#and not remotely subtle

[iztarshi]

Reading T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon's Saint of Steel/Clocktaur Wars books one fascinating thing about the worldbuilding is that the basic decency and chivalry of paladins seems to supersede the various moralities of the different gods.

A paladin is a weapon in a god's hands, but a god that would use them for anything but defending the weak doesn't call paladins. You'd think the Hanged Mother - her purview seems to be destroying heretics - would love to have a cadre of holy warriors at her desposal, but no. The Dreaming God uses them exclusively against demons, which is the most paladinly thing to use your paladins for.

The Saint of Steel used them against humans but, while one of the brighter paladins does question the morality of having submitted entirely to a god's judgement on who needs to die, he seems to have used them entirely in situations that would have been massacres if a bunch of beserker paladins hadn't been aimed at the side about to do the massacring. The Saint of Steel is refered to as a war god, so there's a possibility that he was prayed to by soldiers in more normal armies, but in situations where there was no obvious right and wrong he kept his paladins out of it.

I have the impression that the Forge God is a pretty decent person, and him having paladins seems to go with that. He's a god of craftsmanship, he doesn't really need to have holy warriors under his command (and since they entered his ranks as blacksmiths they mostly don't want to be holy warriors either) but sometimes people need to be protected by a big guy with a hammer. It feels like the same kind of thing as the time he moved one of his priests to serving the White Rat because a particular temple desperately needed an architect to help the homeless.

Not all the gods that are decent have paladins - the Rat doesn't - and the process of making paladins seems a little brutal in itself, shaping thinking beings into perfect weapons in your hands. If nothing else brushing up against divinity like that seems to leave them with a perpetual anxiety about not being good enough (everyone who has to deal with them has opinions about goddamn paladins and their goddamn guilt complexes). But we definitely never see a paladin used for evil.

[five-and-dimes]

Made the mistake of putting on The Sandman while I draw and immediately stopped drawing when the scene with Gregory in episode 2 happens and just GOD Morpheus has so much blatant LOVE and RESPECT for his subjects and creations!! He acknowledges to Cain and Able that he KNOWS it's not fair! He doesn't ask them, he asks GREGORY because Gregory is a being who gets to choose if he is willing to sacrifice himself! Morpheus, the King of Dreams and Nightmares, KNEELS before Gregory, tells him that he's served the Dreaming with honor and that he'll be missed and is on the verge of tears when he reabsorbs him even though he literally HAS to for the sake of the literal world!!!

Morpheus loves and respects them all so much why are so many people mean to him!!!!!!!!!!!

[jaggedjot]

the notion that queer men can be flamboyantly theatrical, perform in drag, even occasionally refer to themselves with female pronouns, and nevertheless willfully uphold and enforce patriarchal norms, would have been a well worn complaint in any given 1970s lesbian collective, and yet

[luluxa]

a small collection of Jan throwing happy little glances at Nace to make sure everything is true and he is actually married to this man

[luna-the-cretar]

Shepherd: *gets teleported away*

Sarnax: *instantly panics*

He’s such a worried boyfriend <3

[wardensantoineandevka]

I love even the negative reviews have just convinced me that I'm gonna personally enjoy Veilguard

[starryalpacasstuff]

You know, making the CEO character in the idol bl starring GMMTV's own idol group the no good, very evil character is definitely...interesting. It makes me think that either this show is accidentally saying something it did not set out to say, or that the CEO is going to have a last minute redemption arc because I don't trust GMM. Or maybe one of the writers has beef with the CEO, I dunno

[biblicalhorror]

Insane to me that there are genuinely people out there saying wwdits is queerbaiting because the gay couple hasn't kissed yet. The canon married straight couple hasn't even kissed onscreen. What show are you watching

[cattewife]

not sure if they typo'd here but if not: i have no idea what they mean, and if so and meant "sneezing." hm. do i have to put the "THIS IS A FETISH DON'T @ ME IF YOU DON'T GET IT" back in all caps on all the stories? i thought it was a little obnoxious so i pulled back on it but perhaps.... my first instinct was right?

what gets me is "the only thing i could focus on was how much he was sneezing" LIKE YES, THANKS, I WROTE IT THAT WAY ON PURPOSE?????

[cureomen]

Been a bit absent because I got super behind on episodes and just started catching up today.

And like, is it just me or is this season, like, super gay :P

[hunter-sylvester]

Got clocked irl as 'the Metal Lords fan' again 💀

[marinecorvid]

not to post about sjm (derogatory) but it is insane how much of an expy off Daenerys aelin is, literally has the in-book title “the queen that was promised” like sjm really did not have a problem yoinking that Straight Up! it’s just like how grimdark fantasy authors will make an aragorn expy who’s the Important Heir With The Sword, completely missing the point that aragorn wasn’t the main character, she copied dany but made her ultra violent and girlboss. completely missed the points grrm’s been making about power and trying to be kind in a cruel world

[brutal-out-here]

Oh god imma have to just be specific with this guy and tell him I wanna be friends again🧍‍♂️

[teenagefeeling]

so that kid who yelled at me in class a couple weeks ago for not drinking coke is like. everywhere on campus. obviously in that class it's difficult to avoid him, then i had a choir performance for homecoming week and who but that mf gets up out of the audience to come try to talk to the fucking choir (i simply turned my head and he didn't see me lmao), and THEN today i walk into rehearsal and he is standing there talking to my teacher! he like clearly tried to catch my eye but i literally ran out to the bathroom and then hid there until he left (which took him fucking forever and then i got stuck walking past him in the hallway 🙃). like, i literally started shaking just from seeing him today this dude scares me so much because he just walks up to me and asks me personal questions and won't leave and it's like. what, are you gathering ammo to yell at me again? are you asking if i live on campus so you can follow me to my (thankfully nonexistent) dorm? leave me aloneeeeeeeee

[caterpillarinacave]

Despite the usual dread associated with Anakin’s little moments of Darth Vader-ness in Clone Wars S4EP12 has me desperately wishing Anakin would force choke this lady to death

[winterway]

I went to an art gallery and had the sudden need to express myself. I feel like my art is always in the goal of getting ‘better’ and doing it the ‘right way’ (which is very frustrating when you don’t know how to lmao), so this was oddly enjoyable to work on.

Anyway, if you can’t tell it’s about panic attacks, because boy oh boy do I have a lot of them.

Also added bonus, because who am I if I don’t add at least two versions of each piece?

And if you’re wondering, yes, this is supposed to be a vampire. Also yes, I did this because I got sidetracked.