#would certainly be a choice

[jin-zixun]

I still don't know why he does this tbh. He doesn't even draw bichen until after JGY lets Jin Ling go/Jin Ling is safe AND JGY is on the floor backing away, which LWJ would have to know or else he wouldn't be able to cut his arm off!

The reactions from the other characters suggest they don't know why tf he did it either, not even WWX. So I am left so lost by his decision making process here. Is it just because he's petty? Because that's pretty far to go for pettiness.

it's been /checks my watch, 2 years since the first time i watched cql, and i'm still annoyed that lan wangji cuts off jin guangyao's arm after he's just demonstrably proven that he was never actually a threat to jin ling's life.

[newttxt]

i was talking extensively with a friend about reiju’s delicate balance of caring/emotionless and her relationship with sanji

[laeana]

Sorry to say, but the length some people go to excuse everything questionable their driver say by “he was joking! You don’t get his humor!” And the reality is that he disrespected more than half of the current grid during his career will always be funny.

At some point some coincidences stop being coincidences 🤷

[christopherwilde]

tired, but i’m facing it

[jadecantcreate]

as an avid stardust rhapsody and once upon a witchlight enjoyer, I was thinking about how the characters would handle/fit into the other campaign’s plot, and this little idea festered from there

might flesh this out into an au, or maybe not, but its fun to think about ! contains many significant spoilers for both campaigns in their entirety

OUAW Cast in SDR (space au)

Kremy Lecroux — in OUAW, his connection to Remy Garou plays a big role in the plot (if he wasn’t indebted to him, the krew wouldn’t have a reason to find jobs, so they would’ve never went to the witchlight carnival or the feywild). the closest thing (and its pretty close) to Garou in sdr is the Boss….so, possibly, Kremy would have been under the employment of the Boss at space station 777 and he would’ve played rex’s role and stolen those same files from the Boss’ safe — parellels: rex maxim (^), kavir (powerful magic, impossibly powerful patrons; death)

Gideon Coal — he was abducted by the saurons and forced to work on powering / building their ships. maybe he would’ve learned about the archon of destruction (dandy, who, in this au, never was the dandy we know), but only bits an pieces. gideon broke his chains and fled still, maybe by stealing an escape pod and crash landing on the nearest space station/planet, where he met Kremy. they traveled together for a long while on the Rhapsody, running scams or bounty hunting and such, before meeting the rest of the krew. — parallels: rett (engineering, personality), pyke (fire / light theme), leboosh (anger)

Gricko Grimgrin — instead of stealing hootsie from the witchlight carnival, gricko stole her from space station 777 (it’s on brand for them to mistreat/borderline abuse animals). while the Boss probably didn’t care, it still ties him to Torbek and Kremy a bit. he left his planet behind to try to become a space rockstar (tm) or something like that, one thing led to another and he started traveling the cosmos with Frost, learning about and helping beasties all over — parallels: dandy (love for nature, druidic magic), chuckles (positivity, humor)

Morning Frost — maybe his hometown / homeplanet was destroyed when he was a kid by the empire for being ‘corrupted’ (with the same ailment that torbek, to some extent, carries) and he was taken in by the psionic order after that. it’d be interesting if psionic order had loose ties to the empire and he didn’t know (even more ways to involve them in the larger plot yk?). other than that he’s the same i think — parallels: kavir (personality, magic), dandy (preciseness, intelligence)

Torbek — a victim and the sole survivor of the doctor’s experiments. when the party unknowingly accepts a bounty from the Boss (the doctor one), they find torbek in one of those same tanks and they recognize him (maybe he worked in 777, like Kremy but in a much lower position, and he had been known for his resilience, hence his kidnapping and victimization). after a grueling fight (replacing the battle with the giant rhino and lion things), they elect to bring torbek along. in this au, the experiments would be, too, in enhancing humanoid bodies, but through witchlight instead of whatever the doctor had going on. witchlight could be renamed to starlight also? (to fit the ~aesthetic~) — parallels: leboosh and chuckles (corruption), dandy (naivety, corruption)

SDR Cast in OUAW (feywild au)

Pyke — instead of being a former spaceship racer (no clue what its actually called) he could be a horse racer? i mean pyke is somewhat cowboy coded and grew up being rivals with the most cowboy coded character ever, so i guess it works questionmark — parallels: gideon (fire / light themes, combat style), kremy (smoking, dubious morals)

Rett — normal dwarf and cyborg but instead of aether it’s just good ol’ magic i guess (im doing too much with witchlight). still an adventurer / bounty hunter with pyke. no rhapsody though, just…idk. legs? — parallels: gideon (temper, engineering)

Dandy — made by the hourglass coven as a weapon of destruction, but somehow slipped out of their grasp and fell to Avantris with no recollection of knowledge or her past. she was taken in by rett and the others — parallels: gricko (love of nature, druidic magic), frost (intelligence), torbek (corruption, naivety)

Chuckles — more similar to OUAW / NPC chuckles; a regular ol’ clown. still a sorcerer and bard but not a discordant. works for the witchlight carnival and accidentally crossed the portal between the carnival and Prismeer. he was irreversibly changed somehow (witchlight idk), and returned with no memory of his past life. — parallels: gricko (humor, positivity), torbek (corruption, humor)

Kavir — pretty sure nekhbet is a desert-y continent so avantris kavir would be from there. traveling under the guidance of his patron, he (and leboosh) eventually came across the rest of the party and team up. since the hags are themed around time (past, present, future), maybe there’s some connection between his patron and them? — parallels: frost (demeanor / personality), kremy (magic, death)

Leboosh — oozoid that was taught by kavir to speak and such, but maybe he was made sentient by fey magics crossed over from the feywild in his home where the veil between the realms is thin? the corruption thing happens, very similar to torbek except maybe its hourglass coven magic too? idk — parallels: torbek (corruption), gideon (temper)

[mynonclicheblog]

Nancy being targeted by the show's big bad specifically because she has unresolved trauma... the same trauma that's remained untouched and inert throughout her onscreen relationship with Jonathan... the same trauma that inherently links her to Steve, whom she's been growing closer to again, whom she's beginning to see in a warm, hopeful, renewed light... the same trauma she will presumably need to face in season 5 before taking down Vecna...

...and people still think J is the right choice? Like, narratively?

[figureskatingpenguin]

Cha Junhwan (KOR): Masquerade Waltz | 4CC 2024

happy he was able to make a comeback! congrats on bronze, junhwannie! 👏🏻

[adragonsfriend]

Killing Ahsoka (sorry for this.)

Among my perhaps controversial takes is that it would've served the story better if Ahsoka had been killed during Clone Wars.

I don't like it either (in general or specifically killing another female character for Anakin's sake), but make a couple changes to the arc with Cad Bane and you get this nice little set up where Anakin opens the holocron for him, Bane kills Ahsoka anyway--because he sucks and as a distraction to escape. Then Anakin proceeds to fail at prioritizing the lives of the safety of living children over his anger and grief for Ahsoka, even long enough to help with the investigation. He goes to kill Bane, nearly jeopardizing the mission to rescue the children Bane kidnaps, until Obi-Wan has to step in to get him to back down so they can interrogate Bane properly.

It's a climactic moment, and one of the several times that Obi-Wan very deliberately opens up about his own feelings & struggles specifically to help Anakin (see him talking about his feelings for Satine). He says something along the lines of never having experienced losing a padawan, but that getting to take care of Anakin after losing Qui-Gon helped him process the loss of his master. They have to help these children who mean so much to their families, much like what Ahsoka meant to Anakin. What would Ahsoka want him to do? (same method as how he reasoned with Anakin about Padme on Geonosis in AOTC)

Anakin does back down, but only just.

He's touched the dark again, but he's not lost.

Not yet.

The Jedi understand his awful loss. Too many of them have lost padawans. There is sympathy from Kit Fisto, who only just lost his own recently-knighted padawan. There is patience from Mace Windu, who thinks of Depa (already beyond his reach in a coma, if you include Shatterpoint events). There is Yoda, letting go for the thousandth time of all his padwans who have passed before him. There is attention from Obi-Wan and Rex, there is the 501st gathering to tell stories and remember her well. Anakin goes to Padmé, who also comforts him (she is secretly relieved that he made a different choice than with his mother--it means she doesn't have to worry anymore about her choice to keep his secret). Then he goes to Palpatine, who expresses his sympathy, and his wish that things like this didn't happen (if only he had more power to end the war and crack down on crime. this is the fault of the senate holding him back. Anakin should hold onto his pain forever--it is they only thing that shows he truly cared about Ahsoka).

Anakin shoves it down, along with all of his other pain. He stews in it, unable to process anything, becoming more and more reckless with his and the 501st's lives (why weren't they there to save her? why wasn't he powerful enough to save her?).

When he begins to dream of Padmé's death, he is not just doubly, but triply afraid.

[beatcroc]

"it's better to tear it all down than let things continue like this" just seems like such a big thing to be resigned to...do you think they talked about it

[wikitpowers]

hold up i’ve seen a few convos about what dru’s weapon in twp should be and all i keep thinking about is that i want her to at least at some point in the series use livvy’s sabre, like can u imagine the impact that would have oof~~~

[dlartistanon]

I want to share some interesting discussion about Arturia (and Executor by extension), including some discussion about neurodivergency--a lot of this informs their characters and actions and shines better light on how it can reflect real life.

Also, here's her prequel comic which gives more context

The outcomes of her actions are not often good, but she's definitely not supposed to be evil/malicious/sadistic. She is ideologically driven and, because of her morality axis being different from most, genuinely believes what she's doing is good/correct. She has reason for what she does, such as being opposed to Laterano's limited empathy and discrimination, and what happened in her childhood.

It can be read as a commentary on how the vast majority would rather remain sheep to survive, then be true and (possibly) die.

Her motivation can be summed up as: she wants people to stop repressing themselves. Which theoretically sounds good on paper, but obviously impractical in practice. Sometimes honesty isn't the best policy.

Kriede's fate, his death, was out of his own real volition. What resulted in him wanting to save Ebenholz.

It's unconfirmed, but she may be a victim to her own Arts. She has no inhibitions about removing other people's inhibitions. Or she gaslights herself/disassociates when it comes to her mother's death. She was probably traumatized, but underreacted. To her, Mom dying and using her Arts on her mom are two separate things that have no causation.

She does not regret using her Arts on her mother. She does regret being unable to have helped her mother go further to achieve her dream before she died. Arturia considers it her own failure that Mom died before she reached self-actualization. At the core of it all, Arturia wants to see more people be like her mother, willing to act on what they truly want.

People's despair are all worthy of being addressed and felt and released. That's extremely relevant to her worldview. It's what separates humans from animals acting on instinct. Arturia doesn't care for the Seaborn and thinks they are beneath notice. They are Nothing to her. You can be Good or Evil, but you must be human. Have human desires, because animalistic desire is boring. Human irrationality is what makes them beautiful to her.

People who say that Arturia caused everything to happen in Hortus de Escapismo ignore the fact that the overall situation had been deteriorating long before she set foot there. If anything, she may have just sped up the process of things that were going to happen anyway. Which is not the same as causing it. Looking at it from the perspective of the people living at the monastery, it's reasonable that there would be depressing thoughts floating around everywhere. But the Abbot tells Arturia that her music soothes the pain.

Laterano's response to the situation did nothing to alleviate the actual problem, the material conditions (ie no food). If Arturia's abilities worked the way some people think they do, everyone at the monastery would've been dead in a week or less.

If you're debating jumping off a cliff, then she isn't going to make you jump, nor will she influence you to jump. If someone is worried about Arturia's Arts affecting them, causing them to do bad things they otherwise wouldn't have, because of intrusive thoughts, then they shouldn't even be concerned. Because Arturia is not interested in that. Acting on intrusive thoughts is not what she looks for. It's more akin to helping someone dive deep into their subconscious to face the thing(s) they refuse to face. Some people choose to take this back up with them to the surface. People who contemplate doing bad things for brief moments normally don't have those kinds of thoughts sitting deep within their psyche to drag up.

Arturia obviously needs therapy, but the most important thing to her is whether you have the conviction to act on your desires. Let go and embrace how you truly feel. The extremities of pain and despair (and perhaps even happiness) are among what she values. A very complicated individual.

[venacoeurva]

Pros of being sterilized: You are sterile, and those surgeries are pretty easy and not as invasive these days.

Cons of being sterilized: You will randomly get paranoid that the surgeon didn't do what they said they did for no reason (especially when your doc is very pro-choice and pro sterilization regardless of plumbing, even for those with no kids, to begin with??? Like, THEY were sterilized too???) or they defied science and grew back somehow and then look at your surgery photos and maybe path report 203483943 times

[juniorfor2]

The amount of fans who say that they wanted the Team Black family, specifically the kids, to have more arguments in order to make them more interesting like Team Green are confusing.

First, saying that Team Black should be ‘complex and interesting’ in the same way Team Green is, is the least complex and interesting development ever. It would be repetitive, with absolutely nothing new. No characterization, just a useless parallel that would contribute nothing besides another both sides are bad argument. Which we’ve all heard a thousand times by now, we don’t need to hear it again.

Second, that’s just too easy. Team Black is a very messy family - it’s got an uncle/niece relationship that’s been separated for 10 years, illegitimate Velaryon siblings that look nothing like the rest of TB, two black twins that haven’t been raised in Westeros, who all have to juggle being both step-siblings to each other and betrothed pairs, two very new half-brothers, and absolutely none of them have a very similar personality, except perhaps for Daemon and Baela. That’s got to be one of the most confusing and chaotic families ever made.

So the expected development would be for them to break apart. To have arguments. To never get along. That’s the easy route, because writing it would come without thinking. Jace doesn’t like Daemon? Super easy. Daemon wants to kill the Velaryon boys for his own sons while being sexist towards his daughters and their prospects of becoming Queen/Lady of High Tide? Boring and easy, no effort required. None of the siblings have a relationship with each other unless forced to? Don’t even have to write a line for that.

It’s simply not complex by a writing standpoint, because all of it can be written without putting in effort. The lines will write themselves, without needing to think of how everything affects the characters. In fact, nothing would affect the characters, because none of them would make the effort to be with or interact with each other. Nothing could develop or characterize them in a new way.

The better development would be for them to all come together despite those differences. To care for one another after having their initial families torn apart. The development as they all try to get along can result in arguments, and it won’t be perfect. However, everything that could happen would come from a place of love, and trying one’s best even with an odd and imperfect situation.

Jace might be uncertain about Daemon’s feelings toward his illegitimacy, but couldn’t they both be dedicated towards protecting the family? Daemon might want his blood on the throne, but shouldn’t it be easy for him to pass it through his daughters - it’s not like Baela is about to be submissive and take orders she doesn’t like from Jace. Joffrey isn’t Daemon’s son, but he will be raised by him his whole life - what’s that dynamic like? Rhaena doesn’t have a dragon, but could she be willing enough to learn diplomacy and politics and fashion from her stepmother? How does Rhaenyra even take being a stepmother, after such a bad relationship with her own? How did Rhaenyra and Daemon fully get back together - what arguments did they have, how did they resolve them, what were the better times they had together before the war? How did everyone take Rhaenyra being pregnant with Aegon after Laena just died of childbirth?

Exploring development like that would be better, and it would also be new. Not just ‘oh I wish Team Black wouldn’t get along so well and it’s so uninteresting, look at what it does to Team Green.’ We don’t need the exact relationship repeated.

It would also be nice to see a family that shouldn’t work at all, make it come together because of how dedicated they are to protecting and loving each other. That would actually be complex and interesting.

[muzzlemouths]

I have a feeling if we didnt fight dolly that night we wouldn't have felt as attached and shed be dead rn.... just a thought... but chewing on these crumbs like its my last meal ngl

Pretty sure I mentioned it in the tags of an earlier post but I'm repeating it here too cause I think it's important:

Had the fight with Dolly not occurred, there would have been no bonding moment with her later that night when everyone else was asleep. The fic just timeskips straight to the next morning.

While she's furious with you in the moment, Dolly later finds herself impressed by your show of guts. Not a lot of people have the nerve to stand up to her like that. It makes her hesitate to keep associating you with a lower rung of the food chain, which (combined with the amount of stress she's under) eventually becomes a willingness to open up a little. In that moment, when no one else is awake to hear it, she confesses her fears to you as an equal.

The fight with Dolly is absolutely linked to her survival.

[clowndensation]

there’s a question to be asked i think about to what extent “getting out” can be conflated with “being saved” in this show, and what freedom actually means to any of these characters.

like you can argue that shiv saved ken by voting against him on gojo, but what if your intent behind saving someone is to inflict a worse punishment than if you’d just left them trapped? can a child weaned on poison survive on milk, or are you just sentencing them to a death by inches, starved of the only thing they know? and if you save someone specifically because you know that being saved is the worst thing that can happen to them, is that kindness or cruelty? at what point does a good thing become a malicious act?

and you can say that roman is finally free, but what exactly is he free from? the company? his father? does unlocking a cage mean saving a dog, or are you allowing him out on the street knowing there’s a kill shelter nearby? if the driving anxiety behind roman is that he’s an idiot and a failure—that he’ll never amount to anything, and trying will only lead to pain—and he’s finally cut loose once all of those anxieties have crystallized into cold hard fact in his mind, what has he actually escaped from? if the cage is in your mind, is it even possible for somebody else to unlock it?

the fundamental truth of a tragedy is that even being saved can be a death sentence, if the characters are incapable of escaping the thing doing them the most harm (themselves and their childhoods)

[vultures-and-scavengers]

still salty they had cullen "proud francophobe" rutherford support gaspard "ferelden will be ours again" de chalons.