#warts and all

[askagamedev]

A follow up to your answer about veilguard (was really hoping you would touch on that one). Why do game companies that have a “bad” release always seem to start from the bottom of the pyramid when it comes to restructuring and recouping losses? Why fire low level devs who did their best with what they had, when the companies have people in senior positions making hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not more) that they could just cut from? Why do the trenches always get the punishment first?

The short answer is because shit rolls downhill. For a longer and more nuanced answer, there's multiple factors to consider.

The main issue is that the company is trying to cut costs immediately. This is usually for two major reasons:

Reassure investors to keep them from dumping the stock and driving down the company's value

Save as much money as they can from their current stockpile for other projects still in development.

If the company goes under because it can't make payroll company-wide, everybody is doomed regardless. A gecko will sacrifice its tail in order to escape with its life. A crab will tear its own claw off to survive. A company will always cut staff to keep itself afloat.

The next factor is that each major experience level up a dev attains tends to be a geometric difference in productivity. [A large task that would take a junior dev two months to complete might take a mid-level dev one month and a senior dev only a week or two]. This is why senior devs are entrusted with the bigger and more critical tasks. Further, the typical quality of work that a senior dev produces is much higher than what you'd get from a mid-level or a junior. I'm a senior dev and I cost the team a large amount of money to keep, but paying for just me is still significantly cheaper than paying a pair of mid-level designers or three/four juniors.

The next factor is that most big layoffs come after a project has shipped. This is because a given project is at its maximum headcount right before it ships - you need all hands on deck during full production, building and validating all of the content in the game. There needs to be other projects in development to pay for those people after the game launches. If the game launches well, a significant portion of the team can stay on to do post-launch content and the others can join in-progress projects at the studio or at other studios owned by the publisher. In the case of a bad launch the post-launch content gets cancelled because there just aren't enough players to make building the post-launch content financially viable and the people who were supposed to build it have no new project to pay for their salaries.

There's also the factor of how projects have different needs at different times. You always need a core team to get a project off the ground - engineering who can put together the foundations of the game, design that can prototype and build core gameplay, art that can establish a new visual standard for a new game. But you likely don't need an army of designers to build content for a game that doesn't have any core gameplay yet, gameplay engineers to flesh out systems that haven't been designed yet, artists to model and skin characters that haven't been concepted yet, or QA to test content that hasn't been built yet. You need those folks when you're in production and all of the groundwork has been laid.

These are the nominal reasons why job cuts always start from the bottom - the juniors and mid-levels have the least to do when a game gets cancelled or a bad launch happens and the cost to keep them all adds up significantly. The fact that it also shields decisionmakers and middle managers is, of course, also in there. This is also why I never offer or expect loyalty to or from an employer, especially a large publicly-traded one. They will never sacrifice their own survival (or even advantage) to keep me, so I should never expect more than a business relationship from them that could end at any time.

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[sonik-kun]

Nah, I'm sorry, but Jiang Cheng did NOT consent to receiving Wei Wuxian's golden core. If he did, that scene wouldn't have been as big as a surprise for not only us as the readers but also JC himself.

That scene was a MASSIVE plot twist. It wouldn't have been had JC consented or demanded that WWX hand over his core to him.

Not only that, if it was all completely consensual, WWX and the Wen siblings wouldn't have had to have kept that secret hidden from JC and the rest of the world for all those years. It would have become public knowledge. And who knows, it may have even paved the way for future core transplant surgeries. But it didn't. Because it was kept in secret and it was kept in secret for a reason.

Because Jiang Cheng would have never agreed to it.

Jiang cheng was lead to believe that he would get HIS OWN core back from Boashan Sanren. He was never told it would be a core transplant. He was lead to believe he would be receiving a new core of his own. Especially since this Boashan Sanren was a fabled woman, known for her inhuman abilities.

Why else would WWX mislead JC up the mountain, blindfolded, and told him to pretend that he was WWX? He did so because he knew that JC would never consent to Wen Qing experimenting on him, on top of removing WWX's core and putting it into his own body.

WWX knew that JC would NEVER agree to that, that's why he made the whole thing up.

So whilst WWX and the Wen siblings were acting within JC's best interests, it was still nonconsenual. He didn't agree to that surgery. Your idea of medical consent is completely skewed if you think otherwise.

Patients always have the right to withdraw consent and reject treatment. And they should always be made aware of what treatment and surgeries they will be receiving in order to accept or reject said treatment.

So yes, by modern medical law standards, it was nonconsenual surgery.

For the sake of fiction and it being in an ancient setting, I'll let it slide and not apply such logic here in WWX's case. But if we're really going to go there and argue the ethics behind it, I'll stand here and say that it was completely nonconsenual, and JC had every right to be upset by it. Especially since said surgery cost WWX his life, which JC was more than willing to sacrifice his OWN LIFE for.

[crushheadwithrock]

who the hell drew this in my whiteboard

fess up that is NOT my charlie dompler https://r2.whiteboardfox.com/23729065-8226-3736

come join and draw charpim pls and not this

[ramlightly]

Hey ram, do you still use ao3 to write shorts stories about your characters?? I kinda curious if you still wanna use it?

Or do you write somewhere else?

Hey there!

I do write short stories, but a lot of my writing energy has been focused on the Temptations at the moment. I have a couple of short story ideas for after Part 2 is finished but I tend to keep them to patreon. But I was thinking as I build a bit more of a backlog of post some of the short stories publicly again, with maybe an illustrated version behind a paywall or something. Alas, I'm a pretty slow writer, so one day!

[shallowseeker]

Jack is just trying to understand things, and nothing is making much sense

In the wake of Cas’s death, Cas's strength and control seem to become crystallized, maybe even idealized. But Jack, still learning and volatile, is held to that impossible standard.

Every mistake becomes another way he falls short of his father.

Interesting that Jack has been mostly silent throughout these two episodes, being willfully calm to Sam when they speak in the cell, and even oddly wise when he speaks to Dean about the pain of the tattoo. "I understand. Pain is a sign of maturity."

YET. HERE!!!!!!

It's when Dean first compares him to Cas, that Jack BALKS and SPEAKS UP with a glimmer of sass: "I'm right here, you know."

It's the very first flicker of real irritation. And Dean actually pauses to turn to him, but only for a second.

////

relevant to x - x - x

///

ANYHOO It's tragic how Jack’s lack of control gets compared to Cas’s control so EARLY (AND OF NOTE: In Tombstone we'll see that ... it continues even when Cas gets back bzzzt)

ASIDE// Gotta love the cracks going up the walls and bedroom divider of the hotel and all the empty, empty chairs.

///

*son of heaven tries to make himself so sooooo small*

///

Jack wanted this idyllic picture of his parents: his SMILING mother when she and Jack were choosing Cas and Cas’s protective hand on her belly. ->

But deep down he remembers a flash of something else, something darker-- There was also her fear, her uncertainty, her DESPAIR... that co-existed with her optimism and love.

He ALSO gets these specific flashes from the beginning of 12x19, when his mother used a broken mirror to try to kill herself... to KILL HIM.

(KELLY: "There is no happy ending for either of us. If this is what you really are, what you'll do to the world, all that pain, all that death, I can't let that happen. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.")

Truth is, deep down, Jack at the very least FEELS that Kelly tried to kill him. (Aside// And then Cas came to kill them and he couldn't pull the trigger, but I'm not sure if Jack remembers that.)

And now Dean is saying they need to kill him. (Which is, BTW, exactly what is triggering this dark memory of Kelly's experience in 12x19...)

Jack just can't seem to escape that people who might love him... balk at the thought of what he is, at what he can do.

(golden soul, hellish underpinnings)

////

But Sam. Sam gets that:

Sam Winchester has spent his life trying to be a "Black Hat" magician—transforming all the darkness inside of himself into something good, something useful.

Sam tries to embody the Magician—he’s a scholar, a ritualist, a man haunted by dark knowledge. And his struggle often toes the line between transformation and manipulation, between good and evil.

ANYWAY SAM.

Sam's optimism re:power is indeed a bright spot. However, we'd be remiss to overlook that It's more comfortable to for Sam talk about Jack's powers than... other things.

And HERE also is Sam's GIANT missed opportunity. Jack figures out that whatever is going on with Dean, it's HUGE.

Jack is intuitive.

So he asks Sam DIRECTLY:

And Sam... Bless him. He waffles.

I mean, yeah: “he is spun out also.”

So he defaults to... ACADEMIZING these emotions bby:

(SAM: Yissss. Good job, self. You NAILED THAT EXPLANATION.)

Meanwhile Jack: ......

(SAM: Now to get the focus OFF Dean-emotions and back on the POWERS: )

"And right now, we need to protect you, but we may also need to protect people from you."

I love how here, Sam wraps emotion in intellect, and he completely obfuscates Dean’s emotions behind "responsibility/duty."

Sam pushes for momentum, grounded in the hope that moving forward will somehow be enough. His hope—quiet and persistent—is deeply important, even if it’s sometimes unbalanced in ways that inevitably come back to bite him in the ASS

[lastflunky]

Sinners is really good and you should see it!

Spoilers

OK! I want to talk about this movie from a white Irish perspective as its really important.

Ireland is in a unique position. We have suffered from colonialism but we also benefit from white supremacy. These days an Irish immigrant will be welcomed in places like America and Canada with open arms.

At the worst we will endure off colour remarks about the famine or Irish names and language is mocked or we get represented as stereotypes. Which does suck. But poc (both Irish and not) have it soooooooooo much worse.

We have a long history of suffering from either Britain or the Roman Catholic church. We are still processing the potato famine. I live in their shadows and it's an odd feeling that's hard to describe.

Remmick has experienced colonialism first hand but he isn't immune to being racist. He wants to use Sammie to bring back HIS culture and people. He erases Black & Chinese culture to perform HIS music. Everyone being stuck in a hive mind was VERY intentional. He sees his actions as "saving" people from the KKK but he is erasing him. Much like Get Out, he is the type of white person who would say "I sees no colour uwu" and then proceeds to take people and homogenised them. Yer man was 🤏 this close to accusing everyone of reverse racism. Remember Slim did say something like "white people like our music but not us".

Like a lot of Irish immigrants, he was able to integrate. He speaks in a southern accent and is racist towards Native Americans to gain the KKK's Kouples sympathy. Remmick being Irish is important. Irish Americans love using their heritage as a shield against criticism. Making up shit like "the Irish were slaves too". There were no Irish slaves but there were Irish slave owners.

Ireland can be racist. So many people like to think Ireland is all white place and Irish poc spung up overnight. (Chirst where do they think the spice bag came from). With the Internet, Irish racists these days are just parroting American racists. They attack libraries, they burn buildings for refugees and they use the same talking points. It feels like they've been taking over by something else. The Government barely does anything about. In fact they love using refugees as a scape goat for the housing crisis!

Tldr: COOGLER IS RIGHT TO CALL OUT THE IRISH!!! LET👏 HIM 👏COOK!!!!

I swear to God is any of ye try to turn Remmick into your sad little meow meow I will bite you!!!! He is sympathetic and does a funny jig, yes, but he's still a special kind of EVIL! If you want a sad wet cat of a vampire, Monsignor Pruitt from Midnight Mass is over there!

Edit: Seriously though, there's a bunch of wonderfull characters in this movie. My heart broke seeing them becoming vampires and die. I do not want people to just water this movie down to wow white evil vampire🥰. (Yes I'm aware I am doing this but I'm pointing out why he's important to the story not calling him a sweet cinnamon roll)

[brisketlungsminyard]

piece of the EC we dont talk about enough

[shadesofmauve]

Reels, testing my thumb's tolerance for bow triplets a bit more. And apparently my memory's tolerance for the A part of "Pigeon on a Gate", which I managed to play fine the first time before it decided it wanted to morph into a different tune at that phrase.

...which basically means this is just like watching a live show, where I also frequently have a tune escape me mid-medley and have to wildly try and improv my way back to whatever the hell it was that I just played fine 30 seconds ago. So there's that, I guess.

Oh well. I didn't actually intend to record that one, anyway. It just came out.

[spookyteeths]

this is def something im guilty of myself so glass house here to a certain extent but the way my fellow tumblrinas talk about punk like its a word you can use as a placeholder for any sort of vaguely radical progressive person and not a specific social and artistic movement kind of bugs me, mostly just as a purely semantics thing. like yeah maybe its not the most progressive thing in the world for punk shows to be somewhat macho and inaccessible and generally clogged with smoke but from a purely definitional standpoint, that's what punk is. thats what punk scenes look like. it kind of reminds me of that post that was describing how sid vicious was being homophobic @ freddie mercury and all the comments were like, "wow freddie mercury was a million times more punk than sid ever was" and i was like. okay i get what we're all going for here (i reblogged the post bc i loved freddie's response to the whole thing!) but that statement is just plainly not true. and the only way to make it true is if people ignore what the punk scene was/is in a very real sense

[mollysunder]

I'm still stuck on the Ekko-Jinx-Viktor dynamic. At first I was thinking about how Ekko and Viktor's dynamic established in League media has put them in an antagonistic relationship and how Jinx and Viktor's future partnership will further estrange her from Ekko. At first I was thinking about how Ekko would react seeing her once again work with another shady character that could jeopardize lives in Zaun. But now I'm thinking about how Jinx will react to the way Ekko judges Viktor.

In whatever situation that happens in the next season that forces Ekko and Jinx to work together, it's gonna be tense. There's going to be so much distrust and hurt between the two of them that it'll be a win if they say anything constructive to eachother. Now that i think about it, I don't think Ekko has ever talked to Jinx directly in the show, even in Act 1. Does that time he yelled to to distract her on the bridge count?

Anyway, the past and present is heavy for them and here's Viktor. This guy Ekko can't stand because Viktor's actions have killed people, his work has only further endangered Zaun in his eyes. And I can't see Ekko be subtle with his irritation which would likely only deepen as Heimerdinger expresses his disappointment with Viktor's choices that led to his fall from grace. All the while Jinx is just there observing how this one man gets all this ire for crimes that are miniscule compared to what she's done. It just makes her all the more certain of where she and Ekko stand.

When she inevitably meets Viktor would it be like looking at her worst case scenario, friendless and despised by the few that were once called family (which is kind of her reality)? I'm sure she would be able to see that Viktor's reputation is mostly hype. Jinx spent most of her life running with smugglers, crime lords, killers and just criminals of a wide variety. She'd clock him as just some guy massively out of his depth in Zaun. At worst it's all in the middle of his violent depression brought on by his ostracization from Piltover. Jinx has has met plenty of people that embrace a new persona to cope, Silco literally taught her to do that. So it won't matter what stage to becoming the Herald he's on, she still figures him out and sees some dude that fucked up so hard he ruined his own life. Boy doesn't that sound familiar.

It would all just simultaneously alienate her further from Ekko's side and endear Viktor to her (if they haven't already started collaborating), because that's where things fell apart for her too. Jinx stayed by Silco's side because she didn't feel like she could be accepted after what she did on ACCIDENT. She didn't need to be forgiven in that moment, she just wanted to be assured that Vi wouldn't abandon her. And now she's met someone in nearly the exact same position she was in. Their circumstances may not have been 1-to-1, but they share the same emotional truth.

[paragon-arthur]

Been meaning to put this to words, but Draco is so good because she's so Nero.

She doesn't change herself to fit into Chaldea's structure, to become another chess piece. She got too much of that under her mother's thumb.

She says she will stay a Beast. Unlike Tiamat and the other playable Beasts, Draco does not compromise on her own self.

She acts as arrogant as Nero- perhaps more, even. She is clearly somewhat selfish and self centered as Nero, yet she does not apologize. Less 'UMU' and more of what made Nero so compelling in the first place.

She refuses to change herself for ANYONE. Instead, Draco makes it clear that instead of losing herself i.e. turning to an Alter Ego, she will remain a Beast.

Because to deny her Beasthood means to hide Draco's true self.

And what she really wants is to be free. Free to be HERSELF.

[askagamedev]

a lot of people are probably asking you this, but if they aren't... do you have any clue what's going on with bioware? first moving swtor to another studio, which seems like it can be both a good or a bad thing, and now they're laying off 50 more people? studio veterans included?

this just seems like a very weird move to me, if not outright shitty. i want to believe in bioware, i love their games, no matter how flawed they are, but in the three years i've been familiar with them, things seem to be getting worse and worse. i know that DAD is in alpha so probably this layoff won't affect its quality too much, but again, that looks like a terrible move towards the employees themselves and the studio's more distant future.

Bioware is basically following the publisher mandate. In March of this year, EA declared that they were going to cut roughly 6% of their workforce (~800 layoffs) to lower costs, likely because they (like many tech companies) over-hired during the pandemic and need to correct the burn rate to appease their shareholders. These 50 devs being cut are Bioware's unfortunate sacrifice to the layoff declaration. As to whom and why, I suspect it is a combination of things.

Bioware probably had some kind of incubation team working on a secret new project that wasn't a sequel to an existing current franchise. I know that they would often have one or two such teams going at any given time - Anthem was one such project, as was the short-lived Shadow Realms project. New projects like that are much riskier than franchise sequels, so it is likely that the publisher decided that the risk moving forward was too high and they cancelled the experimental projects in favor of focusing on their established brands (Mass Effect and Dragon Age).

It is also likely that some of the long-term veterans are quite expensive to keep - they have high salaries and have been around long enough to collect on many of the big benefits EA offers, like sabbatical leave and the like. There's also the real possibility that there could be some bad blood or major creative differences between the current studio leadership and some of those veterans that were let go.

My heart goes out to those affected and I really do hope they land on their feet. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that employers never deserve any more loyalty than they're willing to give their employees. The employer will never choose an employee over its own survival, so we as workers should expect to do the same for ourselves. I never consider long tenure at an employer to be worth much when it comes to the business decisions, because I know how little it is worth when all is said and done. Business gonna business.

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[thetarttfuldickhead]

A Jamie-centric pre-OT3 Christmas story told in 25 short chapters.

Masterpost / AO3

25.

Epilogue

Roy called her in the evening, as Keeley was carefully removing her make-up in front of the bathroom mirror. It had been a long day, a stifled Christmas lunch with her mother followed by Richmond’s home game against Norwich in the afternoon. At least Richmond had won, managing a by the skin of their teeth 1-0 after a late and defiant goal by Jamie.

She thought she’d seen him looking up at the VIP box as the team celebrated around him, and she’d blown him a little kiss, even if she knew the distance was too far for him to catch it.

Next to her, Rebecca had raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow in a perfect expression of slightly sceptical interest. “And here I thought you were here to support me.”

“I am here to support you,” Keeley had said firmly. “Because I’m an amazing friend and I’d show up to support you with chants and balloons of cute animals and stuff at your murder trial, especially if Rupar’s the victim. But I told you, he’s been having a rough time of it.”

Not telling Rebecca about what had gone down with Jamie and Roy the other day had never been an option. Rebecca had listened with a frown, and asked if she needed to do anything about James Tartt. Keeley had said no, for the moment: Jamie needed to be the one to make the call on that.

“Hey you,” Roy said now, looking properly fit in the black suit he usually put on for his pundit appearances (and which, to the untrained eye, looked identical to all his other black suits, but Keeley knew him and fashion better than most, and thought the Hugo Boss was a particularly nice look on him).

“Hi, babe.” Keeley propped the phone against a moisturiser bottle, so she could continue her routine while they talked. “You back from work then?”

“Yeah. Took fucking ages, because Cartrick wouldn’t fucking shut up. You’d think he’d run out of things to be wrong about after six hours, but no, if the filming crew hadn’t started making noises about needing to go home to their families, we’d still be there.”

Keeley hummed in agreement, even though she suspected Roy was maybe exaggerating things a little. Sometimes it was best to just let him vent belligerently for a bit, get it out of his system. Besides, it was lovely to have him care about things enough to be pissed about them again. Roy was a passionate man, and Keeley loved him for it; having seen him go through the motions with nary a flicker of true feeling throughout the autumn had been awful.

Speaking of caring… “You catch any of the Richmond game?” she asked.

He grunted. “We didn’t really cover any of the Championship games, but yeah, saw some of the highlights.”

“Jamie played well, didn’t he? Seemed a little more aggressive than he’s been lately.”

Roy grunted again, but kept his mouth stubbornly shut. Not ready to talk about the advice he’d given Jamie last night, then. Fair enough; it’d keep.  

Roy kept on saying nothing, though, when normally he would have tried to move on by changing the subject or asking her about her day. When Keeley glanced over at the screen she saw that he was looking unhappy, dark eyebrows furrowed.

Keeley cocked her head to the side. “You all right, babe? Something on your mind?”

“No, it’s… “ He paused, and she waited, until finally he let out a frustrated huff. “It’s just Jamie’s fucking dad, right?” His lips curled. “I can’t stop thinking— Jamie was in a right fucking mess when I walked in on them. Not physically, it was just scrapes, but he was so fucking quiet. It wasn’t natural, not having the little muppet run his mouth like he was getting paid for it.”

“He seemed all right after,” Keeley said hesitantly, because Jamie had, when he left them on the morning of Christmas Eve and when they talked to him yesterday. Happier than normally, even. But Roy was right, it seemed a little strange in retrospect, that he had shaken it off so completely, given the state of him when she first arrived at Roy’s three nights ago. “You think he’s used to it,” she realised aloud. “That’s why he bounced back so quickly.”

“I know arseholes like that, okay? My sister fucking married one. So yeah, I don’t think it’s the first time it happened, and it probably won’t be the last either, and I keep on fucking wondering if his dad’s the reason he walked out on City, and City’s playing Chelsea in a couple of week s and I—“ He paused again. “I know it’s fucking stupid, it’s none of my business. I don’t even like the prick.”

Keeley had a sneaking suspicion that that wasn’t quite as true as it once had been, but she didn’t mention that. Let Roy reach that conclusion when he was ready to. “I think it’s sweet,” she said instead. “The way you stepped in when he needed you to, and took care of him. I mean it,” she added off his predictable eye-roll. “I’m really proud of you, babe. And,” she pressed on, because it was true and because she knew he tended to get a little uncomfortable when things got too earnest, “it was kind of sexy, too.”

Roy’s eyebrows rose at that. “You thought me taking care of Jamie was sexy? What happened to your thing being me crying pathetically?”

“Girls have deep and complex tastes, Royo. So yeah, you being vulnerable and passionate is really hot, but as it turns out, you being all caring and protective and fetching tea really gets me going as well.” She smiled at him and he scoffed, but smiled back. “Seriously, though,” she continued, “I was thinking we should ask Jamie over some day. Just hang out a little, make sure he’s all right.”

Roy’s eyes narrowed. “You better not be suggesting we invite him to Sexy Christmas.”

“No,” Keeley said with a small a laugh, even as the thought of it sent a pleasant shiver through her. Sex with Roy was fantastic. Sex with Jamie had always been amazing. Both of them, and with the way she suspected their tastes would run exceedingly compatible, with her and with each other… Well. A girl could dream (and maybe have a wank once she got of the phone with Roy). “But dinner sometime soon, yeah?

“Fine,” Roy said, sounding like he was only reluctantly agreeing to do her a favour, but she knew him well enough to see the relief in his dark eyes.

Fuck, but she loved him. The way he cared so deeply, even when he didn’t want to, and even when he would sneer at the assertion.

“You’re so fucking hot,” she told him. “I can’t wait for the 28:th.”

He smiled for real then, that wide grin he reserved for just her and sometimes Phoebe and his sister. “Me neither,” he agreed. “I’ll see you then.”

“Yeah, see you then. Love you.”

“Love you.”

They hung up, and Keeley yawned. It was getting late, and she had to be up early tomorrow, for an entire day of what was supposedly just a bit of informal mingling for publicists, a little holiday get together on Jace Asthon’s country house, but which was in actuality the networking opportunity of the year for people in her line of business. She needed to be well-rested and looking ready to slay for this one, and had a bunch of people and business to read up on, potential sponsors and partners for Richmond.

She still took the time to send a couple of texts before turning out the lights.

hey jamie

got any plans for new year’s eve?

She hardly had time to set the phone down before it pinged with his reply.

Doesn’t really give a shit if I’m not playing for City.

Something slid into place then. “Is that why you did Lust Conquers All?” Roy asked. “To get away from you dad?”

Jamie didn’t answer, but that just said it all, didn’t it?

[runespoor7]

maybe i should look into whether i could play da2 on the computer.

[13eyond13]

something else you might need to know about this blog is that pointing out the immense flaws of my faves and not letting them get away with anything is how I show my love for them

[mollysunder]

I feel like it's easier to guess the dynamics in season 2 of Arcane is easier to understand if you know that crows (i.e. Jinx and to a greater extent Zaun) don't vibe with ravens (Swain and thus Noxus in general). Like crows are hyper aggressive to raven in their territories. Ravens might be bigger, but crows attack them in a well organized fashion, rather than a group mobbing, they have split into small groups to handle the ravens. What's interesting is that crows are recorded to start the fights more often than not, but it's probably because ravens predate on crows and their eggs, they know a threat when they see one.

It's pretty on the nose the show went out of it's way to associate Jinx with a bird (crows) that's not only incredibly similar in appearance, intelligence, and cultural notoriety, but also are competitive with the ones (ravens) associated with Swain.