#BUT ALSO I'VE SEEN SO MANY TAKES

[mochiwrites]

Life series Grian is cruel because everyone in the life series is cruel. There’s killings and betrayals and thefts. Everyone in the life series is kind, including Grian. There’s jokes and alliances and trades.

ANON YOU ARE OPENING A FLOOD GATE. I AM SO SORRY IN ADVANCE

(also I feel like I should preface that like. I'm not claiming to be c!grian expert and my own interpretation may not even be fully accurate to his character??? aka if anything seems out of character I am Sorry fjgfhgf)

ANYWAYS -- right so when I say the word “cruel” I’m talking about it in an,,,, emotional sense??? like, he doesn't go out of his way to target people and bully them emotionally, I guess??? he isn't cruel with their emotions???? I have no idea if that makes any sense. I'm not gonna go out my way and claim that grian is a "perfect uwu innocent boy" because he's not. no one in the life series is (and that's not even grian's character outside of traffic LMAO). the entire purpose of the game is to be the last man standing, and that means killing. that means betrayal.

but there is a fine line between being cruel to survive and being a villain.

and traffic!grian is not a villain.

traffic!grian is kind, and loyal. he feels guilt for his actions. grian plays to survive, but if you have his loyalty, you have it for the entire game.

I've seen so many people look at grian's actions in the previous session (where he laughs off joel's death and joins up with pearl and bigb) and say that grian was evil for it. but let's actually look at what grian was doing leading up to joel's death, shall we?

he didn't look for other teammates until he was certain that joel wasn't going to survive. they had already lost jimmy, so he knew he was going to be alone. he offered joel an hour. he kept telling joel to take his life so joel could survive just a little longer. he straight up tells pearl and bigb that he has to go check on joel, that he has to say goodbye or else he was going to regret not getting the chance. everything grian did in that final episode was to keep jimmy and joel alive for as long as possible. and when he finally lost joel? there was silence. he stood there and stared. "I didn't even see it." he sounded so remorseful as he said it.

did he laugh off their deaths? yes. but come on people! grian's entire character is downplaying his emotions! he laughs things off and hides his emotions! he gave us, the viewers, plenty of clues to his true feelings! he has to say goodbye to joel or he'll regret it. he makes graves for jimmy and joel. he was more than willing to give them some of his time to keep them alive. he laughs off their deaths but that's just a wall he's putting up between himself and everyone else. when looking at traffic!grian, you can't just look at his words. you need to look at his actions as well.

he makes a joke about keeping joel alive but you need to look deeper than that. you need to look at the "I couldn't do anything more to help him." that's hidden in there. with grian you need to read between the lines!

and if you STILL think that traffic!grian is a villain, don't worry, I have more examples.

let's take a look at the most obvious depiction of grian's tragic character.

third life.

whether you ship them or view them as friends, grian's story with scar is still a tragedy! he spends the entire series following scar around because of his debt, and ends up sticking around after his debt is cleared because he wants to see scar win. he wants to help scar still. he's chaotic and a menace and full of bloodlust, but that doesn't make him a villain. he's playing the game. the same game that everyone else is playing.

look at the final scene of the third life finale. grian wanted to win with scar. he wanted them to win together. they planned to die together. and then the cactus ring happens and grian wins. look me dead in the eyes as grian says "Oh I don't feel so good." before jumping to his death and tell me that grian is a villain. that's one of the cases where grian's guilt is the most clear.

let's also not forget all of the deals he makes in every series? the promises he tries to keep? returning scar's things to him in last life even though he didn't have to? giving skizz a totem? setting an ender porter with him so if skizz needs him he can come help? because he wanted skizz to stay alive for as long as possible?

grian is kind. and he cares about people. neither of these things are the qualities of a villain!

he's playing in a death game, just like everyone else, and he's playing to survive. of course he's going to betray certain people (not his allies though. never his allies), he's going to steal and kill. he's going to laugh as he pulls off a successful kill because yes he may not be a villain but he's chaotic and bloodthirsty just like everyone else.

grian is not cruel because he laughed off jimmy and joel's deaths. he is not evil because he joined pearl and bigb after he lost the bad boys.

this is just a personal frustration but too many people in this fandom are quick to jump on calling grian a villain in the traffic series when every other character is doing the same thing as he is. but yet no one else gets called evil for it??? some people are so quick to make grian out to be an asshole when he's not. can he act like an ass? yes, absolutely. but that doesn't make one. I've seen some absolutely wild characterizations on grian, and some of them are just.... Yikes

some people are so quick to make grian out to be the bad guy that they don't consider the actions that lead up to that moment.

THAT BEING ASIDE.... tldr, grian isn't a villain, he's playing in a death game and the aim is to survive. he's a loyal teammate and is more than willing to fight for his allies. please stop calling him a villain thank you

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Smell Check [Easy: Failure]

MDZS Disco Elysium AU part 1 (part 2 - part 3)

[makiswirl]

can i just say. and this is probably a niche hill to die on. that i am so gobsmacked every time someone vaguely hints at the idea that jotaro doesn't care meaningfully for the other crusaders, usually particularly kakyoin and joseph, when those two actually tend to be the ones he reacts to being hurt the hardest

like he cares for his loved ones!!!! that literally plays into his character motives in every single part he shows up in!!! stop lying to me!!!!!!!

[lunabug2004]

Ya'll probably know this by now given how much I post about it but one of my favorite pastimes is watching people react to Stranger Things. I bring this up this time because I've noticed a pattern.

People root for Mileven in seasons 1 and 2 with no problem (with the exception of a couple of reactors who took forever to pick up on it in s1 or just didn't like the idea of rooting for such young kids to be kissing). Esp s2 because everyone wants them to reunite and then said reunion is absolutely adorable.

However, by about halfway through ep1 of s3, everyone just seems to be so bored of them. Like nobody I've watched has ever really expressed the want for them to get back together when they break up. I realize this is probably partially because of the annoying nature of their relationship and the way their whole breakup is played off like a big joke, but that's actually precisely what I'm getting at. Why would the writers choose to make it so easy to stop rooting for the "main couple" of the show??? Just so they could have a comeback arc or seven? If Mileven is endgame, this will probably be one of my biggest hangups, esp given the way Mike was the brunt of the "joke".

One of the main reasons I always go back to Byler endgame despite all of my doubt is because of how the writers treat Mileven's relationship. It's pretty toxic and so it's easy to stop rooting for them or just the repetitive-ness of their story as a couple makes them boring. They wouldn't make the "main couple" the most annoying couple in the show if they were actually going to be endgame.

[seven-stars-in-his-palm]

the thing i love about bill cipher is that even after i've learned all of this stuff about him, seen him at the most vulnerable he'll ever get, seen him at his most innocent, i still can't give a flying fuck about trying to justify his actions. yes he's traumatized, yes he was twisted into what we know today, and while it gives a semblance of context to why he did what he did, it doesn't matter. he still ruined ford's life. he still drove and baited multiple humans to suicide. he still tormented every human he saw as his ticket out of the consequences of his own actions. he still took delight in his actions. he was willing to commit genocide for fuck's sake!!! (freezing all of the humans into statues). trying to explain away what he did does not get rid of what he did, but it certainly puts it in perspective. you won't be catching me being a bill apologist any time soon <3

[feroluce]

Belobog was my fave main quest but a lot of it is so. Contradictory. It's like they had multiple groups doing different shit and none of them checked in with each other for consistency. And you see this so much in Gepard's profile.

So in the main quest, they made him unfailingly, unquestionably loyal to Cocolia. Gepard's character arc is him learning to question authority etc etc. And this isn't even a bad thing; that's a story worth telling! It makes good conflict between him and Serval! And I love that we got Gepard as a boss battle and I get to see him all the time in SU!

But then you look at his character stories and it's like. The complete opposite.

According to his profile, Gepard has already HAD this awakening, long before the Astral Express, and he'd already decided Cocolia sucks. Even outside of his stories, there's a pretty damning readable between him and Pela.

He even disobeyed direct orders right in front of her- he has been disobeying orders for a while now!

So I've decided I'm marrying the two different sides of this into a 1.5k fic-ish thingy, because I think there's some fun potential there with Gepard not trusting Cocolia, but still having to pretend to be a good obedient little soldier.

Anyway. I love to think of it as like. Gepard knows Cocolia has sunk into her apathy. He can see it in her eyes every time he looks at her. She doesn't care. Not about him, not about Pela, not about all his soldiers on the frontlines giving their lives to protect the citizens. And that's... It makes him bristle a bit, but ok. Gepard can deal with this. Even if Cocolia no longer cares, as long as she does her job then it's fine. Having compassion behind an action doesn't matter as much as the action itself. If Cocolia's heart is no longer swayed, then he'll just have to care twice as hard to pick up the slack. He considers it part of his duty as a captain of the guard anyway. It's fine. Gepard can deal with it.

And then, Cocolia starts coming down to the restricted zone. Issuing direct orders.

And Gepard realizes he is in way over his head.

Because Cocolia orders him to stay back and issue commands from the ramparts, away from all his comrades, away from where he can protect them.

Gepard had thought nothing could be as bad as watching a fellow guard die right next to him. But the first time he watches someone struck by a killing blow, so far away, it hurts. Every defensive scar across his arms itches, his fingers curl in want of a weapon, the cold cannot numb his hands enough as they desperately ache for his shield. It hurts.

Gepard tries to find any reason to stay. Because surely... He knows Cocolia has lost her love for her people, but surely... She wouldn't...

One day, Cocolia orders for their gunners to advance 20 yards. There are no survivors. She almost looks like she smiles.

Gepard doesn't sleep that night.

Pela brings him the report at the end of the first month; and then the month after that, and the month after that. A significant uptick in losses, and all of it started on that first day Cocolia started overriding his authority and issuing her own orders. The ends of Gepard's pens have all been nearly chewed off. Pela outright calls Cocolia an idiot, and Gepard corrects her. Cocolia isn't an idiot. Gepard had known her through Serval, knew her through all her college years and then some, and he knows how intelligent she is. It's not that she's stupid, and it's not that she's inexperienced, it's nothing of the sort.

Cocolia knows exactly what she's doing.

She must, there's no way she could make such a horrible mess of things so badly by accident. And Pela, quick as a whip, sharp as a tack, always too smart for her own good, catches onto the meaning behind Gepard's correction without any further prompting. The tent goes deathly quiet, nothing but the wind howling outside.

"...She's trying to kill us," Pela whispers, her voice swiftly suffocated by the silence.

Gepard swallows. He can't bring himself to correct her this time. There is nothing he could say that he would actually mean.

His gaze drops, back down to his desk and the reports on it. The names aren't listed, just the numbers, but Gepard knows them, knew them, and there must be something wrong, something he's missing, because why, why would she-? What could this possibly accomplish-?

“Gepard! Focus!” Something snaps right under his nose, and Gepard startles, eyes instantly honing in on Pela's irritated face as she leans over his desk. She holds his gaze for a moment before she huffs and begins to pace, wedges a knuckle between her teeth and bites like Gepard hasn't seen her do since cadet school.

Pela angrily strides from one end of his tent to the other, words hissed between her grit teeth. “What are we going to do?” In the dim lighting, Gepard can just barely see the damp spot of blood weeping under her gloves. “We need a plan.”

“A plan?”

“Wh- Yes, a plan! Unless you want more people to die!” Pela rounds on him then, all the wrath of a blizzard, winds roaring and snow sharp enough to cut.

“We don't even know-”

“What does it matter?! She killed-!!” Pela cuts off with a garbled noise when Gepard leaps up from his desk, hastily shoves his hand over her mouth. The prosthetic, not the flesh one, because he knows better than to assume Pela won't seize the opportunity to leave teeth marks in his skin.

“You're right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry; you're right. But you need to keep quiet.” Pela quirks an eyebrow at him and Gepard can read the question in her face. “Because we both saw what she did to Serval,” he hisses.

It's amazing the snow plains haven't thawed out yet, the amount of heat Pela can put behind a glare. The mere mention of Serval, and the smoking ruins Cocolia had made of her life and career, have her bristling up like a riled cat. The sudden hot breath she takes fans fog across his metal skin, and Gepard wisely keeps it in place until Pela finally sighs and reaches up, taps her fingertips against the back of his hand.

The second she's free, Pela bats him away and then her knuckle is right back between her teeth again, Gepard leaning back against his desk with his arms crossed to watch her resume her pacing. “If we spread the word, she'll have us discharged and make sure we can't even touch the frontlines,” Pela's voice seethes like an open sore. Gepard nods but keeps his silence. He knows better than to get in her way.

“And if you and I are both out of the picture, Belobog is fucked.” A little harsher than how he would have put it, but there's no denying that they're both important to the city's survival. Pela has the restricted zone running as efficiently as ever, and Gepard had become the youngest captain on record for a reason. “We need to keep this tight under wraps, at least for now… It can't leak to anyone higher up the chain.” Another nod. “Serval might know other discontents…” Another n-

Gepard's head snaps up. “No.”

“No what?”

“No. We're not involving Serval in this.”

Somehow, even the same tone that leaves entire squadrons shaking in their boots has never worked on her. “You're not deciding that for her, Gepard.”

Pela hadn't seen the worst of it, though, back when his sister had just been banned from the Architects. Serval's pride hadn't allowed it. Pela wasn't the one to find her passed out bottle still in hand, hadn't been the one to wash the sick out of her hair or carry her to bed. 

Serval still has trouble thinking clearly when it comes to Cocolia, still can't quite bring herself to be objective. And Gepard maybe doesn't want her to be purely objective- but he would worry a lot less if she thought twice before she acted more often.

“At least let me be the one to bring it up to her.”

“Whatever, fine,” Pela gestures affirmatively at him as she paces past, and Gepard sighs. Good, at least that's one thing he can help.

From there, it's a lot of hemming and hawing and frustration. Cocolia has them under her boot, and Gepard and Pela both know it. Even with the way she's been cracking down on freedoms lately, Cocolia is still, overall, liked by the people. It's unlikely anyone would believe them. They don't even have solid proof, because most people don't know Cocolia as well as they do and won't see the clues in the same light. 

The Fragmentum has been ramping up in recent years, too. Everyone is struggling just to survive as is, they can't afford a fight on two fronts. Gepard is a damn good captain, one of the best for that matter. But they're at a massive disadvantage, his experience is narrowed to fighting a defensive battle against monsters, that's all he's ever done. That's all anyone there has ever done. He has no way of finding first-hand knowledge for taking the offensive against a human opponent, and if he goes at this blind, there's no way he'll get everyone out unscathed. He's going to lose people. He's going to lose a lot of people.

He'd never thought before that Cocolia would have it in her to have someone killed. And with this new knowledge, he has no guarantee she won't go after Serval or Lynx if she decides to retaliate.

Gepard has to remind himself to breathe when he realizes this.

Pela writes down every name the two of them can come up with. Lists and lists of names and groups and anyone they can think of who might be an ally in all of this. They memorize every bit of it, make their plans of who to talk to and when. Gepard watches the sparks reflect off Pela's glasses as they burn the evidence together.

Pela finally leaves, far too late to make it home, but says she wants to stay in the restricted zone anyway to investigate. Gepard watches her make her way in the direction of Dunn's tent, watches her back until she's out of his sight and squashes down the urge to follow and keep an eye on her. His tent feels empty.

In the morning, Gepard is up before the wake up bells. He drags himself out of bed, leads his soldiers through their morning training. The same people gravitate to each other everyday. Friend groups and training partners. There's an ongoing rivalry between a few squadrons that everyone bets on. Some of them have lockets around their necks, keepsakes, mementos. Some of them wear wedding rings.

Gepard is suddenly, painfully aware of something acidic clawing at the inside of his throat, of a heavy weight low in his chest that blooms, takes up room until it threatens to spread his ribs. His mouth tastes of bile and blood.

He rearranges the schedules. Puts himself down for every open patrol into the Fragmentum, makes sure he'll be on the frontlines every single time Cocolia visits.

He only hopes that it's enough.

[prince-liest]

F/F Radiostatic where Allie is like “Ah yes, me and Vee seem to be very good friends” and Vee is like clenching her fists so hard her claws are digging into her palms and making her bleed, flashing the pride flag on her screen

(I’m unsure if you’d ever gender-bend Vox, but it was a thought I had which I wanted to drop here lol)

Hahaha, god, yes. I feel like Allie would be so deeply entrenched in compulsory heterosexuality in that "it does not even occur to her that this thing she has with Vee might be gay" kind of way, and meanwhile Vee is just suffering acutely every time Allie acts like they are basically married. It's gonna turn into some "oh, you've never had sex? Let's practice" kind of shit before Allie catches a clue.

Meanwhile Vee is the "married for ten years but 'are you sure she really likes me?'" lesbian except the anxiety is actually 100% validated (and directly caused by) by Allie's...everything.

[introspectivememories]

[theodoravery]

the thing about amen and vincent that i think a lot of you still do not understand (and i'm using them specifically bc they're the ones being compared) is that 1) amen wants every single dark magician dead, and he takes pleasure in torturing them and killing them, that is a very important part of his character, and that's why the book has made it so fucking clear! amen said it himself! he is not gonna change his ways just because he and eva are in love! eva literally makes the decision to accept that part of himself, so you cannot deny it and you can't complain if you were expecting something else because the book was pretty clear from the beginning about who amen really was (and i'm not saying he doesn't have layers but those do not take away the fact that he enjoys killing and that's that) -- and 2) vincent is not like amen at all. sure, his job, and i think it even has to do with his legacy, is being a demon hunter, but he doesn't go around killing every fucking demon he comes across, he's only after the ones who don't care about his world's ways, the ones who kill humans (like mc was planning to do until he told her what would happen if she did). and sure, you can argue that both amen and vincent want to rid the world of "evil", but again, amen takes pleasure in toturing and killing people (and it's because of a personal vendetta he has, may i add), vincent does not

[thepoisonroom]

apologies if this is a dumb question and i won't be offended at all if you dont answer/dont know but since you've worked in libraries before i was curious if you knew how to let your library know you're interested in an audiobook they haven't purchased ? i know i used to be able to make requests on overdrive but since the switch to libby i haven't been able to figure it out. i hope youre having a lovely day whether you can help or not and appreciate you taking the time to read all this 💛

sorry for the late reply, i haven't been online much and just saw this! most public libraries will have a form on their website called something like "purchase request" or "suggest a title" that you can use to request things! people often think this is only for books, but most places will let you request audiobooks, DVDs, etc. librarians won't always add the things you request to the collection, and they often can't explain every decision in detail due to volume, so results may vary.

the one thing to be mindful of is that audiobook/ebook licensing can be really weird, and sometimes publishers do make it really difficult or impossible for libraries to license certain items! so if your library doesn't get something you ask for, that sucks and is disappointing, but please don't hesitate to keep sending in requests as you have them! that info is always super helpful for collections folks looking to add things to the library that they think you'll want and use!

[cozylittleartblog]

Just wanted to mention this to someone who does art and get their opinion on it:

Sometimes I see some artists do redraws of their old artworks or characters and think "Wow, uh... their older art looks better." Sometimes it's only mildly better, but other times it's vastly better. Like the Upgrade, Go Back! meme.

I understand that art skills are supposed to develop and change, hopefully for the better, but sometimes it just feels like they got... worse? Somehow? Idk. Maybe it's because they were copying another artist's style while finding their own, and it's their own style that doesn't vibe with me? Just curious what your thoughts are about this.

Also, your art has consistently been great, so this isn't directed at you.

I do see this on occasion yeah! usually (in my experience anyway) its because people take a sharp turn towards a stylization that either isn't to your or most people's tastes, or that they don't understand or are still developing. switching up how you stylize your art is like starting over in a sense, you're changing from what you have practice with and that's always going to cause you to revert some as you have to re-learn things you understood in your previous style. i had a pretty big style shift in 2014 when i took up the basis for how my art looks now, and i remember feeling like some of the stuff i was drawing might have looked better if i was using my older style instead. that's something artists just have to push through and figure out, and they'll likely come out of it a better artist than they were before. constructive critiques are a good way for them to figure out why their art might not be as "good" as it used to be, if they're open for those.

art is not always a linear journey, and i would also say things like passion and motivation have a part in it too. feeling inspired sparks you to make something the best it can be, if you're not feeling it (and esp if that feeling lasts for a long time) it'll leave you making decisions you otherwise would not have let fly, and that can result in worse art. and some of it is just personal preference! it's not that their art is better or worse, it's just different now, and maybe that doesn't vibe with you the same way their old stuff did. and that's fine 👍

(thank you! :3 i admittedly struggle a bit with Not Feeling It sometimes like i just described, so it's nice to know people still enjoy what i make when that feeling hits.)

[justplaggin]

went to milan last week and brought back some italian little guys :D

[seventh-district]

not even gonna tag this properly bc i don't wanna get Involved but i do have some Thoughts i need to get out into the void so here we go

(aaa quick edit: CW for mention/discussion of Boothill leaks)

[sskk-manifesto]

Ep 5!!!

[paperboy64]

I personally think a lot of the games industry layoffs coming from publicly traded companies is a shortcoming of capitalism. But like how can I even begin to explain that? The fact that it's illegal to run a company like that without doing everything in your power to maximize profits is killer. Because that means do everything in your power to make money now, within this quarter. Nevermind about long term. You have to do as much as you can right now. And I see layoffs as part of that. It's an immediate relief for a business to not have to pay as much out, but what about a year from now when you don't have those employees' labor anymore? What of the games they didn't make for you? Or the disruption to the employees who stayed?

For a game like destiny who switched to a fascinating live ops model with d2, surely you need to keep developing new things to keep the velocity high? You said the revenue follows from there? So why reduce your velocity so much so suddenly? Short term gain vs long term gain?

I'm sure things are more complicated than I'm making them out to be, but this keeps happening and I really just need to have something to believe as to why. I want there to be a reason so that there can theoretically be a solution.

[seaweedstarshine]

[QUESTION: I'm wondering, when watching Doctor Who, could the Doctor could be diagnosed with ADHD?]

MATT SMITH: Probably, yeah. I mean, I probably can. Yeah, I mean I think the Doctor could be diagnosed with a lot of things. He’s a pretty strange, mad creature. He’s got a lot of alien afflictions, I’m sure. But yeah, why not! Why not.

Q&A Matt Smith Heroes Comic Con Brussels 2022