#talk about a disappointment lol

[randomnameless]

I did Crimson Flower first in my Three Houses run and... honestly, Edelgard wasn't even remotely as convincing to me to join her as the fact I'd get to fuck Jeritza.

Beresu I've chosen for the job grew up in Ardesian Empire and I've definitely leaned into Ashen Demon idea as much as possible, so what I've got was a merciless butcher, not a revolutionary firebrand. I expected Edelgard to be this scary red emperor with the grand ideas that justify the means, I expected the vibe of Nine Inch Nails' Survivalism, but instead she's an absolute dork and Hubert does everything morally dubious for her. It reminded me of Corrin in Fates on Nohr path and it definitely did not endear me to her.

Generally speaking the only interesting bits were Jeritza (love this man, best girl) and... maybe Hubert. Honestly speaking, with the way Hubert acts I expected him to be a Flame Emperor after seeing Edelgard. I just genuinely don't get how Crimson Flower Edelgard can be even remotely convincing - she's scary in White Clouds at times, but then it's nothing but dork, dork, dork, Beresu I hate rats, Beresu my path is stained in blood despite the fact I can barely reach any enemy in my automatic promotes and Hubert, Jeritza and you kill most of the enemies instead.

She's idealistic, but it's never really shown how much she's willing to mow down people for her ideals - we don't see destruction, we don't see any particular drama. The only bits closest to it were me deliberately not recruiting any non-BE students aside from Mercedes, Anette, Marianne and Lorenz. Killing these students felt like something, but it isn't really enough and it's entirely optional.

she's scary in White Clouds at times, but then it's nothing but dork, dork, dork, Beresu I hate rats, Beresu my path is stained in blood despite the fact I can barely reach any enemy in my automatic promotes and Hubert, Jeritza and you kill most of the enemies instead

LOL

I don't remember having the same movement issues with Hector when he was promoted, but damn if Supreme Leader's prf class was a nightmare, she was behind people and didn't have enough def to act as a suitable tank - she's supposed to be a player phase unit, but she doesn't have the mov stat to do so...

Granted, it was my first run too, so I missed on the heron festival event and didn't get a dancer :( but I played it before Emile was patched in, and, in a way, I thought it was on purpose - Supreme Leader says she'll explain everything to Billy later on, when they see Emile fighting with them when the BESF attacks the Monastery, and nothing is ever explained post TS - much like how the war was supposed to get rid of Rhea because she has scales, but come the post TS and we're not embarking on the MAGA ride, to conquer Fodlan!

Corn at least, in Conquest, spent more time angsting at the casualties and blood shed - to the point some players found it uncomfortable - Corn notable tried to save people or reacts strongly when Scarlet is Hans'd (just like Sakura's army? I don't remember that well).

It's less artificial than Supreme Leader who only says this in some support lines, or when she's alone with you - her lines feels more like a compulsory thing to say, a box to tick, than a regular reaction. There's nothing similar to Corn's distress or at least gambit to try to spare the defeated soldiers, instead, we have a round of hypocrisy because Rhea BaD when she doesn't let people evacuate the city before turning it in a giant bbq - when we have Emile on our side and when other routes reveal the battle of the Monastery happens so fast after her declaration of war that the CoS doesn't have time to evacuate all of its residents (+Emile saying the grounds around the monastery are battlefields too) in the other routes.

Hubert is still the best part of CF, even if I sort of grew somehow interested at the students insulting Billy when they chop them off - sure my interest later died, but Judith's JP VA lit screaming and crying when Ignatz and Leonie died, Inoue!Rhea's lines delivery, everything bar the BESF itself managed to make the "we must kille people we knew sad uwus" hit closer to the mark than the onion scene, aka the one where Supreme Leader cries after beheading a defeated, and on his knees, Dimitri.

But I agree, it's almost if all the pathos that was supposed to be triggered by the "kill your students :'(" from the game went to the CF enemies, rather than to the other routes casualties.

"We killed Ferdie professor :("

Watch as I gave a fig, Ferdie dies in a map where he is fielded with a Demonic Beast iirc, aka a Feral One. If Ferdie doesn't see anything wrong fighting side by side with a Feral One and doesn't have the same circumstances Lorenz does (granted, even those circumstances are mushy) - especially since it's possible for Ferdie to defect since that's what he does in SS - I legit feel less figs that when we had to kill a retreating Judith, or an Ignatz or Leonie who were defending their homes - hell, even Hilda who, against all of her words and previous behaviour - finally puts her life on the line to protect someone.

[thegreatimpersonator]

your personal relationships will never be as complicated and messed up as my parasocial bond with taylor swift

[handweavers]

Cab you elaborate a little on that post about artists of color not having a good understanding of materialism? Like, do you mean that they are unknowingly perpetuating capitalism by being materialistic or something else?????

( This is a genuine question because I misunderstand long posts easily, sorry if it sounds rude ).

when i say 'materialism' i'm referring to dialectical materialism, the marxist theory that political and historical events result from the conflict of social forces - people's access to material needs like shelter, food, healthcare, etc. and their relationship to the means of production. these events can be interpreted as a series of contradictions and their solutions. it is the scientific method for understanding politics/economics and history, and the basis of marxist analysis and of marxism leninism as a framework.

i'm saying that many artists of colour in the west speak a lot about capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, war, etc. from a vaguely 'leftist' but ultimately still liberal perspective, and thus they are not actually challenging anything with their work. they will talk about anything But class, and fall easily for bourgeois politics as long as it's concealed in social justice or "leftist" or antiracist sounding language

and it's because they won't engage directly with marxism leninism, they won't engage with learning materialist analysis, and having this understanding would prevent them from falling for these attempts and allow them to do work that actually has some kind of meaningful impact on these systems they claim to be against. so they are trying to talk and write and make art and organize about capitalism and colonialism without understanding how these things actually function in a literal, material sense...

simply existing as nonwhite people in the west doesn't inherently teach us these things, otherwise all people of colour in the west would be communists. we have to actually do the reading and be open to another framework of understanding the world, to having our worldviews shifted. but i think some people don't want to do that because of their relative class position. it makes them uncomfortable, or they don't want to admit that they benefit from imperialism in some ways. they can't - or won't - decouple an awareness of their class position from morality or their personal feelings.

without a marxist framework for understanding what capitalism is and how it functions, whatever work they claim to be trying to do to challenge capitalism or colonialism or whatever At Best doesn't do anything, and At Worst continues to serve bourgeois interests. the confusion between colonialism and imperialism in particular is easily exploited, so that with the language of anti racism and decolonization people end up agreeing with and promoting US/NATO foreign policy on imperialized nations - these buzzwords can sound pretty good if you don't know better. all this talk about decolonizing our minds and art practices and being anti capitalists but no one can actually explain what capitalism is or how colonialism works or the material role of racism under capitalism, nor do they want to talk about their own relationship to capital, so the talk is just empty lol. all these artists trying to figure out "alternative, embodied ways of thinking and being" and it's all just more liberalism

[bloodsbane]

crying and sobbing bc like. i guess it was never the 'proper' or 'official' translation of this line, so i get why it's different, but ;lkajsfdlkj NOTHING is ever going to top the way this line was originally delivered to me:

let genya say fuck im begging you

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[dragonanon]

Y’all I need Jesus 😭 My mind is running wild with an idea that’s a bit of Hellaverse and One Piece crossover.

——

As a succubus working under Asmodeus, your job is to basically portal up to the human world and spread lust amongst the humans. You’re damn good at your job as evidenced by the fact that your numbers always exceed the minimum quota you’re given, so as one of the top employees you have the privilege of getting to be much closer with Asmodeus and Fizzaroli than most other demons working for them; they’re honestly more like father figures to you rather than your superiors, and you welcome being their lowkey unofficially adopted daughter.

Between your excellent work performance and the love and support of your unofficial dads, life is pretty damn easy and straightforward for you…until it isn’t.

You don’t know how the hell it happened, you had been in human disguise on Earth and drumming up some nice lust in a small village, literally just doing you job as normal. Your markvictim, a slim blond with facial hair, had been one of the EASIEST people to ensnare in a long time. You barely had to say “hello” before the man already had hearts in his eyes and was practically falling at your feet, and when you invited him to go someplace private for a bit of “fun”, he damn near died on the spot due to blood loss from a massive nosebleed. Needless to say, you quickly had him in bed and oozing with yummy lust for you.

From there it all happened so fast(let’s be real here, it was probably Luffy’s fault lol), one thing led to another and after a series of shenanigans, your true form and identity are revealed to a group of humans, a group of pirates to be exact…Sure you knew that taking such an easy target would have SOME consequence, but fuck man!

Now standing before the “straw hat pirates”, as they call themselves, in your true demonic form with horns, wings, and tail all out for the whole world to see, you’re stared at in a cocktail mixture of awe, fear, and curiosity by all these humans. With the uncomfortable silence hanging in the air, you feel more naked and vulnerable than you ever have been in your entire life. And as a succubus, that’s saying quite a lot!

You’re in quite the predicament here, and your fear only grows as you realize just how completely and utterly fucked you are here. You can’t just fuck off back to Hell when there’s a whole gaggle of humans running around that now knows about the existence of Demons and Hell, but you can’t exactly kill any of them either. Not just because you’re SEVERELY outnumbered, but you’d ALSO get into some pretty deep shit with your dads.

So that leaves you with one option, offer a deal and hope to Lucifer that they accept. With that plan in mind, a green haired man you’d later come to know as “Zoro”, FINALLY breaks the agonizing silence with a simple question; “What the fuck are you?” and with that, you get to work setting this admittedly ridiculous plan into motion.

As calmly as you can, you explain that you’re a succubus; a demon from Hell just here to do her job of getting people to be horny on main. From there, you explain the predicament you’re all in right now, how you can’t just leave them to their devices because they all know, and have seen too much now. They all seem to tense for a moment as one of them, a man with a long nose who you’d later know as “Usopp”, asks in a shaky voice if you’re going to kill them now. They all breathe a sigh of relief and Usopp actually sobs when you clarify that no, that’s not happening. “I couldn’t kill you all even if I wanted to. Not only do you have me completely outnumbered, but even if I did succeed somehow, it would land me in MAJOR hot water with my bosses. So yeah, I’m not doing that.”

A red headed woman who later introduced herself as “Nami”, responds by asking what it is you plan to do then. This whole time, you’ve noticed that she’s been eyeing the hell out of your Asmodean crystal; a huge magenta jewel set in the center of a beautiful golden cuff that encases nearly half of your left forearm. It was a gift from Asmodeus himself on your first day of work, and it hasn’t left your arm since. You know damn well what the glint of greed in one’s eyes looks like, and you’re all too happy to use that to your advantage.

“Well, given that I can’t leave you all alone and death isn’t an option, I’d like to make a proposal; You all keep your mouths shut about what you’ve seen and learned, and let me continue my work as needed and in peace. You’re not to utter even a peep to another soul not already in this room. In exchange…You’ll have a succubus eternally at your service~”

This prompts the captain who you’ve been told is named “Luffy”, an admittedly boyishly cute man in your humble opinion, to speak up and ask what exactly you mean. Up to this point, he’d just been staring at you in slack jawed awe, but your proposal seemed to bring him back to reality and now he had to sate his growing curiosity and excitement.

A playful smirk paints itself on your black lips as you begin to elaborate, your fangs poking out ever so slightly as you speak. “Well hon, being a succubus, I have MANY powers at my disposal~ You’ve already seen that I can disguise myself as one of you humans, AND charm my way into getting whatever I want from humans. But that’s BARELY scratching the surface of what I’m capable of~ For starters, I can change my disguise as I see fit, what you all saw was just one of the millions of different appearances I can take.” To back up this claim, you quickly cycle through a few different human disguises you’ve used throughout the years; completely changing your form into at least 12 completely different women of all different shapes, sizes, and races. With your point having been made, you shift back to your Demon form and continue.

“That combined with my charming powers means I can EASILY spy and obtain any information you want~ But more than that, I can INSTANTLY take you anywhere you could possibly want.”

That last bit seemed to really pique everyone’s interest, especially Luffy’s; his eyes sparkled with curiosity and excitement as he asked you how that was possible.

“Time to make the hard sale here.” You think to yourself. With a smile, you raise your left arm and with a flourish of your right hand, show off your Asmodean crystal. You have to bite back a laugh as Luffy audibly “oohs” and “ahhs” at the glowing magenta stone while Nami practically salivates over it.

“With this lovely thing right here~ This bad boy is an Asmodean crystal; a mystical jewel bestowed upon me as a succubus working for Asmodeus. With it, I can open a direct portal to ANYWHERE in Hell AND the Human world~”

Zoro is quick to call bullshit, but you’re more than willing to prove otherwise as you respond by asking for a destination, anywhere in the entire world. The green haired man huffs in amusement, and sarcastically suggests an island clear on the other side of the world.

Smirking, you hold your crystal clad arm up close you and with quick, firm, rub of your right hand, the crystal glows brightly and suddenly shoots out a bright beam of light that stops just shy of hitting the wall before a large, diamond shaped portal appears. The edges of the portal glow brightly and the aforementioned island is now CLEARLY visible to everyone in the room.

With a shit eating grin, you strut up to Zoro, who seems bewildered by what he’s seeing as gets up close to check out the portal. With a giggle, you give him a hearty shove, causing him to fall through with a shout and you hop through after him, completely ignoring the concerned shouts of the remaining crew as the portal snaps shut behind you, blinking out of existence like it was never there to begin with.

The room devolves into chaos, with Luffy whining about how it’s not fair that he didn’t get to go too, while Nami yells at him for not being more concerned about Zoro just disappearing.

After a few minutes, the portal reappears with a flash, and out of it hops you followed closely by a noticeably paler Zoro, much to Sanji’s disappointment. The portal disappears again whilst Zoro goes to sit down, and just says “She’s not fucking joking, she really CAN go anywhere.”

The room erupts into chaos again, this time however, Luffy is practically on top of you, demanding you join his crew right now.

You’re a bit taken aback, you’d expected you’d have to list at least a LITTLE more of what you’re capable of to win them over, but this was not an unwelcome surprise in the slightest.

“Are you sure you’re willing to accept my proposition so quickly? I haven’t even finished telling you what all I can-“

Luffy interrupts you before you can finish your sentence saying that there’d be plenty of time for you to talk about your powers later, right now he just wants to start teleporting to different places.

You smile, fangs on full display. “Guess it’s a deal then~ It’ll be a pleasure working with y-“

You’re cut off again, this time by Luffy stretching his limbs around you in a tight hug whilst rambling about all the different places he wants to go right now.

As you’re stood in the middle of everyone buzzing with excitement and curiosity, all you can think to yourself is “What in the Seven Rings have I gotten myself into??”

[youruinedmylifebynotbeingreal]

So monster high g1 put Clawdeen and Toralei together in time for a Pride comic… they got together off page… and now new stuff is released where they’ve broken up, again off page. Like 2 months after it was announced they were together at all.

[addicted-to-the-knife]

I think it's very important that we bring back this inherent understanding that actors are also just some fucking guys (gender neutral)

[dreamings-free]

.

[spookymoonybeasty]

I've been brainstorming for a fanfic

Specifically ->this<- idea, where Danny gets kidnapped by aliens and kinda gets adopted by a big awesome friendly alien, and they go on neat adventures to get Danny back home.

This would be so easy to write compared to my other fanfics, since I'm most comfortable writing alien characters in a sci-fi setting. (Probably because of a rp I'm in that's about aliens adventuring in space lol)

AAA I WANNA WRITE THIS SO BAD

Y'all if I don't post anything more about this a month from now, pester me in my inbox and DMs. It needs to happen.

[theskymother]

animal jam is a lot more fun when you're rich

[aahsoka]

this is the worst thing to say in this situation lmfao like DO YOU? its on YOU to get people to vote for you and this isnt how

[chaotic-history]

@earlgrey24 you've inspired me

Hi my name is Chevalier François-Marie Arouet de Volatire Gentilhomme de Chambre du Roi. I like writing satire (that's why I got put in the Bastille) and I have a long grey wig à la Duc de Nevers and sparkly dark eyes that everyone talks about. A lot of people tell me my style looks like Louis 14 (AN: if u don't know that is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to the Duc de Richelieu but I wish I was because he's a major fucking hottie. I live in Prussia but I'm French. I have pale white skin. I'm also a poet, and I write for the Comédie-Française which should really be called the Theâtre-Française where my plays are the most famous (I wrote my first one when I was nineteen). I'm basically nobility (in case you couldn't tell) and I wear a lot of lace and wig powder. All of my clothes are retro because it's cooler. For example today I was wearing a long pink and gold waistcoat, grey stockings, a blue silk coat with matching trousers and long lace cuffs reaching to my fingertips, a powdered wig, and my red Louis 14 shoes. I was walking outside Sanssouci. It was cloudy and I was freezing. Maupertuis stared at me and I put my middle finger up at him.

[wizardsix]

about 30 hours into veilguard and while I have an essay worth of my problems w the game and how this is absolutely not ten year's worth of developing I do want to say what I do like. the maps (visuals/progression/exploration), combat, and the companions (only five of them. neve and taash annoy me and I would absolutely not recruit them if this game didn't force you to)... overall it's all right on its own but it's no dragon age game.

[yyshcul]

i think i got accepted into the 2D animation class at my university #win #success #awesome

[daydreamycrustacean]

i love how before the stream happened people were like "hey hlvrai fandom can we promise to act normal this time" and then The Stream happened and I watched in real time as the hlvrai tag devolved into insane discourse and harassment. peace was never an option.