#we'd be doomed

[getvalentined]

I understand people giving Lucrecia the benefit of the doubt with regard to what she did to Vincent, just like I understand people not realizing how undeniably fucked up Gast was, but the important thing to keep in mind about these characters is that the majority of them are written as being in the throes of some pretty extreme cognitive dissonance.

It's not bad writing, it's that they're hypocrites. They reached a moral event horizon at some point, and they did what they felt they had to do when crossing it.

Gast abandoned a child because he wasn't what he wanted—even having raised Sephiroth up until that point and knowing that he was a pretty normal kid overall, as we can see from his behavior as a young teen in Ever Crisis, Gast still couldn't bear to continue to be responsible for a monster. He knew what Hojo was capable of, because he knew about what happened to Vincent, because it happened in his lab, and he left a literal child in his care anyway. Sephiroth's only crime was not being what Gast thought he was, and Gast damned him to a lifetime of torture under a "father" whose only goal was to use him to prove his own genius. Why? Because Gast had a goal, and the goal was what mattered, the ends justified any means he could devise. He was a man obsessed, driven to the verge of madness in his lust for the Promised Land. A religious zealot with the most powerful scientific team in the world at his disposal, ready to prove him right—and then he wasn't right, and the whole world fell apart underneath him. Ifalna gave him back that stability, because she was a real Ancient, and she gave him a new, better child to care for. A child that wasn't a monster, a child that was his, a child that might one day lead him to the Promised Land, if her mother didn't do so first. When Aerith was born, Gast got to be right again, and therefore all was right with the world. Sephiroth (like Genesis before him) may as well have never existed at all.

Lucrecia openly experimented on a man who loved her enough to die for her, going so far as to apparently use data from those experiments to improve her own academic standing, because she couldn't bear the guilt of being responsible for his death. It wasn't about whether it was the right thing to do, it wasn't about whether she loved him back, it wasn't even about her thesis at that point—she just couldn't continue to live having lost everything as a result of her own impatience, her own lack of regard for everyone around her. She killed her mentor through her own impatience, she gave up her son for experimentation, she didn't stop her husband from experimenting on her ex-lover, and she had nothing to show for it but crippling Jenova toxicosis and an equally crippling cowl of regret.

I could even go into Hojo here, how what he did to Sephiroth was a result of struggling to escape Gast's shadow, how what he did to Vincent was a result of him struggling to prove that he deserved his wife, how everything he did was born from the all-consuming need to do just one thing for which no one else could take credit. Hojo got the director position not because he earned it, but because Gast ran away. Hojo got Lucrecia not because he wooed her, but because he didn't have eyes like the unrequited first love that she killed. Hell, Project S only happened because Project G failed! Nothing Hojo has ever had that was worth anything was because of his work, only because the work of others failed. Why do you think he talks about "failures" the way he does? The failure of others is the only reason he's gotten so far, and he knows that any failure of his own will knock him right off that pedestal—and he's terrified.

None of these people are good people. I don't know that any of them ever were. But in their eyes, everything they did was justified, they took the right course of action, because they took the only course of action that their personal understanding of reality would allow them to take.

Were any of them actually right? Probably not. Certainly not, in some cases. But there's no going back on it now. The arrow has left the bow of the goddess, and there's no calling it back.

[kisasan]

me:*thinking no other mha ship will take over my life the same way bkdk does*

kudoichi:

[lilrobinbird]

Hellooo, I'm death and I came to tell you that Ariel's incredibly unoriginal (though they didn't realize it at the time), but also, maybe you'll have time to watch Night Country this weekend?

Also how's life going? (Oh, I'm still death!): Damn, I hate that bitch

Helloo

Why unoriginal tho? The bear possession idea also comes from the series? The au concept with Atuat is still very cool you should share it with whole tumblr!!👀

[unmanageably]

whats the tea on kd leaving the warriors? i was a casual fan at the time it happened so i don't know the situation

well... let me be brief (1/278)

lmao jk but.... well a lot! and most of it is speculation, etcetc ofc we'll never truly know until 20 years later when the last dance-esque documentary comes out about the warriors in the steph curry era lmao-- but the story goes like this:

kevin durant was the superstar of okc thunder and was steadily building up the franchise over the years to become serious contenders for a championship. they were always close, but had never quite made it. but with a good FO/org behind him, westbrook by his side, they were always really close— but again, as we all know, it was never enough (made the finals in 2012. lost. would make the playoffs but always got defeated). in 2016, they once again get really close at the western conference finals where they led the series 3-1 against the warriors. despite that they lose. a mere month later, he joins the warriors: a team that's obviously at the beginning of a dynasty— they won a championship in 2015 and made it into the finals in 2016. but more importantly, the team that beat kevin durant and okc thunder at the conference finals.

there were layers to this "betrayal" and to this day people still think this one decision "ruined the sport" (lol). people saw it as a betrayal on KD's part and it took an incredible hit to his reputation. you almost make it to the finals, you have an incredible teammate in westbrook by your side, an org that supports you and is willing to uplift you to your highest star potential, and you leave? to join the team that BEAT you? to the team that has steph curry, klay thompson, draymond green, andre iguodala?

already a hugely successful team without KD, but with him, it was undeniable. a superteam. yeah, a lot of team has duos or trios. lebron and kyrie, lebron and dwade, harden and cp3, etcetc. but this team was different levels. a whole team full. the team was 73-9 without KD. massively talented already. but now? steph, KD, klay as offensive threats. draymond and andre as defensive threats. insanely good roleplayers like shaun livingston.

everyone was livid. not just OKC fans. everyone in the league! the warriors, and KD's name specifically was tarnished. how disrespectful for the warriors to even think about creating a team like this. how disrespectful for KD to leave an org that's done so much for him. sports media was tearing into them, fans were tearing into them, they were quite literally, the most hated north american sports team. fans were burning jerseys, making videos threatening KD, etc.

we all know how KD with the warriors went. winning fixes all, right? arguably the most dominant team in nba history (2017 warriors vs 1996 bulls a common debate to this day), the warriors absolutely dominated the nba, and went on to win the 2017 and 2018 championships. KD finally gets his two rings and a FMVP. and the warriors still stay the most hated team in the league. you either loved the warriors or hated them! no in between. the narrative is that KD's rings were called into question because he "had a superteam" so they weren't "valid".

2018-2019 is when it all kinda starts falling apart. the warriors are plagued with injuries, and it's just clear they don't have the synergy and chemistry that they did before. it was most clear during a game against the clippers where draymond and kd visibly fought after a bad play at the end where draymond refused to pass to kd. draymond had allegedly yelled at kd and told him to just leave the warriors, and that they didn't need him (kd's contract was up that year as well). KD has said in later years that that argument was kind of like the ~last straw for him and the nail in the coffin for him leaving. he had already been having feelings of being "the odd man out"— though they were winning together and had good synergy on court, the core3 plus the other players were already a tight knit family long before he had arrived. after the incident with draymond, the team never really sat down and talked about it: just brushed it under the rug (dray was suspended for one game but nothing was talked about). KD felt like it was a slap in the face, all this stuff about how gsw is known for good team chemistry and good culture but they just wanted to brush that very public incident under the rug? after that he started playing more selfishly— less like how they would play as a team and more in isolation. KD gets injured during the finals, and as we know, klay gets injured as well: we lose the finals. we don't get the sought after three-peat. KD signs with the brooklyn nets and the rest is history.

i talked a lot about the beginning of KD signing on to the warriors because i feel like that was really the root of why he left. he became one of the most hated players in north american sports. his own fans tore into him. sports media all tore into him. calling him mentally weak, pathetic, etc. and does winning fix all? i feel like KD with the warriors was proof that... it doesn't. KD gets two rings that he basically sold his soul to the devil for AND two FMVPs and people still don't respect him. on top of that he wins it with the warriors: which has always been and will always be Steph Curry's Team. yeah he was integral to those wins, but you can't compete with how steph has built the dynasty, yk? what steph has given to the warriors.

so at the end of the day, the story goes like this: KD "betrays" okc by going to the team who beat him in the conference finals, creates the first real "superteam" in the nba (the superteam discourse is a whole other thing smh like teams aren't trying to do that now but i digress). the whole sports world is going in on him, he's basically sold his soul for these rings. he gets his rings, he gets his FMVP. but his legacy and reputation is still called into question: he's integral but still won his rings and his FMVPs on STEPH CURRYs team, not his. Steph's. on top of all the outside noise, internally he's not happy either. he doesn't feel protected within the team. he has beef with draymond, and steph/klay + the franchise will clearly always have their loyalty to draymond. he doesn't buy into the team culture anymore, and he feels like the odd one out. the only thing that could make him stay would be to keep winning more rings. but the two rings he has didn't fix anything. so why stay? what does he have going for him?

(he goes on to bounce between different teams, tries to build his own superteams but never comes as close as he did. meanwhile steph klay and draymond go through a tough two years, considerably the lowest two years in the steph/core3 era, and come out on top: they win the '22 finals, against a celtics team that had an 84% chance of winning the finals. they save their dynasty, their legacy. steph proves that he won a chip BEFORE KD, during KD, and AFTER KD as well.)

[luke-o-lophus]

I like Crowley's grey bad-boi-deep-inside-good persona as much as the next person but let's not pretend he's above hypocrisy.

Miss ma'am criticizes the overkill of making angels fall for asking questions, but (apparently) obliterates his plants at the first sign of disobedience/failure/disappointment.

(then again the shredding happens off screen so who knows?)

[tragedycoded]

villain crimes tag!

Hey this looks fun and funny thank you for the tag @the-golden-comet!

Rules: List all the real-world crimes your villains are guilty of committing!

I was going to do Dr. Emil Powell (Books 1 and 3) and Thomas Huston/his sons (the 1872-73 timeline in Book 1, Book 2) but like... they're kind of boring? One or two big crimes and then like, The Events of the Novel.

You know who was a villain protagonist until Sullivan hugged him?

Arthur fucking Royston, my tritagonist, has committed more crimes than anyone else in the entire trilogy, to include a dead god-worshipping cultist and a Man Who Owns the Town, so let's just blast the crimes he commits in the first two novels:

commits at least one (1) murder per loop, sometimes in front of Sullivan

(knife-fighting falls under assault/battery, iirc; I'm not a lawyer, I'm a stoner)

light breaking & entering

IDK what law it's breaking when you hop on a train without paying but he does that at least once sometimes twice per loop

assault/battery of a serviceman (that one probably would have gotten him ten years in prison if Sullivan hadn't kept his name out of his mouth)

obstruction of justice

ample trespassing

spitting on the sidewalk

when the reader isn't looking in the 1873-74 part of the story, he partakes in public intoxication, causing a disturbance, whatever it is when you cut someone's tongue out of their mouth but don't manage to kill them because [redacted], and a couple other things

Open tag :>

[vickyvicarious]

I feel it's also how a bit similar to how Bluebeard told his bride not to enter the forbidden chamber, and gave her the key to it. He knew she'd disobey. (Though what will happen next is a bit more like with Shahryar, from the Arabian Nights that Jonathan referenced. Dracula might have surprised himself with how possessive he got with this seemingly disposable bride.)

You're absolutely right, my friend. I've seen others making this comparison as well and I totally agree. Love the combination of them as well... Dracula did the whole "I'm going out, don't go into these places" Bluebeard thing, with the punishment of (un)death awaiting Jonathan if he disobeyed... but then in the moment he took it all back in order to hang on to his entertaining new bride (Scheherazade) longer. He's too interested to kill him now. Actually, he wants to keep this going just as it is, at least for one more night month.

I have been warming up to "Dracula doesn't realize how possessive he feels over Jonathan until he sees him about to be 'loved' by someone else" ever since I first said it. The more I think about it the more fitting it seems. Of course, he does seem to have pretty firmly decided to only keep this diversion going until he has to leave for England so there are limits to that possessiveness, but at least in the meantime no one else gets to touch his solicitor but him.

I do think that Jonathan was slated for being turned after Dracula left if he hadn't escaped. It's very unclear if Dracula planned to return any time soon or ever bring his fellow vampires to England with him (and to an extent, if Lucy can be taken as an example, he tends to lose interest after turning them - same with the ladies in the castle maybe, but they do at least live with him/he feeds them so less so), but I do think Jonathan definitely qualified as vampire material instead of just food. It's just that Dracula personally prefers the torment before the turning so he dragged that out to the last minute and left the turning to them. Toying with human!Jonathan was only possible in the castle, he couldn't really bring him along in a box as well, so he called it quits then.

I guess you could say Dracula saw it more as an enjoyable but finite 'summer torture fling' of sorts and lost interest after that point. After all, he doesn't go after Jonathan in London. But I do think there's room to read it the other way as well, and it was only the anger/wariness about Jonathan not only having escaped but actively being in a group hunting him down that made him lose interest in that particular game. If when he'd seen Jonathan in England it had been under other circumstances I do feel like he would have had fun picking up where he left off. I mean, his canon attack on Mina was definitely at least a little bit about tormenting Jonathan further too. If he'd spotted him that day in Piccadilly, when Jonathan was still trying to repress/deny what he'd experienced... someone else might have gotten a visit at their window.

[shannonsketches]

This interview confirmed

The point of the wilds era games is showcasing mechanics, the 'core' of both games was to build and walk around

There will be no DLC

There will not be another direct sequel

The ultrahand will not continue in future games

The timeline is intentionally unclear to make the game accessible for new fans and the development process (tl;dr All Zelda games are intentionally AUs to a degree)

The producer and director both deny intentional references to prior games in the story, but then say that these similarities represent the soul of the series and the overall myth of The Legend of Zelda (pick a lane)?

The timeline doesn't matter, outside of specific sets of games it's irrelevant on purpose. Whatever you think about the timeline is correct. Continuity is not the point. Maintaining the form while creating something new is the point.

Fujibayashi really only cares about mechanics and Aunoma is totally cool with that

[laplacesdevil]

finished this a couple of days ago... but on june 17th, a beautiful friendship between magentas and phonekind were born ! they may be noncanon in dsaf + tkp but in my heart they're canon bffsies forever

[qourmet]

severely tempted to get a tattoo in honor of my late friend of a pink rose butterfly & i'm caught between "how do i make it not look trashy" & "TRAMP STAMP TRAMP STAMP TRAMP STAMP"

[twopercentboy]

this is my own personal hell I hate it here

[sarcophagid]

i need to put a giant disclaimer that everything in xxv's story sounds so much worse on paper because the events themselves are pretty bad, but in execution i don't want the tone to be heavy it's important to understand that like, nobody cares how bad it is they jsut all have bigger problems/horrible priorities/a carefree and joyful mindset

^ dice game

[kxllerblond]

and if i said this mfer was my super late game clark development inspo??? what then huh

[harteatiing]

I NEED TO REPLY TO OUR THREAD

"Well, I'll admit that, at least where our interests do align, you have strikingly good taste." 'Radio Appreciator' scored a point in that regard, especially, along with plenty of other squares. "But even so-- and I mean no offense, my good man-- I don't know that you could handle me."

@hazbinned // bingo !

[the-acid-pear]

One of the most beautiful things Deltarune story has is the fact that you cannot remove its tragedy, because it's thru that very same that hope and love is born. You cannot change the past but you can take what you learnt and thru it build a brighter future.

[ettadunham]

why is my little baldur's gate guy so horny, smh