#who is even in this fandom that aren’t npcs

[leminysnickit]

losing hope on this fandom,,, no more real people

[utilitycaster]

Hi! Because I genuinely do love your take on things and every time I read through them, a new perspective that I had never even considered before makes itself known to me. So, I wanted to ask! Since Twitter (unsurprisingly) already got its hands on this discussion:

What are your feelings on the Mighty Nein being the ones to handle the Weave Mind over Bells Hells? Because for me, I always sort of knew that BH were going to be the ones to defeat Ludinus no matter what. It’s what they’ve been building up for.

However, some people say the M9 aren’t deserving of handling the Weave Mind because that was an antagonist made specifically for the Bells Hells. So, I was interested in seeing your thoughts about this (strange) discussion.

Hi anon, thanks!

I think it's great to have the Nein go after the Weave Mind, and I think, like most takes from the Twitter CR fandom, this is fucking stupid.

Given that Matt is the DM, and he's like "hey, I'm going to have a Trusted NPC call in the Mighty Nein to deal with the Weave Mind" I think the argument that the Weave Mind was made specifically for Bells Hells is not, in fact, true. The Weave Mind is an antagonist who was introduced with Bells Hells' campaign, rather like how Ludinus Da'leth is an antagonist who was introduced with the Mighty Nein's campaign and who has been the nemesis of Beau and Caleb in particular, and yet Bells Hells will be going after him in this scenario (and, to be clear, I think this is fine; I've expected Bells Hells to face off against Ludinus in the end).

I would be interested in understanding if the motivation here is "I wish the Nein were going after Ludinus and Bells Hells were going after the Weave Mind" which I think is far less interesting given that Ludinus has been such a consistent enemy of Bells Hells as well but at least I can puzzle out a not terribly intelligent but consistent sort of logic in it; or if this is a "I wish the past two parties weren't involved in this campaign at all" argument in which case, far too late for that; or if this is someone who specifically doesn't like the Mighty Nein throwing yet another tiresome and embarrassing temper tantrum on Twitter. But my opinion doesn't change; I think it's far more satisfying to see Bells Hells take on Ludinus than the Weave Mind, whom half of them haven't even met.

More generally, the idea of "doesn't deserve to fight the Weave Mind" is stupid on another level. I understand why people talk about which actual play character they wish to get the final blow on a particular enemy, even though dice will ultimately decide this. When it lines up - Vax with Thordak, Yasha with Obann - it's immensely satisfying. But you do not need to be the most wronged person to make meaning of a How Do You Want To Do This (FCG and Otohan being an obvious case here). Technically, the Volition deserves to fight the Weave Mind more! Half of Bells Hells hasn't even encountered the Weave Mind in any capacity! Braius and Dorian haven't been to the moon! Sometimes, you're fighting because it's part of, for example, a three-pronged plan that needs three separate simultaneous strike forces. Bells Hells can't do all three at once despite having claims to each of the targets unless they split up. Would you rather the parties split up in a mix of each? Because I'm not opposed per se but that could get pretty confusing all around. And if we're going to step out of the Watsonian argument that in-world, they can't do all three at once, see my next paragraph to address the Doylist "but Matt didn't need to set it up this way" one.

I am on the record as loathing the whole "it's their table and you can't criticize it because it's their game" bullshit. You can do so. You can do so even if there are very good reasons for their choices. You're always entitled to your own opinion and as long as you're not harassing people, it is morally neutral to say "this piece of fiction/art/whatever didn't do it for me," end of sentence. With that said. It's fine if people wish Campaign 3, like Campaigns 1 and 2, were more exclusively focused on one party's adventures rather than the all-hands-on-deck story that it is. But it is that story, and pretending this wasn't the result of a number of intentional choices by Matt and the cast and various collaborators is profoundly stupid at this point. I had my complaints as well, early on, but the time to get over this was episode 1, when Orym and Fearne and Dorian and Bertrand showed up with their ties to EXU and C1. Or it was episode 6, when Laudna revealed her connection to Delilah. Or episode 35, when that connection to Keyleth was leveraged. Or episode 50, when Beau and Caleb appeared; or Episode 51, when multiple past PCs were present at the solstice; or Episode 66, when we further met with Keyleth; or Episode 86, when Sending came back on and both Caleb and Jester spoke to the party; or Episode 92, when we cut back to the Crown Keepers; or Episode 94, when Essek showed up; or Episode 99, when Downfall began. If you're still holding on hope now in the endgame, I think it's too late. That's not the campaign this is, and it never was, and you can wish that you had something more self-contained like Campaign 1 or 2 but with Bells Hells, but that's all it is - a wish, unfulfilled.

[cringefaecompilation]

not to dunk on junior year again but i am noticing a pattern here with the treatment of certain storytelling elements here.

both bell’s hells and the ratgrinders were pcs that gained sapience. the difference is that the ratgrinders were villains and the hells are heroes.

one of the most love-it-or-hate-it aspects of campaign 3 is that it does not only focus on the main 7 or 8 characters and everybody else is tossed to the wayside unless they benefit them like usual. all npcs (with downfall, that's including the gods!) deserve a chance to have their story told and they are all written to be that. the generic runaway prince you have to help escape to a life of freedom! the cute little helper robot npc! generic spooky evil minions based on public domain monsters! the quirky quest-giving fae! the rough and tumble hired goon! the brave captain of the guard protecting a strong lady in charge!  yes, even imogen, who in any other story would be the sad little abandoned daughter of the bbeg who would mourn the hero killing her mother but understand that the hero had to do what needed to be done.

and again, you don’t have to like it!

but there is a weird sort of thing i noticed amongst all the critical role c3 criticism that reminded me of people defending fhjy. an undercurrent of insisting that all the ratgrinders (who were teenagers. who were groomed and then murdered.) were pure evil spoiled brats and just wanted to be handed everything on a platter because they didn’t deserve what the main cast earned their place as the main characters and made passive aggressive posts saying things to the tune of you know they’re evil right. very Watsonian with a staunch refusal to look at a Doylist explanation. it got so bad to the point where people were insisting that if you liked the ratgrinders and sympathized with them then you were a fascism apologist.

astoundingly enough c3 criticism has only scraped the surface of this sort of overdramatic accusation, but it goes in the opposite direction. if you like where the story is going and how it's being told, then you’re not a real critical role fan. the story should have just been about the characters fighting evil fae or just wiping out the ruby vanguard and everyone in it without all this stupid introspective discussion on power because it’s retconning the gods being bad guys! grey morality sucks, why can’t good guys just be good? they all feel like npcs except for imogen because she’s the only one with a chosen birthright!

(of course, if they say that last part out loud, that might not look so good for them)

 yes, we know the gods are imperfect. that’s what we’ve been saying this whole time. but all these passive aggressive gifsets of liam-as-orym saying that the gods aren’t pure evil and it’s stupid to think so or laura and matt ooc saying that the gods have a grey area don’t mean fucking jack if you turn around and insist the gods have zero flaws and everything they do is good, actually and Aeor Had It Coming.

important caveats:

the actors on d20 could not react to things they were doing in the moment. they were tired after filiming 3 episodes back to back and wrapped up their season faster than usual to join the sag-aftra strike. i am aware of this.

yes i know that d20 is a comedy improv series! that does not prevent it from having deep themes and character introspection! ayda aguefort and zelda donovan still very much exist and had their own arcs despite being npcs!

yes the ratgrinders were working with a man trying to kill and replace a goddess and yes he is a colonizing twat. however, doesn’t that also make it the fandom’s insistence that liking the kids is bad and fascistic but making ship art of him and the other teacher that killed all of them is totally okay? rules for he but not for thee? 

[xx-slug-xx]

(Sorry, brain dump ahead)

I need to tell y’all something, but I feel like only my older followers will understand what I’m talking about

When I was writing my informative paper on proshipping and anti shipping, including all the arguments for and against each side, I realized something very important.

I have family that I live with. I have friends with their own families. I have pets. I have a job now with coworkers who I care about. And while none of these things give a shit about fiction and internet morals (hell, I’ve had conversations with just about everyone I know about this stuff, and we all agree for the most part), I would give a shit if I was doxxed and put the people in my life in danger. I realized that if I post that document, and the right people saw it, I would put them in danger. I’m not willing to be a martyr for fandom drama. I’ve seen what antis are capable of doing, I’ve seen how they’ve indirectly killed people and how they’ve directly ruined lives. I don’t want that. I care about, not only my own well being, but also the people who I care most about. That’s not to say that anti harassment and anti censorship aren’t important to me, by any means. But my real life takes precedence over my internet life.

If there’s one thing I learned from that paper I wrote (but didn’t post), it’s that the internet is cruel and unjust. It’s that I could never feel comfortable with myself if I labeled myself as an anti. I made it clear that I’m proship, and that paper I wrote is the reason I’ve come to this conclusion. I did my own reaserch, form an unbiased standpoint, while choosing to side more with antis, and I came out of it as proship. My tastes in fiction have not changed. But my understanding of the topic did change. That paper has nearly a year’s worth of research put into it, and it would piss people off. It would, more importantly, piss off antis. I’ve seen what happens when antis get pissed, and I’ve been on the receiving end of the mild version of it. Many times. I’m not willing to go through the version where they don’t hold back. My paper included many documented examples of it, and since the time of writhing it, there have been so many more. I’m not going to be another one of those people who have their lives ruined over stupid fandom discourse.

It’s more than just internet drama to me though, regardless. I know that this is more than just fandom. At its core, it’s all forms of fiction and what is and is not acceptable. It’s about bullying and harassment, and how it keeps getting worse as time goes on. Not just internet harassment either. It’s happening in the American school system every day, people I knew when I was in high school were forced to drop out, get their ged, or do online schooling because of the real world harassment they were receiving. The way that my generation, and the generation bellow me, views other people is appalling. Bullying is just “funny”, and I can’t stand it. The internet is at the core of this issue, of course. It’s taught impressionable minds that other people are like npcs. Cancel culture has taught us that if you step out of line, even for non-issues, then you are the scum of the earth and deserve what’s coming to you. And if you see someone who steps out of line, you need to be ruthless. It’s better to attack other people, so long as the negative attention isn’t on you. Even the older generations are affected. This isn’t something we should be ignoring, but we are. Antis in fandom spaces might seem like it’s not a big deal, but it’s a rabbit hole that runs deeper than people realize.

My paper made me realize this, it made me realize that society sucks, the government sucks, the internet sucks, and I’m pro-freedom to do whatever you want so long as it doesn’t hurt real people. At the end of the day, I’m not going to be a martyr. I refuse that role. You shouldn’t want to be a martyr either. Be kind to people, that’s what’s important. Create spaces where people know they are safe to do whatever the hell they want so long as it doesn’t hurt real people. Stand up for real people who are being hurt by others. Stop harassment, stop hate. I’m tired of seeing people hurt each other over fictional characters who don’t exist. Don’t put yourself or others in danger. Block people who spread hate, and don’t give them a platform to be hateful.

I’m rambling, but for me, there’s no real good outcome unless people suddenly realize that being hateful because of fiction is dumb. I’ve become tired of trying to explain to antis why it’s dumb, there’s no way to talk to many of them. I also can’t risk the safety of others for an issue that only I’m focusing on. There’s other problems in the world, and in my personal life. I just want to be kind, at the end of it all. And I want others to feel the same. But then again, just being kind to others would solve a lot of the worlds problems if everyone followed that rule.

I need to shut up now though, sorry for the dump lol

[headfullof-ideas]

There’s something I noticed while writing and planning my HTTYD/The Deep fanfic in its early stages about HTTYD. Something I fix in my fic but would also like to just mention to all HTTYD fans because I feel like it’s not mentioned too much in the fandom.

The films AND shows allude to the riders being the ONLY kids their age on Berk.

It doesn’t make sense. There can’t possibly be just six teenagers on Berk. I’m sure child-loss is unfortunately not uncommon in the Archieplago, due to a multitude of reasons but also relevantly the Dragon Raids. I’m sure at least one or two small children died in a house fire, or have been accidentally taken in a raid (of which is a dark thought considering where all the dragon’s spoils in their raids winds up, something I also elaborate on in my fic) but to the point that in a generation only SIX kids survived beyond puberty? Really?!

There aren’t even NPC models of background teenage characters, generic models that get copy-pasted for whatever scene is needed. Why did they do that? Do you know how cool it would have been to have more teenage characters on Berk? Or literally anywhere else in the Archipelago? The only other teenage characters we get from the Archipelago are Heather and Dagur, and Dagur isn’t even the riders age. Why didn’t they have more teenage characters, even if they weren’t main characters?

We could have had plot lines of secondary teenage characters on Berk trying to become dragon riders and join the dragon riders club like Gustav was trying to. We could have had the riders have friends with other kids beyond the riders, their own small friend groups. They still all become each other’s best friends because of their shared experiences, but they could have all had buddies that they shared hobbies with beyond dragon riding.

Fishlegs and his rock club and botany friends, and the kids Ruff and Tuff have prank wars with and then invite over to their house for poetry slam afterwards. Snotlout and his friends in the sewing and book writing club he doesn’t tell everyone he’s in, full of kids who don’t immediately assume he’s a muscle head and only knows how to fight that he gets to hang out with without fear of being ridiculed or judged. The girlfriends that Astrid and Ruffnut could have had girls nights and sleepovers with, dressing up in outfits and makeup they wouldn’t normally wear, painting each others and Stormfly and Barf and Belches nails, because Barf and Belch are honored guests at girls night fight me. The inventive and adrenaline junky kids Hiccup has a blast test-running inventions with, that poor Toothless cries over because he feels like a single father of who knows how many idiots are jumping off of cliffs into the water below at a time.

We could have had more teenage dragon riders. The dragon riders club could have been not six, but a whole hoarde of dragon-crazy teenagers all running around on their dragons, a whole next generation of dragon riders coming into the world that used to hate them.

We were robbed

[johnmarstonisawolf]

I love both John and Arthur

“RDR1 Represents John’s Character Growth” Argument… 

I’ve seen people get blocked for disagreeing with the types of posts that complain about “Rdr fans disliking John’s characterization in rdr2”.  I’d rather just agree to disagree but if anyone doesn’t like where this post is going, please feel free to use the block button.

Also, in this post, I am repeating some things I’ve written in past responses/posts. Plus I have read other fans’ posts and opinions about this topic, which will be sprinkled throughout this post. 

Here it goes… Mainly for me, it’s the ret-con. It’s not that John can’t be this man with flaws, but in the first game (rdr1) they hint a lot at John (when he’d been in the gang in the past tense, before the events in rdr2) being this quixotic, well-spoken, “right-hand man of Dutch”, which were traits that were all given to Arthur in rdr2. Even Bill and Abigail hint at this. If you want to hear another rdr fan go more in-depth about this, read here. Plus Rockstar in so many words had explained why they made John a humiliation conga because they didn’t want John to “overshadow” Arthur. 

Yes, Arthur is older and yes, John could’ve been influenced by Arthur (but only by so much, I mean, c’mon John and Arthur are their own person). Yet the fact that Arthur is not even mentioned in rdr1 (yes, rdr2 hadn’t even been created yet. I know.) and they decided to “downgrade” John in rdr2 and give all of these admirable traits (they allude to in rdr1 about John) to Arthur is what baffles me. 

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Arthur’s character. However, it’s the high pedestal that this fandom puts him on, emphasizing his positive traits while continually bashing John in the process, that does me in.

We get it, John wasn’t a good father or a good husband, he treats his wife and kid like crap (he gets better tho), he deserves whatever criticism he gets for those horrible actions of his, but we got to remember this is the Wild West; Abigail nor John had the resources or skills to deal with their own trauma much less even raise a boy in a gang, especially Abigail. But that’s not downplaying the fact that John is a very emotionally-mentally damaged person (as a result of many forms of abuse and being raised by Dutch, Hosea, and Arthur, who aren’t the best examples) while at the same time, Abigail is a very emotionally-mentally damaged person (as a result of many forms of abuse and being raised and working in a brothel) who’s had to carry a kid for 9 months and march on through with barely having much help, aside from some individuals in the gang who helped her—I’m not gonna go with the narrative that not a single person in the gang helped. 

Listen, it’s not that we can’t handle seeing John being this pathetic version of himself that the devs chose to portray him as in rdr2 (so he wouldn’t overshadow Arthur and lazy writing) or that we can’t watch him grow from this immature and flawed human being to a man who loves his wife and child and would do anything for them… but it’s how it was done and how rockstar did it. 

They also did Johnny boy’s physical character design very poorly in the epilogue; in the epilogue (1907) he barely showcases any of the traits we see in (1911) rdr1 (a four-year difference, timeline-wise, which really isn’t that long). Although NPC John and Epilogue John might look different from each other, their personalities aren’t much different. So there’s not much of a change in my opinion.

Also, I just want to clarify that this post isn’t about the fandom preferring Arthur over John but more so about how John’s characterization was done in rdr2 compared to rdr1, which can’t merely be attributed to “character growth” rather than lazy writing.  Understandably, many people prefer Arthur over John. Hence compared to the first game, rdr2 has better accessibility, players get to go more into the protagonist’s mind, and many game mechanics have improved/developed since rdr1 was released. But rdr1 was an acclaimed game when it came out with many fans that still remain in this fandom, in spite of rdr2’s wider exposure. 

And if I was going to mention anything that the games were kind of consistent with when it came to John’s characterization, is that he has a dry and cynical personality that reflects the protagonists of old spaghetti westerns, and the unforgiving world that makes up the Wild West.

Personally, while I do like his character in both games (he’s my fave) I still feel like there’s a bit more they could’ve done with his character in rdr2, in regards to missions and stuff, I would even say the devs had put more effort into some supporting characters compared to John, but that’s just my opinion. And I was really hoping for a rdr1 remaster but more so in a Yakuza Kiwami way (amped-up gameplay, fixed plot holes, better character detail, quality improvements, etc…)

[just-antithings]

I wonder what kind of brainwashing antis undergo to not see who they mirror (in language and behavior)

conservatives dilute the meanings of “groomer” and “pedo” and spread moral panic against lgbtq+ people, they also “can tell” who is/isn’t lgbtq+ based on superficial things like someone having excessive body hair, an androgynous appearance, wearing specific kinds of clothes, dyeing or cutting hair etc etc

antis do the same, except they use fiction as an excuse to attack the same groups and use the same tactics to “recognize pedos”, like telling each other to “watch out” for people who aren’t into sfw sanitized wholesome media only and make sure they support “good, safe adults”, even if those “safe” adults confess that they have abused people. They don’t (want to) realize that someone’s fictional preferences aren’t an indicator of anything

Then we have conservatives trying to “protect minors from harm” except that’s an excuse to censor and criminalize lgbtq+ people, because “harm” is whatever they decide is “harmful”. They mostly say it’s “porn” they’re removing, but we have seen what those “purges” did and do when SESTA/FOSTA passed (and also recently the ‘don’t say gay’ bill and the chance of the anti trans kids safety online act passing).

and antis say there’s absolutely no correlation, no your favorite wholesome disney movie being banned in a conservative country because they deemed the mere MENTION of a same sex couple as “too sexual” is totally not related /s

and the most annoying thing is when people are minimizing this by saying “it just happens on the internet, in fandoms, just log off!” or “it’s just annoying kids!” or they pretend the worst that’s happening is a bunch of kids calling people names, but there are multiple receipts of these “kids” having normalized baiting people with suicide, they doxx people, send instructions to each other to make the lives of marginalized people a living hell or stalk people in public, take creepshots and draw “fanart” of a person who they prey on

they also once found out an artist who has an amputated leg wears a prosthetic leg, so they wanted to call him ‘cyberpunk npc’, have tried to find his address and instructed each other to tell him that his ‘gay fantasies’ will never become real

or the boyfriends webtoon hate always makes them sound like middle aged white conservatives who are afraid of same sex couples kissing

and at his point I’m looking at a cult that strongly resembles qanon, it’s the same kind of organized hate against minorities but it’s coming from people who are part of the same minorities, who have been radicalized since they were young and who haven’t grown out of this behavior in their adulthood.

this is no longer “just fandom” stuff. These are people who can vote (or can do so soon), who “pride” themselves in being “normal” - except for the part where they sound like fascists

.

[somehowmags]

I am so tired of when we try to discuss the racist treatment of Wyll’s character and his content disparity, stans of other characters try and hijack the conversation and it’s not even just the Astarion fans. They will jump in and be like “Yeah! Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Gale are neglected too bc of Astarion!” Like in WHAT world??? Shadowheart has the same amount of hours of content as Astarion (not to mention Act 2 is basically made for her and she is the only companion the game will push you to recruit if you don’t do it) and Gale and Lae’zel are hardly far behind. It’s not even really an issue of Astarion being favored over all other companions and more so about the (racist) lack of attention Wyll gets in comparison to EVERYONE, not just the vampire. That should be the conversation. And don’t even get me started on the people who start yelling about how Minthara and Halsin (who aren’t origin companions) “have it worse.” Like sorry but this isn’t about ya’ll, get back to me when the character you are talking about is the ONLY origin character with less than 10 hours of content. He has two hours less than Karlsch who was added later than him. It is all so frustrating.

God. Yeah. like id like to take these type of additions in good faith but i feel like a lot of people don't realize or don't want to admit that this is a racism issue. when the only black character (and i think the only prominent character of color in the whole game- forgive me if im wrong but the only other really prominent nonwhite character ive seen is cazador, which, do not get me fucking started on his fu manchu ass concept art) is continually ignored and mistreated, then it becomes an issue of (subconscious or not) racist behavior from larian and the fandom itself. its not that minthara et al don't deserve more, but wyll is a main character, and shouldn't a main character be focused on before optional recruits and npcs? and i understand why people don't want to think of it like that- people like larian and don't want to criticize them when theyre releasing updates and patches for free. but we need to be able to criticize them if anything is going to get any better. otherwise this fandom and gaming spaces in general will continue to be unsafe for people of color. i know i as a person of color do not feel safe in the bg3 fandom, and i cannot imagine how much worse it feels for black fans.

[clawknife]

HELLO

This is Clawknife/Karl

And I am starting a Gacha 2 Based Blog!

MINOR. I AM A MINOR.

And I have a second blog called ZippyJiffy, But if you follow that one. You don’t know me.

Please.

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Rules of this area you critters and stuff for you to know ig

Rule 1 - NO NSFW!!! Or being creepy, I don’t mind a joke or such once in a while but just do be weird

Stuff to know - This is a 14+ blog, I will not post anything too out there but still.

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Rule 2 - Be nice and respectful, respect every one of all gender identities and sexual orientations, races, religions, and so on.

Us gacha kids are freakazoids no need to rub it in/j

Stuff to know - I will gladly block or ignore any ‘bullying’ cause its just dumb. Cewl? Cewl.

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Rule 3(sort of) - I am not at all a sensitive person, so I will take any sort of humor. Just no racist jokes or idk real terrible shit its not funny.

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What I will be doing!!

I, will be posting content around Gacha 2, mainly of my ocs.

These ocs are mine and I would greatly appreciate if they weren’t stolen, Just ask permission though if you want to use them.

I will be taking requests, like interacting with these ocs and asking questions on their lore, or I can even make your ocs in my style!

Don’t be weird if you do make a request, Okay?

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Fandoms and or things I am creating at the moment

Fandoms and things I’m interested are PHIGHTING, Regretavator, Cult of the Lamb, DDLC, Cookie run/Cookie Run kingdom, Minecraft(Not MCYT, just the game), Stardew, Oc making, Story writing, Roblox, Dandy’s world(Please don’t bring up the creators, I just like the game man.), Gacha two(Obvi), and Pressure

This list will continue to grow I promise you that

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Story I’m currently working on

Now, I do have some more ocs who are from a story I am working on! A project, called the Circus State of Mind.

In the future I might make another blog basing around that project specifically but right now It will be based here.

Characters/Ocs you will see alot

Clawknife (PHIGHTING oc)

Ribbon/Bitty (PHIGHTING NPC OCS)

SteelClaw (PHIGHTING OC)

Pen (PHIGHTING NPC OC)

Zippy Jiffy (Circus State of Mind)

Cecil (Circus State of Mind)

Twig Swig (Circus State of Mind)

Corvus (Circus State of Mind)

Carnage (Not mine(belongs to @ccha0tic) - Circus State of Mind)

(There are a few other characters In Circus State of Mind but they just haven’t been made and aren’t ‘huge’ contributing characters)

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Thats about it! If you have any other questions or requests, Feel free to use the Askbox!

[fierykitten2]

Here’s me once again thinking about the fact that we’re getting a Direct at some point in June and what that means for me as an F-Zero fan (probably nothing because who likes F-Zero amirite (sarcastic)) and a Pokémon fan (probably nothing because Game Freak likes to do their own thing. This isn’t a predictions post, it’s just me saying what the best case scenario would be for me

I think this would be a great chance for Game Freak to announce some Z-A stuff given we still don’t know anything other than it’s coming out in 2025, it’s entirely set in Lumiose City and you can say goodbye to the freedom of being able to choose all six of you team without having to reserve one in order for you to stand a chance against half the NPCs, not that competitive is likely to be possible in this game and they’ll probably remove Megas again in Gen 10 in favour of a more interesting, less restrictive gimmick (though will it be as cool as Terastalising? Probably not) Megas are returning. And if that’s not there (or even if it is) we could get some side game info and you know I need the Proto Beasts and Neo Swords in a side game at some point (obligatory okay I’m talking about Z-A how can I hype up SV/the Pokémon in SV?)

As for F-Zero, for some reason (the Metroid Prime remaster leak eventually becoming true) I do still believe that Nintendo (I’ve spent so much time in the last few months talking about Game Freak I keep accidentally trying to call the company who makes F-Zero “Game Freak” instead of Nintendo. Ironically at one point I did start work on a fan comic where I imagined Game Freak working on F-Zero which involved a Pikachu, a Charizard and an Eevee (who wasn’t allowed to evolve) joining the Grand Prix. I never finished it and don’t intend on working on it anymore) could be working on a GX remake (so you guys will just forget about the GX remake/remaster leaks but you won’t forget about the Zelda remaster leaks and will keep on insisting they’re true not that I doubt those leaks either and okay I get it the F-Zero leak hype brought us to F-Zero 99 being a thing (and the day after the release of The Teal Mask and I don’t think we celebrate that enough as an F-Zero fan and a Pokémon fan) but I do remember at least one of the F-Zero GX remake/remaster leaks being from a vaguely credible source and what’s to say Nintendo (okay that time I really did try to type Game Freak) aren’t thinking let’s just do this now for the Switch in its last year so no one buys it bc they’re too excited for the successor to the Switch who’s buying Switch games anymore lol? Or you know they could do that accidentally but you know that’s what the entire F-Zero fandom would believe they were doing)

I’m just gonna say it though, if a Direct features both F-Zero and Pokémon it’s automatically the best Direct we’ve ever had

[loverboy-cc]

Hi hi!! How about 2, 5 and 12 for whichever S/I you'd like?

Hiii!!! :D I’m gonna do Dr. [REDACTED] (Kimak) who’s my pressure/regretevator s/I bc he has the least actual like. Written down lore yk?

2. when in canon does your self insert come in? do you have a scene in mind for your entrance?

Ok I have noooooot figured out when for regretevator yet (I’ll be real I’m not even sure what’s going on there I just like thinking about my gooey little guy in Situations™️)

But!! With pressure he’s a pregame npc/mid game monster. You can find him in the vents, he’ll block the vent and talk to you. He asks a couple questions, most of em don’t matter. But if he asks if the main lights are on and you say they aren’t when they are, he’ll chase you through the vents if you enter them again.

(It’s bc he’s a void creature, the lights are made to burn them)

5. does your self insert have any special powers or abilities?

Not naturally. He was a human scientist who was blackmailed into working at urbanshade bc they figured they could profit off his research, then got voided bc he demanded that the human and formerly human residents of the blacksite be treated better. He was classified as a traitor but because of his extensive knowledge on the vascula void mass and its spawn they couldn’t send him to the surface, and he was too valuable to kill. So he was made into a subject

Post gooping he can manipulate the shape, and colour of his body. Including changing his mass at will (ft my hc that the void does not bother with the laws of physics)

12. how would the fandom view your character?

Honestly? Probably not very well in general, but I could totally see him appealing to the slime fuckers in the audience (totally not including me) and maybe getting blorbofied by a few ppl who could appreciate his autistic swag and transgender vibes instead of just seeing him as an annoying thing in the vents

[why-raven]

Did you design your OC with a specific aspect of RP in mind? Such as shipping, NSFW things, attending in-game social events, hosting events or entertaining others?

Little OC Creation Ask List. — OPEN

Thank you for the ask, @mimble-sparklepudding! I always love your ask questions for the thoughtfulness and insight, and I’m very happy to receive one from the OP (´◡`) To answer the question: not really, for the options stated in the question.

Whenever I design my OCs for storytelling (be it for writing fanfics or RPing with others), I usually go along with either my personal aesthetic taste, or if I already had a rough idea for their lore to pick something that would work reasonably. I don’t think about what other players would feel towards my muses because I didn’t create my characters for them in the first place. Great if you like my blorbos, but it’s fine if you don’t vibe with them. My characters and I aren’t here to please everybody. I’ve been writing and roleplaying in other fandoms for at least a decade, way before I even joined the FFXIV community, so I’ve never felt the need to create my characters around other people unless absolutely necessary.

So far, I’ve only shared two major muses openly on this site: Sora and Yiuno. Sora is a likeable sort of character, with her cute appearance and child-like innocence (we do not talk about her penchant for violence). She was the first OC I made when I started playing the game during Shadowbringers launch. I was fairly clueless about FFXIV back then, so I didn’t really think much about her character development and mostly went along with what felt right for her. I only started working on her backstory proper around patch 5.55, when I’m more familiar with the game’s lore.

As for Yiuno… he wasn’t created to be someone good and straightforward, like Sora. When male Viera is added to the game in Endwalker, I thought of designing a character who is multilayered, complicated, and fun for me to explore from various perspectives. Yiuno is a dangerous but broken man; almost nothing about him is particularly likeable as a person (except maybe his face, lol). Speaking of appearance, that was what I had intended for him—he has an idealistic beauty that could charm others to gravitate to him, until they finally realize the horrors he kept behind that pretty smiling mask (and by then it’d probably be too late). He’s supposed to be a hypocritical existence, the embodiment of paradox and contradiction.

The only exception created for shipping with NPC, I’d say, is Persephone, the other half of Yiuno’s Ancient self. The serious reason is my own take on the true motive that drove Emet-Selch to extremity in his actions against the Sundered on Etheirys to reclaim the Star for his own people (i.e. my way to fill in some blanks in the canon). The fun reason? I enjoyed the various studies on the relationship between Hades and Persephone in Ancient Greek mythology, and I want to do something similar with them. (Also, I stand by my personal headcanon of Emet and Lahabrea often lamenting about their wives after the Convocation meetings.)

While most people might be unwilling to admit this, our characters also serve as an extension of our real selves, particularly in a virtual world like Etheirys. I mean, we technically don’t see the real faces of other players in the game (unless you share your RL photos, that’s on you), so naturally the avatars that everyone sees in the game is a representation of the player controlling that character. I believe that ultimately people create characters for themselves, because they are the ones making the conscious choice and taking the necessary actions to fulfill that decision. Just my two-cents.

[crow-writes-things]

Revival Blessing

Summary: There's a reason certain pokemon moves aren't allowed to be used on people.

Fandom: Pokemon, creepypasta (technically?)

Warnings: Gore, death, re-animation of corpses

Note: I have never written a creepypasta in my life, so this is probably really shitty. Also it’s pokemon violet but someone made a version that’s basically the same but it’s pixelated like the old games because I said so

I was always an avid lover of hacked pokemon games, even as a kid. I’d played them all, even the really shitty ones that were basically just gore, gore, and more gore. One day, in the deepest darkest pits of the internet, I stumbled upon something. “Pokemon Violet but emulated to look like traditional pokemon” it said. They probably meant pixelated, but that didn't matter. I had always loved the older games and was excited to see how the newer ‘mons would look in the oh so nostalgic style. I quickly downloaded it, waiting eagerly for it to finish. Once it did, I hopped in and they really went all out, huh? There was an old save file already, with all the badges, the max amount of money, everything. It was probably just a test save for bug hunting that got left behind, but I still thought it’d be fun to just mess around in, and quickly hopped in. 

I started in my house. The trainer was female, and had a full team, with the only pokemon of note being a female Pawmot, who had yet to reach max level. I figured I'd go max it out, just for fun, so I stepped outside and opened the map. Interestingly, the developer had added a feature labeled “surprise me!” so I chose it, curious on what it would do. A little pixelated loading screen started up, and quickly ended as I was dropped off in a snowy area. I guess it just took you to a random location, but that was pretty cool, all things considered. I wandered into some grass until finally a pokemon leapt out, and a battle started... With a Scyther? I thought those didn't spawn in snowy areas, but my pokemon knowledge was pretty crummy, only knowing some basic stuff. 

“You caught Scyther by surprise!”

I thought that only happened in Legends Arceus? Didn't matter, I was higher level than it anyway. I sent out Pawmot.

��Scyther let out a warning slash!”

A terrible noise came from my computer, like a human and pokemon mixed together screaming in terror. The battle quickly faded, and there was my trainer, face flat on the ground, red leaking out from around her head. There were little sprites of Pawmot and the Sycther, with the latter shaking like it was terrified of what it had just done, slowly backing away before full on running off screen. The Pawmot didn't move. I tentatively pressed a key, suddenly realizing that I was controlling the pokemon. I moved forward and tried interacting with the body.

“Pawmot nudged you gently” 

Continue.

“Pawmot nudged you, harder this time”

Continue.

“Pawmot cried out in confusion”

Continue.

“Pawmot got an idea”

Continue.

Small sparkles danced around in the air for a bit before the text box popped up.

“Pawmot used Revival Blessing!”

The trainer sprite slowly got to her feet, and Pawmot let out a happy cry. I tried to move her, figuring I was in control again and everything would be fine.

I was wrong.

The trainer started walking, presumably to get out of the place, actively defying my inputs. Pawmot let out a startled cry and started scampering after her master.

There was a quick loading screen, and we were in a grassy area, slowly walking about. I was in control again, so I tried to get into a battle. There were no npcs, so I just went into the grass until an encounter started. Finally, one did, and I got to get a good look at my trainer as she stood there, not sending out a pokemon. The angle wasn’t the best, her back facing towards me, but from what I could determine, she had a long, deep slit across her throat, her shirt coated in blood as she smiled ominously.

“Rattata is too terrified to move!”

“L@!#/ used break!” 

A sharp cracking sound as the poor Rattata’s health instantly drained to zero, its sprite changing to one with a neck cracked in a direction it shouldn't be.

She had snapped its neck, still smiling ominously. The battle ended. And a text box appeared.

“Pawmot looks a bit anxious.”

I continued on. I couldn't feel much, not really knowing these characters other than they were trainer and pokemon, and had probably been good friends. After multiple pokemon battles, all with the same result, I came across a trainer, and the battle started.

“Miss! Are you alright? You’re badly injured!”

“L^#@& used break!”

She broke his neck like all the other pokemon, still with that fucking smile on her face. I had no choice but to keep going, watching her kill every single living thing she came across. Still smiling.

One last battle started.

A terrified Sycther popped up on screen.

“You. You will suffer.” the text box said. 

“L!&$# used dismember!” 

There was a cry, and the Sycther’s sprite changed. Its head had been torn clean off its body. Its health bar didn't go down. And suddenly I was met with some unsettling text.

“You used a pokeball!”

The animation played, the ball rolling frantically back and forth. But I knew. There would be no escape for this poor pokemon.

“You caught a Sycther!”

I closed the game.

I should've deleted it.

She’s watching me. She says she’s just making sure I won’t suffer the same fate.

Pawmot is there too sometimes. Huddled underneath my covers, now fearing the one she loved most.

Scyther is sometimes there too, head still gone, wings torn and ragged. 

I should've deleted it.

[cringefaecompilation]

hi, hello, op here. this is astrid becke, upcoming subject of the Complicated Women podcast as run by wanda childa. she is an antagonist npc tied into the backstory of a player character in the second campaign of critical role (aka d20’s cousin)

astrid becke was a teenage girl that was allowed into a magic school that trained its students to be evil wizard cops. she was beaten, tortured, starved and isolated from the outside world for years with only her two other friends (another npc and the pc) to keep her company. she and her friends graduated by slaughtering their own parents. the pc however snapped and attacked her in the process, leaving her with a massive scar to remember him by as he was framed and locked in an asylum, blamed for being a crazy serial killer who murdered everyone’s parents to keep both her and the other pc from getting caught.

astid is now fully an adult evil wizard cop in the present day of the campaign, but is still deeply rattled by what happened to her. she’s a threat, sure, but the pc talks about her with such reverence and kindness you forget that. and even when we see her threaten him one-on-one at a party, the dm describes her leaving the party and then immediately sobbing because she’s overwhelmed with emotions from seeing him again. even when she works directly with the bbeg to try and murder the party they never once treat her as just as bad as the bbeg and the worst they act is being mildly sassy at a dinner party that the beg invites them to. astrid even fights alongside him in the final battle, but she changes her mind and helps the party imprison him.

but then what? is she murdered in cold blood after that because how dare she work with him? no, she’s comforted. the other party members pull her aside and while she does get punished by having to clean up the mess they’d made of a sacred temple (long story) they have empathy and extend kindness towards her. one of them even says she’s a good person and they believe in her.

and when another party (played by the same cast sans one) stumbles across her hiding from the law, be it either the fact that the players have zero ill-will towards her and understand where she’s coming from or the fact all of their new characters have no clue who she is, the only reason they’re opposed to her is that they were told she might have information on the current villain they’re facing. they aren’t trying to kill her or punish her, and once they get the info they need, they leave her in peace.

astrid becke was in 9 episodes of critical role, and in those 9 episodes had been given more grace than i think all the ratgrinders had combined. but fandom fucking hated her ass because she worked for the bad guy and gets in the way of shipping the pc with another unrelated male npc who arguably did waaaaaay worse shit and apologized/made up for exactly zero of it. but hey, at least the people that made the show acknowledge that both of them kind of suck in the exact same way!

it’s times like this i’m reminded of a tag i saw on a post that read "every time matthew mercer/critical role screws up people forget brennan isn’t white" and oh boy did it show in a lot of the meta posts i saw floating about. dude’s not perfect and he can fumble a story just as much as anybody else. obviously it doesn’t make him an awful person for making a dissatisfying story, but it doesn’t mean you can say he’s a decolonial philosopher just to defend the story because you liked it.

she's so crazzzzzzzy! love her!!!

[nellasbookplanet]

I find it a little strange that a growing fandom opinion on FCG seems to be that he's not as interesting as a robot character as he could be because his personhood/personality/possession of a soul is unquestionable, both in portrayal and game mechanics, and thus there aren’t really any questions raised about the nature of personhood vs programing. And don’t get me wrong, I adore narratives that explore and question personhood! Anyone who’s come across my rambling Molly/Kingsley/Lucien meta will know this. But just because that might not be the route Sam's taking with FCG doesn’t mean he isn't doing something interesting with the character.

FCG doesn't think himself as possessing of a soul, and persistently denies his personhood whenever a party member insists on it (and this is also a common critizism - why insist when it’s so obviously not true?) But is it really obvious? To us the viewers it is. To the party and most npcs who interact with them more than briefly it is. But is it to FCG? They’re the only one of his kind he's ever met. All other automatons we've encountered so far in c3 were just that - auomatons. Machines. Not people. All npcs initially assume FCG to be like them, and treat him accordingly. He’s clearly used to it, and rarely seems to take offence because to him it’s only natural. He doesn’t see himself as a person, after all; why expect anyone else to treat him as one?

We don’t yet know if Dancer also treated them as a thing (nor do we know if the automatons she built has more personality than one you may run into on the street), but we do know she never informed FCG about where he really came from. He has no reason to think himself different from other automatons - if anything, insisting he's soulless could be a defense mechanism. Why insist on being treated as a person when it won’t be respected anyway; why hold out hope that you have a soul, are a person, when it might not be true? Being around the Hells long term will likely break him out of this cycle, as he learns to value himself. (Also, on a more personal note, I definitely get bad vibes from people who view characters with internalized self-image issues based on experience and trauma as someone who 'should just get over it'. It may be obvious to the viewer or other characters, but that doesn’t mean it’s obvious to the character in question)

I will also say, we don’t actuall know yet to what extent programing might conflict with his personality. His murderbot rampages might be programing, or an old personality resurfacing, or even a glitch in said programing. Or, perhaps, his helper bot persona and tendency to overlook his own well-being is the programing, and the rampages an emergent personality trying to fight against this and put himself first. Maybe there isn't any programing at all, and the rampages are the result of trauma or some outside influence such as a god. We don’t know yet. The campaign is still young.

[ben-wisehart]

Shen Qingqiu didn't actually believe that the PIDW characters weren't real

I'm honestly not sure what the prevailing view on this is within the fandom, but one take I've seen from a few people seems to be that Shen Qingqiu in the beginning of the story thought of everyone else in the story as characters (with the possible exception of Shang Qinghua), not truly respecting their autonomy until toward the end of the novel. This is mostly in respect to Luo Binghe, but it's also applied more generally to the other characters as well.

I think this is an oversimplication, and it's related to something that SQQ struggles with throughout the novel; his desire to survive conflicting with his kind nature. His logic versus his compassion.

The thing is, it would be easier for SQQ to believe that Binghe and all the other people in the book aren't real people. If he and Shang Qinghua are the only living people in the world, then he doesn't need to feel guilty about the Endless Abyss plot. If Luo Binghe and all the other people in their lives are just simulated constructs, then SQQ can just survive by hugging the protagonist's thighs long enough to let his Dew Flower body grow, then fake his death and bounce, never to be seen again by anyone who knew him before.

His attitude, particularly at the beginning, does seem to reflect this view. He talks about his life like a video game. YQY is a quest-giving NPC. These villains have such low IQs. Binghe is the protagonist. This character is canon fodder. Activate easy mode.

The thing is, Shen Qingqiu never really acts like he truly believes this is the case. I'm sure he'd like to believe it. He'll argue in circles with himself and with the System about it, but as we all know, he's not honest about his true feelings with either himself or the reader.

Shen Qingqiu's actions do not reflect the mindset of somebody who thinks he's the only real person in the world and everyone else is a holodeck construct. He's constantly walking a thin line where he knows the wrong actions might get him killed, but even then, he chooses to put himself in danger constantly. He uses his magical leaves to save Binghe from Ming Fan and the other bullies literally the very same day he arrives, despite knowing there was a chance doing so would cost him every single one of his B-points (which would kill him). He takes the hit from Without-A-Cure. He takes the hit from Binghe's attacks in the dream world. He does all this with the full knowledge that Binghe is invincible and he is not. (And he even berates himself afterwards for thinking with his heart and not his brain)

Maybe you could argue that being kind and gentle with Binghe in general was a calculated move intended to get in Binghe's good graces before his rise to power, but getting in his good graces doesn't mean a thing if he dies before that point, and those moments when Shen Qingqiu only has a split second to make a decision are where his true feelings come through. Shen Qingqiu would like you to believe that he's just a guy motivated by his own survival, but he's not. And don't even get me started on his self-destruction. If all he wanted was to fake his death, he didn't need to make his final act as Shen Qingqiu sacrificing himself to save Luo Binghe from Xin Mo.

He cares about Binghe. Furthermore, he cares about everyone else. Once he's successfully got his Dew Flower body, the logical thing to do would be run off and plough fields somewhere for the rest of his life, but instead he joins up with Yang Yixuan to go and rescue Liu Mingyan despite the fact that doing so would put him right back into the middle of the same conflict he'd been trying to avoid. He literally cannot bring himself to stay out of the conflict, and this is literally impossible to reconcile with a Shen Qingqiu who doesn't believe in the personhood of anyone else. He understood that they were real, at least in some capacity, from Day 1.

What he does have are biases. He already has a particular version of events in his head, and they colour his perception of the people around him, especially Binghe. He's spent years living with the knowledge that Shen Qingqiu is a scum villain destined to be tortured by the protagonist. He knows that Luo Binghe will come out of the Abyss different from how he went in, and when Luo Binghe does come out changed, he thinks he already knows what that will look like, so it doesn't occur to him to look deeper than that.

He does develop some understanding of the difference he made in chapter 43 before he self-destructs, but because he still hasn't realised Luo Binghe's feelings, he draws the conclusion that the only result was making Binghe hate him more. I don't want to focus on this, but I feel like it would be a disservice to not bring up that SQQ also suffers from internalised homophobia. I mean, we don't know that much about his life before transmigration, but it's pretty obvious, and it adds a whole other element to how oblivious he was to Binghe's feelings.

For the most part, SQQ's meta knowledge from PIDW has been extremely useful to him, so it's not surprising that he should come to rely on it as a guide for understanding everyone else's intentions. Nor is it unusual that he starts to think of himself as knowing better than everyone else—because for the most part, he does. Once you also consider the fact that he's also Binghe's teacher, somebody responsible for him, you get a perfect storm in the form of a Shen Qingqiu who loves Binghe, but also doesn't trust him, treat him like an equal or believe he can make his own decisions until it's almost too late.

tl;dr: It's not that Shen Qingqiu acts as though the other characters are real but subconsciously thinks of them as characters. It is, in fact, the exact opposite of that.

SQQ has always known that the other characters are real, but through a variety of factors ranging from coping mechanisms to unconscious biases acts as if they're not sometimes.