#I mean all this affectionately btw

[sisterkosho]

Do you think Illuso gives off Himbo energy and why?

He is big, hot and dumb. Need I say more?

Ok but no in all seriousness, I am in fact a himbo Illuso truther. It mainly started off as a joke because of the fact that all of the Illuso bots on character ai have absolutely ZERO brain cells whatsoever and it’s funny, but the more I thought about it, the more I could see the vision. He definitely isn’t a character that would normally be considered a himbo, but the energy… the vibe… it’s there if you squint hard enough. He has potential.

For starters, this man is 🅱️ig. Like… really 🅱️ig. Even bigger than Risotto according to some inconsistent information on the wiki. He’s a whole 6'2, has giant honkers, 6 pack abs that the animators went out of their way to include in the Blu-rays and he’s absolutely gorgeous. So already, he’s got some points. But on top of that… my god is he stupid. Not the unintelligent kind of stupid, but the kind of stupid that makes you wonder “sir, why are you the way that you are?” He just really gives off the vibes of someone that acts all cool and confident, but in reality there isn’t a thought behind those eyes most of the time. All of his brain matter went straight into his honkers, and believe it or not, there are some canon examples of him being an absolute idiot with the attention span of a goldfish. Such as the MULTIPLE instances where he very easily could’ve won the fight but didn’t because he 1: spent way too much time monologuing about how cool he was, and 2: didn’t deal the finishing blows when given the chance because he kept getting distracted by something else at the last second. Sure you could probably just chalk this up to plot armor, but it does make me want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him around a bit. And while I know that silly doesn’t necessarily equal stupid, I also have to once again point out his goofy ah dub lines because they do make me question if perhaps he’s lacking a few brain cells.

I also feel like he’s the kind of person that gets progressively dumber the more you get to know him. He’s smart when he needs to be, especially on the job. But when you’re hanging out with him in a casual setting? You will very quickly realize that this man does not think before he speaks or does literally anything. So while he isn’t unintelligent by any means, he IS an absolute idiot which I think counts for something. However, there is one thing that he lacks in terms of himbo qualification. Kindness. Illuso is pretty much La Squadra’s resident mean girl, which would mean that he may qualify more as a jock than a himbo. HOWEVER! We all seem to have collectively agreed that his attitude is just a front to cover up his insecurities, which implies that he’s a lot more emotional than he lets on. And the fact that he actually cried in canon may actually be evidence of this. Which leads me to believe that perhaps he’d be a lot nicer towards people he feels he can trust and open up to.

TLDR: Illuso is not your typical himbo, but the energy is there. He isn’t necessarily unintelligent, but he’s definitely an idiot that doesn’t think before he does things. And while he isn’t necessarily kind, I like to think that he’s a softie at heart.

Look at him. Look at his stupid face.

[twinstxrs]

idk if this is accurate but i’ve felt like in previous seasons riz & gorgug have been one of the inter-bad kids dynamics we’ve seen the least of & this season has been so great in that aspect. gorgug having helped make some of riz’s magic gear. riz helping gorgug with his studies. the shared birthday party. gorgug’s gift to riz being something he himself made to protect riz. riz’s gift to gorgug being something he illegally grabbed to protect gorgug. gorgug who utilizes rage to put his body on the line for his friends & riz who will take deep levels of mental stress for his friends. even though it was within the context of a joke, riz calling gorgug an “absolute sweetie.” like yea they might not be in a band together or both part of a presidential campaign team or owlbears teammates, but they’d go to war for each other, because they’re best friends.

[radioactivepeasant]

Snippet Thursday: Baby Croc Chaos

(For context, the first time the boys were allowed outside, someone took a shot at Croc, because you don't see that every day. It ended up injuring his leg. Jak attacked the man, and Damas was called to break up the fight. Despite being presumed too young for Arena trials and not having cleared the necessary obstacle training course, Damas gives permission for Jak to demand a duel on Croc's behalf. Normally this would be done by the guardian or parent of the injured child, but it's clear that the boys have no parents. Obviously, Jak won.)

Most expected the angry shapeshifter from the Arena to start making more frequent appearances after the battle trial. He had his first amulet -- earlier than most orphans in the youth barracks got them -- and his gate pass now, making him eligible for the work roster. He could start finding artifacts of his own now, and earn enough to support the creatures he called his siblings. With the ferocity he'd shown in the ring, it had been assumed that he'd jump at the chance to carve out a place for himself in Spargus.

And yet the king had sent word that they were to be returned to C-Ward in the tower the moment the Arena settled. And no one had seen them since.

Perhaps it was a confinement of sorts. The king had been fairly displeased to find the foundling boy and Tarn in the holding cells after the market brawl. He'd been even angrier when he learned the context of it.

Those who had been in the market that day, and had witnessed the scaly spirit-child thing, suggested that Lord Damas was simply being cautious. As strange as "Croc" was -- even disturbing to some -- it was a child, unmistakably. There'd been no call for Tarn to fire at it -- and firing willy-nilly in the market was a good way to get a shell to the head anyway.

The matter came up during the city's weekly review of the wall defenses. Hutch, head of the city architects' guild, handed over the blueprints for his wall turret proposal and glanced to the far edge of the throne room. Strangely, the shapeshifter was there, sitting amongst the date palms with the talking animal and the spirit infant.

What a time to be alive that such a sentence could even be thought-!

Had Damas summoned the boy? For what purpose?

Hutch saw the orange creature point to one of the trees, and the boy moved as fast as lightning. He slapped a palm to the trunk as if trying to crush something, then took a small spray bottle from the mustelid.

Ah, the king had put them to work removing pests from the trees. Fifteen of the palms filled the room in large planters, and the architect pitied the foundlings for the unenviable task of applying pesticides to them all. Maybe they were being punished for something.

The king scanned the blueprints carefully before passing them to the director of finance.

"This design is compact enough that adding it to the wall wouldn't put a burden on the city's budget. However, I am concerned about the amount of eco an automated turret would consume. What do you plan to run it on?"

"S- solar...power...actually," Hutch answered sheepishly. "I've just realized my proposal for solar panels is still sitting on my desk."

Lottie, the finance director, looked at him dryly. "Probably would've helped to start with that one."

The architect flushed slightly. "It's been a busy week," he protested, "The monks have been at me for old archived blueprints of Tributary!"

Then he wearily asked, "Should I go home and get the other proposal, sire?"

Damas didn't answer right away, which was unlike him.

Instead, his eyes were fixed on the trio of inhu'men orphans working in the artificial grove. (What were they? Hutch didn't think they were actually spirits, but darned if he'd ever seen a Lurker with so little hair!)

After a moment, the king seemed to shake himself.

"No, that won't be necessary," he said quickly. "Just...explain it to Lottie when we adjourn for noon rest."

Unexpectedly, that week's patrol leader for the gate wall spoke up.

"They get noon rest too, right, sir?"

Evidently the presence of the shapeshifter and siblings had concerned him as well. Odolan shifted uncomfortably, whether because of the boys or because of -- apparently -- calling out the king himself.

"Shouldn't they be in the barracks during meetings?" Odolan pressed.

"No," answered the king. He sounded almost disinterested, as if the matter barely merited comment. "They have a room here. They just don't stay in it."

Now his other advisors began to shift and frown between each other. The only people who should've been living in the tower were the ruler of Spargus and his personal guards, a detachment of medics and patients in the warriors' Convalescence Ward, and the staff of the water treatment and kitchen facilities. Underage foundlings -- almost always rescues or defectors from Marauders, not exiles -- went to the youth barracks. They had to make connections with their age mates, to form Squads! It was a well-established part of Spargan culture by now. Why in the world would their king deny the new foundlings that? Was it because of their appearance?

Odolan looked deeply uncomfortable as he asked, "Is- is this because of how the boy killed Tarn? He was well within his rights to do so."

"Mhm. That's partially why." Damas didn't look up. He scratched notes quickly into a pad of recycled paper. "Here, Hutch. Look this over and tell me if it's sound."

He handed him a rough diagram of the front wall with alternate turret locations, then twirled the pencil between his fingers.

"Er...mostly, sire. But that junction there is above several wall residences."

"Ah, right. Scratch that one then." Damas took the pad back and drew a line through the box meant to represent a turret.

"Actually- here. Draw me those solar panels you're on about. Show me where you'd put them before you discuss it with Lottie."

When he finally glanced up, he saw that half the guild heads and advisors were still casting confused or curious glances over at the boys in the grove. The children were eavesdropping, of course. The chores had been implemented in an attempt to mitigate that somewhat, but with the amount of scarring and eco healing marks in their bones, Damas suspected they'd learned to listen carefully no matter how busy they looked. He couldn't explain to his council why he indulged Jak’s refusal to go back outside until Croc's nightmares stopped. Or admit that his own curiosity was keeping him from sending them to a barracks RA to sort out. It may have been -- he had trouble admitting it, even to himself, without pain -- the age of the youngest. He was no older than Mar had been when he was taken. He was small, and helpless, and the youth barracks were for teenagers, not toddlers. Separating Jak from his younger sibling just seemed cruel. And too much like how he'd lost Mar.

With a long-suffering look, Damas asked dryly, "Does anyone else have concerns about the gremlin gang they'd like to voice so that we can focus on the task at hand?"

Taking it as an invitation rather than sarcasm, -- she'd never been good at detecting sarcasm, in her defense -- Lottie remarked, "Who's going to look after the wee creatures when the lad enters his first Squad?"

Damas waved that off immediately. "They're not ready for Squads. Not in the least."

"Not ready for Squads?" Hutch muttered to Odolan, not quiet enough to go unheard, "How can a foundling not be ready for basic training?"

At that moment, the nature spirit thing came scampering out of the palms with an excited trill. Scuttling along before him was a very panicked scorpion -- no doubt it had been sleeping in the soil brought up for the planters. The scaly toddler crouched, tail lashing, then pounced. He held it it up by the tail, proudly showing the small arachnid to the adults, then his brothers.

"Good catch, Croc!" Jak ducked out of the palms. "Let me see it."

He ignored the presence of the council and crouched to examine the absolutely furious scorpion.

"Cool. Never seen one this small before. Check out the carapace-"

"Urr?"

"Hard shell. Body."

"Urr!"

"It ain't a juvenile. That means this sucker's got some pretty major poison in that stinger."

Damas opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again and shook his head. Perhaps eventually the council would learn what he had: it was completely and utterly useless to try to interrupt Jak when he was excited about something.

Carefully, Croc set the scorpion down and pinned it in place with his foot claws. With chubby fingers and the SparSign common to infants and toddlers, he asked, "I eat dat spicy bug?"

"Yeah sure, just not the tail."

Instant panic amongst the adults.

Damas launched out of the throne.

"Oh for the love of- Croc! No! Do not eat raw scorp-"

Too late.

The wide, wide mouth opened, and with a noticeable crunch, the scorpion met its end. While the adults stared in wide-eyed expressions ranging from disbelief to bravely stifling explosive laughter, Jak relieved Croc of the stinger.

"We'll put this with the other ones."

Jak finally looked up and stared impassively at Damas, still ignoring the council.

"What?"

"He's an infant, Jak! You don't know he can eat scorpions safely," Damas sighed.

The boy shrugged. "He's eaten way worse and been fine."

The orange one scurried out and up onto Jak’s head.

"Bald-faced lie. Eatin' KG gave him the most unholy flatulence and you know it."

Jak pretended not to hear this.

"Besides," he said, sounding cocky, "Dax and me ate scorpions plenty of times when we were little. It didn't hurt us."

This got an...interesting reaction from the Wastelanders. In what environment were young children allowed to catch and eat scorpions regularly? They were supervised, of course, they would have had to be-

"You realize," Daxter said with a hint of bitterness in his voice, "That we wouldn't have had to hunt scorpions if your absentee uncle had actually fed us instead of spending the grocery money on treasure maps every month."

Well then.

As one, the advisors turned to look at Damas. He simply gestured to the boys as if saying "you see?"

Dry as dust, the king asked, "Any other objections to continued adult supervision?"

Odolan shook his head and wondered how the strange orphans had even lived this long.

"I withdraw the question."

[msnihilist]

I'm not super involved in the Nicktoons Unite fandom, but I have been combing through fics and I'm already tried of Danny being portrayed as the big brother/second smartest one instead of what he actually is: a fucking idiot.

[reistellae]

Some funny little Miguel O’Hara facts that I wanna incorporate into my fic (and i would love to see art with these funny quirks of his)

1. Miguel usually wears sunglasses when he’s not in his suit. This is because his eyes are extra sensitive (he has night vision, [possible] heat vision, and telescopic vision) so when he first became a Spider, the visual stimulus was overwhelming.

2. His talons are retractable, but they require a lot of focus to retract and to keep retracted. His spider suit is made up of unstable molecules, which is how it manages to stay intact. So do with that what you will!

3. His fangs release a paralyzing venom into its victims. So that’s probably why he was trying to bite Vulture in his first scene, so it would be easier to apprehend him.

4. Yeah he has fangs, yes he can't retract them. This means he has difficulty talking.

5. And as if all of that isn't enough; Miguel is telepathic.

All that to say, I would love to see more of Miguel, particularly because with all of his abnormal spider powers, he's just a fucking freak compared to the others and I love that for him.

[gopher-jade]

seeing people's week-by-week reactions of frieren is pretty funny, because like. you have some people who, in episode 1, saw frieren's ring and went "oh my god himmel gave it to her. he loved her but never forced her to stay."

and then you have some people after episode like 14 or something going "oh my god what did all this MEAN... i might be going out on a limb here... but was himmel in love with her" yes this was established from the start of the story, frieren, the signs were there all along,

[da-birb-writes-sometimes]

Writing WIP Roulette!

Except only I know the true meanings behind the choices. Also, if you get the references, je t'aime.

Choose thy fate wisely, traveller.

[tasteless-vermin]

going from powering through all of fantasy high freshman and sophomore year straight into a starstruck odyssey is wild like… wow… production value….. this is so crazy

[awesometothe3rd]

[the-bi-space-ace]

Jack O'Neill & Why Stargate SG-1 is the Best Show in the World

Listen. I have been fully obsessed with Stargate SG-1 lately and it has made me realize a lot of things about media these days so... strap in. I'm about to detail for you one of the major reasons that you should watch this show.

Thank you to @concentratedbastardenergy for watching it with me every night and to @floundrickthewayfarer for listening to me ramble about it as I make my way through all 10 seasons.

Under the cut because it gets long (:

This will be focused primarily on one of the show's main characters: Colonel Jack O'Neill.

I'll start by saying that I am only on Season 6 so this is probably not entirely all encompassing but it is what I have picked up on from Jack since beginning this show.

Jack is a career military man with the United States Air Force. He has fought in wars, was held as a prisoner of war, and now leads SG-1 to explore the galaxy and defend earth against threats.

In order to really understand Jack we have to delve into a very important life event that has shaped who he is today. Jack was married to a woman named Sara but eventually their marriage fell apart which is what initially led him to go on the very first mission through the Stargate. The reason that his and Sara's marriage fell apart is that their son, Charlie, died in a very unfortunate accident when he unintentionally shot himself with Jack's unattended pistol. They rushed him to the hospital but he didn't make it, causing Jack to fall into a deep depression. Him and Sara couldn't reconcile with each other, Jack couldn't deal with his emotions, so they ended up getting a divorce.

This is important to really understand Jack and to understand why the way his character is now is so damn important. The spot he is in when he first begins this journey in Stargate SG-1 is very reflective of this event. I think it's important that Jack's story begins with losing everything he had.

First, let's take the average media image of a man like Jack O'Neill and compare it to what we see in SG-1. Typically we'd see a career military man in media today and he'd be the rugged, stoic, standoffish, tough-guy persona who can't talk about his feelings or express an emotion without a mass amount of prompting. Usually we see this type of character be not only closed off emotionally but also physically (unless it is with their romantic partner, typically.) This type of character would be your average tough guy who doesn't know how to process or express an emotion let alone ever do something utterly “humiliating” like hug someone or cry. The only person you will ever see them affectionate with is usually their partner and, occasionally, their children.

This is not at all reflective of Jack O'Neill.

Jack has been through unimaginable pain. He has lost a part of his life that he can never get back and it absolutely kills him inside. Despite how devastating this is he doesn't just hide the pain away forever. Sure, he keeps it close to his chest and he isn't talking about it 24/7, but he does process it with people he loves. He allows himself to feel it, to express that he feels it, to show that he feels it with his facial expressions and with his words. He is immediately connected to any child that needs help and it shows all over him. He was meant to be a father and that was taken from him and he feels like it is his fault. But it doesn't turn him callous. He expresses that fatherly attribute by taking care of his loved ones, children or otherwise.

Jack has deep friendships. He forms bonds with people and not only holds those relationships dear but also shows how much he loves them. He is a touchy person, believe it or not. He was outwardly in love with his wife, Sara, and was very physically affectionate with her. He is also physically affectionate with his friends. He touches them and hugs them and holds them when they cry and he doesn't act like those things are shameful. There are plenty of times when he ruffles Daniel’s hair, or gives Teal’c a good pat on the back, or hugs Sam. Jack has close, affectionate, relationships with the men and women in his life. He doesn't hesitate to give them affectionate pats on the back, hugs, touch their hair or faces, and he holds them when they need to be held. He is there for them emotionally and physically. Because he wants to support them and this is how he knows how to do that. He never treats these moments like they are out of his comfort zone or weird (which is something I see a lot from media nowadays.) He treats it as friendship, companionship, and his responsibility. He loves them. He makes sure they always know that he does.

There is a very charged moment where Daniel literally has Jack held at gunpoint, and is not in a great state of mind and after Jack talks him down Daniel starts to absolutely break down in front of him. He’s scared, he’s ill, he’s hurting. What does Jack do? He makes sure he’s safe and not hurt then Jack holds him and lets him cry. Because as a friend and a leader what else are you supposed to do when someone you love is breaking down? You hold them. You tell them it’s going to be okay. He helps because it is not only what he should do, it is what he wants to do. In an episode I watched not too long ago he hugs Sam so tight and for so long and the scene never becomes weird or tense or awkward because they clearly love each other, just like all of these characters do, and Jack is scared and cold and simply needs a hug. He is a compelling character because he is aware of his responsibility and duty but has such a commitment to also being their friend. 

He is still a person who very much needs and wants to have close relationships and be physically affectionate and when he starts healing from his son’s death he doesn't deny himself those things. He forms those close relationships and he is outwardly loving. It doesn't take away his pain but it does help him feel like a person again, even after all of the tragedy he's experienced.

He doesn't have shame in being afraid or asking for help or crying. One of my favorite Jack scenes so far is with a young boy who says: "Mother says boys from your planet do not cry." And do you want to know what Jack's immediate response is? "That's not true." He goes on to say that crying is good for you. Crying is a natural response and it is not bad or shameful. This man is correcting a nasty thing we tell young boys and he is doing it by admitting that he himself feels emotions strongly and cries and so should this little boy. By the end of the episode he reminds the young boy that it is okay to be sad when you have to say goodbye to a new friend and that he will miss him just as much as this boy will miss Jack. He's healing parts of himself by making sure this kid doesn't grow up with the 'boys don't cry' bullshit that so many people grow up with.

He is shown to have good judgment and protectiveness and has a strong sense of morality tied to his respect for people and their autonomy. In one episode Jack fights back against the government invading another planet and exploiting its native people for a natural resource after they were denied access to it because of destructive and wasteful methods of extraction. He is outwardly angry about the decision to deceive the native people of this planet and he reminds the watcher of all the times we, throughout history and still to this day, have done this and continue to do it even though it is wrong.

The last episode I want to talk about is Abyss an episode in season six where Jack is being tortured for information and sees his dead (ascended??) friend, Daniel. Jack wants Daniel to do something to save him, something that Daniel apparently can not do despite having the power to do so. BUT he does want Jack to ascend. They end up getting into an argument where Daniel is trying to convince Jack that he is a good person. He is worthy of getting out of this. He is able to save himself. Jack swears, up and down, that if he their roles were reversed nothing would have stopped him from destroying everything in his path, taking down everyone who was hurting Daniel and not stopping until every last one of them were dead whether or not they were responsible for that suffering. He'd fight tooth and nail and hurt whoever he had to in order to save Daniel, there is not a single doubt in his mind. Daniel tells Jack that he is a better man than that, that he'd weigh options that weren't killing everyone around them. That Jack wouldn't burn the world down to save him, wouldn't cause that much suffering, and that Jack is fundamentally good. When Jack responds it is to tell Daniel that he's wrong. That everything that Daniel thinks about him, that he's good and kind and he'd find another way to help, is wrong. This moment, although it may seem unrelated, sticks out to me because this is the impact Jack has on people. Daniel sees the good in Jack. He knows Jack would come for him, that he'd support him, that he'd do everything in his power to help. Daniel sees in Jack what Jack always fails to see in himself. They have such a powerful bond, even in moments when they argue. Daniel doesn't doubt Jack's intentions, he doesn't doubt that Jack would come for him, he doesn't ever doubt him like Jack doubts himself. This trust is so indicative of the man that Jack is, of the way he impacts other people's lives, of the way he represents humanity and love and kindness and pain. And the love and respect Jack shows to other people directly impacts the way other people see him.

With the combination of everything above it would be typical to have this character or other characters question his masculinity and challenge it, perhaps even claim they are too emotional to be in charge, but when it comes to Jack this is not the case. All of those attributes are why people say he is a good leader and that he deserves to be in charge. He is shown as strong and dependable and loyal and logical. He is tough. But he is also sensitive, affectionate, and funny. He uses humor to cope and isn't afraid to admit when he's scared or sad. Jack is the king of micro-expressions but I can explicitly tell how he is feeling even with my own challenges with reading expressions.

Today's tv shows tend to shy away from this type of character and want to put a man like Jack into a box. The military man with a tragic past who scowls at everything and hasn't hugged someone in 25 years and doesn't have a close relationship with someone who isn't a romantic interest. I think that does such a disservice to this type of person. I've been missing something from TV shows today and I think Stargate SG-1 has shown me exactly what that is. It's characters who love each other and who show it and say it every single episode. It's story lines that challenge and develop each character past their stereotypes. It is storytelling where I don't have to guess what they're thinking or feeling because it is explicitly written on their face and in their body language. It is a plot that doesn't feel flat or reused. It is fun moments tossed in next to heart-wrenching ones. It is moral dilemmas and fights between characters that get resolved in a satisfying way. It is love and sacrifice and such curiosity and wonder for the world.

I'm convinced I didn't know what the found family trope really was until I watched this show. I'm glad that a show made in the late 90s created a character so authentic and well rounded that he feels like a real person and not a flat caricature. A man who had every opportunity to turn into someone closed off and callous that instead decided that the way out of the darkness was love. I think we need more 'Jack O'Neill's in this world. We’d be better off for it.

[sprucewoodmpreg]

soaks jimmy in milk for a 24 hour period and then smashes him against a wall at unfathomable speeds

[volivolition]

what's the theme you're fucking going for here voliiii!!! what are you fucking getting at!!! what are you trying to say, what's the point??

[sysig]

Endearments (Patreon)

[my-current-obsession]

I see a lot of people saying that the royals (mostly Alfred, but I’ve seen a fair bit of complaining about all the others too) are statistically bad in Engage. I have to wonder, what difficulty is this based off of? On my Hard playthrough most of the royals were my best units, and Alfred in particular was amazing. Ivy and Celine were probably the weakest two - Ivy due to being a bit slow and having AWFUL dex and luck, and Celine just lacking power due to splitting her attention between strength and magic.

Is it just Maddening that they’re specifically bad for? I have not (and will not) played that mode in any FE but my impression is very much that Maddening mode is a different experience and you’re basically forced to play a certain way to win. That’s probably even more true here since fixed growths are in play, so you can’t count on RNG to give you good units. You have to find the ones that the game wants you to use, and stick with them.

For me, one of the biggest joys of FE has always been the RNG of it all - I love the random growths meaning different characters shine (and suck) each run, which encourages you to give different units a try. I love that, at least on Normal and Hard, you have enough breathing room to basically play how you want - favor the units of your choice, reclass whoever into whichever classes you fancy, etc - and doing so MIGHT make your life harder but probably won’t doom your entire run. The versatility and random nature of your units growths makes strategy & combat in this game infinitely more appealing and adds to its replayability.

Like I LOVE Persona games and Stella Glow (which gameplay wise is fairly similar to FE) but in those games the characters are what they are, and the stats on level-up are set in stone. Once you’ve done ONE run and know what works, Complacent Gaming kicks in and you repeat the exact same steps in future runs. In FE even if you use the same characters in the same classes, their performance WILL vary based on how blessed or cursed the RNG has been for them.

If Maddening IS as difficult and particular as I’m assuming, and basically every unit’s viability is determined from the moment you get them and you HAVE to play a specific way to win... is it really right to judge units based on that specific difficulty? Like, sure, so-and-so SUCKS on Maddening, but so does EVERYONE except this specific handful of units and if you use anyone else you’re just hurting yourself.

I feel like we should be judging characters based off a difficulty where everyone is at least VIABLE from the beginning, but judging how likely they are to REMAIN that way based on their growths/classes/personal skills/etc.

To put it another way, what would a tier list of a Maddening run look like? My impression is that it has two, maybe 3 categories of who you can actually use, who gets benched immediately, and MAYBE a middle category of who exists to fill a spot on the team and take a few hits/deal a smidge of damage for just a little while until someone better comes along to replace them. Meanwhile on Normal and Hard you can have a full spectrum of who on average is statistically the best through the worst, with everything in between. And considering several “unusable” units on Maddening are at least GOOD or even better on a normal or hard run, can you really call them bad? At the very least CLARIFY you mean they’re bad on Maddening specifically instead of in general.

[salsflore]

i think i should kill all my f/os with my own two hands btw

[thriftdyke]

21-22 really was hell. 19 I was the happiest I’d ever been 20 was chill up until the last 3 months of it and then it was hell + okay we got over that (sorta) + oh wait okay turns out there’s a superhell + the superhell has a special secret Superhell Premium for loyalty members for only $sanity.99 and you can’t opt out! 23-24 was like the devil spit me out and now I’m floudering around on the earth like a fish and 25 is like looking around realizing everyone else was also a fish but I have lungs again somehow and am so profoundly normal it’s almost boring