emythefan - Tumblr blog

[emythefan]

I still see "Lonesome Road is bad because Ulysses is annoying and makes decisions about my character for me instead of letting me RP.'

Just... I've talked about this before but if you dislike Lonesome Road on the basis that Ulysses is telling you your own motivations and feelings and making assumptions -- if it feels like the DLC's writing railroads your RP of your own character by deciding things for you about what they think and feel and what their intentions and reactions and motives are -- consider:

Ulysses is not supposed to be telling you the truth about your character.

Ulysses is an unreliable narrator.

The DLC would be very frustrating if it was telling you things about your courier's characterization. It's not.

The only thing it tells you must be true is that your Courier has been a Courier for at least four years, took the Divide route a lot in the process, and delivered this one package this one time during the First Battle. Which is only really an issue if it conflicts with age headcanons or a very specific timeline you've planned out, which most of us haven't.

The rest?

Ulysses is projecting. He's angry.

You are to him what Benny was to you.

He's a man with severe trauma. From his perspective, you nearly killed him, left him for dead, took something of great value from him in the process -- the hope for a home, a nation, outside the Legion, a place he could believe in.

Are you actually responsible? Naw.

Did you actually care about the Divide? It's up to you.

Ulysses insists it was important to you, but it's been four years since it blew and Lonesome Road is the first indication of the Courier finding out what happened there. It's up to you if they cared because there's no evidence.

Ulysses thinks they must have because it was important to him.

He thinks the Courier blew up the Divide on purpose because he can't fathom the idea that one of the most traumatic events of his adult life, which has not been short on traumatic experiences, was an accident. He is deeply invested in meanings, symbolism, The Why Of Things. He could not handle the idea that the reason for all this was just 'shit happens'

He later concedes that the courier didn't do it on purpose, but insist they still bear the guilt for doing it anyway and causing careless destruction.

Is that an actual moral of the story? Is that the game's stance on the courier's actions? Not really.

It's interesting food for thought in terms of I Wonder If. I Wonder If I've done something this impactful without knowing it by finishing an innocuous sidequest -- because that's what this is, a sidequest I forgot about that caused something big to happen after I was done. I Wonder If there are other huge ripple effects I've set off with minor actions that didn't seem important to me at the time.

But it's up to you to decide whether the courier is responsible or should feel guilty. If you talk Ulysses down at the end of the DLC none of those dialogues are the courier saying "you're right it's my fault."

Ulysses just needs them to be responsible.

Something awful happened to him, and he needs someone to be responsible. The courier is not more responsible than the NCR personnel at Navarro who paid them to take the package to the Divide, nor the troops at the Divide who activated it, nor the Enclave personnel who designed it to do what it did.

But they're the one Ulysses already saw as someone important when it all happened -- maybe due to bias because they're a courier and he has a lot of feelings about the symbolism of couriers, or because he thought they were another frumentarius -- he was already interested in them and observing their actions so they're the one he attached all those feelings to.

Have you ever gotten mad at someone because of something minor that they did or said, that you started reading into, and staging a whole speech in your head because of what you think they meant by that, only to later find out it wasn't that deep and you got worked up over a situation you'd just been overthinking?

That's Ulysses.

Ulysses is not a source of Truth.

He's a man with a lot of trauma who's had four years to overthink what happened and project motives onto someone he thought was dead.

He's taunting you and trying to anger you because he wants you to come fight him. He's made you out as his Benny and this is him taking a stand for what he feels you did to him.

All signs point to him also being suicidal. Ulysses wants to die. He did not start this confrontation expecting to survive you. He has nothing left but spite and survivor's guilt.

He's taunting you to make you angry, so you'll keep going to his Temple and let him have his last stand the way he envisioned it, the way that means something to him.

The DLC becomes a lot more emotional and better if you don't take Ulysses at his word or don't take his word as being intended to be objective truth, but rather take him as a character with his own feelings and motivations that can be wrong both in and out of universe. As an unreliable narrator who was never supposed to be a source of truth, but of the version of events he's spun together in four years of overthinking it and needing someone to blame, because he has nothing left.

[emythefan]

sneaking away to the woods at night for some privacy 

[emythefan]

since when has katara been thiccer than sokka

Lunch Break 🍵

[emythefan]

drew this for my dear friend hucks birthday and it went down Very Well

[emythefan]

Found this audio on TikTok and immediately thought of Catra. 😂

[emythefan]

completo 3 años después  je

[emythefan]

SOMEONE PLEASE ANYONE DRAW JOSHUA GRAHAM IN THIS POSE IM BEGGING YOU

[emythefan]

The day Catra learned the new girl could also speak Spanish.

[emythefan]

Elspeth, Sun’s Champion

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[emythefan]

Post-war protective Catra. If you want some help from She-Ra, you gotta get through her guard cat first….

Inspired by @johannas-motivational-insults analysis on Catra’s protective/caretaker nature.

(ko-fi)

[emythefan]

If someone told me that Iroh invented bubble tea, I wouldn’t even question it.

[emythefan]

When your kitty FINALLY fall asleep and you CANT MOVE or  he will wake up..and your wife doesn’t help you but laugh instead

[emythefan]

WE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT THIS?!

CATRA APPLESAUCE MEOWMEOW

[emythefan]

it’s canon that Catra likes She-Ra’s beautiful beefy muscles 

[emythefan]

[emythefan]

black haired anime girls icons (300x300)

like/reblog if you use/save ♡

[emythefan]

Legate Rikke: what position are you?

Dragonborn: top

Legate Rikke: *blinks*

Legate Rikke: I meant in the army