#to promote character he wants

[prettywitchiusaka]

I should clarify that I don't hate Doctor Doom, or Rayan North for that matter. Seeing an interview he did regarding his run on Fantastic Four not only made me like him, but it also makes me wanna go out and read/buy his run at some point.

No, what I hate is the absolute kick in the crotch this was to the on-going Doctor Strange title. This was something Jed had been building to for awhile, then it finally happens...and instead of just letting the main DS title continue for a bit, they cancel it...just so they can prop up Doom. Because apparently, it's more important we hype the return of Downey and Doomsday (which won't even be out until 2026, assuming there's no delays) and put Jed on an X-Men title, instead of letting Stephen just have his own Goddamn title for more than a year!!!

I could be wrong about that, but it just comes off as Kevin Feige thinking he's SOOOO much smarter than us, which, he's not!!! In doing this, you're alienating potential customers and long-time fans who are sick to death of constant cross-overs and repetitive story-telling (Seriously!? We're doing Emperor Doom, AGAIN!?) , and you're doing a disservice to the good doctor and his wife, which is why I'm here.

[wineaunt420]

It was low-key so hot when in the second batman live action, Cillian Crane said "I said my drugs would take you places, I never said they would be places you'd want to go"

I need Btaa scarecrow to say precisely those lines now because he is essentially Cillian crow just fan fitted to be more accurate.

(Huge ass massive character rant in the tags lol, I LOVE JON SO SO SO SO SO MUCH)

[kismetconstellations]

☆.☆.☆

[imsaunteringvaguelydownwards]

if I hear one more person say that Vik is ace I’m gonna go jump off a cliff (read the tags if u want a rant)

[pirateshelly]

While I very much do think Lestat is an extremely enjoyable/interesting/entertaining character (he's probably my least favorite in the show but that's entirely a me thing and it doesn't mean I dislike him he's just not a particular character type that tends to grab me!) I simply cannot imagine watching all of season 2 (which I personally enjoyed even more than season 1) and being like "this is really suffering from a lack of lestat". It just does not compute. My love for Louis and Claudia and Armand is simply so all encompassing that my brain just short circuits at the idea of watching them on screen and thinking "hmm this is fine I guess but what if lestat was here right now?"

And I am 100% looking forward to season 3 because I still do very much enjoy him as a character, and Louis and Armand and Daniel are still no doubt going to have solid roles even if it's a very Lestat focused season. But the thing that confuses and vexes me is when people (like a LOT of professional reviewers) act like he's THEE main draw and that the others simply aren't enough to hold the show up without him

[claitea]

read through the shadow triad's quotes page again and i'm wondering why they (or at least, one of them bc they only say this once) still say "Lord N" in bw2. if they're all loyal to ghetsis they shouldn't really care about n since he was just ghetsis's pawn right? they could have been calling n lord in bw1 to keep up appearances that n is the true king of team plasma but they don't have to do that into the sequel. wondering exactly how loyal they are to n

on a related note they do Not say "Lord Ghetsis" until the second game, even after the reveal that ghetsis was using n. then, after ghetsis's defeat, they stop using the word lord again but call themselves "royal servants" which is interesting to me. i think its some kind of honor thing where ghetsis lost the privilege of being called lord in their eyes but they're still part of the kingdom he attempted to build and so they're royal. but then why Not call him lord ghetsis in bw1? the first time they refer to him by name is while they're still serving n, so that could again be keeping up appearances, and the rest of the times are after ghetsis is defeated so it could be the honor thing again?

[dorindameddler]

Ok honestly I don’t really get people saying that assad has been sidelined in promotion? Armand is a side character in these first two seasons and I feel like he got promoted as such. He was on one of the big murals last season at sdcc and on the elevator and I feel like he gets just as many interviews as the others? Am I missing something

[ecogirl2759]

I am posting to literally every Fandom rn and I'm sorry but I neeeeed to get this out

I LOVE looking at Malorn Ashthorn through a very literal lense. Because that makes him literally one of the most tragic characters in Wiz <3

(Came back up after writing this whole post and realized it's kinda sorta very long. So, full rant is under the break ^w^)

Edit: Please forgive any spelling mistakes, I wrote this all on my phone, which sucks lol

Every time you go to Ravenwood, he's there. Malorn, without fail, is always standing by the crater at all times. (This is what I mean by literal lol, since his sprite just wasn't put in any other locations.) Other students keep coming and going throughout the day, able to take rests in their dorms and occasionally go on field assignments, but Malorn can't do that. He just has to stand there. Waiting.

He's practically forced to be there, too. He's "Acting Professor Ashthorn" after all. He has to be there just in case a student drops by, and everyone works on their own schedule. That includes all the other Death students, especially since they're on independent study and literally have no time table to work off of. So, to make sure he can actually do his job, he needs to be ready at all times. He needs to always be on the clock. He can't leave.

What's more, he can't even go to the headmaster's office. He can't leave his station, so he can't go negotiate with Ambros. He can't ask for breaks. He can't catch up on news. He can't give or receive progress reports, assignments or updates. Unless he's deliberately called, he is, quite literally, trapped in this catch22 of seclusion.

Malorn also can't further his own learning in any meaningful way. All his other fellow students are off on assignments, doing practical work and honing their spells. Not to mention that it seems--based on Penny's side quest--that Ambros is the one who gives them their work. But Malorn can't move. Even if he got assignments, he would never be able to complete them. He's literally not allowed to learn.

Also, no one really ever shows up to Malorn's little corner of Ravenwood anymore. The other students don't actually need to go to him for anything, since they know most if not all the same spells he does, as well as not needing to turn their assignments in to him. New lore suggests that studying Death magic is wildly unpopular now that Malistaire is dead/evil/dead again, and old lore states that the already existing Death students are actively being discouraged from continuing their studies / persuaded to study different schools. Considering how few Death students you come across in-game, (keeping in mind that they have to be out and about since they have no classroom to congregate in,) it's probably safe to assume that many of the previous Death students were successfully deterred. I can't imagine Malorn sees much traffic anymore.

Even after the Death School is found by the Wizard and classes are said to resume, (even though the connection to Nightside is unstable? Eh, anyway,) Malorn is never seen outside of his usual spot. He literally cannot go to class anymore because he's too busy being Acting Professor. He now has to stand there in his usual spot, directing students to the actual Death School. (Because no one can put the building back, I guess. -_-)

And Malorn isn't even recognized for his hard work, either! Despite always being as helpful and friendly as possible, doing a pretty great job at being Acting Professor (if you ask me), he's never rewarded. The Wizard graduates, and Dwargyn is promoted to Death Professor. AND MALORN STILL HAS TO JUST STAND THERE!

Though, that also calls into question whether or not he actively wanted the role of Acting Professor or not. Sure, he's great at it, and yeah, he makes the most with what he can. But is he Acting Professor because he genuinely wanted to take up that mantle, or is he Acting Professor because he was the best of the Death students at the time? (I mean, I imagine it's because he wanted to, but we technically don't know for certain.)

Last but not least, no one likes the Death School kids. Both in old and new lore, some of the kids express how creepy the Death School is to them. They think the Death students are weird and freaky. The kids are ostracized by the rest of the Ravenwood student body simply because necromancy gives them the heebie-jeebies. So for Malorn to be stuck in Ravenwood, all day every day, surrounded by people who other him and look down on him not only because he's a necromancer, but because (I imagine) some of the kids would see his title of Acting Professor as him "sucking up to Ambros" or "thinking he's as great as Malistaire was" or "looking down on other regular students" or any other number of uncharitable assumptions. It would be hard for anyone to handle that kind of treatment for an extended period of time, including Malorn.

Malorn probably feels an immense amount of pressure from everyone's expectations of him as a Death student, an honor student, and as Acting Professor. Even though there's nothing for him to do most of the time, he still has to do it perfectly. He can't afford to fail his classmates. His friends. He's now in charge of their education, so if they fall behind, he'll be the one to blame. He has to show Ambros that Death is still worth studying, even if Malistaire might be gone. He can't make the Death School seem weak in the eyes of the other students by slacking off or being inhospitable. So he keeps a smile on his face as he stands by himself, forced to play Professor without ever getting the recognition or power of one, all while still being a student actively in school, unable to grow and get stronger with his peers due to being secluded and forbidden to leave.

"Acting Professor Ashthorn" isn't even a Professor. He's just a lonely school boy, trying to do his best, yet always coming up short.

It's sad.

[demonir]

if he has 5000 fans I'm one of them, if he has 100 fans I'm one of those, if he as 1 fan I am that one, if he has 0 fans I have died and gone to hell to see him personally. I rest my case

[sysig]

*chanting* Second pet, second pet, second pet! (Patreon)

[trollbreak]

*raises hand* are we interns allowed to diddle the beastly? or does he have a mate?

[You find yourself face to face with an exhausted looking troll in a lab coat, clipboard in hand. It seems you’ve caught them doing checks over the habitation space. This is clearly not the head of the project.

They sigh, deep enough to carry all the air from their lungs.]

“…Please do not… diddle… the experiments.”

[nacrelysis]

i haven't been this worried about childe in a while. i refuse to believe that his absence of a vision in the trailer and his health issues directly correlated to delusion/foul legacy use are not terrible foreshadowing.

focalors, did you reverse-uno this man? did you revoke his vision? what on earth is going ON with mr worldwide childe tartaglia ajax greatest toy salesman in teyvat eleventh of the nine fatui harbingers old man lover

[beevean]

The more I think about S4 and how much of a rushjob the Styria plotline was, the more amazed I am at the utter failure that the ring is. When you really, really think in detail about how it works, it's so easy to see the gaps in logic in it.

What were the issues of using Hector to create an army for the Styrian council?

He would be able to create an army for himself that he could sic against the sisters. The ring allows them to assume control of the Night Creatures. We only see this as a short flash when Hector forges a creature, but he has to cut his own finger to force his army to stop attacking Isaac, so the ring had solved this. One point!

He doesn't want to be there. The ring binds him to the castle. However, considering Hector's plan apparently involved creating an escape channel that would connect his forge to Carmilla's quarters at the top, which he apparently planned to use to run away ("I had to assume I might be running from the top of the castle one day"), it seems that his own magic would have been strong enough to break the spell.

Striga wants to strike the iron while it's hot and take advantage of the chaos in the region, and Lenore is taking too much time in "domesticating" him with good ol' fashioned gaslighting and manipulation. The ring brutally speeds things up: this could have been a nice plot point to show how prideful and eager to prove herself Lenore is, but in S4's quest to woobiefy her, it goes nowhere. Still, it can be seen as an answer to Striga's issue, so two points.

However, in the same scene, Striga also points out the paradox of relying on dead bodies to make an army when they need living humans to feed. This is straight up an issue with using a Forgemaster, not the way Hector would be made to work. And she is right! But while we see mercenaries in the castle when Isaac assaults it, this problem never comes up again, and Hector is delivered as many bodies as he needs. This logic paradox is completely ignored for the sake of pretending Lenore "won".

He doesn't want to work for people who hurt him. Lenore was actually doing a good job at convincing him to work for them with solid reasons, such as the fact that they shared the same plan and Lenore was willing to improve his life conditions and, by the time the idea of mercenaries comes up, she liked him enough that she was his only chance of being kept alive... then she raped him to put the ring on him, and as the beginning of S4 shows, Hector can stall for time as much as he wants. He still doesn't want to work, as we see later he's actually doing things behind everyone's backs, and nothing forces him to obey any orders. Lenore, his own mistress, has to plead to get him to move on!

That's two out of five, by the way, and one point only lead to bad consequences.

Lenore really did the exact same thing Carmilla was chastized for, breaking Hector's trust before securing his cooperation, and the story... is odd from now on. If you lay down the events, it seems that the ring's failure was an intentional plot beat: of course Hector would refuse to work for the woman who betrayed him. It looks like an honest mistake on Lenore's part, much like Carmilla beating him and then expecting him to do her bidding. But Hector actually doesn't display any anger like he did for Carmilla, and the two are on good terms... even though he planned to run away and bring back Dracula... even though he also waited for Isaac to kill him... even though he spares Lenore's life because she doesn't deserve to be hurt... even though he completely destroyed her life by causing Carmilla's death...? I honestly don't understand if it's a writing failure or not... which makes it inherently a writing failure lol. At least Carmilla got thoroughly called out for her idiocy.

The more I think about it, the more this mess seems to be caused by two ideas badly meshed together: it's possible that in the first draft, Hector was meant to betray Lenore and the others (remember the foreshadowing with the fireplace), which would explain his plotting behind the scenes, his little "thanks again for that", and the way he caused Styria's downfall... but then someone in the team decided to ship Hector and Lenore together, so the ring got completely nullified to remove as many reminders of her past cruelty as possible and he displays zero emotions other than vague fondness for her. With this in mind, it becomes effectively impossible to determine if the ring's ineffectualness was planned to facilitate Hector's revenge or was a result of rushed writing to facilitate Lenector.

A very, very simple solution to this entire mess would have been revealing that Lenore... never wanted Hector to work in the first place. She didn't like Carmilla's plan, but she wanted to save his life because she found him cute and wanted a sex slave pet, and she knew that the others were waiting for a good reason to get rid of him. So it was for her sake, and in her mind Hector's, but not for the council, who was planning to do something she didn't approve of and doesn't respect her anyway. That would have been nice, fit Lenore's established moral code (to be fair, she does look a little miffed at the idea of keeping humans in pens, and while she tells Hector that it's their plan, it's obvious she's only trying to manipulate him and has no feelings on the matter), and very selfish personality. Who cares about the livestock? She wants this new puppy! And she'll save it from mean Carmilla, because despite all the gaslighting and sexual coercion and trickery, she is a good person and likes feeling good! And if she can stick it to Striga who underestimated her, even better!

In short: no, the ring wasn't meant to work, only keep Hector docile!

I like this idea of Lenore having her own agenda and being with the council only out of mutual convenience: they don't like her but use her, and same goes for her. As long as they live nicely without causing issues, she cooperates, but Carmilla's plan is idiotic, so she snatches the pet for herself: from there, it's easier to have an arc where she grows to care for Hector as a person, without the pressure of the council who she doesn't care for in the first place, being fully aware of being nothing more than a tool to them (hint hint). And Hector can be as torn as he is supposed to be, but ultimately choosing to make Styria fall and only keep Lenore alive, but in a way that crushes her heart.

And since it's common to whitewash Lenore in S3 and assume she was a better person than what she actually was, no, I don't believe this was the intention:

Lenore wouldn't have pitched her deal to Carmilla, which was "he'll work for us in exchange for the freedom of the castle". She wouldn't have even set up the expectations, because then no shit Carmilla would get "very cross". She could have kept it for herself and agreed with Striga's suggestion to hire mercenaries.

In fact, the very first perk of the ring she mentions is that now Hector's Night Creatures would obey the council as well, eliminating the danger of him using them to attack them. This is literally the only function of the ring that is shown in S4. Lenore expected Hector to work for them and was happy to reassure the sisters that he was no longer a threat.

In fact, she didn't even need to coerce him in the first place! By the time Lenore decides to resort to rape by deception, Hector already trusted her and saw her as a source of comfort and protection. With the reveal that Carmilla was considering using mercenaries, i.e. no longer needed him, Lenore became the only person he could cling to to be safe. He would have pledged loyalty by himself - hell, he would have accepted a binding ring - if Lenore just asked. She literally only raped him for her own sadistic satisfaction.

In the dick jokes scene, Lenore sounds worried that she can't keep Carmilla at bay, but her solution is pleading pretty please for Hector to work, in a tone that implies that it's what she expects from him as well. The complete lack of apology for any morally questionable action she has taken doesn't help assuage the impression - as I have stated multiple times, the show is not subtle, and if Lenore meant to go behind Carmilla's back and was deliberately being twofaced, she would have admitted it.

The entire tone of the scene where Lenore gloats to the sisters for enslaving Hector is "see? I'm just as good as you! I'm not a stupid little girl, I'm smart and important! So there for underestimating me!". It was not about Hector. It was about her reputation. Which, incidentally, is exactly what she moans about in S4, that she will stop being important to the council after she solved "Hector's problem".

So yes, Lenore really expected Hector to work for her after breaking his heart, and pulled the mother of all shockedpikachufaces.jpg when he didn't. Although he still fell in love with her. Although he still planned to betray all of them. Although he still cared to save her life letting everyone else die.

It's just amazing to me. The more I try to meet the writing from different angles, the more issues I find. true peak.

I guess I can chalk this up to yet another way I could fix the plotline: have Lenore be a wild card in the council, and have her using everyone around her, to the point that no one can trust her, and she's only a Queen because someone like her is best to have as an ally and not as an enemy. Only after Hector betrays her, she starts to regret her actions: because for the first time in her existence, she had grown to care about someone other than herself, but by then, the damage was irreparable.

[palettepainter]

Seeing the drama rise in Hazbin cuz people like problomatic characters is reminding me why I distanced myself from this fandom to begin with

(I was gonna put this in the tags but not everyone reads them, and to avoid getting those types of anons again when I was in Hazbin/Zoophobia I'm going to clarify what should be obvious: Liking/drawing a problomatic character in a show or movie does not mean you stand by their actions or beliefs)

[thatsrightice]

“Sh!t,” Ice sighed, staring at the phone screen. “I’ve got to take this.”

“Come on, Ice,” Slider complained. “You promised no phone calls tonight.”

“Yeah well that was before Admiral Mirth decided to take an unexpected business trip,” Ice scoffed, bringing the phone up to his ear. The irritation radiating off of him as he headed for the exit of the banquet hall was obvious as people moved quickly to get out of his way.

“What? To where?”

“He🏒🏒,” Ice barked over his shoulder.

“What? Tom!” Slider shouted, but the man was already gone.

[kirkwallguy]

I was surprised they didnt touch on anything transition/hrt related with veilguard either tbh even in like a throwaway codex entry. Considering we got ones about like Taash talking to the shadow dragons/other canonically trans characters about stuff youd think maybe this would be the perfect game to consider addressing it but they never do. Very sad about that

honestly this is one of the reasons i really hate how transness is done in the game and why it feels so hollow. there's no attempt to actually engage with what being queer in thedas would actually look like beyond "i came out, some people were nice and some people weren't but that's life i guess" which is an oversimplified narrative for OUR world let alone a semi-medieval fantasy setting. even a little "i'm lucky i learned creation magic / was good at alchemy / live somewhere where blood magic is legal so i could control my transition" from mae or "i saved up every coin i earned until i could see some backalley healer for surgery" from tarquin would make it feel more like transness actually exists in thedas. i'm very interested in the current trend in mainstream media that sanitises queer experiences to the point that it strips them of anything meaningful, i guess it's a semi-appropriate reaction to the years of exploiting trauma narratives but i selfishly preferred those because it at least felt like there was some form of emotional connection going on there.