#I hate seeing people shoot themselves in the foot like this

[maream-zaream]

Just heard about The Watcher streaming announcement video, and dang. I’ve never seen a company misjudge their fan base so, *so* hard in my life. Like, I’ll concede on the wanting a higher budget and more creative freedom but like. Guys. You have like 2-3 shows *at most* that people genuinely get excited for. That is NOT ENOUGH to justify a $6 (or more if your non-US)/ month streaming service.

Also, if money really is that big of an issue, why don’t you turn on YouTube memberships? Like, you acting as if you’ve exhausted all other options, but you haven’t even turned on the thing that like every other YouTuber turns on to make more money without alienating their audience. Also, in regards to their apparent want to become “TV quality” (something that no YouTube (let alone Ryan and Shane) watcher EVER wants), why??? Cause no (and I mean NONE) of you fanbase have ever even thought the existence of the feeling that a higher production cost was needed. I mean, I literally stopped watching a bunch of their stuff cause it started to feel too overproduced and corporate-/business-like. And also, may I remind you that streaming services have historically been considered literal money pits??? Like, even big dogs like Netflix and Disney have trouble turning a profit on these things, why do you think you — a singular YouTube channel with a singular YouTube channel level of output — could??

Additionally, like, the demographics just don’t add up! Like, even from a purely corporate, sterile, and logical perspective this decision makes absolutely no sense. Like, the vast majority of your audience are middle school to collet student in terms of age and/or budget. What makes you think that these people can afford to pay for this service even if they wanted to? Like, the platform literally only accepts card and isn’t accessible to a lot of non-US countries. Additionally, we’re also in a big international economic downturn. Like, guys, even the people who support this can’t really afford this!

Also also, and this is my personal opinion, but fire Steven. Either fire him or demote him cause it seems like he’s kinda of like a money pit for the company. His shows’ premises are based on things being horribly expensive and they’re also the least popular shows on the channel, making them, if anything, unprofitable and a waste of time and resources.

TLDR; this the most idiotic and greedy decision of I have seen in my life. And I’m a Pokémon fan.

[postmortemnivis]

no grave can hold my body down, i'll crawl home to her.

simon really meant it, every bit of it, he’d come back to you somehow. he would find his way back to you. wether it was walking through the front door quietly not to wake you up in the middle of the night or cold in a coffin. he’d rather have you hold his dead body than not to have you touch his skin ever again.

that’s what simon was thinking about as his ear ringed so loud he couldn’t focus on his surroundings. he looked up at the sky, so blue it almost didn’t feel right. why so blue when so much blood was being shed?

he occasionally would feel the ground he was laying on tremble, maybe a hand grenade, maybe a body falling next to his. the smell of gunpowder filled his covered nostrils and he could feel his lungs collapsing on themselves from the thickness of the air he was breathing. his eyes weren’t doing good either, filled with dust and sand from the dry earth.

it took him a few more seconds to focus his eyes on something, something that possibly wasn’t moving, his head spinning each time he tried to sit up. something was weighting on his legs, holding him down. he struggled to raise his torso and groaned at the sight of a large body blocking him. he let himself fall back down.

he was ready to go, a sharp pain to his side telling him he wouldn’t last long alone. he’d been through worse, way worse, the scar provided by the meat hook was proof of that, but something was telling him this was as bad. he was ready to go.

the only thing he could think about in his last moments was you. he thought he could see glimpses of you, maybe your hair in the corner of his eyes or he’d hear your laugh as another fire shooting started. his eyes searched for you frantically. he wanted to tell you to leave immediately, scream it at the top of his lungs, but his voice was caught in his throat and you weren’t really there. his mind just playing cruel tricks on him.

your name was repeated like a mantra in his head, repeating it so many times it almost lost a meaning. almost. a prayer, a chant. he sure needed to pray, for you.

he had been shelving the thought that tormented him for months. he wanted to go and confess his sins, he almost felt the need, his palms itching with haste anytime he thought about it. years had passed since the last time he had set foot in a church, so many that he had almost forgotten the reason for the visit. the ghosts of the past never abandon you, especially if they are people you love, especially if they are family, the innocent. its always the innocent who pay the highest price.

‘i wonder what she’s doing now, who’s gonna knock on her door and tell her im gone.’ he thought. ‘hopefully price. he’s the one with tact and the most considerate. he’ll help her when i’m gone, keep an eye on her.’

the sweet smell of your hair replaced for a moment the one of blood and gunpowder, your laughter still echoing in his ears. he pictured your sweet face and big innocent eyes looking up at him.

“promise me something?”

“mhm?” he hummed, surprised you were still up. his hand hadn’t stopped caressing your hair since you laid down on his chest, your hand resting on his collarbone as your ear listened to his calm heartbeat. “yeah, anything.”

“promise me you’ll always come back.” you whispered in the dark room. “promise me, simon.”

he nodded, taken aback by your request. you weren’t the fondest of his job, he knew it, he hated to concern you like he did.

“yes.”

“promise.” you urged. “please.”

he bent his head down and kissed the top of yours, his arm sliding down your back and drawing you closer by your waist. “i will, love. i’ll always come back to you.”

you sighed, the knot of thoughts in your worried head began to untie. “mh.”

“better now?” he softly asked. his voice was hoarse from his constant shouting orders at the obstreperous recruits. you gave a short nod. “i mean it.”

he groaned as he managed to get the body off of himself, struggling to get on his knees.

fucks sake, he couldn’t let you live with him gone like this. it was selfish of him to leave you in such an abrupt way, really. he tried to push away the image of you opening the door to find price with a carton box filled with simons stuff from the barracks with the balaclava and skull mask on top and your knees hitting the floor before he could even say anything.

his legs didn’t feel like they could hold his weight up, he immediately fell to his knees as he heard another rapid fire too near him for his liking. his gun was long gone, he had to manage to survive alone, again.

“crawlin’ it is.” he breathed as he started to drag his tired body with the strength of his arms alone. you had always praised his strength: he could lift you with one arm alone, you loved to be held and hold on to his arm anywhere and at anytime. that was the main reason he always pushed for more while training, and the motivation your sweet compliments always gave him now were gonna save his life. he made a mental note to kiss and hold you a little longer and tighter if he ever made it home alive.

he could see the building his team was supposed to meet up in case things got bad. it looked so far away that it was alarmingly close. maybe it was just his messed up vision, a mirage, but he could swear he saw you from a window looking at him, urgently motioning him to come.

he brought the thick balaclava above his nose so he could breathe better and as enemy gunfire continued to flow, he kept his head low as he moved dead bodies from his way.

he could hear your voice calling for him and he wanted to call you for you back, but the noises of the battlefield were hurrying him to get to the safe zone first.

he stumbled by the door as he brought himself up, one hand stabilizing him as he held on to the doorframe as the other went to press on his wound.

“lt!” johnnys voice called before he rushed to help him. “ye cheeky bastard, i told them not to leave yet, to wait for ye.”

“gaz saw you get shot.” price swung simon’s arm over his shoulder in order to help him to the nearest table, where he laid down.

“he saw that right.” simon bit the inside of his cheek as price inspected his wound, pressing on it. “is he a‘ight?”

“he’s fine, hit his head but had his helmet on, he’s getting checked out by the medics.” price informed him as simon winced at the sharp pain. “there’s at least two bullets in here, didn’t pass through, stuck.”

“just take ‘em the fuck out.” simon groaned. “how’s it lookin’?”

“you’ll live.” price patted his shoulder in comfort before he went to call a medic.

“we really thought we’d lost ye there, lt.” johnny’s face was glowing with sweat and blood, the black war paint smudged messily all around his face and his mohawk dusted.

“helicopter’s leaving in thirty, boys!” price’s baritone voice called from the other room.

simon scoffed, sighing and closing his eyes, finally letting himself relax as your figure started to fade from the corner of the room where it’d been standing, silently looking at him. “won’t lose me, can’t wait to go home, johnny.”

[largeworm]

It's genuinely kind of upsetting how quickly social media's keep shooting themselves in the foot to just have something to show to higher ups and making their sites more and more user unfriendly. It reminds me of the Oreo CEO skit from College Humor/Dropout TV.

The new Discord update for mobile is genuinely disheartening by how little they seem to care about people hating the new layout. Which honestly, the DMs now being at the bottom and no longer swipping to see server members is annoying. But as someone who very easily gets god awful headaches from heavy contrast and light, the new "default" themes are... very unfriendly to people like me. Let me show you the difference in old Discord's dark mode vs the new:

Like, holy shit, it's Bad. The new one on the right is barely usable for me, it was giving me strain after only an hour or two of use. And it's not even their darkest mode, which is pure black, but it's their only other option aside from pure white in Light Mode.

If you don't want eyestrain, you'll have to pay the 10$ a month nitro not to get migraines. I have the 3$ version, and I can not change the theme with it to their other options. I was able to fix it by fighting all of my settings for an hour to get it back to the original color palette, but jfc. I shouldn't have to reset all my phone setting, open and relaunch discord, and pray that it decides the "automatic setting" is the non-eyeball burning classic dark mode.

The world and social media is just slowly getting more and more unuser friendly, especially towards people with light sensitivity (I can rant for hours about car headlight luminosity regulations). Just kinda disheartening to see Discord so adamantly against changing any of the new UI stuff, especially is they decide to no longer have the class color palette accessible in the future :/

[theloneliestblackgirlblog]

adding onto yesterday but my biggest unpopular opinions on PJO show is

1) I don’t think the creators/writers of the show are responsible for the runtime so blaming them for it does nothing.

2) I think they’re doing the best with what they have budget wise laying the foundation of the show and hoping to expand upon it for later seasons. I think fans should give a bit more grace in that regard.

3) I think a lot of y’all are exposing yourselves/shooting yourselves in the foot when I see you complaining about some of the changes in the show whilst comparing it to the movie that a lot of you SELF ADMITTED to hating. It’s extremely hypocritical and exhausting to watch y’all be like “at least the movie did THAT right” because a scene in a 30 minute show was rushed when you have a whole manifesto on how you previously hated the movie.

4) I think a lot of people need to be honest with themselves and realize they were never gonna like this adaptation because you didn’t like how these kids looked.

5) I think a lot of fans need to remember that these actors are indeed children. So tread lightly when it comes to shipping or edits or whatever. These kids are not their characters even though we joke they do really well.

6) I think you can tell that the people running this show actually do care a lot about the books and the fans and are willing to move accordingly. Even accepting of criticism and I think that will aid in future success.

7) On the other end, I’m sorry but not all fan suggestions, theories, ideas and criticisms are valid or are going to be taken into consideration. And honestly we should be glad for that 🫶🏿.

[simply-ozul]

ok- so i see so much ronance angst and it makes sense for their characters, the shows and all yalls broken hearts

HOWEVER

that means that by default i have become the fluff master. for whatever reason, i cant get myself to make heartbreaking angst like everyone else unless its my own characters, so i will forever and always be fluffy. bittersweet from time to time, but fluffy

also a mutuals recent snippet killed me so i need a lil hurt/comfort typa stuff

here we go

robin helping nancys fear of steve’s pool

like i cant not imagine a pool party at steve’s with all the kids and nancy’s the only one who refuses to go in the water

steve(if he notices) doesn’t really feel worthy to help, so here comes robin

robin is immediately up next to nancy, chattin away like its another day

nancy knows robin can tell, which is why she appreciates it even more, even if she’s a little confused

when the kids all rush out of the pool to eat and cause a mess inside, followed by an exasperated Steve, Robin gently tugs on Nancy’s arm urging her to stay

They talk for awhile, about what happened, and why Nancy feels the way she does. Robin never pushes any of it, she simply offers her genius little ears to listen

When she’s finished, tears streaming down her face as she leans into Robin, the lanky girl just smiles down at her and pulls her up

Robin brings Nancy to the edge of the pool, stepping in herself and just.. standing. Nancy’s cnfused

“What are you doing?”

“Standing in the pool silly :)”

Robin holds out her hand patiently, smiling all the while Nancy has no idea what she’s doing

However, her curiosity gets the best of her, and delicately places her hand into robin’s

step by step, robin get’s nancy up to her knees in the water before she freezes, gripping onto Robin painfully

robin stops instantly, soothing her with gentle strokes on her arms

she’s gently praising her, but not coddling her. nancy hates being coddled

nancy gets the water to her upper thighs before she’s shaking her head, backing out of the water

robin lets her, following slowly

she’s surprised when nancy pulls her into a bear hug, mumbling a thank you into her chest

robin’s immediately stuttering out a “welcome”, patting the girl on the back

from then on, every time theyre at the pool, robin helps nancy get deeper and deeper unti she can float gently with a hand on Robin’s arm

the first time nancy dunks her head under, she panics. she shoots out of the water, immediately wrapping herself onto robin, who holds her tightly, soothing her with praise and soft touches

nancy feels like she might cry. she never thought she’d be able to step foot in any pool again, she never thought robin of all people would be so very patient and gentle with her

without much thought about it, she grabs onto robins face, shoving their lips together

robin squawks and freezes, but eventually relax

they spend the next few minutes just.. kissing. pouring all their love onto one another

when they finally walk into the house, giggling and smiling to themselves, steve is none the wiser, chalking it up to “girl things” as they called it

not sure how to end it so ima just cut it there

lemme know ur thoughts :)

[kiefbowl]

job interview advice pls!

Research the company before hand via their website. Try to mirror the language they use publicly. If they have a section about company culture, talk up company culture. If they have their mission statement on their website, try to appear to align with their values. You don't want this to feel too rehearsed or fake, so don't practice too much and don't try to memorize things off their website. Just read it up and get a sense of their vibe and the words they like to use, and keep it in the back of your mind. If it flows with the conversation, you could casually mention you saw something on the website you had a question about, thus proving you did your research (which is good!)

Have questions at the ready, and don't have zero questions. In fact have a lot of questions. Have questions about the job and company (and benefits!!!!!), but also have questions about career growth and the next step process. I always ask "how many other candidates are you considering?" because this will give you a sense of where you stand. For example, they might tell you "we have several more we're interviewing this week" or they might say "we've interviewed about five and will be discussing our decision tomorrow." Or they might be so vague you can assume they're not going to consider you past this point. Other great questions are "What are the next steps" and "How soon will you be making the decision" so that you aren't walking out unsure of when, how, or if you'll hear from them again. Be your own best advocate. Another thing to ask is questions about the company from the interviewer's perspective - "How long have you worked here? What's your career path looked like?" People love talking about themselves and this also demonstrates you're looking to fit into the whole infrastructure, not just trying to land a job.

Try to treat it like a conversation. It can be intimidating if you're just starting out, but if you try to come off as a pleasing yes man so excited to answer the questions they come up with, that's not going to be very memorable. Also if while answering a question, you volley back a question at them, you have now done a little exchange of power where you are now in control of the conversation a bit, because they will answer and then you get to say the next thing. Once they're talking about something, instead of being in the position where you have to come up with interesting things to talk about on the fly and hope they're relevant, they might remind you of something worthwhile to talk about. Is it more comfortable being asked "What sort of difficult choices have you had to make" or having a conversation with a person who might say "I remember when I was first starting out such and such thing happened" which might genuinely remind you of a relatable experience you had totally forgotten about. See the interviewer as a resource of knowledge, not just gatekeeper to what you want.

You have to seem like a fun and nice person, and you should be honest. "I'm a little nervous, I'm really excited about this opportunity" is not cringy, it's relatable and an ice breaker, and you've turned your negative "I'm nervous" into a positive "I'm eager." Things like "I'm looking for something that has flexible hours" might cost you an offer at a job you'd be miserable at, which can be frustrating at first but good in the long run. You obviously want to be selectively honest and present things in a professional way, but people don't want to work with wet blankets and ego maniacs. Cracking a joke, laughing, talking up hobbies, these are good things. Finding some common ground with the interviewer is fun too, because sometimes you knock them off track and you guys are just shooting the shit, and then they recommend you because they just remember liking you.

Treat the interview like a reasonable and good process, even if you hate it. Yeah, you're on the back foot. Yeah, it can feel inane sometimes. If you go into an interview with a sour attitude about how it should work differently, it doesn't matter how good of an actor you are, it'll come across. You won't be prepared to treat it like it's worth the time for both of you. The interviewer is there to find someone capable, worth the effort, with some potential, so treat it like talking to you is worth it when they probably have 100 other things they need to get back to. You're there to show you can do the job, you're fun to work with, and you want to fit into the company culture and infrastructure, so treat it like you're marketing yourself. You have to sell yourself not as the best person for the job, but the best person for the company, and you're happy to talk about it for the sake of the interviewer giving you a portion of their day!

[uglypastels]

Corroded Coffin, The Game of Lost Souls (1993)

Love them or hate them, there is no escaping Corroded Coffin. With chart toppers that occupy each radio in the country and controversies following them left and right, good luck finding someone who is not talking about the band these days. But what do the rockers have to say for themselves? To find out, our editors sat down for a conversation with Jeff, Eddie, Gareth and Dougie, spanning all topics from their upcoming new album, The Game of Lost Souls (available in your local record stores this month), to hopes for the future as well as a look back on their previous hits and falls + much much more!

I'm glad everyone could finally join us here, and I'm sure this question has been on your minds since then, so why not get it out of the way? What exactly happened at the AMAs?

J.P. - Boooo [laughs]. C'mon, next question.

The people demand answers, boys. It is, after all, not often that a broadcast gets shut down like it did that day.

E.M. - People demand entertainment. They want scandal and drama. They jump to conclusions and get angry about it, but the second they know and it turns out not to follow the narrative they dreamt up, they'll be just as angry.

But you can't say the same about the hotel room incident last month that was all over the glossy pages; it was all just a dreamt-up narrative by the tabloids, can you?

E.M. - Oh, no. That was completely my fault. But no worries, I paid for the damage.

I'm sure our readers will be happy about that. Then, let's move on to something you can talk about: the new album. How was it getting back in the studio for a third time? Were you nervous?

D.T. - You can say that. After Cryptic we doubted we'd ever set a foot back in there.

Because it wasn't as successful as you had hoped?

D.T. - Yeah, sure. [...] It was tough to get back to the right mindset. It's what helped make our first album what it is, but chasing that sort of high only sets you further back, and it took us a while to realise that.

So, what's different now? Why do you think it will work this time.

E.M. - We don't! As an artist, making something and putting it out there in the world is the biggest gamble you can make. All we can do is hope for the best and that it won't blow up in our --- faces.

But are you happy with the result you're bringing out? Proud?

J.P. - Abso----lutely. We've learned from our mistakes, taken all the feedback we could get without wanting to shoot our bloody brains out, and made the music we wanted to make.

G.R. - Yeah, we're back on our regular bullshit, baby, and I think the fans will see that too.

Any tracks you're most excited for people to listen to? And why?

G.R. - I think the people who sent me all those letters- if you know you know- last year will really enjoy "Scream for Initiative", especially the bridge.

D.T. - "Decade" and "The High Cliff" are great. They might be something new for us, but I think the fans will enjoy them.

E.M. - I would suggest everyone to put "Kneel and Pray" on their next sex mixtape, at least if you're into that kind of freaky shit. And yead, can't wait for everyone to hear "The High Cliff." I think we pulled off something great with that one.

J.P. - For me, it would have to be the title track, man. It just pulls everything together on the album. I got to go all out on the solo, which is always great fun. I definitely can't wait to play that one on tour.

Speaking of a tour, there had been speculation that there might not be one, but that is not true?

G.R -. I would like to think that there would be a tour no matter what we do because performing our music is why we do it and put up with everything else. But at the end of the day, there is much more to it than just us, and sometimes it doesn't go as planned, but the will is definitely there.

E.M. - I beg people to stop reading all this shit- except Black Market, of course - you're not gonna get anything good out of it. if you want fantasy, go read The Hobbit.

J.P. - It is pretty exhausting to walk past a newsstand and see that every cover and headline is another made-up story about you.

I'm sure it is, what's the weirdest one you saw come up?

J.P. - They're not all that bad. I like the ones where it turns out I'm secretly dating supermodels and actresses. It's nice to know that the public at least thinks I have some game.

D.T. - That's because the person who makes up those rumours has never met you. If they had, they'd come to their senses.

G.R. - I liked the one that suggested that Eddie made out with a dog.

E.M. - Yeah, I think they mistook your mom for it.

Let's keep it nice, boys.

E.M. - Sorry, sorry. [laughs]

[rest of the interview not found]

- the Corroded Coffin Archive (Source: Black Market Magazine)

[ass-deep-in-demons]

Boromir's adventures in New Zeland

screens and transcript from the Reunited Apart: LotR edition

Sean Astin: The first time Elijah and I met Sean, we were in Queenstown and there was a big flood and they were building sets on the squash court to try and find some way to uh…

Peter Jackson: As soon as somebody gets remotely boring it just freezes.

Sean Astin: The point is we were playing a video game and Sean Bean's character was 006 and I shot 006 in the head on screen with a perfectly photo-real likeness of Sean and then Sean walked right by afterwards.

Peter Jackson: ... The best story about that flood was that everyone was driving from the top of the South Island to the bottom to shoot, and some people were flying and some people were driving and Orlando and Sean Bean were in a car with Bridget Bourke, our production coordinator, and we were checking in with them to see what they were about.

Peter Jackson: It's a very remote part of the country (...), but what happened is the car that Orlando and Sean were driving over a mountain and they come around a corner and it's got a huge slip, you know, that the hillside's falling down, 'cause it was a torrential storm. They had to turn around to head back and do this long detour, they go around the next corner and it... the landslide was in front of them. They thought they'd actually left the landslide behind them! Okay so they were now stuck between two landslides in the remotest part of New Zeland, by themselves. There's an old lady living by herself in the house, so she invites them in for a cup of tea and they end up staying with her for about three days. Is that right?

Orlando Bloom: It was sort of like that. Okay, what happened was we got to a gas station, they said well... we were stuck between two roadslides and they said well, we've got some lodges accomodation, like backpackers' accomodation… And the first thing, the frist thing Sean got was...

Orlando Bloom: OH NO, NO, WE GOT MONEY! WE CAN PAY. So we had this one room and I remember Sean had the bedroom, I slept on the couch with Bridget in the same room. And then the whole crazy thing about this story though for Sean is that he hates to fly. Like literally, we had to take a helicopter to get to work and I remember sitting next to Sean in this helicopter going up over the...

Orlando Bloom: ... we had to go up over the [inaudible] to get to Queenstown and his hand on my knee, I will never forget it. It was like white knuckle… it was like a drop of only white and nothing…

Peter Jackson: ... It was because of that, that when we within a week or so we had a scene that we all had to be helicoptered up to this lake and it was quite high in the mountains, and Sean just said...

Peter Jackson: Look, I can't do it. I'll come very, very early, I'll get on me gear or borrow me gear and I'll start to climb. Just on foot. We were flying up and I looked down and there's this vast, vast cliff, and on the mountain I could see Sean, like a human fly, climbing up.

Elijah Wood: [hysterical laughter]

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Zutara shippers are doing an absolutely terrible job at getting people to hate Kaatang. Like I was someone who skipped all of their romance-coded scenes through the show because I didn't like them.

After seeing all the terrible Kaatang takes from them that butchered both characters and made me mentally write up defense posts, I have warmed up to it. It's now something I ship.

And it's thanks to Zutara shippers, as backwards as that sounds.

I never skipped Kataang scenes, but I was always much more invested in their friendship than I ever was in their romance - then saw Zutarians kept making shit up to trash it and it made me realize that the romance is actually pretty fucking good.

Kings and queens of shooting themselves in the foot.

[an-excellent-choice]

I was recently gushing at a friend about bg3 but didn't want to spoil her in the romance and the characters backstory.

So, I started comparing everybody with Dragon Age companions to give her an idea on everybody's personality.

Now I need to complete this list just for the sake of it.

Astarion: Zevran, Isabela, Morrigan

I know a lot of people compare Astarion and Fenris but honestly, I personally don't see them being similar enough( yes even with the slavery and white hair) they are just two different flavors especially in personality. They are similar in broad strokes but in the details not really.

Now with Zevran and Isabela, I can see. These two very sexual characters both use their sexualities and their daggers to manipulate those around them.

They both cope with their trauma with putting a mask of light heartedness and sexual freedom. The main difference of between Zevran and Isabela to Astarion is that Astarion is more upfront with his trauma.

The Morrigan aspect is his pragmatism. Astarion's killed or killed is similar to Morrigan. They both hate helping people as they don't see anything beneficial it. They are so used to the absence of kindness that any they see from the protag is seen as naivety or even fakeness because if there truly kindness in the world why did they never experienced themselves.

Gale: Anders, Merril, Solas

So the common trait I established from these characters that I see in Gale is them being blinded by their goals. These 3 all kind and mean well but they think their way is the only way to fix things. All these three are self serving to their selfish desires to the point it overwrites any kindness they have. They want to do something drastic to help others. Solas with elves, Merril her missing friends and Anders with mages but in the price of themselves.

Personality wise,Merril is also similar to Gale with her akwardness and naivety. Gale has a tendency to do akward moments in his enthusiasm and lackk experience in socializing. While the Solas is love information and informing others, he's very welcoming in sharing experiences.

Now, Anders. Specifically Anders dao and da2 Act 1-2 because Gale would never justify the means justifies the end mentality in act3 of da2. The basics commonalities: cat dad, mage, time bomb but the most damning similarity is that both Gale and Anders thought that they know better even though they were already warned. Gale with the piece of weave and Anders with Justice. They both essentially shot themselves in the foot by ignoring the warning signs.

(I'm not including Merril in the shooting of foot because her ritual was tampered she knew her risks and had actually prepared a kill switch just in case)

Wyll: Cassandra, Merril, Varric

The main thing I focused on this trio is responsibility. All these 3 has certain responsibility or expectations set upon them with a main conflict of whether they should just follow expectations or do their own will even at the price of losing support or their people

Wyll has heavy expectations on him and he himself always tries to put the well being of others before him even at the price of his soul.

Now personality-wise, Cassandra is an old romantic. Just like Wyll they both enjoy poetry and wooing. They both live for the romance even though they try hard to focus on only their duty they cant hide their soft squishy hearts.

Merril is kind and is always torn with her abandoning her duty to do what she thinks is needed to be done. She loves her people so much she will bear being seen as a monster to try to help them. *cough* wyll is the same*cough

Varric is charming as fuck but he also is kindaa running away from his responsibility until finally he was forced to take a stand. He accidentally helped start aspects of the mess but he will be damned if he doesnt try to help.

Okay, I'm running out of steam now. I'll do a part 2 for the ladies as this is also too long now.

[stxrmylxve]

Before I send more of just Kazutora, I have a thought: Chifuyu, Baji, Draken, Kazutora, and Mitsuya (each separately) with an extremely clumsy S/O. I'm talking like, they trip over completely flat surfaces, and when they do, they continue to trip for a while before they actually fall. Bumping into things all the time, slipping on ice, slamming themselves into doors because they're too excited or panicked about something and aren't stopping to think. This S/O falls over their own freaking feet, and has been heard thudding down stairs before (take my own clumsiness as an example, I once lost my footing on stairs and when I landed at the bottom of them flat on my behind as a teen, I just sat there, till my parents asked if I was okay and I yelled about the stairs being a problem for me lmao).

Somehow I picture this as more of a headcanon scenario, but little blurbs could go with it too for each of them, if you feel up to it! :3

Kazutora:

he doesn’t really react tbh

it’s normal for you, and he normally ends up doctoring you up anyways

he does stifle a laugh tho

ultimately, it is the subject of a tease he will shoot at you later on

if someone else makes a comment about it, he shoots them a dirty look

he does get worried sometimes and legit hugs your side in case you trip on something random

”You must be head over heels for me, huh?”

Chifuyu:

gets so worried he might even trip himself too

constantly watches you out of the corner of his eye

a good s/o, but a worrisome one

he hates seeing you hurt, that’s all :(

he sometimes asks baji for random help, bugging him about what to ask, how to help

and obviously baji has no idea either

but nonetheless, he asks if he can do anything, to which you have no clue either since you’re just so used to being clumsy-

Draken:

i’m sorry i think he is just a menace 😭

he might make a satire joke, go on full on panic mode, or make a joke so sexual it makes you blush crimson red

he is a bit of a wildcard

but he asks your family if you have it in your genes to fall and trip constantly

he does worry, but he facepalms most of it because you somehow have the skill to trip on literal air

Baji:

the first time you fell, you blushed so hard he took you to chifuyu’s house so that you could get ‘fixed’

from there on, he asked for help from chifuyu

doesn’t really understand that you just.. are clumsy

like he is clumsy too, but in a way that he might ‘accidentally’ punch someone or might leak a plan and might get hurt by that

so he somehow formulated in his head that you needed to get fixed by chifuyu if you ever fell

he normally just bandaged you up, not doing anything amazing or special

Mitsuya:

he can’t help but to laugh

he is used to seeing falling people, he has two little sisters after all

he doesn’t mind bandaging you up, or talking to you if you’re crying from a bad fall

he is always there for you, even if all you need is a bandair

gives those cliché moments all the time and kisses to boo boo to make the pain go away 🥹

legit the perfect guy for a clumsy person, fight me

[aloeverawrites]

We should start pitting hate groups against each other, it's really fun. Like they want to pit demographics against each other, we should do the same thing. Rn I'm focusing on men's rights activists and terfs, and I think it's gonna work lol.

Look terfs hate men and trans people, and mras hate women and trans people, so if we can convince them to leave the opposite genders and trans people alone and just fight the opposing ideology then we could take a nice break and watch two hate groups destroy each other.

Chill with the intersectional feminists and men's liberationists and work to help men, women and non-binary people instead of spend our time fighting them.

And both groups are recruited by the fascists alt-right so if they're fighting each other that won't work.

Hate groups are trying to untie with each other and divide the oppressed. We need to stick together to divide them.

Hey terfs that have just joined the party, so the sentiment I'm hearing is that MRAs are terrible and you guys are not. I can see why you don't think transphobia and therefore you are very unhelpful in the fight for equality, so from that perpective I see your point. And MRAs have been involved in more actual terroism.

Where you guys shine is helping far right conservatives (cough nazis) pass laws that are gearing up for a fascist society. Here's a video about it, prominent terfs are support pro-life, homophobic politicians and some terfs are fully calling for eugenics against trans people.

These politicians aren't going to stop with trans people, they hate gender non-conforming people and women too. So if you're going to hate trans people at least don't shoot yourselves in the foot by supporting terfs who are fully working with the alt-right. And don't worry I'm looking through my section of feminism trying to nazi-proof it too, it's a little easier as they tend to keep themselves away from trans people because they hate us, but it's still good to keep an eye out.

[harlowcomehome]

Omg what would he do? Like if a stranger came up in like a restaurant or something? And was like oh “when are you due” and puts their hand on her belly

He’d hate it. Matter of fact… :

You were seven months pregnant with Hazel and super exhausted all the time. You and Jack were attending an award show, you originally weren’t going to go but Jack was nominated and you had to show up and show out.

“Babe, I can’t believe you tried to hide your nomination from me” you said as you put your shoes on.

“And I can’t believe you think you’re going to wear heels, hell no. Take those bad boys off” Jack was incredibly overprotective these days.

“Babe, what else would I wear with a dress?” You giggled as you watched your husbands face change from happy to irritated.

“I don’t want you to get hurt and fall babe.”

You didn’t want to cause him anymore stress so you sighed, sitting on the bed you pointed to your high top converse.

“I’ll wear those but only because the dress is black so I guess it’ll look a little less weird” you eyed his expression as he excitedly grabbed them for you.

“Let me put lotion on your legs and feet? I’ll put them on for you” he smiled and you shrugged “works for me.”

On the way to the award show you were eating in the car, you had the most bizarre cravings but Jack didn’t mind. He thought it was cute and even kept a note in his phone of it all. Today you were eating a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Prior to getting pregnant you hated pickles but Hazel didn’t that’s for sure.

When you got to the award show you walked the carpet with Jack. Of course everyone was excited to see you two, especially with your growing bump. Most people asked if they could touch it but there were a few rude people who helped themselves. Jack would always shoot them a disapproving look, to which you were grateful for.

“I’m not a petting zoo, just ask” you giggled and he nodded “I wish they wouldn’t touch you at all. These are my babies” he smiled as he rubbed the front of your belly over your dress and then gave you a kiss.

You knew he was referring to both you and the baby as his babies.

Jack was doing an interview and you were standing in front of him, off to the side. Some fans had noticed you standing there and ran over to the fencing. You politely shushed them and whispered to them throughout the interview, you loved being able to put a face with his supporters. It wasn’t until a male fan reached through the fence and practically slapped the top of your belly without consent that Jack damn near lost it. He saw you wince and that’s all he needed.

“Excuse me for a moment” he looked at the interviewer with an eyebrow raised as he walked over to you.

“Are you alright? Did you give him permission to touch your belly?” You knew he was about to lose it, his eyes were wide and his nostrils were flared, his jaw clenched and…. Oh you’d give him another baby if you could.

“I’m okay babe, just got scared. I didn’t give permission though, no” you responded shyly as you clung to his side.

“Hey! You!” Jack pointed at the fan who did that to you. “Why do you think it’s okay to go around touching people without consent? Why would you slap a pregnant woman’s stomach like that? Are you dumb or are you stupid?”

“S-sss-sorry Jack” the fan stuttered “I was reaching out to touch her when I lost my footing and when I caught myself I accidentally went down too hard” he was scared shitless at Jacks reaction.

“Don’t let it happen again” Jack yelled out as the both of you turned to go back to the carpet. His original interviewer giving you both the okay to go inside.

“Fucking idiot” Jack mumbled to himself as he eyed you up and down. “Swear, you’re okay?”

“Baby it’s fine, I believe him. I don’t think he meant for that to happen, that would be crazy” you giggled as you leaned your head into the crook of his neck briefly.

Jack was still pissed, he usually took a while to calm down especially when it came to you or baby Harlow.

“You’re so sexy when you’re mad” you teased and he laughed “don’t fuck around and get another baby put in you. Irish twins up in there.”

You snorted at that and he smiled as the two of you found your seats.

[pocket-size-cthulhu]

One of my least favorite things about USAmerica, as a lifelong resident, is the fact that in a lot of areas (especially predominantly White areas), you'll see someone just chilling outside in public and your gut reaction is "they're acting weird." Like they're just standing there and you're like, "suspicious".

In order for someone vibing somewhere to not be suspicious, they have to be in a designated Vibing Area (like a park), AND have a visible reason for being there - a kid, or a picnic blanket or whatever. Maybe a book or sketchbook. Then chilling goes from a threat to an enviable luxury.

I think this comes from a combination of factors, including the loss of third spaces, the people-unfriendly design of our cities, and the incessant anti-homeless propaganda. The Outside is largely not a place where people would want to chill if they had a home to chill in instead, since everywhere you go is dirty and loud, smells like cars, is dangerous from cars, and doesn't have anywhere to sit down. So therefore it follows that people who chill outside are probably Homeless and therefore Scary.

I hate it. Chilling outside is one of life's most amazing free pleasures. People should be able to do it without suspicion! There should be spaces for doing it and a culture around chilling outside as the norm! Also, the fear of homeless people is really deeply effed up!!

Imo the loss of third spaces is suffocating us, mental health wise, especially those of us who don't have private land to chill on. But I think one of the obstacles to reintroducing third spaces back into cities is the idea that "Weird (read: homeless) People Will Go There". Which, like, yeah. Unhoused people have to exist somewhere. There's a reluctance to let unhoused people chill anywhere, or to be anywhere near them, and the people in power in the USA are willing to shoot themselves in the foot in order to guarantee that the separation and cruelty remain. (After all, the people in power in the USA have private land to chill on.)

I think your average white USAmerican has just consumed so much anti-homeless and bootstraps and NIMBY propaganda that they don't realize the problem that lack of third spaces presents to EVERYONE in their community.

I'm rambling at this point. Basically lately I've been going to my apartment complex' playground and sitting in the sun on the cinderblock wall that surrounds it, and I feel so bizarre and out of place. I feel like I'm freaking people out (and I'm low-key worried someone is going to report me for hanging out by a playground while being visibly queer. Which they probably won't but still)

All I want to say is.

Bring back third spaces now

[rubykgrant]

so. Rooster teeth is gone now. Thoughts?

That's both kind of a shock, but also unfortunately not surprising. I haven't really been "in the loop" regarding Rooster Teeth as a whole thing like other people online (I literally never knew anything they did outside of RVB 10+ years ago, except for hearing people vaguely talk about RWBY and Gen:Lock, and even then, I only really saw RVB to begin with because a friend had borrowed the DVDs from their older bro, who had borrowed them from a friend of his). I only randomly remembered RVB was a thing a couple years ago, and then it took over my brain. THEN, one of the more recent incidents of how RT mistreats employees was brought up, and while a lot of people were (sadly) used to hearing about that, I was not aware of previous situations, and it honestly made me very upset. I wrote a whole thing about that, which nobody "important" really saw, because I'm not important myself, but this new situation makes me feel more of the same...

It is awful that so many problems went on for so long, a LOT of people got hurt through working there over the years. They all deserved to be treated better. Being in a bad situation like that can mess up your whole life. That kind of thing also hurts how people work, and surprise-surprise, that hurts WHERE they work. You can't mistreat employees over and over, then turn around and give the fans the equivalent of a slap in the face when it comes to letting them actually enjoy the content, and expect everything to just work out OK. I am genuinely sad that yet another thing is getting shut down; it happens so often, with different studios/creative teams, and it would be nice to actually see a group recognize what their problems have been, make an actual effort to IMPROVE, and continue to exist. I hope all the creative people involved who have been working hard don't just get thrown on the wayside, but it is so difficult to find any stability in the entire entertainment business world right now. There were a LOT of problems at RT regarding how employees were treated, and that includes so MANY people, but there is also a vast amount of problems at just about every creative workplace (and this has been going on for more than a decade). Almost nothing survives, except a handful of companies who basically just "eat" up smaller ones, and have the money to fail or lose money over and over again, and not worry. Who cares if they shut down 10 other studios and end 50 projects that were almost finished? They still have their money. It is also just honestly WEIRD how many different companies keep making the same mistakes with how they offer content to the fans (limiting availability, not even letting people buy the stuff they want to buy, etc. RT has gotten a lot of hate for recent stuff with their online videos, but availability is a whole problem with all kinds of media; Disney won't let you watch it's own movies, Nintendo won't let you play it's own games; it's STUPID), and then being surprised it isn't working. Stop shooting yourselves in the foot. Stop doubling-down on the same nonsense. It isn't WORKING.

Again, it would have been nice to see a negative situation actually be IMPROVED. Maybe that is naively hopeful of me, but I'm also not exactly surprised. I'm just sorry so many people worked on so many different projects, with all their passion, talent, and effort, got mistreated, and it is now all being thrown away. It is just plain sad that so much can go wrong for entirely too many years, and then it just ends without anything being fixed. "Well it sucked, but now it's dead"- it didn't HAVE to suck, and it didn't HAVE to die. I wish it had been better from the beginning, and I wish that things could have gone better throughout. I hope all the creative people are able to keep living their lives and find themselves in workplaces where they can be safe (for their own emotional/mental health, and in terms of making enough money to actually live).

[starplusfourletters]

(way too many) thoughts on the ahsoka show

It was fine? I was really afraid there would be something I hated. And there was nothing I hated. Sad but true that that’s the bar for new SW material atm.

I really liked ep5; ep5 will probably get a rewatch. I liked the casting. The visuals were pretty cool. Huyang was a treasure.

So we’re really going with “the Force is in everyone so everyone can use the Force if you just try hard enough”? I… kind of hate that. That somehow feels ableist of me to say. But this is a heckin fantasy universe I feel like some people Really Are That Special, y’know?

Exception that proves the rule: A Force-less Sabine is still VERY SPECIAL. In Rebels, she can hold her own in a fight just as much as Kanan or Ezra. She’s extremely competent without the Force. She’s somehow less competent in this show

She really is just the worst here in ways that I do not remember her being in Rebels. I guess arguably Ezra was the one with Terminal Protagonist Syndrome in that show? And she caught it from him before he left?

I feel like what this season WANTED to be about – and honestly it’s the lowest hanging fruit possible for a show titled “Ahsoka” – is the tension between Ahsoka’s past / her relationship with her master and her future / her relationship with her apprentice. But I don’t think they actually hit a balance there, because they just did not make her relationship with her apprentice very compelling. Three reasons for this:

1. My bias. There are very few things that start with “Ahsoka &” that would get my attention more than “Ahsoka & Anakin.” Feel like I’m not alone on that one tho

2. Established canon. It’s already an uphill battle because Ahsoka and Sabine don’t have much of a relationship in Rebels. I’m honestly not sure they ever have a conversation. I remember Sabine being like “wow she’s cool much cooler than my idiot adopted brother”, and maybe that would be a place for a mentor figure relationship to start, if Sabine weren’t already DROWNING in mentor figures. It’s not that they have nothing in common, they are just straight up not a focal point of Rebels S2.

Hey you know who canonically has latent Force abilities? And maybe needs some training? And whom Ahsoka would have a Complicated feeling about without even needing a prior established relationship? Someone with mutually incompatible daddy issues? Someone deep enough in the cultural zeitgeist she literally would need no introduction?

Yes I KNOW it’s never gonna be canon and I should just go back to AO3 but it’s RIGHT THERE HRRRRRGGGGHHHHH

3. But a lot of the issues with Ahsoka & Sabine as a focal point are of the showmakers’ own creation. You’re telling me they have a relationship now? Fine, CONVINCE me of that:

First they shoot themselves in the foot by not giving us any information about how Sabine became Ahsoka’s apprentice originally. Why did Sabine want to become a Jedi when she didn’t want that in Rebels? DID she want to become a Jedi? What did she want to learn from Ahsoka? Why did Ahsoka decide to take an apprentice at that time and not any time before or after? How did she feel about it? And why pick Sabine, who is, and this is true, Not Very Good at the Force? Who approached whom, or did they run into each other accidentally? I suppose answering some of these questions might require answering “where was Ahsoka between 3 BBY and 4 ABY?” and they aren’t ready to do that yet, but guys. GUYS. If you’re trying to tell me how Ahsoka and Sabine fix their relationship, you gotta tell me why I care first.

I know I'm harping but I really cannot emphasize enough that "fuck it I'm gonna go round two on Found Family" is an arc-defining character beat for both Ahsoka AND Sabine and the fact that the audience doesn't get to see it really makes me question whether the powers that be themselves know what it looks like

Then we get vanishingly little information about why they broke up, and all of it is provided by Huyang. And what I’m picking up from what we have is “Sabine got too Revenge Quest-y, and Ahsoka got nervous.” I don’t even know where to begin here – maybe with the fact that if Sabine decided to go on a murder rampage, she wouldn’t need the Force, lol. We know Sabine’s family died, she wanted to go to Mandalore, and Ahsoka didn’t want her to. So… did Sabine go? How did she end up back on Lothal? Who left who? Was Ahsoka worried for Sabine’s safety, or that she was getting too Dark Side-y, or both? What juicy terrible intergenerational-trauma-driven things did they say to each other when they broke up? I want to compare and contrast this with Ahsoka leaving Anakin, but I do not have the information to do so because there are zero details and the info we DO have is from ANOTHER CHARACTER. Again, if this season is about this relationship, TELL ME WHY I CARE.

To me this is the same cardinal sin as Picard S1 – implying that some really interesting stuff happened when the audience wasn’t watching, and that it explains why the characters are behaving the way they are, and then… not disclosing that information. EXCEPT PICARD GAVE US MORE THAN THIS fjdghjfghjkhkd

I was not on Tumblr when I was watching Picard S1. Probably for the best.

But okay, they have a history, the show is gonna be about them, sure let’s move on. AND THEN THEY SPEND LIKE HALF THE EPISODES NOT EVEN IN THE SAME GALAXY. The time they do spend in the same room is 75% generic sniping. As someone who came into this way more invested in the Ahsoka & Anakin relationship, ep5 was very much NOW BACK TO THE GOOD PART

And the couple of beats they do have together have me going HUH? After ep2 I spent most of a day debating myself on whether there’s a missing scene, between Sabine getting stabbed and waking up in the hospital, where we see Ahsoka actually REACT. On one hand, Ahsoka would be upset, maybe we as the audience can fill in the gaps and we don’t need to spend time on it. On the other hand, maybe we do, tho? At the time I was thinking about how we haven’t seen Ahsoka truly emotionally vulnerable since TCW with the exception of “Shroud of Darkness” and maybe “Twilight of the Apprentice.” She has a very normal range of emotions, and she expresses them in very controlled ways, and I just wanna see what she looks like when that breaks down, ya know? What’s weird to me is that in ep4 when Ahsoka thinks Sabine is dead we do get this beat; she gets Real Mad there for a second. So maybe what we’re learning is it was a double beat and they should have cut the stabbing thing entirely I mean come on they had to have known they were gonna catch flack for that. Then again, having that moment shows the audience that Ahsoka does give a shit, more than she wants to admit and more than she typically shows Sabine, which is a fun compare/contrast with Anakin, and it might have given me a better understanding of the relationship if it had come earlier.

The other big beat is Sabine deciding to help the baddies. That is just such a devastatingly terrible decision. So bad, in fact, that I feel like we’re supposed to be drawing parallels to Anakin. Their whole “screw over the galaxy to save one person” thing. Except 1) Sabine is not Anakin and 2) in order for that to be interesting, Ahsoka needs more information than I think she has. She knows Padme died around the same time Anakin totally lost his shit, and that’s about it. Which is actually a fun little thought experiment: what assumptions does Ahsoka make about the causality there? The only people who could have given her more intel are Palpatine, Obi-Wan, and Vader – unlikely. So IF the show is about the lines between Anakin and Ahsoka and Sabine, Sabine’s choice here could be central to that, and crucially to Ahsoka’s understanding of that, except it’s just for the audience I guess?

I do really like that Ahsoka’s extremely chill about what Sabine did, though. Ahsoka “Eh Shit Happens” Tano. Somehow her lesson from all this is “masters support their apprentices literally no matter what. Citation: Mine did.” That’s an unhinged take and I expect nothing less from my blorbo.

WHICH IS WHY WE SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST GOTTEN A FLASHBACK TO THE SITUATION IN WHICH AHSOKA DIDN’T SUPPORT SABINE HRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

I realize that I’m really tearing into this thing pretty much just for not being something it isn’t. Like, it’s not BAD. But maybe its weaknesses stem from not committing to being about any one thing. It’s kind of about intergenerational trauma, it’s kind of a Rebels Part Two, it’s kind of a Filoniverse installment, it’s kind of a worldbuilding exercise. And that’s not necessarily too much material for an 8-hour show. It’s more like the powers that be DECIDED that was too much material.

TLDR, footage of me after pretty much everything star wars that’s come out since the Disney acquisition: