#what a fucking bit of characterisation
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WHAT???????
#i am. actually floored#the thing about the books. is that the characterisation is either a little too kid-friendly or just absolutely unhinged#why the hell is this boy carrying around two daggers and an axe. i feel insane#can anyone hear me#me so scared of writing jay ooc & in coke melissa with a steel chair#what a fucking bit of characterisation#now i need to rewatch descendants knowing that jay has two daggers and an axe on him at all times#descendants#descendants isle of the lost#jay son of jafar
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Personal headcanon about the "you picked the wrong dellamorte" line, I don't think illario actually likes rook outside the context of them being someone close to lucanis. Like rook on their own isn't much to him, but when they meet it's yet another person talking about his cousin (why isn't he good enough for whatever job they're hiring for?) and on top of that they somehow bring him back from the dead (another whole can of worms for illario). Now he starts turning on the charm, but whether he's actually interested or this is just one more thing his cousin has that he doesn't and it gets under his skin, who knows. Either way, rook ignores illario, the guy who lives off his charm, and is instead interested in the guy who's never even dated before and thinks giving someone a knife is how to flirt. Infuriating
NO THANK YOU !! i am genuinely sorry if i have ever implied illario is into rook like i see some takes about it and unless it like ties into your rook's personal backstory i don't seriously think he's romantically jealous. at all. my enjoyment of that line stems from illario's pathological need to make it about himself and not see his strengths but what lucanis has, and therefore what he doesn't. he's annoyed enough to try and goad you in the middle of a fight about the 'wrong' dellamorte and completely blind to the fact that the venatori are at best, a stupid fucking alliance, and at worst, a cult that will devour the crows from the inside out and illario would have been the one to give them the keys. he sees lucanis make allies, needs his own, and instead of charming the other talons/houses as he should, he (probably spitefully) picks the venatori. or maybe he just thought it would be easier. ugh he makes me want to telekenetically throw him around
#and you raise a very hilarious point too LMFAO#not that he is jealous. just mad as hell its not working <3 I LIKE HIM VERY MUCH AND A NORMAL AMOUNT#to be clear i think his characterisation changed dramatically from wigmaker's job and a lot of his uh#very rash decisions about achieving power feels like they just needed a traitor character for lucanis#to really max out the use of spite. i really wish honestly that there was some canon support for illario#who would probably be a little more liked/popular than lucanis. bc lucanis is respected by the crows#but he's also a very distant 'dellamorte heir' figure. respect is not the same as being liked. so you know#there's the serious assassin with a rep for how good he is at killing#and there's a friendlier assassin with a rep for sweet talking#and neither of those reputations are necessarily true. but i know which one i'd be less afraid of#and i think illario would know that. and be able to use that. BUT WE DONT GET IT. WHATEVER.....#illario dellamorte#veilguard spoilers#answered#also we're introduced to an illario that understands being a crow. and has had all that drilled into him since childhood#why. would he. ally with the venatori.#why would he put himself into a situation that he couldnt control. other than 'the story needs a villain'#what im trying to say. is . there were the makings of a crow civil war here that ends with him tragically dead#if you asked me to expand on this i dont think i could. but like the main issue being the crows not standing together making#the antaam invasion worse (btw regarding this why the fuck were the antaam even invading) so lucanis' quest is#idk. something like uniting the crows together and potentially repairing his relationship w illario#or hardening him and convincing he needs to kill illario#this is me spitballing. dont even mind me#(glances at the 'illario mention' alarm going off in the background)#EDIT: AND ALSO IT JUST CAME TO ME#killing illario as an ending also makes lucanis first talon (oh we're really in the cycles now)#forgiving illario ends with illario becoming 'talon' tho he and lucanis work closely. like a ceo vs cfo#and ends with them repairing their relationship#in the ideal world lucanis would fully leave but im alright with crows making small steps towards becoming a bit healthier
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I absolutely HATE when people see their favourite character making a bad decision/messing up/having questionable morals in a fic and go
“that’s not my sweet little -name- they’re perfect and can’t do any wrong and this fic is now horrible because I don’t agree with how you wrote the characters”
like your right that’s not your sweet little -name- it’s theirs!! It’s the person who wrote the bloody fics characterisation and if you don’t like it then don’t read it omg
#also characters making bad decisions does not reflect the authors morals#and please for fucks sake stop saying that because they can write characters that believe immoral things means that they must believe that#some people just have an imagination#and are good at writing#but I don’t expect you to know what that’s like if that’s what you come to after reading something#it’s made up!! fiction!!! fake!!!!#this may or may not be because of a TikTok comment section#I have so many angry rants in my drafts because of tiktok comment sections#I could just not open them#but I do every time#it’s my fault#i guess#but not my fault people are stupid#that’s there own#marauders#marauders era#fanfiction#fanfic#characterisation#marauders fandom#the video might have been on choices just a little bit#so you can imagine the comments#i haven’t read it#but isn’t the whole point that people make good and bad and questionable CHOICES??#yk like the fucking name of the fic??#no? idk#mcd scares me#jegulus#choices#regulus black
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ao3 author: so they have to take part in this ancient pagan ritual. merlin is wearing bottoms made of fur and a pair of ram's horns. arthur chases him as he runs away and tackles him to the groun—
me: horns?
ao3 author: part of the ritual
me: of course
ao3 author: he tackles him to the ground. they are both drugged out of their minds, btw
me: yeah, go on
#yeah it's from that 870k words fic#listen. in the context of the fic it makes sense. kinda.#fvcking to save the crops or something idk#but no the fic is great actually tbh#i've only read bits of it so far because it's soooo long#but i think i had already read some of part 1 at some point? i half-remember some scenes#anyway. love the characterisation#love whatever is going on between these two#asexual x biromantic gay dynamic or something#but without the labels!!#complex messed up feelings and confusing messed up sɘx#love to see it. ticks so many of my boxes#forget the tropes be interesting!!#make readers go “idk what the fuck is going on here but I love the energy"#that's what fanfic is for tbh#merlin#merlin fanfic#merlin fanfiction#merthur#fandom#the hands of a hundred winters
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it’s truly what warhammer is missing the most re: primarchs. it’s boring if they all like each other, and it’s boring if they all hate each other; there should be an extremely complicated system of primarch relationships in which at least two of them fucking hate each other but sometimes have to tolerate each other because they all have a bestie in common
#astartes should be keeping relationship flowcharts in their quarters so they can be appropriately bitchy to the right legions when they#next are on campaign together because that legion is mutuals with someone their primarch cant sttttand#enough of perturabo has no friends. perturabo and the lion are beeeesties. mostly bc perturabo says purposefully needling things at him#and lion’el jonson just. does not notice. but lion’el jonson and rogal dorn should get on decently via an autism to autism communication#wavelength. and guilliman & rogal dorn should be administration besties. but guilliman and the lion should hate each other#we are looking at potentially the funniest 'our legions are fighting a campaign together so i guess we have to meet up and have dinner#together for morale :/' meet-ups imaginable#please. we can elevate the horus heresy. just let someone who has worked in the worst inter-office drama imaginable write it#ferrus manus should noooot like horus at all but like. puts on the most blank expression imaginable when fulgrim talks about him bc#one time he criticised him even just a little bit and fulgrim didn't speak to him for weeks.#fulgrim & sanguinius should NOOT like each other. who is that other dog in the mirror#i dont care whats canon. im rewriting this in my head.#in my deepest imagination lorgar and angron are friends so long as they literally never talk about the emperor. like i actually think it#would be an interesting relationship if they both liked one another EXCEPT for that one big thing thats the biggest thing in both their#lives. & idk. angron if he was given more characterisation could be friends with sanguinius i think. sanguinius literally dealing with#murderous ragebeasts all the time as a given anyway. but lorgar fucking HATES sanguinius having angel theming so bad cos hes soooo jealous#oh. and furthermore: Luther likes everyone that the lion hates (guilliman) but hates everyone he likes (perturabo) and its truly#like from the lion's pov having ur dad disapprove of ur best friends and want u to hang out with his friend's kid who's totally lame.#luther's pov: my brotherson won't hang out with the normal kids only the kids who give each other piercings at parties and huff aerosols#its 4am so u can see why im spiralling but. idk. the primarch relationships are so underutilised imo
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just finished the second season of black sails and i gotta say i understand why it makes queers go feral
#i’m frothing at the mouth#black sails#i watched the first season yesterday and didn’t really enjoy it much#the pacing is really weird the characterisation was shallow at best and the whole thing stank of game of thrones levels of forced edgyness#but man the second season slapped so hard full 180 turnaround#the flashbacks were expertly crafted all major characters have relatable motives and they pull through ruthlessly#their fatal flaws are right there and like a greek tradgedy it all happens exactly how it must#in revealing it’s nature as a character study of flint and of what broke him so utterly the pacing actually becomes so poignant and perfect#with each new bit of information we’re given we understand his urgency his ruthlessness his unwavering calm hatred#he’s turned himself into a proper fucking monster and it’s tragic because it could only have ever gone this way#there’s no way out and the show being a prequel we know he lives we know he can’t win#actually doomed by the narrative in the worst/best way#but by god i just want his to set the world aflame
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Chibnall's Master is just a mess of motivations, and it's no surprise that many struggle with this take on the character, but it's frustrating when some get mad about this, insisting that the character isn't badly written, people "just don't understand them" and then rattle off a load of headcanons to explain them that are exclusively things fans made up to fill in the gaps in Chibnall's characterisation.
#doctor who#dw#the master#chibnall crit#they go from killing all the time lords because they hate having a tiny bit of the doctor in them#to wanting to be the doctor because they hate themselves so much#but are still exactly the same as the doctor#and i don't even know what spyfall was all about#feels like the master was just randomly throw into that episode because they rant out of plot of needed to pad out the runtime#i actually wonder if the master and timeless child stuff were originally even going to be in that season#i know the fugitive doctor was a last minute addition#feels like the master could be two since both the stories he's in that season have nothing to do with him#until he just shows up out of the blue for the cliffhanger#and takes over the narrative that has little to do with the story being told in the first part#he's an intrusive presence#forcing his way in to make chibnall's story arc happen#because there is no story that season driving to doctor towards this revelation#the narrative via the master has to literally strap her to a chair so it can be explained#just terrible storytelling all round#and even worse characterisation#even the doctor comes off badly whenever forced to share screen with the master#become so passive and and one-note#there simply to be an audience for the theatrics and exposition#except for the odd bit where they do something really fucking weird like make sure the nazis know they're poc when they arrest them
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Hour 7! Of the Time Loop - Over The Edge And Over Again au.
Skipping to the meat of the AU which is The Last Loop.
By this point, Lamb would be a fantastic Vessel unlike any Narinder has had before. They are charismatic, clever, and a damn good warrior who is devoted on a level he’s never seen before.
Meanwhile poor Lamb is basically pouring everything they are into this loop. They are errecting statues of TOWW, preaching about Death in all it glory, essentially one-shoting all of the crusades they’re going on. They spend time making sure all of the sacrifices and offerings they make are exactly to Narinder’s liking.
And they die. A lot. Mostly on purpose but no one calls them out on it.
Lamb spends time asking their God what He likes, what He’d like to do once He’s free, asking about His disciples.
Narinder indulges them since he’s never had such an effective Vessel before. And this one is so very eager to please him.
Lamb also quietly builds a hut a little larger than the others in a more secluded area near the temple. It is more elegant than the others and decorated to a very specific taste. It has an adjourning hut to house two and lamb forbids any one from going near it.
They do make an effort to be kind to their flock since it’s easier to catch more flies with honey than vinegar and well, they never truly felt comfortable performing the cruelty they knew they were capable of. And they need the cult to be kind in return, kind enough to ease new comers.
Lamb bends over backwards to make Narinder happy to the point Ratau pulls them aside with concerns.
They try to brush him off, any attempt to talk is still jammed down their throat, but the old rat merely looks at them with worry and an open invitation. (They never forgive themselves for the loops where he surrendered him to the Fox as few as they are.)
Then they slay Shamura and they know what is coming.
They make sure to get one last visit in before Narinder summons them to die. They spend it in His palm, shaking and refusing to talk or even think about what is to come. They end the visit with a watery smile and pressing their forehead against His fingertip. A silent apology.
‘Forgive me, My Divine, forgive me.’
They are in tears when they refuse their God. They choke down the sobs when they fight Baal, muffle their cries when they battle Aym and it’s nearly brings them to their knees when Narinder breaks free to face them.
But they keep going. They have too. After so many loops, something is finally different.
They win and they are absolutely miserable for it. They spare their Saviour and send Him to the flock.
They bring Him to the hut they had built especially for Him and beg him to wait, just a few more moments, then they will try to explain the Time Loops.
“Time Loops?!” Narinder looks enraged and dismissive but Lamb freezes.
The Loops are over. They think. Only one way to find out.
“Kill me.”
“You DARE?!”
“JUST KILL ME! I NEED TO BE SURE THAT WE ARE BOTH FREE!”
Their God doesn’t even hesitate and slits their throat.
It’s the first time dying by His hand hurts.
It’s the first time they awaken on the hard floor of a hut that was almost got for a God.
The story that spills out of them comes in between manic giggles and a relief so deep that they remain kneeling before their God. They spill things that He never shared in this loop. How he did not truly care for Ratau’s fate one way or another. How he got bored of the same thing over and over. How the Death He had planned was a sweet gentle Death.
Narinder cannot help but believe Lamb, kneeling before him, begging him to understand that they had tried.
That them overthrowing him was a last resort.
That this was the only way.
But now what?
#cult of the lamb#cotl#cotl lamb#cotl narinder#narilamb#time loop au#Over The Edge And Over Again au#I am literally just throwing stuff at a wall to see what sticks right now#I think I want to characterise my lamb as a bit more unhinged TROD lamb but not as much as some others that are floating around#maybe they went through a character arc where they became as fucked up as Narinder#then had to drag themselves back to sanity if they wanted to help Nari#this Lamb is not ok#Nari is gonna have to deal with this fall out#fellas how do u deal with someone who made themselves mad to save you?
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daily whistlebreeze until spo becomes PoV day 1398
I like seeing how different I can make gray cats by throwing Whis at them; anyways, Spotfur's been on my mind tonight
#warrior cats#whistlebreeze#spotfur#windclan#medicine cat#warrior#mostly thinking about all the potential she has that was never really used#how Spotfur's rebellion flopped so badly by being Like That#and how she literally stopped existing in ASC#woman has a COMPLICATED relation with having children because her mate died#next arc she's just a generic queen#goddamn these books piss me off sometimes with how neglectful they are about their characters#and it's not like this surprises me. Let's remember I am DAILY WHISTLEBREEZE#I have been drawing a random nobody for nearly four years now and you can still barely give anything Specific about Whis from the books#yeah FrostWhistle. Whis is kind and helpful and they saved each other and it's cool#yeah Ivypool's heart is a thing#but does it really characterise Whis in any interesting way whatsoever?#in my opinion not really no#I've searched fro every instance of Whis appearing on screen and it's mostly Whis being thrown around by the plot or the other cats#or by a fucking rabbit#a few cool things you can say is how Determined Whis was to save Leafkit. that's something#and you could also say that Whis prioritising helping Frost above obeying The Code is something too#but you have to Extrapolate all of this#the books don't give you any insight on what's going on in Whis' mind#and they won't#and that's what they do to most cats in their books#and we all know it and we all just see canon happen and then take the bits that interest us and make it Better#and yeah Spotfur is one of those cats that would really enjoy that treatment#Spotfur has drama on both a political level and interpersonal one (Bris Stem her kits and even her siblings just fucking off n stuff)#and they made her such a weak character by giving us Spotfur's rebellion
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Honestly I wish I wasn't hyperfixated on my ocs. I wish I could engage in fandom and get obessed with canon characters in a way that was more than I love them and their story [and they deserved better]. I wish I formed opinions instead of just nodding along going ooh that's cool. I wish I was hyperfixated on Georgie or hell even Mura instead of just shoving my jjba ocs in the faces of ppl who aren't in that fandom and I wish I has the energy to try and find people who are. I love my ocs but sharing them with people is an almost sisiphean task because on at least half my posts I sound like a raving loonatic and the other have missing context. Every hour I'm awake I'm thinking about them and adding more to their story when I have shared so little of it.
#If you couldn't tell already I'm having a bit of a rough time#God I wish I could participate in fandom. I lack the memory to know what's good/off characterisation and I just take it at what it is#Also ig I'm scared to get it wrong#So I just sit and nod on a corner#Going ooh and oughhh to other ppls ideas#Seemingly never able to come up with my own#That aren't my stupid fucking ocs#I also have the issue of ooh I like thar. Warps the characters to make that happen#Ocs are better bc they are mine to alter to make the story I like
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so fucking tired of media with a super cool and interesting premise and all sorts of fun stuff going on just for it to spend half it's time going on and on about yet ANOTHER mediocre romance. Seems like every time there's a character who gets talked up as being cool and competent and maybe scary who isn't shown immediately, I get lured into a false sense of security until BAM! it's a conventionally attractive man who is often way younger than the way people talk about him would imply. And you just know, right away, "oh okay so our protagonist is going to spend most of her time falling for this guy rather than focusing on any of the actual fucking interesting things going on despite her being the center of those interesting things"
#i will never forgive stephanie meyer for this#this is about shadow and bone btw#why the fuck is the big scary general guy fuckin 25 years old#in all reality its not as bad about this as a lot of other stuff is#but its still fucking annoying#it wouldnt be so bad if the romances in this shit was actually yaknow#good#but it never is#it always bogs it down and weakens the characterisation of the characters involved#you know what doesnt have this problem?#the locked tomb doesnt have this problem#and its ABOUT love#it just doesnt waste half its time sputtering about “ooooh are they gonna kiss or not?”#if all the romance bits of a story could be plucked out and dropped into a different story with no changes then#well maybe you shouldnt fucking have a romance in therr at all
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re: my seemingly fringe "I don't think we're meant to think Odin was a dreadful cunt" take, when was Thor 1 actually made? Like... 2010/2011? Because I think Odin is (presumably based on comics canon) meant to be "a bit distant but overall good as a parent" but 2010ish is well after the recent (historically recent, by which I mean since maybe the 1980s) shift in our culture's ideas about fatherhood and what make "a good dad" as well as similarly radical shifts in how we approach disciplining children. MCU!Odin is therefore odd because he's a couple of generations out if he's meant to convince the audience that he's A Good Dad or even an acceptable one. Even the people making the film can't have (all) thought he was any good so with this in mind I'm more open to the idea that Odin is meant to be fairly shit. (But not entirely, and certainly not to the point of him being evil - he's doing his best and arguably the issue isn't him but the culture they've all been born into.)
IDK how old the writer was but there could be an intentional generation-gap thing going on there? An "everyone thinks this is acceptable and even good parenting, but it isn't and everyone involved is getting messed up by it." You don't have to go that far back historically before failing to show regular affection to your kids wouldn't be seen as a significant flaw in a father (whereas it absolutely would be in a mother - v interesting that as the status of women in our society has increased our idea of a good dad has shifted significantly towards an ideal that would previously have been considered "maternal" and thus "unmanly." Oh hey, looks like patriarchy is bad for men too!)
I still think a lot of fanon and fanfic overstates it (which is fine until we're at the point of inventing obviously abusive behaviour and then seemingly forgetting that we made that up), and that Odin is at least meant to be 'doing his best' but yeah Them Thor Films must surely be aware that his best is nowhere near Actually Good, yeah? I mean unless they were written by a man who lives in the 1950s, which they probably weren't. (There is absolutely some generational variation in how far the social change has taken hold but you'd have to look for a long time before you'd find a man of any age who'd say "I really wish my father had been more reserved and had spent less quality time with me" rather than wistfully expressing the opposite of that.)
#that said as recently discussed frigga's characterisation (such as it is) is also quite out-of-date and thus a bit weird#every single thing we know about her comes back to her being a mother to More Important Characters#and nobody seems to have considered this a flaw in the content that they made#anyway i got to this point by realising that there's a now conspicuous lack of childcare professionals in 90s Star Trek so well done me#(most childcare falls to Wife and if Wife is not available then Man may do some in an emergency. but if neither Wife nor Man is available#the alternative is “a friend who isn't working that day” rather than the excellent daycare facilities that don't exist on Deep Space Nine)#generation gap stuff can be fascinating - like how many Boomers will insist that their own parents weren't fucked up by WW2 in any way#“oh but my dad wasn't at all affected by his experiences during the war - i know this because he never talked about any of it”#whereas to my generation that silence on what exactly happened in those years is conspicuous and an obvious sign of trauma#and that sort of thing#thor movies#mcu tag
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Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.
About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.
How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.
So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.
But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.
We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.
None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.
The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.
Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.
Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.
Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.
And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.
Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.
This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.
Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.
And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.
I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.
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I reached fuxkinf 30 tags 😭
the way he’s shaking oh my god kit he’s so nervous i actually feel like crying just — that whole interaction, the laugh, the tears; everything is so vividly thick with emotion oh my GOD
And he cracks a small smile thinking he might cry too?! OH baby i am 😭😭 then he fucking says it ‘you told me to do it scared’ GOOOOOD KIT THAT FUXKING CALLBACK 😭😭 WHAT IT MEANS 😭😭 how he’s listened to you all this time, how he’s carried that lesson with him for YEARS 😭😭
So he’s asking u to marry him scared. That you’d say no. That he’s stutterz godgodgodgodgod *head in hands*
and when reader asks have you asked me ? And he’s like, he was gonna have a speech THEN GETS CHOKED UP ABT IT ARE U SRS RN I THINK IM IN LOVE W HIM 😭😭😭😭 and he’s like ‘maybe ill have to save it for later’ oh GOOOD he rlly would do that. I think he’s just so the type to prepare these things and have it all he thrown to the side in the last minute 😭
And its so real so true. You not needing anything else but just him asking it. To hear him say it. Ih god the devotion
And and and an ddint even get me started when he takes your hand, still shaky, runs his thumb across ur ring finger 🥺 dont eeeeven get me started there ill cry aksmdkdnn and he says ‘ok ill do it’ oh my fod biggest dork ever i love him
GET ON WITH IT HAJIME 😭😭😭😭
Then he kisses where the ring would be 😭🥺😭😭 then looks up at you even while youre scared 😭😭😭 will you marry me murmured into your knuckles oh my god ig my gohs skisbssinsiensincjrnd im gonna pass oUTTTG
Holding himself uprigjt to kiss u properly? Oh i would rusjsjdjdjdjdndn
And their banTER AFTER. How he places the rinf on you. THE BAAAANTERRRRR
His eyes are so soft that you knkw theyre for you <- ARE U KIDDING ME RN . RU FUCKING KIDDING ME RN 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 im waging wars for him . Flinging myself across the ocean
KIIIIIT I LOVED THIS SO MICH as you can tell lol im barely coherent but like . I loved this so much i have no words
you told me to do it scared
Iwaizumi was sixteen when he lost all of his fear.
He doesn’t really remember exactly what it was that the two of you were talking about, or when, but he remembers how his voice echoed in the alleyway home — the shortcut, he called it.
Iwaizumi remembers rambling and he remembers that you let him; you were never one to cut him off. He was a good listener, as it could be especially hard to get a word in around people like his group of friends, but you?
Around you? He couldn’t shut up.
He was rambling on and on about something — he forgets what, but it was big for his sixteen-year-old self. Nerve-wracking.
“Are you done?” he remembers you asking, side-eyeing him as you walked.
“Uh, yeah. I’m done.”
“Great. What are you even worried about, Hajime?”
(He still doesn’t know what. It turns out that you were right, and it was so insignificant that he can’t even remember what was bothering him to this day.)
“I don’t know. Rejection. Failure—“
“Oh, please,” you scoffed. “Yes, because Hajime Iwaizumi is known for failing.”
He furrowed his brows. “Don’t be mad that I’m nervous.”
“Scared, Haji.”
“I’m not—“
(You gave him a look and he shut his mouth.)
“So what?” he asked then, dropping his hands in his pockets. You never really knew why he was so good with you, why he talked so much — you never dared question it. “How do I get over it and just do it?”
You smile, shaking your head.
“You don’t get over it. You do it scared.”
“What?”
“Fake it ‘til ya make it, Haji.”
(Iwaizumi doesn’t remember what he did, but he knows he did it terrified; he did it well, too. Passed the test, won the game, cleared the hurdle, got the job. Whatever it was.)
Iwaizumi was sixteen when he lost all of his fear. He’s twenty-eight when it all comes crawling back.
By now, he’s more than a decade older with a bunch of fearlessness under his belt, from spiders put back outside to funny noises in the yard. He’s carding his fingers through your hair on the couch you both picked out, and he hasn’t been this scared in a really, really long time.
(Probably not since you told him that he just needed to do it.)
Iwaizumi is scared because, for the first time in the three months he’s been carrying your ring in his pocket, he really wants to fucking give it to you.
He’s always wanted to — no shit, it’s why he bought it — but tonight is the first time he wants to ask you. He doesn’t just want to picture it on your finger, he wants to feel it against his hand when he holds yours.
The same movie you’ve seen four times plays on the TV. You’re leaned right against him; your eyes are heavy, you’ve yawned a few times.
Half of him wants to do it, half of him knows it’s late.
It’s just — it’s you in his shirt, in his sweatpants, in his arms. He has been yours for way too long to not have done this sooner, but neither of you have ever been in a rush to do anything.
Until now, half past midnight on your long weekend and all he wants to do is plan a wedding.
Iwaizumi can’t even sit in his imagination for long, because soon enough you’re sitting up with a look of confusion and you’re lifting his hoodie up, putting a hand over his heart.
“What?” he says, half a breath and half a laugh.
You look … concerned. He can’t tell whether he thinks it’s cute or distressing. “You don’t feel that?”
“Feel what?”
“Hajime, your heart is racing.”
“Is it?” he asks. He sets his hand beside yours. “Nope, don’t feel it.”
You roll your eyes, yanking his sweater back down as you sit at his side. “Well, something is making you two steps away from arresting right here. Spill before I call an ambulance.”
“It’s nothing, seriously. Watch the movie, will you?”
“But I’m nosy, damnit. Don’t you know me at all?”
God, so fucking well. Somehow, not well enough. Tell me more. Tell me everything I already know.
“It’s nothing!”
“Hajime,” you say, and finally your voice is stern. “Whatever you want to say, you know I could never be mad at you for it.”
Iwaizumi takes a deep breath. The box in his pocket feels like it’s made of fucking lead.
“I—“
“Stop. It.”
(He does. He stands up instead.)
“Okay, wait,” you start again, “I didn’t mean leave.”
“Give me a second, damn,” he groans, dusting off his pants, checking it’s still there. Of course it’s still there, but if it wasn’t, this would be bad.
Iwaizumi knows you deserve a thousand flowers and a candle-lit beach, and maybe he’ll give you both. But he’s neck-deep and the water is rising; it’s now or within the next hour, really.
“Hey, are you alright? You’re pale,”
“I’m fine,” he reassures you. Iwaizumi kneels in front of the couch.
“Hajime,” you say again, face contorted in worry. “Seriously, are you—?”
You don’t just trail off, you jump off the road.
In one of his hands is a box. A small one, fitting for a ring. His other hand rests on your knee.
“Are you—“
“—dead serious? Yeah,” he says, sounding way less strong than he looks. “I am.”
He opens the little box, showing you what’s inside. It’s in your colour, a pretty diamond glistening beneath the warm light of your table lamp and the movie. You swear you even mentioned that shape once, probably years ago.
“No,”
“Yeah,” he says, “yes.”
“Are you serious?” you whisper, feeling your tears jerk to the surface, rimming your eyes. You rest a hand on his.
He’s shaking.
“Hajime,” you laugh, wiping a hand under your eye. “You’re shaking.”
He sighs.
“I know,” he nods. Iwaizumi cracks a small smile — he thinks he might cry, too. “You told me to do it scared.”
Your brows furrow and unfurrow in the matter of a few seconds. Yeah, you did say that.
(You were sixteen and talking about less major things, but you did say that.)
“So I’m doing it,” he finishes. “Scared.”
“Scared of what?”
He shrugs. “That I’d stutter when I ask you to marry me. Or that you’d say no.”
You smile. “Have you asked me?”
“Not yet. I was gonna make a speech, but I,” he slows. He stops — he has to, he’s getting choked up. “I might have to save it for later.”
“I don’t want a speech, I wanna hear you say it.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” he says. Iwaizumi takes your hand in his shaking hold, his thumb swiping over the top of your ring finger. “I’m gonna do it now.”
“Get on with it, Hajime.”
You’re unmistakably excited.
Iwaizumi kisses where the ring will be if you tell him yes. Scared and all, he looks up at you.
(He speaks the words you’ve been waiting for into your skin. Will you marry me? murmured into your knuckles.
You don’t even tell him yes. Not coherently, anyway.)
You throw yourself into his chest and he has to hold himself up against the coffee table behind him to kiss you upright.
“Yes,” you answer again, over and over. “Even if you were scared to ask.”
“It just means I love you, doesn’t it?” he murmurs, taking your hand and moving it back in front of him. He slips your ring onto your finger. “Just scared on the off chance you were gonna spit in my face—“
“Shut up,”
“Hey, don’t talk to your fiancé like that.” Iwaizumi hesitates, looking up from the ring to your face. His eyes are so soft that you know they’re for you. “That has a ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“Fiancé,” you repeat. Husband to be.
“Yeah. That does sound pretty good, doesn’t it?”
“Just imagine how I think fiancée sounds, honey.”
“And look — you didn’t even stutter.”
“Oh, come o—“
“Careful what you say, now. Happy fiancée, happy life, Hajime.”
“I don’t think that’s the saying, but okay.”
note; tagging @shotorus because this is your man :3 happy late birthday sel!
#pls read this#hq!!#hajime#oh my god kit. oh my god. KIT. the way i cried reading this. and for u to dedicate this to me too oh my god im actually BAWLINGN#the title alone has me by the throat i swear to god!!!!!! i love premises like that.#him rambling and you let him? oh my heart cant take this cANNOT and the idea of exceptions !!! of acting diff around you oh GOD#how he’s a listener w his friends but w you wont shut up ?!?!! IM ACHINF . i love that so much and is such a darling resd on him 😭#i truly think he’d only be super talkative w people hes super close to/feels safe being that way with 😭#i also think he looks calm and put together all the time bur is lowkey a worryrat and srsly considers EVERYTHING. 😭 i think he’s like oikawa#and i love how he cant even remember what it was — bc it was that insignificant !!! EXACTLY !!!#also calling him haji? PRICELESS . my heart will burst and die . my absolute FAVOURITE nickname for him oh my god#whatever it was — he did it terrified <- KIT PLS I LOVE THAT SO MUCH . i looove that . because hajime is an image of tenacity for me#he persists and persists despite being scared . despite it being hard . oh ym fod your characterisation of him here i could actially cry#YOU ARE SO RIGHT about spiders and noises . he is def the guy to call 😭 goes out w a slipper for roaches too 😭😭#but my god seeing him scared now at 28 its !!!!!! doing smth to me !!!!! aching my heart !!!! twisting it#and FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 MOS HE’S CARRYING THE RING AND HE RLLY WANTS TO GIVE IT TO YOU HelllOOOUGHHHH ?!?!! IM FUCKING CRYINF#no shiTTTY UTS WHY HE BOUGHT IR 😭 he doesnt just want to picture it he wants to feel it <- oh my god kit if i could just . please . CRYING .#you in everything that is him and him being yours for way too long oUGH i loved that line sk much kit gonna have it tattooed on my ribcage#half past midnight on your long weekend and all he wants to do is plan your wedding 😭😭😭😭😭😭#and how he cant tell whether you look cute or distressing . UR HONOUR HES IN LOVE jakdjd i adore the bits abt his heart racing too😭😭😭😭#its so cute and reader is so sweet and hajime is soooooo hajime 😭😭😭 how he’s so nervous oh my god please give him to me#‘is it ? nope dont feel it’ PFTTTT TKAMSKDJD LOSER snjxjd kit u know how much i love ur dialogue aksnjd their banter and chemistry is so cur#cute* & omg how he knows u so fuckif well. sometimes not enough. tell him more . everythinf he alr knows . oh god#if intimacy could be explained in a single paragraph kit. it would be that. sjznsjd hes so nervous i want to squish him#how he checks if its still there?!?! give me a sec dammit?? ph my god and how he truly wants to give u more bc u deserve more but HE CANT#HE JUST CANT HELP IT . HES SRSLY THINKING FK IT . hes neck deep and the water is rising 😭😭😭😭#and the exchange if disbelief oh my god kit i love love love raw moments snd this feels so real . so unrehearsed . UGH IM IN LOVE WITH THIS#the fuckin BOX WHILE HIS Hnd rests on ur knee oh my fod illc ry ‘dead serious’ he answers too quickly akdjsj less strong than he looks!!!#im crying . the shape the diamond the everythinf akxnjs the thought he put into it for you oh god i could CRY .#the gradual transition to tears !!!!! even when you’re saying the same thinf ‘are you serious?’ oh god i could cry i am actually crying
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top/bottom discourse in the satosugu fandom is wild like why are yall so mad about someone else's preferred ship dynamic ???? 😭😭 just block the ppl you find annoying and move on GEEZ
#wank.mp3#jjk#fandom.rtf#shut up haydar#i like goge bcs i hate ppl characterising gojo as some uwu princess who did nothing wrong#i mean goge ppl also call geto a princess but it's mostly for fun and?? honestly he's more in character#cuz he's a murderous unhinged princess who started a cult!#but he raised two little girls like they're his own and is always prim and proper#gojo is RUDE and bratty and harsh towards his students INCLUDING MEGUMI!! he's not an uwu crybaby#but if ppl characterise him that way (in a way i dont like) i just block and rant a bit and move on...#so why are other folks doing whole callout posts and making it a social justice issue#'you're homophobic and problematic if you like goge' no i just like it when gojo fucks geto in the ass#yall are weird for making fandom BS into some queer in-fighting debate out of nowhere.... i just know these ppl have no jobs!#step your pussy up honey get a job own a business suck a dick#also like theres a reason why we tag shit...so its easier to curate what u see... if you dont like goge just mute it? weird behaviour
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two hundred pages of slow action was worth it for this chapter
#george eliot i love you#i have been enjoying the book for the most part#it's just the fact i need to have it read for 9am on monday is making me a little more inclined to skim over certain bits#but i have resisted the urge#anyway she's so fantastic with characterisation like this chapter introduces workmen attending night school#descriptions only are a few sentences but she paints them so vividly#and she's fucking funny too#like there's a stonemason there who is learning to read and write partially bc a guy he works with can#and she literally goes 'what could be done by a little fellow like sam phillips bill considered could be done by himself#seeing that he could pound sam into wet clay if circumstances required it'#just urgh#chef's kiss#and i will be raving about the humour in the seminar#like yeah i still have another 250 pages or something to go and secondary reading to do#but it's a good book#personal#lit talks#adam bede
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