#which they succeed at doing

[violetren]

The great thing about the White Collar OT3 is that at no point does the introduction of Neal into El and Peter's everyday lives never feels like a threat to Peter and El's marriage.

Like from the moment Neal shows up at their house in episode one he and El hit it off.

Within the first 5 episodes Neal and El have figured out they have similar knowledge and interest in the finer things, they're sharing looks over how Peter talks about and will react to things, El is telling Peter to trust in Neal a little, Neal is helping make sure they have a lovely anniversary, and El is calling Neal in to mediate/help prove her point in mini arguments to make Peter do stuff.

They also work really well because while Peter, El, and Neal might all be slightly different flavours and intensities of hyper competent adrenaline junkie weirdos, all three of them are intensely loyal to "their people" so the second El and Neal recognised that they both trust Peter as someone who will always try to do the right thing and respect them they were like "oh green flag."

[cecoeur]

it's hell on earth to be heavenly them's the breaks, they don't come gently

[kaurwreck]

y'all have eventually got to realize that kunikida's temper and attentiveness to his schedule aren't callousness, they're coping mechanisms. right. y'all have to eventually figure out that much over seasons + tens of chapters of him being so tender it would snap him in two if not for the order he's constructed around himself. y'all will inevitably pick up on that with how he approaches dazai and kyouka, especially, right? surely.

[corntired]

Fanfiction is so goated actually

No monetary incentive, just writing in one's free time. Some incentive for like kudos and comments, because who doesn't want to hear that someone else enjoyed what they wrote. Just writing a story that is good and/or enjoyable, no real-life pressure to keep it going because god forbid you and other people are depending on it financially.

Writing a story because you want to write a good story, so you can write what they want the way you want, at a pace that is realistic for you, with exactly the plot pacing you want there to be.

[magnetothemagnificent]

Non-ADHD and non-autistic disabled people whose only idea of ADHD and autistic people is shaped by media depictions of a nerdy white boy or a quirky goth girl with low support needs: "Yeah ADHD and autism are destigmatized and we should ignore people with ADHD and autism in favor of real disabilities. I am very smart and progressive."

Lateral prejudice towards other disabled people will get us nowhere.

[sforzesco]

CAESAR AUGUSTUS AND MARCUS LICINIUS CRASSUS

this is about the spolia opima that crassus was robbed of lmao. like, yeah okay octavian could've asked him not to claim it, but nevertheless. a kind of theft happened there.

Fact and Fiction: Crassus, Augustus, and the Spolia Opima, Catherine McPherson

[elerrinacrownedwithstars]

the reasons I think Fëanorians should not get the Silmarils back

it's a better and more compelling story this way. their fall from grace and the way they corrupt and destroy themselves because of a hopeless quest is peak tragedy, which would be ruined by their success.

it's a justified consequence of the Kinslayings: the right of ownership is not and cannot ever be more important than somebody else's right to live.

it's also a justified consequence of them stealing and destroying someone else's priceless semi-sacred property: Teleri will never get their ships back because Fëanor burned them out of spite, so it's only fair and square that the Silmarils are never returned to him or his heirs. 

if Stuff is so important to you that it causes you to ruin the lives of all your children, losing that Stuff forever is probably just karmic justice. (see also: "if more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold...")

And no, nobody else should have the Silmarils either. It's clear that having a Silmaril messes with your brain. At the end of the Silm, they should become public property. I would go even further than this and say that the actual resolution of the Silm, where nobody can have them and the single surviving jewel is carried as a star that everyone can indiscriminately see by a guy who never expressed a desire for it, is probably the only correct one. 

[stuckinapril]

Had a seismic moment today where I completely reframed my outlook on ambition & started looking at it (in the context of seeing it in other people) as admirable rather than opportunistic to a fault

[purplink8]

Can I be real for a second? I don't think L giving a foot massage to Light was very in-character of him. Like manga!L would've totally scoffed at how pathetic anime!L appeared when he did that.

I like the rain scene bc it's really pretty (also Light MOANS bc of L? *sighs* yeah i ship lawlight) but I'm always so ?? at anime!L's behavior? The anime made L way too melancholic and y'know self-deprecating kinda guy. In contrast, manga!L (whom I love to death) is so so confident in doing what he's doing and has the time of his life during the Kira case as he's intellectually challenged (by Light) as he figures out the case little by little.

I don't get where the anime creators got the idea that L is a very sad character who cares about justice so much so that he's actually Justice itself? Manga!L enjoys solving cases. I'm not saying that L doesn't care about justice at all- just that he cares more about winning.

So, the anime creators looked at a character who cares about winning (& his own ego) than everything else and decided to... make him give a foot massage to his nemesis (surprise surprise bible symbolism featuring L as Jesus *🤮* coming up) apparently due to accepting Light's (boy's first debut as Judas) 'betrayal' how can there be betrayal when there was no trust between them in the first place and saying "It is the least I can do to atone for my sins"...

The only way I could've made a little sense of this is if L was mocking Kira with that line but the anime just had to go above & beyond to make it (L's actions) seem too genuine for that to be true. which is. so. FRUSTRATING

Manga!L wouldn't have done anything like that. Not even ironically (he'd have thought it to be below him for pretending to be accepting his defeat mockingly to Kira). Even Manga!L's not enough of a bastard to try to compare himself with Jesus (and just after knowing (god knows how) that he's going to die)- like that's too stupid omg: even for a mockery.

Does he actually think that Light would pick up on the (him as Jesus) symbolism and be like 'oh no! L is too noble like Jesus to die by my betrayal i'm such a bad judas how come i NEVER NOTICED THIS BEFORE'... and decide to spare L's life? Or embrace his inner Judas like the bad bitch he is and finish L for that godawful mockery of Jesus?

Whenever I think about Anime!Light's in-character reaction I crack up as it would be smth like 'wow this guy who graduated summa cum laude from torture university is pretending to be Jesus? lol what a real piece of work. would've expected better from you L: so pathetic lmao i hope rem kills you soon i'm so done with you rn- rip 💀'

Manga!L (if he knew he were going to die (don't know how that's possible in the anime; still we're talking about how the anime creators seem to see L as Jesus so ~anything is possible~) that is) would never go 'guess i'll die' accept his defeat offering a foot massage to his enemy and inwardly throw a pity party being all "… It'll be lonely, won't it?" GIRL you were the one going on & about how you'd EXECUTE Kira once you catch him on live tv (also saying that you'd bring Kira's head to the task force) I REALLY doubt you'd feel lonely if either one of you were to die- that (killing each other) was the point!!

Manga!L is a selfish character: he values his victory above all else so the anime making him accept defeat that easily + gracefully doesn't sit well with me.

[shinypiloart]

No cost too great.

[hellogoodbyeitsme]

Broke: Damian is bad at being a Robin because he's too violent

Woke: Damian is bad at being a Robin because he's afraid to hurt people

[glitteringcrab]

Nip this in the bud (2)

Okay, I think I finally figured out what Rick Prime was hoping to accomplish with this:

Because I was all "WTF" during that scene.

First things first:

It's clear that Rick Prime has been monitoring Rick C-137 during this whole time. Maybe not continually monitoring him, but monitoring him often enough that he knows:

Rick lived in the Prime Dimension

Rick is hanging out with Morty Prime

Rick has two Beths now (LOL) "echoes" of Prime's daughter since C-137 Beth never grew up

Likewise, he knew Rick C-137 was accompanied by Morty Prime, and could tell (without actually checking nor monitoring this, because then he wouldn't have fallen for Evil Morty's trick) that one of the Mortys Rick C-137 showed up with was Morty Prime, his original grandson.

In a similar vein, it's theoretically possible that he has some inkling of Evil Morty's identity. I mean, otherwise why tell him "you're like an evil Morty, a clever one". Um, excuse me? Evil Morty didn't do a single "evil" thing during the Prime fight. Why the heck call him "evil"? Just because he's wearing an eyepatch? WEAK. Call him clever, sure. But evil? Nope.

UNLESS... Rick Prime has also sporadically been monitoring the happenings in the Citadel of Ricks. News of Evil Rick's killing spree might have reached him, he might have read witness accounts and known that Evil Rick was accompanied by an eye-patched Morty who disappeared (although I seriously doubt anyone would bother to write more than a single sentence on Evil Morty in any report). Or he may have noticed (you know, after he was teleported in the Prime dimension right after Evil Morty contaminated EVERYONE'S portal travel) that the Citadel blew up, that there was a breach in the Central Finite Curve, and he might have investigated the ruins out of curiosity. He might have found out Stuff.

(Edit: nah, the name "Evil Morty" was mentioned a couple of times in the box, so Rick Prime using it only means that he was paying attention to what was happening in the Box)

In any case, even if all that isn't true, even if Rick Prime had originally no clue that there ever was any animosity between Rick C-137 and Evil Morty, and him calling Evil Morty "Evil" was just a lucky guess, Prick Prime was definitely able to tell that was no love between Evil Morty and Rick C-137 during this scene:

...in which he uses Evil Morty as a literal human shield and Rick C-137 shoots without hesitation (on a different note, I'd like to say how sad is that when strangled Evil Morty doesn't have the presence of mind to try and use any of his implants; he's just a 14 year old boy against an grown-up man at that moment. Forget shooting him with plasma guns; you can literally just strangle him).

And so we come to this scene:

Okay, Rick Prime could already tell that Evil Morty and Rick C-137 weren't family, but the suggestion of "nip this in the bud" was still absurd!

(I've written a similar post in the past while venting, but this one is actually getting somewhere, so please bear with me)

Because Evil Morty and Rick C-137 were, at worst, temporary allies. Rick C-137 owned to Evil Morty:

his freaking life (Evil Morty revived him)

his revenge (Evil Morty let him kill Rick Prime)

and (depending on to what degree Rick Prime was monitoring his clones and the killing box) he might have also known that Evil Morty helped Rick C-137 track Rick Prime down and helped him to escape the box.

That's a huge debt. And I know that Evil Morty helped Rick C-137 to save his own skin from getting Omega-ed if/when Rick C-137 failed to win, and to get the weapon plans, but he wasn't at all obligated to save Rick C-137's life nor to hand him his nemesis on a plate.

Arguably, Evil Morty did this precisely so that he'd have an Omega-enslaved and morally indebted Rick to come to his aid in a hypothetical future hour of need. However, the truth is that Evil Morty and Rick C-137 worked well with each other since the beginning of the episode, before any Omega Device threat (nor carrot!) dangled in front of Evil Morty to influence his decisions (he had just wanted to... talk) and Rick had trusted him enough to leave Morty Prime alone with him.

Like, under normal circumstances, Evil Morty honoring their alliance during the Prime Fight could have been the beginning of a friendship (or at least a more honest and permanent alliance) between Rick C-137 and Evil Morty. Evil Morty is insecure and traumatized enough to need the failsafe of the Omega Device backing him up, but Rick C-137 was game...!

Rick Prime instead puts in Rick C-137's head the idea that Evil Morty might kill him in a tantrum. Not because their interests might clash in the future. Not because Evil Morty may get power-hungry when he grows up. But because he's young and emotional. (Mind you, this is about a boy whose whole characterization revolves around being extremely cautious and calculating; not someone who'd kill another person in a fit of fury.)

Of course, the first idea that pops up in our minds (at least... it was in mine) is that Rick Prime said this hoping that Rick C-137 will drop everything to go stop Evil Morty, and so Rick Prime would get a chance to escape.

...But that doesn't make any sense, either!

Rick C-137 isn't so stupid as to give Rick Prime that chance of survival. Even if he took Rick Prime's warning seriously, he'd hurriedly shoot him in the face before running out to deal with Evil Morty. Rick Prime was toast, and he knew that. This wasn't about his own survival.

Rick C-137 wasn't about to take his worst enemy's advice to turn against his temporary ally. Like, what the heck? Since when Rick Prime fancied himself trustworthy? He could have easily lied, made this up. Rick C-137 couldn't have actually known if Evil Morty really had the weapon plans at that moment, and he'd have to take Rick Prime's word for it. No way he'd drop everything at his worst enemy's word.

Rick Prime saw that Evil Morty downloaded the weapon plans straight on his person. There was no external device that you can just snatch away (like the cone thing Evil Morty used when scanning Rick C-137's brain). So Rick Prime knew that the only way to "nip this in the bud" would be for Rick C-137 to run outside, confront Evil Morty, find out that there was no external device to forcefully take from him, and promptly attack him with lethal intent. But, come on, Rick C-137 was not going to do that, because of the aforementioned debt. Even Rick C-137 isn't so ruthless as to have his own life saved one minute, and him returning the favor with a murder attempt. This was never going to work.

Even if Rick C-137 took Rick Prime's warning seriously, even he trusted his advice, even if he was willing to murder a version of his grandson (to whom his owned his life) in cold blood, I doubt he could do it. He was a mess physically, while Evil Morty was perfectly fine. If they did clash at that moment, I think Evil Morty could have escaped easily with a portal. So this was never going to work.

And don't even get me started on what a joke it is for the Rick who wanted to murder Rick C-137's whole family, one by one, to express Rick-to-Rick camaraderie. As if...!

So what was all this for? This would never work, Rick C-137 would not try to kill Evil Morty at that moment...

...but he can do it in the future.

Any seeds of trust or appreciation that were planted that day were promptly poisoned by Rick Prime's "well-meaning" warning.

Evil Morty himself did trample said seeds further by warning Rick C-137 he could kill him any time he wanted as of now, but he also said that "using a weapon like this doesn't get you. Left. Alone." His whole speech would have hit very differently without Rick Prime's warning. We would have trusted him, we would have trusted that he did all this with the single goal of being left alone and that this is going to be the end of it. Worse case scenario, we would have thought Evil Morty might demand Rick C-137's support for A Thing (like a slave) if he had no other choice, but we still wouldn't have thought Evil Morty would murder him in a flight of rage during a disagreement. Now, the idea that Evil Morty might become unhinged in the future has been planted in our heads, by Rick Prime!

We fans were discussing on how the narrative seems to be setting Evil Morty as the final villain, but it's not the narrative, not really! It's Rick Prime manipulating Rick C-137, hoping he'll attack Evil Morty sometime in the future, so they can kill each other.

He fueled Rick C-137' paranoia on purpose, so as to get delayed revenge on the Rick who dared to think himself better than him... and on the one person who actually bested him.

[sadhorsegirl]

aes sedai: do you swear to speak no word that is not true?

moiraine, who grew up in a culture that required all participants to constantly obfuscate their true intentions and carefully manipulate others to try and avoid being assassinated by a paranoid member of a rival house before they reached the age of eleven: sure lol why not

[shadowxamyweek]

Whenever we talk about ShadowxAmy in the context of Shadow's immortality (whatever form that may take), I feel like a lot of autonomy is taken away from Amy.

We always talk about what Shadow would do, how Shadow would feel. We talk about their greif and rage and sorrow. We never talk about how Amy thinks or feels about the situation.

Worst still... there seems to be this general unspoken assumption she'd just... let whatever happen, happen?

Like, do we not think that The Amy Rose, rascal and romantic, would do everything in her power to stick around? To spread love to every corner of the globe, to share that love with her partner- why keep that to a singular lifetime? She's taken her fate into her own hands more than she can count. Why would taking her life in her hands in this way be any different?

Amy Rose wants to live. She wouldn't just let anything stop her.

[inchidentally]

https://x.com/MERCL4REN/status/1743286121973555513?s=20

find the difference level impossible :D but seriously, this tweet gave me a stomachache from laughing so hard.

THERE'S MY TWO CREEPY TOO SIMILAR VESTAL VIRGINS THAT MAKE ALL THE MEN ON THE GRID (except lewis) GO HUUUHHHHH???

[raisengen]

Design of Strife's design is a real mystery to me.

After thinking about it, I think the intention is:

You play it like reverse CC: fight a hard enemy while helped by a large number of buffs, then whittle down the buffs until you're fighting them au naturel. This then unlocks the next difficulty, rinse and repeat.

Within battle, you're meant to exploit the lava fissures by deploying operators on top of them, managing the burn damage in exchange for bonus damage against enemies.

The thing is, the game is absolutely terrible at conveying this. There's no effort to make sure you know about the buff system, and there's no effort to make sure you know how lava fissures work.

The most the tutorial has to say is "if you use buffs you can't unlock the next set of stages". OK? The buff system isn't even available at the time they say that. It's not even unlocked until you lose a run at that rank (and even then it's relatively easy to miss). And besides, all I've been told is that I shouldn't use them, and since they're off by default maybe I should just ignore them.

Compare to CC, where you have to pass through the contract selection screen every time you start the stage.

The lava fissures have no tutorial at all, forcing you to rely on the poorly-worded tooltips. (Did you know you can long-press on special tiles to bring up a notification explaining them?) And you're unlikely to intuit their interactions, either; the lava only hurts friendlies, unless you put an operator on top, in which case they can scoop up some of the eruption and throw it on your enemies. Of course. They didn't even get a good animation, since they appear to only hit low tiles, but still deal damage to high tiles.

Compare to... pretty much any event with a stage mechanic, where they have dedicated tutorial stages focused on the interaction.

If these are (well, were) meant to be the experiments for new high-end content, then surely you should want players to be able to engage with it as intended, right?