#that time where ashton was like

[buckycap]

something something it's getting extremely tiring seeing people admonish dorian's stance and how no nuance or understanding is ever given to him and how he feels and whenever he shows a stance that's different than the overall opinion he's always looked at as stupid and about to betray the group and it's getting increasingly harder to look at those reactions as anything other than bad faith arguments

[wolf-king-art]

[danwhobrowses]

For anyone else who is gonna struggle surviving the next 3 weeks with the angsty and tense situation of Callowmoore here's a few things from the last 2 episodes that I feel were underrated and will assist in trying to keep me sane/emotionally stable: - Matching messed up hands built for holding - Fearne nervously playing with her hair as she approaches Ashton - Ashton wanted Fearne to be either the last thing they saw if they died or the first thing they saw when they succeeded - Fearne's admittance corroborates Ashley's 4SD revelation that Fearne is in love with someone in the party but doesn't know how to process the emotions - Fearne wanted Ashton to be happy, while Ashton wanted to feel whole so they would be worthy of the Hells - Ashton twice tried to lead a search for Fearne, and instantly clocking onto Chetney saying he followed Fearne - Fearne making herself look as radiant as possible before giving Ashton the cold shoulder - Ashton only rose to Chetney's provocations until he said 'You hurt Fearne' Use how you will

[screechingfromthevoid]

I love the way Dorian and Ashton both talk to the Arch Heart.

Because Ashton is hell bent on dragging them down to their level. Ashton wants every bastard with a superiority complex to feel a boot on the neck for just a moment. It doesn't matter if that person has more money, more magic, or infinite power. They would be no where without the people they're standing on. The workers they exploit, the libraries they study, the worship they receive. All that power comes from the collective, the little guy. And Ashton wants all of them to come down to earth and fucking see who they've been using for the first time.

While Dorian is still stuck on the narrative that mortals are their children. You don't give birth to things that are not of you, or are completely different than you. Dorian keeps hearing "we're like you". He keeps hearing about the fear of mortality and the bonds of family. He knows that the gods and mortals are the same. And he's hell bent on reminding them that they are equals. If they weren't the same species: how could they come so close to godhood? How could a mortal become a god? Dorian speaks to the gods with no reverence, no policing of his tone. Because as they sit at the Arch Heart's table, with fake food and fake wood and fake bounty, they are equals. They are both in the same position. Dorian Storm does not think himself a god. He just knows the Gods are the same as them. Him and the Arch Heart both create and revel in beauty. Of course one gave to the other. But everyone must have a teacher. And there will always come a time where the teacher and the student can play a duet in such harmony no one can decipher who once taught who.

[edge-oftheworld]

being in the 5sos fandom is a lot like trying to track the movements of a wild animal in the woods using one of those cameras that’s pretending to be a rock and then we all gush about the footage when we see it like we’re all taking our turns to be David Attenborough

[lunarrolls]

let me make it so abundantly clear right now that taking the shard was a fucking amazing choice. obviously not from a logical standpoint, they were warned against doing that like eight billion times, but it was SUCH a good move narratively holy shit. i think ashton would have given it up to fearne if she wanted it, but she didn’t, and oh my god did they want it. they have been recklessly throwing themself into answers this entire time. they threw themself into a fucking volcano without any hesitation to get that shard. the fact that it made them feel anything at all? of COURSE they were going to grab it. he told evontra’vir that he was owed power. nobody else was going to give it to him, from his pov, so he took it himself. also it was fucking hilarious how bad of an idea it was. literally just the worst possible thing you could have done. but also it made total sense, i love it, taliesin jaffe what the actual fuck, i owe you my life, aabria iyengar i owe you my life more,

[qilingxiong]

"save me difang" consider: dfs tugging on fdb's ponytail, I think he'd enjoy it

what is fdb's flouncy little princess ponytail for if not to be yanked on!!! he's asking for it!!!! and yes a-fei should be the one to do it, they'd both get something out of it i think <3

[lordsalemander]

And if I say Imogen wanted to dance with Laudna…

Like sure she said “I want to see them [the people] dancing,” but she could have definitely used that as a cover to get to dance with Laudna

And just imagine a Tangled Kingdom Dance esque type scene with Imogen and Laudna dancing with the people of Zephrah

[blazingstar24]

The Bell’s Hell definitely undersold the threat and gravity of Downfall to the council. Like I understand the idea to be vague, best not to piss off level 20 worshippers. But the threat that Downfall poses to the faithful, to the world, is not the common knowledge of the truce.

The threat is seeing the Primes chose the Betrayers over a devout follower. The threat is seeing how the notions of good vs evil and the Betrayers should be stopped is not one that the Primes will ever hold up completely. The deliberate omission of Cassida’s story is precisely the thing that the Gods didn’t want people to know, the rebellion of the celestials is what they don’t want people to know.

Because even now at the end times, the council itself was against the idea of allying with Betrayer champs. The council was like fuck them! The council members also was like fuck the Ruidusborn and Aeor because they were godless heathens and deserved to die for that.

So when Downfall reveals that the Primes are totally willing to save their Betrayer siblings over mortals? When it reveals that there were still faithful on Aeor? When they directly interacted with one of these faithful and said sorry we care more about preserving the life of our siblings, who we ask you to fight and put your life on the battlefield for, who we know will never change and continue to hurt mortals even with banishment, than you, our faithful followers?

This is the crisis, this is the threat that Downfall poses. Because the mortals are going to have to reckon with the same crisis that the celestials faced. The same realization that Cassida came to. That at the end of the day, no matter how much the Primes can say they protect them, they will always choose their preservation at the expense of mortals, at the expense of their faithful.

Some may choose to still believe, some may not. And that’s good. Exandria has the right to know what they are worshipping. It’s one thing to worship a flawed god knowing they are flawed. It’s another to be told that the being you worship is all good, all knowing and is always looking out for your best interests and will always protect you, and that’s a lie. But the timing of this reckoning is crucial. Like Keyleth said, the breaking of faith now could weaken the gods.

So Ashton is right in their warnings of do not brush this aside. That the council should be worried of what this might do. The council’s dismissal of the threat of Downfall is going to bite them in the ass.

[beedreamscape]

Let me write this before I lose my line of thought, (Again another RANT for the weak of heart)

but I think BH needs to lose something that matters to them, I'm talking true loss --- not like losing Bertrand or Eshteross which they mostly didn't care about, or like losing the skyship which they sacrificed willingly, or 'losing' their newfound friends/lovers to a research mission that should've ended at least a month ago.

I could add Laudna to the above list since everyone knew we'd get her back eventually, but at the very least it gave them drive (which gave us one of the coolest battles in the campaign which was worth nothing in the end, hey Delilah...)

But lose something that makes them ache, that shifts their dynamic into life and gives them purpose --- like losing Dorian! like fumbling the Paragon's Call infiltration and losing that battle in Bassuras with three party members down! like dropping a ship on a wizard's head and meaning very little! like 'losing' each other across a communication-less Exandria when you thought victory was within your grasp! like aaaalmost losing a friend to a million pieces for a decision he made!

There's so much stagnation in Bells Hells that it drives me insane, they're not the same people from the beginning but maybe apart from FCG and a little bit Orym and Imogen, most of them are still committing the same fallacies as they did in the beginning.

[honeyedlashton]

Beg him to dress up every year, and this year we got 2 costumes! Oh we are so back

[isuara-ez]

I have had some problems with the overall direction with Campaign 3, I try not to complain about them too loudly because I am still having a ton of fun. I mean all of these characters are amazing, and you can tell it’s some of the most fun the cast has had. I will keep watching, but I do hope the Campaign doesn’t end with the resolution of the Ruidus arc. Because so far that’s been almost the entire game and the party has only known each other for maybe a couple of months. By the time VM fought the Croma Conclave they’d known eachother for a year, Two when they fought Vecna, The M9 had known each other for 11 months when they went into Aeor. This feels like that scale with characters that feel no where near as close to each other. And I’m not trying to compare the quality of Campaigns at all, I like each one for different reasons. Just a little context on why some people might not love the pacing.

Also as far as the Characters themselves, again I do really like all of them, I like almost all of the dynamics, Just moving forward now that some of the tension between characters has been resolved, I do hope relationships outside of the normal sub groups can be expanded upon, because some of these characters going into the campaign knowing each other for years has felt, restrictive? Like you could’ve told the same exact story better with allowing more on screen development.

[kindahoping4forever]

Ash IG Story

[danwhobrowses]

Okay sure just split the group again I'm sure nothing could go wrong this time dividing them into sub-groups to sting at high levelled and relatively unknown areas with high risk and high threat of boss level enemies in the vicinity and then go on another break to make us stew on that, it's fine IT'S FINE!

[astralleywright]

Do you have any thoughts on Aeor's panopticon/thought collector/surveillance tech, and how the gods first decided to infiltrate the city as mortals because Aeor found a way to hide from their all-seeing watch?

(mainly because I saw a lot of posts about the first thing and nothing on the second thing, but the reasoning behind both feel similar?)

I do! I've been thinking abt that the last few days, as it's a throughline that continues with the Weave Mind's surveillance of Kreviris. in all three instances the reason is the same as it is for any state or powerful body that surveils its subjects; to scan for potential threats to their power. it's a bit cumbersome to discuss, given that the gods were ultimately correct to be suspicious of Aeor, but that does not recursively justify their surveillance; really, it's sort of the exception that proves the rule. there's already an implicit horror to the fact that one has to take extreme measures to not be in the purview of the gods, and that the act of doing so is apparently suspicious enough to warrant most of the pantheon undertaking a 40+ year plan (half of a human's lifetime!) to see what you're up to regardless. in purely logistical terms, any threats Aeor might find within itself and any signs of the Volition the Weave Mind finds would both justify their surveillance, too. the gods just do the same way in a more passive, less obtrusive way.

[edge-oftheworld]

bad omens to wild things pipeline