#Critical Core

[annemarieyeretzian]

new favorite thing: liam showing off the nat 20 he rolled on his dorian die

and then robbie just

(obvious bonus: travis saying “barf.” 😂)

[invinciblerodent]

Ngl, some people's "I wasn't allowed to be an irredeemably evil shitbird, ergo Veilguard is not an RPG" argument is extra funny to me, because I don't actually think there is a conceivable narrative in which, if your Rook did something as objectively amoral as selling people into slavery, they wouldn't wake up the next morning floating untethered in the raw Fade with Neve's bootprint on their ass, and the Lighthouse no more than a distant blip on the edge of their vision.

Like there is a lot to get into here that I just don't have the time or the spoons to go through, but I'd argue that one of the biggest strengths of Veilguard's writing is that the main cast are all very well-defined characters with their own sets of morals, ethics, and goals, and they collectively have more than enough of a backbone that if Rook did something that proved them incapable of leading the team to the story's climax and/or proved them to be of no benefit to them, they wouldn't fail their quest: they would just swiftly and efficiently get rid of Rook.

[emily-axford]

CRITICAL ROLE: CAMPAIGN 3 Episode 117: Race to the Ruidian Core

[ceaselesswatchersspecialboy]

The more I think on it, Arcane season two fundamentally doesn’t work as a story for Zaun or Piltover because it misses the entire point of the two cities: in a world of magic, they are cities of invention and science.

Visually, they’re based on Steampunk and Cyberpunk, which works for what both cities represent. Steampunk is associated with the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the Victorian era, and is thereby representative of invention and bringing humanity forward into an era of new technology, fitting for the City of progress. Meanwhile, Cyberpunk is associated with a society oppressed by technology, and often the rebellion against that society, or how the people suffer under it.

To Zaun and Piltover, magic becomes science, notably in the form of Hextech. It blurs the lines between the two, and truly does encapsulate the phrase ‘magic is just science we don’t understand yet’.

A lot of Piltover and Zaun’s champions are designed around this idea, and it’s what creates the unique appearance of the region.

This focus on technology and how discovery impacts the people also worked in season one’s favour, as it felt more down to earth almost, despite the fantastical world, and allowed us to explore the society over the fantasy, which worked for the story Arcane told.

Season two flipping this on its head, and making the science into magic, erased the identity of Piltover and Zaun and what made the lore and the characters unique from the rest of Runeterra in the first place. It makes the world feel smaller in the process as well.

[noneoutofnone]

Getting whiplash going back to Armored Core VI after playing Starfield

Starfield trips over itself letting you know all of the quests are chill and good actually. The choices in dialogue range from doing a good deed to doing a good deed… for money😈. The only way to join the Space Pirates is to be offered the chance to go undercover first, making sure you see the Pirate but you’re a good guy option. If a persuasion check with someone fails, leaving you only with the prompt [Attack], your companion will say something to the effect of “woof, that was rough. But you did what you had to do.”

The most recent mission I finished in Starfield was for the United Colonies. You stand in front of a council of bureaucrats trying to convince them to hand over banned archival weapon data. This could help stop a small but growing danger to the galaxy. The council argues that it could also lead to that weapon falling into the wrong hands - It was locked away for a reason. It’s a great moment because it was the first time a character in starfield stood up and said to me No, you are in the wrong here, your research could lead to the weapon data leaking, civilians will be put it danger. ALERT. oh no. ALERT. Just as this conversation is happening an entirely contained but also extremely dire attack occurs. ALERT. You rush out and save the day. The threat is proven to be real and the data is necessary. No more questions about is it the right thing to do. Forget about all that other stuff we brought up, you were right. The whole council apologizes to you profusely. Here, take the nuclear launch codes, and here’s a thousand credits as an apology for insinuating that you weren’t the galaxy’s goodest bestest boy.

Mission 1 of Armored Core 6 is called “Illegal Entry”.

In mission 4 “Destroy the transport helicopters” the helicopters are just that. No weapons. Trying to run from you. The rubiconians who stand between you and the helicopters are defending their families. During the fight the enemies bark about you being the bad guy. After the mission your Dad calls you and says “It’s just a Job 621. All of it.” Throughout the entire game you are flooded with voicemails, calls, voices in your head, that all have an opinion on whether what you’re doing is good or bad or just a job.

Starfield is telling you not to think about it too hard. Armored Core is telling you to think about it. A lot. Screaming at you to think about it. What are you doing. It’s not just a job. The game is talking about your actions through all sorts of different lenses.

It’s stepping out of a lazy river and then immediately riding down Niagara Falls in a barrel. Sometimes literally. You see the same safe boring landing cutscene a million times in Starfield. Twice 621 has packed themselves into a barrel and yeeted it into danger.

[yashley]

exu calamity rewatch: "Your brilliant detective’s mind looks at a room and begins to piece together stories, tiny fractions of a detail."

[tangyyrine]

The thing about Viktor being confirmed asexual is that it’s bad representation.

And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing for Viktor to be viewed as ace. What I mean is that in 2024, we have long outgrown this “oh actually this character is queer!” in interviews from writers, directors, etc when they never actually depict it in the show itself.

You want Viktor to be ace? Great! Fucking show it then?

How are you going to say “someone from the LGBTQ Group at Riot told me that asexuality is often poorly represented”. AND THEN in the same breath, you’re going to say that Viktor can’t experience romantic love because of his asexuality, when that’s actually a huge misunderstanding about what asexuality is?

You can’t act like you properly represented asexuality when viewers wouldn’t even know Viktor is ace unless they read this interview.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Market based mistakes.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[ingoodjesst]

have you put the pieces together yet, detective

[sparring-spirals]

Still emotional about Fy'ra Rai and Opal, actually. Thought dump time bc i. dont have the energy to cut this down effectively.

Because at that point in the episode, Opal is doomed. Not in the fun little "oh things are getting worse ;)" kind of way we'd been experiencing leading up to the fight, or even IN the fight. At that point in the fight, Cyrus is dead. Dorian and Dariax have their minds twisted, bodies clambering away from the fight. Morrighan has felt, firsthand, just how far gone Opal is, holes in her mind, her friend broken. The heartbreaking sentence of. "You can always come back." understands that she is gone already. She's lost already. Opal has forgotten Ted. Opal has forgotten herself.

So at that point in the fight, we know Opal is doomed. Us as the audience, the cast, the characters. Aabria is running through each of the other crownkeepers and it is more of a goodbye than a round of combat. Defying the Spider Queen invites death, with zero hesitation- Cyrus's body as physical evidence of that. The terms were very clearly set: You leave Opal, you let her be lost. Or you die. (Leaving Opal anyway).

and Fy'ra Rai then. Grasps the crown, understands intimately that she can break it off and it will kill Opal. (I will free you, if you want me to. We would lose you but you would not be taken). And asks, what do you want me to do. What do you want.

and Opal says, I want you to leave. (I want you to live.) and Fy'ra Rai functionally says. No. Sorry. That's not one of the options.

If you wanted to go. I will do that (your blood on my hands). If you want me to stay, I will. But I'm not going to leave you.

There was the point where Fy'ra Rai broke into the communication and I felt my insides sink because. Look. Lets be real, Aabria had already demonstrated the stakes here. The gesture would not be rewarded for the gesture alone. The Spider Queen's terms were: You leave Opal. Or you die.

And Fy'ra Rai said: no.

I don't think I'm overstepping to assume that if Fy'ra Rai had failed the intimidation check, she would have died. This entire thing hits me so hard because I think Anjali knew that too. I think Fy'ra Rai knew that too. Yes, Fy'ra Rai convinced a Betrayer God to negotiate. She carved a third option out of a non-negotiable situation. She knew what would happen if she failed and did it anyway, with no fear, no regret, no waver in her resolve. She had lost enough sisters. She wasn't going to lose anymore, no matter the personal cost. That's part of why it succeeded, I'm sure, but.

Just. Fuck me. The amount of resolve. The amount of love. The amount of conviction. "I am. A protector." You know your friend- your sister- is doomed. So no more negotiating away from that. You step to her side and you grasp her hand and say- doom me with her.

And in some, sideways way, this saves you both, at least for a little while.

Because this story is a tragedy. This ending is a sad one. We know this already. But think about- Opal, under Lolth's bidding, alone in the dark. Think about Fy'ra Rai, alive, intimately aware that she had failed to protect yet another sister.

And think about what we got, instead: the two of them, in deep darkness, danger encroaching- holding hands. Someone they love at their side. A champion. And her champion.

This is still a sad story. But it's not the same one. Fy'ra Rai stared down a Betrayer God and made her change her mind. She stared down a Betrayer God, and her love and conviction changed the nature of the story. It shouldn't have been able to. But she did.

Fy'ra Rai chose to doom 2 people instead of one, and the sheer strength of her love and will managed to save them both, at least for a little while. Isn't it funny how that works? Isn't it devastating? Isn't it. fucking incredible?

[annemarieyeretzian]

dorian, coriolus standing resolutely beside him, turning to orym and asking “it’s up to you. do you want to be a mounted fighter?” OH OK DORIAN THE SECOND SON AND HEIR TO THE THRONE OF THE SILKEN SQUALL SUMMONED THE GREAT EQUINE DRAGON STEED FOR ORYM, FOR HIS HALFLING FIGHTER BOYFRIEND, I AM CAPABLE OF BEING SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS,

[elemental-plane]

i was struck with a vision

[emily-axford]

CRITICAL ROLE: CAMPAIGN 3 Episode 117: Race to the Ruidian Core

[agoldenblackbird]

Ranty Bitch Vol. 4: Buck and Eddie's Friendship

started my own post instead of adding on bc WOW this got long, but seeing sadieb798 's addition to this post reminded me that YEAH, buck HAS bent over backwards for eddie and chris. like friendships aren't transactional or they shouldn't be but if you tally things up its very uneven and that's a glaring red flag.

buck has:

-given up endless days off to babysit christopher so eddie could go out on dates, work without buck, go out with other friends, and cheat on his girlfriend!

-he also got voluntold to babysit when carla wasn't available when he was recovering from the embolism and severely depressed! eddie said buck being off work - the thing he was so depressed about he literally wasn't getting out of bed - was CONVENIENT for EDDIE.

at the time it was supposed to be a joke i'm sure. but looking back through all of canon it's like...really? oh so you only do care about what he can do for you, you even said the quiet part loud.

-he saved eddie's life

-he saved chris' life

-he brought carla into their lives and solved eddie's childcare issues after eddie had been floundering for months already [math: couple weeks-1 month at the 118 (or could be much longer, bc maddie went through all of dispatcher training between 2x01 and 2x02, time is fake on this show) plus 5 months for the academy plus however long he was in LA before that. a long time to be without consistent organized childcare and relying solely on favors from women in your family who have their own lives and in pepa's case a full time job!] it's implied by the vague 'programs' and how applying for one can disqualify you from others that carla was able to also help him get funding from the state for chris' care, so this solved a serious financial issue for eddie as well.

-he grovelled for forgiveness for not being there for EDDIE after buck had suffered the extensive trauma of 3 near-death-experiences in a row and had to fight to get his job back when he was unfairly and illegally constructively dismissed because of personal bias on the part of his boss

-he forgave eddie for screaming at him in a grocery store and calling him exhausting and selfish even though eddie never apologised

-he put eddie up during the pandemic in his NO BEDROOM LOFT APARTMENT ffs, and considering eddie still had to pay rent on his own house buck probably did that for free

-he's cooked dinner for them (i think we only see this happen onscreen twice but there's indications it's a fairly regular thing, and that's labor and time intensive and also not cheap considering the price of groceries)

-he organized firefam christmas at the station when eddie was upset about letting down chris on their first christmas without shannon by having to work

-he ran to eddie's rescue in the middle of the night after his breakdown AND took over the running of the diaz household in the aftermath so eddie could focus on therapy and his own recovery, including helping clean up not just the metaphorical but the LITERAL mess eddie had made, complete with patching the holes in his walls

-gently intervened with worry for eddie's well being and mental health when eddie was cheating on his girlfriend with his dead wife's clone

-puts off his own life/wants/priorities and drops everything to deal with eddie's problems - the most glaring examples coming to mind would be all but moving into eddie's after eddie's breakdown and ignoring his newly-moved-in girlfriend, and rescheduling a date with tommy at the last minute after finding out about kim, but i'm sure there are others if i felt like an 8-season rewatch (reader, i do NOT)

-gave up his home - probably paying a penalty for breaking his OWN lease - to sublet from eddie so eddie could afford to move to texas

-and then functioned as his DAILY life coach/cheerleader/ersatz therapist when eddie, having impulsively quit his job and moved to el paso without talking about it with chris and bought a 'fixer-upper' aka money pit, had no job and was broke and floundering

-continued to coach him through staying and reconnecting with chris instead of giving up despite that meaning buck would get what he wanted - his partner and friend back. if he was actually as selfish as eddie likes to accuse him of being he could have said 'welp you tried, you're right it's time to move back'

-did not once say anything along the lines of 'i told you this was a bad idea' or 'hm what's going on with chris' health insurance now that you no longer have a firefighter job pretty sure uber doesn't have a benefits package' or anything else pointing out how eddie keeps on causing his own problems with impulsive bad choices and not learning anything from it (i would not have been able to resist! buck is way too nice!)

-and then there's the part where buck is always happy to step in and do the emotional labor w/ chris that eddie doesn't want to do or maybe doesn't have the ability to do, which is why i side-eye eddie being praised for being the best father EVAR. some examples:

-->when chris was upset about being lied to and how he was not like other kids/couldn't do everything after the skateboard incident, came up with a way chris Could Skateboard, Actually

-->it's said he often took chris to the zoo without eddie, to the point that they 'have the place memorized,' so he's involved in seeking out and scheduling these sorts of activities and probably also paying for them

-->buck is the one making cookies with chris for the pta bakesale, and he also helps with homework

-->and most importantly, buck has taken over difficult conversations with chris MULTIPLE times over a span of years including

------>struggling with people leaving/his father dating again

------>telling chris his father was shot

------>comforting/explaining to chris after his father had a breakdown and smashed up his bedroom with a baseball bat and scared the shit out of chris

------>not two-timing girls, which then turned into a conversation about his dead mom that eddie, despite listening in, continued to let buck handle for him

------>a second conversation about two-timing and how it's apparently fine when eddie does it, in order to convince chris not to LEAVE THE STATE. eddie really said 'hey i'm tagging you in, do your thing' instead of talking to his own kid after arguably the biggest parenting screwup made by a main on the show.

some of these buck just happened to be the person who was there or chris sought him out specifically, but at least twice eddie assigned him that task and it's implied in how he says it 'do what you ALWAYS do' that it's a regular thing.

on the other hand, eddie:

-helped save his life after he was struck by lightning (he gets half points for this because it was a group effort)

-took him to a poker game once to spend time together as friends that does not involve buck doing something for eddie (although it was arguably just to abuse his math skills for eddie's entertainment/gain)

-hosted one (1) dinner for buck and taylor that he actually cooked himself which i'm sure was a HUUUUUGE sacrifice in eddie's mind considering how terrible a cook he was and how much he hated her...

-sometimes throws his child at buck when buck is depressed or upset (i'm only listing this bc eddie probably thinks of it as something he has 'done for buck.' EYE don't think using your child as a combination of meat shield/inspiration porn (christopher never feels sorry for himself) and essentially putting the burden on chris of making buck feel better instead of eddie himself saying 'hey i'm worried about you, do you need to talk about it' and then listening to him, or saying 'hey, that was shitty of me to pick a fight with you and say all those mean things, i didn't mean it and i'm sorry' - y'know, being a FRIEND - is something he should be praised for)

-was very supportive when buck was angry and spiralling about his parents' bullshit (this was legit a very lovely friendship moment! back when eddie's character had potential and i had hope! oh, those halcyon days)

-gave buck refuge from maddie's micromanaging post-lightning strike, asked how he was, listened to the answer, and gave advice/encouragement/support from his own NDE experience (genuinely, no sarcasm, this was A+ good friendship and a standout moment. unfortunately it doesn't make up for *gestures vaguely at canon*)

-forgave buck for spraining his ankle/said through the proxy of tommy that he felt bad for excluding buck. it was an Everyone Sucks Here situation because Eddie was being thoughtless but that doesn't give buck the right to bodycheck him bc he's jealous. (people get hurt playing sportsball yes, so it's debatable if it was really on purpose although buck himself alludes to it not being completely accidental in the convo with maddie). it was still kind of eddie to understand where buck was coming from without needing it spelled out or going but whatabout meeeeeee. i'm just salty because clearly he's CAPABLE of seeing things from buck's perspective and being understanding and fair, and most of the time he'd just rather use buck as an emotional punching bag and accuse him of 'making everything about himself.' the time when buck arguably WAS making things about himself that weren't - ie eddie making a new friend - eddie doesn't say that. but when buck is having emotions in a way eddie doesn't like or finds inconvenient, suddenly the verbal knives are out.

-wasn't a homophobe when buck came out to him, although that's kinda bare minimum for being a Non-Awful Human plus he managed to insult him twice in that 10 minute conversation soooo... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-and gave buck custody of his son if/when he dies which is arguably actually for chris's sake and for eddie's own peace of mind, considering that eddie's not dead yet, but he already has a habit of outsourcing the parts of parenting he doesn't want to do to buck!

[ruporas]

i killed. i murdered. i'm nothing like these sleepy people here… nevertheless, you can actually be grateful? bastard… i’m saying… thank you. because you spilled blood, you saved all of these people’s lives. i couldn’t have done it without you. (ID in alt)

[thequibblingking13]

Fearne Calloway, the woman that you are

(Zoom for better quality bc this file is big as fuck)