#these traits would make them better

[adragonthatwrites]

I love the concept of the Disassembly/Solver Drones making various non-human noises to talk to each other (usually I see this referred to as 'pinging', but they're basically doing the robot version of mrrping and chirping at each other) just as a basic concept, but I also really like it for the reason that it would add even more horror to Cyn, especially in her Tessa cosplay :)

I can imagine her starring glassy eyed into in the distance, then suddenly spotting a drone and doing that 'ek ek ek ek ek' noise cats do when they're looking at a bird through a window.

Or making distorted, glitched out pings and noises that a worker drone isn't going to pick up on but has the virtual hairs standing up on the back of every nearby Disassembly or Solver drone's neck.

Or when she's doing the "Callback Ping" bit in the hallway she's also letting out a high trilling sound not unlike stress purring that translates to a cry for help or comfort, and it's got N wanting to purr back and chirp out "it's okay, I'm here, you're okay!" but he can't he can't he can't

(Bonus points if she was doing this even back in the manor era. Just her and N chilling by the bar one evening, N says something funny and instead of laughing she just does a little humming mrp noise, and N's standing there unsure if he's delighted by this strange little sound she just made or weirded out because what even was that actually?)

[heliomanteia]

I'm honestly so glad they introduced a new protagonist. Not just because Rook is a darling, but also because Inquisitor would have been a horrible choice for the story they wrote.

[wired-heartbeats]

For the record I think Vox is being effected and possibly swayed by Val’s poison just like Angel is, the pink signifying it on Angel shows up on Voxs screen during and after interacting and being influenced by Val directly, when Vox is operating independently it isn’t an actual normal feature of his

This paired with an earlier moment from episode 2 when Val first mentioned something had happened with Angel Dust, Vox seemed happy about the idea of Angel quitting

“He quit? :D”

It’s interesting for sure, makes me wonder what Vox actually thinks about Angel, and more importantly, actually thinks about Valentino. He’s a business man, and clearly the Vees all teamed up (at least initially) because it helps elevate their status and power spread, they may be friendly with each other but we as an audience don’t actually know if there’s more to it as of now. But still, interesting

[purplepotatobread]

Me when people hate on cool female characters for no reason

[corellianhounds]

I know we (rightfully) give Attack of the Clones a lot of grief for Obi-Wan just being able to show up unannounced and for him to just be given the literal biggest state secrets possibly of the entire war, in addition to how this cloning operation has been going on for like a decade without anyone knowing anything or any documentation crossing Mace Windu’s desk, but considering Sifo Dyas or Dooku or whoever was able to somehow erase an entire planet from (allegedly) every known bit of data collection or documentation, it could be argued that maybe Dyas and Dooku were just master forgers and had fake correspondence and reports going between them and the Kaminoans for over a decade now.

It’s not that far of a leap to say they got their hands on some heavily encrypted software on some very expensive computers and were able to imitate different speech patterns and documents and handwriting and official stamps or even holograms and holocalls. As far as the Kaminoans know, all of their contacts are fully aware and in the know about this clone army (because as far as they know, Sifo Dyas is alive and had to have been in communication recently)— When Obi-Wan shows up, it just happened to be at the exact time Dooku was the one supposed to be there in person himself that day. The Kaminoans did greet him as Master Jedi and said he was expected.

Obviously that could have only worked in the movie if Dooku had shown up and we saw him having to keep his cool/sneak around when some other Kaminoans tell him his “assistant” has already arrived, would you like us to escort you to him?

Internally Dooku’s thinking “WHOMST??” but externally he’s keeping his chill while searching the Force for whoever else might be— is that OBI-WAN KENOBI??

It’s soooooo tasty for Qui-Gon’s master and Qui-Gon’s apprentice to meet under these circumstances. Both of them know the other shouldn’t be there right now. They’re both having to play it cool in front of the Kaminoans, and this is even besides the fact Kenobi was there to find the bounty hunter assassin in the first place.

“I didn’t think you… were still as active in the Order,” Obi-Wan says slowly and diplomatically, knowing for a FACT that Dooku left the Order a long time ago.

“I… retired from active service,” Dooku says, equally diplomatically. “I act as a… consultant from time to time.”

“It’s soooo funny how I’ve never heard anything about that or this clone army the Jedi ordered,” Obi-Wan says, making direct eye contact with Dooku and probably trying to read his mind (to no avail). “The one they ordered ten years ago before there was ever any thought of the Jedi being actively involved on the frontlines of what isn’t a declared war. What would the Jedi want with a military in the first place?”

“How old are you, young one?” Dooku deflects in that fake kindly condescending grandfatherly voice. “How long have you been on the Council— Oh you’re just a Kniiiiight, that’s right, okay I see. How interesting. How much information are you actually privilege to, Obi-Wan?”

And this is all happening even before Obi-Wan Nancy Drew’d his way to Jango Fett’s private quarters!

Obi-Wan KNOWS he can’t go rogue right now when he’s that far from his ship on a city surrounded by an ocean and a literal army of clones soldiers (of that one super efficient bounty hunter, whenever it is he finds that out) all apparently under the command (?) of someone who definitely definitely super should not be speaking or doing or ordering anything under the name of the Jedi Order.

Count Dooku (who he doesn’t even know is a Sith yet) could very easily accuse him of being an impostor and have him detained or attacked or killed on sight. Zam Wessel was already established to be a shapeshifter in this movie, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility for Obi-Wan to not be who he says he is (which is kinda true?? since he WASN’T the Jedi ambassador for the Temple there to pick up his to-go order of a quarter-million identical men, with a million more on the way??). The Kaminoans might not even know much else about Jedi and Sith aesthetics besides “Wears robes” so if Dooku pulled a red lightsaber it might not even faze them, since he’d be able to provide more information and correspondence proving he’s the ‘actual’ Jedi anyway

Like can you imagine a fight breaking out not just between Kenobi and Jango, but a team-up of Jango and Dooku against Kenobi? That would have jumpstarted some of this clone army business a lot earlier in the movie and actually addressed what should have been the biggest conspiracy, coverup, and militaristic move of the MILLENNIUM

[sunshine-and-her-ikevil-stuff]

I'm in- I love-

[charleemoon]

getting a little maybe irritated at how often i see autistic will being refuted because he "made himself out to be that way to avoid attention" ... ??? that's autistic. going out of his way to make yourself appear weird and unsociable so you can avoid socializing is. extremely autistic. lying and exaggerating about yourself out of fear of people getting too close and realizing youre a bad person is extremely autistic. the show honestly backpedals on will's empathy half the time, acting like it is only applicable when it comes to his job, but frequently showing that it isn't. in the first episode, hannibal literally notices his face getting red because they're near two people who are arguing. he's not exaggerating or faking his nightmares, his inability to deattach himself from others. yeah, he's got a complicated psychological profile that autism doesn't entirely cover or explain. that doesn't mean he's not still autistic. his person suit, the person he presents himself as to others, the choice to do that autistic masking. even if part of his masking is hiding behind being autistic in hopes it will make him less favorable to others and not further inspected, that is autistic masking. i think it is so insanely annoying that just because a character wasn't written with the intent in mind doesnt mean you cant accidentally write a valid representation of something anyways. fuller didn't intend on hannigram becoming as romantic as it did, but understood that it came along with the subtext anyways. acting like hes completely above fitting criteria of mental illness because he's "fictional" and has a "fictional" disorder that HIGHLY exemplifies autism is. incredibly stupid. and boring

[dykedvonte]

A Defense of Benny Gecko

Benny is more of a capable leader and person than people give him credit for.

Seeing as no one challenged his position as head Chairmen for 7 years and even then he only loses the position if he’s caught, killed or forced to leave. Yes, it’s also likely House wouldn’t have allowed him to be killed but he sure as hell would of found a way to remove him if he was causing too much unrest within The Tops power structure. Even Swank and Tommy don’t outright dislike him and more so are concerned with his recent secretive and shady behavior, emphasis on recent.

Taking all we know into consideration, Benny likely knew the future direction that he wanted to take Vegas but was so caught up in the plans to acquire Vegas that he didn’t think of how to make his dream a reality. Something he admits to in canon. I see this being used as the main argument that Benny doesn’t know what he’s doing at all but I see it more in the same vein as you can’t really plan something from nothing. The transformation of Vegas is a sensitive thing that he can’t really work on until he has it. The only reason he ran to the Fort prematurely is the Courier who was causing so much of a stir he would’ve likely been found out much faster, making all that planning for nothing if he didn’t take that chance.

Benny is careful (well a lot more careful than he is regularly depicted in fanon), the Courier being able to trace him was dumb luck on their part and his hair being noticed at the Fort is a realistically small oversight that even Caesar is disappointed in because he admits Benny got farther than he should’ve been allowed by his legionaries. The fact he can plan an ambush on the Courier or tries to quickly and concisely clean up lose ends that don’t lead back to him shows he’s not just acting on impulses or in the moment decisions. Or rather he’s quite good at thinking them out, whether they work depends on how you play really. This is all to say it’s 100% believable that Benny could lead an independent Vegas (house was basically setting him up to do that). If he had known explicitly that House was setting him up to replace him, he likely would’ve bought more time by getting in closer, learning more of the system to then flip House’s edge to his favor. Again something he was doing already but likely without the knowledge of House’s feelings on him personally.

No matter what, Vegas’ future was tied to Benny; House’s plans for him, having to get the chip and if he had somehow succeeded. It’s also interesting that of all the people vying for control of the dam/Vegas, Benny’s plans are the only ones actually oriented towards a new future, not a recreation of something long past.

[silusvesuius]

n*loth not being able to bag anyone over the (human term) age of 25-30 at most is the only logical and real conclusion to me because it can be just explained away as him wanting to prove and control everything and anyone (Cus he's a man!) but being stuck in that demographic because his unbearable and vile personality is a force that nobody can look past once they've outgrown the possible fear and idolization period of anyone but also n*loth in particular.

[nonbinarylesbianherb]

I've seen many people say Alicent walking away from Aegon, as well as other scenes of her failing to comfort her kids is her "lacking empathy" or something along those lines

I've seen a lot of people say that empathy is a basic human trait, and that "anyone" would've gone to him and provided some form of comfort (e.g hugging, apologising, etc.)

NEED people to recognise that not everyone shows empathy the same way. That not everyone recieves empathy in the same way. There are many reasons to as why Alicent walked away, 1. Maybe she was worried she would only make things worse. 2. maybe she thought he preferred to be left alone.

We can see very clearly the emotions of pain on her face. She wants to help but doesn't know how, she's not really close with her children. So she doesn't know if her providing him comfort by hugging/her presence in the room with him would make things better or worse. E.g, myself- I love my friends and family dearly but sometimes when I'm grieving I need to be left alone and someone coming to talk/hug/be with me, regardless if their intention is to help, will honestly make things worse than better.

There is no one way to show empathy nor one way to receive empathy. I don't think it's fair for people to say this about Alicent when we don't know at all if it would've helped. In my opinion it's a very black and white view of something that is an extremely complex thing.

Grief isn't the same for everyone. Comfort from others isn't always the answer to grief. Grief can be shown in many forms.

It reminds me of how Helaena got a lot of hate after the b&c scene, and people saying she had no empathy/care for her children due to her reaction. Not everyone reacts the same to these things. If you would kick and scream that's valid, but people, like Helaena who would dissociate from shock and trauma are valid as well.

We're all completely different individuals, billions of us. We all experience things and show things different. Just because we may experience things differently, doesn't mean we are lacking of empathy.

In my opinion, the only people who fail to have empathy are the ones who cannot comprehend this.

[necrotic-nephilim]

what are your thoughts on jaydami?

!!! i think there's a lot of underexplored potential for JayDami. it's admittedly not a ship i think about a lot just bc they don't have a ton of meaningful interactions (pre-Flashpoint, anyway). that said, i'm such a sucker for any concepts where Jason and Damian met significantly in the League. if i were to write JayDami it'd absolutely be from that angle. there's a fun angle to me, in Jason being in the League for a significant period of time and being a sort of close friend to Damian. telling him stories, holding him close, bonding deeply. and then Jason just *vanishes* with no warning and when Damian ends up with Bruce and he sees Jason as he is now, it opens all sorts of betrayal wounds about being left behind and colors their relationship romantically, all of Damian's feelings being driven by angry yearning for a version of Jason he's never going to get back, and Jason's feelings being for this new older version of Damian that's cruel and hyper-independent.

but looking just at canon: i think Jason and Damian are fascinating, being two Robins who often have their complex layers brushed off by calling them the "angry Robin" or being described as a rude little asshole. it's true for neither of them, but i do think it's interesting if Jason slightly identifies with the way people talk about Damian as Robin because it reflects how theyy talk about Jason. while their backstories are radically different, they share a generational violence that they can't seem to escape. also, mommy issues. they *could* be close, but generally, their relationship isn't often explored outside of the surface, antagonistic but in a brotherly teasing sort of way. initially Damian is wildly disapproving of Jason but it seems like they eventually smooth things over to the point that Jason looks back fondly at some of their fights. and typically, they're teasing each other and just acting weirdly like brothers. not that much has been developed in terms of how they got to that, but you know, comics.

so for them to develop romantically is interesting. because it seems like they don't know each other well outside of that surface level teasing. i think they could work well together. (dare i say they've even both dated characters similar to the other- i think Rose Wilson and Essence are similar to Damian and you could compare Nika to Jason) neither of them would expect to end up as close as they do and the relationship would be awkward and stilted, but it could be really fun.

the fandom has a habit of mostly shipping Damian with "sunshine" characters (Jon, Colin, etc) so in shipping Damian's darker side doesn't get explored a lot. and shipping him with Jason would get to explore that side and help it thrive. if Damian dated Jason, would he re-evulate his already shaky morality? would he disagree with how Jason views killing due to his upbringing? would dating someone from Jason's background shift his worldview? there's so much you could do with it. i love the potential endlessly and i think there should be more fics!

[paintedskinenthusiast]

Stella and Kit one-sided frenemies (the 'enemies' part is one-sided on Kit's end and vice versa for Stella. Basically she doesn't like him and he feels positively towards her in a way he's scared to call friendship) is such a fun dynamic to play with.

[hogfetish]

i will admit i did watch that video of that guy butchering that alligator and every time he made a comment about how fatty the tail was i was like. taking notes.

[sojourner-between-worlds]

I normally don't vague post about other people (and I'm not really here, even) but someone in the tag suggested that Jack would make a better Team Leader than Yusei and it made me realize something, in part, about why people think that Yusei is boring.

tl;dr: Yusei isn't boring; he was written as the MC in the wrong genre.

See, Shonen protagonists typically have the following personality traits: loud, brash, hot-headed, sometimes abrasive. Yusei is none of those things, and Jack is ALL of them. Which, I'm sure, is what led that person to say that Jack would make the better leader and what leads so many people (who are mostly only fans of Shonen anime) to say that Yusei is boring. He doesn't fit their expectations of what a Shonen protag is supposed to look like, therefore he's boring.

But the thing is, if you popped him into, say, a Slice of Life, he'd be perfectly at home (well...except for the Trademark YGO Hair anyway) and well-loved by the fan base. I can say this with fair certainty because I've at least never seen anyone say that Natsume Takashi (Natsume's Book of Friends) is boring in any way, and honestly the two of them have very similar temperaments. The difference is, obviously, the genre of their respective stories.

Slice of Life allows for its protags to be softer-spoken, more reserved; Shonen often does not.

It's time people stopped saying that Yusei is boring and just admit that they like loud, brash characters as opposed to quiet ones, and that Yusei just doesn't fit what they expect from a Shonen protagonist.

He's not boring; he was just written for the wrong genre.

[purplesaline]

... did you NEED an article about why breeding for health in dogs is good while doing so for humans is eugenics? because that sounds kind of concerning? governing how humans reproduce is much more invasive and a much bigger abuse of power than doing so to animals. human rights are not comparable to animal welfare. maybe look into theory surrounding "animal rights vs animal welfare" for similar themes?

Not at all! I was just curious about the nuances of that topic that would be addressed in such an article.

As a severely disabled queer woman with an incredibly high genetic cancer risk I am not at all confused about the topic of eugenics and why it's a bad thing, don't worry!

I do like to explore nuance and grey areas and challenge my beliefs to see which hold up to scrutiny and which ones I may need to rethink or dismantle particularly because it's very easy to not realize when beliefs are formed based on the ideals of a culture rife with systemic oppression.

I know that the reason animal breeding practices for health is seen as good while it's eugenics in humans boils down to "We can't trust everyone to act in good faith" and personal choice and agency and consent etc. Don't worry! I'm not someone you'll ever see knowingly advocate for eugenics. I was simply wondering if an article about such a topic would address any points I hadn't previously considered on eugenics or animal welfare.

I appreciate you checking in and for suggesting some direction for learning more about the topic if I had been as unsure as you worried I may be. I know in online spaces a comment like yours is more likely to result in conflict and that it takes both energy and courage to reach out, even anonymously, so thank you.

[nyxofdemons]

four years for this show...