#which makes some of what I've said here morally dubious

[thorne1435]

If you'd listened to your English classes properly you'd learn that there are two genders, male and female and if you don't classify as either of them, you're an 'it' because at least EVEN ANIMALS have genders. Which makes you worse than them honestly. You freaks are the reason insecure pathetic men in lipstick and frocks compete in sports and other activities for women and ONLY ACTUAL WOMEN. How many times do I say this, you freaks don't count as women. Just stop already with your fucking bullshit, you're the reason people invented fucking condoms. If I ever have kids, I'm letting them NOWHERE near you groomers and disgusting pedos, the safety of children is more important than your irrelevant feelings 😒

This person sent me three asks. This is the third.

I'm so proud of you! When you sent me the rough drafts, I admit, I was a bit reluctant to accept the efficacy of your essay here, but I see you took my advice to heart. You even took out the bit about Lia Thomas or Thompson or w/e (because no one actually gives a shit about her or whoever the other one was) You did such a good job, honey! This is a good revision. I'm sure it'll at least be worth a C. Maybe higher!

Nice enby-flavored transphobia, by the way! I hadn't gotten that yet, because I tend to just say I'm a woman. Acknowledging that I'm nonbinary is a "diversity win," as the kids say. I'm glad we can set aside our differences like that, and I know it's hard, all these new ideas about gender and sexuality. I mean, it's confusing for me sometimes too. But I'm glad you've already come to the same conclusion that I have: "Just go with it, it'll make sense later."

So anyway, more seriously, (it/its) pronouns don't bother me, because when I was younger and more conservative I thought that referring to everyone as "it" would be the better option. The reason why I stopped believing this is the same reason why your "English class" thing is wrong. Linguistics is actually my special interest, so let me tell you how many genders English has: Masculine (he), Feminine (she), Neuter (they/it), Animate (he/she/they), and Inanimate (it/they). So, like 4 or 5, depending on how you count the "In/Animate" binary.

The Masc-Neut-Fem axis is a parallel gendering relative to the Animate-Inanimate binary. Though, Animacy in English is...complicated. For example, most animals, particularly pets, are referred to with (it/they) pronouns, or when the sex of the animal is known, (it/he) or (it/she). But we still do refer to them as inanimate sometimes, and this might have something to do with how we look at sentience/sapience in regards to animacy? Like, it doesn't matter as much if it's a moving or living thing, like "animacy" would imply: if it can't communicate with us, we're inclined to label it an object. It's sort of a human-centric linguistic trait but then again, how would language not be human-centric, y'know? It's something for animal rights activists to get upset about, and I don't think they're overreacting necessarily.

But uh, yeah, that was what I wanted to say about your gender comment. You don't understand grammatical gender. Why don't you read up on it before embarassing yourself in front of someone who doesn't really enjoy demonstrating how complicated it is?

Also, it should be noted that grammatical gender (the gender that animals..."have") and social gender (the gender that animals do not have, by any stretch of the term) are not the same thing. Like, you can't really "Identify as inanimate" can you? How would you affirm someone who identifies as "non-living"?

(Which, for the record, isn't to say that someone can't identify as 'inanimate' in the same way that we would assign, say, a dog or a cat the 'inanimate gender,' because that's functionally different. They're still saying they're alive, and they have to be because otherwise that sort of falls outside the scope of social gender and...like...IDK, that's just kinda wack. They're just playing with grammatical gender and that's an interesting concept but I'm not entirely sure how to approach that other than, like I said before, "Just go with it, it'll make sense later." I'm just saying this because I know it's new to you. I digress.)

There are plenty of similar, non-social grammatical genders in other languages, and the idea of someone "identifying" as one of those is kind of funny, because...well, for some of those genders you actually probably would take on those genders as part of a linguistic system within the language's conventions, and for some of those, they're impossible for humans to be, because they weren't meant to refer to humans, though I imagine that's relatively rare? It's certainly pointlessly complex, but that doesn't mean languages don't or couldn't do it, if it just happened to shake out that way. That's how language works, there are no hard-and-fast rules, it's all just happenstance shit that sticks and develops over time, a lot like Darwinism I guess.

[themultifanshipper]

heyy i know this is hella vague but if you're accepting requests would you take one for the 🔵 prompt (come over and make me, coward) for either lando, oscar, or charles? thanks!!

Charles hated you. Well he didn't hate you, but he couldn't stand your presence for more than two minutes without pulling your proverbial pigtails. It drove you nuts, but it also ignited a raging fire inside you

Warnings: The plot is bordering on crack but whatevs, journalist!reader, morally dubious stuff, mention of underage drinking and drug use, smut, public sex, PinV sex, hair pulling, slightly unhinged charles, bisexual charles, changed the prompt to "come over here and stop me, coward", i've written a lot for lando and oscar so i thought i'd give charles some love ^^

Requested from my prompt list

As a journalist, it was your job to dig up secrets and figure out what made the men you interviewed tick. And you were at the top of the food chain when it came down to it.

But the one mystery you couldn’t solve is why Charles Leclerc, famously charming and pleasant with everyone, didn’t seem to want anything to do with you.

You ended up undercover in Monaco (well, as undercover as you could be in a city where everyone knows each other) in a private club where you knew Charles would be that night.

It wasn't hard to spot him. There were always two places one could find Charles Leclerc. Either dancing in a VIP area, downing drinks with his friends while he grinds on various people and hoping to get them into bed (or at least to the nearest bathroom).

Or you could find him in said bathroom, with choked off noises coming from the stall (which one of them was on the floor was up to anyone's imagination…) which is where you were waiting patiently to corner him.

You would never admit it, especially not to him, but you were sure you could tell he was the one sucking off whoever was with him.

The muffled groans sounded just like all the times you'd imagined him in a similar circumstance with you, NOT that you'd imagined it at all *cough*… anyway they sounded too familiar for it to be a coincidence.

Before your imagination could wander much further. The sounds stopped and movement caught your ear from behind the door.

Charles looked utterly disheveled when the other guy, whom you vaguely recognised as some fitness influencer, opened the door and walked out, seemingly nonplussed by your presence.

Charles however became immediately sour at the mere sight of you, as usual.

“Fancy seeing you in here” you smirked as he walked over to the mirror to smooth out his hair which was sticking up in every direction.

“In the men's bathroom?” he glanced at the door, not amused.

“Oh… I guess it is” you feigned innocence as he turned his back to block you from view.

“So… ‘Famed F1 Driver likes getting on his knees for strangers in club bathrooms’… does that sound like a good headline?”

His back straightened immediately and he spun around with wide eyes.

“You wouldn't”

Nobody in Monaco would be surprised by the article, except maybe his mother, but his career would effectively be over.

“I'm only joking!” you laughed “but I do want to know something”

He stared daggers at you before turning back towards the mirror, grunting for you to continue.

“Why do you hate me Charles?”

That made him simply freeze. Then he carried on straightening himself out (ironic) but his movements were a bit shaky and unnatural.

“I don't hate you” he said mechanically and you scoffed.

“Oh please! As soon as I walk into a room you scowl at me, you always avoid my interviews when I'm in the paddock and I've never been anything but nice to you!”

He dropped his arms and turned around, leaning against the sink.

“Do you remember our first meeting?” he said with a frown.

That made you pause. Of course you did, you were the youngest F1 journalist in 30 years, you'd only got the job because you were so eager, you barely knew the driver’s names at that point, always having been thoroughly uninterested in F1.

Charles was driving for Sauber at the time and you clumsily got through your first interview by calling him Carlos several times.

“Of course I remember. Don't tell me you're still bitter about me calling you Carlos? That was fucking 6 years ago! I was 18 and knew nothing about you for fuck's sake!”

But he just shook his head and clenched his jaw “Nope, that's not the first time we met”

Your brain stalled. Of course that was the first time you met him. Surely you'd remember if you had met him before that.

You just stared at him questioningly, and after a while he sighed.

“We met in 2016…”

That didn't exactly help you, you would have been 16…

“I can barely remember what I had for breakfast, Charles, much less what I was doing at 16 for fuck's sake. When could we possibly have met?”

The problem is, it was starting to dawn on you. When you were 16, you clubbed. A lot.

Monaco was slightly more lax about it's laws and a lot of clubs accepted fake id's without too many questions as long as you could pay. And growing up in Monaco, it was unreasonable to expect you'd never run across Charles in a club, especially while shitfaced.

“Let me refresh your memory then…” Charles huffed “You of course know La Rascasse?”

Shit. You could feel where this was going.

“I've been there twice, and both times I was so bored I got hammered to try and forget how shit it was”

Charles hummed “Well one of those times I approached you, and we danced…” he blushed slightly at the memory “and we drank, and we did… other things.”

You gulped. It was either drugs or sex (both terrible things to do with a 16 year old when you're 19), and given how he was squirming, it was possibly the latter.

“Charles did we… have sex?” you hissed at him from across the room, which seemed to be getting smaller by the minute.

“No! You rejected my advances at the end of the night and then you stole my drugs…” he rushed out and your world stopped. “And you never called me after…” he murmured but you didn't even hear him.

You what.

“I… I stole your drugs?” You stared at him in disbelief. “I stole your drugs when I was 16 and that's why you've been mad at me for… 8 years?! And we-”

Your brain quickly did the math.

“Charles you gave drugs to a minor! You tried to hookup with a sixteen year-old! Those are both crimes, Charles!”

“You had a fake card and you told me you were 18! I only found out when you interviewed me and I realised you were younger than I thought!” Charles defended himself.

And you had to admit, although you didn't remember it at all, it was a pretty funny story.

And you couldn't help the journalist in you, you think in headlines.

You giggled “You have to admit, ‘Teenage delinquent Charles Leclerc gets drugs stolen by 16 year old girl’ is a really funny headline”

But Charles just looked scandalized, “Do NOT write about any of this!”

But you couldn't stop snorting with laughter.

“I rejected sex with The Charles Leclerc! Not many people can say that! And I ran off with his drugs!” You were wheezing at this point, doubled over and breathless.

Charles couldn't hold in his smirk , and he added weakly “I lost 200 euros worth of stuff that night!” but he snorted and that just served to make you laugh harder.

“Oh fuck Charles! Thank you for that! I'll make sure it goes in your biography”

He finally saw the humour in the situation and chuckled as you walked over to the mirror to check that your mascara hadn't run from the tears as he stepped to the side to give you space.

Charles just looked at you, seemingly taking in your appearance for the first time.

Slutty dress just a flimsy piece of fabric as you bent over and Charles got more than he bargained for when he looked at your reflection and got a glimpse of your tits almost spilling out.

Since you interviewed him the first time (he'd barely registered you calling him the wrong name) he'd always wondered what could have been if you hadn't ran off that night.

“Stop eyeing me up Charles, I’m not 16 anymore” you teased and he frowned as you stuck your ass out to lean closer to the mirror “but if you've got any drugs on you I’ll gladly take them”.

He narrowed his eyes “Actually” he looked at you basically presenting yourself to him “I think you should make it up to me”

“And how am I going to do that?” You batted your eyes at him in the mirror.

“By letting me prove to you why saying no to me is a mistake”

You raised your eyebrows “You going to offer me some coke?”

He laughed “No, I'm going to make you come twice before you can even think about leaving this room”

A shiver ran down you spine and your mind conjured up the image of him pressing you up against the mirror.

“Nah I'd rather take the drugs, thank you” you took a step towards the door, stopping just short of it as he spoke.

“Don't even think about opening that door…” he warned, but it had been a while since you had last had sex, and you were exceedingly horny.

“come over here and stop me, coward”

You didn't even have time to touch the handle as he all but dragged you away and shoved you over the sink, hands smoothing over your backside.

Your body gave in way too quickly as you melted under his touch.

“Is this why you came in here? You just wanted me to fuck you?”

You trembled in his grip as he plastered himself against your back, one arm circling your waist, the other coming up to wrap his hand around your throat.

“Look at you, so desperate for it. I bet if I put my hand under your dress you would be so fucking wet…” You shuddered at the thought, a pathetic whine leaving your lips “Shall we check?”

His fingers teased the hem of your dress, skimming the sensitive skin of your inner thighs.

When his thumb brushed over the lace of your underwear he chuckled, breath fanning the back of your neck.

“Feels like I was right. I bet I could just… slip inside-”

His middle finger slid in with ease, his palm grinding against your clit as you felt your knees start to give out.

He lightly bit your ear and added a second finger as your breath hitched.

“Open your eyes and look at yourself”

You hadn't realised you'd closed them, but the sight that met your eyes as you opened them and looked in the mirror was pure sin.

Your gaze landed on his hand disappearing under your dress, and what you couldn't see you could definitely hear as the obscene squelch of his fingers inside you rang out in the small bathroom.

His other hand went from your neck to your jaw as he forced you to look at him, and the look in his eyes was enough to make you moan loudly.

Charles Fucking Leclerc. He looked like sin personified at the best of times, but tonight he looked like the actual devil.

His irises were now fully black as he stared at you darkly behind your shoulder. One thing was for sure, he was going to ruin you, and you had a feeling you were going to need help walking out of here.

When he got to four fingers he withdrew completely and sucked them clean, eyes on yours through the mirror the whole time.

He then sprung into action and dragged your underwear down your legs, pushed you down and quickly took his hard cock out to finally get some relief after so long. After all, he had been giving a guy a blow job half an hour before.

You gasped when you felt his tip rubbing along your folds, nudging at your clit teasingly.

“Hold on to the sink, eyes on me. If you look away, I’ll stop. Understand?”

You nodded and his hand came down on your ass, hard. You writhed in anticipation, his tip just barely sinking into you, it was driving you insane.

“Words, sweetheart” he smirked as you gasped at the pain blooming over your skin.

“Yes Charles! Please!”

He slid into you in one quick thrust and pinned you to the edge of the counter with his hips. You couldn't move, completely at his mercy. He was thick, so much thicker than you expected and you struggled to keep looking at him as your eyes threatened to roll backwards into your skull.

The face you made as he slid into you sent a jolt of pride and possessiveness through Charles, immediately sending him into madness as he gripped your hair in one hand and bruised your hip with the other. He slowly pulled out until just the tip remained, before slamming into you again making you mewl at the stretch.

He broke his own rule to look at where you were joined just as he pulled his hips back again. His mouth was hanging open at the sight of your cunt clenching around him, trying to keep him inside and he slammed back into you just to hear your sweet sounds again.

He was a man obsessed. Everything about you drove him wild as he pounded into you at a destructive pace, and your body swayed with his movements.

As you felt yourself nearing your end, you tightened around him, incapable of conveying anything through speech, and he wrapped a hand around your neck to hold you up against his chest

His other hand hooked behind your knee, lifting it to set it on the counter, deepening the angle as it opened you up more for him. And that same, godforsaken hand went down to start tapping rhythmically at your clit.

“You're getting close, aren't you?”

Your body was on fire but you managed to whimper in response, making him chuckle again.

“What would you do if I just… stopped?” he said, and you entered panic mode.

“No! I'm so close, Charles!”

He laughed “I know darling, but I want you to beg for me or I will walk away and leave you here, dripping and exposed”

The thought turned you on more than you'd care to admit, but the thought of not getting the release you were so close to was terrifying. So you reluctantly begged.

“Please Charles! I'm so close! Please make me come, I'll do anything, please, please, please….”

Okay maybe not that reluctantly.

A stray tear ran down your cheek and that’s what did it for Charles.

“Fuck, look at you crying on my cock, you're so good, so perfect for me. Come for me, baby-“

You cried out as you came around Charles, and he had no choice but to come with you as your tight walls milked him for all he was worth.

You rode out the aftershocks together, grinding into each other until you were both whimpering, overstimulated messes, slumped against each other.

When you came to your senses, Charles was pulling out gently and going into one of the cubicles to grab some paper towels to clean up with.

It was almost sweet. You were slumped over the sink, exhausted, as you spread your legs so he could clean you up as best he could.

Once he was done he pulled down your dress and got himself tucked back into his pants.

“Sorry about what happened that night… I used to be a bit of a wild child.” You smiled at him.

He looked down at you bent over the sink, then around the room you were in and crooked an eyebrow at you. “Used to be?...”

You slapped his shoulder and he laughed, tucking something into his back pocket.

“At least I don't suck off random strangers in club bathrooms” you shot back at him

“… anymore” you corrected yourself as he giggled

“Quite a few headlines could be written about you, you know?” He said, amused.

You smiled “Yes but nobody cares who I am, Charles”

“I care” he interjected and you stared at each other awkwardly.

“You're not allowed to be sappy while your cum is literally dripping down my leg, Charles!” you slapped his arm again “Speaking of, where’s my underwear?”

You turned around to look around the floor but it wasn't there.

“I don't know but I don't have time to look for it, my friends are waiting…”

“But-” you started, but he'd already opened the door to slink back into the crowd. But as he turned his back, there it was. A little piece of lace poking out of his back pocket.

“Charles Leclerc, you MOTHERFUCKER!”

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part Five (Chapters 22-44): The Mandatory Exploitive Tournament Arc

Been awhile, huh? Let's see if I can still pull this off. I'm warning you, this is probably going to have a bit of heft to it.

We start off people trying (and failing) to investigate Shigarki and the Villains and, first off, a couple of things. The whole, 'Quirk Registry' shit? Very X-Men. I'm... kinda mixed feelings on it. It makes sense for a government to try and keep track of this kind of shit, but at the same time it feels like a whole lot, you know? That said... the way the guy in the suit phrased it makes it seem like they only searched for 'Shigaraki/Disintegration' and 'Kurogiri/OP warping' pairings, which seems... dumb. Like, really dumb.

Are they.... are they not going to search for anyone with a similar Quirk? Because it sounds like there are other people with similar Quirks, so... what about them? Oh, this pale haired guy who mutters a lot about how horrible heroes are isn't named Shigaraki, so clearly this isn't the guy? Do some ground work or something, man, bloody hell.

*spits out drink*

Even All-Might thinks Shigaraki is a man-child, lol. Brutal. That said... Vlad goes, 'You mean he's just like a kid with a 'power' or something?!'

And I. My dude. You're just some guy with a power. It feels like some depersonalization of the 'villains' because, yeah, everyone in this story is, in fact, just some rando human, 99.9% of the time with super powers. I don't know, it just feels like that's this really concerning perspective for someone in authority to have.

'I keep forgetting this is an actual school!'

That. That's... actually really concerning? Everyone, literally everyone, from Aizawa, to the students, to the actual author, can't seem to figure out if UA is some military academy meant to pump out child soldiers, or an actual high school meant to prepare children to go into society. And not to belabor the point here, one I've talking about on and off again for awhile, but that's fucked up.

I can't help but get the impression that UA (and presumably every other hero academy) is some military complex, setting up the students to live a life where the only way they know how to live is through violence and trying to be famous, but it's just... pretending to have standards, pretending to care for the kids as anything more than the next generation of... idol-police, or something. The way every school related thing is so out of place, the way their grades are so unimportant... it's very telling.

And like. It's not a bad thing, per say. Morally bad, sure, but from a story telling perspective? For a story like this, the way the heroic's school is morally dubious is actually a really good plot point to work off of. But... that's the problem. It never happens.

If the setting was fucked up enough, it'd be understandable if it wasn't explored, but it's not. I feel like there's some fertile ground to talk about... how heroes don't know how to handle living normal lives. How to cook, clean, do taxes, hIstory (which is, of course, very loaded sort of topic in a more dystopian kind of a set up) and so on. There's no way they have the time and energy to do all the thing a normal kid should do at their age, and as they grow up, and get these dangerous, fucked up jobs? There has to be consequences to that.

And the next line later, they bring up, you know, a bunch of terrorists just attacked the school. Which is, in fact, a serious fucking concern! What does Aizawa say?

'No no, we're only doing because we're so sure we have this shit locked down.'

Spoiler alert: They did not, in fact, have this shit locked down. In the least.

My god, this is so fucked up. It's pretty clear that the fact this is still happening is because UA, and heroics as a whole, honestly, is doing a show of force to try and make all the bad things go away. In all honesty, they're putting these kids lives at risk; the only reason nothing went wrong isn't because 'the school had all its ducks in a row when it comes to crisis control' or what the fuck ever, but because AFO didn't want to do anything. And you know why he doesn't interfere?

Because it's so damn useful for him that they flat out broadcast the details of the students and what their Quirks are!

And don't even get me started on this 'Olympics have fallen out of favor' bullshit. It's a world wide event, and it doesn't matter if the population has... shrunk (? That's what my translation says, anyways. Is this honestly saying that so many people died that the Olympics no longer holds any attraction? I mean.. what? What the fuck? What happened???? Why in the hell is this getting brushed over?! Or is that just a bad translation, and if so what is he saying is the reason the Olympics no longer have any appeal?) or whatever, because that's just... bullshit. That's just bullshit. If super powers happen, and they get at all stabilized and regulated like they are in here, all that's going to happen is that the powers are going to be part of the Olympics, and a lower population count really isn't going to change the fundamental reasons why it's popular in the first place.

Speedster racing, various forms of competitive flying (racing (in all its variations), acrobatics, mid-air dancing, synchronized flying.... flight along has dozens of potential new Olympics sports, easy), something like shot-put hurling but with some kind of projectiles, fire, lasers, whatever? Oh yeah, the Olympics are going to be just fine.

So please, Hori, spare me your obsessive need to make heroics the most important thing EVAH all of the time.

But, wait, there's more! It's not just, the new super Olympics, oh no, this is for their careers. In high school. This is, apparenlty, a make or break moment for the rest of their lives (again, with however that undefined heroics ranking and what not works). How old are they? What, fifteen? 'Here, go do bloodsports, and if you fuck up, you're going to be a menial, loser fry-cook of a wannabe police officer, dressed in brightly colored spandex for the rest of your life, barely making any money, and never getting any real respect or validation for putting your life at risk'.

Oh, I have opinions on the Sports Festival, believe me, I have a lot of opinions, but I'd like to save at least some of these more for when the actual Sports Festival starts, and not, like, five pages into the first chapter out of what, twenty two? We've got the time.

Uraraka! You're an actual character! My, this is nostalgic. I always loved the contrast between her hyper cute-zied design of her and the fact she's down to beat the living shit out of someone at the drop of a hat, and it's nice to have that again.

(Also, she's showing more ability to inspire the class here than Bakugou has shown literally the entire series, no matter how much Hori goes on about his 'charisma' or whatever.)

And then we get into her "impure" motivations to be a hero, (which I've also talked about on occasion), and it's very humanizing, both for Uraraka as a character, and the industry as a whole. It's one of those great set ups Hori ended up dropping on world building, which sucks because it'd be so interesting if he got into the nuts and bolts of the world a bit. I'm not saying we need to see the tax code or anything, but for a series that's about corruption and what not, some more detail would really help pull all of this together.

Ah, Dumb Might. I didn't miss you, except I kind of did because Dumb Might is still better than Useless-Side-Character Might.

Also, can I talk about how stupid it is that Dumb Might is burning his less than an hour's worth of time 'teaching' students again? Because holy fuck that's such a waste it's honestly criminal.

And what the hell is this switch in motivations, here? All Might never mentioned, you know, replacing him is the Symbol of Peace before now. Before this point, the whole reason he chose Izuku is that he'd be worthy user of his power, not, what, replacing him. If Izuku never gained any real fame, but still managed to save a lot of people? Before-this-point All Might would have been fine with that. More than that, he would have been proud of it, proud his successor was humble and chose to focus on doing good rather than fame. Hell, not too long ago it was pointing out by All Might that Izuku wouldn't want to use All Might's fame to benefit himself, to go slow and steady and earn his success rather than relying on fame.

Where the fuck did this come from? What the fuck kind of pressure is he trying to put on this kid?

And then right after that, we see flashes of who All Might used to be with the whole 'don't forget how you felt at the seaside park, that day', bit. Because, like, that's good. That's great! It's real, and deep, and gritty, and I'd love it if it wasn't being use with this set up, because those expectations work in other shonens, but they don't work here. Izuku can't do what All Might did, because he can't stop damn hurting himself. Going Plus Ultra, here, now, for this? It could cause real, serious harm to him for the rest of his life! And for what? To make a good impression?

And if something would call him on that, it could still work, because All Might is canonly shit at taking care of himself, that could, like, close the circle for all of this, bring it together with the two them as shit at at self care as a place to build them improving off of, but for whatever reason, Hori never went all the way on that because he was too damn afraid to commit to it, commit to a story, commit to a theme, commit to a moral.

...Holy shit, how many pages is this? We haven't even gotten to actual Sports Festival yet in the post about the damn Sports Festival.

And now we have this creepy, kind of morbid mob of people filling the hallway to stare at Class 1-A for.... being attacked by terrorists.

*what the fuck.jpeg*

What is wrong with you people?! What the actual hell is wrong with you???

And then Shinso rolls up:

"Wow. Look at these arrogant assholes, so excited about not getting killed. I'm going to declare war on them, because they deserve it for getting all high and mighty."

...

You know, I completely forgot about the epic story of, 'Shinso Hitoshi and his Completely Unmerited Persecution Complex'. I'm sad that I remember that now.

Bakugou: "People's opinions don't matter once your at the top."

Me: *looks at how much people's opinions matter to getting to the top, and staying there*

Me: ...Uh.

Thank you, Kaminari, for pointing out his edgy bullshit is, in fact, actually bullshit, and is only going to make his life more difficult for no reason. I like you as an actual person who does things other than cheerlead for Bakugou.

Izuku. Izuku no, Izuku...! Damn it. Bad Izuku. Bad! Stop getting inspired by the festering waste spewing out of Bakugou's mouth!

Cue all of two panels of the media being absolute assholes only out to make ratings with no redeeming features.

And... here's the actual Sports Festival, god knows how long into this post later!

(if you believe the text editor I just posted all of this into? Well into four pages. ...Even with my generous use of spacing, I think I have a problem.)

..Wait. Wait. Where the hell is this happening?

*does five seconds of research on the wiki*

I'm right. They have a stadium for this. Like, a giant ass sports stadium that exists for this. Only for this. That is used once a year.

At this point, I'm honestly wondering why UA isn't just it's own city. Like, Izuku should have moved here, along with the rest of the students, and all the families and various staff needed to run this just.... live on site. It's not like it'd cost them anything, since they apparently have spare cities sitting around for the kids to trash.

That's... that's actually a really interesting idea? Because it'd be a hero run city, then, which feels like it'd work well into the over commercialized, corrupted state heroics is supposed to be like, their overwhelming level of influence. I don't think that's what Hori was going for, to be clear, I think he has no idea just how much space he's causally put on UA's campus and didn't think through the implications... at all.

Ooh, and here comes Todoroki's characterization.

And... here comes the bloodsport, because that's what all of this is: bloodsport. They're throwing a bunch of teenagers onto this stage, broadcast them to the entire country, and have them fight against each other for fame. This society is so fucked up.

Random Gen Ed kid: Yeah, he placed first in the Heroics Entance Exam.

...Yeah. As fucking stupid as it is that Bakugou somehow placed first, it does make sense the person who place first in the Heroics Entrance Exam would be class representative in a school for heroics. Damn, you're salty, kid, but you're also kinda dumb, not going to lie.

Bakugou: *opens his mouth on live TV*

Bakugou: *vomits diarrhea for the entire country to see*

Izuku: ...Wow, Bakugou's so cool! He's grown up and mature now!

...Izuku. Izuku, buddy, please, stop doing this to yourself.

As yet another thing I've mentioned before, a lot of our views on Bakugou comes from Izuku. Izuku who has, from chapter one, all but worshipped Bakugou. Even when he does things wrong, even when he's actively fighting against him, Izuku can't stop himself from going on and on about how great Bakugou is, how cool and tough and determined he is. Izuku's hero worship of his abuser is sheltering Bakugou's actions from the readers, papering over all of his worst traits with a a transparent facade that he's this glorious figure. It's the narrative going the extra mile to cover his arrogant ass, to make him seem like a rival instead of an bully, someone worthy of respect rather than contempt.

Hmm. I don't want to go too much into the nuts and bolts of the event, I think, since I've done that before, so let's try something else: How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child? Where I, you guessed it, count how many times a teenager could have been killed, on national television, in this event.

Count one: The start of the race itself, where... *counts how many kids are in 1-A, multiplies by eleven*... two hundred and twenty kids run forward at the same time, trying to force themselves through the same opening. This shit is why it's illegal to shout fire in a theater, because a stampede like this could get someone trampled to death, or maybe crushed by the sheer weight of the crowd (which is something that happens, someone getting killed by the a crowd of unruly people just... squeezing them on accident).

*stares at Shinso being carried around like a wannabe king instead of using his own damn legs judgingly*

Count Two: Mineta gets bitched slapped by a robotic arm bigger than he is. I don't think I have to get into how that could be fatal.

Count Three: The army of Zero Pointers who could easily step on someone.

*Momo wondering about how UA can fund this makes me feel very validated, BTW*

Count Four: Todoroki dumping the Zero Pointer on the rest of the competition to block the way, again for obvious reasons. He obviously doesn't meant to, but this kid isn't even looking back. This is both lamp shaded and then dismissed because it happens to the only two people who could shrug that off, but holy shit that could have killed so many of them.

...The cameras are robots. The cameras are robots with AIs that are cheering on the other robots. I- I can't- what?!?

And then everyone can't stop themselves from praising Bakugou for the radical idea of going over a problem instead of blasting through it. Wow, Bakugou. Amazing. Such brains, such smarts.

Count Five: The Fall. Because there's no way that anyone could get themselves killed by. You know. Falling. If I was more generous, I'd say something like, 'There's probably something down there to catch them if they fall', but I'm not terribly impressed by UA's ability to actually keep these kids safe, so that doesn't make me think they'd have thought that through that much.

Grudgingly, I'm going to give a landmines a pass, because they're explicitly supposed to be non-lethal, and them blowing up didn't do any real damage. Burns, maybe, possibly a broken limb, probably some scars, but this count is about people dying. Izuku's pile could have been, maybe, but that's a level of deliberate action on his part big enough that I can't really blame UA, per say.

Eraserhead, on how 1-A has improved: I didn't do anything.

...Well. At least he's honest.

One other thing: I've said before how bullshit All Might telling Izuku to 'fight to win' was, and right here, here's the proof: All Might explicitly going, "I was afraid you'd be too nice to try and beat other people in competitions, but you proved me wrong! I'm so proud!". You know, fighting to win. Like he later says Izuku doesn't for some mysterious reason *cough*, to make him seem at the same level as Bakugou, *cough*. Poor, poor All Might, yet another victim of Bakugou's narrative warping favoritism.

And here we see the management kids going all out in how to sell Izuku and his brand, which is so very fucked up, for them and the people they're 'selling'. I'm aware this is something that celebrities go through, (which is fucked up for them as well, don't get me wrong; I'm an equal opportunity 'this is fucked up' call out-er), but these kids are in high school. The fact that they're doing this, and getting this done to them, in such numbers, in such an early age... yeah. There's no way this could give them lots and lots of long term stress and psychological problems, right?

Meanwhile, as we get to the offical rankings, I think it's time go back over the 'How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child?' count... at five. Five times they could have been killed on complete accident.

That is not a good score.

I'm stopping it here because the other events don't have the same problem, but instead of a whole new problem of delibrately pitting them against each other. On live TV. With minimal supervison. Cementoss popping in at the last second in Izuku vs Todoroki, considering how badly Izuku got hurt in the process, does not fill me with a great sense of these fights being well monitored.

*gets an omake chapter*

*Bakugou gets called Izuku's childhood 'friend'. Bitch, please.*

So. Here's a new point: the million point bullshit is... well. Bullshit. It's the snitch in Quiddich all over again, giving the hero something both super import, with an extra layer of difficulty, to drive up the stress and stakes, only kicked up by a million. Making more than the others makes sense, and making it enough to pass by itself is still pretty reasonable, but making it so excessively much has no point other making Izuku feel isolated from his peers and hunted by his classmates.

Also, Mt Lady going on about how 'great' an exercise the second round is is missing the point that this is literally a thing Japanese kids do in school. Literally, this is a game they're playing with Quirks, not some tactical exercise; it's like saying that playing hide and seek makes you great at hunting people down or something. Again, Hori, dial back your constant need to tell us how great the Sports Festival is. Because it isn't. It really, really isn't.

More doses of everything drooling over how great Bakugou is, and how much of a total shit of a human being he is, joy. Mineta and Shouji's teamup is actually pretty damn brilliant, even though it's tainted by how much of a one-dimensional character Mineta is. Iida is getting shown as Izuku's enemy, but honestly it looks more like he's just trying to improve himself more than anything, while acknowledging how competent Izuku is. Not just that he won the first round, or has a lot points but that Izuku, as a person, is the goal he wants to surpass; there's some good shit there, and pretty validating, if Izuku could allow himself to accept it.

Oh Mei! Mei... actually, I have a post I need to do about the Mei and Izuku dynamic at some point, how they're so designed to work together, but yeah she's fun.

And then Uraraka thinks about how strategic Izuku is being and again, I can't help but contrast this with how things happen later on; even if Izuku never lets himself really feel the respect people have for him, people at this point in time really, honestly seem to respect him, not for his Quirk, but for his brain, his determination, his heroism; it's so well setup for Izuku to stand on his own two feet without OFA and it's some really good stuff. It's a shame Hori gets rid of it.

Hmm. Class B. Class B is... interesting. They're set up as rivals but after this it never goes anywhere, and just leaves us with a bad impression of Monoma, without letting him get a good chance to get past it. I don't like him, honestly, his personality grates at me and he needs to get over himself, but he doesn't deserve the hate he gets from the fandom.

That said, though, the Class A vs Class B victory philosphy is honestly just another example of destroying yourself vs having realistic limits, how All Might and Izuku keep destroying themselves vs everyone else not doing that. The fact Class B is actually thinking ahead is smart, but the series doesn't give them that credit because it's not ambitious enough... even though that runs straight into conflicting with Izuku and his issues.

Hori, fucking commit already. In all honesty, it feels like 1-B should have won over Bakugou and knocked him out of the compition; they planned it out, and played him like a sucker, because he's a bullheaded moron. It's all right there, but right as they win... Eraserhead shows up in the booth and says, 'Yes, you've won, but actually no, because Bakugou need to win anyways. So he is. Because REASONS!' Then All Might gets dragged into that same bullshit just to make it really clear that no, Bakugou is right. Planning? Strategy? That's for losers. Real winners just need to want it hard enough, and no one wants things more than Bakugou!

It would have been better, as a story, and for everyone's character development, if that had happened. Bakugou would have lost to some 'nobodies', Izuku would have gone past him without even validating him with a fight, and Class B and Monoma would have gotten a better chance to show themselves as characters; win win win.

And then Endeavour shows up. Fuck Endeavour. Also that is a man who looks like a serial killer. Dumb Might continues to reign and be completely unable to recognize when someone hates him when he monologues about it right in front of him.

Meanwhile, Bakugou is just... there. For some reason. Why? Why does he need to be there for this? It makes his hissy fit later even worse when you realize he knows why Todoroki doesn't use his fire, and it has literally nothing to do with him. Ignoring him, though, Todoroki and Izuku's moment here is some good stuff, a nice setup for a healthy rivalry based on mutual respect, rather than the toxic mess he has with Bakugou.

Ugh. That cheerleader bullshit. Honestly, it says a lot that they can be told that, 'Aizawa says you need to dress up as cheerleaders', and apparently no one questions this, because of course Aizawa would pull some kind of weird bullshit on them with absolutely no warning at what anyone else would think is the worst possible time.

Midnight being really creepy about how she talks to teenagers, of course, and now... Shinso.

'Consent is for losers' Shinso. 'Everyone is coasting on their Quirks except for me, who only knows how to use my Quirk' Shinso. 'Let me use my Quirk on someone before we even get in the arena so I can blatantly cheat' Shinso. 'No one else has dreams or ambitions' Shinso.

I don't like Shinso. I like the idea of Shinso, sure, but that idea is another one of those paper thing veneers Hori likes to put on his characters, without doing the work to make that match the reality; the only hardship we've seen him go through is his apparent inability to work hard. Like, everyone loves Shinso, in story and out, they can't stop themselves from telling him how great his Quirk is. And you know what? It is. It is a great Quirk.

But Shinso talks like he's had a such a hard time with it, even though he seems to love it, love using it, and the way he acts, like he knows he can go through a career as a hero based only on that Quirk. He's wrong, since he's so out of shape he can't even run, apparently, but he's operating off that assumption at this point, which conflicts with his poor little martyr act.

I want you to look at the iceberg Todoroki makes, and compare it to his efforts against Stain. If he did that against him? That fight would have been over the minute he showed up, and Todoroki ambushed him. This is pretty much our last moments of Todoroki, certified badass, before the nerfs roll in. Savor it, Todoroki fans, because he'll never recover from having to lose against Bakugou.

Another omake, which seems like foreshadowing about Hori deals with women characters: bringing up a good characterization, or valid idea (do women heroes need sexiness to do their jobs?), before throwing it away to fall for the same tropes that he was making a stand against just a minute ago (women getting in a cat fight, which apparently gets really explicit, all of this on a TV before Mineta, Hori's avatar of his own horniness).

Then, as if to prove my point, we get Bakugou vs Uraraka where, like Class B before her, she does everything right, gets the win... and then gets it taken away at the last minute by idiotic bullshit pulled out of nowhere (since when could Bakugou make a blast like that? Why does he need those bomb gauntlets if he can do that?) because Bakugou isn't allowed to lose. And then Eraserhead, Hori's mouthpiece, shouts down the crowd, and us, when we think bad thoughts about it because that isn't allowed either; we need to love Bakugou.

Bakugou respects women! ...Just as much as he respects everyone else. That is to say, he doesn't. Hell, he doesn't respect her enough to think Uraraka planned her own fight! He just gets one line for one second that makes it seem like he respects her, but of course once that moments gone it's back to the normal level of complete disrespect. That's totally character growth right there, one second of acting different before returning right back to standard behavior.

So... Izuku vs Todoroki. I like the fight, it's very dramatic, very cool, but... stop to think about it a second, and about a minute in, Izuku's entire ass hand is broken. That is not OK. Why are they letting it go on? It's simultaneously a great fight, but a seemingly awkward implementation of Izuku having a Quirk, because so much of this arc is built off of him not using a Quirk, not having it. This fight only works with it, though. And it's cool, don't get me wrong, but it's shallow at the same time because of the Quirk, because Izuku has to go Plus Ultra, has to go past his limits. Instead of accepting a more reasonable win, he has to win, period, and he doesn't have the power for that.

There's this awkward conflict here between the story's various narratives, between Izuku needing to suffer, and struggle, and break himself, and his more grounded planning and actions, and you can see Hori's old, better planned out ideas getting replaced with newer, less thought out ones. It's honestly kind of a theme for this arc in it's own right.

Flaws aside, though, the fight is gripping, and it's a great setup for Todoroki, a great starting point in making him an important character, in giving him growth. Shame Hori ends up throwing all that away literally the next fight.

Well, before that happens, let's talk the one two punch of, 1, Izuku having done himself permanent, life long damage, which nobody thought to stop, and 2, the sheer, unmitigated clusterfuck of Recovery Girl going, 'I'm not going to treat wounds like these'.

So. If Izuku breaks anything... well. She's not going to treat that. I guess he has to walk around with a broken finger/hand/arm, without any medical attention whatsoever? Well. I certainly don't see any problems with that.

Then we get Bakugou, who canonly has problems using his Quirk for extended periods of time, outlasting someone by using his Quirk for extended periods of time, before going on to fight someone who uses cold, his canon weakness, and ignoring how it should completely neutralize his Quirk to overpower it, through what I can only call his sheer, narrative warping concentration of favoritism.

On what happens after he wins... I've seen people say that he doesn't mean to attack Todoroki, just try to wake him up, but looking at that scene: he's holding Todoroki's body up with one hand as if to shake him, sure, but it's the other hand that's the problem. The way he's holding it is, for his Quirk, an offensive pose, making it ready to attack his target. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (against my own opinion) and say it's not proof positive that he was about to attack, but there's no getting around that Bakugou had himself perfectly set up to hit Todoroki, full blast, while he was unconscious. Even if it's the more innocent explanation, that feels like something that should have disqualified him because... that's really concerning. That feels a step away from him threatening victims he thinks should have stood up for themselves or something; it's not heroic, in the slightest. The fact they had to knock him out, presumably for Todoroki's own safety, says enough about how bad that is.

The fact that the ending comment is basiclly lamenting from his perspective, that this 'isn't what he wanted' is... certainly a choice. He won, but, gasp! The person with long held issues in using his full power that long predate him didn't use his full power! The poor baby!

Then we get to the award ceremony where they... chain him up? Why!? If the doesn't want the damn award, don't give it to him; they let those guys earlier give up when they felt they didn't deserve it, why is Bakugou different? It feels like it's Hori tying him up here, against Bakugou's own will, and characterization, to give him that win just so he can win, but also to forcefully set up Bakugou's own importance with the League later. It's ham handed. It's probably child abuse. It's stupid.

It's fucked up all the way down, is what I'm saying.

Then All Might shows up, and fucks up his entrance timing because he's not allowed to win anymore, of course, and then forces that medal on Bakugou.

Uuuugh.

Last couple of panels, though, are pretty nice: we build up Uraraka's character, get the next arc set up, set up Izuku (fucking finally) getting away to use his own damn power, and develop Todoroki a bit.

A nice little cherry on top of the shit sundae.

[sukibenders]

Some in the HOTD fandom really don't care about black people or their voices, and it shows especially during conversations about the portrayal of black characters. I've been seeing an uptick mostly in regards to the possibility that Ryan Cordal may merge Rhaena's and Nettles's storylines and, while I'm not finished with the book (audiobook) nor have reached Nettles part, I don't want that to happen for a couple of reasons. However, it's very apparent the very "here, there!" energy some have when people complain about this by going "But they made the Velaryons, this great house, black! Corlys and his family, his children, and grandchildren are black, so what's the problem?" If they actually cared then they would have gathered the issue a long time ago, but instead, they play ignorant. I've stated some of the issues of HOTD's treatment of black characters in my post about Laena (+ featuring Baela, Rhaena, and even Laenor), but one really annoying thing is the belief that just making these characters black was enough. This is a very common theme that I see with some who go "Oh, we don't mind that you changed the race of this/these character(s)" but only as long as they remain in the background after that change, completely ignoring how, in the original text, said character was given more to do than what is shown after the change.

I was very excited to hear that the Velaryons would be played by black actors, especially after hearing all the things that happen in the books, but then I get little to nothing from the show in those regards. Many vital plot points for these characters have been skipped over, or rushed, or just plain ignored and yet whenever we criticize it we're met with people saying we should just be happy that we got something. That we get to be in it at all. And it's very apparent the disparities in treatment because I've seen think pieces and the praises they receive when people call out how HOTD portrays Rhaenyra, or Alicent, or Daemon and many of the other white characters (which is fine, as it makes since because there are big differences) but it's crickets or passive aggressiveness when it comes to the black and other poc characters. Sometimes they can't even have any plot of their own without it relating back to their white counterparts (eg. Laena's dragonriders death being brought back to Rhaenyra to elevate her, or her death just being used as a stepping stone to bring Daemyra onscreen). I remember seeing people being mad at Rhaena for daring to be upset at being sent away, not even bothering to see her side of things and calling her selfish and whiny because she dared to make the decision harder on Rhaenyra. Like gods forbid black and brown characters get testy because suddenly it's a problem.

Another argument I see when it comes to Nettles involvement is because, apparently, "there are already black characters in the show" as if that, not only, ignores the treatment they face but also acts as a reason as to why she can't be added to the show. Why can't there be more black characters? Why do they only have to be silver-haired or illegitimate children to be important? Like, at this point, say what you want to say out loud. And I know that some don't want her added because of how it makes Rhaenyra look (because I know she says some nasty and borderline racist things in the books) and the show has a thing for not making her, or other members of TB, morally dubious/complex, as well as splits Daemyra and, if that's the case, JUST SAY SO! Stop creating fake think pieces when you really just don't like this black character because you don't want her to take away from your favorite white incest ship, which, in HOTD, is already crashing and burning from what it seems at this point. Like Nettles and Daemon could still be a thing, maybe with some slight changes, and Rhaenyra could still be involved (because I think these three characters are connected plotwise, from what I've seen so far, so it wouldn't really make sense to split them up) by making her see the same grooming tendencies that Daemon used for her toward Nettles, maybe she gets protective if they want to follow HOTD canon. Maybe not, who knows, but in the end erasing this prevalent black character does nothing helpful to the story just gives some of these fans the ability to not see more black people in their fantasy genre.

[wyllzel]

ok so i beat dragon age: the veilguard 🐉⚡💥 here is my report 📰‼️

tl;dr: i really enjoyed it as a player with zero context for the dragon age franchise! additionally, i saw a reddit comment that said something like: "where bg3 revels in its complexity, da4 revels in its simplicity," and i am inclined to agree 👍

minor spoilers ahead! i don't go into specifics about the plot, characters, and romances—but if you're trying to avoid any info at all, do not click in!!!

alrighty so first off, some basic details about my rook:

her name is honoria "rook" ingellvar, and she's an elven member of the mourn watcher! as a warrior with the reaper specialization, she primarily relies on sword-and-shield combat, alternating between bashing enemies up close and tossing her shield from afar 🥏

i really liked playing a mourn watcher! my rook was able to offer more nuanced advice in scenes discussing death, grief, and funerary rites which was really interesting and meaningful to me personally. it's going to be hard for any other backgrounds to compete with this one for me!!

the party 👥

also, the character customization was really nice :') i tried to make my character an elfish version of myself, and honestly it was really nice to see my short (lol 🧍🏻‍♀️ height slider in the negatives HAHA) asian elf girlie running around the screen with ANOTHER asian elf girlie (bellara)!!! the kinship was nice :')

i do like that my rook has a set background and general demeanor too! she felt very much a part of the world/story and it was cool to hear NPCs acknowledge her background 😯 there was even one point where a character had a line based on my rook's lineage (elf) AND background (mourn watcher), it was crazy!!!!!

my team went heavy on necrotic damage, HAHA >:) that's what happens when your team is composed of two mourn watchers ig haha

lucanis is my morally dubious boyfriend w wings and schizophrenia and emmrich is my ethical necromancer peepaw 🥰 yay 🩷

i chose all the necrotic/necrosis-focused abilities and gears for the team; i don't know if it was "optimized" or not, but we were slicing through enemies like butter by the end (on storyteller mode, LOL)

i romanced lucanis and... man... he got me good, not going to lie, i'm somewhat possibly a bit madly in love... i've seen some ppl express disappointment with his romance (most criticism found it lacking, too minimal, etc) but i actually like that it's more of a slowburn subplot—poor dude has been through a lot and it makes sense that he's not exactly rushing to make out with Team Leader LOL

i didn't really swap around my party, so i was just listening to lucanis and emmrich's banters with one another, but they challenged one another's moralities/worldviews in interesting ways!! (they were also incredibly snobby, there were a few moments where i audibly groaned, LOL 😭✋) overall, there was definitely a lot more environmental banter in da4 than in bg3. i like that a lot and it made the team generally feel close to both my rook and to one another!

the playstyle 💥

i feel like the best comparison for this game is like... little big planet and the lego wii games LOL (i am not the world's hugest gamer so this is my point of comparison haha)

in the sense that you're unlocking and learning abilities/tools as you go (very lbp3), the "open" maps are really just corridors (lego/lbp), you're collecting treasure (lego), you're spamming buttons in combat (lego), there's a decent amount of emphasis on puzzles (lbp)... etc etc...

it's all very streamlined, from how you navigate the world to how you get gear to how you fight 🤔 so there's not as much complexity or creativity as in bg3, but i don't think that's a bad thing! i like the challenge of tactical combat and learning all the spells and when to use them (bg3), but it was nice to be able to pick up da4 and understand what i was doing within the first 20hrs HAHA (i don't think i mastered bg3 until i had 150hrs under my belt 💀)

also i like sprinting and leaping over things in my sick flowy armor and long elf hair 🩷 she is so graceful 🩷

it was also really, really nice to play and encounter ZERO bugs :'D again, i think this is a result of the game being fairly simple and straightforward, but also EA being a massive company lol

the story 📝

ok, necessary disclaimer that this is my first DA game so i don't know any of the lore!! ;;

BUT i do like that the lore was so easy to pick up! the writing team did a good job of introducing concepts, it never felt overwhelming and i didn't have to wiki/google anything to understand it 🫨

that being said, the overall plot was also very simple, LOL—two BBEGs with minions try to take over the world by corrupting it with a fantasy monstrosity, lol, where have i heard that before haha...

final remarks 🗣️

BUT the companion subplots were quite good!! the tension between tradition/past and "progress"/future (and the fact that there is such a binary! 👀) that can be found in all their stories was really interesting and i liked how many meaningful spins they were able to get out of that tension!!! i feel like there's so much to say, but i will refrain as to avoid too many spoilers haha

i will also say that the ending was a little abrupt 😅 but it was nice overall and i miss my rook already ;;

dragons are scary 😭

storyteller mode was too easy and now i need to try underdog haha 🐶

i've already started a second playthrough as a human grey warden mage >:) she will romance davrin 😁

bellara really grew on me and honestly she is literally just like me fr!!!!!

i'm really going to miss being a mourn watcher 😭

...i need to play da:o expeditiously tbh

[thatgirl4815]

OF Favorites Rankings

I did this once before the series aired, but I thought it’d be fun to rank the core characters in OF in the middle of the series’ run and once more at the end.

I’m gonna tag some of my active OF moots here (and some new OF friends as well!) if any of you want to play too—no pressure at all! And of course, even if you aren’t tagged, please feel free to play along! I’m super curious to see how opinions have changed from the beginning to the middle to the end. :)

@abstractelysium @nihilisticcondensedmilk @just-gm @firstkanaphans @prapaiwife @dreamedofyou @sandrayy @fanfictionroxs @khaopybara @tiedankelstotheocean @thegalwhorants @autisticbokutoenthusiast @itsmelb @way-too-indecisive @k-white @waitmyturtles

1. Sand

Of course it was going to be Sand in first place (get it…First place?)

He might be morally dubious in Ep6, but if anything, that makes him more endearing to me (don't ask me how). If they all play dirty, he can play dirty too. Plus, he's just got the vibe. The t-shirts, the jackets, the boots, the independence. The superior music taste? Mans has it all except for money. Though tbh, the moment that solidified Sand as my favorite was when he ran after Ray at the end of Ep6--he was just dealt a personal attack by Ray in front of everyone, but he doesn't even hesitate to go after him. And that is the marker of a ✨ favorite character ✨

2. Ray

Naturally, both Sand and Ray have taken the top spots (pun intended), and it's because I have a special place in my heart for "woobified" characters (did I use that right @waitmyturtles? 😂)...and Khaotung executes his layers so beautifully. Ray did go in for a nonconsensual kiss (which he later apologized for, but I digress) and he did hash out some pretty brutal insults last episode. Irrespective of his feelings for Sand, it's indisputable that he has used him in some aspect to distract himself from Mew. So for all that, Ray is also morally dubious--but I'll use the term realistic instead.

I just want to give him a hug and tell him that he matters. Because clearly that is something he's heard only a few times in his life. And maybe if he heard it more often, we could avoid situations like the one at the end of Ep6.

3. Nick

I’m having a bit of an inner battle with myself over this one because Nick came out of the gate with some very immoral behavior, and yet I’m still putting him above Mew, because something about him is just so…pitiful. Admittedly, I've been growing more and more frustrated with him as the series goes on and he still fights for Boston's affection when Boston has proven time and time again that he just doesn't care. Boston keeps him on a rope, and in some ways I sympathize with Nick's struggles, because it isn't easy to turn the feelings off once they've already been cemented. But alas. He's digging himself further and further into this hole.

4. Mew

A lot of my gripes with Mew have been in respect to his treatment of Ray, but I go back and forth because I do understand the mental toll it must take on him. Regardless of whether or not he's responsible for helping Ray through his mental issues, as his closest friend, I think it should've been him running after Ray at the end of Ep6. Yeah, Ray said some shitty things about everybody, but Ray has only ever wanted what is best for Mew. And Mew was going to watch him run off and potentially get himself killed, even after Ray admitted what Top had done. Something about that just doesn't sit right with me.

Despite all of this, Mew does appear to be the most level-headed of the group (alongside Sand, though that was put to the test last ep). And the moment he played TopBoston’s sex audio right in Top’s ear? Phenomenal. He nailed that execution. I will laugh when he's on his revenge kick next week.

5. Cheum

Cheum is this low firstly because she doesn't get a lot of screen time, and secondly because she's made some comments that are a little questionable too. I can't remember who said it, but someone pointed out just how often she references how lucky Mew is to be with Top--which is a little strange, looking at him like he's some big prize. Also, not to bring everything back to Ray but...she contributes to the "burden" discussion quite a few times.

I do really enjoy the small snippets we've gotten of her with April. I like that they finally gave their relationship a little bit more context in Ep6. They do seem to have some pretty solid communication (at least compared to the others) so I'm pleased with that.

6. Top

I know a lot of people have felt sorry for Top. And I understand that completely. I struggle to given that he not only cheated but lied about the cheating--and likely would never have admitted to it. For Mew, someone who values communication and honesty so strongly, it's like a punch to the face. I hope Top gets what's coming to him. (Also, stealing Sand's boyfriend? Wtf dude.)

7. Boston

Not much to explain about this one--I can understand why he is some peoples' favorite for the sole reason that he is the one creating all the conflict in the first place. But he's so twisted, manipulative, and careless that I just want Mew to kick him into that pool a hundred times over. I don't expect him to rise from last place by the end, but if he does, it'll be a miracle.

[kneecap-homicide]

The absolute state of YouTube ads

As someone who has been using an adblocker for at least a decade, and is currently having to pause it on YouTube, here are some things I've noticed which I haven't seen anyone else bring up (yet).

You can no longer tell when ads play in a video

I'm pretty damn sure there used to be a small yellow segment in the video progress bar, so you could at least know in which parts of the video there would be ads. Now, they just start out of nowhere, and if it's a longer video and the creator has shoved all their ads in the last 10 minutes, you're hit with a barrage of ad after ad.

Ads will just play whenever

In a similar vein to the previous point, unless the creator has carefully integrated the ads with their video (e.g. "before we get into that, I'm just going to play some midrolls" or "I'll be back after this short commercial break"), the ads will play in the middle of whatever the video is about, completely ruining the immersion. I don't believe many YouTubers integrate their ads in this way.

I've heard some people say that sitting through 1-2 short ads isn't as intrusive as sitting through 5-10 minutes of them on TV (such as in this video by SomeOrdinaryGamers). And I honestly cannot agree. As some have said, YouTube ads don't have the same moral standards as TV ads, and this is true, although I myself haven't yet seen any ads of dubious morality since pausing adblock.

But my main gripe with this take is that again, TV ads have set commercial breaks which the vast majority of YouTube videos do not, and the time between these breaks is ~20 minutes depending on the country (see Wikipedia). This means the ads won't start in the middle of a sentence or dramatic scene in a nature documentary.

You can:

Predict when the ads will start based on how long it's been since the last commercial break

Predict when the ads will start based on predicting when the scene in your program is going to end

And, of course, you can change channels during a commercial break, and watch something else in the meantime, or just get up and do something else since the commercial break lasts long enough to do that.

The ads in YouTube are too short to warrant changing tabs, so instead you just mute the ad, and sit there staring mindlessly at the screen until the ad finishes, or until you can click the skip button.

YouTube ads are high maintenance

As I've just mentioned in the previous point, you can't get up while the ads play, or switch tabs. You have to mute the ad, and just wait. Wait until the skip ad button appears, or until the two unskippable ads play out. In total, it probably only takes about 30 seconds, so why would you try to do anything else?

And if it happens to be a morally questionable ad, you might also want to report it.

All YouTube ads are videos

What happened to the little popup ads that you would just click the 'x' on and you're done? Have I just been unlucky and not seen any, or are they actually gone? This is a genuine question btw.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss popups. Relatively speaking, they're way less intrusive than video ads, because you can keep watching the video already in progress. And if they do still exist, then at a much reduced rate than the videos, at least in my experience, given that I haven't yet seen one.

Adblockers should not be against YouTube's terms of service

This is definitely my weakest point, and I'm positive others have already brought this up. But what I do on my Personal Computer (emphasis on Personal) should not have any bearing on my relationship with the websites I visit, and if it does, it will make me question my usage of that website.

If the conditions surrounding your adverts are causing a large portion of your userbase to turn to adblockers, maybe instead of biting the hand that feeds you, you could improve the conditions and make adverts less intrusive, and keep better tabs on what kinds of ads you're approving. The change in revenue wouldn't be instant, but more people would eventually stop using adblockers on YouTube. If you recall what happened on Tumblr, userbases are actually happy to support sites they feel deserve being supported.

Overall, YouTube is pretty great, and while there are certain competitors out there, none of them do exactly what YouTube does. But forcing ads might make people turn to alternatives anyway.

Getting back to television, there isn't a law against changing channels or just turning your TV off for 5 minutes and making some toast. If you never watch a single ad on TV, your TV licence won't be revoked. TV commercials have a good system that hasn't really changed much over the years. Maybe commercial breaks have gotten longer, but that's it.

YouTube really needs to improve the QoL surrounding ads, because people will just continue using adblockers which update to circumvent YouTube's anti-adblock system.

TL;DR

YouTube ads are somehow more annoying than TV ads because they don't have set commercial breaks unless the YouTuber integrates them accordingly, and it sucks.

[samthecookielord]

CURRENT LAYTON STATUS: AL done! onto plvspw next. at some point.

That's right, I'm dedicating a post to all the Layton content I've consumed and will consume. Wish me luck gamers. (I'll also add the status of my gameplay videos!) (And a list of layton AUs at the end)

Mainline Trilogies

(note: i call the games by which version i played (UK or US) but i tag by US titles)

(note 2: we only record towards the end of the game because my computer space will CRY and also i do not want to edit all that hope this helps)

PLAYTHROUGH PLAYLIST

CURIOUS VILLAGE: 100% completed

(not recorded)

DIABOLICAL BOX: 100% completed

Uploaded---

Chapter 7: (Part 1) - (Part 2) (fun fact: part 2 features the first instance of me using animated sprites for me and my friends!)

LOST FUTURE: 100% completed, all uploaded!

Uploaded---

Chapter 9: (Part 1) - (Part 2) - (Part 3) (fun fact: part 1 is the first time i use game sprites to give visuals to our improv bits, as well as generally being the start of me putting a lot more effort into editing and trying new stuff!)

Chapter 10

Chapter 11: (Part 1) - (Part 2)

Chapter 12

Chapter 13: (Part 1) - (Part 2) - (Part 3) Epilogue: (Part 1) (Part 2)

LAST SPECTRE: 100% completed

Uploaded---

Chapter 8: (Part 1) - (Part 2) - (Part 3) (fun fact: from this point on, our playthrough group has increased from 3 people to 4!) Chapter 9: (Part 1a)

Planned---

Chapter 9 -> 2 parts (IM STUCK IN EDITING HELL)

Chapter 10 -> 2 parts

Epilogue -> just one

MIRACLE MASK: 100% completed

Planned---

Chapter 6 -> 6 parts left (HELP)

Chapter 7 -> 6 parts left Chapter 8 -> 1 part left Epilogue -> 2 parts left

AZRAN LEGACY: 100% completed

Planned---

Chapter 5 -> 6 parts left

Chapter 6 -> 5 parts left

Finale -> 3 parts left

Spinoffs & Extras

ETERNAL DIVA: Watched :]

Improv Fandub will come out soon. Probably

LB MYSTERY ROOM: completed

(not recorded)

PLVSAA: not started (will play after mainline)

will probably record? perchance? (NO SORRY MY BACKLOG IS EXPLODING ME 😭😭😭)

MYSTERY JOURNEY: im on case 3 lmao

The anime: not started (will watch after mystery journey)

Cheerful Mystery: i saw the lost future one lol ill go check out the rest later probably. I also read up to ch28 of the lbmr manga

Layton AUs

i have a lot of clive aus. here's a slideshow. here's their interaction tag

Puzzles Gone Wrong AU: (belongs to pastel-player) A take on "evil Layton" where we ask what if he wasn't evil evil, but morally dubious. Basically he's a dictator now but he hasn't really done much harm to the city of London. He's making some questionable decisions, but... he's still the polite gentleman Layton who cares about his loved ones. Said loved ones have many conflicting feelings about him. Takes place at least 1 year after main trilogy, unclear when exactly. (Ao3 series)

Pastel wasn't doing anything with Clive in this AU so I picked him up and ran off then came back with a whole new design and stuff. Anything I make with PGW Clive that doesn't involve Timeline Hopper Clive's shenanigans is proobably canon to the AU. Basically I'm the ceo of this one guy within this AU and nothing else <3

(PGW Clive's tag)

Layton Assassin AU: (belongs to snekatiemainy and thia-quiche) Layton but he kills people with swords. And also Luke beats people to death with shovels. And Flora also sword. Yayy!!! Initially inspired by our jokes from playing Curious Village, mainly Luke saying the phrase "this man is being VERY RUDE we should KILL HIM" (Ao3 series)

Assassin AU Variant: (belongs to me and snekatiemainy) A variation of the assassin au where Clive is adopted by Layton. Clive picked up a gun and has never been the same since. Guy who loves his 20 guns and is sooo annoying about it <3 Honestly 90% of my assassin au tag is just the variant instead of the actual original au hdtdhdhrfd

(Ao3 series)

(AV!Clive's tag)

Timeline Hopper Clive: (belongs to me, inspired by a-queer-kitkat's post) Post-canon Clive that starts getting tossed across dimensions at random intervals due to an abandoned machine prototype left by one of Dimitri's scientists. Often crosses over with Puzzles Gone Wrong and Assassin AU. He gets worse but then he gets better. Then there's a version where he gets worse again and weird buggified.

Clive Triton AU: (belongs to me and snekatiemainy) what if clark adopted clive. Send post

The BEHUH??? AU: (belongs to me and snekatiemainy) ???? goddamnit timeclive what did you DO (BEHUH??? stands for Butterfly Effect HUH???) (two guys chilling in the river 5 feet apart because get pitted idiot)

CSAU: (belongs to me and snekatiemainy) clive is adopted by descole. I encourage you all to ask us what CSAU stands for several times.

Little Hershel and the Curious Playground: what if it was all elaborate playground roleplay, and targent is a group of school bullies? (some ideas come from conversations with friends on discord)

Commander Cardinal AU: mackintosh takes over targent while layton & friends are busy procrastinating on getting the last egg back by going puzzle searching

Apprentice Nils AU: (belongs to me and snekatiemainy) that random miracle mask npc's parents died so layton yoinks him

Randall Possession AU: (belongs to snekatiemainy) what if he became a ghost and hung out with his best friend Layton forever now

Layton Object AU: based on those silly object show things. They're living objects with limbs and faces etc etc and the only real changes in this au right now is just names, designs, and minor things that come with those design changes. i make this kind of au for almost anything i touch loll

Vampire Layton AU: what it says on the tin. One of my earliest tagged AUs. It didn't really go anywhere but it's fun to think about sometimes. Based on a joke we made while playing Diabolical Box.

[twodeluxe]

🦐 for the ask game!!!

the emotions really DO be shrimpin'....

so beatmania iidx has me by the throat rn and i'm absolutely in love with all the roots26 characters. they're very interconnected, and all sorts of little mundane details about each one make them feel like people i could know. i've got two favorites but the one who's currently eating most of my fucking brain real estate is

duel

real name "leonard baxter," which is a very silly name in my honest onion. i am never going to call him that ever in my life. the aliases are basically just IIDX usernames anyway so that's cute in a way i guess.

he's a british weeaboo. completely seriously. i'm going mostly off the arcadia version of his profile here - he was a sweet kid who liked soccer, but got screwed over after his parents' store went bankrupt, started fucking around as a broker in the black market because poverty. got stabbed, got inspired to move to japan from a movie he saw while he was in the hospital, and now he writes books about culture and uses his black market sales skills to export weeb shit.

oh, and as per heroic verse and rage, apparently he's also some kind of dog-mecha-suit-wearing demon-assassination-strike-team-member who's on the leash of one of the more morally dubious recurring characters.

"isn't this a game about being a dj," someone asked me recently. (it is.)

siren calls him shady basically to his face. iirc one of the girls says he talks strange (he does - from what i can see he tends to quote stuff and has other...quirks.) he dresses like a mall ninja military fetishist. (he's never been in the military - though another fucking iidx dj has. nix my beloved.) i threw some actual official art of him on a customized eamusement card decal and my friend said i shouldn't use it because it has actual gang imagery in it. (i only mention this because i think it's hilarious in retrospect.)

i hate this man. i want to put him in the dryer spin cycle. his fashion choices make me want to eat my own iidx controller. he's the exact kind of person i'd kill to be friends with because he'd invite me to go to japanese history museums. his tits are out in the newest art of him that i've found. if he wanted to put a dog collar on me i probably would not tell him no.

shrimp emotions indeed

[bookishfeylin]

I saw someone say SJM had always planned on Feysand endgame, but that isn’t true. When she admitted to scrapping what she’d written of the second and third, she said in another interview that she had to add Rhys in earlier than she originally intended. That I remember, she didn’t specify if it was that he didn’t appear until the second or third book, but I do remember her saying he was supposed to be the villain and that she loved writing him so much, he was literally the reason she scrapped what she had planned.

I don’t know if he was the villain over Amarantha and Amarantha was just added in because she had decided to switch the endgame (which given the context of ACOTAR and all the plot holes and the fact that SJM said the first book was relatively unchanged from when she first wrote it during the editing stage, only to add some stuff in, makes more sense than Amarantha being the villain; a good example being the head on the spike having the NC’s insignia rather than Amarantha’s, but there’s obviously more that supports this) or if he was the villain after Amarantha. SJM never specified, but she made it clear he was the villain and there would’ve been a love triangle. The admission of adding Rhys in earlier and rewriting the books for him implies Feylin would’ve been endgame in the original version she wrote.

I've seen a few people who have been in the ACOTAR fandom since the books came out or who were in the ACOTAR fandom way back when say this and even reference old newsletters about the originally written trilogy that was scrapped (@editoress and @soartfullydone I'm calling you two in here), and the fact that everyone seems to remember the same thing (and Sarah doing this exact same thing in Throne of Glass) suggests to me that this was... very real. But most of the old newsletters about this that other people linked have since been deleted, and I can't find any old interviews about this. If any of you three remember the specific interview or newsletter where Sarah said this PLEASE let me know.

But yes, Rhysand's scenes in ACOTAR are bizarre in that he isn't really... pivotal. At all. Cut him out and the plot is almost seamless. Get rid of the stars on the dresser, have Lucien rescue Feyre on Calanmai, make the attor be the one that threatens Feyre and causes Tamlin to let her go, and cut Rhysand from UTM ENTIRELY and the plot still flows perfectly fine. It truly does read like he was a last minute add in, because he just does not affect the plot at all.

And, for anyone who may or may not be hate reading my blog, I want to say that ship changes are FINE. It's FINE to change endgames and whatnot! But the minute you try to discuss a dark topic like abuse, you HAVE to write with the care such a theme deserves. The minute she decided to have Tamlin be abusive and make Rhysand the healthy endgame love interest, drastic changes needed to occur in ACOTAR, not minor interjections of Rhysand's character here and there doing morally dubious actions. But Sarah chose not to, and reading ACOTAR alone, Tamlin is by far the healthier love interest with the lack of, uh, drugging and molestation and mindrape and whatnot. Sarah superimposed a story about abuse and redflags on an already-written fantasy story that worked on fantasy morals, and the longer it goes on, the more this series falls apart because of it.

[awellboiledicicle]

Larian confirmed Astarion is 5'9", and i hc Anders as 6'4" [as he is tol] and i need you all to know that 7" difference is giving me brain static.

Largely because Anders tends to lean forward when he talks, kinda bending down a little to be closer to other people's height. Not on purpose or anything, he just does it as a habit after all the elves and dwarves that came through his clinic.

Now, why does this give me brain static?

Because Astarion is very much posturing most of the time post-ship, pre-trusting you fully. A lot of this posturing is him standing with back straight as possible, slightly leaned back so he looks down at you. He does this to any player character outside the large body types, which naturally make the angle not work as well. In universe it makes for less effective posturing, out of universe the model would look weird doing it the same way for both and so he doesn't lean the same way or at least so i've noticed. Enter, Anders. Anders is a very intense man when he's just existing and he's not already fond of you. He's not intimidating per se, he's a healer-- it's very much a to business sort of air about him when he's not in a social setting. He moves a whole lot quieter than his size would imply. He stares intensely when he's waiting for a reaction to something he's said, and the follow up expression could very well be 'am deeply displeased', which tends to be intimidating. He has a spirit in his body that can and will come out and leave a swath of bloody destruction in his wake. He's a powerful magic user. He frowns a lot. His reaction to someone acting like they're better than him is to stare a hole in their skull and deadpan until the interaction is over, if he has to be polite.

What i'm saying is posturing at Anders does not work. Seduction does not get into his good graces, because it's met with a look of pity and Astarion does not do pity. Chatting about magic is marginally better, and wins him some favor-- but he picked up the magic as a way to improve his skills, not from love of study. So there's a gap.

Meanwhile Anders sees in Astarion every noble born mage ever to be escorted into the tower under their own power vs being dragged in screaming, very convinced that that made them better than everyone else. Until reality set in and they realized their lives meant as little to the Templars as any others. Until they were broken. Anders sees Astarion as a man that was broken by... something, at first he doesn't know what it is. The passes being made give him some hint of how he responded to it, though, and thus the pity. He's seen more than a fair share of mages turn to using their flesh as currency to escape the worst of the knights' misdeeds, and he's treated the aftermath of those transactions as well. It won't be for a while that he really understands why Astarion reads to him like that-- outside his passes at himself and Hawke--but whenever that convo happens with Hawke it's going to be... unsettlingly clear why he is the way he is. The total control of a vampire over its spawn would call to mind both Tranquility and blood magic, in turns. The physical inability to disobey, the person underneath it all forced to watch as they have no choice but to do as they are told. Again, pity. Again, something Astarion would hate.

The height thing is just a gateway to the interactions because it STARTS as 'ugh i cant look down at him' and is going to end out with Anders trying very hard to remember that sympathy and empathy don't need to carry pity in the message, even if you feel it.

Hawke meanwhile is over here at 5'7" just living his life. Not great with working out feelings talks because he just.. was not raised to be that open with his feelings unless it was a joke or indirect. But he always helps his friends, even if it's morally dubious. Which, given most of his friends are criminals it works out to be more dubious than strictly necessary but that's life. But loves a good banter, which is partially why Astarion likes him so much. Another part is the casual ruthless efficiency inherent in how Hawke operates. Like, sure, he'll go out of his way to help some kids, but if the objective set to him is "kill goblin leaders" the only reason every goblin between him and the leaders didn't die was because Gale suggested they might all die if he didn't take a step back and go stealthy. And, sure, they then killed all the goblins they could find. Like, hunted them down killed them all. But Astarion didn't get why until Wyll asked, and Hawke just blinked and said they were a problem. He solved the problem. Ruthless in the most clear sense of the word: point a was the problem of there being goblins in the forest. Point b, no goblins to threaten tieflings and druids. The clear, burning bright line between them? Solution: kill all goblins.

He just sort of started assuming Hawke did goody-goody stuff for some big plan, until the realization hit that no. no hawke is just very good at killing things and the good news is that helping people tends to involve killing things. By that point, though, he's warmed up to the good guy act. Somewhat. It's a process.

[kitkatopinions]

New RW/BY ep. This one is shorter than most of my other ones. Spoilers, criticism, and praise beneath the keep reading

Praise:

More good music, including some very Sonic Unleashed Day music in the marketplace.

The scene with the blacksmith lady was cool and intriguing. I do think Ruby should be asking more questions, but by and large the vibe was good, it's left me asking some questions and wanting to see the follow up. Now they need to stick the landing of giving some pay off for that scene such as actually making Summer Rose important, explaining Alyx, involving this blacksmith lady more later, etc. We'll see if they can do it, but as a standalone scene, that one was good.

I wish they didn't undercut their suspenseful moments so much, because they do a good job of making moments suspenseful when they want to this season, they just never stick the landing and leave them feeling shallow. First we have the blacksmith lady scene (basically ended with Weiss being rude to Ruby) and then we have the fireworks, which Team RWBY take as a good thing until townspeople start screaming and running and the fireworks start forming the words 'danger' while the teapot lady and the cat start freaking out. It's fairly well done and I really like the fireworks saying danger. It's just then thrown off, which I'll talk about later.

Did the Cat just get one of the Ever After citizens to risk their life to save Team RWBY? I better get an explanation on why this morally dubious new mentor-ish cat is doing the things they're doing and how they're getting other people to go along with it but as for now I can't wait to hopefully find out.

More cool music when Jaune appears.

Also Ruby's face when the Cat is holding the Neo-Jabberwalkers off and saying her and her friends should run was well animated, just the panic there.

Criticism:

After having the lack of real death in the Ever After explained to her, Weiss says: "That's impossible. Things have to die at some point." Like, Weiss, babydoll. Salem and Oz exist. The concept of things not dying isn't new to them?? So why is Weiss literally just dismissive at once of the very concept?

Knowing that the Cat dismissing exposition as tedious is a jab at critics and will be used as fuel against rwde posters by a toxic fandom is kind of frustrating when I've been begging this show for more things like world building and actual explanations and not to just deadpan tell us things happened and instead have the characters actually talk things through. Like, okay cute I guess.

The girls split up with no protest. A terrible idea they should have at least had a conversation about.

Whatever thing is at that stall trying to give everyone that flower looking thing is so annoying. Those sounds it was making were too much for me.

Weiss needs to shut the ever loving fuck up. What a way to be a dick to Ruby for next to no reason. On top of the rest of my problems with her this season, this just makes me even more sure of her being 'Worst Girl' rather than 'Best Girl.' How about you go off on a solo mission, Weissy? Instead of doing nothing but complaining.

"Wait, what's a Jabberwalker?" WHAT? The other thing was the Jabberwalker and was one of the things laid out to 'prove' that they were following the story! And I'm so sick and tired, does Blake know everything about this book or doesn't she? She said Alyx encountered a Jabberwalker, meaning it was in the book, but now she's like "what's a Jabberwalker?" Babe, you said it! This would be like me seeing a Ringwraith in what I figured out was Middle Earth which I'd landed in, saying "In the story, Frodo and co encountered the Ringwraiths" and then later on when people start screaming that ringwraiths are coming being like "What's a ringwraith?" Did nobody take notes for this season? Is there not a show-bible? Don't they even have a post-it note up that says 'Blake knows this story well' and one that says 'here's what Blake says the story contains?'" Because it's that easy.

Also, it's worth noting that 'ascension' had to be explained to the girls and they thought everything in the Ever After did just die, so.... The beheaded toy soldiers? They didn't know they would just come back, and still reacted with next to no concern.

I'm sorry, I can't take this parfait seriously. Like..... I'm supposed to be freaking out about some terrible dangerous monster coming that can and will kill the people of the Ever After, but instead I'm sitting here chuckling at the yogurt parfait flying through the air and smacking into the Jabberwalker's face.

Weiss's voice acting has gotten even worse somehow I think, and you know what? I don't blame the person who voiced her. If I spent years of my life on a mismanaged to hell project where I was likely underpaid and then the writers 'took a jab' at my voice acting while writing my character to do almost nothing but complain for five episodes in a season, I would put on the worst performance of a lifetime.

Ruby consistently forgetting she can burst and then also just kind of lightly jogging away from a now overgrown Jabberwalker is... Not great. XD Not a lot of desperation was portrayed there which is a real shame. I wish I could take this scene seriously.

The combat against the Jabberwalker wasn't good. It was really lacking actually. If I wanted to see a rabbit kick things I would watch Hoodwinked. That being said at least the rabbit is cute and doesn't look quite as unnatural as Little does.

Nobody stops to help anybody. They literally acknowledge leaving the Ever After market in ashes during the destructive attack, but none of them try to stop it after they realize there's more than one Jabberwalker and Neo is in control of them, they leave behind the Cat and other random citizens they don't even know to risk their lives to get them to safety, and they don't even stop to help anyone. Weiss looking upset for a moment only for Ruby to lead her away is still very unconvincing if you ask me. None of this is currently out of character for how they've been acting in the past couple of seasons but I sure hope it actually gets addressed. Contrast Team RW/BY running from Neo and the Jabberwalkers without even really trying and leaving behind panicking screaming citizens to their exhausted and often injured state leaving Beacon after they sacrificed their own health and wellbeing over and over during the Fall. The way these characters have downgraded needs to be recognized and though I have hope that Ruby might get a check and start developing, I have next to no hope for the other three.

A. Blake it is not a time for you to be fangirling, people outside might be dying. B. Writers, it's not a time to make Blake fangirl with the sad music still playing and people maybe dying outside. C. God this is gonna make Jaune-fanboys so off the charts... I am tired.

I FREAKING SAID! Timeskip Jaune was my first listed worst case scenario. I am gonna

I hate it so much.

3/10, the Cat and some of the well done suspense and visuals are fine, but boy howdy did this episode spark some rage!

[claireelizabethsblog]

~September & October's Books Reviewed~

So, as one might be able to guess, it's been two rather slow months of reading... or rather there was a period of slowness in the middle as in theory I read one book in September, had a moment and then read two very quickly at the end of October. Rather than having two very mini posts though, I felt it was better to have one at least vaguely substantial one! So yes, here is September and October combined!

Bewitched by Laura Thelssa

(443 pages)

Objectively, and subjectively, crap. I try not to unreasonably bash on books since I know that just because I didn't enjoy it doesn't mean others wouldn't, and vice versa. For example, I know that many of the books I love and have reread several times are objectively not that great, and similarly, having looked at this book on Goodreads I know lots of people love this book and the authors style. I, unfortunately, am not one of them. I really didn't enjoy any of the characters, nor their relationships, and the plot wasn't nearly engaging enough for me to forget about that. As such, I would easily say this was the worst book I've read in a long time (or certainly the least enjoyable reading experience I've had). That being said, if you're into supernatural romances and willing to look past some morally grey situations then you might enjoy this more than me. It is 100% an 18+ book (you have been warned), and also, I really struggled with the dubious consent throughout it in regards to the main relationship, just to also put that warning out there. I think based off this review it can be no surprise to anyone that...

I gave this book 1 star ⭐

Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley

(326 pages - hardback)

I'm contrast to the previous book (which can maybe be blamed for my break in traditional literature for a hot minute there), I really really enjoyed this book! It was rather different from the usual books I'd pickup, but I'd seen it recommended everywhere and I have to say it was everything I was needing from a book in this grey autumnal time. It was really gentle and comforting and just all around gentle. I did find the ending a little sudden, and I was waiting for the two storylines to become a little more interwoven to be honest (or at least the two principal characters from the two storylines - although I understand that they realistically couldn't actually, I was just waiting for a bit of a plot twist in the reveal of the characters I think - I realise that isn't very clear but I don't want to spoil it for anyone!). However, like I said, I truly loved this book, I wish I had read it quicker, or at least all in one go rather than starting and then accidentally taking an extended break from it because then I think it could even have been in contention for a full five star rating! I would really recommend this book to the majority of people, I've recommended it already to both my mother and my flatmate, two people with very different tastes in books generally, so that should be testament to the overall easy feeling and gorgeous prose of this book that I think makes it very accessible and enjoyable to a large audience.

I gave this book 4 stars ⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️

Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

(322 pages - hardback)

I finished this book and felt weirdly chilled and illeasy. It definitely freaked me out in a very subtle manner. It is incredibly well written and you have no way of knowing who to root for, or even what to believe at times. It raises so many important moral questions, especially around racism and xenophobia, as well as around ownership and intellectual property. I think that's in many ways why it left you feeling weirdly uncomfortable at points as it forced you to confront a lot of unfairness and the corrupt nature of society that is still so prevalent and ingrained. I also especially enjoyed it for its setting in the publishing world which is obviously my own industry. It was largely very accurate about a lot of the technical sides of the industry, however I am thankful to say that my experiences on the other side of the industry from Juniper have not been nearly as fraught or riddled with controversy!

I gave this book 4.5 stars ⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️🌗

[utilitycaster]

I think the Nameless Ones are an attempt at a crime organization but with Aabrias limited time, it doesn't work to actually establish them. Like, if Poska is the leader of this crime organization, why is she skulking around a random building in Emon? How did it escalate from dubious morality type things to literally beheading people?

Not to mention, Death or Join is the worst recruitment tactic. Of course people will say Join, and promptly betray you!

It's frustrating and I find it actually kinda...disrespectful that Matt's done so much work on the Myriad and the Clasp, and now this 3rd random group apparently had no issues seizing control over an entire damn town.

I like a lot about Aabrias dm-ing style, but certain things are not great. Thousands of gp is an astronomical amount of money, hence the debt, and they just...robbed a casino and fucked off. Problem solved. No consequences.

Hi anon,

So I do agree with the criticism of the Nameless Ones, but I have to disagree with a lot of the rest.

I do not think it's disrespectful of Aabria. I have my criticisms of her style in EXU but if anything I have thought, and continued to think, that one of the root causes is an abundance of enthusiasm for the world and wanting to engage with it and play in it...but which perhaps could use some editing in practice, because there are things you can establish in a long-form campaign that you simply can't in 8 to 10 episodes. I've seen Aabria's work both as a DM and a player in a number of different places (including on Critical Role) and I've always felt she was a respectful player; I really do not think any disrespect was ever intended and that's not something I would accuse her of.

The first paragraph of this ask is spot-on; we can't get a grasp on the organization and so it makes no sense. How are they simultaneously small enough for the leader to target a group of relative nobodies but then large enough for countless crowds to chase them from Emon? But from there we can't even say if the Join or Die strategy makes sense. For what it's worth that, as a strategy, isn't unrealistic. That happens all the time in real life. It's not a wise long-term strategy but if we had an understanding of the Nameless Ones' goals? If they truly just wanted to devastate Kymal and its population? Yeah that makes perfect sense - you'll get enough people who are afraid enough not to revolt and the sheer numbers you need to overtake something.

I also don't have any issue with the heist in concept. Like, the premise of a casino heist is "you steal a massive amount of money and you escape". This is an entire genre; she's playing within the conventions of the genre, and that's fine. It's really just the Nameless Ones that fucks it up for me. I would run the whole heist portion exactly the same; I'd just cut the entire Jinoir/spa/Fy'ra Kai portion of the first half and jump straight to the heist at the top of the episode, and instead of the Nameless Ones trying to take over the city there would just be heightened casino security due to the attack on Phaedrov's guards. Swap the boss in the vaults from Nameless One lieutenant to Krishtan family security and you can otherwise run it the same. In fact it would be harder for the PCs because the city isn't in the middle of a gang war and so they're without any distractions. But I would still absolutely accept that they steal all the vault contents and escape on the floating sky deck. That is 100% what I came here to watch; I just don't know why there's a random assault on the city by a poorly-defined organization happening in the background. When I said "cut out the Nameless Ones and everything works fine" I do mean it.

[yomiurinikei]

Wait I know it's been awhile and you don't have to answer if it's triggering for you but what was going on with the user who promoted howfatediverges? The one who created nsfw content and follows the content creator who makes these kind of joke??

!!! holded off on answering this for a bit (cause it was the holidays and i was busy) but!

under the cut, trigger warnings forrrr r4p3, s4nn1ur1, h4j1sai,,,, better safe than sorry, so. pr0-shipping/shipping adults with minors, nsfvv content of minors

tl;dr the mod of a stud3nt 0ut of tim3 has done a lot of little things that are concerning, and when it came to Big Issues, really didn't respond in a way that made me think "oh, yeah, this is a person whos content is safe and okay, and who meets some... common moral standards" so...

a stud3nt 0ut of tim3, a pretty popular ask blog which included some members of the sdra cast, posted about howfatediverges, telling people to go check out their account? in a recommending it sorta way, i don't remember the exact wording, but it was... pretty clearly not in a "hey this persons posting gross stuff pls report them" way

i used to be muts with him (iirc/checking the blog quickly, mod uses he/him)? i think? but i unfollowed after repeatedly having. issues with his content. this isn't any sort of comment about the plot or his writing, or anything, but rather. i was uncomfortable with mods portrayals of mental illness, shipping characters who had returned from the future with... high schoolers, and then they made content with said high schoolers (who aren't like. even seniors or anything) discussing their k1nks

mod deleted the posts about that last thing, saying that in retrospect, he wasn't okay with posting that sort of content about the cast, and! cool! we love to see it! but i think at that point i just..... too many little things i'm not really getting into had stacked up? and so i stopped really interacting, id just go reread and catch up some every now and then to make sure there was nothing Bad that was setting off huge red flags

and. lo and behold, something Bad happened that set off huge red flags. i'm gonna be... vague about my wording because i'm not here to talk about this, and don't wanna start drama but. there's a fangan of sorts that mod promotes on his blog, using the sprites made by the fangans creator, and telling his followers to check out the fangan. uh. it's a Well Known fangan within sdra circles, and it's a fankidronpa, with h4j1sai, s4nn1ur1... that kinda vibe! iykyk. now usually i would just kinda. keep my distance, like i've been doing but uh

the creator has made r4p3 jokes, including publically saying/joking with friends that a character would r4p3 another character (creator ships those two) which... isn't really cool! especially when the person who's doing that ships multiple "dubious consent" ships (ships where one character really... isn't in the state to properly give consent to the other) which,, i only know this because i like. i take screenshots, i watch out for people who seem influential and,, questionable, morally, so! i figured mod probably didn't know, and sent an ask

and another ask. and another. sent... multiple asks, multiple times (not just. all one right after another)

none of them ever got answered, and mod is still actively using content from that fangan. the fact he seemingly... doesn't care? doesn't sit well with me, especially when he has to jump through 20 loopholes to make his main ship okay, and has overall just kinda been. questionable in his handling of abuse, ptsd, mental illness,, ultimately, when an account like howfatediverges is being supported by an account like asoot, i kinda view it as a strike against both of them, so! yeah, that's the issue with asoot, and why i thought it relevant that mod was promoting howfatediverges

[margridarnauds]

Feel free to ignore this message, but I've got a question regarding the Mythological Cycle; top 10 characters, rated best to worst. Let's go.

WHY WOULD I IGNORE THIS? THIS IS GREAT. 

So, as a warning, since this is a very, very subjective list, I am not going to be............as academic as I could potentially be. I’m willing to chat any of this, since....I’m always down for any asks, specifically re: THIS most niche of niche topics, but in this particular list, I’m not rolling out all the sources I probably could, I’m not doing any massive Old Irish parsing, though I am trying to reference at least where I’m getting this from for the most part. Also, just because a character ends up on one end or the other doesn’t mean that I don’t ACKNOWLEDGE their complexity, it’s just that one end of it kind of sticks out to me. As we’re going to see. 

[rape mention tw]

1. Bres- Best boi. Next question. (I mean, come on, my #1 location to visit here since the first day I got off the plane has been Mizenhead, because that’s where the Dindsenchas say he died.) 

2. Sreng- Look. Sreng gets ONE text where he has a prominent role (that would be the Early Modern text Cath Muige Tuired Cunga, for anyone following), but my GOD does he make it count. Brother and son to a slaughtered king of Ireland, the warrior who didn’t want to go to war, the man who made the gods bleed and held out an entire ass battle by himself, the boyfriend of Bres. He’s definitely a figure who tends to go beneath the radar, and when he is brought up, it’s generally to present him in an unfavorable light compared to the TDD, but like. He deserves the world and I love him. 

3. Lugh - This is going to be an absolute SHOCKER for people, because I think that people tend to think that, because I rip him routinely and my nickname for him is “The Bitch”, that means I HATE him. And I don’t. Not really. I don’t think he’s a straightforwardly HEROIC character, at least not all the time. I get slightly annoyed when people gloss over his flaws in order to paint him as a perfect figure even in texts where that is BLATANTLY not the case. But Lugh is FASCINATINGLY complex, and I love the texts that show that. The Early Modern edition of Cath Maige Tuired, Cath Muighe Tuireadh, shows a complex Lugh, as does Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann and the Dinsenchas poem Carn húi Néit. Hell, even in the Táin, is Lugh really a GOOD guy, or is he just a “good guy” because he tends to Cú Chulainn? He doesn’t really give a damn if anyone else dies, so long as his own son is taken care of. He loves his father, and is willing to do anything to avenge his death even if it means that the innocent family members of his father’s killers get caught up in it as well. Lugh is a GREAT hero, he’s one of the pre-eminent figures of Irish Mythology, with some fairly strong evidence to indicate that an equivalent figure to him was the most widely revered deity in Gaul. But he is also, depending on the text, absolutely RUTHLESS in attaining what he feels is a greater good. He IS “dutiful/pious Lugh”, but what does that duty mean? How does he interpret that? He kills his own family members quite routinely (the Sons of Tuireann, Bres, Balor, Cermait, off the top of my head), and basically gets himself killed because of a marital dispute, and that’s an element of him that I think that people are afraid of, but I ADORE.  It makes him HUMAN. 

4. Ériu - The only person in the myths to love Bres as much as I do. Down to lose her virginity to a random stranger on the beach. The Sons of Míl come in and she’s like “Yeah, okay, just make sure to name the island after me, okay?” I love her. (Okay, but talk to me about how Bres is her ONLY CHILD across the various myths, about how it’s HER who gives him land, it’s HER who goes with him to Elatha and negotiates for his sake. She was willing to put aside her own people, travel to a foreign country filled with people who have been raiding her own people for years, and she did it for love of her son. You can argue over whether she indulged him too much, but you can’t argue that she’s possibly one of the single most devoted mothers in the Mythological Cycle.)

5. Carmun - Only gets one Dindsenchas poem to her name, but WHAT a showstopper it is. “One fierce, marauding woman” indeed. An Athenian witch who tries to invade Ireland with her three sons, only to be captured by the Tuatha dé and kept as a hostage. Longing (for her children? For freedom? For her old home of Athens?) eventually kills her, and she, like Tailtiu, another foreign woman who has a meeting space named after her, dies in an oak grove. An interesting example of a female villain in a myth, with the text obviously having quite a bit of respect for her, and her obviously genuinely caring for her sons and vice versa. There’s really not all that much more ON her, but I’m not sure that there really needs to be all that more because her story isn’t REALLY an epic. It’s very neatly contained as it is. 

6.  Bríg - It isn’t that I don’t LIKE Bríg, it’s that. Well. I get tired of talking about Bríg when there are a dozen characters more who actually DO things in the saga literature. You know. Like her husband. Who is almost never brought up in discussions on Bríg as if he’s not there. NOT THAT I’M BITTER.I just.....don’t really CARE for her. At all. And the way that people tend to discuss Bres in conjunction with Bríg has given me a certain level of resentment, so I just............ignore her whenever it’s at all possible. She gets points for the scene where she keens for Ruadan, since that’s a wonderfully human scene in a text that tends to be rather inhuman and detached in the amounts of blood, gore, and sex that saturate it, but like....I just don’t CARE. I don’t believe, at this point, that there is any way to really make me invested in Bríg, as a character. But I can’t really rate her lower because like. Below this, we start getting into the “Hall of Dicks” territory so I’m just putting her here. 

7. Tethra - Interesting figure. Not an awful lot about him, so I can’t really say all that much. But I do think that he tends to get under-discussed, in general, and put kind of in a generic “Evil Fomorian” category when he is, and...he DOES invade Ireland, along with Elatha and Indech (Indech is not on this list mainly because it is hard to properly quantify my “You are a total trashbag, but also you’re very interesting to me, but also I want to light you on fire and feed you to the dogs” feelings re: him.) But also he is the great uncle of Emer, he is described in a positive light in a few other texts, including IN CMT ITSELF. He seems to be married to Badb, which is....someone just GIVE ME THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS POST-CMT STORY, FT. A FOMORIAN WARLORD FALLING OVER HIMSELF FOR A TERRIFYING SCALD CROW WAR GODDESS. 

Anyway, only reason he isn’t ranked higher is because we don’t really know all that much about him and I thought it would be a little unfair to, say, Bríg to rank him higher when I used her lack of personality/overall narrative to place her lower out of spite. He doesn’t have any actual APPEARANCES, no lines, etc. So like. I love him, I’m endlessly interested in him, but he’s gotta be near the end. 

8. The Dagda - “Now, Rachel, the Dagda is a very important figure, with a variety of appearances-” and like. You would be RIGHT. He IS very important. And, actually, I’m INTERESTED in him, which is why he’s not at the bottom. He’s a very interesting figure, and I’d be lying if I said he doesn’t make anything he appears in more colorful. 

He is also a DICK. 

So, like, he fucks a married woman (I WILL say, Boann enthusiastically consented so....props? You were NOT as much of a dick as you could have been), he sends the husband out on a trip to his weird half-Fomorian brother (Bres deserved sainthood for that one ALONE), and then....oh wait.....when it comes time to provide for the partitioning of Ireland he just GIVES AENGUS ELCMAR’S HOUSE? Like. Come on dude. That’s a way to just add insult to injury. That’s a dick move. (Thomas Charles-Edwards DID write an article that discusses how the Dagda is not as much in the wrong as you would think, but like. Still a dick move, I’m sorry.) 

How the Dagda Got His Magic Staff? He gets these three brothers to lend him their magical staff so he can resurrect his fuckboy son, then KILLS THEM? Then his son is like “Dad, that’s a dick move” and he brings them back, on the condition that he KEEPS THEIR STAFF? AND THEN HE RAISES AN ENTIRE ZOMBIE ARMY IN ORDER TO ASSUME THE HIGH KINGSHIP OF IRELAND? 

I just. I just. 

In the Intoxication of the Ulstermen (Mesca Ulad), we learn about what the Dagda DID with his Necromancy Staff: He created a corpse xylophone where he keeps nine people in front of him, hits them with one end of the staff in order to bring them back to life, and then hits them with the other in order to kill them, on and on. 

AND SPEAKING OF MORALLY DUBIOUS SHIT: Tell me that there is another way to interpret this Dindsenchas tale than....the one that seems most obvious. 

“Let come of it what may.” 

And of course CMT, where he does totally kill Cridenbél with the whole “PSYCH you asked for the best three bits now EAT GOLD” Thing, even if it isn’t the way that Bres thought AND Bres did overreact. The Dagda should have paid the proper honor price for Cridenbel, Bres should NOT have tried putting him to death. It was a STUPID move, since it led to Bres’ ruling being called into question. And.....the porridge incident in that same text. Which. I can. Discuss. If asked to specifically. But will leave for now in case anyone should instead want to search for it on their lonesome. 

His relationship with the Morrigan is interesting to me, in that you have these really rather amoral forces being married to one another, having a relationship of long-standing, even though they have no issues getting sex elsewhere. And it is my pure scholarly opinion that she pegs him.

Basically, the Dagda is interesting to me, I think that there are two principal things that motivate him in any given tale: His own id and his loved ones, in exactly that order. He’s a rather disgusting figure, but you kind of keep wanting to peer in to see how far the muck goes. And, if it isn’t obvious, I definitely prefer, say, Lugh to him, because I feel like, of the two of them, at least Lugh DOES believe that he’s doing the right thing. It’s just not always in any way that anyone, not even in medieval Ireland, would really think about “doing the right thing.” There’s this complexity to Lugh, even at his absolute worst. The Dagda just doesn’t care. The Dagda is more a God in the way of Zeus or Poseidon where it’s like “I’ll do what I want and damn the consequences.” Interesting to see, but not my favorite as far as character. 

He kind of reminds me of Cú Chulainn, actually, where it’s like. He’s interesting. But also there’s this sort of rank misogyny and brutality that tends to be drenched in the texts that he’s featured in, even by Medieval Irish standards (and I’d argue that those standards are MUCH more flexible than we give them credit for), so I can never really enjoy him. And I’m saying this as someone who deeply loves some VERY VERY MISOGYNISTIC TEXTS. 

9. Balor - You would not THINK that Balor would be near the top of ANY lists on Mythological Cycle figures, but he’s actually very interesting to me, in terms of his evolution. In folklore, he is very much a straightforward villain, kind of adjusting to fit whoever the invaders of the time were. I am NOT saying there is no basis for a villainous Balor, or even that a villainous Balor is an INNOVATION like it is for Bres. I am DEFINITELY not saying that, especially since those folklore stories tend to include Proto-Indo European elements that indicate that they could be VERY old, possibly older than the saga material. But I am saying the man is interesting. Something that tends to be totally overlooked in discussions on him is that he was a BOY when, in Cath Maige Tuired, he peered in on his father’s druids performing magic and it seeped into his eye, giving him his Evil Eye. He was a KID. Of COURSE he would be curious and want to explore. And because of that, he was turned into a monster. How would you go about it, as a kid, learning that you had to keep one eye closed forever because you could kill everyone nearby? How would you cope, really, seeing everyone turning away from you in fear? And, in Cath Maige Tuired, he doesn’t even KNOW that Lugh is his grandson when Lugh kills him. He knew he gave his daughter away in marriage to a young man of the Tuatha dé, he would probably guess that he had a grandson there, or at least the possibility of one, but like. He didn’t realize it was Lugh SPECIFICALLY then. And then Lugh killed him. Lugh was, for once, RIGHT to kill him, but. Still. There’s something a little tragic about Balor’s death, even if it’s 100% not what the redactor intended. I have to have a little sympathy for him, despite it all. Also his wife, Cethlenn of the Crooked Teeth, is very interesting to me, as a figure. I’m really curious what kind of marriage they had. I kind of like to think, regardless of what evidence there really is for it, that they had that type of Bad Guy Relationship where they were absolutely ruthless and awful, but fairly devoted to one another. That’s outside the realm of scholarly observation, but I like to think it. She’s the one who kills the Dagda, btw. Absolute underrated BADASS. 

Also like he did try to kill Lugh in the Early Modern Cath Maige Tuired with the whole “Put my head on yours” thing so like, props for trying Balor. Props for trying. 

The main reason Balor is rated so lowly despite everything else is......folkloric Balor. Because fuck folkloric Balor. He still isn’t my LEAST FAVORITE of the Fomorian lords, because we have #10 and Indech, but like. I can’t REALLY put him so high up in my favorites list. 

10. Elatha - I hate him. I actually hate this man. I know he gets a few sentences, really, but God. I hate him. The only good thing that he, as a character, did is to give us Bres, the Dagda, Ogma, and Lir. (NOT including Delbaeth. For Reasons.) I could discuss how, like Bres, he was not always a villainous character, how his image was molded to suit the Scandinavian setting for the Fomoire in Cath Maige Tuired, but consider: I hate him. 

Actually, let’s go more in-depth here. “WHY do you hate Elatha more than Balor, Rachel, he only has small appearance in one text? And you already said you like Balor-” Which is a GOOD question. Very good. So, let’s go into the Elatha Call Out Mode. 

So, first of all. 

He has sex with Ériu, gets her with a kid, and then leaves. He KNEW she was pregnant. But no, he doesn’t give a damn, he just drops a ring into her hand, gives him his name + a name for the kid (GOOD THING ÉRIU DIDN’T HAVE ANY OTHER NAMES SHE WANTED TO GIVE THAT KID) and fucks off to his own people. Now, I will say, he didn’t deceive her, in the sense that she was never PROMISED marriage, but. God. She was a virgin, she was presumably quite young at the time. He was a king of the Fomoire, and she sure as Hell didn’t know THAT when she slept with him. And she obviously didn’t have his certainty that a kid would result from it. I don’t think there was straight-up DECEPTION involved, per se, I don’t believe that we’re looking at a case of rape, in either the modern or the medieval understanding of it (he isn’t Cú Chulainn, after all), but Elatha sure as Hell didn’t give Ériu ALL the information that he had until it was too late. 

Okay, okay, dickish, Bres was forced to rely on his maternal kin-group all of his life and Ériu was basically fucked (though aristocratic enough that she obviously had land to give him in the first place, so not MASSIVELY inconvenienced), but like. Not really UNUSUAL for an Irish “hero”. 

So, let’s go into this further. 

He raids Ireland, alongside the rest of the Fomorian lords. “Now, Rachel, that is unreasonable, as you’ve already said you like Balor and Tethra, who also-” But consider: Tethra didn’t KNOW he had a son on the other side. (Balor didn’t raid Ireland until the battle itself, so he gets a few Brownie points. A few.) Elatha DID. Elatha knew damn well where his son was, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had at least some idea that his son was king of the Tuatha dé, given how much he ALREADY knew about Bres’ birth. I can’t prove it with the information given in-text, so I can’t argue it in a scholarly setting, but like. He fucking knew. If Bres had been an average warrior, he could have DIED because of Elatha being a massive dickwad, because like. Even if we ASSUME that Elatha gave a damn about what happened to his son and wouldn’t attack him directly, he couldn’t exactly control ALL of his men during a raid. People are going everywhere, weapons are flying. 

BUT ELATHA IS THE ONLY GOOD FOMORIAN, AM I RIGHT? 

ANYWAY, next we see him, Bres is going to him for help. He’s at his most vulnerable, his most humble after being yeeted off the throne by the Tuatha dé. He SAYS exactly what he did, that it was wrong, with a level of humility that’s honestly rare in anti-heroes even today. What does Elatha say? 

‘That is bad,’ said his father. ‘Better their prosperity than their kingship. Better their requests than their curses. Why then have you come?’ asked his father.

‘I have come to ask you for warriors,’ he said. ‘I intend to take that land by force.’

‘You ought not to gain it by injustice if you do not gain it by justice,’ he said.

“But Rachel,” you might say, “This makes perfect sense, this is GOOD advice.” But consider: Bres had ALREADY admitted his wrongs. He doesn’t need a lecture. Elatha’s advice gives him absolutely NOTHING, while conveniently absolving him of ANY accountability for Bres’ actions. (And keep in mind, under Medieval Irish law, the kin-group WAS deemed as at least partially responsible for the actions of its members, so like. I’m NOT just putting modern ideas onto Elatha here.) Also: THIS IS LITERALLY BRES’ FIRST TIME MEETING HIS FATHER. He has traveled SO far to see this man, and what is Elatha’s reaction? THAT. Treating him as essentially a flea to be swatted away with platitudes while absolving himself, even though he was the one who set Bres up to be in that position from the get-go.

I’m not saying that Bres is flawless here, given that he ADMITS HE ISN’T HIMSELF, but Elatha? Is a douche. And then, to compound his douchiness, he doesn’t keep Bres in line. He doesn’t bother to deal with him, he just sets him up with an army and goes back to invade Ireland again. I know that some scholars (chiefly Elizabeth Gray) have read it as paternal indulgence, but personally? I don’t think his moral qualm was EVER with invading it. I don’t think he had a single issue with invading Ireland, given that he’d already done it before. He just wanted to hammer it in hard to Bres how utterly he’d failed. If he had REALLY given a damn about him, he could have spent time getting to know him, trying to tone him down, be more of a proper FATHER to him, but he doesn’t. And, if Bres’ actions during Cath Maige Tuired cause thousands of people on both sides to die, then Elatha set everything in place so he could. The only difference is that Bres almost never gets a trace of sympathy for it, while Elatha is presented as a tragic figure whose son is an unfortunate accident. 

Also like. Bres is the only one of his kids he’s even involved with to begin with, for better or worse. Like, this is 100% a scribal error, but I’m using it to further my “Elatha is a dick” agenda: Ogma, in Cath Maige Tuired (so I’m not even using outside genealogies that the scribe of CMT might not have been aware of), is described as a son of Elatha. So, not only did Elatha fuck over ONE SON, but he did this type of shit repeatedly. He didn’t give a damn about any of his kids. 

Anyway: THE ONLY GOOD FOMORIAN. AM I RIGHT?