#I wanted to balance it in a way that when they gain an ally new conflict emerges

[yanderes-galore]

Fandom: Genshin Impact

May I request an Arlecchino concept?

I can try. I stopped playing Genshin during Sumeru, so this is primarily me researching and gaining info from the internet and friends. I hope you enjoy this regardless of that :) Doesn't help that we still don't have much info on her....

Yandere! Arlecchino Concept

(Pre-Version 4.6)

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Stalking, Manipulation, Violence, Blood, Mentions of murder, Subtle possessive behavior, Kidnapping mention, Isolation, Dubious/Forced companionship/relationship.

Arlecchino seems to be manipulative, acting as a spy for the Fatui.

Her main objective is to find the Hydro Gnosis, prying about to find the true Hydro Archon.

She acts kind, often being described as a "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing".

She wants others to trust her... but we can assume she is willing to use others like most other Fatui.

Arlecchino would originally see her obsession over her darling as a distraction to her goals.

When you meet Arlecchino, she comes off as cordial and graceful.

She's strict but still capable of being lenient towards subordinates.

Other Fatui feel she is acting and isn't truthful with her motives, loyalty, and behavior.

This manipulative behavior of hers makes it easy for her to hide her obsession.

If she does have some sort of interest in you, she hides her true motives.

Imagine if Arlecchino had Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet gain info on you.

She never says why, just asking them to learn more about you.

When they're busy, Arlecchino herself watches you closely to know more about you.

She doesn't understand her obsession... which is why she spends time getting information on you.

After all, your presence drives her thoughts crazy.

Arlecchino is very tactical in her way of thinking, carefully gaining info on you.

You barely can tell her obsession when she speaks to you for one reason or another.

Although it is odd to others that she seems so interested in you (Mostly the Fatui are intrigued).

Her views of a platonic or romantic relationship towards you are naturally quite twisted.

She's literally the Knave, so....

A platonic obsession is obviously not the typical "friends/allies" relationship.

That's not even getting into the idea of her having a romantic fascination over you.

Arlecchino will come off kind and cordial towards her obsession.

You won't catch her true motives until it's too late.

She tries to play off your conversations as "friendly chatter".

For once maybe she doesn't want to be diplomatic, yeah?

But then she begins asking oddly specific questions about you.

Arlecchino, despite claiming to be a friend, seems to want to know too much.

All the while she tries her best to keep up the trust between you two.

Arlecchino treats speaking with her darling as a balancing act.

She tries to maintain your trust with truths and lies... along with gather more information on you to fuel her obsession.

As her obsession grows... she even considers isolating you.

Those too close to what's hers is done away with.

May her polearm be coated in blood and the smell of burning flesh greet her nose...

Many will perish by her hand if it means she can have her new obsession all to herself.

When Arlecchino has enough of waiting around and gathering research, she'll escalate her obsession.

It's either the moment she loses your trust or gets impatient that sets her off.

She can't lose you to anyone or anything... you drive her insane.

Do you really think... you can just leave her now?

By the time you learn of her true identity, by the time you see how unhinged you make her...

You're taken away.

You're thrown in a cell, somewhere where none can find you.

She doesn't let any other Fatui touch you.

You're hers now, the person who had been driving her insane is now within her grasp.

She doesn't apologize for her manipulation.

Obviously Arlecchino doesn't care if you feel betrayed... much.

Even when she tries to reach out to caress your face... you flinch away and it hurts her a bit.

Despite this... she never lets you go.

You're hers... it's final....

She doesn't even care if you call her a monster as long as she has you.

Arlecchino clearly cares for you to some degree...

That's why you're here, all alone, with just her by your side... isn't it?

[diejager]

Maybe maybe…….. Makarov has a strange relationships with his daughter………..(like Ghost with his sister…………..)

Cw: INCEST, DARKFIC, DUB-CON/NON-CON, implied smut, manipulation, power imbalance, tell me if I missed any.

Makarov was… odd, as most people who knew him would say. He had an uncanny way of making others afraid or break out in cold sweat, fearful for their lives and terrified f being the bearer of bad news to a man that held so much power. He was a man paved in beautifully dangerous marble, sculpted from skilful hands and all-seeing eyes, and that made Makarov much, much more dangerous than any usual man. He was sly, conniving, confident and a strategist, but he was still a man.

He had a heart, softness in his cruel being, vulnerabilities, weaknesses —he had you, his sweet, sweet girl. You turned him soft, a man with a bleeding heart that would bend at the knee for you and got you anything you wanted. He pampered his sweet girl because he loved you, gifting you whatever you wanted at the drop of the hat. His word was law, but your word was God.

But even God had to give. Makarov was nothing, if not an exemplary father, teaching you that everything had a worth, that everything had a balance. To take was to give something away —at least between you both, the father and daughter. He taught you that affection was paid in affection; that material gain was paid in physical touch; and that favourability was paid in love. He was your protective and strong father figure, and you, the daughter that lived under his titular and shield.

For everything he gave you, he expected you to kiss him, to feel your soft lips on his rugged face, trimmed beard itching your tender skin every time he seeped the kiss, his tongue invading your mouth and pushing down your throat. He pulled away only when you’re panting and breathless, eyes rolled back with weak knees and mind dazed over. He never takes a single kiss, bowing to steal a third or fourth kiss, tongue dancing around yours and pulling mewls and moans from your mouth, swallowing them up.

He spent his nights with you, whispering praises and reaffirming these acts as just acts, what you should give to him in exchange for how well he took care of you. He took you apart from the seams, choking down sobs and eyes bleeding adoration, Makarov bent you in half as much as he split you in two, only to rebuild you with precise and careful touches, putting you back from your broken and writhing form to his precious girl.

He would pull you to his lap in meetings, have you press yourself into him and doze off while he worked, listening to you huff and pant, nuzzling into he crook of his neck, scenting him and demanding for some bit of attention. He ignored everyone’s eyes, their uncomfortable and disturbed gleam when Makarov pressed kisses down your neck, teeth sinking into the meat of your shoulders until you cry out and squirm on his lap, moaning as you rut against his thigh.

He made it into a show - a habit - of taking you in open areas when he could, a power play to show his allies how his own daughter listened to him. The best show of your obedience and his power in with loud bangs and echoing cries to disgruntled men emanating from his office and the struggle of his desk and scattered paperwork and maps.

[jemmo]

ahhhh. the familiar stress of a female character being introduced in a bl and waiting to find out whether she’s an ally or an obstacle. in this case with maya, definitely an obstacle. what remains to be seen is how much of an obstacle and how it’s overcome. now im not adversed to a romantic enemy, its one of the most commonplace things to find in a bl, and im also glad we’re getting a hearing impaired character that isn’t perfect, bc it’d be very easy to try and paint everyone with a disability in a good light when they are still people and can act out for their own interests. what im interested to see is how the romance will interact with the commentary on hearing impairment this show has been touching on both directly and indirectly. before, we had a hearing female character that caused drama bc she romanticised kohei and his disability and the ways she could help him and be by his side. now we are getting the opposite, someone who also has a hearing impairment who wants to be by kohei’s side and support him as someone who shares his disability. and i like that they’re showing that both are bad. maya is trying to distance kohei from the hearing people he’s made friends with, which was a huge step for him, by trying to make out that someone that shares his disability is inherently better for him and can support him better - she’s separating him from the larger world and trying to keep him within this small bubble of their disability so that she can have a romantic relationship with him. the thing is we don’t know if maya actually believes it’s right to keep these worlds separate or she’s using it as an excuse to be close with kohei, either way the commentary is still being made. she’s also kind of playing the victim card with her comment about how taichi’s friend has never faced hardship, but she has bc her hearing is impaired, and that means she’s got in worse. and yes - on a day to day basis that is hard to deal with, but in no way does that mean no one else has struggled. i feel like that hit taichi particularly hard bc he has struggled in childhood, it was just different. we saw this in last twilight too when they argued, the disability vs no family battle, which one is worse. the thing is, you always want what you don’t have, the grass is always greener on the other side, but really there is nothing to gain from these comparisons. everyone’s life is hard to themselves, what matters is helping others whilst also acknowledging your own hardships, it’s a balance give and receive, which is what taichi and kohei’s relationship is, despite what maya thinks. but i do want to see where she’s coming from, and i think meeting a guy like kohei who is so sweet and kind and also shares this disability and all the shared experience that comes with that, and also just looks like that, it’s hard to not think he’s the most ideal person and want to be with him. i just hope they do give her a resolution that both holds her accountable for behaving poorly whilst also being empathetic to her feelings.

but in other news, i want to point out a few fave bits from the ep, starting ofc with my favourite thematic sound editing when all the cafeteria noise fell away when kohei and maya started communicating with their phones. its the small things like that that make this series so special, even if it was used with maya instead of taichi. i feel like they also do a really good job of highlighting noise, both when taichi was with his friends and at the dinner, you can understand how loud things are even when kohei isn’t there and imagine how overwhelming it would be for him, and it also highlights well how that chaos dies down when he’s alone with taichi, and you understand what kohei means when he says he hears taichi’s voice so clearly bc even in a crowd, his voice pierces through. i absolutely loved taichi blushing remembering the kiss and kohei being so forward in getting that girls attention away from taichi, we love a possessive queen. and finally i have to give my biggest shoutout again to kohei’s mom. she is so supportive in the simplest and quietest ways and when she took out those two lunchboxes i nearly cried. and it’s the way she always makes it seem coincidental, they just came as a pair, but it covertly shows that she’s supportive of whatever relationship kohei has with taichi. she doesn’t have to ask and kohei doesn’t have to say - she knows they’re close and so she just supports the relationship in these small ways without overstepping. it’s just so beautiful. honestly, one of the best bl moms ever.

[pathfinderunlocked]

Healthy Boss Template (CR +3)

Wait, why did a giant health bar just appear in the sky?

Artwork by Jeff_Chee_471 on Reddit.

D&D and Pathfinder have a really unusual idea of what a "boss" is compared to, like, any video game ever made. They often tend to just take an enemy that would be part of a group of normal enemies if you were about six levels higher. When they do something more unique, it still tends to be balanced like that. Tons of offense, not that many hit points, but often extremely hard to hit. Adventure designers often try to make up for this design by making a boss weaker but giving it minions, but that doesn't change the fact that there's really no concept of a creature that's inherently a "boss creature" in this game.

And sometimes that's fine. But sometimes you just want a big chunky fight that's balanced more like how a video game boss is balanced: only a little more damage than other creatures, but way more health, and the ability to recover if you do nasty stuff like stun it. Something that lets the players go all-out using their abilities, and rewards them for doing so, instead of having to spend most of the fight just focusing on not getting attacked, because they know one attack can take them out.

This template isn't a global solution. It'll get old, and if you reuse it too much, players will find strategies that bypass it. That's why I design so many different boss monsters that each work differently. But if you want to convert an existing monster into a boss, this is one way to do so without a lot of effort, and without just giving it the advanced template and several fighter levels to max out its offense.

Some of the options for different abilities are there to deal with different kinds of player strategies, rather than because they're appropriate for different kinds of bosses. If your PCs use vital strike, give it vital negation. If they use combat maneuvers, give it reset stance. If they cast a bunch of spells on the terrain, give it undo. If they rely on hungry pit, give it escape to nowhere. Don't feel bad about using this template specifically to counter them, since the inflated HP and the limited uses of these special abilities mean that the players' strategies will still be useful, they just won't instantly win the fight.

Healthy Boss

Healthy boss is an inherited template that can be applied to any creature.

Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature + 3.

Hit Points: A healthy boss's hit points are three times as high as the base creature's.

Initiative: A healthy boss gains a +10 bonus to its initiative.

Defensive Abilities: A healthy boss can never be surprised, and is not considered flat-footed before it has acted in combat.

Special Abilities: A healthy boss gains 1 of the following special abilities:

Bolstering Cry (Ex) Twice per day as a move action, a healthy boss can grant all allies within 60 ft. a number of temporary hit points equal to its new challenge rating. When it does so, it also suppresses the following conditions on affected allies other than itself for 1 round: blinded, confused, entangled, fatigued, exhausted, nauseated, paralyzed, shaken, sickened, staggered, stunned. The healthy boss does not need line of effect to these allies, but they must be able to either see or hear it. Second Wind (Ex) Five times per day as a free action at the start of its turn, a healthy boss can gain a number of temporary hit points equal to its new challenge rating. These temporary hit points last for 10 minutes. It can only use this ability only once per round. Vital Negation (Ex) Once per round, a healthy boss can halve the damage of a single incoming source of damage. It can choose to use this ability after hearing the amount of damage that it would take. This does not require an action.

Additionally, a healthy boss gains 2 of the following other special abilities:

Aura of Recovery (Su) The healthy boss gains a 40-ft. aura. At the end of each of the healthy boss's turns, one of the healthy boss's allies within this aura (including itself) gains a new saving throw against any one ongoing harmful effect that initially allowed for a saving throw. Escape to Nowhere (Su) Once per day, at the end of an enemy's turn, a healthy boss can escape to the ethereal plane, as if using ethereal jaunt. This does not require an action. It remains in the ethereal plane during its next turn. At the start of its second turn after using this ability, the healthy boss returns to the plane it was on, but is staggered during that turn. Legendary Resistance (Ex) Once per day, when a healthy boss fails a saving throw, or when an enemy succeeds on a check against the healthy boss's spell resistance, the healthy boss can expend its legendary resistance to treat the roll as if the healthy boss had succeeded on the saving throw or the enemy had failed on the check against spell resistance. A healthy boss with a total challenge rating of at least 9 gains a second use of Legendary Resistance per day, and a healthy boss with a total challenge rating of at least 18 gains a third use of legendary resistance per day. This does not require an action. Reset Concentration (Ex) Once per day, when a healthy boss fails a concentration check, it can steel its mind against future distractions, gaining a +10 bonus on concentration checks for the next 10 minutes. This does not require an action. Reset Stance (Ex) Once per day, when a healthy boss starts its turn prone or grappled, at the start of its next turn after being successfully subjected to a combat maneuver other than trip or grapple, it can spend a move action to stand up, free itself from any grapples, pick up a single item within its reach, end the effect of a dirty trick maneuver, and move up to its move speed without provoking attacks of opportunity. Upon using this ability, the healthy boss also gains a +5 bonus to its CMD and a +10 bonus to Acrobatics, Climb, Ride, Swim, and Fly checks for the next 10 minutes. Undo (Su) As a standard action, once every 3 rounds, a healthy boss can revert the effects of any number of ongoing or instantaneous magic spells that are affecting itself, other creatures, or the surrounding environment. Each spell effect it attempts to undo must be within 60 ft. of the healthy boss, and must have been applied during the last 10 minutes. Even instantaneous spells can be reverted with Undo, but damage is not reverted. To attempt to undo a spell, a healthy boss makes a caster level check against a DC of 6 + the effect's caster level, using its hit dice as its caster level. If successful, the ongoing spell ends, or the effects of the instantaneous spell are reverted.

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

TBB Season 2 Retrospective

Season 2 of TBB is my favorite season for sure. I love all the character moments we get such as the conversation between Tech and Omega. It's why I love this show because at its best, TBB really tackles some mature topics. Although the Batch mainly do missions for Cid, I think it foreshadows season 3's ending really well in retrospect.

"Tribe" might be a fun adventure with Gungi, but on a deeper level, it's about Hunter realizing that what Omega needs is a true home and stability. It's the first instance in S2 where Hunter gets a look into domestic life. Phee as a character serves many purposes. She's an ally to the Batch and takes them on adventures. However, she also challenges Hunter's soldier lifestyle for Omega. Phee comments that Omega needs people her own age and stability, something that none of the Batch understand due to their upbringing. "Tribe" and Phee, along with some moments from S1, do a great job setting up Pabu.

Pabu is an ideal place for the Batch to live and raise Omega: it's hidden, beautiful, and welcoming to all. With all the signs encouraging Hunter to settle, Pabu is perfect. On a side note though, I do feel that the conflict in the episode "Pabu" was a bit contrived. Personally, I don't think we needed a tsunami for drama. I was perfectly content just watching the Batch relax.

S2, like S1, also does a great job of balancing the Empire's machinations with the Batch's shenanigans. "Metamorphosis" not only serves as a Batch mission for Cid, but also the introduction of Hemlock and the return of the Zillo. It develops both stories in a natural way which made for a phenomenal episode. The two-parter "The Clone Conspiracy" and "Truth and Consequences" equally shows the Empire's decommissioning of the clones, introduces the CX troopers, and what motivates Echo to leave. This is why I love TBB. We get a glimpse into how the imperials caused such chaos and created the Stormtroopers. Btw, I think the show handled the transition from Rampart to Hemlock really well. Both storylines were set up and interwoven with each other, which allowed the one villain to rise and the other to fall.

The notion that the Batch should settle is a major arc for Hunter and Omega this season. Hunter really begins to consider Pabu as a new home, especially because he wants to keep Omega safe. The more he sees the growing unrest, the more he reaffirms the decision in his mind. Clones have never settled down before and it's a new life for Hunter. He always wants to do right for his family and protect them. That's what leaders do. Even Wrecker slowly comes around to that idea and leans a lot on Hunter for decision making.

Omega gains a lot of new perspectives in S2 and I really loved that. She learns that things aren't what they always appear and that change is a part of life. This takes form in many ways, like when Romar showed her the kaleidoscope. Tech is another great example. He might not outwardly show his emotions the way she does, but his heart burns brightly for his family. And like Hunter, Omega begins to realize that having a home like Pabu isn't such a bad idea. She could grow up safely and make friends her age.

As for Echo, I realized that S1 does hint at his choice to leave in S2. His decision makes a lot of sense given his strong sense of justice and camaraderie with Rex. He's always been about helping others. This man has such a beautiful soul.

I think Crosshair is self-explanatory. Only three episodes and I perfectly understood what he did and why he did things. His humanity could no longer take being abused the way it was. He knew where his heart truly lied and he made his choice. S1 established his attachment to the Batch wasn't gone. But he wasn't ready to fully see the truth just yet.

Tech. Beautiful, smart, brave Tech. How much I miss you. S2 did so much giving him depth and maturity. They easily could've kept him as the stereotypical nerd who has great dry humor. But they chose to take a more thoughtful route. Like Omega, Tech learns to see things from a different perspective and it helps him grow as a person. It's those little moments that mean so much. I wish we could spend more time with him because Tech has so much to share with us and S2 highlights that perfectly.

AND TECH GOT THE GIRL (kinda but yall know what I mean). They could've chosen Hunter, the objectively attractive one, but I'm so glad they chose Tech. Look guys, I'm not a girl who goes out and buys all those trendy clothes or wears lots of makeup. So, it meant a lot that Tech was able to win over someone's affections. And kudos to Phee for always being understanding and loving Tech and his awkwardness.

I do have some other thoughts on Tech I will make a separate post on because it's something I really thought about on this rewatch.

S2 has beautiful music and animation on top of some stellar storytelling. "Mayday" will always be my personal favorite and "The Outpost" is always going to be my favorite episode. It means to much to me.

Overall, the best season imo. I love S3, but it has pacing issues, and S1 just makes me sad.

[resident-idiot-simp]

I love the Black dog idea so much!!! And it doesn’t go against the premise at all. Imagine Simon’s human his whole life and thinks Mythics are just lazy spoiled princesses only to become one himself also gaining his new name Ghost. The symbolism between life and death with Soap and Ghost and how opposites can attract and balance each other vs Farah and Hadir where the opposites can tear people apart instead.

People absorb magic their whole lives and while it’s most common to hybridise as a small child if an adult needs to absorb a lot of magic quickly to survive a dangerous situation it’s possible they will also hybridise. In cases like those the area, type of danger, internal magic they’ve absorb in there life and the persons desires would affect the creature they became ie wanting to survive vs wanting revenge would affect the outcome. Being English and being buried alive in an unmarked grave plus wanting revenge = a very pissed black dog hybrid!!!!

In this universe wendigos are a thing with all the magic around but they’re not hybrids they are full creatures. The American military tried using them but they couldn’t control them they had no intelligence beyond hunting for food and couldn’t distinguish between allies or foes.

Fae and a bunch of other creatures are also a present, them returning to the world is what brought back the magic. Soap being a unicorn is fae adjacent and he gets along with the fair folk surprisingly well (the fae courts also completely disregard human royalty (Soap finds this hilarious Ghost doesn’t)).

Roba was also a mythic he was an “old coyote” trickster and used his power to torment people. Hey got away with it so long because mythics are basically above the law in most cases. They will always be treated better than a regular hybrid even one like Ghost. People are lerry of of death affiliated hybrids like vulters or ravens and there are a few nasty stereotypes floating about. Alex probably gets called dumb a couple times a month and the amount of freedom jokes Graves cops a beyond count. Nick’s viewed as a violent brute stuff like that.

Valeria almost died on the mission where she usurped the previous cartel leader and became a regular hybrid to survive. She was unarmed, injured, and surrounded by enemies. She need a way to defend herself and she found one (she’s super venomous).

SOAP GOT HIS NAME FROM SOAPWART because when he uses his magic that shit starts growing everywhere and when Ghost uses his it kills them off. The only reason their home isn’t overgrown with it is because Ghost keeps it incheck.

Ok that's good I'm glad it works because it really feels like it works. I see so in a moment of desperation or dire situation they can transform to survive, it makes sense. The symbolism between Soap and Ghost is amazing an it feels important honestly because it can also delude the godly nature of the Mythics. Them being opposite of Farah and Hadir works so well.

That explanation works well I man after all who wants to fuck with pissed a black dog?

heheheheh Wendigos that makes a lot of sense honestly you can also have it to where they are just smart enough to know they want NO part in the military BS. However I still have the question of what can and can't be a hybrid. Dragons can but not Wendigos, Black dogs but not fae. What is the deciding factor of what can and can't be a hybrid?

I love the idea that Soap and the Fae are just besties and Ghost is just there. ALSO FAE COURT! (poor Ghost)

OLD COYOTE TRICKSTER ROBA IS SO SMART! I like the negative stereotypes it makes the world feel more real and honestly I think it is necessary. The Jokes made at everyone expense is absolutely something that would happen.

Valeria backstory is perfect for her character I love it so much!

I LOVE THAT THEY ARE PERFICT FOR EACHOTHER!

[paper-gold-theories]

I have a theory that the polar opposite of black hat is magician (or who I'm assuming is magician) from podimous bailar. If you compare magician's design with black hat's there seems to be a lot of similarities. Like their build and height seems to be the same. Then their clothes seem to be different with magician having his coat collar down instead of up and having his coat closed instead of open like black hat's.

Hmm...they kinda look similar, Alan mentioned in a Q and A that we won't see the character opposite of Black Hat "in the first season" that will provide him a challenge.

It could go either way as I am not sure if the orientation videos (or comics refer to when General Falchion appears in thebcomics below) are considered Season 1 or the photos of Copper and Magician without their faces showing are considered them appearing in the show.

And we might see either Copper and Magician in the future episodes...

However, Alan also mentioned that Black Hat is the embodiment of evil, so there’s an embodiment of goodness to balance him like yin and yang and we’ll hopefully get to see him someday.

The Podemos Bailar, is known for forcing members to join their group so considering that, Magician or Cooper might not be the embodiment of good.

The important P.E.A.C.E. leader that appeared at the end of The Shrunken Rescue (which I theorized to be General Falchion) might also not be the embodiment of good as P.E.A.C.E. is known to do shady things (that could possibly cause wars), have heroes which have not such a good personality like Miss Heed, as well as covering their tracks to ensure they still look like the hero in people's eyes, such as using memory erasers on nurses working in their rehab, hiding Miss Heed's actions and the reason for her arrest, betraying their allies to save their reputation and reinstating her as a hero again because she was able to buy it back because of her father's money and connections.

However Alan also mentioned that nothing’s black and white (except BH and 505), villains aren’t all that bad (like Penumbra) and that they’re all grey, as well as the heroes.

So the embodiment of good and opposite of Black Hat may not be an entirely good person.

Lawful Evil vs Lawful Good

Black Hat is a perfectionist, signs contract and has multiple rules that teaches Villains how to be good Villains.

Hence, we can categorise him as being lawful evil which means anyone that follows a strict code, hierarchy, or system for personal gain at any cost.

So I theorized that Black Hat's opposite is a lawful good which means anyone that promotes the greater good, while following established procedures or rules. (What defines as greater good in P.E.A.CE. or the Podemos Bailar might be a stretch)

____

And as mentioned above, villains and heroes are morally grey, because of this Black Hat is also is willing to make deals with people who aren't actually villains, because there is no true evil or good.

For example, in Episode 3 Black Hat made a deal with Adelita who was considered a villain by P.E.A.C.E. because of her suspicious behaviour due to the dissatisfaction of the new P.E.A.C.E. administration, to fight Pedro who is still actually a hero but is mind controlled to do villainous things, hence is considered one by P.E.A.C.E. despite still doing heroic deeds before being mind controlled.

Conclusion

Hence, I conclude because of this points that in addition to being lawful good, since there is no true evil or good, the opposite of Black Hat is also not 100% completely good and might also be helping morally grey people as well.

Thinking about it perhaps Cooper/Magician or Falchion possibly might fit the "opposite of Black Hat character" as they do work with morally grey people things for their definition "greater good" and they want to defeat the embodiment of evil.

But it feels like it's not likely as I still feel like they've done too many grey things to be considered the "embodiment of good".

Hence most likely there might be a third character not yet introduced that will provide Black Hat with a worthy challenge. 👀

[ndiebrioxhe]

Long Spoiler ridden rambling about Ascendance of a bookworm

I really like Ascendance of a bookworm because it is so unique. It has such a rigid social heirachal structure and societal rules compared to many other fantasy novels.

Other fantasy novels: “There’s the royal family, the (usually evil) duke whose usually a step above regular nobles and …the rest™ where the only difference between a commoner and noble is how they dress and if they got fancy parties.

AOAB: “EVERYONE IS RANKED. Royalty (zent and family) —> archduke of a duchy (aub and family) —> archnobles —> mednobles —> laynobles.

The duchies? RANKED. The sovereignty where the royal family reigns —> the duchies ranked 1st to 13th.

Marriages? RANKED. Men can marry 3 wives with the 1st wife being the most influential and the 3rd being the least. They all have jobs to best benefit the family. Wives can get promoted and demoted. All children produced by any wife are equally able to inherit the noble title and become the head but preferences exist, typically based on mana quantity…which means they are what? RANKED (on likelihood to inherit unofficially).”

But why do I like it as a world building aspect? Besides being really detailed? Because it is an ENORMOUS problem that the narrative doesn’t pretend any character can solve …but it’s also sort of balanced?

Their world is PRECARIOUS and this flawed system is both contributing to the problem but the only reason it’s not constantly in civil war or barren of life. The more mana/higher the rank you have as a noble, the more power you can exert but you also have the obligation to ensure harvest happen and the duchy runs smoothly.

An archnoble of lower ranked duchy and laynoble of a higher ranked duchy know exactly how much respect they have to extend to each other. While women are expected to marry before 20 and marry men of equal status and mana to maintain ensure good offspring - sexism doesn’t exist BETWEEN social classes. A man of lower class holds NO power over a woman higher class - she is his superior. One too many missteps can just have you getting you and your family murdered or executed. Want a better life for you or your duchy? CLIMB THE RANKS. Marry upwards or to your benefit and start making yourself, your family, your duchy, as valuable as you can to the nation while watching your step. Make new inventions! introduce trends! Make allies!

This rigid, ranked society being a death trap is the only way to balance Rosemyne as a mana rich isekai protagonist with knowledge far beyond even regular humans.

And what is main draw of the series? Rosemyne exploiting the fuck out of this system to get what she wants. She gains allies by simply being too beneficial to ignore and climbs the social ladder of society so fast by simply navigating the rules with her mana and skills. It lays bare the issue of why structure society on heirachies, not only how many exploitative it is.. but how simply exploitABLE it is.

The narrative doesn’t spend a second directly addressing the sexism of only men getting to marry multiple women into ranked positions or men being preferred over women for heirs, or children under 7 not being considered people, literal treatment of orphans across the nation. They are simply too big of an issue for her to solve. And Rosemyne frankly doesn’t care if it’s not happening infront of her. She doesn’t even care who she marries or what rank she marries at on a personal level. Wilifried is simply convenient. If didn’t she care about family, she would be in the 2nd ranked duchy engaged to a man who called her a fake saint and swiftly married into royalty.

But the system is beyond exploitable for someone with smarts, mana, goals and no investment in the morality of the world- it is simply a CAKEWALK. If she cared less about books and more about power, she would be Zent in less than few years. Higher ranked nobles can do literally fuck all to stop her besides try to marry her into their families and potentially giving her MORE power. When Rosemyne so much as takes her head out of a book and plays a power move everyone is scrambling like it’s oncoming traffic. When she decides to just be a little morally grey or business oriented it ripples through the nation. The society is so rigid that she could predict nobles but nobles can’t predict her. The only thing separating Myne from the antagonists is she loves family and books and nothing else.

It’s so good.

[gatheringbones]

[“Making formal, conscious agreements about how people gain decision-making power helps make the group’s structure transparent. A transparent, visible structure is always more empowering than a hidden, confusing structure.

When unspoken rules become conscious agreements, we can choose whether or not to participate. When we know what the steps are needed in order to gain power, we can choose whether or not to take them. If we don’t know, we can’t make a choice. Even if power is handed to us, we might not recognize it or know how to make use of it. When the path to power is made clear, we can also challenge it if we feel it is restrictive or unfair.

Reclaiming, the spiritual network I helped to found, had a hard lesson around this.

We began as a close-knit group of friends, operating by consensus but often making decisions informally. We grew into a collective, still small and close-knit. Some people were in the collective because they were doing real work for the organization, others were in simply because we liked them or because at some time in the past they had taken on central roles. Because we feared conflict, we had never agreed upon a way to get anyone out of the collective if they weren’t doing a good job or were causing discord. As a result, we had become extremely wary of letting anybody new in. So many people who were doing major amounts of work were not in the collective. Nonetheless, we had lots of energy and ambition.

In the mid-1990s, we decided we wanted to try to get a building of our own in San Francisco as our headquarters. We held a large meeting, inviting lots of our allies and supporters. We expected to generate great enthusiasm and support. Instead, what we heard from people was something like this: “Why should we support you? We don’t know who the collective is or how you got to be in it. We had no voice in choosing you. We don’t know how you make decisions. If you want our support, you need to be transparent.”

We were shocked. We’d had no idea that our warm, fuzzy circle which seemed so egalitarian to us looked so closed and insular from the outside. The meeting started us on a long process of soul-searching and restructuring, which culminated in the writing of our Principles of Unity, and the dissolving of the collective which was replaced by a more democratic council of spokespeople chosen by each working group. We never did get a building, but instead, we got a structure which allowed us to grow from a San Francisco collective to an expanded network of groups around the world. A word of warning — a voice in decision-making should never mean control over the group’s decisions. Social power can slip over into hierarchy and command if we are not careful. A group cannot grow and develop unless it balances the weight of even well-earned authority with openness and inclusiveness.”]

starhawk, from the empowerment manual: a guide for collaborative groups, 2011

[goldleaf-blog]

Ninjago lore: Dragon Heart // Part 1

This is going to be split into three parts 

Part 1: The Balance 

When season 8 came and went we were introduced to the concept of Dragons and Oni. Presumably powerful beings that have existed since the beginning. The Dragons wielded the power of creation and were the embodiment of light while the Oni wielded the power of destruction and were the embodiment of evil.

Their constant fighting embodies the Yin Yang symbol, light and dark in constant battle. But I would like to propose a new idea. What if there was a light in darkness and darkness in light that is sometimes associated with the Yin Yang symbol. Oni are the embodiment of evil having a hidden light, while dragons being the embodiment of light having a hidden darkness. 

This is where the Dragon heart comes into play. 

We know dragons are meant to be the good guys and Oni the bad guys despite proof of the opposite. For example we have Mystake who is a full blooded Oni who betrayed her fellow warlords and sacrificed her life to buy the heroes time. And Garmadon, who is half Oni, is learning to be good. On the other hand we have a few evil dragons that have been introduced through the show. Such as the Overlord, Morro’s Dragon, Boreal, and Grief-Bringer. 

I will briefly mention the Oni here since they are a key player to the balance but they are not the main focus of this topic. Oni are one of two key players in the balance being the embodiment of evil, bringers of doom and having the power to destroy. But Oni have something that stops them from their madness and their endless thirst for destruction. The Heart of compassion. The Heart of compassion is an Oni inner light and that inner light can redeem an Oni from their villainous ways. It is the reason why Mystake betrayed her allies and joined the FSM and it’s also the reason why Garmadon developed a change of heart. They embrace their Heart of compassion. Of course embracing the heart is a choice and it often requires a motivation to do so. In some rare cases the Heart of compassion doesn’t actually sway an Oni from their current path, but only their motives.

Now let's talk about the Dragons. Dragons are the second key players in the balance being the embodiment of light and having the power to create. But Dragons have a sinister evil that is hidden within all dragons threatening to awaken and to seek power for their own selfish gain. The Dragon Heart. The Dragon Heart is a sentience organ and the embodiment of a dragon's evil. Unlike the Oni’s Heart of compassion, the Dragon heart has a will of its own and will stop at nothing to get what it wants.

Most dragons who embrace their Dragon Hearts either did so by choice and were tricked by said Dragon Heart. Those that embrace their Dragon Hearts become tyranny, evil warlords and world conquerors. Dragons who embrace the Heart often took the title of Dragon Lord.

Dragon Hearts control their vessels through the blood and they use their blood binding to hijack the brain. Thus controlling the whole body.

The Oni and Dragon were meant to use their powers to maintain the balance. But their hatred for one other lead to war. Fearing their own destruction, laws were built to prevent Dragon Lords from rising to power.

Those who embrace their dragon hearts were punished with death. But that didn’t stop them. Many of the victims include Wojira, the Overlord, Grief-Bringer, Wu and the Dragon Hunters. 

The FSM would have also been a victim himself but we’ll talk about him in part 2. The history of the Dragon Heart will also be explored in Part 2. 

Thus ends Part 1. Part 2  Part 3

[shuttershocky]

@kurozu501 I don't agree with that line of thinking, though not because it wouldn't work. Strictly speaking it /would/ make her S3 better and it /would/ actually have utility as a DP generator which Saga and Flametail's own "buff myself to fight" skills have, but it does nothing to fix's Siege's design problem of not being able to offer something that Saga and Flametail don't already cover.

If you gave DP gen to Siege's S3, Siege still has the issue of not having Saga and Flametail's survivability, not having Saga's SP support or Flametail's incredibly fast skill cycle time, etc. Sure Siege's S3 is more useful, but what will it give you on its own that Saga S3 won't on its own? Both will make DP and give ATK buffs to fight strong enemies, but Saga's attacks will also let allies charge SP, and Siege's S3 stun chance is too low to be reliable crowd control. I don't need Siege to be able to match what Saga and Flametail do, I want her to be as fun to play as well because she offers something that they don't.

I personally believe in balancing that emphasizes strengths first before patching weaknesses (unless the weaknesses are simply too glaring), because I value skillset diversity over true 'balance'. A game that's well balanced because everyone is roughly the same would be boring as hell. A game that can say its characters all offer something new won't be as balanced, but it would be more fun as every new unit promises a new way to play, and it means that when paired with good level design, someone's time to shine will come eventually.

As a PVE game, Arknights being fun is my far greater concern over it being balanced. Siege has been around since the launch of the game, everyone knows her S3 completely abandons the Vanguard role to offclass as a Guard, so why not go further with that idea? Rather than make it give DP, give it a big crit every time it stuns and make a stun guaranteed on a full HP enemy so Siege can crack open a 2000 DEF enemy like an egg, her answer to the question of survivability being "strong enemies can't hit me if I hit them first." (Or make each stun reduce a % of DEF to make a debuffer, make the stun longer so Siege becomes a crowd control stall Vanguard, etc etc)

Now Siege has two niches over Saga and Flametail: the convenience of her automatic S2, and her S3 being "lol test your DEF against this". S3 now involves making an interesting decision: it doesn't make DP so your DP gain isn't improved, but do I need DP to deploy a stronger unit to kill this tanky enemy if Siege can just do it herself?" Saga and Flametail's S3s are strong enough to handle many strong enemies so for many stages you'll still opt for them, but if enemies that even Bagpipe only scratches show up, Siege offers a solution other vanguards don't.

And you can say "But why do that when Bagpipe + Flagbearers can just drop NTRK / Surtr and kill anything", but Bagpipe + Flagbearers has made almost all vanguards fringe units anyway. Saga is only truly necessary when mega risk CC would instagib Myrtle, and Flametail only when her own unique brand of evasion stall is required. At least with this method of adding to her S3 with damage or stuns or debuffs, Siege can say that she offers something that Saga and Flametail don't, and while what she offers isn't /needed/ a lot, she's also uniquely and significantly good enough at it that you may remember her for it.

She already offers very high damage per hit that other vanguards can't match, I just want her to be able to accomplish most of that on her own, making the unique promise of playing Siege far more usable.

That's all I want from her.

[wyrd-syster]

Heya, I've been pondering over Haladriel a lot lately, and i'm wondering what you think Sauron believes he has to gain, specifically, by being bound to Gal's light? I.e. surely he can achieve/enact his vision for ME with his power alone. But maybe it's more about how her light makes him feel, as opposed to what it can do for him? Idk I loved your understanding of what was going through his head in that last ep (per your fics) and i thought you might be able to shed some light (hah) on this...

Sorry my reply to this is so late! I spent some time thinking about this.

So, the thing is, I don't think Sauron believes he can enact his vision for Middle-earth by himself. At least, not the idealized version of it.

Sauron freely admits he's done evil, he is aware at some level the pain he's caused. He professes to want to heal Middle-earth, and I think a lot of character interpretations are contingent on your view of this claim - is he truly repentant or just afraid of punishment? I personally think it is the much more interesting character choice to believe him; I believe he wants to right his wrongs, wants to atone. I think he truly believes that restoring order and perfection to the world will absolve him of his crimes.

However, the question then arises, how does he do all this without infringing upon his pride (which we know is what stopped him from submitting himself to the Valar for judgement)? How does he balance his thirst for power with his will to do better?

Following this thinking through to the end of the line, the answer is he doesn't. In the end, his lesser demons overcome his better angels. Sauron becomes the greatest evil on Middle-earth, covers the world in a second darkness, yatta, yatta, yatta.

So it seems like we meet him at this crossroads moment - trying to legitimately think of ways to right his wrongs while refusing to compromise on his ego and desire for power. And because he doesn't know how to navigate this cognitive dissonance, he's adrift - both literally and figuratively.

Enter Galadriel, who does not let him fade into obscurity and mope, but instead pesters him until he rises to the challenge of who she wants him to be and takes responsibility for the Southlands. Galadriel is the one who shows him the path forward, and he says as much to her in ep 8: "I'd all but given up, but you...You believed in me. You saw strength in me. You pushed me to heights no one else could have."

I think Sauron is self-aware enough to know he needs Galadriel to "pull him back" when his tendency for darkness overtakes him. I think he knows he will be unable to resist the temptation for self-gain and power without someone there to keep him in check. And Galadriel is the strongest being around capable of doing that, one whose support has "pushed him to new heights." And, importantly, one who is currently exiled from her own people - just think, an incredibly powerful ally in a vulnerable position!

To me, there also seems to be an angle of legitimizing his efforts through binding himself with Galadriel. She is, in many respects, a stand-in for the Valar on Middle-earth. So if she believes in him and supports him, then his work cannot truly be evil, not when it is A+ Noldor Certified!

I also just really vibe with a lot of what @liminal-zone has discussed about Sauron needing a new dom leader. Morgoth had a "clenched fist" around him for ages, and Sauron did his bidding. Now, he needs someone else to boss him around and give him guidance, someone like Galadriel.

Or, you know, he could just want her light to make himself, like, uber powerful. rip to charlie vickers' mentions but my readings of this character are different lol

[bubbleonice]

General reading for Harry Styles:

Decide the outcome: clear the fog and have fun are the three first cards I pulled for Harry. I think Harry has been ln a fog for a while. Like he has been kind of distorting the truth for himself. He could easily misinterpret others and take emotional point of views based on those misinterpratations. So at one point he decided to ckear the fog. He wanted to lift the fog and turn the pollution of the present and turn things clearer. He wanted to be correctly informed about things, feelings, intentions, exchange of communications, so on. On the way he learnt he could actually decide the outcome. Rather than hoping for things to happen, he could actually decide that certain things would happen. He is embracing his creative power and using it. He refuses to be a victim of fate no more but rather be a driver of his own vessel and actively directs his creative power towards satisfying goals. He is learning the art of manifestation. And along the say he learnt to keep the inner light of his spirit shining bright. He has fun. He is loving his life right now, connecting to every sounds, scents, tastes, textures, flavors and friends that uplifts his spirit. He is healing his inner child.

9 of cups reversed: there was a time when he primarily felt a sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction. It's time to consider how to get closer to his ultimate goal in order to rediscover a sense of purpose. For the longest time Even when his life seemed to be everything he’s ever wanted, there may still be a nagging feeling that something was lacking. It's possible that he once lost sight of what mattered to him in favour of the emotion and going after what will make people think well of him. He was angry because his wishes had yet to come true. He felt worthless.

4 of swords reversed: but then he was ready to finally let go of certain self-limiting ideas. It was time for healing. The Four of Swords reversed generally denotes awakening and gaining mental fortitude. After a period of loneliness or mental exhaustion, he was ready to leave isolation and rejoin the outside world.

The hermit reversed: The Reversed Hermit Tarot card wants you to know that you shouldn’t run from your problems or emotions. The only real warning is to avoid letting paranoia or fear guide your steps. After a period of introspection and self-work you have gained new insights and wisdom. Now the demands of the external world may be calling you back. Duties will multiply, and events may pick up speed. The Hermit is the "way-shower" from within. The Hermit reversed indicates that you possess something important that can contribute to the world around you. If you are brave enough to confront your discomfort, to seek out the inner teacher within you, you will discover that your discomfort can be your greatest ally. By delving deep into your fears and feelings, you can find the wisdom you seek. Take the time to reflect on what is going on inside you, and connect with your inner Hermit. Let him guide you through the darkness and melt the ice around your heart.

The page of cups: This card is traditionally entitled the Page, but in some modern decks appears as a Princess. In this suit this card represents a poetic, mystical, emotionally open young person, still tender and idealistic, given to flights of imaginative fantasy. This energy is exquisitely refined and fine-tuned. It may be that a sense of being grounded in reality has not yet entirely set in, such that he or she is easily tossed about by external forces and events. This person must work to achieve a stronger will and a more calculating mind, to balance and protect all that wonderful sensitivity. The Page of Cups is a card that evokes a sense of youthful energy and emotional depth. You are about to experience new and exciting feelings, like the rush of a gentle ocean wave touching the shore. You might feel like you’re walking on clouds as new emotions and possibilities swirl around you, creating an atmosphere of sweet enchantment. Someone special could appear, offering you heartfelt gestures and a chance to explore a budding romance. Which in this case, I think already happened.

Respect: he respects the people around him. And he values everyone’s unique perspective on the path to love.

From the romance angels cards I pulled : forgiveness and new love.

There are some old unreleased emotions he needs to deal with. He needs to release and heal from the past. That will help him to experience more love in his present moments. New love is about a person whichas recently stirred his romantic feelings.

I also pulled from my love oracle card and funny enough, they also say something about healing and forgiveness. I think Harry has had a tough time with emotions that has had him worked up in the past. Circumstances he has not properly dealt with or healed from. That is why he is being reminded now over and over to heal and to forgive. We already got the first cards which was clear the fog and decide the outcome, which both also said somethinh about repressed emotions that neede to be dealt with.

Healing: imagaine yourself and your beloved surrounded by light. Feel your relationship being healed this very moment.

Forgiveness: stop focusing your energy on past events, for life is too precious to waste. You create your reality by what you think, dream and imagine.

Conclusion for this reading: I think it’s about Harry being in the fog for a while, not knowing exactly how to proceed life. He has been on autopilot for a while. Doing his work but not really being into his work. Jumping from relationship to relationship without teally knowing his intentions. He was isolated and exhausted, but he worked with himself and is on his way out of the fog. He is starting to see things clearer, and he is starting to know his intentions. He is regaining control for his own life and career and romantic life. He is getting ready for better outcomes from now on. So I think we might be seeing better things coming from Harry in the future.

I hope you enjoy this reading. And please keep in mind that this is done for entertainment purposes only. I use tarotcards and oracle cards actively in my readings, as well as my intuition. Energies come and go, what is relevant for today’s reading might change in a few weeks time. But some aspects will always remain constant and the same. Thank you.❤️

[cienie-isengardu]

I mean, for our sake we should hope the Special Forces didn't use a live subject for Triborg because otherwise that means they sacrificed some poor intern to a cyber killing machine.

It's either they used a corpse which is still dubious or they used a living person who probably didn't consent given I only a few people would be willing to undergo something like this.

I think the main question is did Special Forces truly want to recreate C.I. Project and use it as a new kind of weapon for their own benefit or were they simply interested in advanced cybernetic technology that could revolutionize medicine & treating injuries or military equipment, as there is already at least one cybernetically-enhanced soldier in service of army and Jax got his cybernetical arms before Outworld Invasion and Netherrealm War happened. Which was something akin to 20 years before Mortal Kombat X's main story. I think it is very likely for Special Forces to develop this technology all this time, so finding such advanced data naturally prompted them to investigate[*]. 

Considering how the wars against the Outworld army and demons devastated cities and have left its mark on people's psyche, I can understand if Special Forces tried to find a way to create cybernetic bodies for their injured soldiers, so they could come back into military service. As Earthrealm was constantly threatened by Netherrealm and Outworld civil war(s), they were in need to keep a strong army in case the other realms attacked again. 

The Special Forces didn’t necessarily need to test the Lin Kuei technology on some poor alive subjects against their will. Such a possibility always exists of course, but so do people who willingly volunteer to test new technologies (for example, in hope to be healed from heavy injury) or decide to donate their bodies after death for scientific purposes. As we don’t have an idea what was the true purpose of Special Forces research - turning people in soulless machines or using data to create cybernetically-enhanced equipment for soldiers to give them better chance in fight with supernatural enemies, we can’t be sure if anyone was forced to undergo automation process the way Lin Kuei warriors were twenty years ago. 

For one, people like Sonya, Jax or Johnny wouldn’t allow for such a thing to happen as they first-hand experienced the terror of Cyber Lin Kuei during war and knew Kuai Liang who was forced into cybernetic enslavement. However since this is a matter of the Special Forces secret weapon laboratory (what still doesn’t mean S-F wanted to turn their soldiers into machines), our main heroes may have no clue what is happening until the Triborg broke free and became a threat to every living being.

I for one would love a storyline focusing on this plot, where there are no gods or supernatural beings threatening Earthrealm from outside and whose present demands from all heroes to unite against a common, oh-so-powerful enemy. Instead we could have a chance to see how each independent faction deals with the problem at hand, who ally with whom and how they mend the broken trust between Lin Kuei and Special Forces when some corrupted high-ranking member(s) of the government tries to create and use such technology to gain control over Outworld or any other realm rich in natural resources. Because I won’t believe that after two decades of constant threat no one in a high position of power didn’t consider invading Outworld and turning it into Earthrealm's colony to end the threat once and for good. General Blade is still a soldier and there are people who give the orders and wouldn’t it be interesting to see how the New Generation need to find a balance between orders and doing the right thing? Especially since we already have an intro dialogue about how the Special Forces wants Cyber Cyrax’s body to destroy all remains of C.I. Project, something Kuai Liang won’t allow to happen to his friend. 

[*] Alternatively, they were interested in data about Lin Kuei, as the games say Sub-Zero trained Special Forces and improved their skills but may not betray all his clan secrets, so they wanted to study Lin Kuei techniques without Grandmaster’s knowledge. Which sucks nonetheless.

[13skeletons]

oh boy. I woke up ready to rant about Siege of Dragonspear lol.

This is long and negative so if you like SoD, I am so sorry. I would genuinely love to know what you see in it because woof.

like. ok. I know we give ToB shit for being linear, but at least ToB gives you access to that statue in your base, very early on, that can summon companions for you to party with. I spent most of SoD with a less than full party because I wanted to run with the same people I'd had (minus Imoen. I have Thoughts on that too lol) and for some deranged reason Dorn is SUPER FAR in and locked in a cage? And then the reason for him being locked up is never even explained? (Unless I missed it somewhere, in my irritated rush to the end. Not impossible.)

Companion woes aside, ToB still gives you at least some choices. There are some branching paths, and the ending is not set. There are payoffs to earlier quests/moments that you can miss or not if you have the relevant items/flags. (Golden pantaloons, my beloved.) SoD didn't feel like it had any choices at all?

And the whole business with your gold getting "stored safely" and then getting gambled away and lost to you until the absolute very end of the game was so. Stupid. All that did was prevent me from buying very many of the new magic items at the shop in Baldur's Gate. And then the dude dies with a sword in his chest and Viconia is all "he is too far gone for me". GIRL YOU CAN RESURRECT THE DEAD WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. IT'S JUST A SWORD. THE BODY HAS TO BE MAIMED BEYOND RECOGNITION TO PREVENT RESSURECTION. MY GODS. So when you actually get the money back there's literally like 3 fights left in the whole game. What could you possibly need to buy at that point.

AND THEN. Imoen. What where they THINKING? They wanted to explain how she shows up dual-classed into mage in SoA. But that was literally never something that needed explaining. It is an EXTREMELY common tactic to dual class her at level 5 in BG1, and even if you didn't do that, dual-classing doesn't temporarily render you completely useless? Hello???? And they could've at least transferred her gear to Safana (or to me) when they tossed her into my party. But no, I just had a less-geared thief instead. Ugh.

And that doesn't even touch on the complete and total lack of balance to the combat encounters! Having trolls (and giant trolls. good lord) and dragons (not to mention a dragon with wyvern adds....) and mind flayers this early is BATSHIT INSANE. The enormous hordes of mooks that you wipe out with two fireballs render your melee fighters into wall-flowers. And then there's the enormous hordes of mooks that you can't throw fireballs at without hitting allied NPCs... (apparently Khalid died while breaking the siege and I didn't even realize because I was already so fed up at that point lmaooo). Whatever that tentacle boss was...

Also the total inability to manage your reputation carefully because you're on a railroad with set reputation gains and losses that you can do nothing about was really irritating to me personally because I prefer playing with mixed alignment groups. (Yes my evil friends did abandon me after the siege, forcing me to reload and figure out a way to lower my rep.) (And then later I encountered some random refugees and didn't even try to save them, I just killed the wolf that was near them, not realizing it was gonna give me reputation, and I had to reload AGAIN. But this time I was a lazy bastard and just fireballed everything, dropping my rep to like 6 and I never had to worry about it again lmao.) (Also while googling to try and find a way to deal with this issue, I read that it potentially causes problems for importing into BG2, which if that's true, I am gonna laugh somewhat hysterically.)

As for the "Hooded Man" (shut up she's so pretentious it's fucking Irenicus). I'm sorry but it literally makes no sense for him to be there. It makes no sense for him to be able to get into your dreams before he's ever even experimented on you.

Just. The whole thing ultimately felt totally unnecessary and I may well uninstall it to prevent the game from auto-loading me into it when next I complete BG1.

EDIT: I completely forgot about this because it's a comparatively minor complaint, but during the actual siege on the castle, there were so many mobs and NPCs that the game's audio essentially stopped working. There were so many characters trying do their "i took damage" noises that they'd play the first millisecond of one then the first millisecond of the next etc until the fight was over. Just a broken record of "arg-arg-arg-arg." lol. More evidence that no one reasonable balanced those encounters.

[300iqprower]

Hypothetical Rank Ups No. 74-77: Tamamo (Cat)

[Special thanks to who else but @hastamamocatdoneanythingwrong for letting me consult them on the balancing (mfw no one on your friends list has a Cat to use) as well as helping to heavily streamline the effects being handed out.]

New Passive:

Catnap B++: Increase your HP Recovery amount by 33% while asleep.

Self-Explanatory really, and it'll come back later on.

Monstrous Strength B -> Maddening Consumption (Beast) B

Increase own ATK (2 turns).^ Remove own Offensive Debuffs. Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (1 time, 2 turns) Increase own Buster Card effectiveness by 10% (2 turns). [ATK up scaling increased to 20-40%, Quick up scales from 30-50%.]

Man, it is NOT easy with these units with odd decks, doubly so if Quick is involved. But at least it makes for variety in the stims I hand out. We're sticking to only 2 turns instead of 3, but they're two turns with the Strength of a Beast. Cat taps into her inner Ammy to massively boost her NP type of Quick 1 time, both increasing its refund, star drop, and of course damage, but not being reliable for looping and you'll want to make sure you don't use her quick facecard beforehand. Meanwhile, her monstrous strength becomes near unstoppable (debuff removal to throw a wrench into attempts to mitigate it) at the "cost" of drastically ranking up her Madness Enhancement while active (Buster up).

So to restate, what this all does is clear the way for Cat to deal major burst damage. By briefly giving in to her Beast attribute alter ego she gains a massive Attack Up and a 2 mutually exclusive stims that stack with the universal one manipulatively: a big one time buff intended for her NP and a small multi-use one for most of her facecards.

Malediction, Cat Sunshine B -> A-

Chance to decrease one enemy's Charge. Apply Invincible for yourself (1 time, 5 turns). Decrease ATK for a single enemy (3 turns). Decrease Quick Resist for a single enemy (3 turns). Apply [Sunlight] field status to self (5 turns) Decrease own Debuff Resist by 100% (1 turn). [Demerit] [ATK down scales from 10-20%, Quick Resist down scales from 10-20%.]

You'd really think they'd have given the already existing rank up for this skill something that reflected how it was used in SE.RA.PH but oh well I guess that's what I'm for. So firstly since this is an Amaterasu spell (and also because ITS LITERALLY IN THE NAME) we're making this a field change! if it wasn't clear yet, get used to seeing these fairly often. Next we're gonna give it a bunch of effects based on what we saw in the event against Suzuka, so that's gonna be an attack reduction as well as a quick res debuff. Oh and we're changing the text so that it's not a flat out lie about the charge's chance to reduce. Originally I was gonna boost that to 100% but I have it on good authority that with Cat's kit that's actually more of a stealth nerf given how useful it is for the charge reduction to NOT proc on the skill. Even still, it's a lot of positive effects so both for lore accuracy and balancing, we're having the skill tucker poor Cat out like we saw in the event, tanking her resistance to other status effects for a turn (because defense down on a berserker is just unfair)

Morph (Lunch) A -> Morph (Lunchtime!) A+

Increase own DEF (3 turns).^ Further increase own DEF for each other [Cooking] ally (3 turns). Increase own Max HP (3 turns).^ Recover HP for all allies by 1000 Further recover HP for each other [Cooking] ally. Apply Debuff Immune to self (1 turn). [DEF up scaling slightly increased to a max of 30%, Max HP scaling increased to 1500-3000, Extra DEF up scales from 10-15%/ally, Extra HP Recovered scales from 1000-2000/ally.]

You'd ALSO really think that the series of Nasu "Everything must have a foodporn scene" TypeMoon would have a dedicated Cooking trait but again I guess that's what I'm here for. I still have no fcking idea why they give so many berserkers Morph when it's about as much use as, to pick a random example, giving Mash a buste-crit stim, but I suppose if there's any berserker it makes sense to give a semi-tanky skill it might as well be the chef taking as much comic punishment as wile e coyote.

To do that though we need to ramp it WAY up, both in the base effects and the new ones, using the team-specific qualifier to balance it out. To that end Cat'll work with everyone else available to whip up a feast for the entire party. Not only do other allies increase the food to go around and thus the recovery, but in addition to that being at home in the kitchen also does wonders for keeping her berserker tendencies at bay (IE the defense mitigation further increases for each cook with her). While the numbers reached can reach astronomical amounts given the skill's unchanged 5 turn cooldown, reaching said numbers requires one of the most finicky team compositions around given the scattershot results of who exactly qualifies as a cooking servant. None of the staple DPS or Stall support units qualify with the exception of Castamamo whose arts focus is completely at odds with the rest of Cat's kit. There are a handful of units with good inherent synergy with Catamamo, but more than half of them are gold rarity and/or limited. Overall the result is that, under the right conditions with event bonuses or something similar at play you could have a real dream team, but most of the time you're better off not going for a full team of 3 fielded cooks at once. ...I'm sure there's a witticism buried in there about spoiling the broth.

Cooking Servants: Emiya, Arash, Boudica, Saint Martha, Ruler Martha, Santa Martha, Medea, Medea Lily, Kiyohime, Lancer Kiyohime, Tamamo Cat, Tamamo no Mae, Tamamo Lancer, Geronimo, Tawara Touta, MHXA, Suzuka Gozen, Paul Bunyan, Tomoe, Saber Tomoe, Inshun, Oskabehime, Circe, Chiron, Robin, Qin Liangyu, Beni-Enma, Muramasa, Percival, Barghest, Gareth, Gareth (Saber), Yamanami Keisuke, Daikokuten

Napping in the Dazzling Sunshine and Feasting D+ -> D+++

Apply Sure Hit for yourself (1 turn). Deal heavy damage to all enemies. Inflict Sleep^ to yourself (2 turns). [Demerit] Increase your Buster Card effectiveness when field is [Sunlight] (3 turns). [Activates first] Increase your Quick Card effectiveness when field is [Sunlight] (3 turns). [Activates first] <Overcharge> Restore your HP per turn (3 turns). [Buster and Quick Card up scale with level at 20/30/35/37.5/40%.]

I told you Catnap would be relevant later! Self-Stun is pretty horrid demerit, even if they gave Cat that rank up with a debuff immune charge, so we're buffing that up to only be a self-Sleep now that Sabby made Sleep an official debuff. This is a buff twofold, both removing the stun a turn early if Cat gets attacked (which without setupid is still pretty devastating given she's a berserker) and boosting the HP recovery per turn indirectly since while the rank up isn't changing the inherent Overcharge scaling, the new passive improves the HP it'll recover by 33% so long as Cat remains asleep. Next we're gonna give her a much needed Sunlight buff, again ITS LITERALLY IN THE NAME. Scaling with level, which isn't TOO hard as an unlimited servant who still gets rate-ups to boot, we're tying a Sunlight dependent buff to both her 3 buster cards and her Quick NP which without leveling isn't as strong as her first skill but has a more flexible duration to make up for it, and with a dedicated team can probably fairly easily get stacked with itself at least once (and if you do have a dedicated Cat team, you deserve that). Lastly for some niche appeal we're giving Cat the role of Sure Hit AOE Berserker as well, something desperately needed in the free to play pool as well as a representation of the patented Catamamo tactic of "Just make the fight dust cloud so big everything gets caught in it! :3"

This was a real fun one, even if I got a bit too carried away and had to tone it down quite a bit to make it properly balanced. Which is at least in character for Cat. Again, super huge thanks to @hastamamocatdoneanythingwrong ! Their help went beyond simple tweaks into basically being half the reason I was able to do this one.