#what a goofy mouthful

[dirty-xenobladeconfessions]

super duper excited for xbcxde to enter into the arena of acronyms

[lizzybeeee]

The Lucanis vs Illario story would have had greater emotional depth/intrigue if the writers didn't water down how fucked up the Crows are as an organization.

Just some thoughts about how, out of all the side villains, Illario had some great potential to be a really interesting/tragic character in my opinion.

TL;DR: Zevran Aranai has a knife with Caterina's name on it for good reason and Lucanis/Illario need therapy...or whatever the Thedas equivalent is called...talking to Rook, I dunno

Going into DATV as a new player, or even as a returning one, the whitewashing of the Crows has a lot of the potential complexities of that life simply ignored or barely touched upon. The entire 'Illario vs Lucanis' boils down to: Illario seething in the shadows about Lucanis being the 'best boy'™ of the family while Illario is an after thought - which he is.

Let's be real, Illario is not subtle and immediately comes across as the Scar to Lucanis' 'Mufasa'. It's a questline with a very straightforward villain who has pretty lackluster motivations from what info we're provided - being 'I want power and to be the First Talon'. The game does very little explore what motivations he may have beyond being jealous of Lucanis/wanting more power.

However, if you play the quest line knowing what previous games have set up about the Crows - about how cutthroat and brutal the life is behind the glamour - then you can see that the entire Lucanis vs Illario conflict has amazing potential to be a dramatic tragedy.

We've seen how the life of Crow can affect Zevran - someone who was sold into the life through child-slavery. How interesting would it be to see how the life of a Crow can affect someone who was born into it? It's pretty clear in-game that Caterina intends for her grandchildren to carry on the family tradition - despite the fact that this 'family tradition' has likely led to the deaths of most of her grandchildren and however many children she had.

If there's banter about how Illario's/Lucanis' parents/cousins died specifically I haven't heard it, but the impression I got in-game was that it was likely linked to the Crows/politics in some way? Feel free to correct me! Still majorly fucked up that she pushes her grandsons into this life regardless!

Lucanis/Illario's situation was not like Zevran's - who was sold into the Crow's through slavery, with no one to speak up for him. Caterina was a woman who had power, who knew what the life of a Crow meant, and who still pushed those she 'loved' into it because is consolidated her place in the system. For all the Crows talk of 'family' Caterina doesn't seem to give a shit about them unless if they're contributing to the family business in some way - not to mention the whole 'you fail and we kill you' clause of being a Crow in the first place.

In the 'Wigmaker Job' from Tevinter Nights Lucanis talks about how Caterina hit him [also Illario] with her cane for mistakes and had him spend days without food/water. How he used to hate her but now 'realizes' that it was her way of ensuring he survived the life of being an Antivan Crow. Did it end up protecting them? It likely pushed them both to refine their skills out of fear. It's likely that simply by association with her they would be targets and thus needed to know how to take care of themselves and fight.

But why have him as a Crow in the first place? Why not simply train them well to defend themselves? You can't deny that she doesn't benefit from having her grandchildren in the family business - intentionally wanting Lucanis to take over her position as First Talon. The Antivan Crows are a force to be reckoned with and being one brings a whole lot of power in Antiva - being part of the elite of that group even more so.

If the game showed us the ugly reality of the Crows - the brutality of the lifestyle and how cutthroat the organization is, it could have really added some depth to Illario's betrayal - having it be more than "I want more power/respect" to "this is the result of what you taught me was valuable in life."

Warden: "Do you actually enjoy being an assassin?" Zevran: "And why not? There are many things to enjoy about being a Crow in Antiva. You are respected. You are feared. The authorities go out of their way to overlook your trespasses. Even the rewards are nothing to turn your nose up at."

Illario, bitter about Caterina favoring Lucanis - resentful of the fact that she has already decided that Lucanis will be her successor, being offered power by the Venatori (at the expense of the Crows) and accepting because why not? How different is it from what the Crows do? Isn't power and status the whole point of working yourself up in the Crows? Getting into a relationship with Zara because why not? Isn't sex part of the allure of being a Crow? Why can't he have this? Why shouldn't he have this?

Rook: "When we met, it didn't seem like Illario and Caterina were close." Lucanis: "It was hard to be close to her. Even for me. And...I was her favorite."

Why would he have connections to his family? Why should he? Caterina certainly never seemed to value 'family' beyond what they could do for her and their family legacy. Most of his family is already dead, and of those that remain the only parental figure he has obviously favors Lucanis. We don't have a lot of evidence in-game to show that Illario ever really cared for Lucanis, but the prequel story 'The Wake' and Lucanis' own banter imply that they were practically brothers, best friends. Perhaps he did care and then ceased to at some point, perhaps he didn't at all, or perhaps he accepted that an early death for them both was inevitable like everyone else in their family. Dead now or later - what was the difference? At least if Illario sells him out now to the Venatori then he'll get something from it instead of another dead family member to bury.

It's the tragic result of raising a child in an environment where he was taught and experienced the need for self-preservation at all costs. Constantly threatened, punished, and made well aware of that fact that his life was an expendable commodity. Then, when things in the world went to shit he picked the only option that made sense to him. To save himself.

The irony of the potential fall of the Crows, the fall of House Dellamorte, coming at the hands of one of their own - not because he had a change of heart but because he was taught too well by them. The Crows view those that fail them as disposable, someone to be discarded - if the Crows fail Illario, what is to stop him from applying that mindset to them?

But this would require the writers to acknowledge how messed up the Crows are and we can't do that to our 'Noble Freedom Fighters'™. They'll also need to address Zevran's existence and what lore was established in past games...and we can't have that either lmao.

[goodnight-whore]

Jesus how strong is his tongue???

.

….

….nobody answer that—

[juicybeetz]

To the people who are absolute heroes and have bought the digital version of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice already: sooooooooo… are there any clear screenshots that show what the fine print on Lydia and Beetlejuice’s marriage agreement says or…? 👀

[goldentail-readswarriorcats]

i kinda ruined sprunki

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Oliver Stark’s real accent this, Oliver Stark’s real accent that, WHYST THE FUCK did no one tell me about John Harlan Kim’s real accent before I started watching The Librarians on a whim and got immediately jumpscared by that motherfucker being AUSTRALIAN????????

[dragonling348]

I'm thinking about that first few episodes of the PJO show, compared to the general opinion of the show now. I'm thinking about the ways we saw Percy trip and fall in front of Annabeth, how Percy got distracted instantly and pet a gecko in the middle of a fight, how he almost shot another camper with a bow and arrow after telling everyone it was probably a bad idea to let him hold a bow and arrow. I'm thinking about how this kid fails so often, and we really got to see it for a moment. We *had* that for a few episodes. This total looser who's human, who messes up but still somehow saves the world. We get moments like the consensus song--it's not like the show is devoid of humor. But as the show goes on, you can sense a change. I won't say my critiques on the newer episodes because everyone knows exactly what direction the show went, the pieces of humanity that it's missing. But I will point out how everyone cheered when the 12 year old ran a taxi straight into a wall. Because that's what they remember. They laughed when they were kids reading a chapter list with things like "We take a zebra to Vegas"

I don't know what the point of this post is, it doesn't say anything that the entire fandom hasn't been saying. I'm not even trying to reach a decision on whether or not I like these changes. But Rick Riordan *had* that feeling in the show. It's just that as it goes on, we get less and less.

[buttered-toasty]

*thinks about Írmo really hard*

.

.

Yknow it occurs to me I’ve never posted námo here either which is not necessary but provides context/thematic cohesion for why írmo has so many fucking eyes. Because I draw námo with so many fucking mouths

[sysig]

Somebody ordered Sushi Beefcake (Patreon)

[articskele]

GHSDKGJJHDSKGJLD GUYS. GUYSSSSSSS

@mirror-archives DREW SOMETHING AMAZING OH MY GOODNESS THANK YOU AGAINNNNN :D!!!!!!!

[cruesuffix]

Do you think if Sharon and kitty!Mick went fishing, Mick would try to catch fish with his mouth? Like jumping into the nasty water and chomping down on a fish, standing in front of a very disgusted Sharon with a (still alive)fish in his mouth, soaking wet. Like I know cats don't like water, but I've seen some do that?

Silly little orange kitty, hunting for his wife....

ok i could probably imagine this one oomfie!! terribly disgusting but… micks never been the most clean kitty in the first place. the cat instincts always come out at the worst times. maybe mick gets a bonus at work and, to splurge a bit, he rents out a little cheap cottage to bring him and his family to during the summer. mick, of course, would want to teach sharon how to fish… cause there sure ain’t anything else to do at the cottage.

he’s in the middle of teaching her how to reel in a fish when his ears perk up. he can hear something in the water and his first instinct is to just jump in… so he does. sharon is calling out for him, trying to get him to come back, but he’s already in too deep. before she knows it, he’s coming back up to the surface, this time with a fish in his mouth. she’d be glad that the kittens are a little farther away so they can’t see their dad being reckless, cause knowing those two, they’d try to copy him! he comes back to her, soaking wet and the fish still in his mouth. his eyes are shining though, and it’s clear he wants her to congratulate him on such a good hunt. and she can muster is a thumbs up. it’s very clear that whole ordeal disgusted the hell out of her, and maybe she whines about him getting all wet and dirty from the very unclean water he just jumped into. then, she tells him to get it out of his mouth and throw it back into the ocean. really… she doesn’t want to cook it, and she doesn’t want him to have it in his mouth (who knows what part of the ocean that fish came from!). oh and also… if cats don’t like water that means mick doesn’t shower very often… but now he can say he’s had a proper bath! does it matter that he smells like dirty ocean water? well… not to mick it does! sharon, however, might have to convince him to take a proper shower if the smell gets to bad!

what a silly kitty getting all dirty like that! just to catch a little fish they’d end up throwing back in the water either way!<333 ughhh going crazy over how cute this is oomfie<333

[noodle-schrammy]

Soooo I had a different things in mind

[And had in mind to draw like 3 to 4 things but..shadow happened]

Little progressing from to

[sillyg0ose4527281]

I tried making a oc sheet... pretty low quality but welp 🙏

(btw the censored stuff is just stuff that I'm working on! Her design is already done, I just gotta finish developing her lore🥲) guys I think she likes björk.....idk tho🙏🤔 (I love susie's sis.....save me susie's sis.........)

[spookyrea]

k skull island RIPS

[snobgoblin]

i feel like id like Sedusa more if she were in more episodes but so far she's just kinda "the lady that turned the powerpuff girls' dad against them" "the lady who kidnapped miss bellum" and "the lady who betrayed the gangreen gang and made Ace cry" so despite the massive amounts of cunt she serves charisma she has and an excellent design i kinda ended up hating her. but liking her at the same time. it's weird

[foreverambrosia]

Dazai's VA is great at playing silly wife guys. Truly a master at that.