#the character puts a lot more weight on the limitations that other people would put on him if they knew how precarious his situation was

[daydreamerdrew]

Iron Man (1968) #48

[voidcat]

– [16:52]

characters: togame jo, you

notes: use of nicknames (was gonna be pet names too, but oh well for another fic mayhaps) girl help i was possessed idk where this came from. Anywyas enjoy ;w;

Slight vibrations accompanied by a little mew, you scratch the cheeks of the cat by your side, keeping your other arm extremely still.

The cat seems content but a little too energetic to sleep just yet. “Come on now, just rest.” You try to convince the furry fellow, giving ear scratches with your rhythm decreasing to lull it to sleep.

Not the wisest place to lie with a cat on your chest; streets are one thing but Shishitoren territory is on another level by itself.

Lucky for you, this is one of the streets their members rarely walk upon— that, or they’ve just decided to leave you alone for now, embarrassment still fueling hot in the blood of novices and some wayward punks.

“I just want you to use me as a pillow.” You almost wail at the cat with a pout, the cat not caring in the slightest as to what you want, purring and playing with your fingers.

“Is the offer on the table for others?”

A voice from afar breaks the peaceful space you and the cat had crafted, footsteps beginning to make themselves heard, drawing near with each step.

“Because if the little guy won’t, I’d like to take up on it.” The owner of the voice concludes, stopping several steps away from you.

The cat jumps off of you in an instant, bothered by the sudden raise of noise, disappearing into a narrow alley as all you can do is to sit there and watch them go away.

The lack of warmth quickly takes over your body, and you still remain in the same position, same spot. You don’t need to raise your head to be met with Togame Jo’s smug face, his grin already loud in the words he spoke.

“No can do.” You let the sweetness of your tone to drop, mourning the loss of the cat and your limited amount of solitude in the process.

“Come now.” He singsongs with open arms, still keeping his distance. “Gonna turn away a stray just like that?”

He sounds amused if anything, all the more annoying— “last I checked, you weren’t a cat Togame.” You say his name slower, emphasising on it.

The arms drop and he rests one to his hip, leaning his body weight on one foot as well. The use of his name works as you hoped, even just the slightest tinge of annoyance blooming works just fine.

“Back to the pleasantries, I see.” With the last of his word, he resumes his walk toward you.

“And what could I have…” *clink clank* his sandals echo in the air, “possibly done…” *clank* the sandals come to a stop, a curtain of shade cast over you, you can tell he is standing right next to where you lay, “to have upset my doctor dearest now?”

He speaks the words like honey as he crouches down, arms resting on the surface next to you, brushing against your skin, he tilts his head to the side and with each exhale, you can feel his breath tickling your skin.

The nickname does not help once bit. He always makes it a point to remind you of your embarrassment when you��re least expecting.

So what if you were a little naive back then! Unaware just how often and intense the lot of them would fight… if it’s a crime to be concerned at the sight of a human you saw as acquaintances covered in blood and bruises, getting worried and rushing to his side for first aid— sure you’re guilty as charged, take them in officer! put on the handcuffs and lock them away while you’re at it!

“Let me think…” you hum, bringing a finger to your lips to fake thinking. Your arm aches for being still for so long but you try to hide it away.

“Disturbing the peace of citizens, getting in the way of a potential sick animal’s rescue, asking people to use them as body pillows, initiating physical contact with people unprompted… I think the list goes on, don’t you think?” You turn your head to face him as you finish.

He stands close, too close, if you were to lean forward just an inch, your noses would brush already. And worse of all, he looks more smug than anything, just staring into your eyes, uncaring of the empty look you are careying

“An interesting list of accusations.” Togame speaks up after holding your gaze long enough for both of you to grow bored. “But mostly baseless, should I add.”

You raise an eyebrow in return, bringing both your hands by your chest to clasp them.

“The cat part can be handled any time,” he says as his eyes go up, as if thinking on ways to capture the cat later on, “but someone respectable such as you, doctor dearest, shouldn’t go around, spreading rumors now.” He says as his eyes find yours again.

“And last I checked, the physical contact wasn’t unprompted.” The grin returns to his face, with each word, he goes down a volume.

The grin grows bigger and bigger, the same unnerving one on the opposite sides fear, and the same one he loves to use when he feels like he has the upper hand on you. “You enjoyed it, in fact.”

And with the drop of the ball, he waits for your response, only receiving an eye roll in return, then one hand raising from where it lay to flick him off on the forehead.

The same empty mask is nowhere on your face— too many emotions in fact, all boiling, fighting to retort, say something back, bark or shut him off. But it’s an endless battle like that, only ending with one side speechless. And if anything to come by, you know when to admit defeat.

Like now, as unfortunate as it is.

Togame is the first to break the scenery after some time passes, the sky beginning change its colors. Getting up and stretching his arms, he opens his eyes to steal a glance at the sky.

“Heard it may rain today. Dont want a repeat of last time now, do we?” He says as an invitation. Reaching out his arm to you, bent by the elbow, he watches as you repeat after him, get up, stretch your arms and get off the platform you were sitting.

With a sigh, you link your arm to his and immediately pull him to your side with little force.

“Well then Mr. Stray, lead the way.”

[cy-cyborg]

If you're using Mocap to animate an amputee character, you need an amputee actor!

I know there is a lot of debate about disabled actors playing disabled characters, but with amputees, even in mocap, it does visibly and negatively impact the performance if you don't get an amputee to do that roll - unless you're going to majorly adjust the animations later, but that would require so much additional work that it kind of defeats the point of using mocap at all. Amputation (and limb differences in general), weather a prosthetic is present or not, changes how you move and how fast (stumps and limbs with prosthetics often move faster due to less weight), the poses you can do (abled actors often physically can't always do the same poses because the limb their character lacks is in the way) everything. It will even impact how other parts of the body will be posed (e.g. lots of leg amputees have altered spinal curves, which will effect things in the upper body, because of slight changes to their center of gravity and the pressure applied from prosthetics. The higher up the amputation, the more limbs missing and the longer the character has been without them, the more noticeable this will be)

I'm glad that we're starting to see more amputee representation in games, truely, but you can't just slap motion capture data from a non-disabled people onto a disabled character and expect it to look right, especially when it comes to disabilities like amputation, where a massive chunk of weight is gone or altered. It's exceptionally noticeable.

I've worked in 3D animation and games. I understand crunch, and I understand sometimes it's a technical issue or limitation, especially in older games, but I also know how much work goes into this stuff, how much love and care these folks put into it to get things looking right. Even mocap cleanup is a lot of work, and a lot of skill is still need it to get it looking right in-game. I've seen first-hand the almost obsessive attention to detail some animators have - so why is this the thing that gets consistently overlooked?

A lot of this also applies to live action where a charcater's missing limb or prosthetic is just added in post too...

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! I'm working on a story that is, fundamentally, a revenge story. A young woman loses her beloved older sister in a car accident, and becomes obsessed with hunting down everyone she perceives as responsible for or complicit in her sister's death.

This girl was also in the car when the accident happened, and while she survived, she did lose her leg (below the knee).

My question is, is it okay to have a disabled character seeking revenge for the event that disabled them if the disability isn't the driving force behind that revenge? My protagonist did lose her leg in that accident, but the thing she's bitter and vengeful about is the death of her sister, and she makes that very clear throughout the story. Is that enough to detach her from the trope of "character wants vengeance for becoming disabled," or is it still too close for comfort?

Also, I'm planning to make this girl fat; we need more badass fat characters in the world. Will that affect her experience with having a prosthetic? Especially considering it's a leg, so it'll be bearing her weight. Very few of the medical resources out there account for fat people, unfortunately.

Hey!

Standard disclaimer that we don't have amputee mods, please keep this in mind.

I think that this is a cool alternative to the usual "revenge for making someone disabled" plot line. Her being incredibly emotional because she lost a loved one is a natural reaction, and the desire for revenge is well, natural for the genre. It's just nice to see a disabled character being involved without disability being the main factor. In my view it's realistic too, I feel like most people would care about the death of a beloved sibling more than a new disability (not to imply that they wouldn't at all, of course). Disability is better than death, even if it makes life harder. I believe the concept for the story is fine.

For the second part of the ask, I 100% agree that we need more badass fat characters, especially women. These are some factors that could affect her as an amputee, and they are things that fat amputees deal with more often - but obviously no group is a monolith, so I doubt every single one will apply to her specifically. Skinny amputees can deal with these issues as well. Not an exhaustive list of course.

Prosthetic weight limit. These are different for different models, but they do exist. The most ranges I've seen go up to 136kg, so the process of getting one might be more costly and/or time-consuming if she's above it. The higher the weight the higher the risk of needing custom-made parts. That's expensive.

Actually being able to put it on. If she can't reach the end of her residual limb, she might either need another person's help or get an assistive device to help her both take care of the stump and put her prosthesis on.

Prosthetic fit. This one can already be difficult if the person is skinny, but it's a more time-consuming experience for people with more fat and skin on their residual limb. This is partially due to shrinkage and tissue remodeling, which is a progressive process, and more tissue means that there is more to remodel. She might have to go through a lot of refitting before landing on one that will be appropriate for the long-term. Keep in mind that basically everyone gains weight after becoming an amputee, so this is a process that can go on for a long time just for this reason, not even including the other reasons like the wear and tear.

Sockets. Like most things, they were designed with skinny people in mind, and it kinda shows. A socket gives stability through hugging firm tissue, so the more soft tissue is present in between them, the less stability and control it offers. Mobility aids can help with this - whether that'd be crutches, a rollator/walker, or a cane, depends on her personal preference and needs.

Fatigue levels. Using a prosthetic is really tiring already, but it gets more tiring if you are physically heavier, same for more pain due to the increase in pressure between the skin and the prosthetic. Again, a mobility aid can be helpful - she'd probably own a wheelchair, even if that's not the aid she'd use most often. She could opt to use a wheelchair at home to preserve energy, and walk outside with prosthetic and crutches.

As you can see, a lot of this has to do with increased costs, so you have to take in your character's financial situation in mind. And of course she's not gonna just put on a prosthetic the day after the accident. It's a process that takes a long time, physical therapy, and patience, even if she starts using a preparatory prosthetic early (before getting a permanent one) it still takes time to relearn how to first stand, then walk, then run... It's a process.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[justfandomwritings]

An essay on why I won’t be watching next season.

1. Obviously actors have to promote their shows and hype them up. But the interactions between Nicola and Luke during the press tour were, in retrospect, clearly also acting performances, and it is rare to see acting within the press tour to the degree that those two put on while grossly exaggerating things like how sexy this season would be or how much Polin we would get. I don’t blame them. It’s clearly what they were told to do. And it’s fine to hype a show, but I think a lot of people felt genuinely lied to with the WAY this season was hyped.

2. The casting has been color conscious and inclusive in a way I greatly admire. But they have not been inclusive in other ways. And that’s not to say they should have to be. One show shouldn’t bear the responsibility of being inclusive to everyone and making up for an industries worth of exclusion. But we have exactly one size inclusive character in this whole show, and I’m not even demanding more, but to butcher the season of the only size inclusive person in this show this badly and in these ways sends me a clear message of what the writers thought they could get away with with a curvy actress and how they saw her.

3. The wait times for this season and next season are just too long. The hype dies down too much between seasons such that we care less and less each time we get a new one, especially when you only give eight episodes, regardless of their length. You know who also gave us a season in 2022 and then an eight episode season this year? house of the dragon. And they have to CGI a fuck ton of dragons. Yall were sitting on this season being done filming for over a year and for what? What did you do in post? A bee? And then to have the audacity to do it in two parts? Fuck off.

4. Add to that. The costumes and new sets looked so much cheaper this season than previous seasons. Where did the budget go.

5. The plot is too crowded. Maybe you thought a curvy girl couldn’t carry a season. Maybe it was bad writing. Obviously you needed Cressida and Eloise to have decent amounts of screen time but you also did half of Francesca’s story and set one up for Violet and Benedict that collectively took the majority of the screen time and left us with very little Pen and Colin. Which was a disservice you never gave Anthony or Daphne’s seasons and was why they were good. We got enough crumbs of the others to tell us what was happening but not enough to make them feel like main characters or to make it feel like an ensemble show. There were leads in season 1 and 2. This season it was an ensemble with too many moving parts. But everyone’s said that. It’s not surprising.

6. My biggest problem is the tone. The blame. Admittedly I’m a woman who relates strongly to Penelope so I’m not impartial here. But for a character who spends her entire life being abused by every single person in this show, who is pushed to her absolute breaking point before finally giving her mother and the tonne a taste of their own medicine. For that character to receive no grace, no understanding, no respect, for the vast majority of the season hurt. To not only have zero understanding of her situation but to frame the entire plot of the show around the fact that SHE alone should be sorry. To have minimal to no groveling from Colin over what he said last season, to have no acknowledgment of how he treated her as a safety net, to humanize Cressida who made her life hell with minimal acknowledgment of that fact, to have Eloise get ONE comment from Cressida of all people about her friendship with Penelope but no real reflection from Eloise or acknowledgment on her part or apologies for what a truly SHIT friend she was for DECADES. That hurt. Because the message is that sure, they can push you to your fucking limit, you can break after years of being bullied for your weight and your looks and your status. Your own mother and sisters hands can be filthy with insults and abuse. Your friends can treat you like utter garbage for years. They can befriend your bullies. Your soon to be husband can, very recently, insult you to his friends behind your back. But you owe them the apology for breaking after years of abuse. It’s not that the tonne couldn’t be angry or that they all should’ve fallen at Pen’s feet. It’s that those arguments never happen at all because once again, just like when she was being used and abused by everyone, everything was put on Penelope. And the cycle continues.

7. Colin should’ve groveled more. I know I said that in the previous point but it really ruined things for me so I want to emphasize it. I wanted that man on his knees the whole season, and I should’ve known I wasn’t gonna get that when y’all dropped the list of songs and there wasn’t any of the A List Yearners on the list. But I’m still mad.

8. Actually that’s a good point. Did anyone else think the songs didn’t go as hard this year? Except Pitbull were we excited about any of them?

9. You did the Pride and Prejudice ballroom trick with the dancing alone thing and you didn’t nail it. If you’re gonna do that trick it has to fucking HIT. (And it has to be enemies to lovers.) And you did it half assed. You should be ashamed.

10. There was a two second window there when Cressida asked the maid for help where I thought they were gonna swap lives and the maid would go with her aunt and Cressida would become a maid and I was like “holy fuck is Cressida gonna become Bennys love interest?” and that would’ve been better than what y’all did I think. And it would’ve justified her excessive screen time.

11. I love gender swapping Michaela and making Francesca bi. We love it. But why was Francesca immediately interested. Once again the writers don’t understand pining. Michaela is PINING for Francesca and can do nothing but love her from afar. Francesca loved John completely and whole heartedly. Michaela was a beautiful love story for her but was also a second chance. She loved John completely. She would never have an emotional affair on him. How did you immediately ruin such a beautiful second chance romance?

12. Where was Pen’s friendship with Anthony or Lady Danbury? Why wasn’t Colin proud of Pen the way he was in the book? To make her even more alone? To emphasize that she was alone and at fault and helpless? Fuck off.

I just don’t have it in me to watch this show deteriorate further.

[david-talks-sw]

What "The Hidden Fortress" (1958) tells us about the Jedi's status in the Prequels.

In 1999, George Lucas had this to say on BBC Omnibus: A Long Time Ago: The Story of "Star Wars" and then The Phantom Menace's director's commentary.

“I greatly admired Kurosawa, especially the film Hidden Fortress, which told a story from the point of view of two serfs, two slaves...

... peasants who tag along with this famous general and a princess-- y'know, royalty. And the whole story is told from their point of view. And I like that idea. I like the idea of telling a story from the lowest person's point of view, uh, in the food chain, and that's how the story got to be told by Artoo and Threepio.”

“[The Phantom Menace] is told primarily from the Jedi's point of view, but the story that's being told is essentially the story of Queen Amidala and her plight of having her planet blockaded. As in, say, Episode IV, where the story is told through the eyes of the droids, in this one, it's told through the eyes of the Jedi.”

“But [from the moment we get to Coruscant, Anakin and Jar Jar] are standing on the sidelines. It's a little bit a riff on the very first film where the story is told through the point of view of the droids, who were sort of the lowliest characters.”

“And in [Phantom Menace], I'm doing it through - primarily - the two Jedi, but then the secondary characters are also carrying a lot of the weight when the Jedi aren't around.”

George Lucas draws a comparison between lowly characters like Hidden Fortress' peasants Matashichi and Tahei, the droids in A New Hope, as well as the Jedi in The Phantom Menace.

What do they all have in common? They are all the lowest-ranking characters in their respective films. Repeat: the movie frames the Jedi as almost at the bottom of the food chain.

Because of course they are. Functionally, they're just diplomats. They hold no political power whatsoever and barely have any authority .

What little authority the Jedi do have in TPM comes from the Queen's young age, which allows them to ease into a more advisory position, and Qui-Gon's rebellious streak. And even he's explicit about the fact that his mandate has limitations.

The only characters "below" them in status are Jar Jar, an exiled Gungan, and Anakin, who just yesterday was still a slave kid, Artoo the literal object and that's it!

Also the other Prequel films are consistent with this portrayal. Who do we see lower in status than the Jedi? Dexxter Jettster and the clones. Everyone else is pretty much above them.

Yes, the Jedi are part of the system, but they're not as high-ranking as you'd think. Yes, they have Force Powers, but that means squat when put against political power. So, like, to expect the Jedi to...

influence the decisions of the Senate,

wage a war against the Outer Rim to end slavery,

or blatantly refuse an order to join the war effort,

... is incredibly unreasonable.

They're not meant to be seen as "the elite, peering down upon the people from their ivory tower".

They're the servants! Servants of the Republic.

And they're seeing their higher-ups destroy what they should all stand for, but are unable to stop them.

Later on, with The Clone Wars, we are introduced to civilian characters and from their point of view, the Jedi are ultra powerful and are highly placed and "should do more but don't".

It makes sense that these characters would see the Jedi as 'the elite'. But they don't have the full picture.

We, as the audience, do.

So we know that the reality is more along the lines of the Jedi "should do more but can't".

After all, we are made privy many instances of the Jedi speaking up and trying to change politicians' minds, only to be dismissed and overruled at every turn.

↑ these aren't even all the times we see it happen, btw, there's more examples...

So at some point, if you - as an audience member - see all this and are still saying "the Jedi should've done more!" I really need to know... what more could they have done?

Take control of the Senate?

That'll result in a dictatorship, there's a reason they waited as much as they did before trying to take down Palpatine.

Power corrupts and they're wise enough to know it.

Don't join the Republic in the first place?

George Lucas never frames the Jedi's involvement with the Republic as a bad thing. In the foreword to Shatterpoint (2004), he says their being part of the Republic led to 1,000 years of prosperity.

Where's the issue, then? Well, it's a two-man job and the Jedi's bosses, the Senate, grew corrupt and stopped doing their part. They stopped carrying their end of the couch.

But “no Jedi in the Republic from the get-go” means the Sith will rise to power even faster. Fun!

Stay neutral in the war?

The Separatists were killing civilians and testing weapons on neutral systems, or enslaving them.

The choice put before the Jedi was "do what we tell you and fight, or let people die".

But also, out-of-universe... do you really think Palpatine, genius politician, master of spin, can't re-frame the Jedi staying neutral in a negative light?

When they joined the war, he unleashed propaganda that either directly (on the Separatist side) or indirectly (on the Republic side) framed them as "warmongers who corrupted their values". If they don't join, they're "apathetic cowards who care more about their own values than the lives of the people they're supposed to protect".

So either way, Order 66 comes around, wipes them out and the Republic goes "good riddance".

So what else could they do?

The answer is "not much".

Because the whole point of the narrative is that Palpatine checkmated them by taking the fight to a field the Jedi had no experience in or right to meddle with: politics.

So if you look at these characters who are nowhere near the top of the food chain, and say "well, why didn't they fix things?" I'm sorry to say you're missing the point of the narrative.

Or maybe you do get the point of the narrative and just aren't trying to be fair...

... in which case, at least be consistent and also argue:

"Why didn't Threepio & Artoo do more to save the Rebel crew of the Tantive IV from the stormtrooopers?!"

"Why didn't Matashichi & Tahei do more to save the Akizuki clan?!"

[notomys-mordax-blog]

Part 2: Neve Gallus and the Shadow Dragons

Overall: 7/10

Important things first. I absolutely love Neve's design. Her casual outfit with the IDGAF unbuttoned shirt is 10/10. She's both very fashion-forward and feminine, but doesn't look soft. It's neat. The only real critique I have here is that I don't like how most of her face is hidden by her hat. While this felt like an intentional choice, I think it detracted more than it added to her vibes. 

Speaking of vibes, Neve's vibes are impeccable. She's a classic hardboiled detective solving mysteries and putting anything resembling a feeling in a box where it can't hurt her. They really leaned into the film-noir vibes with her voice direction with mixed results. Sometimes it's really effective, but other times it's stilted, especially next to characters who haven't been pulled out of a crime procedural. Overall, I really enjoyed her bit, but I can understand where critique about her voice direction comes from.

Despite her serious allergy to admitting her emotions, you can see how deeply she cares about the people around her by her actions. This worked really well in her interactions with the companions, but was a little bit more uneven when it came to Rook. I really liked seeing the social activities around the Lighthouse, but it was disappointing that Rook wasn't really directly involved in any of them. As a result they felt like an outsider (or like the Boss that people don't want to get too close to).

You could also see this with Neve herself. She liked to give the other characters small, practical advice and support for their problems, but didn't really seem to give Rook (who frankly, has more serious problems than a lot of his companions) the same treatment. I think this is really an area where the writing would have benefited from the addition of some barks and greetings to help link the "relationship-level-up" scenes and make it feel more like the characters are slowly getting to know each other, versus have an uneven sort of ladder where the relationship moves in jumps and starts.

This unfortunately also extends to her romance. I am the kind of person who really enjoys NPC romances. It not only makes me feel like the characters have more agency, but it is often a two-cakes scenario when it comes to interesting ships. The gender inversion of the detective x femme fatale of the pairing between Neve and Lucanis is really interesting, and they both use acts of service as their love language. Unfortunately, while the two of them have a lot of chemistry with each other, their chemistry with the player character is pretty flat. Lucanis's romance suffers more, in my opinion, because the content is so much sparser, but I also felt it with Neve.  My poor head canons need to do a lot of heavy lifting to make the Veilguard relationships work. 

Neve's role in the story is twofold. She helps provide a number of useful connections in Northern Thedas (Harding also plays this role). Additionally, she's our guide to Minrathous. For a Rook who does not have a Shadow Dragons origin, she's responsible for convincing the player that the city is worthy of saving. Personally I feel like the narrative emphasized how hopeless the whole situation in Dock Town a bit too much. I would have liked the narrative to give approximately 15% more weight to scenes like Hal and his fish-stand to show that Dock Town had good people and was worth trying to salvage.

Admittedly, I'm also pretty disappointed that we finally get to see THE BIGGEST AND MOST MAGICAL CITY IN THEDAS, but are limited to just exploring Dock Town which feels like a pretty generic fantasy dock town. I feel like this was a big missed opportunity. Frankly I would have preferred if Veilguard was set entirely in one city and we had the chance to really explore that one location. 

Neve is one of two characters who can become hardened. This is done not through her personal quest, but through an early-game decision to choose which of two cities to protect from a blighted dragon attack. Thematically I like how the game is moving away from good versus evil choices. One of the major themes the story was trying to tell was that there are sometimes no "good" choices. There are some interesting parallels between Solas and Rook and the themes of regret. What I found awkward here was that there really wasn't justification for why Rook played such a key role in the defence of the city (and subsequently why people outside of Neve/Lucanis blamed Rook for what happened). I also think that the narrative could have done a smoother job explaining that with Minrathous, the problem was not in the defence of the city, so much as it was the political implications. I think this choice would have felt more interesting if they worded it more explicitly to be a choice between protecting the civilians in a city from the immediate brutality of the dragon attack (Treviso) versus protecting the civilians in a city from the long-term brutality of an oppressive political regime (Minrathous). 

As a slight aside, I did feel like it was kind of goofy that Neve, who is a well-known public figure, could just waltz into a venatori gathering. 

Her personal quest is a paint by numbers affair. You help her with a case that spirals into a confrontation with her nemesis, a venatori mage. She needs to be guided through choosing to leverage the help of a shady organization, or crack the case through legitimate channels. It folded in nicely with the main story, but did illustrate the problems with the venatori as one of the main groups of villains.

Part of me almost wishes that the outcome of Neve's personal quest would depend on whether or not she was hardened, versus something that you explicitly chose. I feel like hardening Neve had much fewer implications on the story than hardening Lucanis, and I would have liked to see some story changes. 

The Shadow Dragons

I really liked the idea of the Shadow Dragons. I think they were probably my favorite of the factions. It was really brutal to see what happened to them if you chose to save Treviso over Minrathous. I also feel like their existence could have gone a long way in explaining why the culture of Tevinter was so different from what we might've expected given how it was depicted in the games based in Southern Thedas. Throw in a few lines about how attitudes of slavery in Tevinter have been shifting over the last 10 years due to changes in policy from Dorian and Mae, underground movements like the Shadow dragons and maybe, for bonus points, a certain elf who has been cutting his way through slavers. 

Not including Fenris in the Shadow Dragons really does feel like a missed opportunity. Quantum characters are one of the general design problems with the Dragon Age games. Getting to see cameos of characters from previous entries into the series is a lot of fun, and something that the series wants to do. Unfortunately, because of the complexities that would arise from the different configurations in people's worlds, these cameos either have to be super shallow so an NPC can be easily slotted in -- or people's previous canon need to be handwaved a-la Leliana-lyrium-ghost. Personally, I'd prefer half-assed explanations about why a character who should have been dead (or otherwise incapacitated) is back in action, but that's not really a good solution either. Frankly I think returning characters end up creating a sort of damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation. 

Back to the Shadow Dragons. I liked them! I think my only quibble is that the Viper being the Black Divine was a weird narrative choice. I'm not complete with my save-mintrathous playthrough, so this might end up coming up more in the future, but thus-far, this revelation has been treated like a fun Easter egg. I also thought it was kind of funny (derogatory) that the ventatori who captured him didn't think to unmask the mysterious masked leader of the rebellion. I think the reason they didn't was because the narrative didn't want to deal with the fallout ... which is kinda lame. 

Another intrusive thought I had whenever I saw him was that there is a whole masked empire in the south, and whether or not people thought that the Viper was from Orlais. This is a dumb thought, but it is one that I couldn't help but think.

How I would fix it: 

Neve's storylines are folded into the main story much closer than Harding's. This means that resolving them would require addressing some of the deeper flaws in Veilguard's narrative. Despite my desire to write multi-thousand word essays analyzing the flaws of the game, I did ultimately enjoy playing it and would describe the experience as being a mostly fun romp with likeable characters and an interesting story that sometimes flubs the execution. I ran across a post describing DAV as one of the most polished unfinished games they've ever played, and this really resonated with me. 

The Venatori (and Antaam) were one-note villains with the same pedigree as Corypheus. Note how I didn't name a specific Venatori. Aelia, who was the main antagonist of Neve's route, didn't really have much going on besides "evil venatori blood mage". While I don't think we need to make the pro-slavery nationalists sympathetic, I do feel like they would be more effective villains if it was more clear what their goals would actually look like for the people on the ground. As an aside, my eye twitched a little bit every time the phrase artifact or ritual was used. This felt like a huge opportunity to add a little bit of flavor into the stew. I don't think we need major lore reveals, but what seems more interesting: "We've got to stop the Venatori from using an artifact to complete a ritual" or "We've got to stop the Venatori from using the Chalice of Lost Souls from making legwarmers soul weave"? 

Not specifying what the ritual or artifact was really made it clear that these things were just MacGuffins, and doesn't give the player any idea about why the Venatori are evil. While I think the scenes in Arlathan were they tortured animals while sitting on human chairs, it at least gave some specificity to their evil. 

The Tevinter presented in Veilguard doesn't really reflect how the Empire was presented in the previous games.  If the narrative choice to downplay racism and slavery was done because the creative team no longer felt interested in those themes or equipped to write them a statement should have been made to this effect. Regardless, the in-game cultural shift would be much less jarring for a returning player if some in-universe explanation had been provided. In the previous section I discussed a few different factors that may have shifted the attitude of the general population in Tevinter. This would help show the player that the Tevinter they've heard about isn't really representative of what the "average" Tevinter citizen is like. I think this could be accomplished really smoothly with a banter between Neve and Harding. Harding is surprised to see that the elves are treated more poorly in the South than in Tevinter. She can talk about the horrific blood orgies she's heard about. Neve can bring up that the average Tevinter citizen is horrified that the Danariuses of their country are how other nations perceive them. Additionally, this would help give the player a better idea of what the stakes for allowing the Ventori to get a foothold in Minrathous would be. It's the cultural traditionalists of Tevinter who want to go back to blood orgies. 

My making the Venatori more compelling villains, I think you'd end up fixing 70% of the problems with Neve's story. 

In terms of the other 30%  percent, this is really where you feel the pain of removing the small ways the player can interact with the companions. Even though walking up to the companion and overhearing "hey Rook" is narratively identical to needing to press x to initiate the same "hey rook" conversation, it feels different from a gameplay perspective. Adding this back in would help make it feel like Rook was actually talking to his companions. I would also have really liked to involve Rook into the slice-of-life activities at the Lighthouse! Let the player decide if Rook would be interested in joining a book club, or explore what kind of cook Rook would be. I think this would help the feeling that Rook is a weird boss who listens in on people's conversations. 

In Conclusion: 

I like Neve a lot and think that the idea of a detective procedural set in Thedas has a lot of potential. I really liked her interactions with the other characters (especially Bellara!) and enjoyed watching her slowly warm up to the party. It's just a bit of a shame that I didn't get the same sense of slowly building friendship from the player-character. 

As an aside, Tevinter Nights definitely enhances the experience of playing Veilguard. In addition to providing introductions for most of the companions, it also introduces a lot of important NPCS, this is where you see Neve first confront Aelia.  

As another aside, I'm tired of games with end-of-the-world stakes. DA2 is probably my favorite entry into the series, and it has a much smaller scale than the other games. I really would have enjoyed a game consisting of helping Neve unravel mysteries in Minrathous and think that narratively, that sort of story is much easier to tell in a satisfying way.

So those are my thoughts on Neve. I would drink whisky with her while we speculated on who the Viper actually was, but first we need to do something about those Venatori (explain what the heck the cult actually wants).

[sarahreesbrennan]

Hello! If IOL were to get adapted into a TV show (or film I suppose), what are some things you'd be excited for, or things you'd want revealed that we don't get from Elliot's POV?

(also fun fact: my name is Elliot too! It may or may not have been very helpful in getting me to read the book three years ago)

Hi Elliot! A fine name. :)

The silver screen by its nature allows us into more points of view - it’s why my TV tie-ins always had more and briefer PoVs than I usually write, to give the same effect as a moving camera. And In Other Lands is a very limited third by design, since we really have to feel Elliot’s feelings to be in it with him. So immediately a visual, more-on-the-surface medium would open the story up to more reveals - there’s a lot to be done with Serene and Luke, and (for my money) with Captain Woodsinger, Golden, Adara and Myra.

The question also arises what the director’s or showrunner’s vision is, because the showrunner would not be me. There are so many different ways to tell a tale.

If they’re going gritty child soldiers, there’s more to be done with the wars between the different peoples, with dryads and dwarves, and with Delia Winterchild and her lost twin. If they’re going, say, romcom like a fantasy Heartstopper, we’re probably putting Wings In the Morning and In Other Lands in a blender and starting with the characters 15 and up. If they’re doing children’s adventure a la (gayer, weirder) Percy Jackson, we might meet the key three waking up in their respective settings on the day they head off to the Border camp - Serene exiting in a rebellious huff after blazing row with her mother, Luke worried under the weight of loving expectation, Elliot totally clueless and friendless in another world - are these children going to meet? What will hap— Holy SHIT the redhead is being rude! But we’d get it, because we saw where he came from.

The mood of a story is often dictated by what information you parcel out when.

And TV throws curveballs. (Movies less often.) What if the Elliot and Adara actors had lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry? What if Luke and Dale did? I hardly dare imagine. But then again, if it was a She-Ra-style animated series, that would be far less likely. So it’s hard to say what I’d be excited for, as I wouldn’t know what to expect!

I’d be really excited if they did any kind of series, because that’s such a show of faith in my work. And it would mean more job security, and new covers, and more chances for me to get more readers and perhaps most important of all to write more in the In Other Lands world… which (more on this later) I would love to do.

A show is always a wild shot - I’d always try to think of the books as my first concern, as they might do something totally bonkers with an adaptation. (Me, if Luke and Serene fell in romantic love while Elliot died a cowardly weasel’s death: What Show? I Cannot Perceive the Moving Pictures, I Just Do Not Know.) Buuuut, if it ever did happen, I would love to see more of the interdynamics at the Border camp, stuff that flew totally over Elliot’s head. I’d love to have Golden introduced earlier. I’d love to have the harpies in sooner, but as a sinister presence until the big reveal. And of course, channeling my inner Elliot, I’d love to see the mermaids. Throw the whole budget at mermaids!

Thanks for asking, and dreaming with me. 💜

[ethereal-angel111]

Things I’m doing in 2025 for the biggest glow up in history

Step 1: Screen time limits and no more doomscrolling. I’m going to be putting limits on certain apps the only social media apps that won’t have limits is Pinterest and YouTube

Step 2: Mindful eating! My goal is to lose weight but why go on a stressful diet when you can just manifest it lolz. But I do feel the need to be slightly healthier than what I am at the moment. Also gonna work on manifesting that everything I eat is healthy even if others see it as “unhealthy” cuz I’ve seen that manifestation work for a lot of other people :)

Step 3: Get some sort of exercise daily. Doesn’t matter what it is or when I do it it just needs to happen at least once per day

Step 4: Live in the end and be delusional. My goal is to live like I already have everything I desire and to stop caring about the 3D and other peoples input.

Step 5: manifest, affirm and persist as much as possible. Pretty self explanatory lol

Step 6: achieve desired style and aesthetic. I’ve been pretty unhappy with my current aesthetic so I wanna work on that

Step 7: have so many hobbies and be good at all of them. Right now I don’t have many hobbies and I never work on them ever but I wanna change that in 2025! The main hobbies I wanna work on is art, dancing, singing/rapping, fashion, makeup, editing, journaling, and content creation

Step 8: Grow on social media! I want to be popular online and have my desired fans/fanbase!

Step 9: Make and listen to lots of subliminals. My goal is to have a subliminal go up on my channel at least twice a week! I also want to listen to my sub playlist at least once a day

Step 10: Develop an unbreakable mindset. I want my mindset to be perfect and 100% unstoppable! I’m actually working on this one right now so I can be prepared for the new year

Step 11: Become my OC irl!!! This is one of my main manifestations but in the new year I wanna work on this one on a new level. I made my OC to be my dream self before I even found out about manifestation. I thought there was no way I could be like her so I would just daydream about her constantly but now that I know about manifestation I know becoming her irl is possible

Step 12: Treating myself like a god/deity. I already do this one a lot and I talk about it a lot because I swear by it!! I wanna take it to the next level in the new year tho because I deserve it <3

Step 13: Always feel motivated/inspired. Pretty self explanatory tbh but I feel like I need to bring my motivation and inspiration back from the dead

Step 14: stop doing the things I want to stop doing. Bad habits and anything I want to stop is gonna be out after new years. Skin picking is the biggest thing I want to stop but I have multiple things on the list of things I wanna stop doing

Step 15: connect with Mother Earth more. I love her and I want to spend more time with her ���💚 I feel that spending time in nature and with Mother Earth is important and I don’t do it enough

Step 16: stop being afraid or embarrassed to do things. I’m gonna do whatever I want when I want fuck embarrassment it’s literally a societal construct. I’m not gonna limit myself or my life to make it more palatable to others

Step 17: post lots. I wanna learn to post a lot online while also not spending all my time doomscrolling on social media. Also I wanna make up for all the negativity and over sharing I posted on social media in the past by posting fun, creative and nice posts

Step 18: MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY!! I’m the main character and I’m gonna act like it. The whole world is gonna see me as the main character of life! >:3

Step 19: live like your dream self. Before I do literally anything I’m going to think “would my dream self do this?” Or “what would my dream self do right now.” This mindset will help me become my dream self so quickly I can feel it!

Step 20: become a global well loved it girl. Not much to say about this one lol

Step 21: take lots of pics and vids for memories. I used to take so many pictures and videos all the time to look back on and now I never do which is kind of sad

Step 22: prove everyone wrong. I wanna show everyone that they should have never doubted me or given up on me. I want everyone who ever treated me wrong to realize how much they fumbled

Step 23: spoiling myself and letting others spoil me. I deserve princess treatment from everyone including myself :)

Step 24: no more procrastination, if it needs to be done then do it ASAP. I’m sick of never getting anything done and stressing about shit I don’t need to be stressing about

Step 25: move out. I need my own place desperately y’all don’t even know LOL

Step 26: get the income of my dreams. I’m sick of having no money y’all

Step 27: get dream job/jobs. I wanna be a full time artist, idol, and content creator. I wanna start my own business and stuff! ૮꒰ྀི >⸝⸝⸝<꒱ྀིა

Step 28: achieve my dream sleep schedule. I wanna wake up at 9:30am and be asleep by 12:00am every night. I’ve already been working on this one a ton and I’m doing really well!

Step 29: manifest/work on achieving my dream appearance and personality. This is one of the biggest things I wanna manifest and work on in 2025!

Step 30: meditate and journal daily. I used to do this all the time and it had so many benefits so I definitely wanna start getting back into it

Step 31: look into dreams and their meanings. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about gaining a lot of insight on their life through learning about their dreams and what they mean so I want to give it a try

Step 32: be grateful for everything and show gratitude for the present instead of constantly complaining about it. I’ve heard people talk about how this mindset helped them manifest faster and I personally feel that this is a beneficial mindset to have even if you aren’t manifesting

Step 33: show my kindness, love and empathy to at least one thing a day (preferably more). It can be a living thing or a non living thing it doesn’t really matter

Step 34: become more knowledgeable on my species! I am part human but I’m also part a couple other things (I don’t feel comfortable saying them here tho). I wanna learn and connect with my species more :3

Omg this post is so long I’m sorry (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ) thank you for reading and I hope some of these steps help to inspire some of you as well! Let’s all become the best version of ourselves and live our dream lives in 2025!

[bladeweavedance]

I decided to do one of those ship template meme thingies. There is no official height for either of these characters that I have seen, but they appear to be about the same size, so I kind of gave 'em an average-ish height. Wyll's age is his official age. Gale does not have any official age - he looks to be in his early-mid 40s, but I can't discount the idea that the orb might have prematurely aged him a bit, so I put him in his late-30s.

I figure Wyll and Gale take turns being the big/little spoon hence why I kinda halfsies it for both of them.

For the lends clothes / borrows clothes thing… Well, first of all, I headcanon Gale as being stockier than Wyll weight-wise - so it's likely Gale would not fit in any of Wyll's clothes (which seem rather tight on him anyway). Additionally, I just have this thought in my head that Wyll is sort of used to not being near a water source for washing his clothes for days at a time - so, he might sort of have this habit where he ends up running out of clean clothes and where normally he'd just wear the same thing over again (sort of a young bachelor-type of mindset almost), he just decides to borrow Gale's clothes instead. When they get married, Gale tries to gently break him of this habit. Though, he does like seeing Wyll wearing his clothes. It does things to him. LOL

I feel like neither Wyll nor Gale are the type to really excessively use pet names, but they might use a few simple ones with the occasional unique one sprinkled in. Wyll uses darling, dearest, my love - and maybe "my sweet wizard" and "my king" - playing into the sort of fairytale romance thing with that. Gale is put-off on using darling himself because he's heard Astarion use it too much, but he also uses dearest, my love, my hero, my Blade, and he uses "my king" back to Wyll as well.

Wyll is very charming and he seems really sociable when he's in a good mood (he mentioned dancing a bunch of sarabandes with the ladies and gentlemen of the Gate, and he's really a Man of the People sort, I think - he likes interacting with people and inspiring them) - so I put him all the way on the extroverted side. Gale is a bit harder to judge - on the one hand, he enjoys a lot of solitary activities (reading, he stands off to the side at parties, etc.), but he also exhibits a lot of very social traits as well - seeming to enjoy conversation and hanging out in bars. So, I headcanon him as being the sort that's kind of in the middle in terms of extroverted and introverted.

Wyll and Gale are not only both service-oriented people, but they're also rather eloquent and enjoy romantic phrases and poetry and building up people around them (especially their partner). So, I see both of them as being in-between when it comes to Affection through Words and Affection through Actions.

I wasn't really sure what to put in regards to Confesses First and Waits for Confession. On the one hand, they both tend to play the slow-burn in terms of romance, but on the other hand, they're both also rather eager and bold people… Sooo… I kinda just put them both on the same level. They seem like they'd both confess their feelings first at various points in their relationship (Gale might be the first to say "I love you" but Wyll ends up being the first to propose or what have you).

The bugs question… ROFL While I don't see Gale as really being the scream-y sort about anything really (he's pretty level-headed in the face of danger), he does seem to harbor some wariness towards bugs, particularly spiders (Not just the "Stop licking the damn thing!" but he has some words about phase spiders and Kar'niss). Wyll meanwhile is absolutely fearless and will definitely squash bugs or anything else that might set Gale on edge without question.

More to come for the rest of this! Darn character limit…

[artoriarts]

there’s a lot of talk about missed potential in jjk, and I agree, while culling games onward was a good ol fight shonen, shibuya incident was something special, dark and painful but built on a core foundation of hope and positivity that drives yuji as a character, but it kinda peaked there, never hitting the same emotional depth after, with the exception of maki and the zenin assassination arc.

But from the many things I’ve seen brought up, one of the things I haven’t seen is just the core premise of cursed energy not being used like it could be from the getgo. Instead of just being Ki, it was something developed *through* the negative emotions that pool and spawn curses. This is just gonna be me spitballing but listen listen.

Yuta’s the best way to segue into this. A sensitive kid loses his best friend and spirals into grief, unknowingly channeling his cursed technique (instead of just being able to copy, him being able to replicate/leech soul ‘data’ in general) as he hangs on to every memory and memento of her, acting as almost ritual and binding her soul to his, resulting in the vengeful spirit we know of rika, his raw cursed energy output resulting from the feedback loop of negativity that comes from the mass guilt of the horrors rika enacts in his defense, as well as the guilt of trapping her with him in the first place when he learns it’s his fault. His power is the direct result of the weight he carries with him.

And in the same way, other characters bear their trauma in their power. Maki’s frustration and spite at the circumstances of her birth placing her under every disadvantage with the system as it is. Sukuna’s raw hatred and disdain for his fellow man. Gojo’s isolation from his own humanity as The Strongest, growing up both closer to everyone than anyone could ever know, as the six eyes’ ability to see the flow of cursed energy allows him to practically read people’s minds emotionally, and yet expectations and power have placed him on a pedestal so far away from humanity, pressured and forced into sorcery, not a single other interest permitted, from the moment of his birth. Yuji, being a newcomer, predominantly working off fear and the still fresh grief of his grandpa, along with the pressure he now feels as someone capable of sorcery to protect those who are not, one bornout of love but no less harsh, and after shibuya, like yuta, he gains a burning core of guilt for what his life has allowed to happen. Stretching more now but instead of becoming racist and getting skilljacked, geto breaking at the end of hidden inventory is where his character launches off from, instead of how it dooms itself to end; I would need to put more thought into it to make it make concrete sense but his want to rid the world of nonsorcerers and “evolve humanity” is not out of hatred for the weak but his love for humanity as a whole, he wants a humanity that can defend itself against the natural consequence of its existence that is cursed energy, and sorcerers are basically the only ones who can do that, so non-sorcerers are simply liabilities and sources of cursed energy that don’t pull their own weight, and kenjaku is maybe more like a symbiote to him, his patron that just so happens to have the same practical goals as him, albeit a different motive of pure scientific curiosity (assuming they still want the tengen merger or if they’re still in the story at all, they don’t fit into this brainbaby idea quite as well as everything else, but I digress).

And this isn’t just a story thing, it also affects the battle system too. Desperation while losing a fight actively makes you more powerful - also means consequently that like people who keep their cool like gojo (ignoring the minor insanity (and him seeing his ex-boyfriend)) have an inherent power limiter; he may be the strongest but he doesn’t get the same power buffs that everyone else can. Maybe positive energy actually like exists aside from mahoraga and rct. it’s harder to use because well people latch onto negative emotion easier than positive emotion and if you’re fighting obviously things are not sunshine and rainbows, but it is more effective against pure curses and can heal (also then if you can only rct off positive emotion, that power swing from negativity kinda shifts you into a glass canon with more damage but less ability to heal).

Do I turn this into fanfic. Do I do that thing where you make fanfic but break it so far from anything canon it’s basically just original content. or do I just keep it all locked in my head because I’m lazy. Decisions decisions.

[icedragonlizard]

Shadow Kirby headcanons

I did a Skirby hc post before, but it was before I did a bunch of changing to my verse. His characterization is now very different from what I had before. I deleted that old post, so this is the post to see how I now interpret this character.

Shadow Kirby, much like his titular pink counterpart, is the hero of his homeland. He obtained the status as the hero of the mirror world some time after the events of Amazing Mirror.

Here's how he got to that point: Shortly after AM, when Skirby and Kirby became friends, Skirby then came to Kirby to ask for help on how to use copy abilities. Kirby, of course, was more than glad to help, and after enough exercise and training with copy abilities, Skirby stepped up and became willing to protect the mirror world.

Dark Mind managed to survive its fight against Kirby, and continued to be a threat to the mirror world for about another year after Amazing Mirror. But after Skirby mastered the use of copy abilities, he then eliminated Dark Mind for good. That establishes his status as the mirror world's hero, and it puts some weight off of Kirby's shoulders because his counterpart protects the mirror world without him needing to constantly come back to do it.

More down below by clicking the 'Keep reading' tag.

Skirby is the hero of his homeland just like Kirby is the homeland of his, but there are plenty of personality differences.

Kirby eats a lot, isn't very talkative, and generally prefers not to spar outside of doing it with one person. He spars with Meta Knight, albeit only because Meta stubbornly keeps challenging him to sword duels, but Kirby generally only gets combative when it's necessary, such as during adventures, breaking up fights between his friends and stopping his morally bankrupt friends from causing minor trouble after they became his friends. Other than that, he's chill and would rather nap instead of fighting when he doesn't need to.

Skirby is different in all of those aspects. His appetite isn't nearly as big as Kirby's, and he's a lot more talkative. He also loves to do things like sparring. He'd gladly engage in a sparring match with anyone that wants to clash swords (or any other weapon) with him.

His best friend is Dark Meta Knight. They became friends after Dark Mind was killed off for real post-AM, as that's when DMK was finally set free from Dark Mind's influence. And sparring is one of the main friendship activities that happen between Skirby and DMK.

There's another big personality difference between Skirby and Kirby: Their niceness and forgiveness. Kirby is well known for being so incredibly nice and sweet, and always forgives every villain that stops being hostile to him. He also never dislikes or hates anyone.

Skirby, however, is not quite the same in that regard. Unlike Kirby, Skirby is actually willing to dislike/hate people. He's not quite as forgiving as Kirby, and he's less nice.

He's still a nice guy overall, but definitely less so than Kirby. And he can get pissed off easier than Kirby can. That's not necessarily even to say he's a temperamental person, but he definitely has his limits a lot more than Kirby does. And he's capable of being a hater if pushed to that limit.

There are notable figures that Skirby has dislike for, and I'll go over them:

He absolutely hates Dark Mind. There is nobody that Skirby hates more than Dark Mind. He immediately respected Kirby for fighting Dark Mind, and when that monster somehow survived and still went on for a bit more, Skirby decided to eliminate it himself. He's glad that being is no more.

Shadow Dedede and Dark Taranza are other people that Skirby has negative opinions of. Like DMK, they were also minions of Dark Mind that were then set free from its influence after Skirby killed it. But unlike DMK, those two had no interest in becoming friends with Skirby and were even mean to him. They simply stormed off and did their own thing, and this made Skirby decidedly not like them. He thinks they're ungrateful because of how they acted after he killed Dark Mind. At least DMK became his friend in the end, though.

Skirby also has not-so-great opinions on a few of the dream friends. But before we get into them right away, let me talk about Skirby's deal with the dream friends in a general sense.

He hadn't actually met most of the dream friends until after Star Allies. The reason why he didn't join the team during Star Allies is because the mirror world was effected by the Jamba Heart threat, and Skirby wanted to protect the mirror world from it. That's also what led to DMK joining the star allies team; Skirby and DMK made a deal where the former stayed and protected the mirror world while the latter went out to join Kirby and the others.

When Skirby met all the other dream friends after Void Termina's defeat, he has varying opinions of them. His favorite dream friend is... DMK, of course, because they're besties and have been for years before Star Allies. And then after DMK, Skirby's next favorite dream friends are the others of Wave 2: Daroach, Adeleine and Ribbon, as he's grateful to them for being DMK's friends. Skirby himself also became friends with them because of it.

Wave 2 + Shadow Kirby friend group baby let's goooo!

And now we talk about the dream friends that Skirby isn't so fond of. His two least favorite dream friends are Marx and Zan Partizanne.

Skirby really doesn't like either of those two. He has distaste for them both, and generally avoids them as much as he can.

He thinks Marx is insufferable. The jester can get on his nerves with pranks, and he also tells edgy jokes that piss Skirby off. Not just that, but Skirby also doesn't appreciate how Marx just treats DMK like an entertaining cringe compilation. He thinks he's sort of cruel for that.

As for Zan, Skirby dislikes and resents her because she called him a bastard after mistaking him for a shooting star. He took offense to that. And then things just got rather petty between these two. Skirby just thinks that Zan is really unpleasant and doesn't want to be around her.

Skirby also doesn't like Magolor and Susie, but he can stand them a little bit better than he can stand either Marx or Zan.

And then Skirby has a rather complicated dynamic with Taranza. This is, of course, because Taranza hates DMK's guts for being involved in the corruption of Sectonia - which, to be clear, corrupting her was an order made by Dark Mind.

The thing is, Skirby doesn't blame Taranza for hating DMK, but he thinks he's going too far in wanting revenge on the guy, especially considering that Dark Mind, the one who was really behind Sectonia's corruption, is now gone. That being said, it's not all bad, as Taranza does give Skirby some credit for being the one to kill Dark Mind, but they hugely disagree about DMK and thus have some trouble getting along.

That sums up Skirby's favorite and least favorite dream friends. For the others that weren't mentioned above: He has friendships with Bandee and Gooey, he quite likes the animal friends, and he gets along decently alright with both Meta Knight and King Dedede despite the former still having distaste for DMK. And although Skirby dislikes Zan, he actually gets along pretty well with both Francisca and Flamberge. Especially the latter, who he considers his favorite out of the mage sisters, while Zan is absolutely his least liked one.

Skirby is a member of Kirby's ginormous friend group. He'll be there in the big events that all of Kirby's friends are invited in, including the pink puff's birthday parties. A good chunk of Kirby's big friend circle, namely a lot of the dream friends, know Skirby by his association with DMK, but he's a lot more liked than DMK as people give him credit and applause for becoming the mirror world's new hero.

He's given credit as a benevolent person that stepped up to be the hero of his homeland, as he made the true killing blow to his homeland's most infamous villain and befriended one of its minions, who become a part of Kirby's big friend group just like Skirby himself.

More Kirbies mean more charm!

[bedtimegiraffe]

Blades LI Alignments

It struck me today that the TTRPG pages don't list alignments. Why? Because a lot of players and DMs/GMs see them as outdated and unnecessarily limiting?

...I'm gonna do it anyway.

Here's are the alignments, via the newest addition of Dungeons and Dragons (5e). Basically, how much you follow rules? And how much do you help people/how selfish are you?

Tyril- Lawful Good

Tyril is, to me, extremely Lawful Good most of the time. He's on a (according to him and society) righteous quest to stop evil with no room for nuance. Remember that time he decapitated a corrupted mayor in the middle of the street? He nudges a bit less lawful right at the end, but that's a big moment for him.

Nia- Neutral Good

Nia was raised in the strict rules of the Temple of Light, but she abandons those pretty quickly. She's not seeking out heists, but she kind of likes them. And Nia is undoubtably motivated to protect literally everyone. Textbook Neutral Good!

Mal- Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Good

Mal has never once cared what the law told him to do and he's not about to start! Our boy is Chaotic, as rouges tend to be. Mal starts pretty focused on his own survival and nothing else (Neutral), but pretty openly acknowledges that MC made him focus on helping others (Good). Stealing from the rich to finance an orphanage you run where you refer to all of the kids as 'yours' is the most Chaotic Good thing to ever happen.

Imtura- Chaotic Neutral

Imtura is a pirate. And she doesn't seem to have any regard for even Flotilla law. Classic Chaotic. And she does lots of good things, but she seems more motivated by protecting the people shares cares about, rather than any more abstract sense of Right. I call that Chaotic Neutral.

Valax- Lawful Neutral

Valax doesn't even have a TTRPG page, but she should! She does things that are both traditionally Evil (kidnapping, blood draining) and Good (owl bear protecting, not killing her friend). But Valax does almost all of them due to a code of conduct- initially set by the Ash Empress, but eventually set by Valax herself. To Valax, it's not about right or wrong. To me, that's Lawful Neutral.

Aerin- Book 1 Neutral Evil, Book 2 True Neutral?

Aerin is a case where the cracks in alignment kind of show. To me, he's best embodied by this gif:

I went by process of elimination for him. And didn't give much weight to what Aerin says when he's fully corrupted, because that's a whole different thing.

Lawful/Chaotic: Aerin knows how to play along with what's expected of him, but clearly doesn't have much loyalty to the letter of the law. And at no point is he spontaneous. So he's in the middle Neutral column in both books.

Good/Evil: Aerin thought he was doing the right thing in Book 1. And he seemed to genuinely like the party and want to look out for them. But I think we can agree that bringing everyone together with the intention of summoning the Dreadlord and kidnapping Nia are both Evil.

Book 2, Aerin helps save the world, but only if you're not a dick to him. To me, that puts him more in the Neutral category. I feel like a fully Good character would still by out there trying to save the world no matter what.

Any agreements or disagreements? I'd love to hear about them!

[cosmicjoke]

hi! i really like your account and all your levi-focused analyses. i think this might be a weird question, but i'm sorta trying to make a similar blog, it's just i've very little experience analyzing mangas/comics. it's a bit different from books of prose, obviously. again, sorry if this is weird, but is there any stray advice u can give for analyzing comics?

Hi there, and first of all, thank you so much! I really appreciate that! I don't consider myself particularly good at analysis or meta commentary or anything like that. I literally just vomit my thoughts out and most of the time, it comes out extremely long-winded and tedious, I think, lol. I tend to be very unorganized with my thoughts, and writing them down helps me get a better grasp of what it is, specifically, I'm trying to say.

But I'll do my best here. My main advice for analyzing comics/manga would be to remember that it's a visual medium, and thus, the images carry just as much importance and weight in figuring out what's going on and what's being conveyed as the text itself, and sometimes, even more so. You have limited space for writing in comics/manga, so the author/artist needs to be able to convey a lot through the art alone. So just because something isn't put into explicit text, doesn't mean it isn't being implied or outright stated by the images themselves. Levi is a good example of this, I think, because he doesn't say a lot, and what he does say often comes out sounding rude or callous or aloof, like he doesn't care. And yet it's obvious to everyone with a functioning brain that Levi cares more than anyone. And the reason it's so obvious is, for one, his actions belie his seeming stoicism, with how hard he tries to help people and save lives, and the other reason is his expressions. While Levi often wears a flat expression, there are moments when what he's really feeling bleeds through, and it might as well be a blaring, neon sign declaring that, despite his usually stoic facade, he actually feels things more keenly than anyone else. You have to pay attention to the panels and what the art is telling you, just as much as what the text is. Often, the text can only be understood through the art. You have to interpret them together, I think, to come away with an accurate and objective understanding of the story and the characters.

Basically, a lot of subtext can be hidden in comics/manga, just like in prose writing, but a lot of it is often conveyed through imagery. And just like with prose, context matters. What came before matters. What comes after matters. You have to factor all these things in in order to form a full impression and understanding of the story you're reading. Like a character's motivation, what's driving them, can later be recontextualized based on a later event or action on their part, etc... The same for plot elements and so on. Like take Eren, for example, and the absolutely insane expressions he pulls very early on in the story, when he's in his titan form and killing other titans, etc... Eren looks mad, and that tells you something about his character. He acts a certain way most of the time, acts like he's concerned for his friends, that they're his priority, etc... but it's those moments of obsessive bloodlust that reveals the true nature of Eren's character. He's driven by a desire to commit acts of violence and destruction, and he gets lost in that desire. That's who Eren really is. The way Isayama draws that madness on Eren's face is in itself enough to tell you what sort of person Eren actually is, and helps you to better understand what it is he later does.

Anyway, I hope that helped. Again, I'm no sort of expert analyzer or anything, lol. I just get passionate about these things and I write super long posts as a result. But thank you so much for finding anything of value in what I do write. I honestly never think anyone will.

[spnfanficpond]

Livechat recap: Writing Reader Inserts - How to Reduce the Y/N of It All

We had a great chat in our Discord server about different aspects of writing reader insert fics! Those who were there or have contributed to the discussion after the fact are: @notsofly, @spn-fanfic-reblog-writes, @kazsrm67, @thoughtslikeaminefield, @zepskies, @talltalesandbedtimestories, and @stunudo. Below the cut is a rundown of the points that we discussed!

How do you reduce the use of Y/N and similar placeholders?

Nicknames - This is especially easy when writing SPN because Dean loves giving nicknames to everyone.

For placeholders like Y/H/C and Y/E/C - When writing from the RIC's (Reader Insert Character) POV (Point Of View), this is easy because most people don't consider their own hair or eye color. When writing from another character's POV, like an SPN Character (SPNC), focus on attributes like how eyes can shine, or narrow. Hair can be soft or shiny.

Decide if the detail you're referring to is necessary to the story. If the plot doesn't change without it, do you really need to include it?

How much detail does an RIC need?

Only those details that would change the story if they were different or missing. For example, if a story is about aging/maturity or how a RIC reacts to new tech, then age is necessary.

What specific details should you leave out when possible?

Hair length/style - Some women have very short hair that can't be put into a ponytail or braided. Focus on feel of the hair, not tangling it into someone's fingers.

Weight - You can mention curves and leave the rest to the imagination.

Blushing - You can feel your face get hot, but you can’t really see yourself blushing. Describe the feeling over the appearance. Darker skin tones don't turn noticeably red when blushing.

Race/ethnicity - Unless your story involves ethnic customs or dealing with something specifically racial, this is not a necessary detail.

Clothing - Unless a hunter is dressing up, clothing does not need to be specifically described. Even when dressing up, clothing can be described generically. "A dress in her favorite color that showed off her assets and minimized those little parts of herself she wanted hidden." A job can affect clothing, but just going to the mall or on a date does not. Describe comfort over style.

What is the difference between an OC (Original Character) and a RIC?

Backstory - OC's will usually have a backstory to help define their character. RIC's only need backstory as it pertains to the current story. They can have one, but only what's needed for the story.

Name

Physical description - OC's need to be described but RIC's need to not be described as much as possible.

Does an RI fic need to be in 2nd Person POV?

No. They can also be written in 3rd person omniscient (the audience knows what everyone is thinking) or 3rd person limited POV (the audience only knows what one person is thinking, as if they were in that character's head).

Are RI fics more popular on one platform vs. another?

Yes. RI fics seem to be a lot more popular on Tumblr than on AO3. Tumblr also seems to prefer RIC's over OC's. We don't know why.

Ways to describe eyes that don't involve color?

Focus on the emotions - see emotions in their eyes instead of color

Focus on actions - eyes crinkling, slitting, narrowing, widening. She batted her eyes or looked up at him through her lashes.

Other adjectives besides color - Bright eyes, shining eyes, etc

NO ORBS.

How do you write a Gender Neutral RIC (GNRIC)?

You have to avoid gender stereotypes like women being more emotional and emotionally available while men are more stoic and stubborn. Women and men stereotypically flirt differently. You need to identify those traits in your story and balance them out to neutralize them. Get down to your basic "people" traits for the character.

Who cuddles who? Maybe the SPNC comes to the GNRIC and asks for cuddles? Decide if that kind of thing matters and why.

The GNRIC discussion at the end of our time led to the creation of a writing challenge to explore gender. How would we write a female RIC differently from a male RIC if they were put into the same story? How does knowing this help us to strip gender stereotypes from our story to make a truly gender-neutral RIC? If you would like to know more about this writing challenge and how to participate, click here!

If you have any questions about anything here, or want to add something to this topic, please let us know! You can send an Ask to the blog, add your comments to the #livechat-events channel in our Discord server, or DM one of our admins here or on Discord.

Admins

Michelle - @mrswhozeewhatsis

Marie - @mariekoukie6661

MJ - @thoughtslikeaminefield

Mana - @manawhaat (Founder and Admin Emeritus)

[tuskicles]

"Welcome To My Blog!"

Hi! I unfortunately had a fart kink ever since covid hit, and I didn't even want to accept that it was something that aroused me the most. But I guess I did. I only like it if I'm on the receiving end because it's preferable and also a lot hotter to me. I don't give because I just don't want too and I don't like it. Sometimes, I'll either draw or write out my thoughts when it comes to kinky stuff because that is something I would normally do. I'm only into guy farts and guys that I classify as "pretty" and have a fat ass. I do simp for fictional characters at times but not as often as I used too. I also draw whatever so if you want to commission me, feel free to do so. I might update this at some point, but that's about all I have to say.

PLEASE DO NOT FUCKING INTERACT IF YOU ARE A MINOR, PEDO, ZOO OR LGBT-PHOBIC. YOU WILL BE BLOCKED ON SIGHT THANK YOU.

"About Me."

DOB: 02/22/04

Sexuality: Straight (Also an LGBTQ+ ally)

Main Kinks: Facesitting (Recieving), spit, choking, face slapping, edging, dirty talking / voice kink, degradation, farting (Also recieving), BDSM, teratophilia, biting, axilism, musk/sweat, pet play, size difference, whipping, hair pulling and pegging. There's more kinks on the list if you click under the "other stuff I'm into besides farts" button on the bottom of my pinned post. These are just my main courses.

Limits/Not Comfortable With: Smegma, non-con, diapers, vomit, threesomes (may make rare exceptions if there's just me and two guys but definitely not me with a guy and another girl), weight gain being used as a fetish, anything problematic really.

Dom Or Sub: Submissive for gas. Never giving and never will be.

Other Interests: Music (Metal and goth bands), stuffed animals, horror movies/thrashers, gothic/creepy things, Halloween, books, manga/anime, comics, transformers, video games, fantasy stuff, dragons, spiders, and drawing.

"A FEW THINGS..."

•As stated in my intro, I'm not comfortable with giving out my gas and I only like being on the recieving end. This is just my preference because I don't like to give nor do I want too. 😳

•I'm not into girl farts and don't get turned on by it in the slightest. (Mainly because of the fact that I'm straight. This means I am not sexually nor romantically attracted to girls.) However- I'm okay with it if it's art related! I'm even cool with being commissioned it so long as you actually pay for it!

•I know I tend to post Copro stuff because I just started getting into it (It is tagged accordingly however) but PLEASE- PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME COPRO ART OR REAL LIFE COPRO. I just got into it and I really really really would hate for the fun to be ruined because you fucks want to get creepy and gross about it. Written copro stuff is cool with me so far! Like deadass saying "I'll shit myself for u baby girl 😍" will make me not only make fun of you but also make me hella uncomfortable at the same time. Im also only into the sharting aspect and nothing more than that. LMAO

•I have gotten a few DMs from people that want to get to know me or talk to me and while I do appreciate the kind messages you guys leave me, I'll only approach you if I have interest in talking to you. If I don't respond to you, don't take it personally! I just want to put my safety and well-being first. Besides, I'm super busy with work and college. I get stressed and socially exhausted easily!

•If you also slide into my DMs just to be a creep, I'll most certainly make fun of you or block you for it. However, if you want to slide into my ask box and submit some dirty asks, you are more than welcome to do so.

"MISC."

Other kinks I'm into besides farts (*･ω･*)

My main blog

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