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lordsammichsilas · 2 months ago

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I've been working on some comic stuff and decided to take a moment to write another piece about my favorite tin can soldier.

I've noticed a lot has been made about how Danse's vocabulary and how he speaks. A lot of fan wikis online attribute it to his being a synth. Piper even mentions it after the initial conversation with Maxson at the beginning of Blind Betrayal. MacCready will mention Danse is about as emotional as a bag of hammers, assuming it's due to Danse's synth nature.

The thing is, his being a synth isn't the reason he's like that. It's the Brotherhood.

Think about the other synths in Fallout 4. Nick, Sturges, and Magnolia for example. They speak like regular people. It's because they live among regular people of the Commonwealth. The only synths who speak in a robotic fashion are gen 1 and 2 synths. Gen 3 synths are indistinguishable from humans and get socialized as such.

Danse was in the Brotherhood where he had been a paladin for at least a decade. The most recent years of that are in Maxson's Brotherhood. Arthur Maxson and most of those loyal to him do not like outsiders and do not want the Brotherhood fraternizing with outsiders. Fiction and entertainment are contraband on the Prydwen, something that alienates soldiers from the people of the Commonwealth even more. It's the reason Danse calls movies a “moving picture show” and comics “illustrated manuscripts”. The Brotherhood is what alienates him from humanity, not his being a synth. If you only know existence as a soldier and you don't take interest in human things with other humans, you end up speaking like that. (Think about a lot of right wing weirdoes online talking about the objects of their moral panics and how they sound.)

Edit: another point I want to add here is that not only is he isolated from the rest of the populace due to being in the Brotherhood, but there’s a chance he’s isolated from the lower rank soldiers in the Brotherhood itself. In a structure with a strict hierarchy, I wouldn’t be surprised if high ranking officers fraternizing with knights and initiates is discouraged. You get the feeling that he’s never confided in anyone since Cutler died when speaking to him as the Sole Survivor.

Danse held a fairly high rank in the organization. One could expect him to be pretty literate and have a decent vocabulary. (There's also the common critique that the military is a cult in its own right and just mindlessly following orders turns you into a soulless robot to a certain extent). Danse is intelligent, but not particularly charismatic. He will openly admit he's not good at talking to people on a personal level because he has no experience with it. Also being a field commander of soldiers and being responsible for their lives requires you to keep a level head and not show emotions.

What I find interesting are the reactions all of the companions have to his being a synth. Even though he was kind of a dick to everyone during companion swap scenes, all of the non-humans (except Strong) are not only against executing him but seem all but willing to throw hands on his behalf. He was horribly rude to Nick and Hancock in particular, however Nick goes out of his way to empathize with Danse and Hancock basically tells Maxson to go do it himself.

With the human companions, MacCready and Cait support executing him. Piper is sympathetic, but still leans on a stereotype to make a comment about how he talks. Preston and even Deacon are against killing Danse, but their commentary after that scene are more about the nature of the Brotherhood itself rather than Danse's wellbeing.

This just goes to another reason I find the writing for FO 4 incredibly frustrating because the storytelling here is excellent. There's a lot of nuances and you actually learn things about the other companions and the world they live in from doing an entirely different companion's story. The solidarity the nonhuman characters show for a synth that was part of an organization that wants to eradicate them and he himself was pretty rude to them while the human characters' reactions are far more mixed is something we need to talk about more.

I'm not normally a huge supporter of redemption arcs mostly because I think they've become a bit overused and not every character necessarily deserves one. I think Danse does because he is someone who means well and fell in with the wrong group in the process. This could have been the start of a really satisfying character arc, but instead all development just stops after your last affinity conversation with him.

#fallout 4 #fallout 4 companions #paladin danse #fallout 4 meta #goes off on a bit of a tangent but still something I noticed #I know a lot of it is because there was content that was cut #but stilll Bethesda bungled his story #whoever wrote Blind Betrayal did an amazing job #and then it just . . . ends #they need to put Danse in something else so we can see more character development #he's a legit complicated and interesting character

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tin-can-iron-man · 2 months ago

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So, as has been clear for a while on this blog, I bought baldurs gate 3 in January of this year, after playing for a few days and falling completely in love with the game, I insisted my wife (the lovely hilarious beautiful etc etc @the-faultofdaedalus) also buy bg3 so that she can experience it and we can play together. (let it be known: we HAVE gone through the entire time at LEAST once before)

today, we were going back and forth between playing bg3 and watching shows the other hasn't seen before, recently I decided that I should show her a TV show that was near and dear to me in my childhood: My Name Is Earl.

having baldurs gate fresh on our minds whilst watching the show led us to making the joke (and. it was a joke, we've even made similar jokes about other shows such as Leverage before) that if Earl Hickey was a DND character, he would be a Paladin.

That is all context for what you are all about to see:

I would say I'm sorry, but then I would be lying...

"but Tin-Can-Iron-Man!" I hear you shout (my friends call me Deo btw) "I see you're playing this save file with your wife! Who is she playing as?"

Randy Hickey (Bard), obviously

(this is the only good shot that I have of that character model)

Earl is an oath of devotion paladin, but only because oath of redemption isn't available, meanwhile we only just played through the prologue, so Randys subclass hasn't been decided just yet.

We're not sure yet if this is just the DND versions of earl and randy or if they've been isekaied to faerun. either option is hilarious, so we'll probably just go back and forth between which one.

Well, anyway...

you know the kind of guy who does nothing but bad things and then wonders why his life sucks?

well, that was me. Every time something good happened to me, something bad was always waiting around the corner: karma

That's when I realized that I had to change.

I'm just trying to be a better person.

My name is Earl.

#*getting dragged away to internet jail* I'M NOT SOOOORRRRYYYYYY!!! NOT ONE BIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!!!#bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate #my name is earl #we only played a little part because this was an impulse decision we did late at night #but when we play more maybe I'll consider posting screenshots #anyways this is going to end one way: earl j hickey chosen of karma #listen I know theres a bunch of different gods and stuff in faerun that do the whole justice and law stuff #but nah its just Karma. Lady Karma. Somehow this works

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aspoonofsugar · 1 year ago

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Ironwood and Penny: Atlas and Amity

Winter: You chose nothing. This...was a gift.

Winter: No, you have sacrificed everyone else!

Winter’s 2 remarks above highlight 2 important themes explored by Ironwood and Penny throughout the Atlas Arc:

Trust - Ironwood wants to control Winter, but Penny trusts her with the Maiden Power

Sacrifice - Ironwood sacrifices others, while Penny sacrifices herself

These ideas are also at the core of 2 settings of volume 7 and 8: Amity and Atlas.

On the one hand Amity means “friendship” and the arena represents the ideal of unity among Kingdoms (the Vytal Festival, the Amity Project). It is then a place symbolic of trust.

On the other hand Atlas takes its name from a Titan in Greek mythology, who holds the sky in place. This alludes to Atlas’s role as the Greatest Kingdom, which should support everyone else with its technology and richness. For this reason the Kingdom frames itself as ready to selflessly make sacrifices. In reality, though, it is supported by others’ sacrifices.

How do these 2 places comment Ironwood and Penny’s arcs? And what do these characters have to say on trust and sacrifice? Let’s discover it, by analyzing their parallel and yet opposite arcs.

CREATOR AND CREATION - 2 SIDES OF TECHNOLOGY

Ironwood and Penny are introduced in the Beacon arc along 2 opposite creations of Atlas Technology.

Ironwood: There are still many situations that will undoubtedly require... a human touch. So, we are proud to introduce... the Atlesian Paladin!

Penny: Most girls are born, but I was made. I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura.

Ironwood wants to substitude soldiers with robots and presents the Atlesian Paladins. Penny is instead the first synthetic person with aura and she wants to be a normal girl.

This juxtaposition foreshadows 2 things:

1) Ironwood is linked to a technology with no humanity, while Penny embodies technology made with humans in mind

2) Ironwood is a creator, while Penny is a creation

Ruby: You're not like those things we saw back there. You've got a heart, and a soul; I can feel it!

Ruby juxtaposes the Paladins to Penny. They are only puppets, but she is a real girl. This opposition gains more weigh when we remember that:

The Paladins are made by Watts

Penny is made by Pietro

Watts and Pietro are Atlas’s 2 top scientists, but Watts’ creations are cold and logical, while Pietro’s have hearts. And yet, when it comes to choose a project, Ironwood chooses Pietro’s.

Why is that so? There are 2 possible answers.

a) The first one is what Pietro believes:

Ruby: You wanted a protector with a soul. Pietro: I did. And when General Ironwood saw her, he did too. Much to my surprise, the Penny Project was chosen over all the other proposals.

Ironwood used to wish for a protector with a soul, even if he later changes his mind. It is coherent with Ironwood being the Tin Man who loses his heart. His problem is not that he is a bad person. If anything, several characters aknowledge Ironwood’s heart is in the right place:

Glynda: You're a good person, James. You've always done what you think is best for the people, even against strong protest. It's admirable.

Blake: The General's heart seems to be in the right place, but that doesn't mean we should trust him yet.

Still, he sees it as a weakness and refuses to follow it:

What if it’s true as they say That I don’t have a heart That I'm more a machine than a man? What would that change? Would it matter at all? I've made my plan Hearts and minds may not agree Emotions topple strategy

b) The second one is present in subtext:

Ironwood: For the past few years, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific standpoint; how it works, what's it made of, how it can be used. We've made... significant strides. And we believe we've found a way to capture it.

Isn’t it interesting that Atlas has been experimenting with aura machines while also developing an android able to generate aura?

The aura machine takes and transfers aura, while Pietro gives his aura to Penny to bring her to life. It sounds as if the 2 technologies might be similar, doesn’t it? What if what really intrigues Ironwood about the Penny Project isn’t giving a soul to a robot, but rather controlling a soul? By studying how Pietro gives his aura to Penny, Atlas can learn more about aura itself, how it works and how to artificially manage it.

In the end, we don’t know why ironwood chooses the Penny Project over others, but this ambiguity fits his inner conflict between the heart and the desire of control.

At the same time, Penny ends up objectified in both cases. She is seen as a protector at best and as a puppet, at worst. This ties with the difference between creator and creation (point 2).

2) Ironwood finances new creations, like the Paladins and the Penny Project. In this sense, he is a creator. Penny instead was built by Pietro, so she is a creation. This dychotomy is articulated in 2 ways:

a) Ironwood is active, while Penny is passive

Ironwood: I refuse to believe that a man that I've trusted for so long would act so... passively.

Penny: I want to stay at Beacon. Ruby: Penny, they'll never let you do that. Penny: I know, but I have a plan.

At the beginning of the story Ironwood and Penny are opposite in how Ironwood has much agency, while Penny has none.

Ironwood is basically the ruler of Atlas and everybody in the Kingdom follows his orders. He is so used to have his way with everything that he enters a conflict with Ozpin over exactly this. He claims Ozpin is too passive and uses his influence to take control over the Vytal Tournament.

Penny is a child-soldier whose life has been decided by adults around her. Pietro asks her not to venture too far despite how lonely and curious Penny is. Ironwood controls her schedule to a ridiculous degree to the point she is forbidden to talk with anyone. Even when Penny musters the courage to pursue a personal goal, the narrative kills her off before she can act on her wish.

In the end, Ironwood and Penny’s arcs in Vale are decided by their respective activity and passivity. On the one hand Ironwood is so active he doesn’t trust others’ agency. He wants to control everything and everyone, but this is his downfall, as Cinder and Watts use his own robots against him. On the other hand Penny is so passive her role is reduced to that of a pawn in Cinder’s plan. Her feelings are ignored and dismissed to the point they meta-narratively have no impact on the story.

b) Ironwood is framed as a “second father” to Penny

Ruby: Was your dad that upset? Penny: No, it wasn't my father...

In A Minor Hiccup Penny links Ironwood and Pietro. This is a way to show Ironwood is an authority figure in Penny’s life. He is some kind of metaphorical father to her. Not in the sense their bond is necessarily familiar, like Penny and Pietro’s. Still, Ironwood is the one who finances Penny and is her teacher and mentor. His influence on the girl is as much if not more than Pietro’s. Ironwood is the one who decides Penny is gonna be a Huntress and a Protector. Penny instead loves and trusts him.

In summary, Ironwood starts the story as a controlling father figure, while Penny as a controlled daughter. From this initial point they have opposite progressions.

On the one hand Ironwood loses his 2 daughters (Penny and Winter) and ends up passive:

Ironwood: So, consider this my last order: step aside. Winter: I've never wavered in fighting the enemies of this Kingdom--And I won't start now.

On the other hand Penny emancipates herself from his 2 fathers (Ironwood and Pietro) and grows more active:

Pietro: I want the chance to watch you live your life. Penny: But dad… I am trying to.

They do so by adhering to opposite ideals. Ironwood chooses repression and control. Penny chooses expression and trust. Ironwood acts selfishly and loses himself. Penny acts selflessly and finds herself.

THE BATTLE OF AMITY

Ironwood: It goes without saying that this arena holds a significance to all of us.

Amity is an important place for Ironwood and Penny. On the one hand it is both where Ironwood loses the battle of Beacon and a weapon to use against Salem. On the other hand the arena is where Penny is killed and it gets repaired together with her, after they make it back to Atlas:

Pietro: Died? I guess, in a manner of speaking, she did. But we were able to recover her core from Amity Arena once it had made its way back to Atlas.

At Beacon Ironwood loses both Amity and Penny, but in Atlas they are repaired and enhanced, so that they fit the general’s plans even better. Amity Arena becomes Amity Tower, a giant antenna that can unify all nations against Salem. Penny becomes the Protector of Mantle, a super-hero that fights for the poorest and most defenseless people of the Kingdom. The overlapping between Amity and Penny is highlighted also by their technologies being similar:

Watts: Penny’s blades operate on the same principle as Amity in the launch terminal. In order for her to control them all, they need to communicate with one another.

Ironwood and Penny’s stories are intertwined with Amity, but once again Ironwood gets to be active, while Penny is forced into passivity. Ironwood controls the arena and Penny, while Penny is a super-weapon tasked with the burden to be a symbol of trust.

However, things start to change in Amity itself, where both Ironwood and Penny have a pivotal fight with a dangerous villain:

Watts and Cinder are strong foils and personal antagonists to both Ironwood and Penny.

On the one hand Watts is a foil to Ironwood. Both are Atlesians’ elites who believe true strength is found in the mind rather than the heart. They are also very ambitious and wanna best and control others. In particular, they wanna control Penny.

On the other hand Cinder is a foil to Penny. Both are girls (maidens) objectified and used by Atlas, who wanna be free. This search for freedom leads them both into a conflict with the elites (Ironwood). However, the way they go at it is different. Penny refuses the mentality of Atlas, but tries to save its people. Cinder can’t escape the Atlesian framework, but wants to destroy the Kingdom.

So, Watts and Cinder are dark mirrors, who are meant to challenge Ironwood and Penny. Are the General and the Protector of Mantle really different from Salem’s servants? And why?

In particular, the 2 villains test Ironwood and Penny on the theme of trust, especially in the 2 Amity Fights. After all, both confrontations happen because of an exhibition of trust:

Ironwood chooses to trust Robin and to tell Mantle and Atlas the truth. He is open about everything, even the Amity Project, which works as bait for Watts. Penny chooses to trust Ruby and the world with the secret behind Salem. This is why she has to protect Amity Tower at all costs when Cinder arrives.

At the core of both Ironwood and Penny’s plans there is a dangerous bet:

Watts: It wasn't finished... it was bait.

Penny: This does not seem like a very good idea. Pietro: There is a difference between a good idea and our best idea. Sadly, we don’t have time for much else.

Ironwood knows that telling his Kingdom the truth may cause panic. He knows he is putting Amity in danger. Penny knows that Ruby’s message may go ignored and the world might not come for Atlas in time. Similarly, she knows Pietro’s method to have Amity work is dangerous.

They both trust and take a risk:

Weiss: Trust is a risk.

Watts and Cinder appear out of nowhere to weaponize this risk for their own selfish interests:

Watts: Our tin soldier's heart has cost him his mind. We need to keep their attention on Mantle for as long as possible.

Cinder: Salem doesn’t know those children like I do. They wouldn’t just abandon their misguided attempt to save the world.

The main difference is that Watts understimates Ironwood’s feelings, while Cinder takes advantage of Penny’s.

Watts immediately thinks the General has fallen prey of his emotions and has made a misstep. In reality, this is a moment of clarity for Ironwood, where he follows his heart and makes smart choices.

Cinder reads the protagonists’ way of thinking correctly. She understands Ruby and the others would want to try and use Amity to warn the world. She doesn’t ignore their feelings, but makes use of them.

This is why Watts embodies control, while Cinder represents manipulation. Control relies on the repression of feelings. Manipulation is instead the ability to twist emotions, so that a person would act in a certain way. These 2 approaches are present also in the 2 Amity fights.

Watts uses his rings to control the whole Arena and have it attack Ironwood.

Cinder uses Penny’s feelings for Pietro and the world to manipulate her.

Still, by the end both Ironwood and Penny win. They defeat their opponents in what is a crowning moment of awesome for both characters. So, is it everything alright? Have they defeated their nemesis and affirmed they are good? Not really, because heroes are really tested not when they win, but when they lose:

Just after such draining fights, Ironwood and Penny have to immediately deal with another problem. Ironwood is manipulated by Cinder, while Penny is controlled by Watts. They are both victims of the enemies’ schemes. Still, their reaction is different.

Ironwood gives up on trust immediately. This choice is conveyed also through him sacrificing the Amity Project:

Ironwood: We are going to take our plan for Amity Tower and apply it to the city of Atlas.

Penny chooses not to give up on faith. She decides to launch Amity, despite Pietro’s protest:

Pietro: You’re in no condition to do something like this. Even just the temperature out there could-- Penny: It is our only option.

This moment marks who they are going to become. Ironwood freaks out and turns into the antithesis of who he is. Penny is steady and stays loyal to herself. That is because Ironwood and Penny’s value is not measured in them winning a fight, but rather in what they do when they discover their victory solves nothing. Are they ready to push forward with no guarantee they are going to succeed? Ironwood isn’t, while Penny is.

As a result, Ironwood fails to learn the main theme:

Ironwood: You can label me whatever you'd like, but the fact of the matter is I was right! The minute I softened, let my guard down, that's when Salem had her opening.

While Penny comes to embody it:

But our greatest fear will be realized If we fall and lose ourselves to fear We've become what we feared all our lives

The point is not that trusting and following your heart will always lead to victory. In many cases it won’t. Still, if you resign yourself to be cynical, you’ll lose who you are and may end up failing anyway.

This is why from here on out Ironwood and Penny switch when it comes to activity and passivity. Ironwood still has freedom and power, but he ends up tricked and manipulated over and over. Penny isn’t given many options and all of them are bad. Still, she keeps on making her own choices. After his Amity fight Ironwood is left (passive) by Penny. After her Amity fight Penny leaves (active) Pietro.

At the same time, here Ironwood chooses to sacrifice everything, but Atlas:

Ironwood: I will sacrifice... whatever it takes... to stop her. Watts: Oh, I hope you do, James. I hope you do.

Blake: But we're nowhere near finished evacuating everyone! You'd be leaving Mantle to die. Ironwood: Yes… I would.

Differently, Penny chooses to sacrifice herself for everyone and comes to embody what Atlas should be:

Cinder: I don’t serve anyone. And you wouldn’t either, if you weren't built that way. Penny: That is not… I choose to fight for people who care about me.

This is ironic because deep down Ironwood wants to be a hero:

Take my hand I’m here to protect you Nothing will stop me Understand There’s no sacrifice That I won’t make I’ll risk it all To keep you safe Trust me to be strong I’ll be your hero Just hold on

While Penny just really wants to be a girl:

An answered prayer A chance to Share the world To be a girl Who fin'lly felt alive

And yet, Ironwood becomes a villain, while Penny grows into a hero. Why is that so?

ROBOT VS HUMAN

Penny: One day, it will be my job to save the world, but I still have a lot left to learn.

Ironwood’s plan for Penny is to become the first of a new generation of Huntresses and Huntsmen. A new type of heroes that can be fabricated and controlled. Fighters who are smarter and stronger than humans and that can be accessorized with laser beams and other weapons.

Well, Ironwood is right on Penny being one of the best Huntresses, but he is wrong as to why:

Winter: No, Penny. You were always the real Maiden at heart.

What makes Penny a Huntress is not that she has a cannon or can fly. Rather it is that she has a human conscience, which leads her to make the right choice. Even if it is painful and difficult:

Penny becoming the Winter Maiden is what cuts her life short. At the same time, it is also what saves the people of Mantle. She becomes the real Protector of the City not when she takes down the Goliath, but when she chooses not to leave her people behind. It is this simple decision that makes her a hero. Penny doesn’t need a robotic body for this choice. Nor flying jets. Nor a laser beam. She only needs her human heart. That is the reason why she is a Maiden, a Huntress and a Savior. It is not because she is the special Creation of a genius. It is because she is a simple soul:

A story will be told, and victory is in a simple soul.

This is Ironwood’s mistake. He believes that to defeat Salem and save the world there is a need for special people. The truth is that it is sufficient for many people to make the right choice. Even if it hurts. Even if it is scary. Anybody could have made Penny’s choice not to give up on Mantle. The Ace Ops could have. Winter could have. Ironwood himself could have. And yet, they don’t. Penny instead does. This is why she is a hero, while they aren’t.

In short, Ironwood believes heroism is born by leaving humanity behind. Still, Penny shows that a true hero needs her humanity to succeed. This idea is commented also through Ironwood and Penny’s metallic motif. Both characters are in fact linked to specific metals of alchemy.

Ironwood is associated with iron through his name and to tin through his allusion (the tin man). In alchemy iron is linked to war and is more refined than tin. So, Ironwood’s growth lies in him letting go of his General persona (war) to fully embrace who he is and become gold/silver. And yet, he fails and as a result he regresses into tin. Symbolically, he loses his heart and becomes the Tin Man. A toy soldier for others to move around as they please:

By the end, all Watts has to do for Ironwood to come in the way of the protagonists is to simply open a door. Ironwood acts like a robot, completely under Watts and Cinder’s control.

Penny is associated with copper through both her name and color. On the one hand pennies are made of copper. On the other hand copper is usually green, just like Penny herself. Copper is more refined than both iron and tin, but it still needs to reach the perfection of gold. This happens when Penny grows up and symbolically becomes a “real girl” (a full self-actualized person):

In Pinocchio, the protagonist becomes a “real boy” and he discovers that his 30 copper coins are now 30 golden coins. In RWBY, Penny affirms she is a “real girl” through her final choice (giving Winter the Maiden powers) and becomes gold herself (she literally turns into a golden cloud while she disappears).

So, Ironwood gives up his humanity and loses both himself and his heroic ambitions. Penny instead holds on to her humanity and is celebrated as a hero and a wonderful person. This is why symbolically Ironwood transitions to a robot in the same episode Penny receives a human body:

This progression is shown also through their opposite relationship with Watts and Cinder. On the one hand Ironwood works with Watts, only to be tricked and eventually controlled by him. On the other hand Penny fights Cinder off until the very end and even negates her the Maiden Powers (what Cinder truly wants).

However, even if Ironwood is framed negatively and Penny positively, they both die tragically. Why is that so? What do Ironwood and Penny’s falls have to teach?

THE FALL OF ATLAS

I may fall But not like this – it won't be by your hand

Both Ironwood and Penny fall together with Atlas, and yet their final moments are complete opposite:

Ironwood is alone and makes no decisive choice. He is given one final chance to die heroically by fighting Cinder and Salem, but gives it up. Is that because he realizes all his efforts are useless? Is it because he accepts he is no hero? Or is it because Winter is right and he can only sacrifice others, but not himself? In the end, there is no definitive answer and that is the point. Who is James Ironwood? Nobody. He doesn’t leave back anything and there is no-one with him. Not even the viewers, who are negated his final moments. There is really nothing left to see.

Penny is with 2 friends, who witness her final choice. Jaune accepts her heroic sacrifice and Winter accepts her legacy. They both trust her and she manages to make one final choice which defines who she is. A friend. A real girl. A fully self-actualized person. She is a Creation who becomes a Creator. She is Pinocchio who gives life to the Blue Fairy:

Penny’s final moments are so meaningful and rich that the viewers are given the chance to follow her shortly after death. They see Penny’s goodbye to Winter and the affirmation of love for her friend.

Penny’s choice is an expression of her destiny:

Pyrrha: When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather... some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life.

After all, what is Penny’s final goal if not this?

My wish came true The day that you appeared And called me a friend

The thing Penny works towards her entire life is to be a friend. It is to affirm her personhood through her bonds with others and this is exactly what she does in the end. Right or wrong she chooses to be a friend. She goes back to protect RWBY and leaves the Maiden Powers to Winter. Her final decision is tragic, but it is still an affirmation of who Penny is, as a person. This is also why it is the only thing Cinder fails to anticipate:

Cinder: Where did it go?!

Cinder manages to manipulate everyone almost perfectly. She knows how the heroes and villains alike will act and makes use of their wishes and emotions. Penny is no exception and actually the love for her friends is what leads her back into the fight. Still, no matter how skilled Cinder is at manipulation, she can’t take away who Penny is. So, in the end Penny does something unforeseen, which gets in the way of Cinder’s objective. The Winter Maiden powers are kept safe from her and given to Winter.

Winter herself becomes symbolic of Penny’s moral victory over Ironwood. Our Winter Maiden chooses the future of Atlas.

Robyn: What do you think a Kingdom is? The people, or just the chunk of land they live on?

The General embodies an Atlas, who is isolated, cold and controlling. He is obsessed by the land and the resources. This is why he dies with his city. The Protector of Mantle represents an Atlas, who is friendly, warm and trusting. She sees the citizens are what matters. This is why she dies with her people. Eventually Winter chooses Penny and opens up a new path for the Atlesians:

In synthesis, both Ironwood and Penny die, but the way they fall marks them as different. Ironwood dies passive, isolated and pathetic. Penny dies active, surrounded by love and a hero.

In other words, Ironwood falls like Atlas:

An empty shell of his former self. A kingdom with no people. A man with no heart.

Penny instead falls like Amity:

She falls after having brought people together. She falls, but has trust in others and faith in the future. A real Maiden at Heart.

When the protagonists arrive in Atlas, they find a Kingdom which is scared to open up. It is scared of trusting:

Now that Kingdom is gone and not just physically, but also from the hearts of people:

Atlas welcomes the protagonists with an army ready to stop any intruder from other Kingdoms. Vacuo welcomes the protagonists with an army made of all the ships from every Kingdom.

Atlas (Ironwood’s mentality) is gone, but Amity (Penny’s mentality) is floating again in the sky.

#rwby #rwby meta #penny polendina #james ironwood #tw: penny's death #penny & friends #winter schnee #my meta

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bogbees · 2 years ago

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bunny is like. idk. there's stuff going on and I'm going to try and compose my thoughts ab it.

in Tweek Vs. Craig we get Kenny in home ec learning shit like "i think a trip to Hawaii will really improve our sex life" and being told the likelihood of him marrying a rich man is unlikely, and he's put into shop class for it.

and like. how Kenny ends up traveling to Hawaii with Butters so Butters will be able to chill out — in a way that mirrors the plot of Amok Time, thee sprik episode, the grandaddy of slash fandom.

And how Butters ends up being Kenny's right hand man in the future, both funding the projects and being the only other one who can access the research with voice recognition...

how we just had an episode where Cartman uses Kenny to manipulate Butters into getting what he wants, Butters' Paycheck, all like "Kenny deserves smth nice don't you agree? Do as i say and he'll get smth nice" ab it?? And it's just like "well Butters has always been down to give Kenny money"

the way in Major Boobage Butters is there like "there there buddy" comforting Kenny's brutal withdrawal. the lil drawing Butters made of him and Kenny in Kenny Dies. the way Kenny held Butters hand for most of Going Native.

and the line "I can't believe I had a secret crush on you Princess Kenny!" fr Paladin Butters in The Stick of Truth after Princess Kenny turns bad?? That's real and not smth i dreamed up???

and Mysterion vs. Professor Chaos??? like?????? the whole. hero vs. villain thing????? Mysterion Rises opens with a comic spread of the two fighting even!!

and then there's the Princess Kenny and Marjonne?????? genderqueer bunny??? t4t lesbians?? nonbinary and genderfluid?????? Kenny's interest in boobs ending up being a longing to look like that???

The way Kenny looks like he belongs on a beach in the future???? going back to hawaii?? how he and Butters both have sunglasses on????? how we saw both of their dicks??? no one else had their dicks out, just them??????? how tin foil is crucial to time travel not killing ppl, how professor chaos wears tin foil...

there's just. stuff. stuff i feel absolutely insane to be looking at like this. feels more insane than our schematics of creek that turned out to be canon. batshit crazy ab this

like, Band in China has Butters and Kenny in Stan's death metal band, and while they're trying to make their biopic Butters says this and Kenny looks at him?????? For what purpose animate Kenny's eyes and nothing else besides Butters?¿ He's surely just surprised at how upset Butters got over this, right, yeah, that's all this is, I'm just insane and my bff who got me to watch this show and doesn't care for the fandom aspect going "i remember noticing that when i watched it!" is like. nothing.

im insane looking at the colour of the popsicle. looking at the colour of Butters swim trunks. Butters wears teal, navy and green. Orange??? Orange?????????????

how Catman accuses Stan of inviting Butters but he says he didn't and they all look at Kenny

you need to kill me. Like for real just kill me.

#bogs' muttering #south park #sp bunny #i crave the sweet release of death fuvk them #cyan and orange *sobs into hands*#they're why i like those colours so much they have to be

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x-nephophile-x · 2 years ago

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If I could mod I'd make Danse a shirt that says Ad Titoriam and that would be it

#listen the tin can might judge but he'd also wear it at least once #yes its definitely gonna follow you #from one fellow shitposter whos shitpost accidentally got popular to another i sympathize #if you ever see any cyberpunk post that begins with if johnny silverhand not romanceable then why (blank) that was me #that post haunts me #paladin danse

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optiwashere · 1 year ago

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Heya! Hope you're doing well.

You can call me opti (she/her). I write a lot of fanfiction! My AO3 profile has all my fanfic at the moment. It's mostly BG3 fic now, and nearly all of it is femslash. Most with a focus on trans women. I want to see more people like me in fic! 💜

I primarily write Shadowheart/OC works with my Tav, Asheera. I do write other ships, but I have a bias for my beloved trans woman half-orc paladin.

Where to start?

Light Casts a Shadow is the "core" series for my Shadowheart/Asheera fics. I've got way more than these for my babies, but those are where I suggest you begin!

Nightsongs is my completed modern/band AU where Shadowheart is in a metal band with a humanized Shar. Features a modern version of Asheera.

Blades in the Night is my ongoing longfic. It covers the immediate aftermath of BG3 as Shadowheart and Asheera deal with a group of Sharran assassins, an old enemy, and eventually (hopefully?) find their happily ever after.

My series page contains event series as well as ficlet collections and ship-centric series!

Tags on tumblr I use for fic-related things:

anotheropti prompt fics for Tumblr ask games! I'll gradually put these fics in this series on AO3.

oc: asheera for all sorts of asks folks send me about Asheera! Learn more about her if you like her :)

nightsongs au for stuff about my modern/band AU.

art of asheera where I post/reblog others' beautiful renditions of Asheera 💜

Other various tags I use:

hey you can ask me things! for ask responses.

random rambling about writing for, well, exactly what it says on the tin.

fandom tags I use: bg3, dos2, da posting, pathfinder wotr, signalis, malazan, tlt. I have other fandoms, but these are the most common atm. Will I remember to update this? Who knows.

non-spooky scheduled posting is my queue tag.

I don't track any personal tags. @ me/message me if you want me to see something!

#my fic #also: tags used and all that stuff

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andthekitchensinkao3 · 2 months ago

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Bits and Bobs, or the whole g-dabnit list of assorted fanfics by Yours Truly

Okay. Here goes.

A masterlist of all my fics? Here ya go!

Sorted by fandom, in alphabetical order. Whether it’s finished or a WiP will be pretty self-evident in the list, which will be updated as I go.

Baldur’s Gate (1)

A Promise Kept (13/13) also known as the BG3 fairytale mashup with Loki the TV series no one asked for.

A Lokius Fantasy Romance set in the BG3 universe, with all the fairytale tropes you can shake a stick at.

When Loki, youngest son of Odin Fraxinus of the Elder Tree, happens upon a charming former Paladin in Baldur’s Gate’s central market, his life is irrevocably changed. He hopes he’s finally found someone who’ll see him for who he truly is, and love him, body, mind and heart.

Unbeknownst to him, former Paladin Mobius not only has a troubled past, but an agenda of his own. Sent to spy on the Elder Trees’ host, Dyllard Portyr, for the tenday, Mobius is tasked to find out if he knows anything about Duke Ravengard’s disappearance. Or, if Odin does.

For, it is said, Odin once made a pact with a devil. A pact no one can discern the extent of, nor its ramifications in the present day.

But one thing is for certain: a promise kept is a promise fulfilled.

I’m posting this in a Series format on AO3, don’t ask me why.

Prologue (1/1)

Act 1: Love's Beginning (2/2)

Act 2: For Love or Duty (1/?)

Act 3: Love’s End (?/?)

Act 4: A Promise Fulfilled (?/?)

No, but literally. For every chapter I posted, it got fewer hits, likes and comments. It's now back as a multi-chaptered fic. Sigh.

Detroit: Become Human (26) (predominantly Hank/Connor RK800, but some Simon/Markus too)

Note: there’s 26 flippin’ fanfics in this category. I’m gonna add them over the weekend. In the meantime, click the fandom link to go to all of them. Below are a few of my own, personal favourites. If I can toot my own horn for a bit.

Metamorph (18/18) - my first ever DBH fic! HankCon, obviously. 137k, I kid you not. After a peaceful Android Revolution, Hank and Connor both try to navigate this new world they’re living in.

Silent Treatment (17/17) - in which the entire game plot is turned into a near-future sci-fi thriller. Go me!

The Knight and the Fool - fairytale mashup time! In which Hank is an old knight who goes to prove himself in a tourney, hoping to keep his farm running.

How to Create a Monster (10/10) - undercover high stakes, badass Connor, separate timelines and POVs.

Being Alive (19/19 ) - so I basically rewrote the whole HankCon third of the game, in a Reverse AU where Human!Cop Connor doesn’t smoke, is not a Gavin Reed knockoff, or “Hank” as played by Bryan Dechart instead of Clancy Brown.

Only You - A what-if spin and continuation on Being Alive, if that fic hadn’t had a happy ending.

Great Pretenders (1/1) - undercover shenanigans meet fake dating/fake relationship! Two of my fave tropes combined!

The Witch and the Werewolf - my prompt fill for a Halloween event. What it says on the tin, really. HankCon reimagined as a historical thriller with Sleepy Hollow vibes. And magic.

Spa Day (5/5) - Porn with Feels, in which Connor lovingly doms the heck outta Hank.

Loki (TV) (7-ish) (Loki/Mobius M. Mobius)

50 Years (1/1)

Between an ancient deity and an analyst with a heart of gold, 50 years isn’t nearly enough. It’s nothing. But it’s also more than long enough. And Loki has an idea for their fiftieth anniversary as lovers.

A Promise Kept - (a fairytale in four acts) A Lokius Fantasy Romance set in the BG3 universe, with all the fairytale tropes you can shake a stick at.

For, it is said, Odin once made a pact with a devil. A pact no one can discern the extent of, nor its ramifications in the present day.

But one thing is for certain: a promise kept is a promise fulfilled.

Loose Ends (6/?)

After the events of Tapestry of Time, Loki has his mind set on going back to Asgard. On his timeline, his branch, to either face the consequences of his actions, or discern Odin's role in everything that led up to his encounter with the Chitauri, and the assault on Manhattan.

Sledgehammer (2/2)

When an anonymous user sends an amateur porn clip to Loki’s TemPad, he doesn’t know what to think. Who sent it to him? Why? But he’s charmed by the easy swagger of a young Don leading the way into his bedroom, drawn in by his confident, laidback sex appeal.

But the longer he watches, the more difficult it is to stop. And once he’s watched the contents of the sex tape, there’s no turning back.

Question is how to keep going forward without inadvertently ruining his friendship with Mobius.

Tapestry of Time (10/10)

After the season finale, the TVA gang is left in a state of shock. None moreso than Mobius, who finds a note tucked into his breast pocket.

It says "I love you. Forgive me."

It changes everything, and sends Mobius on a quest to get Loki back, without dishonoring his sacrifice.

Turns out that's easier said than done.

Variations on the Theme of Us (2/?) - set in the same ‘universe’ as Sledgehammer, but after the events of that fic.

When Loki wants to do something nice for Mobius whether or not they have an actual anniversary coming up, he sneaks off to the Sacred Timeline on a whim.

Unbeknownst to him, the adult toy store he walks into is manned by none other than the Don of his combined wet dreams and nightmares. And Don? Spells all kinds of trouble.

Void (1/1)

Post-S2 finale, Mobius hacks his TemPad to recreate one of his own memories, and uses the time loop chamber thingie to relive it. Over. And over. And over again.

Person of Interest (1) (Reese/Finch)

How Not to Say I Love You (1/1)

When Reese and Finch go undercover to help a Number at a couples therapy weekend retreat, not everything is as it seems, and John has to navigate his own emotions while posing as someone whose situation hits too close to home.

#ao3 fanfic #lokius fanfic #dbh fanfic #hankcon #rinch fanfic #person of interest #poi #detroit become human #loki tv #time husbands

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honourablejester · 6 months ago

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Heart: The City Beneath Character Concept: Gnoll Vermissian Knight

Trying out actual character creation over here. And I really want my train knight, my armoured paladin of a warped subway network that got hooked into a vast, reality-breaking eldritch thing.

Character creation in Heart is pretty easy. Pick your ancestry, which has no direct mechanical impact. Pick your calling and record the core ability from it. Pick your class and record the core ability from it. Pick 1 major and 3 minor abilities from your class. Pick your equipment. Pick two starting story beats from your calling. Fill out the details around the mechanical core, including answering the questions from your ancestry and calling. Voila! So:

Character Sheet: Ahkoura Roselight, Vermissian Knight

Name: Ahkoura Roselight

Ancestry: Gnoll

Class: Vermissian Knight

Calling: Enlightenment

Skills: Discern (Enlightenment), Delve (Vermissian), Endure (Steelbones), Hunt (Phantom Lens)

Domains: Technology (Vermissian), Warren (Tunnel Rat)

Active Story Beats: Gain favour with a faction that can help you learn more about your goal. Find a helpful text.

Equipment: Scrapsword (kill, d6), Magelight Rig (delve, d6).

Resources: Spare Wires & Capacitors (technology, d6).

Trinkets: Small sphere with a southern star map on it (Gnoll). Brass-inlaid tin half-filled with brown, gritty stimulant (Gnoll). Book of handwritten theories and observations (Enlightenment).

Abilities:

Core Ability (Enlightenment): “UNORTHODOX METHODS. You blend together method and madness in pursuit of your goals. Gain the Discern skill. Once per session, before you roll dice to resolve an action, instead state that your result is a 6. You succeed but take stress.”

Core Ability (Vermissian Knight): VERMISSIAN PLATE. Your armour is made up of scavenged, barely-understood technology from the alternate realities inside the Vermissian network. Once per session, when you consume a resource with the Technology or Occult domains by augmenting or repairing your armour, roll the resource’s dice and choose one of the following:

• Remove stress marked against Blood, Mind or Echo equal to the amount rolled.

• Inflict stress on a delve or adversary equal to the amount rolled.

• (D8 resource or higher) Gain access to a skill or domain for the rest of the session.

• (D8 resource or higher) Increase your Blood protection by 1 for the rest of the situation.

Major Abilities (Vermissian Knight):

AETHERIC FIELD. Your armour buzzes with static that makes your hair stand on end; this discharge can keep you safe from the body-warping effects of the Vermissian. Once per session, activate this power. You gain +3 Echo protection until the end of the current situation.

Minor Abilities (Vermissian Knight):

TUNNEL RAT. You have performed the Rite of Suffocation, and know ways of slowing your breathing to survive longer. Gain the Warren domain. You can hold your breath for a very long time, allowing you to stay underwater or in toxic areas for extended periods.

STEELBONES. Your armour bolts onto special implants that absorb harmful energy and distribute it through your body. Gain the Endure skill. You can fall distances of up to 3 storeys without taking damage.

PHANTOM LENS. Various blood, ichors and spittles have been used to treat these lenses, allowing you to see into dimensions other than the material. Gain the Hunt skill. While you wear these lenses, you can track anything – even if it doesn’t leave a tangible trail.

Character Concept:

I wanted the Vermissian Knight:

“The Vermissian is a cursed, centuries-old mass transport network that the people from the City Above built to get from place to place quicker. To power it, they tapped into the wellspring of potential that is the Heart, and damned every single tunnel and station to eternal weirdness. The Vermissian never officially opened. Now, desperate people, fringe historians and heretic cults hide in the infrastructure, using the strange unreality within to further their own ends. Using barely-understood technology and living in the space between worlds, the Vermissian Knights do their level best to understand the parasite reality and protect others they find there. They are in high demand as companions on delves: they have an understanding of the Heart, a good sword arm and a suit of powered armour built from scavenged train materials that helps keep them (and their allies) alive. Knights will inscribe the names of landmarks that they have discovered, or found stable routes to, on their armour – it is as much a research project and an advertisement of their prowess as it is a means of protection. Each knight’s suit is utterly unique, using technology taken from a dozen different places: different gauges of steels, different weights and levels of protection and flexibility and controls that are often inscrutable to anyone but the creator themselves.”

I love them instantly and completely. I’m gonna be a train knight and explore a cursed mass transit system.

And because most of what I want to do with this character is explore a cursed mass transit network, I had two main callings to choose from: Adventure and Enlightenment. Adventure because exploration is half the goal of that calling, and Enlightment because I don’t just want to see things, I want to know how and why they happen. I did go for Enlightenment in the end. I don’t just want to explore the Vermissian as it is now, I want to seek forbidden, dangerous knowledge on how a fuck up this titanic and massive happened. And, possibly … could it be fixed? Or used?

And. With that in mind. Ancestry has no direct mechanical benefit in Heart. But. The gnolls. See, humans are the tinkerers of the setting, they’d have reasons to want to unravel the Vermissian. The aelfir, high elves, the ones who built it, might want to know how they’d botched it. But the gnolls. The gnolls are currently at war with the aelfir and the City Above, Spire. They’re the enemy. And the gnolls come from a techno-occult culture:

“The gnollish empire (and its capital city Al’Marah) is founded on their advanced demonological and mechanical abilities; there are tales of djinn being bound into brass spheres to power uncanny devices. In the confines of the Heart, where the gaps between realities are thin, they can achieve unthought-of results in mechanoccultism – and great machines from ages past thrum and whirr in the hidden depths, just waiting to be found.”

“Al’Marah, the capital city of the southern gnollish desert kingdom, has no state religion. The government there dictates that the souls of all people who die within sight of the central ziggurat of Al’Marah are absorbed into the Source: a coruscating realm of energy from which djinns and ifrits are drawn to power gnollish machinery. They know this to be a scientific fact because specially-shielded teams have braved the depths of the ziggurat, found heaven and reported back on it with first-hand eyewitness accounts.”

The Vermissian was an attempt to run a mass-transit system off occult energy bored from the core of an eldritch extra-planar nascent god/reality seed/parasitic reality/thing. And the gnolls. The gnollish capital city is powered by their heaven. They hooked up their machinery to their afterlife.

Can you imagine a gnoll coming to the Spire, looking at the massive fuck up that was the Vermissian, and just going … How did you all fuck up this badly? This is basic occult power transmission! What did you do, or what did you plug into, that managed to do this?

One of the options for how you, as a gnoll (who are, again, currently at war with the City Above), even wound up in the Heart in the first place is that you are an escaped prisoner of war. And I was thinking. She escaped through the Vermissian. She ran into the weirdness of the tunnels, and no one followed her, and it turns out there are good reasons no one followed her, and she nearly died (or worse than died), and the only reason she’s alive now is that the Vermissian Knights pulled her out of the mess and got her to Derelictus. So she’s washed up in the undercity, very battered, very confused, and maybe she should be thinking about how to continue escaping and get home, but …

What was that? What she saw in there. How do you get that? What has to happen?

And the Knights. The Knights helped her. They pulled her out of there. They looked after her.

And just. The Vermissian. How do you manage to get … What has to happen? What did you plug into? How did you do it so badly?

So she decided to stay. Nascent loyalty. Raw fascination. She decided to become a Vermissian knight, and work her way up the order, and somehow get to a point where she can find the original plans for the system, and figure out what the blue bloody hells went wrong.

She can justify it a bit. If this went so badly wrong here, will the ziggurat back home eventually go wrong too? Her people need to know. Maybe the enemy, the aelfir, just fucked up on a titanic scale, maybe the gnolls won’t ever have to worry about this happening because they’re not incompetent, but … just in case. What if it was something else? Is it just the nature of the Heart? What is the Heart, and how does it compare, technologically, with the Source? Was it a fuck up of method? Did the aelfir do something very silly with their couplings? What happened, and how replicable a mistake was it?

So. Her calling questions: What impossible thing is she hoping to achieve in the City Beneath? What’s the first step on her journey?

She wants to find the original blueprints for the Vermissian network. She wants to find the original insertion point, where the aelfir ‘dug deep into the City Beneath and pierced the Heart Itself, seeking to use its unimaginable energy to bind each station with one another on a mystical level’. She wants to find out what went wrong.

And her first steps there are to ingratiate herself with the Vermissian Knights, to join them, work for them, build up trust within the order. And to search for documentation that could give her hints towards what she seeks. Hence our starting Enlightenment story beats: “Gain favour with a faction that can help you learn more about your goal. Find a helpful text.”

For her Vermissian elective abilities, I kitted her out for exploration and tracking, mostly. I was tempted to give her ‘Black Knight’ to get the Occult domain, which would make sense from her backstory, and if I was actually running her I’d talk with a GM about that.

I also took no abilities that would actually give her any protection, aside from Aetheric Field. I probably should have. I was tempted by the Arcane Rebreather for permanent echo protection, or the obvious Armour Plating or Stalwart. But. I just want her to poke around? No fall damage. Ability to hang around underwater or in toxic locations. Tracking ability. I want her to look for things, not necessarily survive them. And, I mean, Vermissian Knights are fairly tough from a standing start.

So yeah. There’s Ahkoura Roselight. A gnoll Vermissian knight who just really, really wants to know, in exacting detail, how the hell you manage to fuck up this badly. Heh.

#ttrpgs #character concepts #heart the city beneath #vermissian knights #gnolls #she is very curious and opinionated #because good GRIEF how did you people fuck up this badly?

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