#that i hate brotherhood for not doing it justice

[courtmartialme]

how foolish can one man be?

[unmask-strange-aeons]

@strange-aeons is the @the-muppet-joker

As we all know the muppet joker is a joke, he is unreal. But who is he really? Who is the REAL identety behind the Muppet joker. I am proud to announce that I found out who HE is. His real name was Strange aeons all along. Think about it. The Muppet Joker makes constance references to Father Stranges videos. Like famous tumblr posts. His fanfiction feels like Onisions books that Strange read and made Videos about. He has a furry companion his kermit just like Father Strange has Thursday and Gurl-Girl. He was into Reality Shifting about the same time Father Strange made a video about it. The muppet Joker talkes like Mod Shadow from Sonic for real justice, which she has a video about, he also strangly is like edward in midnight sun, during his march crush, which Father Strange also read. Also the muppet joker hates horses because of the lesbian horse stories that Father Strange made a video about. He also has an unsettling methots to reach his ambition like Patrice Wilsons from ARK MUSIC FACTORY.

THE BROTHERHOOD AND SISTERHOOD

Is the snapewives, followering one devine leader, which is the muppet joker to them. The Brotherhood also has aspects of the cult of Thanfiction, the glorifying of the leader, the leader has unchecked authority. The commitment from the brotherhood also remembers me to the Rabies Pride situation.

Religion.

He stated to be a devoted catholic. Fahter Strange went to a catholic School. He also now has a rebranding going on to become a femenist, and it gives, girl defined and classically abby, which again Father Strange has Videos.

He uses Tumblr like Father Strange.

Now you might wonder how she would do all this. Well i can tell you how. She has made many videos about internet drama such as The Muppet Joker, see Mrs Scribe, Thanfiction, Sonic for real Justice, HIVliving, the My Immortal drama, they where fakers and liers just like the Muppet Joker. She also would know how to opperate a Soft puppet army through studding there strategies. BUT i dont belive that the muppet Jokers Follower all are soft puppet accounts more so I belive them to be Patreons from Father Strange. Who needs a soft puppet army when you have an army that PAYS you to be in your own army.

Now surely you wonder, why? Why would Father Strange do this? There are many explornations.

There is no more internet drama for her to make good videos about so she just makes her own.

This wasnt her idea at all but the Patreons to have some fun.

Father Strange is doing all of this to create to ultimate Tumblr fake story, something so big it escapes the realm of tumblr. And it did from Youtube too Tiktok to X, intergram, tumblr and Reddit its everywhere. She has created to ultimate Tumblr Fake story.

i know that this is not perfect evidence. BUT the once that fit like a glove are as the young people today say "SUS". And it cannot be left alone. If YOU find anymore similarites to Father Strange and the Muppet Joker Please inform me. Together i am sure we can reveal the turth.

What they didnt know was that his name was Strange aeons all along.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 41, part three

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  (whole thing on AO3)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Brotherhood of Man

Somehow, after the multi-layered shit sandwich of betrayal that happened in Nightless City, Lan Xichen manages to convince his two besties to swear brotherhood with him and each other. Lan Xichen's Polyamory 101 class apparently didn't tell him that forcing a vee to become a three-for-all is a bad idea. Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao are bonded by only two things: 1. loving Lan Xichen 2. hating each other.

Nie Mingjue is great at letting bygones be bygones, as we can tell as he glares all the way through Jin Guangyao's skull.

Next we jump to Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao playing the song of clarity for Nie Mingjue, with Lan Xichen in a particularly sexy set of ultra-fancy robes.

NMJ keeps his eyes shut so he won't have to see the extreme eye fucking that's going on right in front of his salad.

Check out his cool candle holders, by the way.

I can't help but think...is this how Lan Xichen is spending his time while Lan Wangji is in forced seclusion? Lan Xichen didn't attack any elders, so there's no reason he shouldn't be enjoying himself, but he's gone all in on the fuckboy life while his brother is seriously struggling. The Lan brothers seem a lot less close after Wei Wuxian's death interlude and I wonder if this is part of the reason.

(More behind the cut!)

We take a tiny break from empathy during this section so that Lan Wangji can check Wei Wuxian's qi.

He does, and goes to play healing for him. He does not react like WWX is lacking a core, despite doing the magic wrist check that would tip him off if that were the case, so I add this to the pile of evidence that WWX 2.0 does have a (shitty) core in his new body.

I like this little scene because Lan Wangji is clearly worried, emotional, upset - he's doing his little sour-lemon frown and he's intensely focused on Wei Wuxian while he plays healing - but he's not trying to wake him, and he doesn't say anything about his own concerns once Wei Wuxian is awake.

Grown-up Lan Wangji is still not a fan of these unorthodox cultivation activities, but he respects WWX's choices and focuses on supporting him, not stopping him.

Play Misty For Me

Next, empathy shows us Jin Guangyao playing for Nie Mingjue in a 1-on-1 session in JinLintai. I guess this is like dialysis, where Nie Mingjue has to waste a shit ton of time going back and forth between home and JinLinTai to get cleansed.

It seems like Lan Xichen could have picked a better person to train in playing the song of clarity. I know Nie Huaisang's wussy core might make him a poor candidate, but surely there's someone in Qinghe who could do the job? Or send a series of Lan disciples in an exchange student arrangement? But Lan Xichen would rather force these guys to hang out together.

Lan Xichen may seem like he's being wilfully blind, or plain stupid, but I don't think that's what he's about. He's aware that both of these guys are, from a certain point of view, bad people. Nie Mingjue is driven by rage and a rigid sense of justice and social hierarchy; Jin Guangyao is consumed with self-interest and will use any means to achieve his ends.

Good guys Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji will also use any means to achieve their ends - attacking elders, raising the dead, and whatnot. What all four of these not-Lan Xichen people have in common is that they go to extremes, too high or too low, there ain't no in-betweens.

Out of the darkness, into the light Leaving the scene of the crime Either I'm wrong or I'm perfectly right Every time

Sorry, but Billy Joel is part of my cultural heritage as a Gen X person.

Lan Xichen embodies a combination of Confucian and Buddhist values, I think; he wants the people he cares about to chill the fuck out and find the middle way, and also to be truly brotherly toward each other. He tries to achieve this through gentle nagging and also by modeling the behavior he wants to see, creating opportunities for peace and balance. Unfortunately at the time Empathy is showing us, he's unware how extreme and unbalanced his own feelings for Jin Guangyao really are.

At some point, Jin Guangyao starts playing the altered version of the music, and we have a series of kind of weird cuts where 1. the Song of Fuck You is playing on the soundtrack while Lan Xichen is teaching Jin Guangyao 2. NMJ starts to hork up some blood in the 1-on-1 session but finishes horking in the trio session. I think this is meant to show that it was a progression.

Meet Me Outside

Empathy jumps ahead to Lan Xichen trying to warn Jin Guangyao about Nie Mingjue's declining temperament, saying that if it wasn't for JGY playing for him every day, it would be super bad, or words to that effect. He is interrupted by Nie Mingjue showing up to yell at Jin Guangyao. Was Nie Mingjue eavesdropping so that his head could recall this later in Empathy?

I'm inclined to see the dynamic among the three of them at this point through a lens of domestic violence. Lan Xichen stands by helplessly while Nie Mingjue makes it clear that he's in a rage and wants to take it out on Jin Guangyao; JGY calmly tells Lan Xichen to stay behind while he goes outside to take a beating. That's not just optics; Nie Mingjue attacks him the moment they're alone. The fact that NMJ is drunk on resentment is only partly the fault of Jin Guangyao's musical poison; a lot of it is his own choice to do saber cultivation.

Lan Xichen may remember similar interactions with his parents. He's certainly having a trauma reaction instead of stepping into this situation from a place of strength. He's protected Jin Guangyao from NMJ before without any difficulty, but the changes in NMJ's temperament and possibly the loss of Lan Wangji's companionship have put him in a weaker state of mind, it seems. And he himself may have been the target of Nie Mingjue's anger at times, too.

The Ragening

After dodging the first swing from Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangyao asks him why he's mad. The gist of NMJ's beef is this: Xue Yang escaped from the unclean realm. NMJ (correctly) blames JGY. Now Xue Yang is imprisoned by Jin Guangshan after a trial or something, in which Chang Ping retracted his earlier accusation. So they can't execute Xue Yang because there's no evidence against him. (Why can they imprison him for life with no evidence, then? Seems sketchy).

Nie Mingjue says that Xue Yang has a piece of Yin metal, and that's why Jin Guangshan is keeping him alive. JGY doesn't affirm or deny this, but he has to obey his dad, so he can't kill Xue Yang just to please Nie Mingjue.

Nie Mingjue tells him to stop doing that thing he does.

You Doing that thing you do Breakin' my heart into a million pieces Like you always do And you Don't mean to be cruel You never even knew about the heartache I've been going through

Jin Guangyao has to intuit what Nie Mingjue is talking about, which is apparently that JGY is being calculating and manipulative.

He proceeds to rip NMJ a new one for believing that everyone can be as rigteous as him when he has his noble birth and high cultivation to depend on. JGY points out that he himself doesn't have early cultivation training or a good family background to draw on. He also gives us a little bit of specific info about his position in the clan, saying that Jin Zixuan's death didn't give him a clear path; Jin Guangshan would rather bring back another bastard son than allow Jin Guangyao to succeed him.

Presumably he's talking about Mo Xuanyu. Before you feel sorry for JGY, remember that he caused Jin Zixuan's death specifically so he could claim his place in the line of succession.

Nie Mingjue says, dismissively, that he's only refusing to kill Xue Yang because he doesn't want to risk his position in the clan. Nie Mingjue says this like it's a bad thing: like Jin Guangyao, who he fired quite a while ago and totally doesn't work for him, should go against his father's express orders and kill a guy, without evidence, because Nie Mingjue thinks that would be more righteous. I gotta say, Nie Mingjue is a real piece of work.

Nie Mingjue acknowledges that he himself has killed a fuckton of people, but never for his own advancement. Jin Guangyao challenges him with words that have a little flavor of Wei Wuxian's way of thinking: did everyone you've killed deserve it? Are your standards fair?

Then he heads firmly back into villain territory by saying "sacrifices must be made for greatness" which has Nie Mingjue asking why he doesn't sacrifice himself, instead of killing other people? (Shades of WWX challenging Wen Zhuliu) Jin Guangyao replies with an emphatic nope, which inspires Nie Mingjue to kick him down the stairs and attribute his poor character to his mom's line of work, for not the first time. If I was in charge of Jinlintai, I would put a safety gate up there.

The bottom of these stairs is kind of an important place for Jin Guangyao; he's been kicked down them twice (that we know of) and each time he stood up 100% ready to kill the guy at the top of the stairs. Although he took a super long time to actually do it in the case of his dad, I'm pretty sure JGS's fate was sealed in that moment....just like Nie Mingjue's is sealed here.

Side note: In the show, JGY starts musically poisoning NMJ while they are still ostensibly getting along fine, whereas in the book he waits until NMJ has kicked him down the stairs and insulted his mom. CQL Jin Guangyao is just more forward-thinking, I guess.

After fixing his hat, Jin Guangyao walks up the stairs calmly explaining to Nie Mingjue how he fucked with the song of cleansing. This causes Nie Mingjue to qi deviate while the Department of Questionable Visual Effects messes around with extra copies of Jin Guangyao in AfterFX.

Not to be outdone, the Department of Questionable Practical Effects has loaded up the front of Nie Mingjue's torso with exploding blood squibs, because apparently that is how they interpret "all his meridians were broken." (We won't talk about the various non-cultivation-aware translations that say "all his veins were broken.")

Nie Huaisang shows up - running up all of the steps at Jinlintai. From where? Did he run from Qinghe? How did he know Nie Mingjue was in trouble? If Lan Xichen told him, why isn't he here too? Presumably he is still busy checking the guest list for the next conference, per JGY's request.

Jin Guangyao grabs Nie Huaisang and holds him out of harms way while vigorously pretending to be upset while Nie Mingjue points his saber at them. Nie Huaisang interprets this as NMJ not recognizing him (and if you've seen Fatal Journey, you know this is a fair interpretation) but it might be that he's pointing it at JGY to encourage him to let NHS go.

This Is The End

Next we see NMJ all tied up on a table in Jinlintai, with corpse poisoning marks on his neck. Someday I will learn exactly when these happen, what they mean, and how everyone who has them gets them, but today is not that day. (Remember when Wen Qing got them while WWX was playing angry flute at the rocks behind Qinghe, and then they went away when he stopped playing? And how this was never explained?) Xue Yang is walking around him with Baxia and half of the yin tiger seal. He can't control him without the whole seal so JGY says to kill him.

In case all of Xue Yang's behavior seems super random, it's actually not; his project is turning high-level cultivators into controllable fierce corpses. Where Wei Wuxian controlled his fierce corpse Wen Ning with kindness and turnips, Xue Yang uses fancy brain nails. With Nie Mingjue, he presumably hadn't developed the technique yet, which is why they can't subdue him to use him. And he failed to get the nails into Xiao Xingchen or Wei Wuxian's heads. So basically the entire project was a bust, given that he didn't deploy Wen Ning for anything, and Song Lan just followed him around an empty town. This is what happens when you get too attached to a particular creative vision.

Camera Operator: hey now!

Xue Yang uses Baxia to chop Nie Mingjue's head off, which has to piss Baxia off. Xue Yang says Nie Mingjue is finally obedient, which is only sort of true, since he'll be coming back for revenge in sword-spirit form in the live action, or in naked dismembered corpse form in every other version of the story.

Friendly Neighborhood Paperman

This murder causes Wei Wuxian to snap out of empathy back into his paperman body, and accidentally pull NMJ's head's eye covers off, revealing eyes that don't look a goddamn thing like actor Wang Yizhou's eyes, but this head has had a rough few years.

Jin Guangyao is right there in the storeroom with him; it's a good thing he didn't think to have one of his chats with NMJ's head during the 30 minutes WWX spent communing with it. He chases Paperman around slashing his sword through the furniture and knocking shit over.

Among JGY's many evil traits, perhaps the worst is the way he wastes storage space. Look at all these shelves with 2 or 3 books on them.

Paperman makes his way over to Suibian where it's displayed on a shelf, and hops onto its hilt while JGY watches. He smirks at WWX's failure to draw the sword, but eventually Paper WWX does draw it, surprising JGY. Suibian fights him remotely for a bit while WWX gets away and makes his way back to Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji trade arm clasps while Wei Wuxian gives him a sitrep, and then they run off to find Nie Mingjue's head.

Because there is no limit to Wei Wuxian's sex appeal, Lan Wangji instantly beats up everyone who gets in his sweetie's way. Lan Xichen shows up, a little alarmed at the attacks on the guards but still on board with their plan.

Lan Xichen deploys his most dramatic stair-climbing flourish to show that he means business.

Eventually Jin Guangyao shows up, and they ask to see his secret chamber. Jin Guangyao tries to explain that it's not, like, a secret chamber any more if you let people come in and look at it.

Apparently there IS a limit to Jin Guangyao's sex appeal, because Lan Xichen puts his foot down for the very first time and tells him, not asks him, to open the room.

...while Wei Wuxian smirks like a kid whose sibling is the one getting yelled at for a change.

Before Jin Guangyao can answer, Su She shows up, saying it's not cool to demand entry to a clan leader's bed chamber, as if Lan Xichen didn't have his own embroidered bathrobe alredy hanging on a hook in there.

Lan Wangji and Su She greet each other nastily, and Wei Wuxian calls him out for copying Lan Wangji, which ends the episode.

Soundtrack: I Go To Extremes by Billy Joel, That Thing You Do from the movie That Thing You Do

Bonus: Liu Haikuan's beautiful hand

[inkpotsprite]

Heyyo! A few months ago, when you temporarily took some of your fics down, I sent an Anon Ask abt enjoying your dick&tim fics and the impact you had on my perception of their bond. You ended up re-posting one of them not longer after, and i soooo enjoyed the reread! thank you! Hopefully you're not getting the same hate anymore, and instead you've been seeing all the support you've gathered!

Anyway, I found some dick&tim brotherhood content that reminded me of you (pic attached). It's a bit rare to see content supporting their relationship in the internet spaces I'm around, so when I saw the post, I thought of you and ended up re-reading your works again lol

the account is clearly happy with the Hurt No Comfort, but i wasn't so i reread "flying over burning bridges" lol

Hope you enjoyed! Have a good night!!!!

Hi! I'm so glad you're enjoying "flying over burning bridges" I love Tim and Dick's relationship, along with all the nuances it has so I'm happy to hear that you think I've done them justice. The hate has died down for the most part, what little there is left doesn't really register when everyone else has been so kind 💜

You're completely right about people liking Dick and Tim's brotherly bond being more rare than it was before (pre-52, if I were to guess) Thank you for sharing this, I'm always looking for new takes on them and I love this one! (Even if it breaks my heart a little 😄) Though like you, I definitely prefer comfort over the hurt no comfort. I promise "flying over burning bridges" will have more sibling bonding for you to enjoy (the next chapter should hopefully be ready by mid November at the latest)

Hope you're doing well and thank you so much for reaching out! 💜

[very-grownup]

So a couple years ago, I fell into watching Chinese dramas and because my posts about the most recent one garnered some curiosity, here are the dramas what I have watched.

Hikaru no Go

DID YOU KNOW. DID YOU KNOW. THAT IN 2020 THERE WAS A CHINESE DRAMA ADAPTATION OF HIKARU NO GO AND IT IS AMAZING AND MADE ME CRY ALL OVER AGAIN? It is faithful in spirit while making understandable alterations both for the setting and to avoid managing child actors for the entirety of the series (there are about six episodes with Hikaru/Shi Guang as an elementary school student before a time jump to high school).

If you are unfamiliar with Hikaru no Go I recommend becoming familiar with Hikaru no Go, my first and still one of the best sports manga. It's what Takeshi Obata was the artist on before Death Note and my hot take is that Obata post-Hikaru no Go is mid at best.

Hikaru no Go is a sports series about the most normal boy finding an antique go board that houses the soul of an ancient go master who died too young and with go regrets, so he bullies/guilts the boy into helping him play go so he can see or play a divine go move. In the process he acquires a rival/stalker in the form of the genius son of a go master. It's amazing and the drama absolutely does it justice.

The heart of the series is the relationship between Hikaru/Shi Huang and Fujiwara no Sai/Chu Ying.

It's just a fucking good series.

The Untamed

According to one description on imdb, this is about two friends solving a series of murders. This is technically true, although it neglects to mention a few details.

Sixteen years after doing a whole lot of demonic blood magic shit and dying because of it, hated by society, Wei Wuxian (Xiao Zhan) is brought back from the dead by more super demonic blood magic and is recognized by his noble and esteemed peer/friend Lan Wangji (Wang Yibo) and trying to deal with why Wei Wuxian has been brought back from the dead leads to their investigating a series of murders that result in their becoming entangled in wider political schemes stretching back twenty years.

It's got weird pacing, prolonged flashbacks to explain a lot of the relationship dynamics, and basically an entirely self-contained sub-story that brings the main plot to a grinding halt. There are creatures and CGI effects of interesting quality. There are amazing wigs. There are piles of corpses. There's physical torture and emotional torture and some doomed love stuff and sword fights and musical instrument fights and a donkey and chicken theft and brotherhood and what you're willing to sacrifice for your goals and what goals you're willing to sacrifice for and it is based on a novel that ends in the protagonists raw dogging on the side of the road.

That part's not in the show.

Douluo Continent

Ignorant country boy Tang San (Xiao Zhan) finds himself involved in the world of martial arts and magic after discovering a hidden talent and ends up in the group of fellow martial artists who are all weird or unorthodox or hiding crucial bits of their backstory like girl who is actually a rabbit and immediately decides Tang San is her best friend/husband (Wu Xianyi), guy who needs to become powerful enough to kill his older brother (Gao Taiyu), girl who rejected an engagement to the would-be brother killer and wants to fight him (Liu Mei Tong), guy who wants to ditch martial arts to become a great actor (Liu Run Nan), and girl who is too rich to be here (Ding Xiaoying). They learn together, they grow together, they fight monsters and embark on a tournament arc, and there's an overarching mystery about Tang San and his weak but simultaneously super powerful spirit summoning.

Even though the best technique is clearly the one where the boy in question can summon a sausage that you eat and heals you.

It's very much of a specific genre that can be pretty samey, but Douluo Continent has a charming cast that makes up for its predictable plot beats.

It does end on a cliffhanger that is possibly resolved in the sequel series where ... all the main characters were recast with, I'm guessing, slightly less pricey actors. Such is the way of things.

Word of Honour

Do you like knowing what's going on? Then get the fuck out of here, Word of Honour is not for you. Real ones want to be immediately submerged into chaos and confusion and secret identities. You want Mr Bones' Wild Ride in plot form. Why has former superassassin Zhou Zishu (Zhang Zhe Han) abandoned the sect of assassins he created to live in wandering drunk anonymity as he slowly dies? Why is Wen Kexing (Gong Jun) stalking him aside from poorly censored horny desires? Is Wen Kexing actually a ghost? Can any of the impressionable youths attaching themselves to Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing be stopped from their very poor choices in role models? What is up with this legendary hidden armoury and why do Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing seem unable to escape the conspiracy around it? HOW HARD IS IT TO GET WOLONG'S FAMOUS NUTS?

Not recommended for people who constantly want to know what's happening or why X is doing Y, but great if you want to watch with someone and then after an episode, walk your dogs and try to figure out what's going on and what's going to happen (you will be wrong).

Advance Bravely

What if the most ridiculously unrealistic and unhinged slashfic by a teenage girl who doesn't fully understand anything was adapted into a drama series where censorship means everything must be painted with a special "no homo" brush? You get Advance Bravely which is the most incoherently homoerotic thing I've ever watched. No one thinks you should watch Advance Bravely and you watch Advance Bravely and you agree but sometimes you just have to watch a beautiful trainwreck where the protagonist explains his lack of a girlfriend with erectile dysfunction and the series climax involves his being, essentially, trapped in a well.

Love Between Fairy and Devil

DO YOU WANT TO GO FULL SHOUJO MANGA FANTASY?

Innocent fairy Orchid (Yu Shuxin) just wants to strengthen her immortal spirit and pass the exam that would let her serve in the palace of the fairy capital so she can catch glimpses of the War God Chang Heng (Zhang Ling He) who she is hopelessly in love with. Instead, an attempt to help her crush causes her to bumble her way into the high security spiritual prison that has held Dongfang Qingcang, the Moon Supreme (Dylan Wang), for 30,000 years.

DO YOU LIKE BIG NUMBERS BECAUSE YOU WILL GET TO SEE SOME BIG NUMBERS IN TERMS OF TIME SPAN AND AGES.

Because of some plot magic, Orchid and the Moon Supreme swap bodies and loophole out of prison, much to her distress. Their fates are tied together and Orchid becomes more familiar with the wider world and the politics between the realms and how much the fairy realm's supreme ruler fucking suuuuuuuuuuuucks while Moon Supreme finds himself having feelings again after they were tortured out of him in a mystical coffin prison as a child.

Moon Supreme's closest friend is a dragon. Orchid's closest friend is an opportunistic snakeoil saleswoman. There's a pissy younger brother and a bitchy but honourable love rival. There are secret origins and reincarnation and hidden identities and the way it alternates broad comedy and melodrama and sweet romance may give you whiplash.

I just love a bodyswap, you guys.

Sailor Moon vibes but Mamoru is actually interesting and becomes likeable.

Guardian

Okay so the best thing about Guardian is not only that it's a censored adaptation of a novel with a same-sex romance, but that /the entire premise/ is altered for television purposes.

The novel is steeped in Chinese folk religion and the Underworld is real and mythical creatures secretly walk among us.

In the show?

ALIENS, BABY.

Ghosts? THOSE AREN'T REAL BECAUSE HUMANS DON'T HAVE SOULS, THEY'RE JUST ENERGY BEINGS.

It's so ridiculous it's endearing.

Anyway, it's about bros solving mysteries with a Monster of the Week vibe until it becomes about possibly the end of the world and alien domination and evil twins.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

IT'S TIME TO SOLVE CRIMES. IN ANCIENT CHINA.

Quack doctor Li Lianhua (Cheng Yi) is just trying to live a quiet life with his dog and his horse-drawn house. Fang Duobing (Joseph Zeng) just wants to gain admittance into the martial art cop organization that's carrying on the legacy of his dead teacher, Li Xiangyi, who was maybe never actually his teacher and also wasn't killed ten years previously by Di Fei Sheng (Xiao Shunyao), the head of an evil martial arts sect who is also not dead. Not nearly as many people as people think are dead! Identities are cleverly hidden behind pseudonyms and various levels of mask!

Crimes are solved and Li Lianhua is very tired about the whole thing. It's an unwilling buddy cop sort of thing until it becomes about youthful hubris and the sins of the past and also one woman's determination to conquer the world and give it to the man she loves, even if he doesn't want the world and also doesn't love her. We love a woman who takes what she wants and if necessary cuts a man's tendons and imprisons him in a torture pool so his blood can't clot until he agrees to be her wife, don't we, folks?

Folks?

Story of Kunning Palace

The scheming empress Jiang Xue Ning (Bai Lu) dies and wakes up, eighteen-years-old, at the point in her life where she's on the verge of making the start of the decisions that lead her to the Very Bad End. She is going to make different decisions this time and prevent the things she regrets and avoid becoming the empress at all costs.

What you need to know about Story of Kunning Palace is that Bai Lu could have chemistry with a rock and she inadvertently collects a bisexual harem. Her end game love interest is Xie Wei (Zhang Ling He), the man who killed her, an advisor to the emperor, music teacher, double or triple agent, and sufferer of vampire snow madness and a fear of cats, whether adorably fluffy or badly CGI'd. But she's in love with noble civil servant Zhang Zhe (Wang Xing Yue), a pure and hardworking man who she seduced into betraying his principles, leading to his imprisonment and probable death. However, her childhood friend Yan Lin (Zhou Jun Wei) is in love with her and previously she rejected him VERY HARSHLY after his family fell into disfavour due to political machinations and Jiang Xue Ning had cemented the likelihood of her marriage to the next emperor. Also there's Princess Le Yang (Liu Xie Ning), who Jiang Xue Ning made an enemy of after the Princess fell in love with her when Jiang Xue Ning was crossdressing and did not take the reveal of her true gender well. Xue Shu (Elisa Ye) is an unfavoured daughter of a scheming lord who was the only truly loyal person Jiang Xue Ning knew as empress. ALL OF THESE PEOPLE FALL IN LOVE WITH JIANG XUE NING and you look at Bai Lu and go 'yes, that makes sense'.

It's mostly about the politics and scheming and Jiang Xue Ning trying to find a way to have a stable, satisfying life without betraying everyone she knows and standing on a pile of corpses, but the love shape Jiang Xue Ning isn't fully aware she's in is comparable in complexity to the plots between ministers and lords and dowager empresses and cousins and rebels.

The choices the characters make are maybe not always the best choices, but DAMN are they a good time.

Story of Kunning Palace is also one of the only times I have begged a character in a show to take a particular action and then she DID IT and fuck it was satisfying.

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty

IT'S TIME TO SOLVE CRIMES. IN ANCIENT CHINA. AGAIN. BUT WITHOUT MARTIAL ARTS.

Tang Fan (Darren Chen) is a low-ranking government official and detective genius who loves food and hates routine work, but loves a fucked up crime. Since he spends most of his money on delicious food, he writes trashy porn under a variety of pseudonyms to pay his rent. Sui Zhou (Fu Meng Bo) is an imperial guard and ex-soldier with PTSD who has no time for nonsense but loves the passionate pursuit of justice and food. He's also From Money and has a very empty house that Tang Fan whines his way into after they solve a case together. Everyone is manipulated by dangerously powerful eunuch Wang Zhi (Liu Yao Yuan) who is the enemy of basically everyone, except for Tang Fan, who has the political and social awareness of a rock.

An amiably pathetic man solves a variety of mysteries, from murder to complex imperial assassination plots and also this really complicated one involving diluting the purity of silver currency, and also the executive producer is Jackie Chan.

It's missing the romance subplot that I understand is in the source novel and also apparently there's an overarching plot involving a cult?! which we don't get here, but there's lots of bombs which are almost as good as a cult, maybe? (They're not.)

Divine Destiny

This is the one we're currently watching and the ride that this show is. How many plots can be crammed into one show? How many ridiculous but true things can I say about this show?

Ji Ruochen (Ma Tianyu) is an orphan who dreams of martial arts adventures. Raised by a couple who run a Crime Inn, one day a customer robbery goes very wrong when the customer turns out to be the latest incarnation of Yin Feng, the Banished God (Marius Wang). Ji Ruochen accidentally kills the Banished God and his foster parents promptly take the body into the desert and dump it down a cliff, but not before taking a necklace made from a piece of Gu Qing, the Blue Stone Goddess (Xuan Lu), which is supposed to let her recognize the Banished God in their final incarnation. Accidentally stealing the Banished God's identity, Ji Ruochen finds himself a hotly desired commodity by the cultivation sects who are all eager to have the Banished God as a disciple for prophecy reasons. He goes with Zhang Yinyin (Angelababy), a feisty, argumentative girl who has had to work extra hard because her spirit was contaminated by a demonic root planted by the evil nine-tailed fox who is poorly imprisoned in a cave anyone can access.

MEANWHILE some dudes with amazing moustaches and a penchant for laughing in delight at their own evil have found the body of the Banished God and done some questionable mystical shit to put him in a new body and nurture a grudge against Ji Ruochen for stealing his identity.

THEN Gu Qing meets Ji Ruochen and like everyone else assumes he's the Banished God and she falls in love with him (Gu Qing having been a literal rock spirit who cultivated to immortality under the guidance of the Banished God, who followed her into the mortal realm and a cycle of 100 incarnations after Gu Qing accidentally Did A Crime) but then falls in love with HIM.

ALSO Zhang Yinyin is always at risk of succumbing to the temptation of using the demonic fox power that is within her even though that will literally turn her into a demon but maybe it's worth it if a woman who is actually a goddess who is actually a rock is making eyes at the junior you brought into the sect and are in love with and you want to be more powerful than her?

ALSO what's the mysterious power that let Ji Ruochen kill the Banished God in the first place?

IS the woman seeking revenge for the death of the Banished God's mortal incarnation his sister or his cousin or his "cousin"?

WHY is the only love language of immortals stalking?

There's a homunculus and a baby snake demon who is the most precious angel in the world and so many evil dudes delighted in how evil they are and TWO GOOD AND ALIVE PARENTS and a pair of comical monks who have a special attack with a name they have to shout out every time they use it.

Oh and the imprisoned fox demon may have an ex who just hangs out on a rock in something called the Endless Ocean wearing a mask and playing go against the homunculus he made.

And there's an ancient master who lives in an ice mountain and eats memories of love.

Also some people might be secret demons.

There's some weddings.

There's a tiny woman with an ice sword who brutally murders so many dudes.

Do you like CGI birds?

Do you like giant mechanical CGI birds that are for riding purposes?

There's a desert hermit who has a son who is a giant tortoise.

So many things are going on and terrible decisions are constantly being made and it's over a week before I can watch another episode and it's driving me mad. WHAT WILL BE THE FALLOUT OF THE MOST RECENT BAD DECISIONS?

[cherikdogfood]

title idea to save your bored mind: We'll dance again

@fleflafiefie Thank you so much! This was a lovely prompt and hopefully I did justice to your prompt!

P.S. I'm posting this here, but I plan to post it on ao3 later and tag you (or gift this to you, I dunno how it works), since you gave the prompt. Could you tell me your ao3 username? Thank you!

We'll Dance Again

Every time Charles and Erik part, he can't stop the ache in his chest from throbbing painfully. Charles knows, logically, that there's nothing he should be worried about.

After all, he and Erik are "enemies", their X-Men and Brotherhood fighting regularly. They will definitely meet at some point, so why worry so much?

But he can't stop worrying.

He's in his late seventies, and Erik is older than him. Putting aside the fact that humans hate Erik and want to kill him, Erik himself is getting old.

As much as Erik claims he is better than humans, Charles knows even Erik has his limits.

There will come a day when Erik dies.

And if Erik dies, what about him?

What does he have left?

Nothing.

It's painful -- excruciating, even, to think of a world without his Erik.

Other times, Charles thinks about himself. He knows he is getting old. His mind doesn't work like it used to, and no matter how strong his telepathy is, he won't be able to exist without a body, right?

Charles tries not to think about it, he really does, but thoughts of death and eternal parting does not cease to haunt his dreams.

And so he lies awake, at night, after Erik has tipped his hat off and said "Goodbye old friend" in that awfully fond tone of his, and wonders about their future.

Every time there's a large battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood, he does his best to join the fight. Just so he can meet Erik.

"No offense, Professor, but you are getting old. I don't think you should be in the front lines with us," Storm reminds him.

"And I know your knees and back hurt a lot more these days," Jean adds, telepathically.

"I know," he says, out loud.

"But I want to be here," he tells Jean in her mind, and she knows why.

In the battlefield he will meet Erik, and although his beloved still wears that annoying helmet, Charles treasures the few glimpses he can have of him.

Their time is running out, he thinks. And he doesn't want to spend every waking moment fighting Erik like they did when they were younger.

And then one day, Charles' fears come true. One minute he's alright, and next he finds himself clutching his head in pain, whimpering as if someone is banging a hammer on his head.

He thinks he passes out, and when he opens his eyes and blink, he comes face to face with Hank.

"What happened?" He asks.

Hank tells him everything the doctors have said. He has a neurodegenerative disease, causing him to have seizures and making him forget.

But Charles' doesn't want to forget. He doesn't want to forget anything, but most of all, he doesn't want to forget Erik.

When the seizures happen again, once, twice, Charles realizes things won't get better. In fact, things were getting so much worse.

He didn't know who exactly did it (his bet was on Jean), but the fifth time his seizures happened and he woke up, he found Erik by his side.

Erik was by his side.

And he wasn't wearing the helmet.

Charles was tired -- the seizures had wrung his energy -- but seeing the love of his life by his bedside gave him so much happiness that he wanted to jump out of bed and embrace him.

He couldn't do that, of course, not only because he couldn't move his legs, but also because his body was too weak to even get up.

"Erik," he could only whisper.

"Hello, old friend," Erik replied, smiling fondly, albeit sadly too.

Charles wants to say something, ask Erik how long he'll be staying here, but Erik speaks first.

"How are you feeling?" He asks.

If he were decades younger, maybe, he would answer with a playful quip that made Erik roll his eyes.

As it is now, he's too old and tired, so he just smiles weakly.

"I've been better, I suppose."

"Hank says it's in your best interests to lay down and rest," Erik says. "That means no more going out into the battlefield, Charles."

He groans and looks at Erik, letting his gaze wander over his beloved's wrinkles and memorizing his face.

"I know, but, you'll be there," he whispers.

I need to see you.

The words are left unsaid, but Erik knows.

Erik understands him, sometimes even better than he understands himself.

"You're afraid," Erik says, his gaze softening.

"I've noticed it before and I thought I was wrong, but... you really are afraid," Erik says, his tone filled with both confusion and understanding.

Understanding because Erik knows what Charles is afraid of, and confusion because he thinks Charles of all people would not be afraid.

"You're afraid we won't meet again," Erik says slowly. "You're afraid one of us dies, and our parting on the battlefield will be our last meeting."

Charles nods, because his voice has betrayed him and he's glad he doesn't have to say the words out loud -- he's not afraid of dying, no, he's afraid of losing Erik, of never meeting him again.

Erik moves slowly and grasps his hand gently, and Charles gives him a small squeeze. Erik squeezes back.

"You don't have to be afraid, Charles. This -- We... You and I -- " Erik's voice breaks and he visibly tries to fight the urge to cry. It's a battle he's losing very quickly, though, and Charles tries not to succumb to his own tears.

After a few moments of silence Erik finally speaks.

"It's alright, Charles. This isn't, this isn't our last dance," he whispers oh so gently. "We will dance again, Liebling," he chokes out, "You and I, it won't be over that quickly. And, even if, even if we die--"

"Of course we'll die at some point, Erik," Charles laughs, blinking away tears as one falls down his cheek.

Erik brings his other hand up and wipes the tear away, the tenderness in his gaze and the warmth in his mind flowing without restraint.

"I know, Liebling, and what I'm saying is, even if we die, who's to say it's the end?" Erik's grin is mischievous with a twinkle in his eye that Charles knows too well.

"All those stories of the afterlife, heaven and hell and everything in between... It doesn't matter to me. I'd chase you to the ends of the earth and drag you to heaven with me if that's what you want," he whispers, gentle but firm.

"Although," Erik laughs a choked, dry laugh, "considering what everyone says about me, I'm probably going to hell."

Charles scoffs, knowing he and Erik have had this argument several times.

"You are a good person, Erik. There's so much more to you than you know," he whispers, replaying the words he once said decades ago.

"And you know, you know that I would follow you to hell if I had to. It doesn't matter to me," he adds.

Erik smiles, gentle and warm. For a moment, the two of them stay silent, basking in each other's presence and content to be together.

"You should sleep," Erik whispers.

"I don't want to," Charles says telepathically.

And Erik -- god, Charles wants to hug him -- Erik knows what he means.

"Sleep, Charles. I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here when you wake up. I'm not dying, not yet, and neither are you," Erik says firmly.

Charles sighs and closes his eyes, feeling Erik's mind wrap around his like a protective cocoon.

"As I've said, Charles. This isn't our last dance. So go to sleep, I'm here," Erik says in his mind.

That's all the reassurance he needs, and he goes to sleep, peaceful.

[made by cherikdogfood]

[wispythreads]

Fallout Series Positives:

Pretty faithful to the look and feel of Fallout, whether we're going BIG with technology and creatures, or small with food and tools

First episode an absolutely stellar introduction, got me hooked to the plot, got me invested in the characters, absolutely trashed my emotions and made me cry twice, first at the very beginning then again more towards the end

That Fallout branded mix of goofy, corny humor and absolutely sobering scenes of either how terrifying or deeply sad the world is

Action Sequences that either feel completely accurate to the standard game or like someone has Bloody Mess active.

Our main Vault Dweller is exactly how I felt first experiencing these games and it has been lovely watching her progression from sheltered/slightly off socialization to adapting to the surface while still maintaining the root of her core values

The Ghoul is a terrifying badass that is very entertaining to watch and whose experience with the world feels on par with how I approach the games now

Maximus clearly is on the road to being disillusioned with the Brotherhood and slowly becoming a better person, it is taking him time and effort and the journey is not yet over

Not sure if this would be a positive for everyone but watching the Knight go from intimidating figure to "I'm bored and want to shoot something." "*Sees creepy cave that clearly has something dangerous AND something they need in it* Fuck." "(uses companion as convenient meat shield/danger scout)" "*Is in fucking power armor but as soon as he is faced with something terrifying in nature and it is not going his way:* (running) fuck fuck fuck fuck" as much as he was an asshole it was hilarious seeing a representation of a True GamerTM experience.

I missed the more rotten ghouls of earlier games and so was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of other ghouls that followed their design rules more than 4's raisin ghouls. Robert and Martha were devastating.

Some pretty good Vault horror honestly

A character's actions that were kind a messed up in a way that was clearly framed as comedic has SHARPLY turned sinister due to stuff that gets revealed at the very end and makes me very excited to see what more of their deal is the next time we see them.

Fallout Series ehhhs... (Will be containing spoilers):

Personal ehhhs:

Putting this ehhhh at the top because it's a very personal one that might be shared or might be different for other people, but a lot of the sexual things that cropped up (and for the most part seemed like they were meant to humorous? To get a laugh?) just really weren't doing it for me at best and making me deeply uncomfortable at worst. Would love a version with them cut. It does feel in line with a small part of Fallout 2's humor though so again mainly a personal ehhhh rather than disparaging the show for it.

This one might just be because I'm asexual but the romance between Maximus and Lucy feels forced? Allosexuals please advise, is it normal for infatuation to strike that fast and hold weight for so long after? I don't mind the two together, looking at their individual characters I do think that it could work, its just it feels off when the story is very clear about the intention that these two will end up together immediately upon them meeting. Again, I don't hate romance subplots in theory, it's just, in general, when they show up like this where it feels like it was tacked on in order to check a box, rather than fully explored into how that would develop, that kind of just bothers me.

As a small branch to that last one, if it is forced than it feels kind of bad that a lot of the positive developments of Maximus's character seem to only occur because of his crush on Lucy. Him wanting to help Lucy because he earnestly does want to follow the one value of the Brotherhood he's internalized, being a pillar of Justice for the wasteland, and her being a Vault Dweller following the Golden Rule clearly paints her as an innocent needing assistance and justice, well, that's all well and good, but her being able to influence his decisions because he doesn't want her to think bad of him in a romantic sense, if I'm reading that right... don't like it. Not to say that his character growth completely involves Lucy! His disillusionment with the Brotherhood happens without her, and he has positive growth with Thaddeus as well, it just seems like its easier for him to take steps back from his personal growth when she's not in the picture.

Production ehhhs:

some of the scenes had backgrounds that looked a little bit too much like they were taken straight from the game, with the actors in the foreground kind of visibly sticking out from them. I'm not sure if this is because they were using green screens for certain shots or what other explanation there might be for it. If it is green screens though... Amazon you cannot pull the wool over my eyes and claim that you did not have the funds to build actual sets for this tv show.

The initial introduction for CX404 was absolutely great and I was excited with how some frames seemed to emphasize her own perspective of what was going on around her and this one man that's cared for her since she was a pup, but any shots involving her after seem kind of weird with how they're cut and the perspective shots seemed to get dropped. Maybe I'm just spoiled with how well the shots were done with Jed in the Thing, and the perspective thing being dropped is really just a personal disappointment than anything wrong with the show, but, it's my blog so I'm gonna admit I'm disappointed that potential wasn't explored.

This one is kind of a true "ehhh," it's really all I can think to describe this thought when I remember John Boyega's role as Finn and watch this film. It feels off that, in this 3 protagonist cast, Aaron Moten and John Boyega both are in the role of a character whose background is coming from a deeply oppressive regime he's been brainwashed by since he was a child, and whose main soldiers are unilaterally recognized by the masked armor they wear. I do really like the archetypes they chose for the 3 protagonist cast! Pure of Heart Vault Dweller/Indoctrinated Brotherhood Scribe/Disillusioned Pre-War Ghoul, just... Thinking on the fact Aaron got the brotherhood role. Maybe this was done purposefully for a positive reason, but right now fresh off the show without digging into director/cast interviews that maybe explore this specifically it just. ehhh.

As much as I loved the horror set up for Vault 33 the span of time that goes between Norm and Chet discovering that and the next bit of investigation Norm does on the subject is. Incredibly long??? Brother clearly seems very resourceful and good at finding information, but with how the episodes are cut and framed it feels like a great amount of time goes by before he next tries to dig up anything on what happened to 33/why they were trying to get into Vault 31. I don't know man maybe this is because it's easier to do in a video game but I feel like if I found a bunch of corpses that wrote with their own blood how a discovered deception drove them to madness and were frozen in various states of doing whatever they conceivably could to break into a neighboring vault because of said discovery I think I would. Not sleep until I figured out just what was going on???

Lore ehhhs:

Same problem that usually occurs when Bethesda is at the seat of Worldbuilding. Philly might've fit ok in the West Coast back in Fallout 1 and 2 but it feels weird seeing a settlement like this 100 years in the future. 100 years ago for us was 1924, to kind of help put it into perspective. Having this all handwaved and explained as: "Well of course everyone's acting as if no progress was made since 100 years ago! Nukes were dropped on the NCR/Shady Sands and set them back to square one just recently!" Really isn't... good enough for me.

I've been away from the lore for a while so a lot of what I remember is vague rather than detailed, but I am getting the impression that Bethesda is making a bunch of tweaks to the history that was already set up by previous games and. I mean just honestly speaking I really don't trust their interpretations (to put it generously) of Fallout 1, 2, and even New Vegas's established lore. (EDIT: Oh no yeah I was definitely right they've straight up changed a lot and where they haven't made changes per say they have made choices for this present space of time that makes events in the first games kind of impossible)

The vials the Ghoul is reliant on. I've been generous with interpreting them as something that was recently invented, and used by ghouls who, at varying lengths of age, start showing signs of going feral. If the way the show seems to be framing them is true, that they are instead supposed to be things that have always existed and quietly used by ghouls to prevent every single one of them from going feral in the background of the games, then. No that is awful try again Bethesda. You cannot get me onboard with something like that, especially when it would've presented a really interesting quest opportunity AGES ago if true.

Character/Story ehhhs:

The amount of times something absolutely horrible happened that could've been prevented by something as simple as a character speaking up instead of just being set dropping is. Not small and pretty annoying. Miscommunication is pretty bad too. It's like watching a shitty romcom that knows the only way the scene will progress the way they want is if miscommunication happens but don't take the time to have that miscommunication occur in a believable way.

There is something very disjointed with our look at Cooper in the first episode vs. where he's ended up. The last shot we have of him is riding with his daughter as the bombs dropped, presumably trying in vain to put distance between them and the bombs/find shelter. His wife/her mother seems out of the picture at this point in time. But the Ghoul asks Lucy's dad where his family is, indicating that at some point between the bombs dropping his daughter ended up with his wife and he was separated from both of them. The only thing I can think of is that he somehow made it to his wife even though they were incredibly far from where ever she could possibly be with the Fallout quickly encroaching at their heels, and she took the daughter in a way that somehow kept Cooper from following/knowing their end destination and left him to succumb to the said encroaching Fallout. But, again, thinking about that very last shot of Cooper in the first episode, that feels really contrived and kind of implausible? If not impossible. Maybe they'll pull off an explanation that has me feeling less grumpy about it, though, who knows.

So okay hang on a minute. The overseer (look I forgot his name I'm sorry) was upset that his wife left the vault and took their two kids with her. The only possible way he could've thought to get his kids back was to nuke Shady Sands??? And he somehow had access to resources that would allow him to do that??? When he's been in the Vault and either entirely was frozen until recently or has periodically been put into and taken out of the freezer for 200 years??? The kids survived that/are not noticeably harmed by this experience???? The Brotherhood are somehow involved??? (I mean I can't think of any other reason why a knight was present as Little!Maximus stepped out and witnessed the devastation around him, they mostly stay in hiding on the West Coast by this point and for all they're so-called values they really aren't ever inclined to help out people in desperate need of it, so whatever they were doing it wasn't anything "good". Unless Bethesda is thinking of tweaking this aspect of their history as well which. It's not impossible unfortunately, considering they keep doing that/have already made changes in the show so far)

Don't get me started on Moldaver. I'm really disappointed we did not end this season with some kind of conversation between her and the Ghoul that would've given us any actual concrete information about her specifically that we weren't already shown by flashbacks and side characters talking about her. She is alive and looks exactly as she did 200 years ago. She doesn't appear to be a ghoul, as one from 200 years ago is obvious in appearance, it doesn't seem right that she would've been in cryostasis until recently, as she was clearly around when Lucy was a small child with barely developing memories and she, again, still looks EXACTLY the way she did before the bombs dropped. No explanation is given for this. I have a theory that she might be some kind of Phoenix-style new mutant that comes back to life no matter how many times she dies and so might not actually be dead, but that's relying a little (VERY) heavily on her Flame Mother epithet and again me being baffled that they killed the season antagonist when she seemed incredibly important to multiple characters and there's still so much mystery surrounding her. If I'm right that cryostasis is not the explanation for her still being alive and she's just been in the wasteland for 200 years, why has she only coordinated an attempt to get her research back now? How did she convince an Enclave Scientist of all people (granted, one who clearly has a soft spot) to get that research for her AND have it transported instead of kept for the Enclave? Why wait to go after the overseer at least a decade after the bombing and the murder of Rose? Why rely on raider help when she seems to be such a huge deal that she could've relied on better armed/more intelligent help? Why massacre a bunch of innocent people people who weren't in anyway involved with what happened to Shady Sands? Why not just wait until the cover of darkness, the newly wedded wife and all the other vault residents deeply sleeping, and whisk the overseer away then? Why put the two children that Rose clearly cared deeply for at risk? The raid of 32 was our kicker into this series, was incredibly interesting and investing, but now it just. Doesn't make any sense since we've learned who Moldaver actually is.

The reveal of the Vault 31-32-33 experiment and what was in Vault 31 was. Ok. Kind of deflating, honestly, considering how much was built up around it in Vault 33. Not to say that the experiment isn't still completely fucked up but. I don't know it doesn't seem as bad as to result in that kind of reaction that happened in 33. Maybe there is more to discover, though.

Actually no wait hold on. How did the raid in 32 even happen??? Bud is overseeing everything that happens in each vault, and the overseer (and possible any other originally vault 31 residents) of 33 had been dead for a long, LONG while before the raiders showed up. Bud didn't notice Vault 33 died?? If he did, this information wasn't passed on to the overseer of 32?? There was no suspicion on either Bud or the overseer's side that 33 has been quiet for so, again, VERY long, and no one investigated?? Bud didn't clock that the door had been opened by Rose, who was dead for at least a decade by this point?? The overseer wasn't suspicious AT ALL that he didn't recognize any of these supposed Vault 33 residents, especially considering the long silence beforehand??? This is an incredibly huge failure of management hoo boy. (The one, again, very generous interpretation I could give this is that the overseer did recognize Moldaver and her name, but only vaguely, fuzzily, which he chocked up as him not paying attention well enough to remember someone who must've been skilled enough in management to be made overseer. That doesn't explain the raiders with her. That doesn't explain the fact that somehow someone he knows is not from Vault 31 was made overseer when the last 33 overseer perished. Like we see that there were backup 31 vault dweller's hanging around 32, why wouldn't the same be true for 33 based off everything we've learned so far???)

[drymushroomfics]

Fraye Hill of House Lannister

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Chapter Twenty Nine

Fraye takes in a breath, her anxiety worsening by the second. She has no idea where they're talking her and Sandor. She reaches for him, wrapping her hand around his arm for comfort. She feels Sandor's body shift and he leans into her, reciprocating. When the wagon comes to a stop, her and Sandor are pulled out of the wagon and lead inside a deep cave. Fraye can't see anything through the sack on her head but she can see light. The light darkens dramatically when she steps into the unknown destination they've brung them to. Fraye blinks as they lift her hood once more. "What is the place?", Fraye hears the taller boy that stands next to Arya ask. "Somewhere neither the wolves nor lions come prowling.", Thoros tells him.

Fraye looks around realizing her and Sandor are surrounded by dozens of men inside a dark cave. She wonders why they'd bring them to a cave. "You look like a bunch of swineherds.", she hears Sandor spit at them, ropes still wrapped around him. "Some of us were swineherds. And some of us tanners and masons. That was before.", Anguy replies. "You're still swineherds and tanners and masons. You think carrying a crooked spear makes you a soldier?" "No. Fighting in a war makes you a soldier.", an unknown voice says from behind a small cluster of men. They move out of the way to reveal a shorter man, still taller than Fraye, wearing an eye patch on over his left eye. "Beric. Dondarrion? You've seen better days.", Sandor says, surprise in his voice. Fraye watches the man closely, getting a bad feeling. "And I won't see them again.", Beric replies to his comment, walking closer. Sandor looks around, "Stark deserters. Baratheon derserters. You lot aren't fighting in a war. You're running from it." "Last I heard, you were King Joffrey's guard dog. And here you are a thousand miles from home with a pretty Lady on your arm. Which of us is running?" "Untie these ropes and we'll find out. What are you doing leading a mob of peasants?" "Ned Stark ordered me to execute your brother in King Robert's name." Fraye's eyes widen at the mention of Gregor. She hates the sinister feeling that ghosts across her skin at the mention of him. "Ned Stark is dead… King Robert is dead… My cunt brother's alive." Sandor spits at him in disgust, "You're fighting for ghosts." "That's what we are; Ghosts waiting for you in the dark. You can't see us, but we see you. No matter whose cloak you wear- Lannister, Stark, Baratheon- You prey on the weak, The Brotherhood Without Banners will hunt you down." Fraye feels chills run through her. None of them know that her house name was Lannister. "You found god? Is that it?", Sandor asks, irritation growing. "Aye. I've been reborn in the light of the one true god. As we all have. As would any man who's seen the things we've seen.", Beric explains. "If you mean to murder me, the bloody well get on with it. Just let her leave safely." "You'll die soon enough, dog. But it won't be murder, only justice. As for your Lady, I'm sure she'd be relieved to be away from any Clegane.", Thoros says. "Watch your tongue when you speak to him!", Fraye chimes in, anger on her face. "Do you think I'll leave here and let someone harm you?!", Fraye adds, looking at Sandor. "I'm not a selfish cunt! I will always make sure you're safe first." "Do you have any idea what Clegane's do?", Anguy asks Fraye. Fraye takes in a breath, her anger only growing. "You'll get a kinder fate than you deserve, dog. Lions you call yourselves. At the Mummer's Ford, girls of seven years were raped and babes still on the breast were cut in two while theiy mother's watched!" "I wasn't at the Mummer's Ford! Dump your dead children at some other door!", Sandor growls, his anger rising even more than Fraye's. "House Clegane was built upon dead children. I saw them lay Princess Aegon and Princess Rhaenys before the Iron Throne.", Thoros adds in. "Do you take me for my brother? Is being born a Clegane a crime?!", Sandor almost pleads, as he turns around looking at everyone. "Murder is a crime."

"I never touched the Targaryen babes! I never saw them, never smelled them, never heard them bawling! You want to cut my throat, get on with it! But don't call me a murderer and pretend that you're not!" Out of nowhere Arya steps forward, her eyes fixed on Sandor. "You murdered Mycah! The butcher's boy! My friend! He was twelve years old! He was unarmed. And you rode him down! You slung him over your horse like he was some deer!", she yells. Fraye has always known Sandor was never a saint and he enjoys killing but she could never imagine him killing a child in cold blood. "Aye, he was a bleeder.", Sandor says to her. "You don't deny killing this boy?", Beric asks. Fraye looks to Sandor. He doesn't look back, avoiding her gaze. He doesn't want to know what she thinks of what he did. "I was Joffrey's sworn shield. The boy attacked the prince.", Sandor explains. "That's a lie! I hit Joffrey! Mycah just ran away!", Arya yells. "Then I should have killed you! Not my place to question princes." "Sandor!", Fraye yells at him. He looks at Fraye, feeling her anger not only at him but at every person in the room. "You stand accused of murder. But no one here knows the truth of the charge, so it is not for us to judge you. Only the Lord of Light may do that now. I sentence you to trial by combat.", Beric declare, looking at the both of them. Fraye's eyes widen. "You have no authority to declare anything! Just because you're a man of god does not give you any grounds! Sandor only did what he was told as was his duty. At least he's loyal and and trust worthy. I'm sure it is more than I can say for anyone else in this room!", Fraye spats at Beric, wanting to move in front of Sandor. Sandor nudges you behind him with his left leg. "I am sorry My Lady but it is the right way.", Beric replies to her, moving back a little. "So who will it be? Should we find out if your fire god really loves you, priest? Or you, archer? What are you worth with a sword in your hand? Or is the little girl the bravest here?" "Aye. She might be. But it's me you'll fight."

[scalproie]

for the character ask game: kuai, hanzo, bi-han, and smoke with 12, 15-20, and 22 :)

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Kuai: I like to think that in the 2nd timeline, post-alliance, kuai wouldve unknowingly taken some inspiration from hanzo's leadership of the shirai ryu to lead his own clan, reforming a lot of stifling rules to establish more of a community within the lin kuei members.

Hanzo: And similarly, especially after the trauma of having lost his entire clan, hanzo wouldve also unknowingly picked up a few things from kuai to lead the new shirai ryu, but rather than making changes to his clan's rules, he's doing most of the work on HIMSELF to lead it more "efficiently" and avoid past tragedies from happening again. Which, if mk11 didnt happened, would have resulted in both clans being similar enough that they have no issue partnering and temporarily switching members for missions, and, should it ever come to that, could even be merged as a single clan (as they once were after all), all thanks to the efforts of their grandmasters.

Bi-han: In the 1st and 2nd timeline, I wanna think bi-han initially did wanted to take the masters' attention and implied abuse away from kuai by being a cocky (but talented) little shit, but over the years the act became who he is as a person as he rose through the ranks to become the lin kuei's best assassin.

Smoke: 2nd timeline smoke literally Came Back Wrong, its impossible to tell where tomas the human boy sacrificed by a cult ends and where enenra the smoke demon begins, is he a human posessed by a demon? or a demon with a human's memory? He is neither completely from earthrealm nor the netherrealm, he belongs nowhere, hence why he has found a home in, and is extra protective of, the few friends he has made.

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

Subscorp for kuai and hanzo, Bireena for bi-han, and I guess Subsmoke wins by default for tomas (obv not the mk12 one). Im a basic bitch what can I say.

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

Everything else, im not a multishipper

17. What's a ship for this character you don't hate but it's not your favorite that you're fine with?

Again I guess I'll go with subsmoke

18. How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

Kuai and hanzo in the 2nd timeline over the course of three games... pretty good👍 (<- rewrote my brain chemistry). Bi-han and hanzo's rivalry is great. Smoke is underutilized but I do love that he and kuai will be friends in every timeline

19. How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

EVERY relationship they all have could be better bc sadly we get our storytelling from a fucking fighting game, but I want kuai to have a better (not necessarily more positive) dynamic with frost, I want hanzo and harumi's relationship to be done justice, I want bi-han to have his childhood as well as kuai's explored and their history toward each other as brothers deepened (1st and 2nd timeline ESPECIALLY bc man. fuck mk12) and I want smoke to form one meaningful relationship that isnt tied to kuai.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Kuai: kitana

Hanzo: harumi/kenshi/jax/sonya (legends). For the loner of mk, he sure has a lot of bestie potential

Bi-han: sareena (the brotherhood of shadows really)/sektor & cyrax/fujin (I stand that he and fujin would have the funniest dynamic, especially as noob saibot. I want them to have a 80s buddy cop-like adventure together)

Smoke: jade/reptile/johnny

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? Something you don't like?

WHEN ITS WRITTEN BY MY FRIENDS honestly my wants are simple: I just like when theyre written as adult men raised in a very isolated at best, oppressive at worst (for the lin kueis in particular) environment with lots of unadressed trauma, I also dont like when theyre written as TOO openly romantic, these four men are aaall about repression of feelings (hanzo a little less so) so it'd all be about the subtle, little things. and pining for ages.

[beast-towers]

Meanwhile…

Once the teens had their rest, they quickly set off. Eleanor guiding the brothers and Ein through the metal halls, looking at the map as she pointed out: “Next stop, the… Eh? Am I looking at this right?…” She looked back to made sure to read what she was reading, causing one of the brothers to peak over her shoulder.

“Yep, Tickler.” Tobias said, making Eleanor very confused about this..

“Why that one? Isn’t that a bit too… well… invading personal space?” She shivered as she puts the map away. “I am uncomfortable if they try anything like that…”

“We can understand that Ellie. But if I remember, it aims to tickle ya until you smile. I swear to what ever god out there if they do that… wait-” Thomas had the realization as a small chuckle escaped. “Ha! Jokes on them, me and Toby are freaking bricks!”

“Oh yeah! I remember Abuela tried to playfully tickle us when we were six years old. To this day I can still feel that sadness.” Toby felt sad for his grandmother from that day. Yet happy memories did surfaced when his and Tom’s father was with them, how they had such a wonderful time… until…

Toby quickly snapped out of it as he felt Ein nuzzling his leg. “Hey, I’m good. Thanks for checking up on me bud! Ellie, is Ein always like this?”

“No, usually he’ll be on my side so people won’t distract him. I guess when we were taken, he’s been on guard.” She spoke, seeing Ein then walk up to Thomas. Who stopped and softly pinched the Shiba’s cheeks.

“I forgot how squishy and stretchy ya guys are!~ ¡Oh, es tan lindo!” Cooed Thomas, while Ein is being very patient and allowed Thomas to stretch his face. “Good doggy!~ Okay… Ellie, how far are we?” He looked up and saw it. Tickler section. Feeling a bit of fear for what they’re getting into.

“Round 2…. But this time, we can fight. Let’s roll.” Thomas spoke, as the four entered the next section. It wasn’t long enough before they heard machines humming and more developing advocates laughing. “Uuuggghh… I hate this already…” Thomas shivered with unease.

“Same here bro…” Toby took a look into the cells, and yelped in shock as a woman crashed herself on the door. “GAAHH!!”

“You! Dog! You are a real dog, yes?!” She spoke, looking in a mix of herself and Marmalized. “Who is the owner of this Guardian?!”

“M-Me?….” Eleanor nervously spoke, causing Ein to get in front of her to protect Eleanor. “I’m his owner… He is my service and guard dog… are… are you-”

“I don’t have time! Neither do you four! Please take this! Hound, protect those who cannot protect themselves! Honor, Duty, Loyalty, Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Justice, and Brotherhood will forever be your weapons…” She dropped a beaded necklace outside of her prison, Eleanor quickly grabbing it and held onto it. “I’ve made sure to hold onto this family treasure. A heirloom! I and my family helped raised hounds to become Canine Warriors… Your Hound will fight until his time is up…. Now go! Run! They are coming!”

The group were confused, but on high alert now… and rightfully so, as Ein growled angrily and protectively as two MOJ guards appeared.

“Oh? Hey! Aren’t those the trouble makers? We didn’t expect all of you to be here! Please come along with us nicely!~” One happily spoke, causing the teens to back away from the two. While both Tom and Toby had their instruments out and ready.

“Oh don’t be scared!~ We won’t hurt any of you… Well… May be the Ministry’s Top bests in Marmalisation, but they won’t hurt you!~” the two began to walked forward, but noticed Ein. Now in front of the group as he delivered barks… but for the two guards, they’ve completely melted with Joy.

“AWW!!~ So! So! SO Cute!~ Hey there little guy! Oh my goodness!!~ I didn’t know a cute puppy was here!! Oh I hope you stay here to help make the world a happy place!”

“Look at his adorable face! Such a sweetheart! I must pinch those flexible cheeks!!~” Said the second Guard as he happily pinched Ein’s squishy cheeks.

The three and Woman were very dumbfounded, but Ein took this as an advantage and allowed the two men to touch him. He honestly hated it, but this was the teens’ chance. Toby and Tom noticed what Ein was doing as they whacked the two men on their heads, knocking them out cold.

“Huh…. I’m surprised you four are very prepared for this…” the Woman spoke with astonishment by their teamwork. “Still, you cannot stay here. And make sure your guardian keeps those beads with him…”

“Not… Not really…” Eleanor then looked over to the woman. “You look very familiar…. Before we go, may I know your name?…”

“I….I-I sadly can’t remember…hehehe…. They gave me a new one… Jovial… 64% from being Marmalized… kids, you must keep going….” A part of her was ready to laugh, but held it in, not wanting to scare them.

“We can at least free you! You are not going to rot away here!” Thomas spoke, pickpocketing the guards to find their key cards and keys. “You can still have the will to resist them. Jo, or whoever you are, this is your chance to rebel against them.” Thomas unlocked the door and opened it, seeing inside… he felt great sadness and fear… the woman was covered in scars and some blood, it looked like she just escaped from her binds. Looking further in the room, a machine that almost looks like it could be part of a car wash… “Is this… how they do it?…”

“Yes… but please, go… I don’t want to bring you all more harm… make sure your hound wears those beads… please be safe….” Jovial softly spoke, she was so tired, sick, and mentally falling apart. Causing Thomas, Tobias, and Eleanor looked at each other wish sadness.

“The door will be open. Just know this: The only one who is in control, is you and you alone. No one has the right to erase who you are, you have to keep going. No matter how painful it’ll be, show them why you kept fighting… Show them who you really are.” Thomas spoke to Jovial with a determination and given her a kind smile. She herself didn’t look, but she felt the kindness radiating off from the young man. “Please reconsider it. And thank you for giving Ein a gift. We will remember you.”

The group left to keep going, despite the horrors they’ll face… they had to march on to get their parents back. This made Jovial think deeply about her new choice… leave or stay. As she now looked at the wide open door…

To be continued…

[kattythingz]

Jumping onto the Roy killing Winry's parents bandwagon to say that fma 03 is more character driven than brotherhood. The characters in 03 are 3 dimensional and they seem human, if that makes sense? Like I've seen people hate on how Greed died in 03 like that moment wasn't a great scene. It made perfect sense, to me at least, for Greed to let Ed kill him so that he could go on to kill the other homunculi. Greed literally never gave a fuck about his siblings or being human he was just living his best life.

I too dislike how that situation was dealt with in brotherhood. Winry finally comes face to face with her parents killer and a few weeks later she's helping him? With no resolution to the original issue? WHAT!?

In 03 that situation, and alot of situations if I'm being honest, really make me wonder what is the right thing? The right thing is never obvious either. In Brotherhood alot of the struggle came from a "I have to do this the right way but how can I do that?" mindset while in 03 it was the constant question that never got answered, "What is the right thing?"

I love that Winry gets her own struggle and is actually treated as an important character in 03 from the jump. And I love even more that we get both sides of the story too. When you know Roy as the cocky silver-tongued smug bastard it hits so much deeper when you see him at his lowest. At the point attempting suicide. It's such a struggle because I know both sides but can't figure out who was wrong, if anyone was wrong.

I love that Winry has an internal struggle she goes through that adds to not only the series, but her character. It makes her so much more likable in 03 when she doesn't just randomly pop up like the ice cream truck and start crying over some shit that went down last episode. She's done justice in 03 because- and I'm gonna say this loud so the people in the back can hear too- SIDE CHARACTERS ARE IMPORTANT TOO! JUST BECAUSE THEY ARENT THE MAIN CHARACTER DOESNT MEAN THEY SHOULD BE THROWN OUT THE WINDOW? THEY HAVE SHIT GOING ON TO THEIR LIVES DONT REVOLVE AROUND THE MAIN CHARACTER.

The Scar in 03 is already more likeable too because hes not just a stone cold killer and also because he killed Basque Grand 🤪 I fucking hate Basque Grand. (Because of a fic i read but thats neither here nor there) And the way Al follows him and is like "Um could you please stop trying to kill my brother? If you want to ofc! >.<" IS HILARIOUS

IM RAMBLING BUT THE POINT IS 03 IS VERY CHARACTER DRIVEN AND THATS A PART OF WHY I LOVE IT. It has the perfect amount of both character development and plot progression. PLUS GENDER FLUID ENVY even though I hate that mf we still get representation. AND DARKSKIN ROSE! Brotherhood white washing her made me wanna slap the animators when I realized what they did.

NO HATE TO BROTHERHOOD THO I LOVE THEM BOTH BUT 03 HAS A HOLD ON ME

YESSS CHARACTER-DRIVEN 03 MY BELOVED. God just thinking about the characterization in 03 makes me swoon. Loml fr. I'd argue Winry actually isn't as prominent in 03, but she's def less around to be ruined as a love interest, which I think is a pro nonetheless. About 03 Scar, I dunno about preferring one over the other tbh. I was never interested in Scar much to begin with as a character. But I do think in 03 he's much less severe, which... might be a downgrade, if you consider his rage at the literal genocide of his people. He deserves to be a stone-cold killer about that (so long as he doesn't drag in actual innocents, naturally).

AND YEAAAH POC ROSE. POC ROSE MY BELOVED. Dude fun fact I actually loved Rose enough back when I first watched 03 to ship her with Ed. I still fancy them a little as a romance, tho their friendship is just as dear to me. One day I'll write sth with her and Ed as besties. One day. I technically already did that in a kill la kill au but that's not posted so it doesn't count

03 is just. Such a good study of humanity. I'll never get over it.

[theskoomacat]

to my dismay, i found the main fotv characters compelling to a varying degree

Lucy is the easiest to explain - i didn't like her much because she is a typical deadmom-Break the Cutie-naive vaultie character who survives only due to her high SPECIAL scores. i find the entire "the surface is a violent hateful place where everyone beats the shit out of each other" narrative awful, and since she exists to prop it up, my distaste extends to her too. Overall she was bland, aside from the whole breeding thing that makes me thankful that at least SOME thought was put into the vault society.

(i want to mention Norm here also because i was so sure he'd be the one to poison the prisoners to show that both surfies and vaulties are capable of heinous acts, and that would complement Lucy's story. but apparently only vault tec employees have free will, so we got Bud instead :\)

Maximus was very interesting in the beginning. he's messsed up, he's a chronic liar, he grew up in a cult. when he couldn't give up the lie despite it being the worse option, i was compelled. however after that the writers started making him do explicitly stupid shit (why brand that guy and then confess 1 minute later............ what was the thought process???) so by the end i got bored. i wish he was more unhinged. i wish the effect of his upbringing in bos was more than "idk what sex is" and "brotherhood is the shining beacon and the only safe space (aside from vault 4)". in the end he also was a bit of a "naive vaultie" in his own way, which is still boring. but these two sheltered kids did make a cute pair imo.

now, Cooper, that one's a conundrum. i liked that he was living basically in his own make believe land, he was the Theoretical degree in physics guy but for Hollywood Wild West. why not, i found it fun. but i had questions about his characterization. he is named after TODD and is the Nate Falloutfour of fotv, and also there's this thing with him not wanting to shoot the film bandit, so overall it seems like he's supposed to be the asshole with the heart of gold of the story. but he's just an asshole. which is totally fine, i just don't understand what his arc is supposed to be then. it didn't seem like Lucy being nice to him "taught" him anything, so he was just a cool loser the entire season, and that's it. most of his characterization was in the past. he gets asked why he's still going, and i honestly can't say i can answer this. he was "looking for his family", but unless he 100% knew they (well, the wife) were frozen, it's an irrational goal. i think he just likes being a cowboy. and i think it would be more fun if there was some exploration of whether this kind of "justice" was what he dreamt of while in the army. i guess we'll see

[technoturian]

I'm having a lot of feelings about The Brotherhood of Steel and how I hope the show does them justice. I keep seeing takes like "Why are the Brotherhood in there I HATE the Brotherhood they're BAD ACTUALLY" and like... Yes? That's the point?

I will admit my feelings on the Brotherhood are very much informed by how I played Fallout 4 the first time:

Here's this woman, she's living in an idyllic little house in an idyllic little neighborhood with her family. Her world is destroyed and she's sent to an unimaginable hell world. All she wants is her kid. All she wants is safety. The first person she meets is on the game's tracks; Preston Garvey. He presents himself as a good person, but he's just as lost as she is. He lets her know he's all alone out here and even though he can go with her, I never take him. He needs to stay in the neighborhood and look after the others.

The tracks end and it's open world. I could go straight to Diamond City and maybe if I had, maybe having Nick and Piper on my side before I met Danse would've changed how everything about the Brotherhood worked for me. But that's not how it went down. I'm running around, making sure I don't miss anything. And there's a call on the radio. It's urgent. So I go after it. And the first quest I run into on my own is Fire Support, Paladin Danse's intro quest.

So here's this woman, she's living in a nightmare. Nobody at her back. She's been fighting for her life for hours straight. And she feels powerless. She feels unmoored. In her regular life she was a lawyer married to a soldier; she was used to order, comfortable with the idea of rule of law. There is nothing resembling order here. And then here is this knight in shining power armor telling her this isn't hell she's stuck in, it's a fight and it's one his side is going to win. There's a certainty to the Brotherhood of Steel that is terrifying to normal, well-adjusted people but is probably comforting to someone who is already as terrified as they can get. The BoS are harsh but they're honest and upfront about their intentions. They're sure of themselves. They have goals and plans. They're not just winging it. That's security. That's power.

Now my PC doesn't know anything about synths, she doesn't know anything about supermutants, and she's just met her first ghouls in a bunch of ferals. Nothing they're saying about non-humans seems wrong at this point. They legitimately sound like violent, deadly monsters.

And then she goes to Diamond City and she meets an amazing mechanical man. She meets a plucky reporter who cares about the truth. And she has people who have her back in a way that makes the "support" the Brotherhood offers feel a lot less personal. And the more she finds out about this world she lives in now, the more she realizes the Brotherhood's way isn't something she can go along with. And she was almost in too deep before she found out. *I* knew I would never ultimately side with the Brotherhood, but it was very easy to justify why my character would stick with them as long as she did. She wanted them to be what they think they are.

And that's why I kind of love them. When everything is going horribly wrong who doesn't want someone who holds out a hand and says, "I know how to fix this and I have the power to do it." You have all of these cartoonishly violent raiders and craven killers and they're so horrific that they actually succeed at making people like the Brotherhood look reasonable. When you're in a world of dragons you want a sword. And that's why I think the BoS, done right, have potential to make for the most compelling storyline. Order in chaos. They're such an enticing trap.

[thebleedingeffect]

Ok you seem to the the assassins creed mutual ™. I've been playing AC 4 black flag on the switch (got the rebel collection when it was on sale) and have been loving it, looking to get further into the series. What games do you recommend? (also take this as an invitation to infodump if you want :) ) (I am going to bed after sending this so if i don't respond i'm just snork mimimimi)

I LOVE ASSASSIN'S CREED SOSOSSOOSOSO MUCH I'M SO HAPPY THAT YOU'RE ENJOYING IT AS WELL !!!! I've legit been following this series ever since I was much younger and I played ac1 and just absolutely fell in love with the entire concept <333 honestly it's such a fascinating series and it has such a place in my heart that I'm just so happy to hear more people being interested in the series.... but as for game recs!!!

Assassin's Creed 1, I know, kinda cliché to recommend the first game, but I still think this game is a fantastic introduction to the main themes of the story and atmosphere. I will warn you, it is the first game of the series so it isn't super polished as the later games, but I still think it's a wonderful introduction and Altair is still, hands down, one of the best ac characters out there. If you're okay with a bit more dated graphics then I think you'll really enjoy it :]] it was made in 2007 so like, it does NOT have the amount of graphical polish that blackflag has lmao.

Assassin's Creed 3 - not even joking, probably one of the absolute best games in the entire series and Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor and Haytham are two of the absolute best characters that ac has to offer. It's basically a tragedy between a father and son, the turmoil of colonial America, and just how hopeful yet damning the entire story is. The game is also fucking amazing as well thanks to the modern side plot which I still was at its absolute best in this very same game. There's just so much to say about this game, but it has an marvelous story, atmosphere, characters, and the sheer amount of tragedy going on in this game makes me want to cry sometimes. It's still so wild to me that this game is still one of the best in the series, it's that fucking goooooddddd GOD !!!!

Assassin's Creed Syndicate - okay, so, this game is so fucking fun it's unreal. I did not expect just how fun this game would be and Evie and Jacob are such wonderful characters as well!! You might've noticed that I've gotten especially attached to Jacob, which I did not expect at all when I first began the game!! The conflict between the twins is probably one of the highlights of the entire game and just how much tragedy, misunderstanding, and love is between them makes me want to sob. I've written entire meta pieces on the both of them, but Jacob in particular makes me want to burn down the world for him and him alone- okay actually add Arno to that list. This game also has one of the cooler templar villains! Crawford Starrick was such an unexpected bonus to the game, but I very much loved his presence :] but yeah I'm . totally normal about this game . very very normal. This game is everything to me . JACOB !!! JACOB !!!!! MY BOOOYYYYYYYY !!!!!!! Play it for Him......

Assassin's Creed Unity - AHHHHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!! !!! OKAY UNITY IS SO GOOD I REFUSE TO LISTEN TO THE UNITY HATE ITS ONE OF THE BEST GAMES IN THE SERIES DO NOT LISTEN TO REDDIT !!!! Deadass probably one of the best stories in the entire series and Arno is so :( he's so :( honestly one of the most human assassins we ever see and just watching his struggles, the turmoil of the French revolution, his struggles with loss and redemption... how he fights so hard for justice, peace, and hope, only for it to be endlessly snatched from his hands... Arno being the emotional core of the story and it's such a fucking tragedy because he couldn't have done anything to stop it, not really, but god he tried and he blames himself either way. Arno's section with the French brotherhood and Bellec is EXTREMELY GOOD btw ^-^ there's this one part of the game that I got so excited about I paced in circles for literal hours !!!! Arno ..... My boy ..... My Everything .......

Honorable Mention: Assassin's Creed Revelations - honestly? I think the entire Ezio trilogy is pretty solid, but all of the above games are better imo. I really liked revelations though! ^-^ the only issue is that to understand revelations you need to play the two other games before it to understand what the hell is going on with Ezio LMAO. Still! If you're willing to dedicate the time to the entire trilogy, I think you will not be disappointed :] the Ezio trilogy also has subject 16 and the glyphs which are SOOOOOOOO fun and spooky, I miss them alot...

I haven't played all of the ac games, not yet at least, but I'm planning on playing all of them!! Rn I'm playing rogue and it's pretty fun so far! :D but yeah, these are my top recommendations!! This series is just so dear to me, I love it alot... and if you're curious, my favorite characters are: Jacob Frye, Arno Dorian, Desmond Miles, Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor, and Altair! But yeah <333 I really really hope you have fun if you decide to play any of these games <33 they're all so . yeah . chews on them .

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

In every age and every generation men have envisioned some promised land. Plato envisioned it in his republic as a time when justice would reign throughout society and philosophers would become kings and kings philosophers. Karl Marx envisioned it as a classless society in which the proletariat would finally conquer the reign of the bourgeoisie; out of that idea came the slogan, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Bellamy, in Looking Backward, thought of it as a day when the inequalities of monopoly capitalism would pass away. Society would exist onthe basis of evenness of economic output. Christianity envisioned it as the Kingdom of God, a time when the will of God will reign supreme, and brotherhood, love, and right relationships will be the order of society. In every age and every generation men have dreamed of some promised land of fulfillment of freedom. Whether it was the right promised land or not, they dreamed of it. But in moving from some Egypt of slavery, whether in the intellectual, cultural or moral realm, toward some promised land, there is always the same temptation. Individuals will get bogged down in a particular mountain in a particular spot, and thereby become the victims of stagnant complacency. So, this afternoon, I would like to deal with three or four symbolic mountains that we have been in long enough-mountains that we must move out of if we are to go forward in our world and if civilization is to survive.

I think we have been in the mountain of moral and ethical relativism long enough. To dwell in this mountain has become something of a fad these days, so we have come to believe that morality is a matter of group consensus. We attempt to discover what is right by taking a sort of gallup poll of the majority opinion. Everybody is doing it, so it must be all right, and therefore we are caught in the clutches of conformity... In a sense, we are no longer concerned about the ten commandments-they are not too important. Everybody is busy, as I have said so often, trying to obey the eleventh commandment: "Thou shalt not get caught." And so, according to this view, it is all right to lie with a bit of finesse. It's all right to exploit, but be a dignified exploiter. It's all right to even hate, but dress your hate up into garments of love and make it appear that you are loving when you are actually hating. This type of moral and ethical relativism is sapping the very life's blood of the moral and spiritual life of our nation and our world. And I am convinced that if we are to be a great nation, and if we are to solve the problems of the world we must come out of this mountain. We have been in it too long. For if man fails to reorientate his life around moral and ethical values he may well destroy himself by the misuse of his own instrument.

—Martin Luther King Jr, "Keep Moving from this Mountain," Founders Day Address at the Sisters Chapel, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, Apr 11, 1960

[h/t Scott Horton]

[awellboiledicicle]

me: i finally read all 90k+ words of my Eldritch Bingo au so i can keep working on it--

my brain: Skyrim Age au tho. You can make Kain in another game and Andraste and--

me: no i need to write the other aus--

my brain: Kaine au so you can get to Anders and Justice accidentally killing off the dark brotherhood bc they felt bad for Aventus while also hating Grelod. and adopting all the orphans. and Kain soloing dungeons because Farkas keeps getting stuck and also Anders keeps curing people of vampirism until they get politely asked to leave Whiterun so said people with vampirism stop coming there. And also write Anders and Kain being cute and Kain being cute with Justice for his very strong views on what is and isn't ok about their whole thieves guild thing.

me, sighing and pulling up bg3: ok do we go with locs or fro, or shaved like her inquisition look