#and I'm like... based on what

[mollysunder]

On Silco and Molatovs

I still think about how the creators of Arcane wanted the opening scene to be a young Silco throwing a molotov cocktail during the Day of Ash on the bridge. It's supposed to be implied that Silco's actions were the trigger for why that day escalated to such violence and death. But honestly, all it does is vindicate the success of Silco's leadership in Zaun.

Most of the problems Silco faces in Act 2 & 3 are practically the same challenges Vander faced, but worse. His kid blew up a building and intentionally murdered people while doing it. The operation he had his kid go on got interrupted by a rival gang of young people with the objective literally up in flames. Piltover's putting (economic) pressure on Zaun to find the culprit on the Progress Day attack. Silco also has to put up with upstarts attempting to undermine his leadership position as tensions starts to mount. In spite of all the pressures Silco faced, he was able to manuever around them all a lot better than Vander did.

Let's take Jinx's hexgem heist for the first example. One building robbed and vandalized, another building set on fire and bombed, and six enforcers killed. Yet the only enforcer that was in Zaun for that escapade was Marcus, because Marcus couldn't treat Silco like Grayson treated Vander.

When the kids accidentally blew up the Kiramman building during their heist, no one died, but enforcers were flooded into Zaun, because Grayson saw it in her capacity to do that. Even when Grayson goes to calmly speak with Vander, she's still flanked by aggressive underlings who consistently escalate tensions. Grayson, as the Sheriff Vander trusts, either can't control the enforcers in her charge or is incredibly lax with how they operate, and that's because Grayson had no incentive to be genuinely effective.

Grayson and Vander operated on knowledge where both assumed Piltover's forces had the upperhand on Zaun and could demolish them. No matter how cordial Vander and Grayson were to eachother, Grayson held the cards in that dynamic. There was nothing Vander could do if Grayson just changed her mind about keeping enforcers out of Zaun. Grayson just believed it was for the good of both cities to avoid further bloodshed (that Zaun risked) by delegating responsibility of Zaun to Vander. They manage to work together essentially through Grayson's grace, rather than Vander's own legitimacy as a leader.

Marcus however, must actually attempt restraint because both he and Silco have actual stakes in their relationship. So Marcus enters Zaun ALONE to figure out a solution with it's defacto leader, Marcus is just upset about it the whole time. Frankly that's why I think Jinx intentionally caused as much loud and obvious damage because she KNEW she would get away with it, she still kind of has (she isn't in Stillwater). Jinx has been with Silco for at least seven years, she knows he's got Marcus in bind that's only getting tighter, and knows Silco won't hesitate to throw someone (the Firelights) under the bus for it, unlike Vander.

And even when passage through the bridge is shut down and Zaunites are out in anger protesting, no one dies. Some Zaunite there literally threw a molotov cocktail at the enforcer line and yet violence on the scale of the Day of Ash didn't transpire, because Silco put them, specifically Marcus, in a position where the had to be restraint. In every aspect of Vander's leadership that's about real material gain, Silco has managed to succeed where he failed. Practically every act of aggression at Piltover under Silco's regime never saw the same level of retribution that Vander's did. Sevika chose Silco over Vander because she believed he truly was a more effective leader, and she was right! In the end, she didn't betray Silco because he easily outpaced all the other contenders.

Tldr: Whenever the writers bring up Silco's faults, sometimes it just makes him look better than his counterparts in terms of skill and effectiveness. Silco managed to get Zaun treated like a separate nation faster than Vander could have dreamed.

[skipblebee]

Sv au where everything is the same but it's like a reality tv show (the system takes interviews)

[egophiliac]

can't believe that skeleman has turned on us, and Halloween Prom is tomorrow.

(what a top-tier UM...we are about to be just totally obliterated in the absolute silliest way. what possible use could this power have outside of bringing us to the brink of utter holiday disaster.)

[technically-human]

Oh no, he's meeting all of Eggman's standards!

A continuation to this.

[mel-tdown07]

I've been thinking about how Smokescreen wasn't there for half of TFP and

[vaguely-concerned]

the strength it must have taken for illario to not immediately go full 'lmao since when have you even had a kiss hello lucanis' sibling violence mode during the café talk. inspirational. rook and lucanis really were doing all that right in front of his salad huh

[merrigel]

I want it back = I drag its dead weight forward

[mazitdynasty]

Ok more malevolent fanart or whatever I guess

[almondcroissantsandink]

i've wanted to practice drawing cowboys for some time now and so the daggers have turned in their helmets and fighter jets for stetsons and horses! yeehawwww

[ministarfruit]

yuri month day 15: please don't forget me ♡

(femslashfeb prompt list)

[tanadrin]

until i started rooting around in the world data with dfhack i didn't realize that dwarf fortress randomly generates dance forms for each civilization and they can spread via trade and contact. you cannot really engage with this system at all in fortress mode, and adventure mode is still in beta, so this is hilarious to me. it's like the procedurally generated musical instruments. the things that tarn adams chooses to simulate in excruciating detail are really random.

and yet each species still has only one language, the name generation system is patently ridiculous, and the topography is pure perlin noise. this is why dwarf fortress will always have a charm its imitators can never match. it's just completely idiosyncratic in terms of its concerns and aesthetic.

[benevolenterrancy]

@tiredeternal I would say god help him but that's rather who got him into this mess to begin with...

[egophiliac]

have you been keeping up with gozyuger? it's just... truly wild to watch

OKAY I'm finally caught up! and...wild is an understatement, huh! getting some real Donbros energy off of this one (in the best of ways though really) (just all kinds of super weird and super fun! 💍) (...also the blue ranger might have murdered a child?) (I mean probably not) (they wouldn't. but.) (what if)

I'm especially fond of Bouquet and Fire Candle, just because they encapsulate the two modes of my brain at any given moment

[blightbright]

i think it's interesting to not let Solas kill the ignorant mages (the ones who bound his Wisdom friend) in his DA:I personal quest!

they definitely enslaved a spirit, which is wrong, and Solas disapproves of sparing them, AND:

these are pathetic randos who have literally only ever been exposed to cultural messaging that says spirits are objects not people. they're annoying and they destroyed someone's life, but they are not evil. they were imprisoned for years, they were taught misinformation by their captors, and now they've escaped, they're vulnerable, they got scared of being killed by bandits, and they ignorantly stumbled their way into something they didn't understand by following a book's instructions.

none of that is an excuse and also, in an extremely on-the-nose fashion, being enslaved and forced to kill is what harmed Solas' friend. the Inquisitor doesn't know how directly this parallels Solas' story, but if Inky can come at the mercy choice intuitively, the choice to stop Solas is IMO a very good one, because (like Cole embodying Compassion for the Templar when choosing to make Cole "more spirit") it actively reinforces Solas' inner Wisdom self.

Inky doesn't have to intervene much at all to get Solas to stop btw, literally all it takes is an uneasy "Solas..." and he stops.

IMO, gently expressing uncertainty about his decision to outright kill them reminds Solas, hey, what if you don't have to kill them (which hurts you too, which you were forced to do, and that damaged you)? these people might be teachable. what if you, Wisdom, teach them to never do this again? what if they spread that message to the other oblivious mages they encounter, and many more people learn?

these mages literally cannot learn anything if they're dead. if spared, they're still not the best critical thinkers, but they state this was the first time they'd ever done a binding, and they seem genuinely shocked that they hurt someone by doing it. IMO, they seem unlikely to ever do it again. IIRC Inky can even threaten them in optional dialogue afterwards, and they swear (in a way that seemed earnest to me) that they've learned their lesson.

TL;DR, gently prompting Solas to slow down and consider what he's doing instead of slaughtering people who are cowering in front of him with their hands up, even though intervening makes Solas feel unhappy in the moment, is IMO a great way to reach out to his own bound Wisdom and say, 1) hey, I actually like your truest self, and 2) hey, sometimes people do terrible things... I'll stop them permanently if I have to, but I prefer to first try and see if they're willing to do better.

that's a pretty important message for Solas, for multiple reasons.

[shuploc]

A plushie manufacturer reached out to me a couple of days ago, asking if I would be interested in a collab with them and I of course said yes!

So many people have already made JayVik plushies inspired by the show, so I was thinking about having Jayce and Viktor plushies made based on my designs for the knight/prince AU.

Would you guys be interested in that?

[mlobsters]

jared padalecki and jensen ackles boston con 2025 - gold panel

cheerleading and (allegedly non-existent) short shorts