#watcher crit

[shenanogram]

this is sorts ranty but fuck it im posting it anyway, dont read if you dont wanna see watcher crit

this season is lowkey pissing me off. like what the fuck do you mean this teenage girl is soooo evil for having short relationships????? and her girlfriend dying and her retiring from public life was karma????? that ep all around is so fucked

and the milktoast ending of the most recent ep “suree he used his sister a tool for political gain and killed a bunch of ppl so they fesr him but hay the people like him 🤭🤭🤭” ggrraaawjejejehjebwbebhe

like i sorta expect better from them and it makes me so sad to see them talk about this stuff like this

[etoilesbienne]

if the wedding assassination worked but then other islanders actually acted like it was a real wedding i think qbbh would have full legal right to murder anyone he wants

like legitimately i can't imagine anything that would make me more miserable to watch his pov and then look at like anything fandom related about him. like he already borderline gets this weird version of Fandom Woman Treatment 2/3 of the time with how much he has to take care of eggs and how people constantly say he "does not understand what he's talking about" whenever he has a legitimate grievance/argument with Literally anyone else on the island. the constant undermining of when he talks about things he does understand (cough government policy cough). he already gets the awful cutesy wife personality treatment as is.

this is my main qualm with the fake marriage thing tbh, all of this ^ is only going to be exacerbated. however i think him murdering forever would be sexy in canon so it's like this horrid double edged sword. q!bbh is canonly aro anyway so i'll always have canon to fall back on.

[leolingo]

super neutral post coming from someone who actually had a lot of fun with purgatory but the longer the prison event goes on the more it makes sense that purgatory was just a kind of rushed play test for the global competition format, instead of an actual storyline with stakes

because the fact that the whole time the admins had to ability to do something much more interactive and connected to quesadilla island/main lore, -- not to say that some of the mishaps there didnt bring necessary feedback, but it would have been Very easy to mix in some of the lore quips and bits we see in the prison here and there, in purgatory back then even if not from the start. ... and they just . DIDNT like throughout all 14 or so days of purgatory its a little funny in hindsight

[bragganhyl]

What party do you use and what levels are you for the master below? She always beats my ass really bad

I usually go around level 13-ish and I too get my ass kicked usually. This time around I kinda forgot about the Endless Paths after I was done with Kana's quest so I ended up going at level 15 (at which point Aloth already knows Wall of Many Colors and Hiravias knows how to summon that fire stag) and it was fine. My party is Edér, Aloth, Pallegina, Kana (built for a support/summoner role), Hiravias and my Watcher who is also a chanter (built for a tank role). Hiravias is very good at keeping the MB off her feet and Aloth's confusion spell can turn those xaurip priests to help you instead (and ofc the WoMC is just a massive help as always) sooo yeah.

[megamindsbigheadcousin]

The Watcher Watches On

The few that meet him are always serious and grim; their very presence heavy

A planet killing creature, a plea for life, those that stand before him always come with a heavy burden

One which he can seldom do much to fix

And so, he decides, to not intervene, to not place his hand in the great constant play of life and space, but to nudge it forward, to preserve the balance of the universe, for the greater many

This thought likely means naught for the millions of lives destroyed in the process

The creature that comes barreling towards him bears the familiar suit of the Nova corps, although the man, the boy, rather, his mind supplies, stops short of him

His face morphs into fear and confusion at the sight of him, a rather common response

He barrels through this moment, however, face morphing into curiosity

‘Hey man!’ the Nova says boldly

English, his mind supplies, one of the many thousands of languages spoken on the planet Earth, the land that rests below the moon he stands on now

What are you trying to tell me? the boy asks, bold and curious and afraid  courageous and scared, eager to fix

What are you trying to tell me? he asks, looking straight into his eyes, searching for an answer, like the many that have stood before him

Yet many have struggled to find the answers they’ve looked for in a being such as him, and the Watcher is aware of this curtain that separates beings such as him, such as Galactus, that operate in spheres of thinking so far away from theirs

Silently, he points forward, a warning to heed, lets the boy piece it together

When he does, the Nova prepares to run away, urgency in his bones, ready for flight, ready for fight

And... he stops

Stops and says Thanks, man, with a grin he wouldn’t expect to see in one a mere step, a mere hair away from death

It is not unforeseen to him, nothing is for a being like him, and yet... it still surprises him

The Nova’s form disappears further and further into the void of space, determination and eagerness despite all the fear

A smile graces his face, unbidden

And he looks on, for a moment, at the sight of the Earth

[d1scwars]

kind of /gen like. the past week has been fun, i dont have the time to watch anything live so i just catch up via clips on youtube/tiktok +my dash and i follow a bunch of different streamer mains so im getting a pretty equal split of content and i havent been annoyed at anything all week like im having fun its been a fun event? just me?

[sunnycycle]

I think Scar was always meant to win. He was so, so close to third life. It was up to pure skill that Grian landed more crits. So, in Last Life The Watchers took Grian away from the equation. He still lost.

Double Life. The Watchers realised he was stronger with allies, stronger with Grian at least. Alas, they couldn't force Grian to play his own game. And Scar died alone in the woods.

Limited Life. He had a family. The Waters decided to keep Grian at arms length, Scar's cousin. Scar's cousin who eventually killed him.

Secret Life. The Watchers were finally in the game. Even if it was just through a statue. Make Scar alone. Make him friendless. It wasn't a coincidence Grian wanted Scar to be allies on the fucking session Scar had to do the opposite of everything someone told him. They pushed him to his limits. Not only lonley and friendless, but hated, too.

Scar was always meant to win. It just took a while for The Watchers to figure out how

[kitskiis]

I think the saddest part about secret life Joel is just how futile all of his actions are in that season. On a surface level i mean stuff like all of his more careful gameplay being cancelled out by a singular failed tnt trap but on a deeper level i specifically mean how that character contrasts with last life Joel. Joel is undoubtedly at his lowest point in the life series in Last Life. He goes down to red in session 2 and spends the majority of the rest of the season alone (and when he does have allies it’s only bc of a shared bloodlust). The red bloodlust completely takes over and this festers for nearly *8 sessions*. Not only that but the one time he is given a chance to restart and go back to yellow his old alliance member goes to red, leaving him alone again, and he is made boogeyman the next session. This, overall, has lasting consequences (he actually wanted to be fairly friendly at the beginning of LL, a stark contrast to how bloodthirsty he was at the beginning of DL or Lim L), and gained him a reputation that has never fully gone away. This is especially bad bc most people agree that LL was the most violent season (despite the lower kill counts in comparison to LimL) and was generally the worst and most traumatizing experience in the games for most people involved. Compare this to secret life, which everyone agrees was definitely the happiest season for Joel (or at least the most normal. His life is a tragedy no matter the season.) he has allies that (for the most part rip mumbo) stick with him until the end, he is friendlier with a larger group of people, and when he initially has to deal with the loss of some of them he has people who can ground him (bc as much as I adore the bad boys, grian was not qualified to do that). He was so hopeful that season, and was generally in a much healthier place mentally. And yet, despite how much he seemed to have grown, those 2 seasons ended so similarly for him it was almost comical. Joel engaged in a fight at the end, watched his ally get killed by scott, and is then forced into a 2v1 against Scott and another player that results in Scott taking his final life and him finishing 5th overall. I was describing both of those seasons here. After everything he did to grow, after all the improvements he had made, everything ended *exactly the same*

Making this about the bad boys for a second (because I’m me) they kinda suffer similar fates. Grian learned in the most tragic way possible that his allies were doomed to fail as long as he was with them no matter what, that this was not something that he could control by simply avoiding killing them himself. Even when he actively tries to save them (“let Tim do it he needs the time” “Joel you can kill me!”) he’ll still lose them in the end. I think this realization is also what made him stop trying to fight it, which resulted in him killing or almost killing his allies from previous seasons immediately afterwards (stabbing scar in the back and that one scene where grian kinda ominously jumps with a sword like he was about to crit and kill bigb after finding out he had 50 seconds left on his timer). It’s sorta like a way of telling the universe “fine. You win”

Similarly Jimmy. Well. I don’t think I need to explain that one. Even when he was given hope that things could be different, that he could break the curse, he died only a few minutes later. I still hold on to the narrative that the watchers only allowed that to happen to give Jimmy false hope that things can be different only to rip the rug out from under him and drive home the point that he is in a losing battle because by the time of secret life Jimmy was one of the only few people who genuinely still believed he had a chance. Obviously this is not something that can fully be a reality until he goes out first next season so if he doesn’t that’s a little awkward but just work with me here

TLDR; here is reason number 672 on why I believe the bad boys are the most doomed motherfuckers on this server and their alliance is a modern tragedy

[plumadot]

Ok stupid me I'm not anon anymore... I'm so dumb, embarrassing!!! But still, the hat is mine 🎩

Ok um... About Watchers! You think they are some silent chthonic creatures who only observe, or mb bunch of chill dudes who's eating popcorn while watching whatever mischief G is causing with their powers?

Probably something in the middle... I really like the concept of them as spoiled viewers who only need intrigue and drama, and it might work very well considering G as a warlock and one of your latest drawing (VERY COOL BTW)

And of course Scar is crit charisma'ed them so now they just love him as an adorable puppy 👍🏿

gkdfjkgjfkg don't you worry, you can absolutely still have the hat it's all yours <3 <3 <3

the watchers are like. an eldritch entity that's both singular and plural. they're incomprehensible gkfjdkgjf grian's never seen what they look like, but they mainly communicate with him by manipulating his emotions? he feels different when they're around, and he's not sure what they want from him yet, but they must want something in return for the immense power they've given him!!! they enjoy it when grian loses himself in his powers so his current guess is that they simply enjoy watching him either succeed or suffer... maybe both...

the watchers really don't know what to think of scar yet!!!!!!!! he's. really powerful. but in a way they don't understand. the bond grian's formed with him could prove problematic if scar keeps succeeding in keeping him calm and in control of his emotions.

also from your previous ask gkfjdkgj they've tried to come up with a party name, but jimmy suggested "big man jim's big men squad" and everyone veto'd

(thank you thank you thank you <3)

[bestworstcase]

You ain't wrong about fndm's lady/dude crit imbalance. I've noticed so much whataboutism & overlapping insistence that Oz/Qrow/Tai did their absolute best given [magic special forces duties], [hell world full of hell beasts] and/or [Salem/Raven's Selfish Dippage/Supermom's Loss], often with a side of 'you're just being blinkered stans who can't accept when ur waifu mains have flaws that need a-fixin' or should Get Over Themselves & Stick With The Program'. I mean, no denying the STRQ guys would be leagues less dysfunctional were it not for their situation's unique pressures and the immortals' contributions thereof (ditto for Ozlem thanks to the Bros), but I still don't think that causality chain fully corroborates this 'naught but vindicated put-upon sensei figures, the Bad Moms Doing Badness exonerate everything, it's Just How This World Works, we've been over this, STFU already' perspective nursed by long-haul fanposters and tons of general watchers.

truly. although i will say i Don’t think it’s fair to judge qrow as a parent because he wasn’t one, in either the biological sense (uncle) or legal (did not have custody) or familial (not a member of the household). so while certainly there are things he could have done better (gotten sober) (quit taking missions from oz for the sake of being around more to help out) (confronted tai about the wagon incident—tho we don’t know he didn’t do that tbf) short of either moving in to take over parenting or like flat out getting whatever passes for child services involved to force tai to get help or foster the girls himself for a while qrow didn’t really have a lot of material power in this situation. & both options he did have posed real risks (misfortune + the compounding trauma of a messy custody fight while everyone was still grieving summer). so

but yeah what gets me is "they really did try their best" and "their best was in fact inadequate and caused lasting harm" are not incompatible statements. Sometimes Your Best Sucks. that’s life. & sometimes when you’re deep in the throes of a traumatic situation or a depressive episode or alcoholism or what the fuck ever You Will Hurt People because you Don’t have the capacity to support others or practice empathy; you can’t draw from an empty well. that’s life!

it’s just also where the "intentions don’t negate consequences" principle applies; qrow trying to Be There for his nieces whilst struggling with alcoholism doesn’t make the harm done by his alcoholic behavior not have happened, tai’s depression doesn’t make neglect not neglectful, salem… existing at all doesn’t justify the choice to rely almost solely on child soldiers to defend his relics. etc

this is also the most compelling thing to me abt tai (potentially) staying near vale because of summer, at the expense of his kids; as soon as you bring "summer is alive and well and chose to leave him" into this equation you bring the implicit blame to the surface: is this woman responsible for his actions because she chose to end their relationship?

consider that the one thing we know with 100% certainty about these two is that summer did not trust him with her real self; her reaction to hearing him down the stairs is.

this, followed by slipping on a mask and lying through her teeth with practiced ease. (in comparison, when ruby is feeling acutely distressed she shuts down and gets quiet, which has the effect of making her distress visible but also small and easy to ignore or easily shunted aside by louder more apparently urgent problems. ruby tries to put on a happy face most of the time, but when she’s Feeling Bad the best she can do is small, strained smiles. summer turns around with a relaxed grin and makes a casual joke at ozpin’s expense.)

so—yang remembers "supermom" and ruby thinks her dad "misses adventuring with [summer]" and for eight volumes there isn’t anything to contradict this impression the girls have that their parents were deeply in love and happy with each other… and then our introduction to the Real Summer Rose is:

reading bedtime stories to her girls

the lies come out of her so easily!

she planned her rogue mission in secret with raven, who also left tai for hitherto unknown reasons that are now strongly implied to be that she felt like a failure as a wife and mother.

leaving aside the question of why summer chose to join salem (and why she faked her own death to do it)… this does not imply a happy or functional relationship. if nothing else whatever problem summer had that drove her to plan this suicide mission with raven was something that she, for whatever reason, did not feel like she could bring to her spouse/partner—and that in itself speaks to a fundamental absence of trust, but taken in conjunction with a) this Extremely well-practiced emotional disappearing act and b) how tai handles emotional vulnerability in v4 (NOT WELL!) it’s kinda…

well. the blacksmith shows this to ruby then remarks "maybe you’re not the only one who has felt the weight of others’ expectations. like alyx, like your mother," and the only character summer performs for in this flashback is. tai.

and—while the silver eyed warrior paragon-hero fairytale cult nonsense was undoubtedly the greater burden—i think the narrative is inviting the question here of to what extent perfect mother/perfect wife was one of those expectations, to what extent Raven Leaving was a shadow cast over summer’s relationship with taiyang, and how she might feel about all this with fourteen years of hindsight.

wrapping back around to the point about tai and culpability, you have on the one hand this implicit blame put on summer for tai having neglected the children after she left him and on the other this nascent question rising to the surface of: was summer even happy in this relationship, if she felt like she had to perform happiness often enough for it to be this easy? there’s the asterisk of course that what we see in this flashback was outside of the ordinary but the ease and confidence with which she slips on that mask bespeaks habit.

so tai fourteen years later is still pining for this partnership in which summer may or may not have felt an expectation to Be Happy (perfect huntress, perfect mother, perfect wife) and in which she certainly did not feel like she could bring her Desperate Suicide Mission Problems to her partner… and his parental neglect is all rooted directly in the intensity of his anguish after she left him… and she’s spent those fourteen years with salem and if they’ve not already crossed paths offscreen they’re certain to do so now that tai is like alone on patch with salem / summer / cinder for neighbors.

there’s an interesting reckoning being set up here, i think, with the unspoken implication that summer was the load-bearing pillar in this family and by removing herself from it she Made tai into a neglectful father—that’s the family narrative, dad shut down after mom left (died), but the narrative arc is beginning to culminate with "okay, why did mom leave?" and it seems to me that the natural trajectory from there is to really interrogate that question of blame.

[eats-all-your-shoes]

pearlscott rant because i’m normal about them :3

okay so first i just wanna talk about like. the duo name thing i use for them, because i know eclipseduo is the “official” duo name but like that doesn’t seem right because i don’t see them as completely platonic because they are exes, but they are definitely also not dating/romantic at all but like it’s so not just duo? so i use pearlscott as like just an alternative duo name type thing for them!

OKAY TALKY TIME!! i’ve said this before but the entirety of the divorce quartet is so interesting but i love pearlscott so much it’s just AAAAA!! after scott leaves pearl she might have been slightly okay, just by looking at the way she was joking about it in the first episode, but then martyn leaves her and she’s left completely alone in a new series, and if we add some watcher angst to that it makes it worse for her.

their dynamic is so bad that it’s good, pearl’s angry at scott but will also take any chance she gets to come back and try and be with him (breaking into his house and building on scott’s and cleo’s bridge) she wants him dead but also desperately wants him back, it’s raw and crazy and loud and everyone can tell she’s going insane over it.

scott on the other hand just wants her gone, she doesn’t matter to him anymore, he just wants to live peacefully with cleo and let her leave him alone. he hates her too and it’s very obvious, but he’s less loud about it then pearl. it’s that petty hate that’s not bad enough to warrant that bad of a reaction but just enough to annoy pearl which makes it so much worse

like it’s just so interesting to think about how different each of their reactions are and how that just makes them so much worse when you put it together.

then there’s the fact that they were ally’s, hell friends, in last life but that doesn’t matter anymore, all that they had together was thrown out the window when scott met cleo and they realized pearl and martyn weren’t looking for them.

ALSOALSO!! Pearl was regarded as the “bringer of death” in double life due to a lot of people dying close to her (joel and etho with the fishing rods, bigb and ren with the enderman) and scott has the winners curse (always having an ally of his win the game) and that just seems like something cool to think about but i’m not the best with symbolism so someone else can use that.

another thing, pearl was so close to killing scott in ep3, he stole her music disc and she axe crit him multiple times bringing them below half health and almost killed him by punching him off the bridge aswell, and if it weren’t for someone stopping her i think she would have gone through with it. the blood on her hands and just letting out so much rage by killing him (and herself, but i don’t think she would care all that much).

She didn’t even have the chance to kill him when she won, event the ghosts were chanting for her to do it but she couldn’t because scott killed himself first. but then when she’s on the respawn screen when she wins she says something along the lines of “he sacrificed himself for me. i guess i do forgive him.” and that’s just AAAA. she hates scott, but winning is horrible and she understands why he would not want to do it again, but also he has forced her to take on the burden of winning by killing himself. they are so complicated it’s amazing.

[m0on-shro0m]

Just waking up and had dreamt of another Life Series thingy!

So the last standing people were Tango, Cleo, Lizzie, and Martyn.

Four players left.

And this drives Martyn a bit mad, and I mean he starts breaking down how this will end and he can’t win again because he already won and it was painful. He’s rambling.

Cleo, Lizzie, and Tango are just Gobsmacked by Martyn’s breakdown.

But Tango takes this opportunity to slash at Lizzie, getting a crit and setting her on fire.

Cleo tries to help Lizzie but her teammate dies. So with out a choice, she runs off over to Martyn’s base.

Martyn is in there just sitting with his gear. Lost in his thoughts. Cleo basically snaps him out of it and convinced him to fight off Tango.

So they both fight Tango who is just throwing fire everywhere and exploding everything in their away. But, Cleo kills Tango with a bow and arrow.

Now it’s just Cleo and Martyn. Which Martyn just stands there for a moment before falling to his knees. Allowing Cleo to kill him as he can’t win again. He can’t go through what he did last time.

Cleo nods and takes her sword and slays Martyn.

Which Martyn is met with the Watchers, disapproving his down fall.

And Cleo is met with the destruction around her. Left in the rumbles of her friends existence.

[infernaltenor]

maybe im just a super salty person bc its 5am and im Still not sleepingn and Still thinking about it but i cant help but feel that qtubbo fans are some of the most hypocritial people ive ever seen. this is like. full of generalizations and just observations ive made as a crow and im. typically defensive and salty so im gonna try to be objective but at the very least im not trying to neg on the characters or the ccs, since im directing this towards the fans. its also like a solid two months of build up .so. oops?

but uh. how to start explaining this. well for one im taking this as a recent fan who is a phil watcher pretty much only. but i tend to chronically read posts about other characters since when im into things i like to be informed on all cases (idk constant instinct i have lol). like i said im gonna focus on qtubbo here, if i go into qphil stuff its purely as a comparison point. i cant speak much on interactions with other fanbases since i simply am Not informed enough but yknow.

for one, i think both tubbo and phil ahve similar things when remembering lore that is Not their own. not a neg on either one, since i dont expect them to remember it, but both have forgotten major stuff recently, ie. fred's kidnapping (phil) and the birdhouse (tubbo). both things happened before purgatoryand the subsequent forgetting happened after so even in character it makes sense (they had more to worry about), but i also think reactions in character tends to fuck with audience perception. ie, tubbos very visceral reaction to the ill timed fred joke phil had made (and it was ill timed, and thats all that i feel was criminal about it. tubbo and phils friendship is very much based on banter and friendly barbs, lots of teasing from either side. phil simply shot back on a smilar level as tubbo had originally, making his joke about "phil and who?". other people have spoken on that so im not gonna rehash about whos comment was worse, since imo they were both just shy of being insensitive, had tubbo not been dealing with freds presumed death at the time. im not gonna talk about the funeral, becasue if i do i'll get mad.). likewise, when tubbo forgot birdhouse phils reaction was much less outwards. he just said a birdhouse wouldnt be slaying- given the imprisionment he had, it makes sense that phil would associate it negatively, especially since it catalzyed all of his future derealization episodes. both of these are simply ooc things imo, from their original standpoint. i dont think either is in the wrong for forgetting. but what annoys me is the fandom perception.

this is a problem im going to link back heavily to purgatory. im not sure if it was present beforehand, as i only really got into qsmp the last two-three weeks in october (bad timing) and had only really been watching vods in order to catch up. that being said, i think the bolas and soulfire rivalry had widened the gap between the fans, which in turn affects negative perception. later weeks in november had full bad faith interpretations of phil because he was critical of tubbos choices or simply didnt understand sunnys character perfectly. and there were. a lot of those. purgatory had happened just a few weeks prior, so i liken it to that. maybe it is just my expierence, but the phrasing of a lot of character crit and analysis between the two has wildly different interpretations of a character (to wildly different results)

you can get qphil fans explaining against a bad faith interpretaiton, and people will (and have) called them excuses to defend against character analysis. i have noticed, however, when qtubbo fans do the same thing (and they have) it seems to be more of a matter of adding context to the conversation. thats.... exactly what qphil fans are doing however? when talking critically about qtubbo not communicating with other parents and friends both his and sunny insecurities, its all that hes younger and in a bad mental state. but you have something about phil not understanding sunnys character perfectly, and hes a cruel stepmother and such; and when an explanation is added to why hes not a bad father nor a good father, just an imperfect one trying his best, its simply a "mindless defense against a crit of his character". are these not the same things? providing context to a percieved bad faith interpretation? idk. i cant tell if its the age or the percieved roles theyre supposed to take, but why is tubbo allowed to be imperfect and doused in outward angst, especially when interacting with other characters (ramon had to take the initiative to communicate with tubbo. and yet. age age age.) phils just as complex and imperfect and unwell. all of qsmp is unwell. it is an explanation, not an excuse.

anyway. i think i was thinking about this because of the flightless bird/ostrich dna joke. ill timed, just like the fred one. but phils reaction speaks volumes doesnt it? if its an age one maybe he'll overdramaticize, but he laughs it off mostly. theres a lot he laughs off. he doesnt. "if your kid wasnt here id kill you". tubbo doesnt know about phils failed flight. he probably wont for a while (i cant help but think qphil is embarassed. he was knocked unconcious from hitting the water too hard. and he knows how to fly? fuck, man). i think its wild, however, that one fred joke gets the entire fanbase ready to deface and mischaracterize the whole character. but one wing joke gets maybe shocked laughter and about two posts complaining? idk. maybe im just complaining about nothing, im tired as fuck.

tldr is that tubbo fans are so wildly hypocritical that they cant see when theyre doing the same thing as everyone else. im sure im being hypocritical in this post, its human. but its annoying as fuck when its everywhere, and i think purgatory made it worse.

[archduke-enver-gortash]

random thought i just had: do you think Zeke would have disadvantage against the steel watch? or advantage because he watched them be created and subconsciously knows their weak points?

or both could work, i suppose. like advantage to crit chance but disadvantage to saving throws, or he’s Frightened the whole time or something?

and what’s his reaction to seeing one for the first time in act 3?

(post i think you are referring to for context with eke thoughts about the steel watch) but absolutely yes disadvantage and frightened the whole time. he’d also have disadvantage on almost all checks against gortash tbh.

the beginning of act 3 is like. he starts consciously remembering gortash since he saw his experiments in the morphic pool and it’s sort of. like all of his scars opening one by one the closer he gets to act 3. he’s just in a perpetual worsening state of terror, obviously tries to hide it as best as he can but fails miserably when he sees that steel watcher on the bridge.

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

this flopped on reddit so i hope y'all like it more

So, hi. It's been a very long while since I've talked about my OC Vault Hunters here, and, well... things have changed. And I'm better at wording things.

Here's my... well, I wouldn't say propositions, more like full blown concepts for the entire BL4 VH team.

Basics

First thing: there's 8 classes, and not 4. The Watcher did say we'd need as many as we can get.

In my head, 6 of them are base-game, and the last two are DLC. Coincidentally, the last two are mechanically unusual classes compared to the rest of the team (and even to the rest of the Vault Hunters across games), and happen to essentially be multiple people in one playable character - to keep the gender balance, you see: the team already consisted of two dudes, two dudettes and two buddies before I realized I wanted to add more, so the last two are "multiples".

Second thing: I am a lore guy, so I know barely anything about game balance... but I do know some things about game design, and I do in fact have played these games (wow!), so I'd like to think I know what I want to see in these games... BUT I can't escape bias, and I love the way TPS skilltrees were designed, so if you don't like skilltrees encouraging you HEAVILY to use a very specific weapon type, this is probably not the post for you.

Third thing: This is going to be long, but I tried to make it as readable as possible.

Fourth thing: I will be using the BL3 multiple action skill/augment system here, since I like it a lot.

With that out of the way, let's actually get into it.

Lazarus as the Prodigy

Once an urchin scrambling for zir life in the alleyways, now adopted child and protege of the most notorious powercouple in the galaxy (Alistair Hammerlock and Wainwright Jakobs, if it wasn't obvious by zir Jakobs-style attire). Also, ze likes bugs.

Key Words: Sniper, "Soft" Melee, Non-Elemental, Bleed/Stun

Action Skill: Sheer Focus - essentially, an activated gun boosting ability similar to Fade Away, but instead of automatic criticals, it grants Laz the ability to focus shots for a duration. Focusing - or rather, charging - takes a bit of time, but when focused to the maximum, it can do insane damage. The catch is that the "Focus Bonus", even when charged to the max, will be divided by both the pellet count of the weapon and the burst-fire count if it has one, meaning you are heavily encouraged to use those good ol' semi-autos.

And let's not even talk about what happens when you use a fully automatic...

Gimmick: Swappable melee overrides. Each tree has one "starter" override, and additional ones are unlocked the further you go down the tree.

Sheer Focus has a long cooldown and pretty much just exists to boost damage - the overrides are where the real utility is, and are usually available more often. It's sort of like a secondary action skill that you don't really sacrifice a button for.

Do you want to reflect enemy fire with a single stroke of a rapier? Do you want to throw gunpowder in their face and watch them explode when you shoot them? Or maybe take out a banjo and smack them on the head? Lazarus can do all of that.

Additionally, Laz has two other somewhat unique things that aren't unique to specific skill trees:

something called Deadeye Skills, which trigger on crit (or crit-kill, if it's a Deadeye Kill Skill) and are grouped up in a manner similar to Fl4k's Hunter Skills.

great usage of bleed and stun status. Bleed is the same as it was in TPS, a non-elemental damage over time effect. Stun disables the enemy, preventing them from moving or attacking - for obvious reasons, badasses and bosses cannot be stunned and will simply take a bit more damage if they would be stunned by an attack.

Skill Trees: You're in luck here, because I actually made a full detailed skill tree for the Prodigy already. Read it here if you like walls of text.

If you don't, here's a summary:

Green Tree: Legacy - Critical hits. Loads of Deadeye Skills. Major bonuses to Sheer Focus. Not much to say here.

Red Tree: Tradition - Gun damage, heavily favoring non-elemental weapons. Get those FAT one-shots, as the slogan says.

Blue Tree: The New Path - Melee focus. Staying on the move, weaving melee strikes between gunshots, and the bleed/stun status effects I mentioned above. Maybe it's not fair, but who really cares when you can make your enemies into but a fine red mist.

Bartholomew as the Butler

An old model of Jakobs brand butlerbot, deactivated many years ago and only recently turned back on by an unknown variable. Took up vault hunting as a means of... venting his frustrations, so to speak.

Key Words: Berserker, "Hard" Melee, Support, Health Management

Gimmick: Everyone else has a skill-related gimmick, so Bartholomew's gimmick is not having one. Let me know if you can think of one for him.

Action Skills:

Gearshift - fully heals the player and reloads all weapons. Grants a movement and weapon swap speed buff for a short time afterwards

All Out Attack - a large dash with a punch at the end. Has multiple charges. Can be cast multiple times on the same enemy or chained to others.

Overclock - large damage and fire rate buff at the cost of constantly taking damage.

Skill Trees:

Green Tree: Servitude (Gearshift) - A very strange twist on a support tree. Servitude has an entire swathe of team support skills, all of which activate on (mostly) controllable actions such as reloading a gun or reviving an ally. The thing is, upon these buffs activating, Bart takes health damage.

Red Tree: Rage (All Out Attack) - Melee damage, with a focus on increasing melee speed, taking/healing/ignoring damage, not having a shield and mashing that V button into oblivion.

Blue Tree: Restraint (Overclock) - Remember Nisha's Order? This is basically that, to 11. Upon losing a percentage of health, Bartholomew will gain a Restraint stack. Stacks give a variety of buffs, and can even be spent for certain triggered abilities.

Scylla as the Siren

A member of Junpai-7's pirate royalty, disgraced from her home when she became a Phasesight siren. For many decades, she's been wandering the galaxy as a hermit wizard of sorts, and now in her old age she returns to find the Vault, in hopes of preventing some sort of war that she foresaw.

Key Words: Siren, Shock Damage, Crowd Control, Mobility~~, Discount Spellshot~~

Gimmick: Can equip two action skills at once at the cost of sacrificing her grenade slot. Unlike Zane, she has no real way to use grenades, because who needs them when you can electrocute your enemies to death with your bare hands?

Her skill trees also contain (sometimes radically different) variants of the tree's main skill just like Amara, so you can really customize your setup.

Action Skills:

Phasemancy - mind controls an enemy, making them fight for you for a reasonably long duration. Also makes them invincible, though they die instantly when the effect ends. Badasses and bosses can't be mancied, for obvious reasons.

Phasestasis - spawns a large dimensional field, slowing down everything in its radius for a medium duration and causing shock status. Can be re-cast in a different place as long as it's active, but you can't spam-move it.

Phasebolt - a simple shock damage projectile that is precise and deals high damage. Multiple charges.

Skill Trees:

Green Tree: Clairvoyance (Phasemancy) - Mind and some battlefield control, with a bit of sniping for brainy flavor - but rather than using sniping for damage, you'll be using it for utility. Tons of status effect bonuses. Stealing enemy shields and staying ahead of the battle's speed by manipulating it.

Red Tree: Storm Terror (Phasestasis) - Mobility, with a little twist. Rewards not just moving fast, but also staying airborne, jumping, sliding and whatnot. Double jump. Sprinting and shooting. Amp shots for free.

Blue Tree: Wizardry (Phasebolt) - Action skill damage spam, and rewards for doing so. The main deal of this tree is Flow stacks, gained upon using action skills. At base, they don't do much aside from bonus Shock damage - the deal is, you can spend them for other things. Electromagnetic flight, ignoring FFYL and various techniques too strong for those not versed in the arcane arts.

Samuel as the ~~Problem~~ Primordial

Before the incident, he was just a normal Tediore employee working in R&D. Now, he is a vessel of the Vault Monster Uyrru, a locust-like ancient horror. He seeks the Vault both for his "other self", and to figure out what the f/ck is going on.

Key Words: Wildcard, Radiation Damage & Status, Survivability/DR, Ammo Economy, Armor

Gimmick: In a manner similar to Moze, Sam has only one Action Skill, which at base does almost nothing aside from disabling all means of attack. But when you equip Mutations onto it, that's when it gets interesting.

Action Skills: Transform - turns Samuel into his Vault Monster-ish form. As said above, at base it only gives some damage reduction. But when considering Mutations, one can turn Samuel into a:

pestilent master of disease, spawning hordes of bugs from his body.

miniature black hole, hovering over the battlefield and emitting huge waves of radiation.

feral creature, slashing at the enemy with humongous claws.

variety of other things.

Transform does have augments too, but they are not specific to a certain Mutation.

Skill Trees: I have a full skill tree for him as well... but it's still a heavy work in progress, so I won't be sharing it here just yet. Here's the summary:

Green Tree: Resourcefulness - Ammo/grenade stuff. Unlike Moze's tree, this one actually somewhat encourages reloading. Instead of gaining ammo in your mag, Samuel simply picks up more ammo from pickups or even gains back a bit of a weapon's mag when he reloads. Sometimes you need to make most of what you get instead of summoning it out of thin air.

Red Tree: Eldritch Potential - Radiation damage and utility tree, with a bit of splash. Curiously enough it encourages Samuel to get statused, and keep rad status on enemies. Power at a price. But you do get immunity to Radiation!

Blue Tree: Perseverance - Survivability tree. Not that special, aside from the fact it tends to give DR instead of the usual health/shield capacity like most survivability trees. Tends to be more effective the closer to death you are. Also, allows you to gain armor, because it'd be funny to have a VH with three health bars.

Val as the Fanatic

Former member of the CoV, Valor was given the role of Saint of Sparks and Honor. Even after the Calypsos fell, they try to find spiritual guidance and enlightenment in the Vaults. Half blind, has taken a vow of silence and speaks through a floating drone which follows nearby and relays messages through neural uplink.

Key Words: Splash Damage, Support, Healing~~, BIG DAMAGE ALL THE TIME FOREVER~~

Gimmick: Has the option to equip two grenades at once, which synergizes extremely well with their skills, as many of them activate on grenade thrown.

Action Skills:

Battle Prayer - somewhat minor team gun stat buff, but lingers for a reasonably long time.

Dodge Roll - exactly what it sounds like, gives i-frames. Does not trigger "action skill start" effects, not that Val has any of those in their skill tree.

Deep Pockets - forsakes an Action Skill entirely for the ability to equip two grenade mods.

Skill Trees:

Green Tree: Spirit (Battle Prayer) - A variety of team-wide support skills that reward the team for actually sticking together and helping one another. Buffs Val themselves too, of course. Has a few health restoring abilities as well.

Red Tree: Faith (Dodge Roll) - Insane fire rate! Mag sizes that would make Moze weep! Melee damage! All for the low low price of your enemies' lives and all of your accuracy! Vault-Gods, take the wheel!

Blue Tree: Piety (Deep Pockets) - Splash damage, especially grenades. Mostly focused on radius and spamming rather than the splash damage itself being big. Insert Holy Hand Grenade reference here.

Alkimia as the Trooper

A mysterious, brooding woman who defected from an elite, secretive cyborg division of the Maliwan army upon being ordered to kill civillians. Is a poet-philosopher with an unusually calm demeanor for her line of work.

Key Words: Corporate Soldier, Elemental Damage, Status Effects and Interactions, Versatility, Gadgets/Utility, Mild RNG

Gimmick: May swap the element of her Action Skill, similar to Amara. Defaults to Corrosive, but can be changed to Cryo or Incendiary with enough skill point investment.

Action Skills:

Asclepios - a hovering drone shaped a bit like a snake which flies at enemies and attacks them with its elemental beam.

Reaction Globule - Alkimia throws a big ball of elemental sludge that bounces around and deals damage.

Traversal - dashes/teleports Alkimia forward like a Maliwan Flash trooper, dealing action skill damage to anything in her path. May ragdoll weaker enemies at the endpoint.

Skill Trees: I am also working on Alkimia's skill tree. Trying to figure out something really neat. Here's what I got so far.

Green Tree: Catalyst (Asclepios) - Elemental damage and status effects, with a small twist. Instead of just applying status, you want to combine status effects and react them with one another. Burn them with corrosive damage, electrolyze their skin, or abuse the laws of thermodynamics to combine Cryo and Incendiary.

Red Tree: Evolution (Reaction Globule) - General damage, with some Claptrap-esque randomness. The joke is that evolution is an organism trying to gain advantage in an unfavorable environment, and in this case the organism is the player. You better own a variety of guns. That's the price of experimental tech.

Blue Tree: Adaptability (Traversal) - Utility and some survivability (mostly elemental focused). Almost all of the passive bonuses in this tree change either with Alkimia's Action Skill Element, or with the conditions present on the battlefield.

Kat & Dawg as the Partners in Crime

A one-for-two Vault Hunter deal, Katherine and her tink wife Desmond have been sharpening their teeth (and blades) on heists big and small for ages, with Kat being the brawn and Dawg the mastermind of their operation. However, when they caught wind of the Vault, they immediately embarked on their biggest heist ever, the one that might just set them up for life.

Key Words: Pet Class, Inventory Management, Incendiary Damage, Stuns, Mild RNG

Gimmick: As said above, these two are a package deal, do not separate. While the player controls Kat, Dawg just piggybacks on top of her, occasionally commenting on combat or story beats.

The real deal is when these two enter combat. Kat may deploy Dawg with the action skill button, and the latter will stay deployed until she dies or is picked up. If she dies, she respawns back on Kat's back ready to be deployed again, somewhat similar to Fl4k's pets.

While Dawg is on the field, Kat can use her own action skill. (If Dawg dies, she can't, until Dawg is redeployed anew!) She has three, just like most others, but which one she equips also determines what kind of weapon Dawg will be wielding in combat.

Action Skills:

Trust Throw - summons Dawg back to Kat, then she immediately throws her back into the battlefield with a damage boost for a short time. Enemies hit ~~by THE TINK CANNONBALL~~ are stunned. Also heals Dawg back to full, because.... the power of love, or something.

Whirl 'Em - Kat gets out her trusty scrap-axe and spins it in a manner similar to the Brrzerker from Wonderlands, but with incendiary damage instead.

Mystery Bag - Kat takes out Dawg and her's bag of loot, and checks it for anything useful. The pool of what she can find is around 20ish different items with various small beneficial effects: free grenades that are thrown immediately, health hypos or even ancient Eridian doohickeys.

Skill Trees:

Green Tree: Battle Bond - Buffs the living daylights out of Dawg, and makes it more rewarding + easier to coordinate your movements with her. Pretend you're playing co-op in solo!

Red Tree: Destruction of Property - General damage, mostly in incendiary form. Rewards hard hitting weapons and attacks, maybe with a melee strike in there or two. A few kill skills for good measure.

Blue Tree: Larceny - Damage buffs and other benefits... dependent on picking up loot, eridium and cash. Gives a new meaning to the word "shloot". Additionally, a few "underhanded tactics" such as lowering vendor prices and increasing backpack space (to fuel a damage buff scaling off the fullness of your backpack). Think Timothy's Free Enterprise, but even weirder.

The Triad

Actually a trinity of Guardians inhabiting a nanobot swarm body, a corporate experiment at controlling these ancient constructs gone wrong. It tries its best to get along, and find itself in this strange world.

Key Words: Stances, Jack-of-All-Trades

Gimmick: In lieu of an action skill, the Triad switches between its three constituents - Supplicant (highly loyal to the Eridians, to the point of fanaticism), Seeker (neutral, but also the most sapient) and Sorcerer (Vault Monster cultist, corrupted by their influence eons ago) - in a way similar to stances in other games.

The switch itself does nothing, unless a certain skill is specced into that provides a short burst of beneficial effect when it occurs. However, a lot of the Triad's skills have different effects, elements or drawbacks depending on its current stance.

Action Skills: Spirit Switch - see above for details.

Skill Trees:

Green Tree: Supplicant - Focuses on team support, usually at the cost of damage. Can still reliably solo, however, thanks to having crowd control options.

Red Tree: Sorcerer - Focuses on pure damage, usually at the cost of survivability. Has elements of health management, as no price is too great for dark power.

Blue Tree: Seeker - Focuses on survivability and utility. Fairly scrappy, can manage ammo and identify enemy weaknesses.

Closing Words

I hope you all enjoyed this little creation of mine. I'm not... really sure what else to say here besides I love this series, and I love making things for it even more.

If you're curious what these Vault Hunters might look like, I drew all of them a while back.

Thank you for reading, and if you have any feedback regarding these concepts, or maybe your own fanmade Vault Hunters, feel free to comment.

[platinumrosetail]

Yandere shadowpeach sliktea freenoodles dbk Spider Queen x phantump child reader

So the Reader just become a pokemon ( if you know phantump pokedex you know)

And she sad and crying she been a Pokemon for year's.

but has not she past 5 And running from a pokemon and trainer that wants her cuz she a shiny.

she falls into the lmk world but she is still in Pokemon and not gijinka yet.but the father of the group ( sun tang Hunter mk dbk ) find her and some how know she a child and take her to there family and they love her. But for some how the trainer and the Pokemon found a way into the world

And battled the little reader who now wants to fight to stay with her family. And got away from the mom and dad's and brothers.

But of course the trainer has Pokemon really strong agest her and she fainted

And they cry she made before she fainted got her family to quickly run to them and just see the reader get pulled into a PokeBall and it clicks on the spot cuz it a crit throw. And hear the trainer say I can't wait to trade you for a better pokemon. I can't believe they want you

( I love all Pokemon shiny or none shiny but shiny Pokemon have a good place in my heart and I hate the trade thing so I just hope for wonder trade)

And they go save there kid before they get away

And when they get there PokeBall out after seeing how the trainer did

The reader glows but she not involving

Well she is but in a different way

She truns into gijinka phantump

And she still can't speak human or demon but she can say mama baba brother sister anuty and uncle and Grandpa and grandma ( thought it cute)

Oooh another phantump reader interesting

Warning: noob author, female child reader, platonic yandere characters, and others.

Characters: shadowpeach, freenoodles, waterspider/silktea, Dbk famly, spiderqueen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shadowpeach:

You had just died and was turned into a phantump afterwards, not just a regular phantump, but a shiny one. You hand also just bran away from a trainer who wanted to catch you because off it as you could hear them say things that involved you being a shiny and could catch a pretty penny if sold or something.

You had somehow got taken into another world, thoug you don’t know how that was possible or when you did appear in this new world as you passed out right afterwards with how exhausted and the adrenaline from both running and trying to get away from that trainer.

When you met both sun and macaque it was when you had bumped into them as they were visiting their son and daughter. Y’all were close to pigsy’s noodles so they decided to bring your over with them to see if anyone there would know what you’re and if they had seen you anywhere around the city.

Sun decided to adopt you as you’re so small and could get killed (again) by something bigger than you. Macaque and the others thought the same but mostly I trust macaque with you watcher than sun.

When you see the trainer again it was 2 month after and when you had finally come to terms with the things that had happened to you. You had tried to use some of the Pokémon moves that you think a phantump would know but that was stopped with the pokemon that the trainer sent out; which was another ghost type.

You start to get fatigue from the battle before passing out with a cry; which seem to have alerted macaque and the others to go see what is going on and who would feel the wrath for messing with one of his daughters.

They see you getting absorbed into a red and white ball which sent them in a rage with how much damage they saw on you before you had diosapeared into that ball with a click. Macaque and sun made sure to capture and get information on why they had done what they did to you before beating the trainer to almost death if it wasn’t for you getting out of the ball and started to randomly glow which seem to have frighten the trainer for some reason (the trainer thinks you’re evolving. Lol.), then sun and macaque see that you had been given a more human body and started calling out to the two monkeys.

Freenoodles:

Tang and pigsy both met you when you had literally an into them and bumped into the two; you were running from the trainer when you had bumped into the couple, the trainer somehow appearing with you in this weird new world.

They had seen the trainer coming to them and made the right call and made a run for it away from the treainer to get you and them to safety in case any chaos happened with that trainer.

Pigsy had fed you while tang calmed you down with everything he could think that would calm you down; like, singing a lullaby or humming one, reading you a story, comforting you with cuddles, and lots of other things to make sure you wouldn’t feel scared or something.

After 1 month of staying with the couple and their friends and family it seem the trainer had figured out where you were hidde, though it seem to have taken longer than the time pigsy and tang had tried to estimate and guess on.

The trainer had kidnapped you but good thing everyone was on high alert about your situation and was able to follow the trainer to a open space that was a bit far from where you were kidnapped from.

Though when they finally got there you had passed out with one last cry before disappearing into that red and white ball that was thrown by the trainer.

Tang and pigsy was basically seeing red when they went after the trainer before they could pick up the ball that had you in it. They would fight to get you back in their arms and won’t let this trainer get to you. The couple had gotten the information on how to get you out of the ball and to destroy the ball after getting you out. When they did get you out you seem to have gain a human body as well as freedom; the trainer wasn’t lucky and was sent to the police with their crimes plus some others that weren’t true.

Waterspider/silktea:

Huntsman had found you all alone in the forest he was in and decided to bring you back to sandy since he’s still learning about how to take care of living being besides himself and sandy.

When huntsman showed you to sandy, he was so sad about what could’ve happened before huntsman had found you and glade that his lovers had found you in the first place; plus it lets sandy know how huntsman had grown before the two met each other.

You’re a bit wary of the cats even though you had been around cat like pokemon before, it’s just in your new phantump instincts to be wary of other beings sept for your evolution, and with the fact that you never seen cat pokemon like these before.

Mo seems to be the one you like the most and with him he seems to comfort you and knows what you could possibly need around this boat/home.

When the same trainer as before had found you in this new world, it was when the four (counting mo) of you had went on a picnic on a hill outside of the big city.

The trainer was crazy and hysterical from not finding you for sometime until they themself had appeared into this new world. It seem that times past differently in both world from what you gathered from their crazy speech.

They somehow distracted sandy and huntsman long enough with their pokemon to kidnap you an flee from the couple which made huntsman rage and almost had sandy break his composure if it weren’t for the fact they got you fast and safely in their arms before the trainer could run away in the ball they hands caught you in. Sandy had released you by pressing the button, both not expecting the very much more human body you now had gained.

Dbk family:

You had escaped the trainers clutches as the two of you had appeared into this world both in different destination thankfully. You had met Redson first who heard the cry’s of a little child and went to see what had happened and what was wrong.

When he had found where you had hidden yourself in he was shocked to see a little whisp like creature with a white/dead(?) wood like head and little antlers scared and shaken up along with crying the same cry he had heard that lead him here to you.

He decided to bring you with him on his way to his boyfriends house like the had planned on doling before finding you. After he had showed you to mk and his family and friends; plus getting a bunch load of kisses from mk for his good deed, which made Redson blush, it was finally off to his parents house to show you and hopefully get you adopted by them and become his new little sister.

When he showed you to his parents, they; even though their demons, were a little off put with how you have a child’s cry, pif had soon given into her motherly instincts again and soon began taking care of you and making sure you’re healthy as can be and well fed as well.

Dbk saw how pif had taken to you already and also decide you shall be part of this a family from now on, plus his son and wife are already on bored with it so he didn’t;t see the harm in falling along with them as they have good judgement.

The trainer had followed Redson when they had spotted you in his arms and didn’t want their little ticket to another good pokemon to get away so they went after him not knowing that their about to get their karma hit right back at them.

Redson had figured out that he was being followed but didn’t want to alert you plus he can most definitely take care of the culprit if need be. Though that soon changed as the trainer had used a Pokémon to swipe you out of redson’s arms and into theirs before the treainer ran away. Soon enough the Dbk family went after the kidnapper who stole their daughter away from the family; when they got you out of the ball you seem to have gain a new body, specifically a human body which make them more overprotective thasn before.

Spiderqueen:

You had subconsciously fled down to her lair after running away from the trainer who also came to this world with you. You ended up meeting her first then her minions who now takes care of you after a week of knowing them all.

Spiderqueen notices you being skittish and decided to just keep you with her so you can get used to her as well. After you got comfortable with her, she then have you get used to her subjects as you’re to be heir to her thrown and she would like you to be at least a little comfortable with your bodyguard.

The trainer had found you through the lair where they had fallen like you had 2 moths ago. They had found you while you were alone in your room that the spiders made for you to use.

Though the spider gang had soon came back from what they were doing; mostly getting supplies for future things along with necessities for you and them as well before they spotted the kidnapper, they got back to the lair with half the stuff they needed when syntax got an alert that someone they didn’t know was in the lair with you and was kidnapping you.

They’d had heard your cry before it went silent with only the trainers voice talking to themself which allowed the spiders to know why the kidnapper had tried taking you away from their queen.

It didn’t take that long to get you away from the trainer either, though it’ll take way longer for the trainer to escape the punishment that will befall them afterwards.

When they opened the ball that you were held in, both them and you were shocked to see that you have gain a human form a bit and had soon called out to spiderqueen; calling her mama which resulted in her crying in happyness and relief for getting you back in her arms again.

(A/n: hoped y’all liked it!!! And omg just 1 more and I’ll be done with all of the requests!! I feel so proud of myself for getting this all done, and with how much i needed to get done, who, it was certainly a challenge that i don’t want to do again lol, that’s why I reduced the request numbers to 10 now rather than 10 to 20. Anyway hope y’all had an amazing Christmas and hope y’all have a wonderful day/evening/night!!)