#then i understood why lol

[randomnameless]

Do you feel like the fandom has a sort of bigotry of low expectations attitude towards Almyra? Like Rhea is literally satan for not teaching Cyril to read (even though she didn't know he couldn't) but Almyra, where he lived during the time in his life where most kids are learning to read, doesn't get any flack for not educating it's children. And that's on top of treating the whole "ignoring the orphans you create in your raids for funzies until you can use them in your raids for funzies" as not a big deal at best and something Cyril needs to get over so he can embrace his Almyran heritage at worst.

Hm...

I didn't interact with khalidstan side of the fandom, a friend gave me a few links and I clicked, blinked, and they immediately returned lol.

Almyra in fandom in general is... a short summary of what Fodlan's issue is, and the need to use copious amounts of headcanons or to project real life events on the two lines given because 10k years of lore means we still don't know the name of Claude's dad or why the fuck he isn't stopping the raids.

And in a way, I can't really say it's undeserved, to project so much, because we all like to see something new, and something "not often seen" in jrpgs, Almyra's aesthetic was so heavily inspired by real world locations, so of course people wanted to know more about it than about "random medieval european land #8854" and...

Well. The game doesn't say a lot about Almyra, it is mentionned about, someone you are supposed to see as a protagonist with knowledge about this land says some good stuff about it and... that's it!

(at least it wasn't the utter disappointment Hyzante was in TS, because that's another can of worms, but given the "aethetic" picked for the ultra religious people who justify everything by their religion that is actually false and controlled by an old fart using a puppet, and who also enslaves people, and has no redeeming quality bar its last survivor being a Mother (tm) who apparently knows some medicine - let's say this portrayal would have fit well with the early 2000s depictions of a certain religion and its followers in the real world).

So for this new and "exotic" (i fucking hate that word) country, of course people wanted to know more... and when the "more" showed that IS didn't move from the Kaga era with Persia = Verdane, well.

Some people, who really wanted to be invested in Almyra (maybe projecting a lot about it) were disappointed, and had to basically create fanon!Almyra from the few breadcrumbs we got - ending with the "Almyra is wonderful and #didnothingwrong, Fodlan BaD and Syrup must embrace his Almyran identity as Khalid's bby bro!" - canon events can be ignored!

And, as headcanon/fanon, okaay, this can work, I mean, it's not because people make sandwiches with mayo, eggs and cucumbers that I have to eat it, you know? Some people eat those kinds of sandwiches, I don't, don't like, don't read, etc etc.

But then, removing the fandom's tendency to headcanon and, well, be a fandom, in FE Fodlan itself we have... Claude.

And the way the games treat Claude, imo, ultimately fuels those headcanons.

Rather, not only Claude, but more specifically, his views about Fodlan, Almyra and the supposed reasons why they can't get along.

As I posted way too many times in the last 4 years, Claude will - for a reason I suspect is tied to Hresvelg Grey and the red herring called Rhea - never interact with the Almyrans attacking for shit'n'giggles in Hilda'n'Cyril's paralogue. He will not talk about House Goneril's habit to, uh, "take orphans left on the battlefield" with them.

But it's an issue with the Fodlan games in general, you can have an elephant in the room, or a giant dragon, if it goes against the narrative a certain character pushes, that elephant will be ignored, like, the lord won't even have 1 line about it.

The game took time to code Claude having line about random pirates "dirtying" Almyra's good name by pretending to be Almyran pirates to, just, steal stuff - but it didn't took time to code Claude maybe tell to the random peon leading the raid of the week to stop the fuck out - and I ultimately don't think it was a foresight.

Claude will tell you the reason why Almyra isn't well seen nor accepted in Fodlan is because of the Church or the faith Rhea preaches (since in VW Billy will still be head of the church), because the faith Rhea preaches apparently encourages isolationism, xenophobia, etc etc...

And nowhere in the game(s) will someone tell him that, uh, no, the faith Rhea preached welcomes people of all faiths and origins (Cyril sort of does, but this support is optional when Claude will always say the same thing at the beginning, middle and end of his route(s)), or how people do not welcome Almyrans with open arms because of their habit to raid their lands every sunday (re : lack of reaction in the Hilda'n'Cyril support) - Hell, in Nopes, it's Lorenz, not Claude, who tells Almyrans that they shouldn't pillage the cities they are invading (re : the elephant in the room, Lorenz adresses it though, even if it's played for funsies).

So if Claude says Almyra is the second coming of paradise on earth, and the game never bothers to correct him or have him learn, react and reconsider his earlier opinions, why should the fandom bother? Claude is a protagonist and can be the Lord, so of course whatever he says - even in passing, is true!

Coupled with the projection/fanon/headcanon issue of earlier and you have fanon!Almyra - where Syrup needs to ditch the woman who gave him meals and a roof and basic care to return to his "almyran" origins even if in Almyra he was treated like fodder and had "no reason to live".

Why?

Because said woman is a certain fandom's projection on the catholic church + the game(s) need a red herring + Hresvelg Grey + Claude said so and the game(s) never confronts him so it sort of works.

I think, back when I still had faith in redshit, I tried to argue to someone who said "obviously Almyra has more advanced medicine bcs trust me bro" with something like "in a world where singing 2 "Ave Sothis" can heal a fractured arm, what the fuck is advanced medicine?" Ditto for the more advanced ships because they have canons, we're in the Fire Emblem series, who gives a fuck about a canon if you have a mage with long range magic on the other side ? Ask FE4, people can summon meteors - do you really think a "canon" is advanced technology in an universe with magic? (unless we make a difference between magic and technology but it's all sort of pointless, some place isn't more backwards than the other if it uses different methods to reach the same results?).

----

Then, let's not kid ourselves, Almyra, just like everything in Fodlan, has been used by the fandom to demonise Rhea, because Rhea BaD since she's the fandom projected version of Pope Francis and Supreme Leader + Claude think she's the reason why Fodlan sucks.

So with the "Rhea is satan because she never taught Cyril, who kept that information hidden, how to read, but the Gonerils are somehow A-ok despite not teaching him too - granted they also forgot to give him food so at least they're consistent in how they completely don't give a fuck about him" -

I also read the "Rhea is evil because she only saved 1 Almyran Child from House Goneril, but again, House Goneril isn't evil for, uh, keeping more than 1 Almyran child needing to be saved" -

And Nopes gave us the best "Rhea is evil incarnated because she doesn't tell Cyril to run away when people want to slaughter her, unlike what she did for her blood relatives, so it's actually Rhea's fault that Claude had to use Cyril as an archery practice dummy!".

If Rhea must be bad, then everything she stands against must be Good! And that includes the people she bought a fort to defend against!

Tl;Dr : some part of the fandom idealisation of Almyra comes frmo 1/projection

2/Khalid said so and the game(s) never force him to reconsider

3/Rhea BaD (this one is a bit of a cheat, since it can be used to explain 95% of the various discourses that happened in this fandom since its creation!)

[pepperpixel]

SAID HE LIKES CRAZY GIRLS,

BUT HE HATES WHEN I ACT CRAZY,

IT TAKES TWO TO TOXIC!

FINALLY!!! Finished these pics of jinx I’ve been working on!!!!! HOLY SHIT, these took so long…. But finally… they’re done… pls enjoy this art of my beautiful princess w a disorder. Featuring alternate colors for the big pic and also a closeup! Cuz I rlly like how both the lines and coloring on her face turned out… like the pink gradients w her eye… her deer in headlights expression,, like uve just startled a raccoon digging thru ur trashcan and r two seconds away from getting mauled.. m proud of it!

[luuxxart]

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[etrevil]

How can this man, who is in prison for several counts of murder and other charges, look so adorable

[purgaytorysupremacy]

oh nuts. a life experience has given me a new layer of perspective on Cas's homosexual declaration of love to Dean.

recently I had occasion to tell a person I had feelings for them knowing full well they didn't feel even a twinge of the same thing for me. while the whole thing was a decidedly unpleasant experience, I kept laughing at myself internally bc I didn't want to say "the happiness is just in saying it" like fucking Castiel over here. (we don't need to talk about it, it's fine.) (I am happier having said it and it's kind of bullshit, but I digress.)

because the thing is, the happiness isn't in just saying it, right? the happiness is in the having. I made a whole TikTok "proving" that the Empty didn't come for Cas when he confessed his love, but rather when he realized Dean loved him back. even for Cas, the happiness was in the having, not in the saying, however brief it was.

and I've always been one of those people who rolled their eyes at the whole concept. why would the happiness be in just being, in just saying it, if it's right there in front of you to have. and then it hit me like a tonne of bricks (as I was washing my kitchen counters).

Cas really didn't think he could have Dean.

at all. in any capacity. he really, truly, and honestly felt to the depths of himself that Dean did not have any twinge of similar feelings, that this really was a Hail Mary shot-in-the-dark. and I think me, personally, really didn't understand that about Cas. that his belief in his love being unrequited was that unshakable.

something else I've been pondering is how audiences have so much more empathy for fictional characters who share traits that IRL they find objectionable and unappealing. but the thing is about fictional characters is that we follow them around in their most private, vulnerable moments. we see Dean mourning Cas when he dies, literally killing himself because he can't live without him, but it's so easy to forget that we're the omniscient ones here.

Cas never knew.

Dean's whole thing was pushing him away, keeping him at arm's length, making it seem like whatever heroic thing he does for Cas he'd do for anyone. he downplays how important it is for Dean to share the Deancave with him, to show him his favourite movies, share his favourite songs. he acts like the things Cas does for him don't mean that much to hide how much they do mean. he uses "we" whenever he even gets in the vicinity of expressing a feeling. "We were worried." "We're glad you're back." "We needed a win." "You're our brother." The audience knew the difference. We saw how he'd clench his jaw or swallow hard or make a face that said "God, I'm being such an idiot". Because we saw him in those little moments. We got to see the cracks in the mask.

but Cas never knew.

the self-hating angel of Thursday was never going to think it was all a way for Dean to protect himself. obviously, that's the delicious tragedy of it all, but what I think I realized at the end of all that is Cas confessing his love to a Dean who didn't love him back wouldn't have worked. Because the happiness really is in the having. If happiness was just in saying it, then The Empty would have come before Cas even finished getting the words out of his mouth.

so Cas's plan wouldn't have worked if Dean didn't love him back.

this is just me yapping on about my own nonsense, but I do think it's really interesting. there's contentment in "just saying it". there's freedom and relief and an unburdening. I think one can argue that it makes being happy in the being easier. there is certainly some joy in telling a person you think that highly of them. but true happiness?

nah.

true happiness is always going to only be in the having. Cas didn't understand the difference until he experienced it, and by then, it was too late.

[tinkyrubi-png]

An Austin redesign I made in gacha life that I decided to draw, I'm actually really proud of how this came out

[stone-stars]

Transcript:

Murph: They wanna like-- just like toss it down their mouth. Or just like put it in-- Emily: Have you considered like, hucking it up their butthole-- Murph: What? Emily: --so hard that it goes into their stomach? Jake: Yeah. Caldwell: Ohh. Aabria: As long as it's inside their body, I think it counts. Emily: (laughing) Right? Like, alternative means of entering the body! Caldwell: You-- you wanna egg chug. Aabria: Yes! Murph: Okay. Jake: I fear that a deviled egg doesn't have the structural integrity to go up an ass. Emily: Ooooh. Murph: Right, to get through a butt. Yeah. Emily: The flimsy egg defense. Caldwell: Yeah. Murph: It would-- It would crack in the cheeks. It would crack in the cheeks. [Everyone laughing.] Emily, through laughter: You're right. Jake: Yeah, but you have to keep in mind that a deviled egg is only half an egg. Caldwell: That's true! Jake: So that's-- Emily: Ohhh, that's just so it's easier to go down. Jake and Caldwell: Yeah.

[galedekkarios]

"how could anyone ship bloodweave they make no sense at all" did you think about their stories, their motives, their ailments, their shared hobbies, the subtle progression of their relationship throughout the acts, and how very similar they can be despite being different. i know that you didn't but if you had then perhaps you would understand why some people might ship them, especially since a) you can successfully romance them in an origin run thus making it possible, b) astarion already tries flirting with gale unprompted in act 1, and c) you can romance astarion with a good-aligned pc and romance gale with an evil-aligned pc. so, like. what's not clicking

[peteytheparrot]

Toyhouse warnings are a different breed of chronically online ☠️

[keepthetension]

still stuck on mhok's trauma, unsurprisingly. i keep thinking about the opening scenes of this show, showing us day losing his sight, and mhok losing rung. i really thought that the show would spend equal time and care on both

my first post about this show was pointing out that the first shot of day is a close up of his eyes, and the first time we see mhok, he's holding something in his mouth. and i thought it was so interesting that we see mhok gagged, because society generally doesn't care what people who've been incarcerated have to say. or poor people. and by and large, it doesn't care about the voices of traumatized people, either

and i was so curious to see what the show was going to do with that. i can't believe the show itself was never really interested in what mhok has to say

and i'm stuck on mhok's time in hawaii. the show highlighted over and over again how poor he is, and we know that he didn't like studying. what are his english skills like? we saw singha there, and i think one other thai person. was that the extent of his social circle? he seemed pretty happy to leave hawaii behind, so did he make no new friends? did he spend his days off just sitting in his room by himself, the way day did when he went to songkla with mhok?

i assume he and porjai were still in touch, but he moved abroad at a time when his ptsd was getting worse, and in the wake of a terrible breakup, and he just walked all of that off? alone???

feeling overly protective and over-responsible is absolutely an understandable trauma response for mhok, but you know what else is? losing a relationship, and feeling like you HAVE to go back and fix it, and that if you can just get a do-over, you'll be able to do everything perfectly this time, and you'll get everything right, and everything will be okay! this makes more sense to me in the final episode than the idea of mhok and day having a happily ever after does

[jorrated]

i agree that latinos experience xenophobia/racism just for being latinos, but also i cant help but laugh when white latinos try to pull the race card. girl you cant even take a photo with the flash on

[ask-artsy-oncie]

"Trust me, you're going to end up wanting to play as a human more than as a rat for several reasons"

That is completely fair to say, but I think you underestimate how autistic I am.

[userautumn]

no discourse but the "7x4 is from buck's perspective so he's exaggerating [everything]" never sat right with me. because it's like... okay 9-1-1 is an ensemble but buck is the anchor. he's the main girlie. a significant amount of episodes are from his pov. so are we saying that in every single episode from his pov, he's exaggerating the events of the episode? is he an unreliable narrator? like. what are we saying here

[shadow-the-crow]

My journey through the fears or something (disclaimer: this will make no sense and is also basically a more poetic version of 2 old posts)

What entity would i go to? Weird question. I wake up and i already am surrounded by the Lonely. I try to tell myself that i like this, that i have embraced who the world has forced me to be, but that's not true. It will never be true.

When i can't take it anymore, i go to the Eye, that has always sheltered me. The voices of all these people around me: "When you're with the Eye, we will love you." But how can you love all of me when all you see is my knowledge? Stop praising me. Stop telling me who i am. It's quite sad, actually: I could have been happy with the Eye if it had been my own choice. But it wasn't, so i wander on.

Isn't the Spiral who i truly want to be? I get lost in it. I'm dizzy, unable to tell apart the person deep inside me from the loud world around me - telling me that this is what you're supposed to like. I like how i feel when i'm here, but it doesn't feel like home. It needs to be on the other side so i can admire it. Maybe i love it and it just doesn't love me back, who knows?

The Corruption tells me that it's my shelter, my true home. I look at it and say: You may be where i come from, but you'll never be able to give me what i need.

The Dark lures me in, promising me that it can be just as beautiful as it is terrifying. But in this world, the darkness hides no forbidden colors, no magic too powerful to be seen by the light. It's dull and lifeless and it has nothing to offer me.

When the Flesh calls me, i don't even hear it. The scars on my body and the numbness on my skin may be its pawns, but i have never looked at it with affection in my eyes.

Should i turn to the Stranger, the thing that hides in my worst nightmares? I don't dare to explore what parts of me are made to serve it.

I lay in a bed of warm earth, i run with the wolves, i kill and i destroy and i die. All of this feels comfortable, but doesn't offer me a place where i can stay forever. I even try to weave - i have no talent for it.

Then, finally, i let myself fall off the edge. I let go and accept to experience the world around me. This is... fun. I can breathe. I can enjoy life. I can look at all these mountains and planets and stories and feel that life is worth living. Maybe this can be my home.

[ellalalala]

I can't believe Natlan is coming soon. I'm still so emotionally attached to Sumeru 😭

[rughydrangea]

Sejak 8

This show has officially hit "I'm just screaming the whole episode" status. Would I have loved for their first make-out session to be before he knows she's a woman? I mean, sure, but the way this scene shook out was basically perfect, as the waves of understanding wash across JJS's face and Hee Soo fully gives in to the part of her heart she's been trying to deny for three years. It's just so deliciously complex and contradictory, for both of them, their desire and love for each other woven through all those layers of deception and betrayal and scheming.

On the subject of betrayal, though... Like many people on this website, I agree that Yi In plans to make his nephew his heir and is working to discover who killed his brother. It's become increasingly obvious, but I kind of clocked it from the time jump, when it's established that in spite of a decently well-populated inner court, the man doesn't have a single child. If he had been sincere in stealing the throne for himself, surely his first priority would be to have his own son, which could then leave him free to dispose of his nephew, who living is always going to be a threat to his rule.

Now, I have nothing against the nephew. It's just that, as I have established, I think usurpation is quite sexy (unless a man is trying to usurp a woman, which is why Stephen of Blois can get fucked), and I would have loved for Yi In to be a true usurper. Monarchy is all bullshit anyway, right? To me, usurpation is like an acknowledgement that it's bullshit: if the occupant of the throne is solely determined through mistakes of nature, why shouldn't humans be able to seize destiny in their hands and take what they want? If the only qualification is being born to a certain parent at the right time, then why not just change that rule to suit your own intention? Especially when nature more often than not gets it wrong: it's hard to respect the legitimacy of Grand Prince Munseong, given that he is the heir of a man who clearly never should have been king.

But no, clearly we have to have Yi In be a noble leading man, so even if he does some bad things, it's in service of a worthy and legitimate goal. I don't hate it, I just liked it more for that one enchanted episode where it seemed like he might go full anti-hero. As it is, I guess I'll have to settle for him being a super-complicated and conflicted man played by an incredible actor, poor me!

(It's true that it hasn't been established for sure that Yi In took the throne for noble reasons, but to me that does very much look like where it's going.)