#alas. the flaws

[hawkesque]

still reading through my hainish cycle collection, and i gotta say, vaster than empires and more slow is certainly an interesting addition. i think it's (so far) the single work of hers i've read that most represents the limitations and biases inherent to when she was writing, and herself as a writer -- positioning all the characters as essentially societal rejects makes it clear what her society did not value and had biases against. this isn't to say i did not enjoy it (honestly, my favorite of the short stories so far), but i could've done without the ableism and racism

[cowboy-chronicles]

RDR Fans need to learn that you can like a character and acknowledge their immoral actions, simultaneously. I promise you, you do not need to gaslight yourself and say regrettable things as you reach for straws as to why they are supposedly not as bad as some may think. Like characters for how they are, flaws and all. It does not mean condonation.

[sunlight-shunlight]

Was reading you Veilguard misogyny post and god. God. It really strikes me just how wide the quality gap is between the Veilguard ladies and the women of Inquisition. Muscular, scarred, thick-accented and short haired Cassandra with conservative views... Sera with her bad (affectionate) hair she obviously cut herself, obnoxious (affectionate) accent, and very radical views... cold and cunning Vivienne with all her pragmatism that still cares deeply and, in making the best of a broken system, has come to cling to it with views even more conservative than the non-mage yet somehow also radical... I don't think I even need to go over all the ways Leliana differs from the women of the Veilguard... and Josephine, who, yes, is very sweet and values peaceful resolutions—but is still willing to destroy reputations and marriages and is, at the end of the day, a politician and businesswoman.

And then there's the Veilguard ladies. I suppose Neve is a bit cutthroat...? In her "bad" ending, at least? Harding isn't even allowed to be mad.

It's hard to believe that these games are from the same series, let alone one coming directly after the other. What a nosedive.

YEAH 😭

i don't know what happened to them, bc it genuinely feels like... they took character design "feedback" from the types of really annoying men who were like "cassandra has a Masculine Skull™️and is too rude to me. i demand that she has long hair and a prettier face in the next patch"

i truly love cassandra in dai, partially bc i saw this really neat process breakdown from the artist who made her design?

and like!! every part of her face, her armour, her haircut, it all gives the impression of "this is a very direct, aggressive, decisive type of person" which works great! you can look at any of the dai companions or advisors and get that same amount of immediate information just from their look. i love how sera and vivienne's designs immediately tell you so much about both their personalities, and their relative amounts of wealth in society.

but then in veilguard there's.... polite morrigan i guess? harding gets SO much more socially awkward than she was in dai, and has trouble even telling someone she doesn't like coffee? isabela's Cursed Orientalism Outfit? bg3 mystra mythal? no reckonings or anything for flemeth, she Just Dies Offscreen for solas' emotional development? none of the female companions are allowed to have short hair or slightly unconventional features or unkempt outfits? we need to support women's wrongs again 😔

[hana-bobo-finch]

Bug fables feels so dystopian not because it’s literally set in a post apocalyptic world where humans are extinct but because Oh Dear the social bug societies (especially the hives) sound SO hellish. You’d better hope you have some extraordinary talent that can land you a special job because otherwise Off To The Amazon Factory You Go

[insertsomthinawesome]

Trying out a post for Repostober!! and idea by @marlowedobbeart!!

The top one was an old FFXV post I'm honestly still quite proud of! The second image is actually one I never got around to posting. I thought it needed more work/that it wasn't good enough. Looking at it now tho I think it looks fine aldskfjLSKDJGSD. So sharing it now :D -NO ROMANCE INCLUDED-

[rileys-battlecats]

do you ever look at other people's art and vibrate out of your skin from how much you love their work

[beau-rebloga-coisas]

Why do some people think that to like Toriel you need to dislike Asgore and vice-versa you literally can like both??? Just because they're divorced in-game doesn't mean they're your divorced parents where you need to choose one to stick around

[caeslxys]

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere but it feels relevant again in light of the most recent episode. Something that’s really fascinating to me about Orym’s grief in comparison to the rest of the hells’ grief is that his is the youngest/most fresh and because of that tends to be the most volatile when it is triggered (aside from FCG, who was two and obviously The Most volatile when triggered.)

As in: prior to the attack on Zephrah, Orym was leading a normal, happy, casual life! with family who loved him and still do! Grief was something that was inflicted upon him via Ludinus’ machinations, whereas with characters like Imogen or Ashton, grief has been the background tapestry of their entire lives. And I think that shows in how the rest of them are largely able to, if not see past completely (Imogen/Laudna/Chetney) then at least temper/direct their vitriol or grief (Ashton/Fearne/Chetney again) to where it is most effective. (There is a glaring reason, for example, that Imogen scolded Orym for the way he reacted to Liliana and not Ashton. Because Ashton’s anger was directed in a way that was ultimately protective of Imogen—most effective—and Orym’s was founded solely in his personal grief.)

He wants Imogen to have her mom and he wants Lilliana to be salvageable for Imogen because he loves Imogen. But his love for the people in his present actively and consistently tend to conflict with the love he has for the people in his past. They are in a constant battle and Orym—he cannot fathom losing either of them.

(Or, to that point, recognize that allowing empathy to take root in him for the enemy isn't losing one of them.)

It is deeply poignant, then, that Orym’s grief is symbolized by both a sword and shield. It is something he wields as a blade when he feels his philosophy being threatened by certain conversational threads (as he believes it is one of the only things he has left of Will and Derrig, and is therefore desperately clinging onto with both bloody hands even if it makes him, occasionally, a hypocrite), but also something he can use in defense of the people he presently loves—if that provocative, blade-grief side of him does not push them—or himself—away first.

(it won’t—he is as loved by the hells as he loves them. he just needs to—as laudna so beautifully said—say and hear it more often.)

[jzargo]

I know we love to clown on Cassandra for shoving responsibility onto other people - making Cullen of all people the military advisor for some reason, forcing some rando to be Inquisitor - but I think this is very much a deliberate character choice for her. I don't think she makes a good leader, and I think she's at least semi-aware of this.

Cassandra is someone who needs authority; she needs someone - or something - to follow. She is the most broken by Divine Justinia's death, not just because she lost a close friend, but because she lost the strongest authority figure and source of stability in her life. She's desperate to find the real Lord Seeker, in spite of all evidence earlier pointing to him probably being dead or a traitor, because she needs an authority figure. When she finds out the truth about the Seekers, she asks the Inquisitor whether she should reform them or not, and if the Inquisitor tells her no, she doesn't disapprove, she thanks them. She needed someone to tell her to let them go.

And what happens when Cassandra is put in a position of leadership? What happens when Cassandra is made Divine? Does she take risks, or use the information she's learned about the Seekers, the Chantry, and the Inquisition to make serious reforms in the Chantry? No. She reverts immediately to how things used to be; she falls back on the structure that she's used to, on what's familiar and comfortable. Because she needs that structure as a sense of security, for better or worse.

[mwolf0epsilon]

The Unlucky Tug's season 13 & Hero of the Rails Retrospective video got me thinking about Spencer... As a character we really don't have much on him do we? (Which is ironically fitting since he's a private engine)

Come to think of it, most of what we know of Spencer are a handful of crumbs you can count off your fingers (that he's proud of being a speedster, that he enjoys his work as a private engine, that he's not overly fond of Sodor's engines, etc...), and just a few personality traits you can parse from watching how he interacts with others (which often amounts to him being a pompous jerk who cares more about his status than actually behaving in a way that upholds that status with grace). Other than that, we don't really know who he is or what he did before he became the Duke and Duchess of Boxford's privately owned engine...

Sure, he's an A4 Pacific but... Is he meant to be a specific one?

Every engine in the railway series and the tv shows has a proper basis one can refer to. Even if some of them are fictional members of a specific line of engines or heavily altered (Gordon as his class's imperfect but no less endearing prototype, Edward being a surviving member of his class despite all of the Larger Seagulls having been scrapped in actuality, James being a custom fleshed out in the series, and Henry being a personification of one class configuration being rebuilt into another, etc...the list is never ending here!) they still have a concrete basis you can look at and equate them to.

With that in mind... Is Spencer supposed to be one of the Silvers? The first batch of A4s that pulled the Silver Jubelee and didn't escape scrapping? If so, is he meant to be a fifth fictional member of the Silvers or is he actually one of them under a new identity?

I've seen the latter idea being toyed with a lot (and I do vibe with it because second chances at life freaking slap as a character arc!), but the former idea... The one where maybe he's a secret fifth member that was never really in prominence compared to his older siblings (overlooked and ignored)... It also does seem fitting doesn't it?

Especially considering none of his fellow Silvers survived.

What I'm getting at, is that Spencer strikes me as someone who's deeply insecure to the point he'll latch onto what he thinks is his (his status for example), and protects it with such jealous ferocity that it makes him a very difficult engine to get along with.

If he were one of the Silvers who somehow miraculously got bought by the Duke and Duchess of Boxford when he was going to be scrapped, it definitely makes sense why he tries to seem like he's more than he really is. Making himself out to be important would ensure he continues to remain useful enough that he won't see the cutter's torch so soon...

But it also makes him a potentially very unstable and volatile individual if he gets it in his funnel that someone is threatening his position/existence. Literally anything minor can be blown out of proportion. Including something as harmless as a cheeky little tank engine trying to show him up, and humiliating him in front of his lifeline...

Because trying to get a fellow steam engine scrapped due to a wounded ego is DEFINITELY a disproportional response to his petty squabble with Thomas. And his later reaction when Hiro rescues him shows this too. If Spencer were that much of a jerk that he is all for getting someone else scrapped, he wouldn't have changed his mind so easily.

Spencer's lack of a backstory not only bothers me, it also makes his behavior all that much more interesting to study under a microscope... Just what did he go through that THAT was the only way he thought was appropriate to get back at Thomas? Especially when later it becomes very apparent he didn't mean it...

Who were you Spencer? What did you see?

[gaylactic-fire]

Do you ever think a lot of the unjust BOTW Princess Zelda hatred seemed to die down after TOTK because her draconification was appropriate "punishment" / "redemption" for her traumatised teenage girl behaviour- [I am forcefully dragged off stage by mormons]

[essektheylyss]

It takes like 4 minutes of being in Boston before I start heckling out of town drivers. The unifying element of Socal and Massachusetts is having the worst possible environments for driving and being so disdainful when people show up and don't know what they're doing.

[three-eyed-elk]

pumpkin rabb!

art from last year... TW creepyish themes, TWF

[lightnersdream]

ok i said it in a joking way earlier but i think that Tenna being fat would genuinely fix a lot of my little nitpicks with him. like i do like him but he could use some of that tall thin tv head stuff neutralized

[carlyraejepsans]

whats your opinion on TS!Underswap?

haven't followed much of the project tbh but I've seen a few clips here and there and i remember thinking their sans was very funny

[zondel]

Not fond of the owl that came from owl asia being retconned as an evil coniving demon cultist that preys on children....