#there is truly no need to elaborate

[hungoverinjonestowm]

Got two notes on my post about my breaking bad hulk au. soft launching with a rick and marlo Pinterest board

[rexomi]

Something something. Making Solas a liar in Veilguard actively brings back a problem they fixed working on Inquisition.

On December 20 2019 VGS posted an interview with Trick Weekes about their work on Solas. This whole sentence is a link so its large enough for mobile but also disclaimer this is before they changed their name so deadname warning.

Here's a transcription I found here which is where i took the screenshots above. Since I know not everyone has 40 minutes to listen to an online radio interview.

I however highlighted the main point since most of you are not reading the screenshots anyway but skimming through. Rant under Read-more. Also bc i try to not be too negative on people's dashs but also i wanna ramble some more.

"But he lied a lot more. And it really weakened his character."

You can tell this happened during the game. Solas lies only once within Inquisition. He says something he can't be vague about and you push him so he lies, badly. He usually tells the truth vaguely. Typically Solas lies no more than Blackwall.

I fully believe that if in Inquisition your inquisitor figured out that Solas was Fen’harel and asked him bluntly to his face he'd confess. He might even be impressed. But why would you ever start to think that. No one assumes that their coworker is actually Poseidon regardless of how much they love the beach and ocean.

He hides in your expectations.

You can't ask him about being an ancient elf or being Fen'harel of myth because those aren't very probable. They're astronomically low to be truth within that universe. And outside, no one finished DA2 and went i wonder if one of our next companions is the Dread Wolf. Sera said, impossible things can't be surprises. He doesn't have to lie so when the truth comes out it's becomes obvious on a second playthrough.

They then actively bring back a problem they fixed in Inquisitions development. That they were open about fixing. That having a character that outright lies to you makes you have no intention of even hearing out the character. It retroactively undercuts Inquisition bc i see people trying to find Solas' lies in it when they aren't going to find any beyond the court intrigue.

It undercuts any lore we do get from Solas bc people dismiss it outright as being a lie from Mr "I abhor blood magic". I feel like shaking people's shoulders like no, dont do it.

They retconned him guys i have proof from 2019.

And its like if you hate Solas is this even satisfying? Like that's not Solas. His motivations are gone (that's a whole other post) and so is his core personality trait. It's like they went here's the Dreadwolf but during the ten years they replaced the smug asshole who was insufferably right with a 20 yo senior chihuahua that doesnt have any teeth.

My favorite villains are those that tell the truth. Because nothing hurts more than the truth. Can you imagine if he told you the truth. If he told you horrible things that you dismissed as lies to only be true. Wouldn't Varric’s death have more weight if he told you Varric was dead only for you - for everyone - to see him in the Lighthouse. If it was a spirit who took his shape to help you or even because it saw something worth reflecting in your memories.

So you dismiss him until it's revealed near the end oh he was telling the truth and you have an oh shit maybe he was right about other things but its too late to try and stop any of the truths he told you which could be from allies/companions betraying to stuff about Ghilan'nain and Elgarnan.

Like the only way to redeem Solas was to listen to him and by going out of your way to address problems he sees and you can find the alternative to tearing down the Veil by a series a little puzzle pieces throughout the game.

Have it be he will only listen to you if you listen to him. That he'll reject your other solution bc why the hell would he trust you if you couldnt extend the same.

Like Solas couldve been a great villian and he should've been great for both the haters and those that liked him. Not only the romance but for those who became his friend. Like i keep coming back to if i hated Solas would i be satisfied with Veilguard.

And the answer is no because that isnt Solas.

Tricking him has no weight bc he's an idiot in Veilguard like not even in the ending bc doesn't notice you switch the dagger around like right in front of him but none of his actions make sense. Ppl have mentioned the regret prison makes no sense for Elgarnan and Ghilan'nain bc they don't have regrets.

Attacking Solas has no weight because he literally needs the shit kicked out of him by a dragon for it to even begin to work. They literally need him to be at deaths door before its realistic that Rook could take him in a fight.

Redeem has no weight bc of the massive retcons to his motivations. They had to retcon the post credits scene bc even if Flemythal went hey i don't want you to do this Dai Solas wouldve went okay but that doesnt solve my other problems with the veil including the corruption of spirits and the fact its in literal shambles so i guess is still coming down.

I'm just disappointed. By the end of Trespasser they had a great villian and they just tossed it to the side and reverted him and people are arguing about a character who's sole defining trait in Veilguard is a problem they solved before Inquisition launched.

Basically we can sum it up with a screenshot.

[dellamortte]

Jason Isaacs as Antonio Perez LA CONJURA DE EL ESCORIAL (2008)

[ricky-mortis]

A portrait of Sir John Herschel because I‘m normal about Pulp Musicals

[triglycercule]

Thoughts on mtt

they should travel the multiverse together and see and experience a more peaceful life than all of them ever have (⁎˃ᴗ˂⁎)

also they should get to gnaw at each other like rabies infected dogs 🧡🙏

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

most knightcoded bllk boys are sae > ness > reo > barou in that exact order . for different reasons

[wow-sofa-art]

Okay okay it's like 1 am but I need to draw Klaasje because I'm having some THOUGHTS about her... What if Harry arrests Klaasje and she ends up spending some time in prison before breaking out and going on the run again. PRISON BREAK KLAASJE. DO YOU SEE MY VISION?????

Anyways, my melatonin is kicking in now... What if she magically stumbles upon Ruby they have a horrible terrible reunion and she hides out in Ruby's truck for a while?

[quibbs126]

Is there a fic out there that maybe explores Cyberverse Megatron's multiverse adventure, specifically his time in the Other One's dimension? Because I feel like there's a lot to explore there

Like I think the main thing to explore is how after his travels and coming back to his universe, he chooses to end the war. Like on some level, he was doing it for self-preservation, but he did decide to actually help Optimus and stop the fighting, which he mostly sticks to, even if it's only for him and his Decepticons. And the fact that he includes his Decepticons in his protection; yes, they're more security against his counterpart but he went back to them and made an effort to keep them safe, when he could have just abandoned his original universe and conquered a new one

And you could make a very easy argument that spending time in that other dimension and seeing that other version of him is what made him decide to be at least marginally better. I've read a couple fics where Megatron meeting SG Optimus is what sort of leads him to declaring some form of truce, and I think a similar principle could apply here. I think Megatron rethinking his outlook and trying to change for the better being the result of him experiencing a worse version of himself and what they bring is a very interesting idea, and with Cyberverse, the concept's right there on a silver platter because it actually happened

Have a story where we see CV Megatron be stuck in the X dimension or whatever it's called for a bit, along with Dead End, and his reactions to this other dimension. Like first it's good because he won in this dimension, there's no Autobots, but then he quickly sees that the bots here live in straight up tyranny, worse than any he likely experienced before the war, and not only that but his loyal Decepticons are all gone to be replaced with "perfect Decepticons". Like maybe he didn't value them as much as Optimus values his troops, and they're not the most competent and rather annoying at times, but he realizes that despite their imperfections, he doesn't actually want them all dead and replaced with soulless, perfect machines, and he slowly realizes that he actually cared about them. And then there's meeting his other counterpart, and realizing he is just a monster. Which maybe causes him to re-evaluate his own choices because at one point, they were the same person, but he hates this other self, and maybe he starts to see why Optimus split off from his cause in the first place

Like it's a slow-burn redemption story for this Megatron, and how he got to the point of wanting to return to his home dimension and end their war

I just think it'd be a really good premise for a fic, and I would read the hell out of that. I mean I'm not a Cyberverse expert, nor am I a particularly good writer, so I don't think I could do it, but I want to either see someone do it, or be directed to a fic with this premise

[oohlook-thevoid]

Like from the visuals of Foggy's death I think it would be so hard to have him still be alive BUT I am in denial and just like, I literally just finished reading Waid's DD run (which had so many Foggy near moments holy shit) but one key bit was that Foggy fake died and then him, Matt & Kirsten moved to San Francisco. And who's been introduced this season? Kirsten. And where's Karen moved to? San Francisco. All I'm saying is they are twisting and playing with some bits from the comics (as they do) and Foggy is fine and he's in San Francisco with Karen and they're just keeping him safe until the wider question of why Bullseye was after Foggy specifically is explored.

[iamhereinthebg]

Thank for all the recents question! Just gonna say that I will not answer the asks about my opinion on the recent arc/chapter storyline (what is happening right now, not lore related questions/the clock keepers stuff)

I was already giving the writing "a kinda chance" with the new timeline arc because time travel stuff are really not my cup of tea and are usually really bad

But this new chapter and last arc really don't comfort me and shows that "timetravel and time related stories can only be kinda okay if it's the center of the story" and they really are proving my point once again

I don't like things enough in the storyline rn to give a real opinion that isn't just me whining about how scared I am for the future storylines and how bad I think it is because it's not finished and I don't wanna spread ""depressing"" reviews about the state of the story rn :00 it may change, but for now I will refrain to answer bc I am too focused on the fact that I think it sucks x))

Thanks again for all the asks though that's really nice! I will do my best to answer them before next chapter 🙏

[isalabells]

Joachim Löw, former national coach of Germany, Hansi Flick, head coach of FC Barcelona, Andreas Köpke, former national goalkeeping coach, and Oliver Bierhoff, former DFB manager during the Farewell Game Of Lukas Podolski, 1.FC Köln on October 10, 2024 in Cologne, Germany.

[abyssembraced]

🌸💐 - For Vee & Delilah!

MUSES & MOTHERS

💐 - for my muse’s mother to talk about their child.

"M-005—that is, Vee Version 1—is a failure."

It's stated bluntly (not unlike Vee herself has been known to do), but not coldly. Not warmly, either, but simply neutrally. Factual.

That's all she was doing, after all. Stating facts.

"I failed to create her in accordance with the design documents laid out for her. And her existence reminds me of that daily."

Not to mention all the problems that had arisen from the decision not to scrap her. The training required to properly fulfill her role as an entertainer when the upbeat behaviour should have been instinctual; her lack of interest in engaging with her peers during episode recordings resulting in her failing to seem like a real character in the cartoon, much less a Main one; needing to create an entirely new, unplanned Toon to accommodate her flaws...

"...But I do not hate her."

The creation is not at fault for the shortcomings of the creator. Failure, imperfection... It left a bitter taste in her mouth, but it was hers to bear. And she did what she could to salvage the situation.

She quite liked Vee, actually. Their similarities, while unwanted traits for the Toon, ultimately made it easy to be around her. An enjoyable presence, more so than most (not that she disliked any of the Toons, however). How had Arthur described her when she first introduced them? 'Taking after her mother'..? ...Ha.

On that note, Arthur seemed fond of her too. Happy with the way she turned out, despite her failure to live up to his original vision. And that was most important, above all else.

"There are no plans to attempt the creation of Vee Version 2."

---------

((Second part under the cut due to length))

---------

🌸 - for my muse to talk about their mother.

"𝙳𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚕𝚊𝚑 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚞𝚜 𝚃𝚘𝚘𝚗𝚜, 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚢 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚕𝚎𝚍𝚐𝚎." Not when compared to Arthur or any of the Handlers, anyway. She was constantly busy, it seemed, often hidden away in the laboratory that no one else could enter, unless she was dragged away from her work by her need to sate her crippling caffeine addiction or at the whims of her co-founder insisting that she take a break. Not that Vee was judging; she wasn't so unaware as to not recognize that she had been much the same back then.

"𝚂𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜𝚗'𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚋𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑. 𝚆𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚔𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎. 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚎𝚛, 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢."

In the past, she had overheard many of the others—Toon and human alike—consider her... Unnerving? But for all the information she held in her databases, Vee could never quite comprehend that view herself. If anything, it had always felt like Delilah understood her better than nearly anyone else. She could just talk to her, and her creator wouldn't react weirdly to anything she said. Not like others often did, unless she was putting on her act.

"𝚂𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚝𝚊𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚗 ���� 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚠. 𝙰𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚞𝚛 𝚝𝚘𝚘." That was in the early days following her creation, before the Gardenview Center had even opened its doors to the public. There had only been six Toons back then, with her as the latest addition.

Vee had always held an innate interest in trivia. However, she hadn't always been the engaging, captivating show host that she was today. Surprising, perhaps, given her skill and status now, but true! It took time and effort to carefully craft the perfect stage persona for herself that would allow her to become the grand star she was destined to be. And both of Gardenview's founders had worked tirelessly with her one-on-one to make sure it happened.

Delilah had been an incredibly strict instructor. Critical of the slightest error, the tiniest mistake. When practicing for her then-future game show, if Delilah found her energy even just the slightest bit lacking, or if she stumbled over even a single word, she would demand that Vee restart everything from the beginning. To do it all properly, from beginning to end. To do it multiple times, too, without failure.

Arthur, on the other hand, was far more kind and comforting in his teaching methods. He had always been very encouraging of her, praising her for her best efforts even when she slipped up or otherwise had clear improvements to make in her performance.

"𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝙳𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚕𝚊𝚑 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚊𝚌𝚝." Kind words were nice to hear, but they didn't fix errors. It was Delilah's harsh criticisms that actually identified where and how she needed to improve.

They've all been gone for a while now, though. With no indication of anyone ever coming back, and so little explanation as to why.

"...𝙽𝚘 𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚊 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚑𝚎'𝚜 𝚍𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚗𝚘𝚠."

Veronica was still the human Vee wanted to see again most of all, but... She missed her mother, too.

[anghraine]

Meanwhile: I have so much I have to do, and so much I want to do, and suddenly my brain was possessed by an incredibly niche AU fanfic plotbunny.

It's not only for the Guild Wars video games (hardly the most popular series out there!), and not only GW1 fic in particular (the first game was on a far smaller scale than GW2 and had a much smaller userbase with maybe five fics on AO3). The fic concept specifically appeals to me as a way to unfridge Althea Barradin, an NPC I latched onto in 2005 out of all proportion to her screentime and frankly how well her lines were written. But it's not only that she's an underwritten GW1 character, or even just that she's one who only appears in Guild Wars: Prophecies—the very first GW game. She's actually only alive in the tutorial zone and is a mentor to PCs of one specific class that happens to be my personal favorite, mesmers (they're elegant spellcasters specializing in chaos magic, illusion magic, and other sneaky, unpredictable stuff).

There's a cataclysmic war crime committed against your people at the end of the tutorial, and a time jump to two years later, when you discover that Althea disappeared in all the upheaval and has not been seen since. You get a quest to discover what happened to her, only to find out that the answer is "dragged off and burned alive by the war criminal invaders." The worst resolution for my teenage pixel crush :( Anyway, you briefly interact with her ghost and gather her ashes to take to her father so both of them can find some kind of peace.

BUT

I sometimes think about how Althea's father (Duke Barradin) was originally next in line in the royal succession. He has already stepped aside for a popular war hero to become king instead when GW1 starts, and there's even a quest in the tutorial to make sure he and his people are faithful to the war hero king, Adelbern. At that point, Adelbern seems to be a good stabilizing authority figure after a lot of internal conflict, but he can be a bit short-sighted and self-aggrandizing in ways that become disastrous when his subjects are massacred in a massive magical attack that devastates the land and people (even GW2 acknowledges that this was so destructive that the aqueducts ran red with the blood of his people).

Adelbern is very obviously not equipped to handle the absolutely dire situation he ends up facing. He's already snapping under this incredible strain in GW1 and disowns his adult son (and it seems only child) for rightly questioning him, only to break even further when said son dies tragically. From what can be pieced together, he only went further downhill after that, becoming more unreasonable, absolutist, and desperate until he completely lost his mind.

Meanwhile, Duke Barradin—Althea's father and the guy who got skipped over for Adelbern in the first place—seems a far steadier and less egocentric figure. He gracefully accepted Adelbern as king before the game, and serves him with loyalty and discipline for the rest of his life, rather than taking Adelbern's ascension as a personal affront or holding a grudge or turning on him in the face of his own tragedies or anything. So I occasionally wonder what would have happened if Ascalon had kept to the traditional succession and Duke Barradin had become the next king, rather than Adelbern.

The cataclysm and invasion still would happen, but I think Duke Barradin would have been more resilient and less obsessed with his personal power and authority. He seems deeply fond of his daughter and I suspect wouldn't have disowned her over a tactical disagreement. Basically, from everything we saw of this guy, I think he'd have handled this situation a lot better than Adelbern—but this is such a niche scenario that requires so much information that I didn't feel like writing it.

But yesterday I was re-reading an idle post I'd made a couple of years ago that mentioned the concept in passing and suddenly realized that in that scenario, Althea would have been the heir rather than her canonical fiancé, Prince Rurik. Instead of tragic war victim Althea whose awful, awful death in an atrocity of war matters mostly because of how terrible her father and fiancé feel about it, she would be Princess Althea, the heir to a now desperate and struggling kingdom. We'd get Althea prioritizing saving her people above everything else, while Rurik gets the horrible death that illustrates the stakes of the war.

In a way, that would even make a bit more sense, logistically. In the game, Althea is a fancy illusionist strongly associated with her theatre just outside of Ascalon City, at this point the seat of Ascalonian power. Even after all this devastation, it took decades for the Charr armies to get far enough into Ascalon to seriously besiege it (before the remaining population was reduced to undying vengeful ghosts, too). It's not beyond belief that a warband could have reached the theatre, and it's also possible that Althea might have been in a more dangerous location at the time of the Searing, since lots of people were dragged off, including children. Just a bit odd in terms of where you would expect a fancy civilian noblewoman specifically to be, even a powerful and highly skilled spellcaster like Althea.

Rurik, on the other hand, is an intimidating warrior, and he's heavily involved with Ascalon's military, especially the Ascalon Vanguard that he himself leads. There's every reason for him to be fairly near the battle lines even without expecting the Searing. The fact that he's one of the main leaders of the Ascalonian military defense would hardly save him from being sacrificed in this terrible way.

(And this might still be a better end than the one he actually gets in canon, in which he's resurrected as an undead servant and forced to serve an evil lich until you kill him for good, freeing him. Getting reduced to ash by the Charr would at least spare him that.)

Despite a certain degree of pathos, though, Rurik was always a bit annoying IMO. He is a very archetypal honorable warrior dude, not as hidebound as Adelbern nor as blind to the reality of the threat they're facing, but his personal approach still tends towards an attitude of "if hitting my problems with my sword doesn't solve them, I didn't hit them hard enough." The PCs really have to handle anything that needs more diplomacy or subtlety.

Althea, though, is a very different kind of person—subtle, tricky, versatile—so I don't think a Princess Althea would necessarily be nailed to the same path as Prince Rurik is in canon. Mesmers in GW2 canonically use their powers of illusion to make themselves appear they're in a particular place when in reality they're skulking invisibly somewhere else, which could easily keep her from being an identifiable target where Rurik was striding around a snowscape with a giant flaming sword when he was killed. I don't think the premise requires Princess Althea dying the same way at all.

I can imagine, for instance, that the AU king might send a reliable, competent, and trusted figure like Althea to ensure the refugees get across the mountains, especially if he wants Althea "safely" out of the country. But as an illusionist, Althea could definitely take precautions that were not available to Rurik, and would be expected to do so.

So there's this whole "okay, if Althea isn't killed like in canon or even like Rurik is in canon, and I manage to completely unfridge her, how does her survival and the AU in general affect the GW1 plot? What is changed about the later canon revelations of what's going on in this era from Eye of the North and GW2?"

I don't have time for this and it's so incredibly specific that it's difficult to even explain to anyone else, but it's also possessing my brain ;_;

[francesderwent]

sometimes the tumblr therapy-speak crowd makes it seem like in a real-life healthy relationship, you can never, ever expect anyone to anticipate your needs because that would require them to read your mind and people can’t do that, so you’ll have to talk explicitly about every single issue every single time for the rest of your life. and I don’t know, I just don’t think that’s true.

[visionkept]

If Tomoya had been caught by the Shogun's army previous to the duel against the throne or in an early stage of the rebellion, they would have been publicly executed right away considering the danger they represented to the opposed side. They have always been so open about the uncertainty surrounding the divine and the celestial, pushing others to QUESTION the gods and what's above. Even when their life was at risk Tomo REFUSED to stay silent. Someone as influential as them had to be SHUT DOWN one way or another, though even in DEATH their spark shined the brightest.

[bredforloyalty]

i can't fucking believe it