#this is just conversational complaining

[erinwantstowrite]

if you want people to get into the canon comics and lead everyone away from fanon misinterpretation (which is a losing battle because there will ALWAYS be this) then why not be helpful instead of being a dick about it 🤨

the comics are hard to get into because it's hard to know where to start, and there's so much content that people are able to fill themselves in by reading fanfic or watching something on tiktok or seeing posts about it on here. perhaps instead of telling people they're stupid for not realizing your favorite character is being mishandled by others, you could write up a list of your favorite comics and/or how, if you could read them for the first time again, you would order your favorite comics to get the best reading experience. and also write your own fanfiction and draw your own fanart or make a passionate post, answer questions politely

[caramelc0rgi]

When he cares about your health❤️

[ajastu]

god okay. sorry for yet another text post. but i'm just still thinking about the argument that veilguard is bad because the only option re: morality of your player character that it gives is kindness.

Now, to preface. I understand where this criticism comes from. Veilguard IS a departure from the general scheme of the previous games, in several aspects. And i understand how people would be upset at not having quite the same kind of options/ways to influence the world. It took me some getting used to, also.

What i do disagree with, however, is using that to claim that the game is bad, irredeemable, and also meaningless n soft or whatever.

Because it's really not. It's just different, with a different narrative focus. I've played the previous games several times, and as i said before, origins is in first place for me. Veilguard is a very close second. And i'm not more right or wrong in this opinion than someone who thinks datv is the worst game in the series.

You can still make choices that will influence the world in wildly different ways, they're just not... ''genocide or no genocide'' kinds of choices. Which i can see how some people would not consider the difference significant enough to be interesting for them personally. Which is whatever, im not their dad, i dont really care.

However. I think it's kind of weird to say that ''the game made me resent being a nice person'' or that "kindness you dont have the choice not to offer isnt worth a lot"

Like, game criticism aside. That is just an objectively weird thing to say.

There are ways to phrase that particular dissatisfaction in a way that will not make most people side-eye you. This is not one of those ways.

The thing is, it was a deliberate choice in characterization. Since game development at AAA scale is. an incredibly complex beast, i suspect there were many different reasons for it, and not all of them purely narrative. It is also not 2009 anymore. We are not getting another Origins, like, probably ever.

But. Rook is established in the very second cutscene to care about other people. It makes sense narratively, too, with Varric being the one to recruit them. Their backstory also shows that they gravitate towards the 'moral' choices. It's not bad writing. It's deliberate.

That does not mean that everyone has to like it. And i don't think the people who are upset about the change in this gameplay aspect are stupid or wrong.

We are all different people with different preferences, and i really am sorry if the game ended up being a disappointment for you. I know how it feels, and it does suck.

But i also do think it might be worth to examine the way people choose to phrase this complaining. The claim that kindness is somehow diminished in value if you aren't offered the choice to be cruel alongside it. I just think that, like. misses the point of what kindness is?

I know what those people mean when they say it, i just...fundamentally disagree with the sentiment. And i think phrasing it in this way is incredibly weird. sorry 🤷‍♂️

There is a better way to talk about this particular complaint. I just never actually SEE that being done. and i do think a lot of it comes from not actually engaging with the source material people are trying to criticize. Like, the person i sort of quoted earlier explicitly said they have not finished the game. If you never give something a chance in the first place, if all the information you have is second-hand, then i do not find your criticism valuable in any way. There is no substance to it, no backing. You are not proving a point, you're just chasing your own tail at that point. There isnt even a bone to chew. You've only heard of the bone. you havent actually experienced it.

Another part is people being too twisted up in the emotion of disappointment to actually see that they're not making compelling arguments, necessarily, and that they're actually being a tar pit.

I know not everyone thinks as much about the push towards dismissing the value of kindness for kindness' sake as i do. But like. It really is very weird to see this insistence that game bad bcs it didnt have the option to do a murder to an innocent person, or something. While also dismissing the horrible things we Are shown as 'not in your face enough'.

And honestly, personally? I dont love origins or any of the other ones specifically for the ability to choose the evil options. It's never even been a choice for me, because you can very well play the games without having to make the bad choices. theres always a workaround. And that workaround doesnt even harm u in any significant way. there isnt an actual like. terrible complexity here. I enjoy the dwarf politics quest a lot but ultimately, knowing the outcome? its EASY to choose Bhelen. Unless you're playing a dwarf noble origin, i guess. Rip Harrowmont 🙏 you would have made a terrible king.

And again, my personal opinion is not more right or wrong than that of someone who adored the prev dragon age games exactly because they allow you to make some terrible terrible moral choices.

At the end of the day. why are people still so pissed about a game that came out almost 6 months ago that many of them havent even played in the first place? Relax. take a walk if you can. Maybe move a snail out of the road if you find one. There tends to be a lot of them after it rains. Think about the ones that didn't make it. Try to find compassion for lives so easily dismissed. Maybe that will make you think about whether or not kindness on its own really is so lacking in value.

[mortalscience]

so penelope's just calling emily to dish about the new guy on the team that she ✨hates✨

[definitionofacritter]

“Right now, I’d prefer revenge,” Dorian said with a smile.

I think, in that exact moment, we saw the end of any possible Orym corruption arc.

Orym is above all things a protector. He failed to protect his father, his husband, and now a dear friend. He was so prepared for an era of blood and rage as the rest of the Hells learned to apologize and to forgive. We saw hints of this with Lilliana Temult.

But watching someone else tip into darkness? Someone whom he cares for so deeply? That will not be acceptable to him. And so he will leap 20 ft into Dorian's arms and guide him, as best he can, back to the light—only to find himself out of the shadows as well.

[marlynnofmany]

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

“Okay, calm down. I’ll preface this explanation with one thing: unbelievable scenarios sound more real if there’s something to complain about. Also, I have not touched a thing in here, and I am literally lost.”

“Lost in my house.”

“Apparently so. An inconvenience for us both.”

“So what’s your explanation before I beat you about the head with this and call the cops?”

“Right. Do you know what teleporters are?”

“I know they’re made up, from movies and—”

“And this one is the worst crock of compost I have ever had the misfortune of pressing buttons on. It’s a scam; look, even the straps are coming loose. It could have fallen off completely and stranded me between worlds, or come halfway loose and scraped my face across the edges of the realities. If I ever get back to the anus leech who sold this to me, I’m going to do thorough and creative violence to him. There will be duct tape, a sockful of batteries, and several Andromedan firewhips involved. I can borrow those from my neighbor if I ever get back home. She owes me for helping fix the antigravity in her apartment after the cat stepped on the buttons.”

“Okay. I’m willing to listen, and not beat you about the head just yet. Is it supposed to blink like that?”

“What the sweet and salty afterlife — Oh no, I’ve seen this before. Stupid straps! Fine, breaking is better than unfastening. Quick, which thing in this room do you hate most?”

“Lamp.”

“Got it.”

KatchewwwPOP

“Okay. I believe you now.”

“Sorry about the lamp. Here, I’ve got a light.”

“And of course it’s a magical floating one. Why would I expect anything else? Or probably a high-tech one, not magic.”

“Right.”

“Do people eat ramen where you’re from? I’ll make us something while we talk. I’d like to hear all of the everything, please, and I imagine you need to figure out how you’re going to get home.”

“Ah, yes. To all of the above, thank you.”

[thegreatyin]

while on the topic of iron posting. a very small very insignificant thing that i really enjoy is that nobody really harasses it for not speaking. and like. we don't know precisely why it doesn't speak. it could be because it's mute, it could be due to an unseen injury, it could just be a selective choice, it could be that it never bothered to learn human language to begin with, etc etc. but there's never been a scene (at least as far as i can recall) where mr iron is specifically called out or pressured or anything of the sort. not even by its own haters 4 haters coworkers. and yeah this is realistically probably because its an ESPECIALLY deadly space bat that could kill you six ways from sunday if you pissed it off, but also, y'know, sometimes it's really nice just having a mute character that's treated Normally for once

[beemovieerotica]

kicking the hornets nest but all the responses from people on tumblr of "everybody needs to whisper and be as quiet and invisible as possible on public transit" have really crystallized how and why white people call the cops on black women talking to each other on the train

[etirabys]

CS Lewis's beautifully written, moving chapter on philia in The Four Loves marred terribly for me by his diving into the question: can men and women be friends

[thevulturesquadron]

I’ll go ahead and say it so others don’t have to - the real reason some people complain or dislike Rook is cause they’re not the Inquisitor/Lavellan.

Hope now we can all stop waltzing around it, let people have different opinions, and accept they are just opinions and not The One and Only Truth or ground-breaking criticism they often pretend to be.

[i-am-me-i-am-sam]

last reblog reminded me that there are people on tiktok who are CONVINCED that make some noise isn't actually improv, especially the songs and it makes me so. do you know what improv is?? and these are professionals.

the idea that they're doing this on the fly is not only the entire premise of the show but also perfectly believable? just because you can't do it doesn't mean no one can

[ursie]

Not to sound pretentious but I think at this point if you’re unwilling to engage with the gods debate in good faith and only engage with it based on stated biased information (Matt pointing out the gods stuff was written by the victors and the cleric’s relationship is not everyone’s ect ect) then you’re just being blatantly anti intellectual 😭 like they’re literally colonizers lol there’s a real reason why the campaign is dedicated to having tough conversations about them like. No one is saying we all should hate the wildmother 😭 but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason in universe many of the mortals hate the gods

[spaciebabie]

something that has been happening 2 me frequently for like years now and i have no clue why b/c irl i look like the most normal person on this earth

[f0point5]

So are we just fully done with red bull second seat discourse now? We’re just letting it go and there’s only one car?

[sergle]

There's something about like. A certain genre of posts / Online Opinions about insecurity/depression/misery/complaints that are so unhelpful that they wrap right around to being straight up hilarious. and it's the ones that are more or less written to the tone of "Feeling bad? That's gross!" Like, just so you know, don't voice your insecurities/ have low self esteem, because that's offputting! You're gross and weird. Don't be insecure about that, though. That would be stupid if you felt insecure about people disliking you for being insecure. Not attractive. You should be thinking about being as attractive as possible. You shouldn't make comments about suicide, even if you're suicidal! Keep those thoughts entirely to yourself. Make sure nobody around you knows you're thinking about this. It would Make Them Uncomfortable. It's better to keep these thoughts in your head where they can fester. Don't post OR talk to friends with complaints about you feeling miserable or depressed. Tbh people who are sad/upset a lot? Kinda a red flag! You are probably miserable because you're a bad person and you've brought this on yourself. If you don't have friends, it's because you're awful to be around. Easy! Solved the problem for you. And no, there is no nuance to this, got it? So, make sure to feel bad about feeling bad, but don't feel bad about it, because, well, that's just gross. And annoying! You might've wanted your brain rotted thoughts to be Peer Reviewed, you might have just needed to vent- you might've been hoping for some comfort, to get things off your chest. Well, don't! Don't talk about thoughts or feelings that are negative with your friends, you'd be burdening them and that's only meant for THERAPY. #SponsoredbyBetterHelp #MentalHealth like, DAMN. that's so helpful. you're so good at helping. I um really liked the part where these are all hard and fast rules that encourage keeping feelings bottled up and keeping your friends at arm's length. That's really funny of you.

[fromtheseventhhell]

Another reason that Stansas hate the idea of Arya and Dany being friends (outside of them wanting to demonize Dany) is that they've convinced themselves that Dany and Sansa are the only main female characters, so if a Stark sister is going to have a significant relationship with Dany it has to be Sansa. Arya being constantly downplayed and treated like an accessory to Sansa has generally led to the consensus that her relationship with Dany will be defined by whatever Sansa's relationship (positive or negative) with her is. That's why Arya is always being left out of the "we were robbed of [x] female character friendship" conversations and why theories about Dany/Arya getting along are treated as Sansa hate; Arya, as a character, is seen as secondary to Sansa by a lot of people