#the world's a dumpster fire

[jorahssquire]

Hobbiton Village New Zealand

Ever just want to become a HOBBIT and get away from it all...

[kedreeva]

We've been losing power due to winter storms lately so my partner 3D printed me a tealight "to fill in for tumblr when you're offline"

anyway this should be official merch imo

[determined-ghostworm]

Poor poor John, it seem’s that he’s gotten himself into a bit of situation.

@jotaroslooseeyebrowhair

-Too be completely honest everything I know about John Constantine is from AO3. With random snippets like ~steel blue eyes or short blonde hair… and not to forget the “Gods! I need a drink don’t contact me for the next month.. or better yet don’t at all” 👍✨👌

[lizzybeeee]

THE ENTIRE DRAGON AGE AMA IS A DUMPSTER FIRE

They avoided all the high-rated questions with genuine criticism (not blind hate!) and went for questions that were safer and allowed them more leeway. After that awful IGN article and that treatment of Davrin...God, just put it down. I have no faith that BioWare will be able to continue Dragon Age or Mass Effect with the respect it deserves.

Edit - They had an opportunity for genuine discussion with fans who were concerned/unhappy with the way Veilguard was -> people unhappy with the story, the marketing, the lack of 'RP' options in an RPG, etc... Instead they just doubled-down even more, avoiding those critical questions, with no real acknowledgement that fans have very reasonable problems with this game.

Some Highlights & My Initial Ramblings Below:

The Executors

"They attempt to manipulate events in the most subtle way they can manage."

So, very clear that they're not simply observers of what is happening in Thedas: they're manipulators...

"Magical Illuminati Confirmed! Lizard People Did 9:30 Dragon!!!!"

All that complexity of character -> his hatred of Orlais, his experience as a general, his relationship with Cailain, and the influence of Howe...all diminished. Any influence from a shadow cabal is too much influence - all the humanity of Loghain's choices/consequences...God, what a waste.

Not to mention what this does to other events/characters in the series -> they imply they've been intervening as far back as the magisters breaking into the golden city. I do not find this compelling! At all!

2. Solas and the Executors

Oh my god, he sounds like such a fucking Mary-Sue I'm so sick of Solas at this point -> "Actually, I know more about the Executors than anyone alive - not even the rest of the Gods know as much as me."

("I'm also, like, an Ancient Elven God, I'm responsible for the Blight and the Veil, and I kind of locked the Gods away cause they were evil - but, like, I'm really sad about it. Also the Herald of Andraste thinks I'm cute <3")

<- Previous comments: massive oversimplification, obviously

But I miss the days when not everything was about Solas. It removes so much interest and wonder in this world when the fucking egg is behind it all. I loved him as a character in DAI and now I just feel this bone deep tiredness when I see his stupid face.

Don't you dare threaten to bring Gareth David-Lloyd back -> keep him away from this mess!

3. The Fate of the Rest of the Evanuris

Yay. I'm so looking forwards to "The Return of the Elves: Electric Boogaloo 2" - it was done so well the first time!

"It was the elves all along!"

The only character with any potential to be interesting is Andruil*, but how they handled all this lore was done so shallowly and so poorly that I find it hard to give a damn anymore. Not to mention that the game literally mentions Ghilan'nain mourning Andruil - so is this a retcon/redirection/or have you confirmed that one of the most interesting members of the Evanuris' is dead?

*interesting in that she's established in lore to potentially have a tonne of really cool things attached to her (the void armour, the great weapon she has etc...). The rest of the evanuris are nowhere near as well established as she is.

4. Southern Thedas, Sociopolitical Issues, and Future Games

NOW YOU WANT TO INCORPORATE GEO-POLITCAL EXPLORATION?? You avoided any meaningful discussion like the plague in DATV but now you're acknowledging it?? OkaY. okAy.

They couldn't even give us the long-term ramifications of the mage/templar war how the hell am I supposed to believe that they will be able to pull off 'elven gods are real' etc...? For a game series that totes : your choices matter -> they have not proven that they have been able to show that in a meaningful way. They literally cleaned the slate with this game to avoid doing that.

So, what, does that mean that the Veil is never going to come down now? Or are you going to have the entirety of Thedas build themselves up again just to have the Veil fall and send things into chaos once more?

What a fatalistic, miserable outcome for Thedas -> why the fuck would anyone bother to live in Thedas if you're going to keep throwing meteorites at them? By all means, change/conflict has to happen for the series to move forwards...but this is just so miserable at this point.

(The Elder Scrolls, at least, gives people room to breathe between crisis' or sets them up in different areas of the world! Bethesda treats past installments/your decisions with greater respect than DATV does.)

Even, then, if the Veil remains up, that means that the spirits are just trapped in the Fade being miserable for the rest of existence. The entire series has been humanizing spirits, from Justice to Cole, and now they're just throwing in the towel? I guess they can stay in the fade now! Problem solved!

What do you mean the Evanuris are not a threat anymore? IN A PREVIOUS QUESTION YOU LITERALLY SAID SOME ARE STILL POTENTIALLY KICKING AROUND THE BLACK CITY?

Weakened, sure, but Solas was 'weak' in DAI. You're giving yourself an out if you decide to go back to the elves again. Please do, I'd love more content on how the elves alone fuck everything up!

5. More Southern Thedas, the Chantry, and Tevinter

Thanks for the confirmation that things in the South are so fucked up that they have to work alongside the 'Slave Capital' of the known world to rebuild!

Slavery was one of the biggest things that caused a rift between the north/south chantry system -> one of the reasons why there were exalted marches -> a uniting belief in the south is that slavery is fucked. They didn't address slavery in DATV - what hopes are there that they will do so effectively in a future game?

Don't tell me that Dorian fixes everything off screen either -> either he solves slavery off-screen or the south is being forced to work the slaver-capitol because their land is nuked and they have no ground to stand on.

I'm so thrilled.

6. Solas and the Idol / The Blight

I will never get over Solas fucking curing the Blight off-screen and no one asking questions/giving a shit. Hello?? The Hero of Ferelden would like a word with you???

So the Blight is calcified in Minrathous, at least, but everywhere further away is still fucked! Once more, the South is doomed to suffer from the long-term effects that regular blights have -> not to mention the red lyrium (which still exists according to the AMA) across the south.

I don't care; it's lame. It's a lame way to conclude the blight and I hate it. This game did not earn 'cure the blight from thedas' at all. You could have had us learn how to soothe a titan and see how that can diminish the blight but you did it this way.

Another 'magical ritual' because Solas has such a good track record with them lmao.

7. The Agents of Fen'Harel / The War with the Qun / The Crows

Turned him against the idea of being a leader???!!

Fen'harel's Call to the Elven People After the events at the Winter Palace, elves left the Inquisition under mysterious circumstances, as did elven servants across Thedas. None could say where they went, but those who believed the Inquisitor's story about Fen'Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf's forces were... and what the ancient elven rebel had planned. This is from the Trespasser Epilogue, Epler!

Your concept art for Joplin literally had him as a leader of a faction of elves. Just be honest that it's a retcon and you changed course - don't try to save face with this reasoning.

About the Antaam: "We needed some big mindless bad guys to fight and so we did this because we didn't want to address the Qunari War/Invasion we set up in Trespasser".

You had to canonize Sten as being alive and Arishok in order for this reasoning to work -> you didn't even come up with an alternative Arishok to take Sten's place.

Yeah, the exchange that set up the Crows we see in the game as "idealists" did not make the game. I can confirm that!

I'm sorry, "Caterina kept Illario in check?" as in, 'kept him an idealist and not the usual Crow'? The woman that beat him with a cane and starved him and his cousin to train them as Crows. Fuck off.

lmao -> tell me you're coming up with this on the spot without telling me that you're coming up with this on the spot.

8. World State Discrepancies - Isabela

Outright ignores the very real criticism about the marketing from this game and World States.

"there are absolutely places where we unintentionally suggested there was a hard canon (...that Isabela is always assumed to have joined Hawke's party.)"

Unintentional?

Excuse me, you have her talk about Merrill and the Kirkwall Crew as family - that was not unintentional in the slightest. Not to mention Sten, Blackwall, Sera, and Cole are canonized as being part of your world state no matter what.

You had a story you wanted to tell - one that only fit a few world states - and you went ahead with it and disregarded those choices. Don't try and lie about this all being a big misunderstanding.

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Edit - They could have taken the opportunity to address the very reasonable criticisms that people had with this game but they cherry-picked questions and avoided/minimized anything remotely critical.

They could have provided us some insight into the game development time but each time they approached the topic they settled for "we're happy with what we delivered and it was well optimized."

They had an opportunity to acknowledge that people were bothered by the handling of the lore/stories (to potentially mention they could course-correct/ rethink their plans) but instead they doubled down on everything that they did and even 'justified' some decisions. They doubled down on the Executors, Solas's changing motivations, the destruction of Southern Thedas, and the elves/Solas being at the heart of everything etc...

This AMA basically confirmed that the only reason they did what they did to the south was for a reset -> It's not a compelling or fulfilling narrative to have everything we've done reset back to ground zero off-screen. BioWare games differentiate themselves from other RPG's by their import system from previous games - it was compelling and exciting! With DATV they set the expectation that BioWare can outright throw out entire games worth of choices/build up, not solely retcon them.

Justifying your choice to water down the lore/world of your story by saying you'll address it in the 'next game' does not instill me with confidence, BioWare! It doesn't explain that lack of it in this game either!

They avoided every question that, rightfully so, pointed out the misleading comments made by devs in the pre-order period of the game:

the fact that there were only 3 imported choices from previous games was leaked by a reviewer -> BioWare was vague from the start about choices

that this game was the most 'romantic' in the series

that world states/ headcanons wouldn't be disrespected

that there are 'lore' reasons for bad darkspawn design

that there are lasting, impactful choices/consequences to be made in this game

that the lore/world was not watered or toned down

that companions are deep and you can disagree with them etc...

BioWare's behavior towards their customers in the lead up period to this games release was downright scummy. I absolutely felt misled after playing the game for myself and recalling what I read in interviews put out. While EA is undoubtedly poison, you can't hold them solely accountable for this.

I feel for the individual developers who worked on this in what was undoubtedly a toxic environment from EA - but I feel that it's pretty clear that BioWare itself has a lot of problems within and in their leadership/executives. Working for EA does not give them an excuse to mislead their customers.

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I already had a very grim outlook on the franchise from the end of DATV but this literally look my interest out the back and sent it to God. What a disaster.

[thereweredragonshere]

I want to hit Dean DeBlois over the head with a gift of the night fury shaped frying pan

[astoldbychae]

G-Shade vs No G-Shade 😩

Oh. Em. Gee. YA'LL! It could be pitch black and Penny would STILL turn necks and break hearts, babyyyyyyy!

Everytime I look at her this is all I hear:

FUN FACT: Victoria Monet is Penny's Voice claim. I don't think I've ever shared that but when I revamped her a few years ago I had my glass of [insert adult beverage here] & Jaguar (the EP) on repeat and her vibe just gave me miss ma'am. Victoria is so sweet yet sexy, and sultry...mesmerizing...TALENTED! (and all that is Penny's vibe). So it was only right!

And I think our girl TJ agrees:

😩 Now before ya'll get on my ass, YES TJ is still happily, madly in love with Deijah BUT apparently she does pop up unannounced to the clurb (not dressed for the occasion) from time to time and appreciates beauty when she sees it! 🤣 She was chatting with her at the bar (until some lady was all up in their business)...so my assumption is they know each other since they're both celebrities or whatev's. hashtag story crossover moment! 🙃Maybe TJ got a friend or teammate for our girl...anywho...

Not sure what busted townie lady did...but Pens was PISSED! 😩

I thought homegirl was hangry and chips would help...

but nope! 🙄

THEN JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA HAVE AN ENJOYABLE GAMEPLAY SESH...

thiiiiisssss heffa flew in like a bat outta hell (LITERALLY) and was staring Melo DOWN. I SHOULD'VE KNOWN TJ WAS HERE WITH HER FAVE PERSON! Her and Mel are inseparable! Back in Mel's party days they used to be trouble! Would have the girlies lined up!

Yup! Caught ya'll asses in 4K! [nothing happened but still...] LMAO

But it's the disrespect for me:

I stopped lurking on Penny for a moment to use control this sim for Marguerite because I wanted to see what she was about to do since she was staring at Mel like that but the AUDACITY of this heffa, it's Mel's speech bubble like "Hey Marguerite" and her's calling him trash! SHE IS OVER HERE GIVING HIM THE LOOK...BUT TRYNA COVER IT UP BY CALLIN THIS MAN TRASH! GIRL! If you don't get...😩 See, this is why she can never have nice things! She self sabotages like a MF! I can't make this up! As soon as I saw their speech bubbles I flung my laptop off my bed from laughing so hard. They are truly writing their own story at this point! I'm just here.

[pencilofawesomeness]

Yui lies awake for an indeterminable amount of time, watching shadows make patterns on the ceiling above them. The heartbeat against her fingertips beats a constant tattoo against her skin, a reminder that she’s not alone, that the body next to her continues to live and breathe and exist in this world. 

—Famous Last Words Chapter 3, from May Death Never Stop You by @slexenskee

-

Okay so I binged this series in about the span of a week and it did things to my brain. The scene where Yui gets Satoru to come home and sleep lives rent-free so I had to draw it. She's the most little sister ever and this scene made me cry from the bittersweet wholesomeness. My utmost respect to slex for this masterpiece of a fic.

[fictionadventurer]

The more I learn about Civil War politics, the more I'm convinced that Lincoln's most impressive and useful leadership trait was that he never let his pride get in the way of doing his job.

Other people in Lincoln's position would have come to Washington with something to prove. They'd have resented the insults and tried to disprove them. They'd have tried to seize power and credit, rejected help, spent a lot of time trying to reach a certain level of respect.

Lincoln's response to, "You're just a backwoods lawyer with no executive experience who makes too many dumb jokes," was pretty much always, "Yeah. And?" He had no interest in petty personal power plays. He had a country to run. There was a war on. It didn't matter what people thought of him so long as the job got done.

He was aware of his personal shortcomings and was always willing to accept advice and help from people who had more knowledge and experience in certain areas. He presided over a chaotic Cabinet full of abrasive personalities who thought they were better and smarter than him, but he kept working with them because they could get the job done. For example: Stanton was absolutely horrible to him when they were both working as lawyers. Just incredibly mean on a personal level. But when Lincoln needed someone to replace Cameron, he swallowed his pride and appointed Stanton as Secretary of War, where Stanton proceeded to be mean to everyone in the world, but he whipped that department into shape and kept it running efficiently through a very chaotic war. Pretty much no one except Lincoln would have been able to put up with that. He could put up with people who were personally difficult if they could do the job he needed them to do--which he was only able to do because his own ego didn't get in the way.

Lincoln's example is a prime demonstration of how humility isn't underrating yourself--it's being so secure in your own abilities and identity that you don't need to attack anyone or defend yourself to prove your worth. He knew his shortcomings, but he also knew his strengths. He was willing to give other people credit for successes and take blame upon himself for failures if it kept things running smoothly. He was secure enough in his own power that he could deal generously--but firmly--with people who tried to undermine him. In a city full of huge egos, in a profession that rewards puffed-up pride, that levelheaded humility is an extremely rare trait--which is what made it so impressive and effective.

[youarentreadingthis]

they have to wear the sweater when they don't get along

[rubra-wav]

Broooooo I've got an idea for a Vox x reader that's like really unhinged:

Reader is this parasitic master manipulator who worms their way into people's lives and they get picked up by Vox when they fall into hell to essentially work for him as a spy on adversaries like other overlords where they adopt new identities and just fuck shit up, and he just watches them doing this for entertainment.

And they are both in love with one another, but the twist is that they are actually really healthy for each other and literally only each other

No reader whos actually nice and a good person getting him to be good. They are just both genuinely awful and in love with each other

This would also really work for a Velvette x reader too negl

[dirtytransmasc]

(modern got hc)

Theon let's Rickon play games on his phone just about whenever he wants and secretly loves scrolling through all of the terrible photos/videos the kid takes (even if it takes up all his storage).

[sad-endings-suck]

“Zuko would have jumped in front of Azula’s lighting bolt for anyone!”

Yes! And? Katara would’ve given the “I’ll make sure your destiny ends right then and there, permanently.” speech, to anyone who threatened the life of a loved one. Whether it be Aang, Sokka, Toph, Hakota, etc. Hell, she’d defend an innocent stranger that way, and she has. Besides, it’s not like we haven’t seen Zuko take a lightning bolt for someone else besides Katara— oh wait, we haven’t (he still would though ofc).

Regardless, it’s the same point, inverted.

“Zuko would die for any of his friends” and “Katara would kill for any of her friends” are foil characterization traits; not opposing arguments.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Oho, 17 and 18 are both interesting ones~ (Your favourite character to write this year? & The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?)

Ask game

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

Hmm...! Toby and Donald have both been super rewarding. I know I carped about the process of working with them a lot - I felt pressured because my problems with them emerged only after I started publishing a fic that people were reading. But! I did enjoy the "problem" of working with them. I'd never written them very much before but they wound up with more screentime cos I found I really liked them.

They wound up adding a lot of depth to the story, cos neither wishes to get dragged into #Drama. But they're also both quite well-equipped to handle it, when they are. 😈

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

I was having some difficulty with Thomas and Gordon early in the year, specifically sketcing out where they land at the end of Small World. They had to be quintessentially #Them, even though they're in an alt-timeline and some heavy stuff has gone down and their relationship can't be the same as how we know it. But it still has to be recognizable. Very so.

Was pulling out my hair for a few weeks, but once I finally produced good copy for them I was basically ready to start my second draft/publishing!

Ironically, Toby with Henrietta was a also bit of a speed-bump. Too straight-married-couple coded for my blood! Again, once I got the hang of it things were fine (writing Henrietta's reaction to Toby's two near-fistfights in Ch. 5 was fun) but it certainly required a few runs before I got my wheels under me.

[admiral-arelami]

AITA If My Favorite Character is a Fascist?

Uh oh. The Fascsplainers are at it again. Yes, we know what fascism is, thx.

[whotfelsewantedtobelynnyx]

One of my favorite weird things to do after finishing a show is to go watch Law & Order (specifically L&O SVU, I’m a Benson girl) and keep an eye out to see if any of the cast make a guest appearance or cameo, because a good 50% of the time AT LEAST ONE DOES. And then I get to sit and watch and secretly giggle to myself like:

[something-tofightfor]

WIP Wednesday on Thursday

Thank you for tagging me @justagalwhowrites

I also agree that it feels weird to post as if everything's business as usual, but the only way out is through, and the only way through is to take part in the things that make us happy and keep us going, right? I've found some solace in writing Joel over the last couple days, and this is two excerpts from what is tentatively called "Untitled" - and is a TLOU AU where there's no outbreak and Joel is a successful - but somewhat retired - musician. Currently I've got about 4.5 chapters and 52k words for it, so we'll see when it's ready to post.

If you want to post what you're working on, please feel free to do so - consider this an open tag!