#HE IS THE MAIN VILLAIN OF THE GAME

[ndostairlyrium]

Shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. Then copy/paste this top ask your favorite mutuals. 💛

Tagged by @greypetrel <3 Thank you so much dear!! Hopefully the playlist I've chosen gets me diverse genres °-°''

"Unbroken (Hotel Baby)" by Monster Magnet

"Breaking Me Down" by Soil

"A Secret Place (2004 remastered)" by Megadeth

"Descent - Aftermath" from the DAI Descent DLC soundtrack

"Tooth Fairy" by Nanowar of Steel

...and it didn't. hahahah I mean, except the Descent suite which is like, my favorite soundtrack throughout the games << at risk of being controversial, I prefer it to the Trespasser one. They're both gorgeous of course, but I can't really command my preferences

I'm tagging: @underneathestars @daggerbean @layalu @m-bj @n7viper and whoever feels like sharing some music u-u

[crv1meiko]

[archivistea]

OH MY GOD.

[youssefguedira]

watching a video about unanswered questions in totk and it's like. well i can answer these! it's because nintendo doesnt care about the story and overarching preexisting lore that much

[smilesrobotlover]

Groose 🤝 Astor

Not being added to a hw roster for some reason

[sonknuxadow]

idk how to word my thoughts so sorry if this is incomprehensible but its really cool seeing sega portraying shadow as like. heroic and cool and highlighting his positive traits and making him the protagonist of an upcoming thing. after so long of just reducing him to asshole rival and even occasionally going as far as to label him (and the rest of team dark) as a villain or place him in the same category as characters like eggman. please for the love of god let sxs generations be some good shadow food

[quibbs126]

One thing I’ve been thinking about for the past couple days, but something I’m not the biggest fan of with Kingdom is how the majority of the Cookies of Darkness are played more for jokes than they are for serious. And thus in doing so, the CoD itself doesn’t feel like that much of a threat

Like yeah, I like seeing stuff with the CoD just doing silly stuff, and I don’t need them to be super dark and serious 100% of the time, but like, of the Cookies of Darkness, the only characters that are consistently treated like an actual threat are Dark Enchantress Cookie and Pomegranate Cookie, though even then sometimes she’s part of the gag. And sure, some of the characters in the main story may be treated like a threat, like Red Velvet (despite his one appearance) and Affogato, but then also you’ll have them in a boy band or chilling at the rock festival, totally incognito

And again, it’s not that I don’t enjoy this stuff, but it’s just, how am I supposed to take the Cookies of Darkness as a serious threat when you’re putting them in boy bands and school AUs? Especially when more often than not, it’s the jokey route they use with them?

It’s part of the reason I don’t really see why we need all these Legendaries and Dragons and armies to fight Dark Enchantress, because 80% of the CoD are a bunch of silly little guys. I know realistically DE is powerful and has her Cake Army, hence why they need all that power, but that impression that they’re actually a threat doesn’t typically come to mind for me. But maybe that’s a me thing

And like, honestly I’d say Ovenbreak does it better when it comes to having the CoD seem like a threat. Sure I haven’t seen every event with them involved and I know they only show up like, once in a blue moon, but they usually cause actual problems, and if anything the fact that we see them so little makes them feel more significant, and like Dark Enchantress is more of a looming threat

I dunno, that’s just how I feel

[sage-nebula]

One obscure little Sonic thing that always lives rent-free in the back of my head is the Bad End to 8-bit Sonic 2, where it's implied that Eggman followed through on his threat to kill Tails since Sonic didn't bring him the Chaos Emeralds. It's ambiguous, so people who just don't want to think that happened can believe that, but the music cues in the updated re-release of the game and the fact that Tails just isn't with Sonic in the Bad End (and why wouldn't he be, if he were alive?) suggest otherwise to me.

Anyway, setting aside the fact that I don't think Sonic let Eggman live for very long after that (because there are a lot of things that Sonic can forgive but killing Tails isn't one of them), I also think about how Sonic would have to live after that knowing Tails was dead, knowing it was because he failed to save him . . .

. . . but also, thinking about multiverse shenanigans, I also think about, what if that Sonic encountered canon!Tails . . . a Tails who was successfully rescued / protected by his Sonic, who got to grow up to do amazing things like save Station Square from a nuke, and protect Sonic just as many times as Sonic protected him, and create amazing inventions and clean energy that helped the planet instead of hurt it.

And of course Sonic from the 8-bit Bad End would be proud, but also he'd be hit by the fact that . . . wow. His Tails could have done all that. His Tails could have grown up to be so brilliant, so amazing, such a positive force for the world, if he hadn't been murdered when he was 4 because Sonic didn't have all the Chaos Emeralds when he went to confront Eggman that one time.

It would be hard for Sonic from the 8-bit Bad End to look at Tails for a number of reasons, not the least of which being he misses his own little brother so badly—but also, knowing all that his Tails could have accomplished if he'd lived, and knowing that he'll never ever have the chance? Yeah, that would add a whole other layer to it, too.

[ultimateinferno]

Will I ever expect Nintendo writing a Ganondorf who's trying to break the curse and end the cycle? No. I simply think their faithful adherence to the nature of fairytales about the knight rising up to face evil and save the princess is simply that strong. It's a classic (in the most literal sense cite Perseus and Andromeda). It's why I don't believe in a playable Zelda until I see it with my own eyes.

While the earnest nature of providing interesting spins on this millennia old formula is rather endearing, I would welcome earnest breaks in turn as well. Yet until I see it, I simply won't be holding my breath for when it comes.

[sunnysideaeggs]

We spent 8 seasons watching how everybody south and north of the wall scorned Jon for being a bastard and how even the doubt of the future king being illegitimate (while having the very plausible excuse of looking like his mother) burst a giant war where almost everybody dies and now we are supposed to believe Rhaenyra putting bastards (that don’t even look like her) on the throne has no political repercussions whatsoever?

[adorabledaylilly]

I think the reason people separate Machine!Connor and Deviant!Connor so much as characters is because they don’t actually understand his motivations in the story. They don’t separate Violent!Marcus and Pacifist!Marcus because his motivation doesn’t change, his means do. Same with Kara. But Connors motivation isn’t as clear as theirs is so people default to the difference being caring about the mission or not, when the mission isn’t his motivation. His motivation is self preservation. The desire to be needed and useful; to live. The only difference really being if he is selfish about his self preservation or empathetic. Every defining moment for Connor is rooted in empathy or apathy, does he prioritize his own survival or does he lend empathy to others understanding that they want to live too?

[bam-monsterhospital]

Verner Vogel thoughts...

verner vogel is such a great villain. like yes, a good character in general, but agh what a fantastic villain.  let me try and parse it into words and coherent sentences hang on.  (obviously, spoilers for the game “Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One” below)

I think what struck me first about him, realizing his danger, is that he is competent.

He’s an art snob that waxes poetic about philosophy-

Wait come back, i see you rolling your eyes and getting up from your chairs, hold on though.

He’s an art snob that waxes poetic about philosophy, and he actually knows his shit.  I’m not talking just art-shit, techniques and people and style and all that, but the sociopolitical movements behind the art; y’know, the world-feelings art reflects and inspires.  He curates art, he paints, he has a vast collection of pieces and network of people he knows in and around the industry.  He fulfills every vapid (no shade, i myself am also a visual artist) norm and requirement for involvement in the art world... but there is substance underneath.  The aesthetics, the surface-level existence of the art world hollows out a person; it cares only for what is shown up front but fails to delve deeper. It does not care about ‘deeper’, has no use for ‘deeper’.  As much as individual creators might want their works to inspire further critical thought and introspection, at the end of the day art is most valued for its ability to entertain.  All flash, no substance.

Of course, Verner knows this, seems to have made that discovery a LONG while ago (the air he carries feels tired and familiar with his world) while passing through the jaded artist phase that tends to result right after, and has taken to this superficial existence like wildfire, embracing the decadence of it all.  And yeah here we get into an actual artistic, literary, and as such technically philosophical movement that happened in the real world with its own critiques that people to this day continue to misinterpret (even the word ‘decadent’ itself is grossly misused. constantly), so go wiki the decadent movement as i’m trying to hold back writing a gaddamn novel, adhd-brain-spiraling out of control about it.

Verner delights in rot and decay.  Verner embodies rot and decay, but specifically the parasitic rot and decay of those who abuse their power: he is (yes i know he’s german) british colonialism and how it has left cordona, he is the waste from kurt manchios’ excessive parties as manchios’ son starves, the culture of (white, cismale, british) entitlement that led to the rape of a refugee woman with no consequences, the apathy towards an animal’s suffering at human hands, and so on and so forth.  Verner is a representative of this rot and also a curator of it, literally AND figuratively.  He is self-aware.  As I’ve said before, Verner is not mindless, he’s not a fool.  He’s competent.  Unlike most willingly and inadvertently partaking in a decadent lifestyle, Verner knows full well what’s left in the wake of such excess.  He’s not horrified by it; it might at first seem like he doesn’t care at all --like most who partake in it-- and just hopes to gain small glints of fulfillment from a shallow wasteful lifestyle.  But as i already said, he does care: the process fascinates him.

And i’m not just talking physical degradation. I’m not even talking just about waste.  Vogel also delights in corruption; in the rot one person can influence in another psychologically.  This what his relationship with Sherlock boils down to: Verner Vogel wants to know how far he can push and nudge and influence a psychological breakdown.  He wants to take the shiny surface of a person that is barely keeping back turbulant waters underneath, and poke some holes, allowing gradual leaking and eventual overflow.  The historic tie between Vogel and Holmes’ families being a poetic bonus.

I’m gonna stop there, because i wanted to go into the thematic counterbalance Verner provides against Sherlock’s worldview and relationship with ‘truth/reality/information’, but things are long enough and this has sat in my drafts for way too long as is.  Maybe I’ll do a part-2 or something later.

[anxiously-sidequesting]

So I don't know if it was ever revealed how Duncan felt when we killed Malistaire all three times but I'm wondering if maybe some part of him could hate us for that too. Like you hear that and you go "but why. Malistaire was terrible and even Duncan knew that(?). Why would he hate you for getting rid of him."

But like I think it's so....... interesting in a very, very, very sad way how Duncan so easily latches onto anyone who directly feeds into his delusions of grandeur. And that's no fault of his own that he was manipulated by the nasty Schism but when you think about how desperately clung to the idea that Malistaire, easily one of the greatest necromancers any of us had ever heard of (at that time), somehow actually recognized Duncan's talents (even when canon supports that Duncan wasn't all that talented, at least no more than the next necromancer) and then praised him for it so often that Duncan believed that he would be the next Death Professor is. I mean ☹️

So like with that mindset I unfortunately feel like it would be quite easy to twist even Malistaire's death as something that's horrible and awful and all our fault. ESPECIALLY if the Schism was feeding into Duncan's already broken mind and shattered ego and was constantly telling him that everything bad that ever happened to him ever in his life was Our Fault. That's like a realistic conclusion that someone like Duncan could come to

And like, at this point in time, are Malistaire's crimes even a factor in how he thinks????? Was Duncan ever able to separate Malistaire's talent and skills and prowess from the terrible and awful things he did? If Duncan wasn't able to consciously tell that distinction in the first place I can't imagine it would be any better during the years he was being manipulated and isolated and lied to

Like in Duncan's mind it probably isn't, "maybe I shouldn't idolize a national criminal, or idolize anyone at all for that matter, and aspire to be like someone so harmful when I can recognize my own talent and build from there" it's probably more like, "you (the wizard) permanently got rid of a brilliant mind, an innocent person who just made a few mistakes, and someone who believed in me no matter what just so that you could be the better than me and loved by everyone else" and that's! very sad actually!

[corellianhounds]

“You have done the highest honor of the Creed: Saving a foundling.”

I take umbrage with this statement in the larger context of the show this season because Mando still has yet to have what I think is a pretty significant conversation with the Armorer concerning why he removed his helmet in the first place since that ⬆️ was precisely why he did it

This season has largely brushed past one of Din’s biggest internal conflicts by never showing the audience how he feels as an exiled member beyond him asking how he can atone, not discussing with the Armorer why the transgression was done or in what context— which they apparently didn’t have to address because hey, look, the kid’s back with him again, oh also we’re not going to talk about that despite the Armorer telling him to take the kid back to his own kind in season 1— making it barely an inconvenience to ‘redeem’ himself in the end anyway, and by overshadowing his ritual redemption by knocking him out when he goes into the waters and having him sink to the bottom, having to be saved by Bo-Katan (when we still don’t know why she saved him at all), AND by having his return to the covert and Armorer be overshadowed by Bo-Katan’s out of place induction into the covert.

If they want to credit Bo-Katan with ‘saving’ the Mando kid because she headed up the hunting party even though Din was the one to actually grab the kid in the end, fine, whatever, but it is also the most overt way to again show that everything of value that Din has done this season has still been pushed to the side in favor of showcasing Bo-Katan

Unless they’re leading up to Din having some ego issue regarding Bo-Katan’s popularity and place within the covert because of how much he’s being shoved aside (which is entirely out of character for him), I’m not sure why they aren’t making him and his character more of the focus of the season. We’re not getting anything from him regarding his feelings or direction in terms of the bigger picture, which is why all of the episodes feel like filler— They’re achieving plot points like a checklist instead of showing us how Din feels about anything by not tying the emotional stakes to the physical ones. There’s no tension or narrative weight to any of these actions. His dialogue regarding the Creed, his redemption, and teaching and bonding with the kid (his character’s two main focuses) has been factual and exposition-y without feeling like his story is being told.

[goldensunset]

https://youtu.be/wXUvkBt2lSo?si=b58cnb04eWqgzQ9H here's the volo event!

i am like… really,,,,,,, i like. i needed that volo and n scene to be longer. i think n is smart enough to figure things out. the others didn’t suspect a thing other than thinking he was a little odd but like n looked like he wanted to say something more about volo’s togepi. what did she actually say. idk it is just very much interesting that like you said n never lies and he’s always really blunt and awkward but i mean like. idk. it would make sense that togepi would really love volo bc he does evolve her eventually and it would be an odd thing for n to lie about unless he didn’t want to embarrass volo but maybe like she not only said that but indicated that there’s something lowkey insane about volo lol

also the thing about him saying aaaaummmm idk if i can talk to deity pokémon or not teehee. there wasn’t like a beat or a facial expression that would indicate he was panicking and lying on the spot but it could’ve been that he clocked that something was up with that guy thanks to what togepi said and he had already made up his mind to not let too much slip. which would be an impressive poker face to keep knowing that guy cuz he’s blunt and honest by nature. but anyway one thing is for sure like you said the answer to that question should have been a definitive yes so why would he say he didn’t know 🤔

[licorishh]

Replayed Modern Warfare 3 2011 on Veteran tonight and goooooooood night. Blood Brothers never gets any easier to watch no matter how many times you've done it and the ending really never misses huh

I apologize for the amount of yapping in the tags I reread it all on mobile and started giggling because it went on for so long but eh. Blessed are those who won't shut the freak up and all that