#unrelated to the text but.

[wormzandgutz]

Interview with Chat Noire!

[aropride]

frankly i think most of the hate for mcyt fans isn't even about dream anymore i think it's more like the internet version of when you're in middle school and the popular kids make fun of you for being a weird autistic loser to prove that they're one of the cool normal middle schoolers and not a weird autistic loser like you

[u3pxx]

look into his angeleyes, one look and you're hypnotized he'll take your heart and you must pay the price

[captainknackig]

Stargate SG-1 as text posts (5/12)

[dailykafka]

— September, 1920 / Letters to Milena

[sualne]

carnis au or also 'one meat', have some lore!

[eightyones]

Oscar Piastri during Free Practice 3 at the Italian Grand Prix in 2023

[reunionandthen]

forelibe you will always be famous

[samglyph]

Arthur Lester was born on March 30th, 1900, it’s currently (prior to episode 41) sometime in winter 1934-35 approximately given what we know, meaning that Arthur is 34. And that he’s an Aries.

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

This. is the first time I've drawn Makoto

...

anyways i've been thinking about this text post for weeks

[catspritesquared]

id like to have hope for hs2 like evryone else right now(lie) but also like within this new chapter theyve made like 3 meme references which just instantly curse it to become dated. like i know old hs2 did this too or whatever (i hated it then too.) biut like… in this upd8 they made a berries and cream joke… they made a how hungry joke… they made sollux say ‘no bitches’… release me from this hell. this comic is unsalvageable

[demigods-posts]

fanfic idea where percy is on the cusp of receiving his final recommendation later and despite doing everything that was asked of him, he doesn't earn it. he's quick to anger because he's done everything the gods have asked of him since he was twelve. he's quick to anger because he fought in a war on his sixteenth birthday to dismantle a neglectful system that still exists. he's quick to anger because he never wanted to be a half-blood. he just wanted to save his mom and got trapped in a vicious cycle. and as angry as he is, he does not lead a revolt or attempt to destroy the gods. instead, he gives up his sword and asks his father to remove his powers because all he wants is a normal life, and he's going to get that with or without the gods' help.

[utilitycaster]

if you're up to elaborating, i would love to hear more about your complicated feelings on Taliesin's reads of this campaign, because that's something that's been itching my brain but I'd been having a hard time pinpointing why and I'm interested to hear your thoughts!

So I think it's best summarized in part as a combination of what was said in this post I just reblogged and these tags from @kerosene-in-a-blender on this post:

#yeeeaaaahhhh#ngl it seems like the characters and parts of the cast got so caught up in the potential moral dilemma of interventionist gods#that they forgot the gods of exandria aren't particularly interventionist#critical role#critical role spoilers#cr spoilers

Ashton feels like they learned something about their own arrogance and assumptions with Shardgate...and then it just vanished. And the fact that Taliesin genuinely read that as what was supposed to happen when like 3-4 authority figures, some of whom (Allura) have existed since Campaign 1 as People To Listen To had said "This is a bad idea" in plain language does give me pause because like...with all due respect, I get why Ashton would do this anyway! But come on, man, how do you hear that and not go "oh maybe it's a bad idea."

I don't want to read in too much to cooldown and 4SD either but I really do just feel that like...some of the cast, and Taliesin isn't alone in this but definitely seems to be using it the most in-game, have come under the impression that the purpose of this campaign is specifically to upend everything we knew...but that idea is just an assumption that is not supported, and as I've said repeatedly, there is no situation in which the world is not drastically changed - there's going to be either a hostile alien invasion, or a friendly alien migration, but either one will be monumental within Exandrian history, and that's not counting the establishment of the Accord/the collapse of local institutions in both the Dwendalian Empire and Bassuras/ If one cannot see any possibility for vast change within the world other than killing/driving out the gods, I don't know how to address this nicely. This is an uncreative and stupid position that I can't engage with because it's so stupid. It's like saying World War II didn't change anything in our world because at the end of it the US and USSR both still existed largely intact. So the over-focus on only one means of change in a way that feels based on an interpretation of this campaign's purpose that isn't even stated anywhere is telling and deeply frustrating.

As the second post indicates, it feels like some of the cast, Taliesin especially, got caught up in a theological argument of divine intervention that personally I had a great time debating in Hebrew school when I was 13, but is not ultimately true in Exandria (or reality, for that matter). On some level it's like maybe read some Harold Kushner and you'll calm down; it feels like you're arguing against like, some very real religious tenets (that are not exclusively Christian for once) but in a story where that's not actually a problem.

I'd throw in that Bells Hells sit in this awkward place of not being nobodies (or Nobodies) anymore but many are still acting like it and Ashton is at the forefront. Indeed, look at the name "the Nobodies." The problem is that Ashton is a Somebody now. He's not like, the ruler of a city, or an ancient dragon, or a god. But they're someone who has the personal raw power and the connections to survive an ill-considered second shard absorption. They're someone who is easily going to survive a fall out of a window, and who can't be bound into service. They are someone who has been entrusted by the world to assist in saving it, and they're too fixated on the gods not personally saving them to consider the vast potential harm to others, and I think it's not inherently out of callousness but rather that they've rather abruptly risen from "orphan criminal who expected to be dead by 30" to "guy tasked to save the world" but they have no option but to rise to the occasion, as the Raven Queen said. To change the world, he must change himself, and I feel like Taliesin, who often enjoys the idea of characters who don't change, is perhaps too wed to that concept for this particular narrative. And, for what it's worth: I've said it before that my personal preference is to keep the gods in place...but I would genuinely be MILES happier with a party that decisively had decided to kill the gods. I would not agree with their decision, but anything is better than this indecision. And since Ashton is pretty staunchly in favor of killing the gods and the rest of the party is varying degrees of strongly against (Orym, Braius), weakly against (Chetney, Fearne, Imogen, increasingly Laudna) and unsure but worried specifically about the mortal impact (Dorian) at some point it's like. Either say "I don't like this, but this is the party's plan" or leave. The decisiveness matters on an individual level too; because Bells Hells does not have good internal methods of resolving conflict for reasons stated above and below, at some point it's like. You have to give it up because no one will make you. If Ashton genuinely cannot or will not yield on this, either commit to betraying the party (totally valid, could be a great story) or have them leave; if Ashton does trust the party, have them reluctantly give in. A party-wide choice must be made and fast. The party is aimless because they are all pulling in different directions and it all cancels out, but Ashton is definitely contributing extensively to that agonizing stasis.

I suppose I should wrap up with what I've been saying a lot but should probably go on this post which is that a lot of the flaws in this campaign are not any singular person's fault. I really do feel like they began with the fact that Matt was clearly building to this specific story, and Bells Hells were not a party terribly suited to it in the first place and then were given an earlier narrative that, because it was heavily on rails to get them to the solstice setpiece, failed to give them the tools to become people who would be prepared for this endgame. I think Matt really wanted the cast to make the decisions here, and did not have a specific decision in mind, and now they're all finding that they're playing characters who can't make that decision. It's a culmination of a lot of smaller out-of-game choices that have failed to gel into a coherent whole. When I say the Raven Queen was right, and if they are not ready for this, to go home, I don't think the party should be tpk-ed or anything, but yeah, if they can't decide what to do when they are essentially tasked with killing the BBEG and diffusing the universe-shattering bomb, they should abdicate. I don't think a story in which the heroes fail is a bad one. I know Call of the Netherdeep has been a touchstone in the fandom throughout this campaign and there's one possible ending to that that's sort of unsatisfying, but the unsatisfying nature itself makes it an interesting story to me. I think this campaign ending with the party saying "we can't do this" is vanishingly unlikely, and complaints aside I think they will probably make a decision now but it all feels exceedingly doylist - Bells Hells are the characters the cast happens to be playing for this climactic final moment so I guess they will play those characters, and those characters will have to make a choice so that the final moment happens, but it doesn't feel terribly organic.

[disabled-battlekukku]

Thimking about how Shadow treats Metal in Rivals 2 and how Metal responds to this...

The way Shadow understands Metal without the need for words

The way Shadow chats with Metal even when he doesn't know if Eggman's communicator is working or not

The way Metal immediately dashes to Shadow when Eggman says "bad transmission, grave danger"

The fact that Metal rarely uses his "code talk" around Shadow besides that one time when the Ifrit is approaching them

The fact that when they're entering the Ifrit Dimension, Eggman never mentions Metal's existence but Shadow does

How he refers to Metal 3.0 as "Eggman Nega's copy of Metal Sonic" and NOT "Eggman Nega's copy of Sonic".

The way Shadow just seems happy around Metal

The fact that Metal Sonic GAVE HIS LITERAL CURRENT FUCKING HEART TO SHADOW TO SAVE THEM

[pocketgalaxies]

it always comes back to the gods having this big picture view of the world with no sentiment for any particular mortal living in it. "i don't know what will happen once we are chased away but i trust things will balance themselves out" how can you say that to a group of people who will be trapped on this planet during this completely ambiguous and almost certainly calamitous "balancing" process

[ollylotl]

ashe is the coolest kid at the sleepover