#well this was a shitshow

[minetteskvareninova]

The EU Parliament Elections Happened. There Were No Survivors.

So, good news everyone! Progressive Slovakia won the EU election by a relatively decent margin. SMER got the second place, no surprises there... The rest of the results were absolutely insane and honestly a little scary.

The Republic, a.k.a. the diet nazis, rebounded from their frankly embarassing parliamentary elections last year, probably stealing most of the voters from SNS and maybe Hlas (I'm guessing, as if I had any idea whatsoever why would anyone vote for fucking Hlas). Like, they don't have Marine Le Pen numbers, but still, 12% is by their standards a massive success bordering on some kind of twisted religious miracle. Hlas and KDH were around equal in their kinda sad numbers - but of course not nearly as sad as SaS and ESPECIALLY SNS and The Party Formerly Known As OĽANO. OĽANO in general hasn't been doing much except for refusing to join other opposition parties on antigovernment protests and having Matovič campaign for presidency, which noone, least of all the man himself, took seriously. Are they finished? Dunno, maybe Matovič's next shocking, unexpected move will win back hearts and minds and secures them place at the top of the charts next parliamentary election. Anything could happen with these bozos. I am not sure the results of SNS are indicative of their general support; more likely, it's because they nominated literally everyone, including actual government ministers and the leader of their party, which even their generally quite unintelligent electorate must've recognized as a stupid decision. The Democrats and Alliance, which is the current party of Slovak Hungarians, got about the same results as they did in the parliamentary elections - no surprises there, losers stay losing.

(In case you needed a primer on who all these losers are:

[lqvesoph]

anyway lando back with his beloved p7🫶🏻

[lyoneve]

“Lover, where do you live? In the sky, in the clouds, in the ocean?”

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

chat what does it say about my mental health that I'm rewatching the jaskier torture scene and pausing and rewinding every five seconds because I keep getting too excited

[spicyrottingbrains]

I was going through the buddie tag on ao3 for the first time in a little over a month looking for a good fic (I've been in a little but of a reading slump because all the mistagged fics were messing with my head so I took a break from it and only read buddie fics that ppl recommended on tumblr and fics from my other fandoms). And guys I just came across not one but two fics with a eddie diaz bashing tag. I never thought I'd see the day. Ohmigod. All the hen chim and maddie bashing tags were bad enough and I had them filtered but god this random dude really did bring wayyy too much eddie hate into the buddie fandom of all things. Also why are they tagging buddiee if it's not happening. If it's an eddie or buck pining fic then atleast say that it's one sided or use the prerelationship tag(if it applies) instead of tagging the relationship tag. The amount of mistagged fics pisses me off so much.

[shima-draws]

Anyway speaking of poly trios. Have any of you considered Lawlusan because MANNNN.

[s4dstr4wberry]

I’m taking off my hijab. I don’t want to wear it anymore. I refuse to leave the house or go anywhere with it on. My dad still doesn’t know but I’m anticipating the worst reaction just in case. I hope he doesn’t hit me or smth cz I’ll hate him forever. Anyway

I’m about to piss myself cz I’m trapped in the living room cz there are male workers doing some job inside the house and I will NOT cover my head to go to the bathroom. So I’ve been holding it in for 1.5h and still have 2.5h until they leave and I genuinely don’t care if I pee and shit myself I just will not wear it.

My mom told me we would sit down and discuss the decision but there is nothing to discuss this is my body, my hair, my arms. I’m done with it

[nanomooselet]

Little but Fierce VI

She winds up… there's the pitch…

Poor Nick. It never stops being funny. I'd feel sorrier that this happened to him but he's such a bastard in his introductory episode. It's like karma in advance.

Heheh. Kar-ma.

Meryl and Wolfwood behave very much like siblings to each other, while Vash and Roberto treat them like their awful terrible kids. Roberto does actually try reach out to Vash as a mentor once or twice, but of course Vash is fuck-off old and doesn't need that kind of assistance, so he's gently deflected. Roberto is old and wise enough to keep his distance. Nick, for his part, enjoys pissing Roberto off, and Roberto is for his part duly pissed off.

Still, Vash is the reason they're all even there in the first place and Meryl shows him concern. And Vash, in his way, fusses over Nick the way Roberto feels responsible for Meryl. A lot of what Vash does, he's doing pretty much solely for Wolfwood's benefit. I mean, look at this pathetic wet kitten of a man - you can't tell me he doesn't need it.

I've already talked at some length about why exactly Vash is like he is about Wolfwood, but what's he like about Meryl?

Pretty much exactly as fond. He's just quieter about it. To my read, he's confident she and Roberto can look after themselves and each other. That's really endearing to him, but not something he has to do anything about. And Meryl's not suffering the same kind of identity crisis as the Punisher/Wolfwood/Nico. Meryl knows exactly who she is, she's just trying to get everyone else to acknowledge it, and Vash does so from the first - she's never anything but "Meryl" to him, not "newbie" or "little lady". She never has to demand that of him.

Nor is she in directly a victim of his godawful brother, which thankfully means she isn't his responsibility to help - or at least, no more so than any given human. Also, it's Vash. What's that? Someone is invested in his well-being? Golly, that sounds suspiciously like he's being cared for (which of course he doesn't deserve), or (more reasonably) like someone vulnerable to being caught up in Knives's manipulations. Or just someone vulnerable to Knives period. Stampede out!

I though you guys were buddies./I thought you three had something special. 

No way./Yeah, not really.

Too bad for him, he's met his match in Meryl Stryfe.

In direct contrast to every other character around Vash, she's only one there not because she has to be, or because she needs or wants something from him, but because she decided to be. She's one of the only characters with agency, after all.

Real people aren't monsters like that./He's a man, not a monster.

But I won't give up, no matter how unreasonable the assignment!/I won't abandon an assignment just because it's silly.

We can't just leave him hanging here./No way. We can't just leave him here.

And she's also decided he needs help. So come hell or high water, this man is getting helped.

It's her knack for finding the truth without quite knowing the reasoning behind it. In physical terms Vash really, really doesn't need help, and it's the mistake Knives always makes; that because Vash ostensibly doesn't have powers like him, he's in need of a defender. (And because this is Knives, that means it's up to him personally, and he's entitled to Vash and his exclusive love/loyalty/devotion in return. Any protests Vash makes are clearly just human corruption.) But what Vash actually needs is something his brother has never, in any version of the story, demonstrated the capacity to give him. Even sensitive little boy Knives back in Maximum relied on others for reassurance up until the moment he decided he couldn't.

Vash is more inclined to be someone others rely on, to the point of being maladaptive. It's being unable to help that gets to him, especially when he's held responsible.

What he needs is emotional support. Or, well... faith.

Wolfwood gives that to him eventually, but it takes some serious work, and it comes with its own attendant difficulties, like the fact that Nick's not in a position to extend Vash help himself no matter how much he might want to. Nick is, like Rosa and like Vash, a pragmatist. Do what you have to do.

Meryl has never needed that kind of direct demonstration. To her, Vash is a person, and people always need help, and she's not going to be prevented giving it. End of discussion. And despite being mistaken on some particulars, on this point she's more right than even she knows.

The contrast with Wolfwood is incidentally why Meryl hitting Woofwoof with the truck isn't just fucking funny, it's the perfect way for him to be introduced. He can't catch the same bus as Vash by happenstance because this time Vash is his actual target. He can't have Angelina II because personal transport is autonomy he's not permitted to have.

Instead, Meryl's own autonomy and narrative significance had her run the plot right into him, completely ruining whatever plans were laid for his entrance. Notice Roberto tries to steer Meryl away from the collision course they're on, to no avail, and Vash winds up flipped over. Fantastic.

Wolfwood is getting dragged around; Meryl is the one doing the dragging. When she discovers Vash's secrets, she works to accept them and integrate them into her worldview - which means that the moment she learns he's a Plant, she doesn't reject him or become fearful of him. She instantly accepts that must mean the Plants are also people. That gives her a fuller understanding of the conflict, and especially Vash's view of it, than most. It's not a matter of "Whose side are you on?" It's "How do we move forward together?"

Wolfwood's knowledge has all been filtered through the Eye of Michael, so he's more aware of the details, but can't disentangle his true beliefs from the ideology driving them.

Meryl has a better understanding of the abstract. And that, in turn, entitles her to learn what the available methods are, and judge them...

...But it also entitles her to something more precious: Vash's unquestioning trust.

It's certainly much less dramatic than the demonstrations between Vash and Nick, but I have to say: any amount of exposure to Knives and his histrionics would leave me, at least, pretty relieved to have it.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VII

Part VIII

Part IX

[sleepingfancies]

you will never see me letting anything bad happen to davrin im so serious. "in death, sacrifice" and all sure but it's not going to happen tho. not if its you

[bloodfool]

I can say nothing to justify this. A redraw

[lorelune]

good afternoon… requesting … forehead kith

[stardustdiiving]

How evil is arlecchino and what is she cooking

As of 4.2, I’m really curious what they’re planning with Arlecchino as a character, especially as a villain/antagonist/morally dubious character, and how far/which direction they may go with that

Intuitively my impression is we’ll see her do something way more “villainous” than she presents herself as being for majority of Fontaine’s AQ in front of us right—(which isn’t a surprise given that, you know, Arlecchino nor the House of Hearth have never been presented as 110% ethical LOL) but I find myself not being in complete agreement with most analysis or speculation threads I see about Arlecchino’s morality and the like, level of sinister people seem to ascribe to her.

Idk how to put it, especially in regards to her children I do agree they are not a wholesome found family, that Arlecchino is not above pulling strings or using them for her own ulterior motives, but I kind of hesitate on the idea she only cares about the Hearth children as a means to the end/things she can control and there’s nothing else going on with her characterization wise there. I’m not saying that impression seems remotely unreasonable or unfounded, but just that it feels there’s something intentionally missing in how we are supposed to conceptualize her as a person

My main reasoning for this hunch is the fact they have not elaborated on Arlecchino and the previous Knave—who Arlecchino is stated to have taken over the position from by force. The extra tidbits I think about are that 1) Arlecchino was previously an orphan in the Hearth 2) the previous Knave is described as way, way crueler to the children of than Heart than Arlecchino was from when she took control of the House

Often, people’s major indicators that the House of the Hearth is kind of super fucked up are the NPCs we meet in world quests who are part of it and clearly suffering. But one thing I haven’t ever seen people mention w this that i think is a very interesting detail is, in The Very Special Fortune Slip Inazuma worldquest, where we stop this House of Hearth guy (Efim Snezhevich) from manufacturing tension between Watasumi/the Shogunate to restart the war with his other Hearth subordinates, at the end of the quest we get this dialogue that reveals he had been acting under the previous Knave’s directives:

It’s also mentioned he’s employing this plan in an attempt to “rebuild the prestige of the Knave” following Signora’s death, iirc? Now, see, the dialogue itself says that this is “assuming our captive is telling the truth” so who knows what’s really going on, but I find this a really odd/interesting thing to highlight. I’m a bit fuzzy on other world quests with Hearth members, and am not saying none of them were acting and subsequently being treated poorly by our Arlecchino, but like, this gives me a lot of questions especially when paired with implications this previous Knave seemed to be way worse

Like, what drove Arlecchino to take over? How unexpected and controversial was this within the House? Assuming the above information is all true it definitely says something this guy went rogue and acted on what the previous Knave would want and didn’t think our Arlecchino would greenlight it, which does feel consistent with the previous Knave being described as basically worse & crueler than our Arlecchino. It also makes me question how much house of hearth things we’ve seen outside the main story are the work of our Arlecchino or if there’s a bigger divide of loyalty. Heck, I could be wrong but it doesn’t even seem like we know if the previous Knave is dead or not

This isn’t me saying Arlecchino couldn’t possibly be treating hearth children worse than she wants us to know, especially ones who aren’t her “favorites” the way the fontaine trio seem to be, but I really don’t feel sure about making a solid conclusion of her exact level of malice the way ppl r generally understanding it rn when it feels there’s going to be more about her. Just the idea of she, as a Hearth child, clashed with the previous leader who was known for being cruel, overtook their position and took on less harsh methods of leading that made at least some members with more power/possible closer proximity to the previous Knave go rogue and try to commit atrocities in the previous Knave’s name…I feel this leaves a lot of room to suggest there’s more going on with how Arlecchino is as a person

I don’t mind if she’s just very evil and deceptive bc if she totally had me fall for thinking she was less evil than she actually was that’s fun tbh. But I feel people suggest that’s all her character could be with no degree of like, “sympatheticness” or deep grey morality and that if her character did go there it would be automatically poor writing and genshin walking back on making a truly evil woman when IDK. I feel you can claim at this point they have left it open ended and it’s never been completely confirmed she’s pure evil. Also sometimes I just get a hunch and feel cautiously confident in Genshin executing certain characters well. Not all characters, just certain ones. Especially given Fontaine’s character writing being very good and a character like Lyney feeling very solid to me when any development with Arlecchino would likely involve him and his siblings as well, I honestly feel open to the idea of Arlecchino being satisfyingly written to be both villainous/morally dubious but “sympathetic/likable as a person” in ways outside of just her ruthlessness if that makes sense

If I’m wrong/they drop the ball with it more than I anticipate I’ll eat my hat but I am pretty excited about her character and which way they decide to go with it. I will say the only potential impression I have of where they’ll go with her has been wondering if it will go in a “cycles of abuse” direction—I’d be surprised if they ever elaborated on Arlecchino’s character especially in how she feels about things and her also growing up as an exploited child of the hearth wasn’t relevant

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

Teleri: oh so you need our help because you’re exiled and anarchic

Teleri: like shit

The active possibility of Teler mariners ferrying the Noldor and returning with the swan ships to Alqualonde:

Teleri: like shit

Later:

Teleri: oh damn those fuckers are on our boats. Let’s kill them

[singsweetmelodies]

russell and sainz as teammates. Who could be hated more?

AHAHAHAHAHAHA OH GOD IMAGINE THE SCENES 🤣🤣 every race weekend there would be at least one "he turned in on me" and if not that then at the bare minimum a LONG complaint over the team radio about how someone's race is being sacrificed and it is VERY UNFAIR. lmfao. it would be a disaster 🤣🤣 personally, i would also love to see the russell girlies and the sainz girlies really go at it on tumblr. now THERE would be absolute scenes 😆

[banjomelodies]

Honestly really sad about the fact Natlan has some of the coolest outfits and animations ever .. but everything about the characters is plain colorist and stereotypical. Mualani is super cute, Kinich seems interesting, Xilonen is super pretty, Ororon is really cool. ..But then you look at their designs. And realize that they just stripped a culture from the real world of the actual people behind it, being POC.

All I can really recommend is to not pull Natlan characters and keep yourself as F2P as possible. They obviously are trying to beg on their knees for players considering all of this really cool stuff they're sending out, and because of the fact Shogun AND Kazuha somehow got a rerun before Shenhe despite running really recently. They're compensating. Don't let their compensation win.

[acrylicdragon]

So. The media piece I'm most attached to is probably not getting a satisfactory ending. And now I must explain to people in real life that I'm getting heartbroken over a little gay show. Well fuck