Beverly, as long as he can pull his own weight and take the hits then they can be Beverly and Moonshine and he can be a titan too, at least for a while. Except that when he can’t take the hits. When he isn’t fast enough, strong enough, hero enough... then people get hurt. And Hardwon has never been good at keeping the people he loved alive. 4.b) Dead Weight is harder to carry because it is dead.

[undead-knick-knack]

Let it be known that Sorrowlord Zathuda fucked many a time in his day

[cringefaecompilation]

[stone-stars]

a while ago i saw a post by @sideblogdotjpeg about how the cycles in c3 seem a lot more personal/familial. and i kind of went insane in the tags at the time and i’ve been thinking about it a lot since because like…

you have the heroic cycles that the band of boobs parallel/break on this large scale. the idea of these broken trios of adventurers is there throughout the campaign, but they really start to engage with it towards the end— with the divine hearts, and thiala, and the wheel of suffering/wheel of joy idea. the thing hardwon says as he takes the divine heart, that no matter what anybody chooses from then on it’s with love in their hearts, i feel is very relevant to how they break the cycle. they love each other, and they choose over and over to hold each other tighter rather than be driven apart.

and on the other hand, you have duck team’s refusal of fate vs their family’s resignation to it. look at swag working with mothership, oliana’s contrition, and the stuff that is currently ongoing with gowan. you know— sol is a version of swag who fully rejected mothership and found his friends instead. callie refused to be a part of her family’s business, and her love for the wild and the serpents is giving the world a chance. calder, when he makes the deal with ultrus, telling callie and sol that he trusts them to save him. and now calder is refusing to sit back and let gowan handle things in the ice knife.

it's not that duck team aren't trying to save the world. they are. and it's not that the boobs didn't have a personal connection to the cycles they were breaking. they did. but it's like... well... how do i put this into words. right--

the song melora's boon plays when the boobs arrive at the heart of the world and speak to melora. when she talks to beverly about duty, shows him the places he faltered and how at the last second, he gets back up. (later, when they face thiala, bev doesn't go unconscious once. at one point, he's the only one standing.) for sol, this is the song that plays when he expresses his fear of going down again. when he admits to callie that he's scared of the day that she and calder are down and he's the one that needs to stand up alone. when callie says she's not afraid of that day, and sol finds himself empowered by the mushroom in his chest. the moment that sets up sol's long death monk ability, where he's able to refuse to go down and keep on fighting.

melora’s boon is also the song that plays for moonshine’s boon at the heart of the world. there are actually two songs in this scene, hardwon’s is different, and the transition back happens when melora says there’s a part of herself that moonshine hasn’t embraced. when she speaks to moonshine leading her people to a better future like an alpha wolf leading her pack. for callie, it plays when she tells hardwon and sol that she’s a liability and she needs to change— to embrace winter— in order to get calder back, even as they reassure her that she doesn’t. it also plays when callie asks the others to help her protect honeysuckle while he’s weakened. when they promise to lead honeysuckle home and free him from his connections to gromdal.

the writing on the wall plays when the boobs reach the court of gods. there's the wall of prayers there, and they hear the prayers of the people of bahumia, reaching out to them. prayers of protection-- for and by them. prayers that put the future of bahumia in their hands. for callie, this is the song that plays when she sees aryox's carving of her reaching the cave. when she realizes her mother acted the way she did because she could see what was coming in the future. when she realizes her mother was leaving the world in her hands.

the songs that the boobs first encounter at the end— when they’re basically demigods stepping up to face thiala— return for duck team in these personal moments. when sol finds the strength to refuse death. when callie talks about embracing winter, her mother’s season, something she eventually finds strength in, to save her friend. when callie asks the others to help honeysuckle, one of the serpents that she’s promised to protect partially due to the harm her family caused to the wild. and when callie realizes her mother saw the future and acted as she did because of it, pushing callie to walk the path she’s walking now.

anyway. this was a post about naddpod music.

[thought-42]

You ever just really take a second to think about the fact that Asmodeus looks like the most beautiful person you've ever seen