#theres a lot of nuance to it but um

[thetidemice]

WHY am i getting pro-car-centric-infrastructure posts on my dash... you are not welcome here.... give me working bus routes or give me death

[bergoose]

does anyone else think it's kinda fucked up how the watcher fans basically bullied their creators back on a platform they didn't want to use anymore?

[bmpmp3]

dysgraphic artiƨts risɘ UP!!!!!

[playingonedchess]

reminder for the millionth time: never read tumblr recomended posts about politics

[mediumgayitalian]

fic rec friday 4

hi!! welcome to fic rec friday. every week, i pick five fics i have bookmarked and rec them with a little review. check them out!

Serenade by @porcelaincas

“Will Solace,” Nico said. They were so close now that Nico could see that there were golden flecks among the blue in his irises. “Are you trying to serenade me?” or the one where Nico falls for Will even before the battle against Gaea and it all culminates on a warm summer night.

i am always a deep deep sucker for fics where will and nico know each other, at least slightly, before BoO. theyre so fascinating and for what. in this one in particular...oh will helping nico in the bronze jar is crazy. i don't want to spoil it but my ass was sat on that seat reading.

2. Stupid Teens by tihsho

Will likes getting gifts, and Nico likes the way Will blushes whenever he gives him anything. It should be a simple situation, but nothing's ever simple for Nico. Something's bothering Will, and Nico can't do anything about it. Never mind that he still can't seem to put a name to these feelings, either. Maybe there's a point in here about anger and nuance, or maybe it's a point about being young, or self acceptance, or whatever else. Or maybe Nico's just reading into it too much.

yes the homophobia scene is a little gratuitous. HOWEVER. the beginning scene is so dorky and ridiculous that i actually smile WIDE every time, first time i read it i laughed out loud. and the whole nico likes to spoil will a little bit (a lot bit) even well before they got together headcanon is GODSENT its one of my favourites. and i also like in this one how will maybe needs a minute to get comfortable in his sexuality too!!

3. Find Happiness in Misery by percyspandapillowpet

"Nothing can make me happy, Solace," he spat bitterly before turning away and wiping furiously at his face. "I like to try." --- In which Nico is searching for happiness, for his childhood, and for a Christmas present.

this is an older fic, but i think it still holds up!! i love any fic that goes over the whole mythomagic thing tbh. theres so much story potential there and this fic had a very sweet premise.

4. Looks Like We'll Be Trapped Here For A While by percyspandapillowpet

Nico stopped in his tracks and turned towards Will. “The Aphrodite cabin is planning to prank us. Today.” Will raised his eyebrows. “How do you know?” "They were talking about it. I just heard them.” Sighing as if it were just what he was expecting to hear this morning, Will reached up to scratch the back of his head. “Okay. What do you want to do about it?” Nico pondered this for a moment. “I think we should hide.” “Hide? Where?” Will asked. “We can��t leave camp, and it’ll be awfully boring to stay in the forest or something all day.” After a quick mental scan of all possible locations, Nico realized there was only one unfortunate solution. “Um…how about my cabin?”

cheesy and fun!! the mythomagic scene in particular made me giggle. in particular i love this part and feel like you should all be made aware of it:

“It’s…a game I used to play, when I was little,” he replied carefully.

Will looked up at him. “Do you still remember how to play?”

He felt his entire face turning red. “Well…kind of, I guess, but I’ve outgrown it…”

Will glanced at the back of the box. “What’s the attack power of Athena?”

“Five thousand,” Nico replied automatically, and then immediately groaned. That stupid game was so hardwired into his brain, and now Will was going know how much of a weird geek he was—

But Will was smiling. “That’s adorable. Teach me how to play.”

nico being physically unable to hold the stats back....unbeatable headcanon. adore

5. Pawsitively Perfect by percyspandapillowpet

“Is that…” Nico couldn’t even finish is sentence when suddenly the thing mewed. A moment afterwards, it revealed its tiny brown face, turning to face the son of Hades with round, curious eyes that seemed much too large for the rest of its head. Nico would be lying if he said it wasn’t the most adorable little creature he had ever laid eyes upon. But soon enough, the reality hit him. Will had a cat. Cats were not allowed in camp. Will had brought the cat into the Hades cabin, so if they were caught, they would likely both get in trouble. Not that Nico was scared of getting in trouble with the cleaning harpies—it was safe to say he’d been through a lot worse. What he didn’t think he could handle was the shame of being ridiculed as the kid who tried to hide a kitten with Will Solace. Jason would never let it go. Nico glanced from the kitten’s face back up to Will’s, which was somehow equally as endearing with his pleading-blue-puppy eyes. He knew what he was going to ask just from his expression. He sighed. “Will, you can’t keep it.”

bleeding heart will my beloved. sweatshirt thief nico u are so real. honestly a power couple what more could u want. a kitten? there's a kitten, rest assured.

thank you for joining me this friday!! happy reading!!

[snixx]

ok back telling you all my hbh s2 thoughts!!

ok rowan was such an..interesting chatracter. im honestly glad amerie was able to acknowledge that much of what he did was caused by his trauma and his inability to properly heal and decided to still get him out of the building (even if i hope she doesn't forgive him quickly)

harper and ant are highkey so cute i do hope theres more to their storyline

i was sooo skeptical about missy and spider because i love missy and spider is. um. yeah. but w/ how the season ended i'm rooting for them lowkey

amerie. good god she just needs a break. love her. please stop giving her borderline trauma. malakai COME BACKKKK. darren and ca$h 💌💌. oh also i need a riendship like quinni and darren's i would have been so sad if they hadn't made up by the end. that's all.

GIVE MY BABYGIRL A BREAK OH MY FUCKING GOD. AMERIE BB I HOPE YOU KNOW YOU DESERVE THE UNIVERSE. and yeah harper and ant were pretty cute!

missy is. god I love missy. im ambivalent on the spider relationship but I don't dislike it I know what you mean I lowkey get it

MALAKAAAAAAAI. you know today morning I was on ig and my feed is ENTIRELY malakai and malakaiamerie. they make me unwell. I want to hug him and hold him and never let him go HE DESERVES SO MUCH BETTER STOP TORTURING MY BOYFRIEND WRITERS IM SO SERIOUS

omg the ace rep with cash this season>>>>>>>>. I did Not expect them to go that hard like it's SO RELATABLE and its genuinely something I've thought about so much as an aroace person hell yeah nuance. like the discussions I've seen on this stuff before is always so black and white it's either if you're ace you can only date ace people or wanting sex is Bad and you're shallow and superficial if you care about that in a relationship. I loved how their relationship developed this season omg like yeah!!! if you love each other enough you can figure it out!!! there are lots of options you can explore! writers im blowing you a kiss

YEAH OMG. DARREN AND QUINNI ARE MY EVERYTHING. I CRIED OVER THEM THIS SEASON BECAUSE THEY WERE JUST SO REAL IT BROKE MY HEART LIKE yeah I'm so glad they made up and they're figuring it out. I just love this show sm

[puertoark]

My experience with each Amnesia game which I need to share with the world

SO UM. Hi. I fell in love with this game series its been a while and I needed somewhere to talk abt it so here I am !

I'll be depcting my unasked opinion briefly for each game bc god I have sm to talk abt every single one of them

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Everyone loves this game right right I do too BUT I must say it was personally my least favorite of the series which doesn't mean I didnt fucking loved it. Almost everything abt it is nearly perfect - the ambience and sound design specially is something so so special and dear to my heart from this game oh my

I really enjoyed the narrative too its just that.. it didnt impact me like the others did and I think most of the complaints ppl have about Rebirth are applicable here aswell

I personally felt like the pacing was kinda odd too but thats probably just me anyway I rank TDD with 6 Alexanders and 2 Servant Brutes

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

Idk how safe it is to say that on the internet after 10 years but I enjoyed this game sm more than I did with TDD

I know why everyone dislikes this one (no inventory + no sanity + no mechanics + L + ratio) but I gotta say I enjoyed the safer walking simulator with occasional danger like gameplay

And I like how they did it too - This was the game to introduce the flickering light mechanic to when you're in danger and I absolutely love it?? Its more subtle and haunting than the roar + music start playing when you're in danger thing. its elegant and superb MY OPINION

Talking about haunting the HORROR aspect of this HORROR game is nailed aswell in more subtle things too! The atmosphere is so fucking bizarre and oppressive sometimes when youre just reading a fucking note and digging lore like christ. how. I really do enjoy Mandus's character as a creppy factor aswell as the manpigs designs too

Not talking abt Jessica Curry's score for this game bc everyone agrees its a masterpiece

I rank this one with both Edwin and Enoch

Amnesia: Rebirth

hey guys pls stop hating on games that are actual masterpieces plss

Ok now. I too have my negatives with this game. The jumpscares in the fear mechanics. And some scripted ones too but thats it.

Tasi as a character is amazing, I love her saur much I loved the mechaninc of dont "die" or else you'll be a ghoul in ten minutes and I love how talkative she is…. ik a lot of people don't like it but I think it works just perfectly with her character - esp since shes not "alone" like the other 3 and I LOVE her relationship with her pregnancy and Amari. By the end, her story had me in pieces like no ending was satisfactory enough and…. and…..

I LOVED the scenarios and atmosphere too Frictional nailed it with art direction and sound design as ALWAYS

Amnesia: The Bunker

My second fave of the series I rank with 9 Makkas and 1 lovely Amari

I am shaking, in tears, in pieces, trembling, floored, literally on your walls

God.

This game had no right in being this haunting and sad, literally… For me this game is the one that stands out the most in the franchise. I loved how most of the storytelling was on the scenarios and events of the bunker. A quiet, superb story. I loved every single detail abt it like I literally cant even describe it

The historical context, setting, ost, gameplay, CHARACTERS LIKE… HENRI AND AUGUSTIN I AM SO SORRY SOSOSO SORRY OMFG I could spend DAYS talking about them, talking about all the nuances of this game

Ofc they nailed the atmosphere and sound design but this time its better than its ever been. Feels so lonely and isolated being Henri on the bunker then you peek outside and theres a fucking WAR ready to take his life. The war that made his bff (prob his only family) a monster and took everything of them both. How scary it is to even use a gun sometimes… absolute masterpiece. Frictional peaked hard

I rank this one with one Henri one Augustin and one rabbit toy

thank you frictional games for ruining my life with horror games that for some reason had some of the best human and existential narratives ive ever experienced

Still have to play Justine tho.

[omegasmileyface]

its so so important that we recognize that israeli civilians play a part in the occupation and that theres an unshakeable massive racism and pro-genocide problem in its people and that its impossible to be innocent when willingly, for instance, moving into stolen houses or going to parties on massacre grounds or attending blockades of humanitarian aid. but um can we maybe have that conversation WITHOUT implying that everyone who lives there is a soldier or even non-human. some people were born there, some people were dragged there with family. lots and lots of civilians do participate in the genocidal movement but some people genuinely just are there and dont have the resources to leave. weve seen reports of people refusing to be enlisted into the israeli war machine and being sent to jail for it. can we maybe not pretend that every human in a certain area is just automatically an inhuman war criminal? can we maybe not treat the varied civilian numbers of isreal as a monolith? that doesnt seem like a useful approach to the very necessary conversation of how there is no peace as long as isreal as a state exists. its genuinely starting to feel like people just want an excuse to freely refer to a group of "bad jews" as inhuman by co-opting the vital, nuanced discussion of the actions of the state. i promise i PROMISE it is possible to talk about the inherent violence of the israeli standard of "peace" and cultural prevalence of white supremacy without implying that every single person who has citizenship there is a nonhuman playing a part in some dedicated, concentrated conspiracy.

[suffarustuffaru]

❌

What's a trope you will never write?

hmmm this is a hard question cause i think for me i like to keep my options open!! and especially after finishing self love its like HAH my horizons have been broadened and now i know i am capable of writing dead dove. its to the point where i wanna one up what i did in self love bc HAH it. it couldve been worse. and even though i write a lot of angst (bc thats. most of the plot ideas i have akdndnd) i love fluff and hurt comfort and other things as well—its good to have variety!! so theres not a lot of tropes that i think i Wont write…… but i think like. a lot of fandom specific tropes in the fanfic side of rezero is stuff i wont ever write. or at least i try not to. like writing hate fic for certain characters 😭😭 even if its someone like puck and wilhelm (both of whom i. dont like as people bc of Certain Decisions theyve made but theyre Great Characters bc of those decisions). bc it does bother me if i dont at least Try to be fair with characters in the sense of just trying to still get all their nuances at least a little bit 😭😭 of course im far from a perfect writer but ill go insane if i dont make an effort ☝️☝️ and also as an emilia fan there is. um. lets just say going on her tag on ao3 fills me with pain sometimes!!

and ALSO i really dont like the trope of downplaying emilia camps found family post arc 4 :(( or shoving in conflict that doesnt make sense :(((( like ok i have a otto centric wip (that im not sure ill finish) (it may or may not be titled “strange music”….) where main route post arc 5 emilia camp conflict DOES happen so like!! i do love conflict i love challenging the emilia camp but i dont like ignoring their main route found family dybamics :((( theyre important to me!! theyre important to each other!! thats why its interesting to challenge them!! bc theyre a team!! a family!!! the whole point of rezero is friendship :((((((( so yes if im writing main route emilia camp Especially i will try my best to Never ignore that ☝️☝️ same with other relationships as well!! (ana camp…. felt camp… <3 and hell you could kind of count pris camp too with pris and heinkel’s dynamics with schult if you remove the Weird Stuff Tappei Added In wkdndnd)

and also the trope of like. fics that make an emisuba love confession into “emilia stops making subaru wait and finally confesses”. like. no. no. :((((( especially if subarus response to it is “emilia youre too slow and i hate you” like no. he would never :((((((((

i have no idea if i answered this question right but any regular tropes i can think of like “there was only one bed” is totally stuff im open to writing so like. HAH. its only the fandom specific ones i dont like T^T

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

Here are 3 different suggestions

Metalor

Metasusie

Metadedede.

I know sort of obvious choices, but I'm curious to see what opinions you have on these ships.

did metadede so its time for metalor and metasusie! putting both of these under the cut because youre getting my double opinion whammy. obligatory "its not every shipper obviously im just generalizing based on personal experience" dont let my opinions stop you from shipping something unless its like problematic obvs lol

theres nothing wrong with metalor but it unfortunately does fall into my "red flag ship" category

ill reiterate my definition of that again for people who didnt catch it in my last rant: what i call red flag ships are ships that are totally fine on paper, but for some reason the shippers and fandom culture surrounding it are just rancid and it throws me off liking the ship all together. and then i get kinda sussed out by people who ship it

honestly i have never gotten the appeal of this one or understood the dynamic at all. and thats fine of course. i did try reading a couple fics about it even, and in them its usually like. meta doing some shit that makes absolutely no sense under the guise of "he has a good reason for it" that just Coincidently happens to land him and magolor into some relationship-implying situation. and also the "good reason" meta knight had for doing whatever was not a good reason and was in fact a huge stretch of a reason for sake of moving the relationship along quicker. which you know i dont shame at all, i get that sometimes you just want to get to the juicy shit and people are absolutely allowed to do that, but that really just sums up my feelings on the ship entirely lol. stretches and stretches of reasonings for them to get together that dont entirely, or sometimes even remotely, make sense but okay they end up together in the end somehow 🤷

the fact that the ship is the two most popular and thirsted over men in the series together is the reason why this one lands into red-flag territory im so sorry. it attracts some um. interesting people who end up being somewhat pretentious about their own interpretations on the characters and some people get a little scary or intense about it. also of course occasionally their relationship being boiled down to whoever ships them nonstop thirsting for both of them but thats like just fandom culture for you, i really cant judge. people do that with metadede too to be fair. also a lot of metalor shippers ive seen are just downright mean for some reason. anyone else notice that or have i just been running into bad people

as people might be able to tell by how fairly neutral about it i seem, this one is yeah one of the less red flag-y of what i consider red flag ships. its totally fine. i personally really dont like the ship but its only like 60-70% of the shippers who i squint at compared to the Abysmal rates of other red flag ships. speaking of, by the way...............

ah the fandoms problem child. its metasusie

i Do think its possible to ship this one in a healthy manner. actually even in a not healthy matter as long as youre explicit about it being not healthy and its just one of those ships you find interesting due to the drama. ive read metasusie fics where it was explicitly about how fucked up the relationship can be and theyre very very fascinating from a story and character perspective if you want to explore a tragically evil but still nuanced susie. i would say highly recommend, but i dont actually because a lot of them just lean into weird unnecessary torture porn. its somewhat of a fine line between tasteful and untasteful

ANYWAYS brief tangent aside, i think its possible to ship this one in a healthy manner because you know me i would be a hypocrite to bash an enemies to lovers ship, but it obviously relies on susie needing to recognize her faults and make up to meta knight in some way, plus improve as a person in general. its somewhat of a grey area depending on various factors, both game and real life perspective-wise, how redeemable one considers the whole mechanization and dehumanization though so i dont blame people who absolutely dont trust the ship

speaking of lets get into the way this one is Definitely the reddest of the red flag ships ever. metasusie shippers what are you doing oh my god

the. the. the the when you the when you woobify susie. i do not use that word lightly in regards to susie in particular because of how often its misused by people who hate her just to mean "im mad that people are making cute friendly content of a character i dont like". no im using it in the actual proper way as in why in the world do i go around and see some metasusie shippers saying "people who hate metasusie are so stupid, susie literally never hurt meta knight in canon!!!" i shit you NOT that is a legit take ive seen a Lot of people have nearly word for fucking word and its like. what are you ON did we even play the same game?? did you even play the game at all??? are you as white and dense as a sack of flour and thats why it went over your head?????

people will try to make the excuse that they have headcanon or interpretation differences that lighten the whole endeavor, which yeah that fair. you can imagine mecha knight was just some suit they put over him rather than anything invasive like a lot of people think. thats absolutely fair. you can imagine that meta knight still retains parts of his super star personality where he was kinda okay with the mechanization in some twisted personal ambition way because hes a power hungry guy who will take any means necessary to be stronger. thats also pretty fair. ah you think this is sounding favorable to the metasusie shippers huh. WRONG. WRONG. YOU CAN THINK ALL OF THIS BUT NONE OF THIS EXCUSES THAT THE WHOLE MECHANIZATION WAS STILL WRONG NO MATTER HOW YOU TWIST IT. tfw mecha knights theme is called "inner struggle" definitely implying that he did Not like being mechanized and was trying to fight against it. tfw the elephant in the room being mechanization is of course a metaphor for colonization which is not a good thing to do to someone regardless whether or not they seem cool with it. tfw THE DEHUMANIZATION. TFW METASUSIE SHIPPERS GO HEEHOO HEEHOO CUTE SHIP AND POLE VAULT OVER THE DEHUMANIZATION. HI.

regardless whether or not you have interpretation or headcanon differences, you Cannot ignore the fact that the game does not exist in a vacuum and its themes are undoubtedly tied to real life parallels. in ignoring those parallels or sidestepping them when theyre so blatant and in your face Yes you kinda are being a huge asshole. susie calling mecha knight an It and being like heres our newest product :) while also having the dissonance of being like hes such a cool strong handsome knight is supposed to directly refer to how colonizers will fetishize the people they colonize while fucking over them and their home because they only like them as a surface level Idea rather than actually respecting their culture and them as fellow human beings right im not just being insane making all this up??? huh???? ive gotten away from my original point i feel but tldr IF YOU PRETEND LIKE SUSIE NEVER HURT OR DID ANYTHING TO META KNIGHT I WILL THROW YOU INTO A GRAIN SILO. NO!!!

anyways if you have susie getting a redemption arc yes youre so cool. if you have them getting together okay thats cool. if you draw susie/mecha knight art and act like its cute im throwing you into the grain silo too. if you dont have susie properly redeeming herself and ship her with meta knight even though shes still weird about him and still colonizing people then i dont trust you and thats the category most metasusie shippers fall in

i also want to bring up the people ship it out of spite, because theres been a big spite-shipping metasusie resurgence in the past year thanks to weird stalking drama sparked by a very certain someone people might remember. yall need to realize that going harder on something that understandably makes people uncomfortable and trying to push back by pretending the ship is (by default) more harmless than it is and pretending that everyone who dislikes it is automatically being unreasonable just because Some people are yikes to metasusie shippers is Not the play to take. it just makes you look like an inconsiderate asshole. two people being assholes to each other does not cancel out it just makes an even bigger fire. get some critical thinking skills yeah

its not the fault of anyone who wants to make cute metasusie content that susie is very explicitly a colonizer and a lot of people have strong feelings about that, bbbbbbbbut i hope it came across in this whole tangent that if you try lessening the blow of her actions against meta knight people have full right to hate your guts imo

EDIT: extremely last minute edit but i just straight up forgot that people who arent lgbtq+ exist in this fandom and thus didnt mention it: can we bring up the amount of homophobes who love this ship purely because its strong cool masculine man x cute pink feminine girl. does anyone remember that one guy who was big on metasusie and had "christian" in his bio and also had "will not do lgbt+" in his commission sheet or is that just me. its so fucking funny. it makes me cry laugh whenever i think about it. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[sgtmickeyslaughter]

n & t for the fanfic writer ask game :)

Hey michelle! hope youre having a nice weekend! 🌸

N. Any fic ideas brewing that you’d care to share?

yes there are two that have really taken over my brain recently that I hope to write back to back

A character study for how each of the siblings react to franks death, the last one being about ian and mickey coping with the anger Ian feels after he dies. Idk how well people will like it bc its not super gallavich focused but im going to write it anyways

a post 3x06 canon divergence fic where mickey moves in with the gallaghers, its going to start pretty sad, i thought of it on my train ride home a couple weeks ago when i bet on losing dogs by mitski came on my shuffle and the scene my brain conjured almost made me cry but as always its happy endings only in this part of town

also a super smutty one shot

T. Any fanfic tropes you can’t stand?

um because its been on my dash a lot this week i really dont like galladads. theres some nuance to that but specifically where they just get a baby from ??? yeah, not for me

there are probably others but i cant think of any, but yeah, youll never see me writing that for a few reasons

thanks for asking!

writers ask game

[die-freundin]

14 NOV 1927 (Nr.22/1927)

Eva Petersen, author of a handful of articles for the magazine (you might call her a regular), writes about her conflicted feelings about her girlfriend's newborn child. she doesnt like thinking about her girlfriend having sex with someone else. interesting to me is that she doesnt just not recognize the child as her own at first (a reasonable take for someone who has not given birth to it) but not as her girlfriend's either, because of how incomprehensible it seems to her. she does come around though, accepting the child as theirs. all is well in the Petersen family in the end. love does in fact win on November 14th, 1927!

this short text feels pretty relevant even today, to me. a lot of lesbians still arent exactly able to conceive a child thats theirs by blood on both sides. some couples adopt. either way theres gonna be a parent who has to step up to the task of being a parent without being causally involved in creating the biological mass of the child! my own real-life boss at my day job is a dyke like that, and from what i can tell she seems to be both doing great as a parent and love her kids.

image IDs under the cut:

(ID deutsch: Dein Kind. Lange schon wusste ich von deinem Sehnen nach einem eigenen Kinde, und doch traf mich die Wirklichkeit so hart, dass ein Fremder dir so nah gewesen; ich konnte es nicht vergessen. Eines Tages aber riefst du mich zu dir und dem Kinde, welches ich nicht als dein Kind erkennen wollte. Aus deinem abgezehrten Gesicht leuchteten die Augen in seltsamer Klarheit. Und diese Augen zwangen mich an des Bettchen des kleinen Wesens, dem du das Leben schenktest. Widerwilling beugte ich mich nieder und sah in ein winziges, verschlafenes Gesichtlein. Langsam nur kam ein wenig Licht in die Dunkelheit meines Sinnens, und schwere Tränen fielen auf das Stückchen Leben vor mir. Tränen, die befreiten und erleichterten. Kein Wort unterbrach das lastende Schweigen zwischen uns. Du sahst meinen inneren Kampf, und um deinen Mund grub sich ein bitterer Zug. Da legte ich leise, scheu beinah, deine lieben müden Hände in die meinen und küsste sie in stiller Abbitte und inbrünstiger Liebe. Und dann nahm ich dein Kind - unser Kind - an mein Herz.)

(ID english: Your child. For a long time I'd known about your yearning for a child of your own, yet the realization that a stranger had been so close to you hit me hard; i could not forget it. But one day you called me to see you and the child, which I would not recognize as yours. Your eyes were alight with peculiar clarity in your harrowed face. And it were those eyes that commanded me towards the cradle of the tiny being you had given life to. Reluctantly I bent down and looked upon a tiny, sleepy little face. Light only pierced the dakrness of my thoughts slowly, little by little, and heavy tears fell upon the small bundle of life in front of me. The freeing tears of relief. No word interrupted the heavy silence between us. You saw my inner struggle, and a bitter expression ran across your lips. So I took your dear, tired hands into mine quietly, in a manner almost demure, and kissed them in wordless atonement and full of passionate love. Then I took your child - our child - and cradled it against my heart*.)

*can also refer to taking it into her heart metaphorically, i.e. loving it. my translations sadly cannot account for every single nuance

[volfoss]

hiii meow 🔥

i am going to give u a guy that would be obscure even if volfoss was popular bc people hate old man cunt serve or whatever

this is frokiston and he has every disease. i havent seen a ton of him yet (so this will not be long which i think is for the best. but he has a lot of the ummm. features that aki and from what i understand of astarion have which is why i think you'll like him). hes basically the leader of Ikuaipe (which. quick pause to get into politics before i continue. because unfortunately its important and the politics do tie into him due to his position in society). the map is there to well. hopefully help it be easier to understand the politics im so sorry (and also because his head is kind of cut off like this. jumpscare of old man face)

so. volfoss politics 101: three big countries: ikuaipe, asdenia, and caldealand. asdenia and ikuaipe are at war by the time you hit act 2 over the fact that asdenia basically stopped exporting rare metals that ikuaipe used for drugs (for like. no reason rly but its been VERY shitty for ikuaipe bc they either have to smuggle it over or experience very bad withdrawal symptoms) and depending on what route you take (there are 5: asdenia, caldealand, ikuaipe, good, and bad), the war itself is properly started/furthered due to differing events (a monster in one, frokiston's seeming kidnapping in other. we will circle back to that). one of the really nice things abt volfoss is how even when you take one of the country's sides, you'll still see the other country (and in a sympathetic light too. like theres nuance there basically). the political structure of each nation is different (so like. with caldealand, theres a prime minister, king and queen; asdenia has weird shit going on where its like? the arch priest seems to kind of be leading or somewhat. its weird man idk. and ikuaipe has frokiston as the king, gust as like his evil inventor or whatever and veycer under him as the lead of the military. this is all important im so fucking sorry. there will not be a quiz at the end)

you have made it OUT of the politics section and now i can talk about him as a character. he's very interesting to me due to his self sacrificing natures (which is why i immediately thought of him when you sent an ask in). the two most prominent examples is in the ikuaipe route, when the war starts (or is about to), he puts himself in risk to go talk to Tiece (who's the archpriest of asdenia) (this journey is like. the entire length of the world. ill toss a map in above to help keep all this straight and also to show for reference why this man is making a VERY dangerous sacrifice), all because he just doesn't want the war to start. literally EVERYONE is like hey. this is a really dumb idea. dont do this. and he just is insistent bc its for the good of the country. i kind of hesitate to be like oh found family moment bc thats not really the case, but he's very much a figure that veycer can look up to and someone who veycer turns to before he leaves, because NEITHER of them want this war really. but frokiston is level headed but is there for veycer as he's coming to terms with the fact that the war may be necessary in order to get the rare metals in order to help their citizens. and then um well. he gets kidnapped/disappears shortly after this (on this route at least. idk about the 3 routes i havent done/the rest of this route) and that is enough for veycer to basically kickstart the war into high gear, as he assumes asdenia did SOMETHING to him and would do anything to get him back. and i think um well if you think about the tragedies and all w aki. that the parallels are there.

we are onto part TWO of the self sacrificing natures. when on the asdenia route, he's the final boss. also he has had body modifications here. unclear as to what they are but it could be really anything. tossing that light hearted fact in before i hit you with the horrors. into the horrors now though :3 so all through the asdenian route, you see veycer kind of butting heads with frokiston on this because frokiston does NOT want this war. he will do anything for peace but eventually it gets to the point where he realizes it has to happen. and hes very upset about this bc its painted as veycer is a bit more supportive of the war happening, and frokiston just kind of like. being there and being kind of miserable about it for a bit because he really can't do anything (as we see in the ikuaipe route, its not really safe for him to leave the capital, so he's just stuck there).

but the self sacrificing point comes after you beat him. he pretty much says that ikuaipe has no future now, and shows gratitude towards shalvas for being a good fight at the end of his life. and here is when we start to see the self sacrificing tendencies RAMP up. directly from my summary bc well. "He pleads with Shalvas to finish him off and then he will show his body to everyone. His plan is that if they do that, Veycer and the others will stop fighting. Frokiston wants no more lives to be sacrificed." He literally fully believes that showing his body will stop everyone because the fact that their leader was defeated would make everyone just. stop. Sheala (who's one of the Ikuaipe army commanders. she's great you'd love her) is also there, and he is SO relieved to see her because it does genuinely seem like he cares about them (veycer and sheala are siblings) a lot and worries about them. one of the higher up people in ikuaipe (turi-marrya. sorry there are a million names. shes important and u would love her ok. i promise) is the only one who can really persuade him that he shouldn't throw his life away for this, and sheala has to basically persuade him that he's the only one who can stop gylor (leader of the asdenia military) and veycer from continuing to fight. Turi has to pretty much beg Frokiston to live, and again from my notes:

"Frokiston pauses to think for a very long time, before finally saying “...I… Maybe I was trying to escape from death by embellishing my words beautifully. Should I make amends? It is very sensible to think of it that way.” Turi says his name and he finally comes to a decision, saying that they need to go to Veycer right away, and that after that, both he and Veycer will formally declare their surrender. Turi replies, “Bless your courage, Your Excellency Frokiston.” He rejects that, believing that if he looks brave, it is because of Turi. Frokiston feels encouraged due to the lack of doubt in Turi’s words."

but i think his interactions w veycer and sheala are so interesting, and especially turi. like shes a very blunt person and cannot hide her emotions well, and that being reassuring for him, that she knows for sure that he can help. its very interesting to me (read: typing this up made me get 5 million times worse about the characters)

he's also just kind of like. a silly guy at times. he goes to the tournament earlier in the game, and Gust has invented some like. super fast powered transporter. and is sure using frokiston as a test dummy for it (objectively funny of gust like. hes like well um ^-^ it functions but this was the test run) and hes just like completely ok with it and thought it was fun. i do not know all of his deals and issues yet but i think the position hes in and his diseases would appeal to you :3 and SOMEONE needs to fuck that old man (or something idk.)

[wolficake]

While it was actually another member of the crew that stabs Ody (Hence why he says "My brothers" the way he does. He was actually getting the upper hand on Eur in the fight, if I recall.) Eurylocus was so wrong and he was the one who had been "sowing seeds of doubt" literally since before he even OPENED THE BAG OF WIND.

Someone on Tiktokt tried telling me "Um, its actually more nuanced than that" despite the fact that Eurylocus has actively been sowing these doubts since before Polites even died. He and Odysseus notoriously don't agree and he gets a lot more upset about that than Ody typically does.

It almost feels like Eurylocus is trying to take Ody's place. He is, after all, Odysseus's actual brother in law, and even blood brothers tend to do this, usurp one another. It wouldn't shock me if, after 12 years of having to take Odysseus's orders and being second in command and Odysseus still tending to prefer Polites opinions on things, etc. There's a lot to that that would create a slight bitterness, but add the horrors they've all been through. I genuinely think it made Eurylocus lose his mind. He can't even stay hidden from a gaggle of giant cyclops (not Giants, specifically bc those are their own entity in Greek mythology, closely related to the Titans) without wanting to run. No one but Eurylocus was trying to urge Odysseus to run.

He has been almost sabotaging the entire trip back, but more specifically, trying to sabotage the mens views of Odysseus.

Because notice despite his fear and wanting to run, he was still much louder than Odysseus, when urging him to run. As if he wanted the whole crew to hear him, whereas Odysseus is whispering whispering. Ya know, so no one hears them. As if to signal to the crew "I care about us and want us to run so we make it out alive while Odysseus just sits and waits."

But if Odysseus had listened, they'd all have been killed by all the cyclops.

Eurylocus very clearly shows he doesn't value Odysseus's wit, constantly saying that thats what will get them killed, but then the first time Odysseus takes a page from Eurylocus's handbook, suddenly theres a mutiny and then the entire crew dies, including Eurylocus.

It's almost as if he desperately coveted Odysseus and his position, but when it came down to it, he couldn't even come close to the kind of leader Odysseus is.

I also think Eurylocus is not very smart. Everyone is starving, so why is it only you who's being this extreme, Eurylocus? He tainted that whole crew, AND ONE MORE POINT SPEAKING OF

None of the rest of the crew even knows all the stunts Eurylocus has pulled that have gotten over 500 men killed OR that Eurylocus wanted to leave everyone behind. While Ody hinted at it in their fight "You would have done the same" he NEVER actually outs Eurylocus to the crew about ANYTHING Eurylocus has done. They all died thinking Odysseus was a great traitor, when it was really Eurylocus.

But that's just my opinion and I'm sure it's just so much more nuanced than that.

[kaleldritch]

i feel like a lot of critical role fans and a lot of dimension 20 fans have been sort of clashing over exu calamity. is asmodeus actually misunderstood, is he just lying and fully evil, is it both? ive seen people um actually each other over like, the lore of exandria (the betrayer gods are, in fact, evil as per the lore of this world) and over brennan’s playstyle (hes used religion as plot points multiple times before, and each of these depictions has been incredibly nuanced and complex, not black and white).

im not even going to try to determine which side is ‘right’ here, it doesnt seem useful, because im not brennan, and only he and maybe matt mercer really know what this depiction of an evil god in this world is like. 

i do think, tho, that this is a really interesting look into the way fans of these media have developed parasocial relationships to the people making that media and the media itself. 

some cr fans (including me lol) do feel a sort of ownership to exandria, they buy the sourcebooks, they learn the alignments of the characters in it, and if something in canon goes against that, a lot of them end up bristling against that, even tho things are hardly ever fully set in stone like that, the game is improvised, things are going to be malleable, if only slightly

some d20 fans (myself included again) do have a feeling of knowing brennan’s dming style, which isnt entirely fair, given that for most fans of his dming, its been in dimension 20, which are worlds that are (other than starstruck odyssey) made by brennan, and he makes up the rules for. some people may have seen him do a bit of dming for spelljammer, or some other oneshots here and there, but that doesnt mean we’ve seen the extent of how he can run a game

i dont know if brennan lee mulligan is capable of running a game where the gods are cosmologically evil and theres no way around it, i dont know the guy. what i do know, is that hes gone on record multiple times saying that he loves the world of exandria and wants to treat it respectfully, and that hes talked with matt a *lot* about lore in preparation for the series. 

im just kind of rambling honestly, i dont think theres a real point to this, i just think its interesting the way people have been interacting over this pseudo crossover. i guess just try not to be close minded and be super sure youre right about the way this story is going, be open to different interpretations of this world?

[harriertail]

Can you elaborate on your opinions on gray wing?? I’ve only ever seen ppl describe him as a good dad who couldn’t breathe and I never read him entirely as that so I’d love to know your thoughts!!

(long) Well i don’t know.

I don't dislike him but i don't like him (skip to bottom for TLDR if you care) I can't really discuss Grey Wing without also Clear Sky so. There is an opinion of him being 'good dad can't breathe uwu he made starclan' which I used to just accept but re-reading DoTC (parts of) its kinda... not true. The DoTC cast are flawed characters, they are mean (to each other, to strangers) they are pretty fucking stupid, and overall opinions tend to be (exaggerated) 'Clear Sky worst man ever, Grey Wing did nothing wrong', or 'Grey Wing is actually awful, Clear Sky did what he thought was right he's actually super nuanced' even tho there are a lot of smaller moments of awfulness from the both of them that show their awfulness.

I feel a lot of CS/GW opinions hinge on rejecting Thunder and the First Battle/borders thing > 'smaller' scenes of awfulness > Clear Sky and Thunder especially, theres scenes in TR and BS/AFD (so even post 'redemption') of Clear Sky trying to 'one up' Thunder and show off while hunting or traversing the forest, the killing of Misty, Jagged Peak, letting Tom sod off with TTs kits and lying about it, trusting One Eye, the whole Micah and Willow Tail thing, etc, so i definitely see Clear Sky as bad guy and not 'morally grey' or whatever, he's only really good to his new family with Star Flower or cats when they threaten to leave him (AFD). He disowns Jagged Peak and Thunder because they aren’t useful to him, but SF constantly boosts his ego and his new kits don’t give him trouble so he likes them. He doesn’t really get a redemption, beyond being leader of SkyClan. I can’t really see any ‘nuance’ to him, he’s not evil evil he’s just a generic dickhead (with a splattering of murder) and doesn’t really do anything by APoS/MV to make him not a dickhead. I like the idea that SkyClan’s removal from the forest was due to Clear Sky’s wickedness, and the dreams the med cats had of SkyClan being exiled came with whispers of ‘you brought this onto yourself’. I think Quiet Rain was right to disown him (and the fucking 'i forgive you' come on, very ooc, QR was fucking vicious all her life and definitely were i think Clear Sky got it from- I think the mountain cats all got their occasionally horrible personalities from their harsh environment and constant suffering in the mountains but) // I also don’t buy the whole ‘Clear Sky did bad things he knew others thought were bad but he had to do it he was suffering so much making those decisions, it was for Thunder/Jaggeds/insert character’s own good’ idea like, he knows he’s a dick, he knows he’s in the wrong. I wish his POV went more into the suffering in the mountains (Quiet Rain, Fluttering Bird, his dad) and how that directly affected him (nightmares? flashbacks? comparing everything to the mountains? we only get a few ‘ive seen cats starve’ lines like okay u had a rough childhood stop killing people; all of your friends are telling you this is a bad idea wth)

Onto Grey Wing (lol) > i think the 'uwu soft' opinions come from the old trope of 'evil sibling, good sibling' repeated in warriors (Hawk and Bramble, Ivy and Dove etc). His moments of awfulness are probably less obvious as he is the first POV so like... subconsciously we probably take his 'word' for more (same way people see Squirrel as annoying becoz Brambles POV introduces her as annoying), but most of his interactions with Turtle Tail and Bumble either come from a complete fucking socially-inept idiot who is too harsh and doesn't realise, or a really mean guy. I don’t know why Tall Shadow made him leader in TR and I don’t know why he got a ‘second chance’ with Slate. He can be pretty rude to Thunder but its nothing major, its just a sign that he’s got the familial dickhead streak. Um where was I going with this? Oh yeah, my opinion. IDK. The whole ‘good dad’ i don’t get because he just like, oversaw Turtle/Hawk Swoop raising her kits/Thunder and didn’t really, raise them; TT’s kits are basically plot devices, especially Pebble Heart. anyway. I think a lot of DotC conversation (including this) is pointless because not only is the overall arc flawed in terms of plot and character consistency, but because Clear Sky and Grey Wing make a lot of bad decisions and say/do some bad things that the narrative kinda expects us to just be like ‘and then they were good leaders’ in the end (I have a few ideas for a dotc rewrite but). I don’t like either of them, but I don’t hate them. I dislike the way their characters (in a writing sense) continued after TFB, and i think both of them becoming (in the narrative) leaders and founders kinda softens our perception of them being.. not good people. But i also just tune out any ‘grey wing good clear sky bad’ discussion because i don’t really care either. The more I think about DoTC now the more mediocre i think it was lol. The last chapter of APoS was good tho. 

TL;DR - I think Clear Sky is a major dickhead, and i think Grey Wing is a lesser spotted dickhead. I don’t really care for DoTC after more than 5 minutes of thinking about it. All the characters have room temperature IQs. Grey Wing needs a different personality because he’s very all over the place to me, and Clear Sky could have been something.